[rescue] Free to good home: Old Sun 3 / 386i equipment

[s at avoidant.org]

Kurt Huhn wrote:

> > ('66 Triumph Bonneville 650).
> 
> Oh man!  Those are *great* bikes!  Still have it around?


I wish. On the return journey, I failed to check the oil and burned a
hole in one of the pistons. Stuck in Raleigh, N.C., I phoned a pal in
D.C, who jumped in his hatchback at 2.00am and came to pick me up. We
put the bike in the back of his car and he brought me home. We took the
engine apart in the living room (on a piece of plywood so as not to ruin
the floor) of my apartment. I machined the block, got all the parts I
needed to reassemble it, and then my friend was shot in the neck and
paralyzed.

He was a highly proficient bike mechanic, while I was just a clued rider
who knew how to maintain my bike. So the work on the engine was him
sitting on the couch with a beer directing me doing the labor. But after
he got shot, I never finished the work. I sold the bike with the engine
in boxes to another friend who put it all back together and as far as I
know still has it.

I learned something interesting about that bike when I pulled the engine
apart; the two pistons run symmetrically instead of opposed like in
other even-cylindered engines. They're at opposite sides of the cycle,
but in the same position. Both are up or down at the same time, making
for an interesting long-distance ride, I might add. Like a two-cylinder
thumper.


> motorcycle, too.  Karin wants one of her own so she can go along...


Alas, Leah says no new bikes for me untill $OLDEST_KID is 15 or
$INSURANCE_VALUE tops $1M. UNLESS I can find the right Indian, in which
case anything goes.


---sambo