Blood thinners, Valve adjustments, and Wildguzzi

[Joliet Jim]

Ok so I broke down and bought some new spark plugs for the old Stone and decided well as long as i have the plugs out I should probably do a quick valve adjustment though it's never really needed one in  40,000 miles. Well i start with the tried and true D&S method on the fly wheel, but low and behold find D and no gap, find D a second time and no gap. Hmmm. So search the experts on WildGuzzi and find a thread from last year that verifies my thoughts on D&S that included John Ulrich's simple (driveshaft sidestand simple talk). So I read down a little bit and see a post by the notorious Kev M that reminds me to watch when the valves open and close. So I rotate the flywheel while watching the intake valve go down and then come up and pick the next D to adjust with. Now the locknuts were tight and of course the wrench slips driving my thumb into something round. Well I continue to adjust them to the world specs of .1 and .15 and start to notice the blood now flowing over the wrench, the rockers, the gap tool, and of course the big screwdriver I'm turning the flywheel with. Now in the past, a little grease would have plugged the hole in my thumb and i could have continued on, but with any pressure on the thumb while turning the flywheel to verify the valves were now set correctly, I continued to bleed profusely over the screwdriver. So to end the story, right side is adjusted, left side, valve covers and sparkplugs will now wait for another day after i find my mechanics gloves.  Time to go in and start the Thanksgiving celebrations with a good glass of Bourbon.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and hopefully tomorrow will be blood free when I return to the bike to complete this very simple task.

[oldbike54]

 Injured in the line of duty , the sacrifices we make for the brand 

 Dusty

[pehayes]

John Ulrich's simple (driveshaft sidestand simple talk).

Sorry about the blood.  How about just learning a little Italian language.  D=destro and S=sinistro.  Easy to remember when you think about right-handed people as dexterous and left-handed people as sinister!  Same Latin source for those words.  BTW, when used as an adjective, these words have 'gender' and must comport with the gender of the word they are modifying.  (Note, gender not sex.)  The ending of the adjective changes based on the noun.  So the left side of the engine is "lato sinistro" while the left cylinder head is "testa sinistra".

Happy Thanksgiving.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[Joliet Jim]

I knew the destro and sinistro, just thought JU's was a good simple speak. :)  Realized while cleaning the blood off the gap tool that I had used the wrong one and was trying to do 1.0 and 1.5 instead of .1 and .15. No wonder why nothing fit and then seemed to big. Maybe it's time to buy a Harley and just let the shop service it like my brother does.  Either that or find a gap tool with BIG print.

[oldbike54]

 Go with the BIG print idea Jim 

 Someone who never made a mistake has never done anything .

 Dusty

[Gliderjohn]

Is there a mechanic's Purple Heart for mechanical related injuries?
GliderJohn

[Pizza Guzzi]

In my experience no job is ever finished without some removal of skin and / or blood being spilled 

[Muzz]

In my experience no job is ever finished without some removal of skin and / or blood being spilled 

You too huh?

[kballowe]

Duct tape.  Not Gorilla duct tape, though.
 

[guzzisteve]

I have a box of reasonable sized band-aids in the garage cause I got rotten skin now, comes w/age I guess. Still can't wear gloves.

[LowRyter]

every time I open I toolbox, I'll get a cut or bruise on me.

[britman]

I can relate also.  After years on BP meds, sun exposure, and good old "Father Time", my skin is like onion paper.  I still work part time in a warehouse environment. My co-worker's use to get alarmed at the amount of bloody paper towels in the trash, now they just they hang garlic to keep vampires at bay.........

[Joliet Jim]

And the cut is always somewhere on you that won't heal like the middle of my thumb on my right hand or in the joint of a finger that constantly bends. Started bleeding again today while squeezing glaucoma drops into my eyes (which is why i evidently need a BIG print gap tool.

[guzzi4me]

Same issue here. Sometimes I don't even know how I damage myself....I just do!!

Some guys carry condoms in their wallet...

I carry band-aids!!

Ride safe,

Jeff

[pehayes]

I took Regina out to the garage and pointed out various dried spots on the floor and machine tools.  If there is ever a personal disaster to me, she knows right where to go to provide DNA samples to the investigators.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[Chuck in Indiana]

I quit taking a baby aspirin a day, and don't have nearly as many of these "mystery" injuries. I was picking tomatoes this summer and just scraped my arm against the vine and bled like a stuck pig. That was the last straw. I asked Dave the Doc if I *really* needed to keep taking it, and he said that the current thinking is a baby aspirin a day isn't doing any good for healthy people.

[Gliderjohn]

Same here Chuck. I quit the lose dose aspirin about a month ago and have noticed much less tendency to bruise. Before it seemed like the slightest bump on top of hands would cause a bruise, much better now.
GliderJohn

[Joliet Jim]

Low dose aspirin and blood thinner for me until the cardiologist says otherwise. Wife is happy, it keeps me from getting another tattoo.

[Muzz]

I quit taking a baby aspirin a day, and don't have nearly as many of these "mystery" injuries. I was picking tomatoes this summer and just scraped my arm against the vine and bled like a stuck pig. That was the last straw. I asked Dave the Doc if I *really* needed to keep taking it, and he said that the current thinking is a baby aspirin a day isn't doing any good for healthy people.

Have been reading up about the "current thinking" Chuck.  When I tore my RH hammy off the pelvis they didn't operate but let it grow back. During the 4 odd months it took to grow I developed a deep vein thrombosis in my leg.  The experts were able to dissolve it without it breaking loose.  However, since then I developed two shallow vein clots, not dangerous but makes things pretty tender.  After the second my GP thought the asprin thing may be a good safety net type thing, as I keep myself fairly active and there were no reasons for clots to develop.  GP has said that anecdotally at least, once you have had a deep vein (and survived ) you are liable to have a susceptibility to develop clots.

Although pretty healthy now, I have, at this stage at least, decided to stay on the asprin in spite of what the experts are now saying. Who knows, I ride bikes, I don't do medicine.

Blood pressures etc all show normal, at this stage I intend to stay on the regime as I don't bleed heavily

[trippah]

And please be sure to tell Dentist, Doctors, and all the others who poke-prod and scrape clean your bod that you are on blood thinners, low dose aspirin et al.  Don't count on the computer history etc they all have nowadays.