December 2007
South Jersey Star Chapter 287 is an official charter member of the Star Touring and Riding Association. We are young and growing, organized in August of 2003 by Buddy Deery (current president) out of a need to have some representation for the Star Riding and Touring Organization in South Jersey. We are based around the Deptford/ Williamstown NJ area and most of our rides are in the South Jersey area.
We have about 25 members and growing. We are looking for anyone that just enjoys riding, having a good time and getting a bite to eat. Eating is how we usually end the ride (president's rules)!
We are NOT about biker bars, raising Hell or taking over the World.
There are usually about two chapter rides scheduled per month, mostly the rides are around 100 miles or less and are on Saturday or Sunday.
You can come and join us at our monthly meeting every 2nd Saturday of the month to see what we’re all about. You can also join us for any Chapter ride, up to 3 times before you must be voted into the Chapter.
Although Star Touring and Riding is the Owners Group for the STAR Line of Yamaha Motorcycles we accept ANY kind of bike in the Chapter, you don't have to have a Yamaha to ride with us.
Chapter 287
CONTACT US:
PRESIDENT: Buddy Deery cbdstar@comcast.net
VICE-PRESIDENT: Ed Ford just2wheels@verizon.net
SECRETARY: Rob Reider rtreider@verizon.net
TREASURER: Janet Lesko malesko@comcast.net
VET REP: Mike DiGuiseppe mikedig1230@hotmail.com
WEB MASTER: Frank Jennings frank@josheinstein.com
WEBSITE: www.sjstar287.com
Well, the calendar is down to just one page and there’s a definite chill in the air. We’ve had a busy year at Star 287 and much more is planned for 2008. While some of us ride as often as we can through the winter (I personally own Gerber Heated Clothing) others will only dream of that first warm day next season.
However, just because we’re not riding together doesn’t mean we’re not spending time together. We still have much on the calendar with charity benefits, holiday parties and planning next year’s activities. Then again, there’s always the Delphi Forum where we can “armchair ride” no matter what the temperature is!!
Don’t forget to stay in touch, even if it doesn’t involve dressing in layers and looking like the Michelin Tire Man! Last but certainly not least, Happy Holidays!!
-Rob Reider
When the mercury hides in the bottom of the little red bulb, we have to make some changes in our riding style.
One of the big enemies of riders is hypothermia. Riding at highway speeds in cool or cold weather can deplete a rider’s body heat and leave him numb and fuzzy-headed before he realizes what has happened.
Even when the temperature is in the 60’s, the wind chill factor at speeds over 40 miles per hour is in the low 30’s. Riders often misjudge how cold the ride will be because they are freshly out of a warm house and standing still in the warm sunshine. At temperatures below 70°, they should dress in multiple layers, adding and subtracting as necessary. Not only do multiple layers provide versatility, they also create insulated pockets of warm air. While it is common for riders to put on sweatshirts and jackets, the lower body is often ignored.
Thermal underwear and chaps keep feet and knees flexible and ready to function. Thermal socks and ski-sock liners help keep toes cozy. Many ski shops offer an excellent variety in various weights. The old gray variety with the red toes will do the job also. A well-designed winter riding suit made especially for motorcycling is a bulky but very welcome addition to any rider’s wardrobe.
Lightweight riding gloves do little to protect from the cold, and supple hands are critical to quick responses to unexpected hazards. Ski gloves or winter riding gloves with gauntlet flares help keep hands toasty. Some riders add ski glove liners, or use three-finger mittens for added warmth. Be aware, however, that any added bulk may make operating the controls more awkward.
A face shield is essential, and it should be firmly snapped in place. Those wearing three-quarter helmets may want to consider a ski mask or muffler to keep the chin and throat warm. There are excellent masks which cover the throat, mouth, and nose with a material similar to a lightweight wetsuit, yet allow the rider to breathe and speak comfortably. Some dealerships may have them, but they are more commonly found at sporting goods stores, which offer a line of ski wear.
A luxurious, although expensive, way to keep warm is with an electric suit, gloves, socks, and even heated grips. They draw little current, but offer a lot of overall warmth.
Co-riders should be afforded the same clothing or more, since they often don’t get the same protection from the fairing that the rider does.
There’s a whole different world of riding in the winter, and we can enjoy it to its fullest if we dress properly.
Nap Time - Winter Storage
By Mike Ross
Winter is fast approaching and if you live in a frigid climate it's time to store your bike for the season. In storing your bike for a few months over the winter, your main concern is to avoid corrosion while in storage and the goal is to have a bike that is ready to go when you are.
The most crucial areas in need of protection are the piston rings, cylinder walls, and valve seats. The enemy here is moisture, which can enter the engine from any of a number of places and cause serious damage. Since its not really practical to try and close up all of the possible areas of entry, we will concentrate on moisture proofing instead.
The first step is to warm-up the engine. This drives off any moisture that may have accumulated already and it makes it easier to get a good coating of oil in each cylinder. Turn the bike off and remove the spark plugs. Then, using a turkey baster, suck up 25cc's of engine oil and squirt the oil into each plug hole. Turn the engine over by hand (put it in top gear and turn the rear wheel) with the plugs still out to coat the cylinder walls, piston rings and valve seats. Then replace the plugs and drain the existing crankcase oil.
Next, fill the crankcase with fresh oil. I suggest you retain the old filter and plan on dropping this oil come spring, but if you decide to use this oil after the thaw, you will want to change the filter now. The hard part of prepping your bike is now done and you can breathe a little easier knowing that moisture will not rust the piston rings to the cylinder wall. I just over hauled an engine that had been left unattended for a year and the cylinder wall was so badly pitted with rust that it had to be bored out 1 mm before I got down to good metal. Likewise the valve seats were a mess and I had to replace the head.
But we aren't out of the woods yet.
The next step is to protect the inside of the fuel tank from rusting. Fill the tank to the top with fuel that has been treated with a fuel stabilizer. I have had good luck with a product called Sta-Bil, which you can get at any marine supply store, but any type will do. You also want to drain the float bowls by unscrewing the small screw on the carb float bowl. Any fuel left in the bowls for more than two months will turn into a jet-clogging sludge that will cost you a carb overhaul to remove. If you have a fuel injected bike then you can skip this step and move on to the next.
Because batteries self-discharge, it is necessary to keep it charged up when the bike is stored. The best way to care for your stored battery is to hook a Super Smart Battery Tender to it. The Battery Tender is one of the latest generation of "smart chargers." It will maintain the charge in your battery without any other attention from you for years. The battery can also be left in the bike. If the posts on your battery are corroded, now would be a good time to remove the battery bolts and clean them up. A little grease on the threads of the bolts will keep them corrosion free all season. Make sure you top off the electrolyte with water if your bike does not a maintenance free battery.
Get the bike, the rear of the bike anyway, off the ground. If you're lucky and your bike has a center stand, use it. Wipe all the bird doo-doo off and give the chrome the once over with a coat of polish to keep it from pitting. Wax the tank and squirt some rubber protector on the rubber parts to keep them from drying out. Make sure you wipe any smashed bugs off your fork tubes before you throw a tarp over the whole thing.
If you live where it gets really cold then you should make sure your coolant has enough anti-freeze in it to keep the system from freezing. It's easy to check the coolant with a hydrometer that is made specifically for this purpose. Bikes don't have freeze plugs like cars, and a cracked cylinder head is a very ugly sight indeed.
That's about it. If you live in an area where rodents will crawl up the tailpipe looking for a place to nest, there are rubber plugs available that you can by to keep them out. They are made for dirt bikes, but will fit any street bike. Also, when you're ready to bring your bike out storage, you might consider changing the brake fluid. It can pick up water from the atmosphere and it's a good idea to change it annually any way.
If you have performed all of the above steps you can be sure that the bike you store for the winter will start and run perfectly come spring.
The Inn
By
Mario
The mind is a wonderful thing. It allows you to think, dream, imagine, reflect, and recollect. Some of the things we think about are spending good times together with good friends. We dream of far away places. We imagine those places to be cozy, warm and inviting. There, you can reflect on life while sipping your favorite beverage or just sitting by a fireplace with a crackling fire warming your feet.
On the weekend of October 12th, 13th and 14th, Mike and Becky, Frank and Stacey, Kim and I did all of the above mentioned things, as we headed to Wellsboro, PA. Wellsboro we were told, is a very picturesque, quaint Victorian town nestled in the mountains of North-Western Pennsylvania. The Governor is so proud of that area of his State, that he has had an advertising campaign on TV to share the beauty of Route 6 and the “PA Grand Canyon” with the rest of us.
Here is where the best part of any adventure comes into play: and that is the recollection part. We headed out early Friday morning after a good meal. Our route took us through the familiar roads of South Jersey, across the Delaware and into Lancaster County. When we stopped, Mike punched the address of the Bed and Breakfast we had booked, into his GPS. He programmed it so it would keep us from toll roads, highways and Interstates. We had all agreed that we wanted scenery and time was not a concerning factor. Boy did we make the right choice! Country roads that took us through small villages and mountain passes that were on tree lined hillsides, overlooking deep valleys, are all we saw. When “they’ came up with the expression God’s Country, “they” must have passed through there.
As we got closer and closer to our destination, you can imagine what we were looking forward to. Our expectations of warmth and coziness, near a flame at a Bed and Breakfast in an old Victorian town were vivid in our heads. Riding through Wellsboro on the last leg of our trip there, was all we had imagined. Big, old mansions, gas lamps lining the streets, the town square with its monuments and inviting restaurants and shops.
We stopped to call the inn-keeper for directions and he reassured us we were headed in the right direction:”…make a left at the Exxon and its two miles on the left.” We followed his instructions and headed down a country road looking for, a once old
mansion, that someone took the care and creativity to turn it into the antique adorned place of our dreams. WHOA! Stop. Could that be the place? Can’t be?!...But that’s what the sign says… Must be a mistake... I know, the dirt road must lead past the two-level, brick rancher to the Inn hidden by the hillside and the darkness. Let’s ride up and see. Hey, the driveway only goes around this structure. There’s a door…Stacey go in and check while we drive around the other side…it just goes around in a loop…there’s Stacey…well?, He said: “You’re in the wrong place lady!”…A sigh of relief, a glimmer of hope…wait, another door. This is the place.
There were other cars parked and people inside. After parking our bikes we walked in. Our dreams were beginning to fade to reality. We were “welcomed” by Lee, the proprietor of Kaltenbach’s Bed & Breakfast. He was a man in his seventies, who was wearing a collared shirt and dark pants being held up by a pair of suspenders that were stretched to its limits and no shoes or socks. He was taking other guests’ credit cards, and had no time for us yet. The only thing we could do was look at each other’s faces and know exactly what the others were thinking. We couldn’t believe this was the place of our dreams. Our imagination had played a dirty trick on us. The “front desk” consisted of a card table cluttered with papers, opened mail, circulars and magazines. Behind that was a structure that looked like it could have been a table with stuff piled on it covered by a blanket that had a phone and a very busy credit card machine. Behind us was another blanket covered item that we later found to be a MAC machine with an Out of Order sign on it. Some other pieces of furniture that looked like they had been bought at a rummage sale surrounded the edge of the room. On the walls there were some beautiful home made quilts and some art. The center piece was a mounted elk trophy that was huge. We found out later that Lee bagged “Lucky” on a hunting trip to Idaho.
It was now our turn to get checked in. Lee had his routine down pact. As he finished the credit card transaction with one guest, he would send them off to get their luggage and move onto the next customer. He would finish the next transaction and the prior person would show up with their belongings at which time Lee would direct them to their room. And the cycle would repeat again and again. We gave him our credit card and as it was being processed he would answer questions and concerns from the other patrons who were trying to settle in. He handed us a clipboard and a pen to sign our receipts. Stacey was the first to notice the discrepancy and brought it to our attention. We had been quoted a price of $100 per night but our receipt was for $285. Doesn’t add up in our books. When we questioned Lee he said it was due to taxes added onto the $125 per night fee. We tried to argue the point but he was not interested. He was not mean about it or said “take it or leave it”. That’s just the way it was. No sense arguing. There were no other vacancies anyway.
After getting our luggage, we checked into our rooms. They continued with the same decorative theme as the front room but I must admit that they were clean. Mike and Becky had the bigger room with two queen size beds and some chairs, a TV and a small fridge. Their bathroom was just outside their room. Frank and Stacey’s room was next to theirs and was nicely furnished and with its own private bathroom. Nice curtains covered the windows that opened to a view that was to die from. Die from laughter that is. As Frank opened the curtains we saw windows that had curtains on the other side as well. When he cranked the windows open, they pushed the curtains aside to display another bedroom on the other side of the wall. Have you ever! Good thing we all have a good disposition and a sense of humor. As for Kim and me, our room had a double bed, a TV, a small fridge and a rod with hangers to hang our clothes. The bathroom was small but it had a shower with hot water and clean towels. I noticed a corded remote under the bed and told Kim that we might have electric heated blankets on our bed. How did we get that lucky? After all, the rooms were a little cold and Lee wasn’t about to turn the heat up. When Stacey asked about the chill in her room, she was told that she would sleep better in a colder room. No heat for you! (Remember Seinfeld’s soup Nazi?). When I asked for an ice bucket and ice for our room, I was told that since he had given ice to the other two couples in our group; I should borrow some from them. When I insisted for my own, he said he could give me a small bowl with a few cubes for us to keep in the fridge. I said fine. By the way, when a patron who had checked in just ahead of us came back to ask for his room key, this is what he was told: “You don’t need a key! I have been in business for twenty-nine years and never had anything missing or stolen. People come and want to lock up their stuff and when they leave, they always leave me stuff. Then they call me and ask me to send them their nighties that they left hanging behind the door.” This was repeated verbatim several times to others who had the same concerns. What can be next?
Once settled in, we mingled with some of the other guests and shared some laughs about our recent experience. We met some very nice people and were not surprised that none of them were repeat customers. After a while we said our “good-nights” and we would meet again for breakfast. We all went our separate ways looking forward to a good night’s sleep. As I lay on the side of my bed, I remembered the control for the electric blanket. I felt bad for the rest of our group who had to rely on regular blankets for warmth, but I wasn’t about to pass up on the one amenity we hadn’t counted on. I pushed one of the several buttons and the whole bed started to shake. What the…! I turned it off and got my glasses on to discover that the control was for a “Crafmatic Adjustable Bed” and not for heat. Should’ve known better!
The next morning we make our way down to the dining area that is in the “finished” basement. There are tables set up cafeteria style. The tables are covered with plastic table covers and Corelle plates and cups. A banana and a muffin at each place setting and some dishes with butter and various jellies and jams spread about. I don’t see any menus yet. Maybe one of the helpers will come and take our orders. There were around 15 to18 people seated anxiously waiting to eat. Here comes Lee carrying two glasses of orange juice and places them on our table. Turns back to get two more to return to serve two more people. Steady paced, he continues the process over and over until everyone has OJ. Next is the coffee. This time he brings two pots: regular and decaf. Now we’re cooking with fire! By now we realize he’s it. He’s a One-Man-Show. He scrambles a few dozen eggs into a giant bowl, cooks them, puts the eggs into small bowls, places them on the tables and directs us to pass them around. He brings another bowl of small pieces of sliced ham to share. And that my friend is breakfast. You want more coffee? Help yourself. You want toast? I don’t think so.
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Think He’ll Fit On the Bike??? |
Again I must say that I left the table feeling full. We learned real soon that we had gotten what we had asked for from Lee: a bed to sleep in and a breakfast to munch on. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t his fault that we let our minds go as far as they did. He provided exactly what he said he would. How could he have known what other Bed & Breakfast establishments provide? After all, he hasn’t left his post for 29 years. All in all the six of us had a great time. The scenery alone was breath-taking. As for the friendships, a trip like this really allows one to get to know the others a little better. I for one know that this experience has bonded six people together as if we were family. The comfort level that we now share can only make us better friends. There is a lot more to tell about the trip: the ride we took through Tioga County, the Grand Canyon, the Zoo, the other group of bikers who came the next day and their dinner arrangements. Ask any of us. Better yet, next time, come out and share in the fun if you can. Or should I say: if you dare.
The following was submitted by (Iron) Mike DiGuiseppe.
Iron Mike is Star 287’s Sergeant at Arms and Veterans’ Representative.
This article appeared in a local publication honoring his nephew Jeff DiGuiseppe, an Army combat medic serving in Iraq.
I'd like to take a moment to tell of someone I'd met a short time ago while visiting a few good friends at Pan Head Mary's Pub in Gibbstown on their Wednesday bike night. His name is Jeff DiGuiseppe and was there with a young lady enjoying his night out before returning to Iraq to serve his time as an Army Combat Medic. We were all caught up in fun and good time when a collection of spare dollar bills started up to give him a good send off. In no time at all it started to look more like a cash retirement fund. Needless to say we all had a good time. This kid was in his 20's by the looks of it. And there he goes putting his life on the line for all of us. What we have in common with him is the need to protect our freedom and rights as Americans. Of course the scale of it is a bit different; I felt a little small knowing 1 was going home to my luxury as he marches off to war. At the same time 1 felt proud to meet him, 1 shook the hand of an American Hero, bought him a beer and drank it with him, and he's half my age. I told him I admired the fact that he's a combat medic; it takes a lot of guts to go over there and save the lives of your own brothers and sisters while fighting under those circumstances. So many of our service men and women have lost their lives, or have gotten injured for our country. You are damned right I was proud to shake his hand and buy him a beer.
I wish you well, my friend, come home soon!!!
DECEMBER
12/1/07: Dylan Coleman Beef & Beer
Benefit Fundraiser
Sewell Fire House, Sewell, NJ
7:00 PM to 12 Midnight
(Tickets Necessary)
12/8/07: Chapter Meeting
Deptford Honda Yamaha
Deptford, NJ
10:00 to 11:30 AM
12/9/07: Chapter Holiday Party
Renault Winery
Egg Harbor City, NJ
12:00 to 2:00 PM
12/28 to International Motorcycle Show
12/30/07 Javits Center
New York City
(Catch us at the Star Touring Booth