The Unpublished Issues

Online Versions Of This And Past Issues

(Choose the year and then the date for the online issue you want)

Issue #1105

Changed pipes…..

A year and a half ago I had taken my Harley to a custom shop in Abbotsford where they do upgrades and engine tuning etc. I had them do a ‘stage 1’ which means a free flow air filter, free flow mufflers (pipes) and a new mapping for the ECM. One thing I have never really liked after that work was done was the loudness of the pipes. I have found them to be a bit too loud and a bit sharp in tone. Everyone I’ve asked has told me the bike sounds great but I was starting to dislike the sound. So, I got ambitious this week and pulled the loud pipes off and put the OEM pipes back on. The bike is now noticeably less loud.

The ECM should be able to adjust to the different air flow. As for performance, I’d have to do a toot up the highway in order to get a feel for it.

Then it rained, for 2 days and nights. Thats a very good thing. BC is burning, we are having a very hot dry summer with every area of the province suffering badly from drought. So, I had to wait until mid week to take the Harley out for a test ride, which I did on Wednesday. Loudness is certainly much less, almost none existant. Power and torque seem to be just fine, I can’t ‘feel’ any difference. What is different is at highway speed all I can hear is the wind in my helmet, not the pipes. At slower speeds I can hear the engine noises that were drowned out by the loud pipes. Perhaps the only down side is that the engine feels like it’s running a little bit hotter, but not as hot as it did with the original factory tuning. So, all is good and I have no worries about being pulled over for excess noise.

Now my biggest problem is deciding which bike to ride when I head out for a ride. Actually, that’s been my biggest problem since I purchased the second bike. 2-up is definitely the Harley. She loves cruising the highways. Putting around town is what the Enfield is meant for. Well, that and the back roads. So, each has it’s own attraction.

FTP problems…..

As you know, I keep a web site where I post my music and where all of the issues of this letter can be found. In order to upload files to my site, I use whats called an FTP program. It is what is used to upload and sync files from your computer to your web account on a server somewhere. That system stopped working about a week ago and I could not upload last week’s ‘unpublished’ version of these letter. I tried all weekend to no avail. I could log in but the program could not retrieve my on-line file structure. I finally got to the point where I tried to get tech support from the web hosting site but that in itself is maddening. They make it impossible to actually talk to a real person. Buried deep inside their web site is an icon that will open a ‘chat’ session and so that’s what I ended up doing, text chatting with some support person, at least I thing it was a person. An hour and a half later I still could not open an FTP session and I was beyond frustrated. I ended the ’chat’ session as it was a useless waist of time. I ended up downloading a couple of other FTP programs and they also wouldn’t connect. I deleted and re-downloaded and installed another copy of my current program, FileZilla. Nothing worked or would work.

I reached the point where I was ready to simply give up on having a web site. I’ve had one for years but don’t really need one anymore. No one actually goes to my site to read old Squamidian copies or listen to my music. With that in mind, I decided to end my web site and no longer have one if after one more try, I still couldn’t get the FTP to work. I opened another ‘chat’ session and a different support person came on. This person suggested a few other things after I’d shown them the error messages I was getting. They had me us a different ‘host’ info and low and behold, I was able to get in and upload last week’s squid. Why didn’t the first ‘support’ person know this stuff and not waist so much of my and their time?

So, for now, it’s all working again and I’ll continue to have a web site. If it craps out again, well, I’ll cross that bridge then.

doug

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This series of ‘unpublished’ issues is my way of keeping track of what I’ve been up to during the summer when we are not sending out the normal Squamidian. No one knows about these issues but that’s ok. This also keeps the issue number in sync with the passing weeks.