MTO

So I have interesting news on the bike, I haven't been working on it lately, instead I've been working on getting an ownership since the bike came without.

I went to the MTO and they told me to bring in the VIN and whatever else I had. I brought them in the VIN, a license plate and a receipt from the seller. The license plate was useless and illegal since it was registered for a different bike (kept it anyway) and the VIN had results! Last "registered" owner was in 1985 from someone very close to where I live (which is great because the owner before him was a 4 hour drive away.

I was instructed by the MTO to get a hold of the last registered owner and have him sign a few papers. If this was possible I could get the ownership easily. Otherwise I would have to show I took necessary steps to get a hold of him, get an affidavit done and then maybe I could get a new ownership made.

I went home hoping he would be easy to get a hold a hold of, looked him up on Canada 411. First name that came up matched his address. I called it and a woman answered after two rings. I asked to speak with "David". "David" answered the phone and explained to me he bought the bike in the early 80s in Chapleau. When he get it he had the engine rebuilt and it never did run "all that great". The last time he ran it was in Oshawa in the 80s. He said he would be more than happy to meet up with me and that he still might have the original ownership.

So, I'm meeting up with him tomorrow and now getting the ownership for a 39 year old bike will be a breeze. At least one thing is going smoothly!

Wikipedia

Since I haven't had the time to do much work on the bike lately, I decided there is still something related to it I can do. I created the Wikipedia page for the Yamaha AT1. Check it out, contribute to it, or just use it for information. Oh yeah, on a side note I did learn a few things about my bike which is going to cost some more money. The cylinder head is cracked between the two spark plug holes and the handle bars are bent. Oh well, now I can get those drag style bars I've always wanted.

Water in the crankcase

Well, the previous owner was a genius. He checked for spark, and when he realized there was none he left the spark plug out. He also left the bike outside. One good rainfall and next thing you know there is water in the crank case. Good thing I caught it now or it could have been much worse. I used a full can of oil to flush it out. The crank itself is a little bit rusty, but it seems that it should be usable. Here is a picture of the water/oil mixture.

Strip

Well, I decided while I'm waiting for parts to come in, I might as well do it right. I stripped the bike right down to the frame. Hoping to get the rust sandblasted off this weekend. From there I'll go with a few coats of primer, probably a gloss black and clear coat. I'm on a budget here, so it's all going to be spray paint (rattlecan). Here is the frame, in all its glory.

Progress..

has been pretty slow lately. I've ordered a few required parts (spark plug wire, wiring harness, etc) which I'm waiting on. In the mean time I've been cleaning up the tachometer, and rebuilding the ignition switch. I'll get some pictures up when they are complete.

Electrolysis

This is one of the neatest things I've stumbled across, and it works for more than just gas tanks! So, the inside of this tank was obviously rusted, being a '71 and sitting for god knows how many years. I decided to try the electrolysis method I had seen others do. Well, it definitely works, and very well. Here is a picture of 1/2 the rust that came out of the tank (did it twice).

FiT program

So the government has started a new program to push renewable energies. The Feed in Tariff program (FiT) is a way to encourage homeowners and businesses to install renewable energy devices (solar, wind etc). This program encourages people to install wind or solar and feed the energy back into the grid. This sounds good to me.

Well, the government will buy that electricity for 80 cents per kWh. This is the problem. Currently we are producing the majority of our power by the means of nuclear, at which it can be sold for around 6 cents a kilowatt. Now the government will pay you over 13 times as much to produce the SAME amount of energy, by means of solar or wind. Does anyone else see how absolutely ridiculous this is? Just wait for the tax increases to fund this program (HST, increased hydro bills, etc).

The OPA claims projects are already producing over 300,000 kWh. That's an extra $222,000 every hour more than it would cost nuclear to produce it. Yes, there will be increased government revenue through the taxes generated from the sales and installation of these systems, but it nowhere near offsets the expenditures to fund the program. This program will cost the government millions of dollars per year. Just something to think about.