Lloydz BLOG
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FINALLY We have our VERY OWN CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!| 12/15/2011 5:15:43 PM | |
YES after years of asking they finally granted it! Victory has its own class. prior to this we had to run it the sport bike classes for OHC motors and of course thats just not fair.Tim Sutherland from Coastal Victory put the final push on the guys at ECTA to create a class.
Also the track has changed locations from Maxton NC to Wilmington Ohio. I hope to see allot more speed freaks at these events. 1 mile all out fun!
ECTA announces the Creation of a New Motorcycle Class
The new class will be for twin cylinder overhead cam motorcycles. The designation will be OCT. You will be able to complete in all frame classes with this engine. We expect a lot of older cafe-racer style bikes getting dusted off and coming out to race with us. Now there is a class for Victory's, Ducks and Vrods and a lot of other Overhead Cam Twins.
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| American Pride| 9/13/2011 12:43:19 PM | |
This all starts out on Saturday when I attended my sons Hapkido (Korean Martial Arts) Graduation to Green belt.
After the ceremony the teacher, Master Kuns give a speech to the kids that goes like this.
Class I'm so proud of you, blah blah blah (I'm moving to my point)
I want you all to realize that we teach self-confidence, fitness and pride. He asks if any of the students can tell him what pride is and they return with some good answers that only 6-9 year olds can. He explains that pride is being American and by being American you have to do the right thing. The right thing is supporting other Americans by buying American products and supporting your community buying helping others and supporting local business. He states that we shouldn't buy form Mexico, or China or even some chain stores because they are lower priced, that hurts the American pride. Now I can assure you that there was an ethnic diversity in the crowd. I was impressed by several things from this man.
1 I think he is a Saint, The way he deals with kids is unlike any other teacher I've meet being religious, educational or martial arts.
2 I believe he is teaching the kids a correct way to be a true American ironically the majority of his students have parents from other countries, He did not let that influence his speech. It was direct and to the point without being harmful.
3 If he can stand up to a room full of diverse people and give a speech like that why can?t so many others stand their ground and do the same thing!
4 It made me ask the question to myself, am I being a proud American?
After the graduation was over he made his way around the room to talk to some of the parents still hanging around. I shook his hand and told him that I admired his speech and that I respect what he said.
So Monday morning rolls around and this speech is still in my head. I meet at the local store with some friends for coffee in the morning and the locals call it the "meeting of the round tables". There are some current and some former NYFD people that stop by and B.S. and they were talking about this past weekend?s events at the 9/11 memorial. Well one current NYFD guy walks in wearing a baseball hat with NYFD - remember 9/11- USA proud all over it. I said hey - - - - - where?s that hat made? He instantly flares up takes the hat off and it says China! He says I believe some of the other ones were made in Pakistan and I told them they should have got hats made in America!
Hmmm. What?s this say? I'm not blaming the guy that bought the hats, Hell I can?t get t-shirts made in America anymore so I know exactly what they?re dealing with. It?s ironic that we want to be American, We want to support American business, We want to say "Made In America" but unfortunately they all come with a following now.
"Made in America! Well most of it" "American Labor! Except for the Illegal Immigrants" and so on.
Our Government is so corrupt and out of control that we can?t stop it. All our manufacturing is being out sourced to different countries. We are SO busy now a days just surviving that we couldn't leave our shells and go support these causes. If we did, our houses and everything we worked for would be gone when we got back. It?s really sad what things have come to. I?d love to go protest with AR-15 in hand on the steps of the Capital with 5 million other Americans expressing my freedom of speech and right to bear arms. Fact of the matter is the mortgage is due next week, I have 3 big bore kits to wrap up, the kids have soccer practice 3 times this week and a game on Saturday, the employees want to get paid Friday and that?s just the beginning. So looks like I'm out. This is unfortunately the way most Americans now live their lives.
Is it really "Living our Lives"???
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| More on Intake & Exhaust Leaks| 4/27/2011 6:25:05 PM | |
I wanted to follow up on a tech article I wrote about intake & exhaust leaks. After a long search I finally got the photo I was looking for. I had told the guys in the shop to look out for a leaky head pipe so I could snap a photo of it but I guess sometimes you might as well talk to the wall.
So now that I'm a working stiff again (Got rid of the dead weight in the shop). I can now focus on the details once more. I finally got the photo I was looking for. A 2010 Vision with a leaking head pipe. As seen in the photos below. When I'm trying to resolve backfiring issue or even drivability issue I make suggestions to people and often get responses like this. "Nope don't have any exhaust leaks", ?"Nope don't have any intake leaks", "Nope I checked", "Well it's a brand new bike". Yea Yea Yea. One thing I really don't like is talking just to waste time. So point in case, if I say something you should listen. If I ask you if you have an exhaust leak and unless you tore your WHOLE system off and checked every connection and joint I don't want to hear a no answer. So NOW my photo backs up what I preach. As you can see by the side shot the black soot does not come past the pipe flange and there fore you won't be able to see the leak, however it is an excessive leak too. I'm not always an A-Hole and you may not always have these problems. However, until we put a lot of effort is put in to finding if these problems exist we may not be able to fix the issues.
 
Moving on another issue has been leaking intake manifolds, this unit was removed form an 09 Jackpot and the owner was experiencing symptoms that come with a lean condition. (Surging, Backfiring, poor cold start up) and they were also having what appeared to be excessive soot on the pipes. Two totally separate conditions and a puzzled owner. Which way do you go? Do you install a Power Commander and have a custom map built? Do you install a VFC? Do you change the pipes because it seems like the problem got worse when he installed them? Nope. Fix the problem and then lets see where things lay out. Intake manifolds can be diagnosed better then exhaust leaks. My favorite way is to use Non-Chlorinated Brake cleaner and I use a lot of it. Yes, it is VERY FLAMMABLE and over all these years I have only caught one bike on fire by using this method. You have to look at the percentages sometimes. Use caution and from personal experience I can say if you neglect your spark plug wires to the point there almost falling off the coils and sparking like crazy and you don't see it, your bike WILL BE ENGOLFED IN FLAMES. However like all true professionals always have a fire extinguisher with in close reach. BTW the customer wasn't mad and was actually embarrassed about neglecting his bike like that. It was a good thing cause he was a BIG sumbitch and I thought my time was done.
 
The left photo above appears to be a manifold in good shape. What occurs is the rubbers sodium reacts with the aluminum and delaminates or separates causing a very good intake leak. You can normally see the edges of the rubber becoming loose and use your finger to pull the rubber down to see if it has this issue. Also look for cracks along the sides as these too can become culprits for intake leaks such as in the photo on the right.
- Lloyd
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| The difference with previous Harley owners| 10/18/2010 8:48:22 AM | |
That subject line isn't meant to be negative but just a reflection of what I experience.
I've always received e-mails asking questions such as lift and duration figures for our cams so that they can compare them to the others to make a selection. Now this is sort of ironic as the people that ask are new Victory owners coming off Harleys. I think that the reason they're asking is two-fold.
One, they don't know about me and my personal touch in picking the profiles for the correct application. Two, they've always had so many choices in the Harley world that they needed to carefully pick a grind that was correct for application. Now that also goes to say that they are familiar with the cam specs and how they work in Harleys. The problem that occurs, and it's not like I want to keep it secret, is this... They were, or are, familiar with what works in a 2 valve Harley however they and I should open that to very few people know what works in these motors. So, as a fail safe I ask, "What are you doing with your bike?" and I fill in the blanks. Now most people, ESPECIALLY the ones like me (control freaks) don't really like that approach as they don't feel involved in the decision or just don't trust anyone. This is where I have to say "Trust me" I wont steer you wrong. I LOVE my customers, they are the life blood of what I do so I wont steer you wrong (intentionally) as I want your repeat business and your trust.
Lloyd
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| How Stuff Works?| 12/29/2009 8:00:29 AM | |
This started about 2-3 months ago, every once in awhile I'd get an e-mail from someone for which I'd respond to only to find out that the response would come back as this first incident. Hey Lloyd I talked to you 2 weeks ago on this and placed the order, that was an e-mail that I sent prior to calling you. Hum?!?
Ok maybe I'm just lacking behind on e-mails which from time to time I can be guilty of.
Then it happened again, and again. Still not a lot of thought going into it. Then last week I'm sitting at my desk returning calls when I get an e-mail from Scott and the heading says "Please Help, need more power"
Oh that's me, so I open it up and read on, its from someone whom owns a Hammer and his buddy's RK is spanking him and he can't take it anymore so he wants to do some work to his bike. So I spring into action like Spiderman to the rescue and make the call as he did leave a number at the bottom of the e-mail.
The wife answers and i ask for Scott,
Scott gets on the phone and I say hey Scott this is Lloyd form Lloyd'z Motor Workz and I'm gonna be your savior today.
He says very firmly, EXCUSE ME!
I said this is Lloyd, you sent me an e-mail about your Hammer getting beat by your buddies RK and I'm here to help you.
AAHH, I don't even own a Hammer anymore!
I said Is this Scott Bla Bla?
Yes it is.
Scott I just received an e-mail form you 15 minutes ago dated 12-14-09 (That day) asking for help with your Hammer.
Lloyd I didn't send you an e-mail and matter of fact the computer isn't even on today.
Scott is your e-mail address this? Bla bla
Yes it is, Lloyd I sent you an e-mail over a year ago about my bike and you never returned a response so I ended up selling it and moving on.
????!!!???? HUm I'm thinking what the heck!!???? So I'm thinking this is some really weird stuff. So you don't have a Victory anymore so I guess you don't need my help.
Nope, He says that's gotta be the longest hanging e-mail I've ever heard of, I wish you would have gotten back to me.
Well Scott, I wish I got your e-mail when you sent it, Sorry. Have a good day.
My wife's standing by me and she says what was that all about? Damned if I know, I'm I reading this e-mail right? Did it just come in 20 minute ago? She looks and says yes it did. Well honey I don't know what it's about, I just got this e-mail called the guy up because I figured it would cut down on allot of back and forth e-mails and this is what he said and I explained the story.
Yesterday I come in and see and E-mail I got from 12-24-09 at 7 pm.
It was from a customer whom purchased a 104 kit for which I sent out last Monday on, 12-21-09.
It was asking about head work and other stuff that could be done and possible larger cubes?
I thought that I went over that with him prior but what the hay I explained it all again and sent the e-mail.
So today I walk in to find his response,
Lloyd, that was from an e-mail I sent you 3 weeks ago before I bought the kit. You must have missed it. Thanks anyway.
Well Sum of a Beotch! what the heck is going on here? Now I'm wondering ok if this has happened with these how many more will happen. The E-mails always come through with the date and time you receive them not the date and time they were sent.
I am guilty of missing an e-mail or 2 or not responding to some but hose are usually about oil and handlebar questions, when it comes to what I actually do I normally like to respond, It's that whole thing about making money and paying bills that keeps me on top of things, Usually.
So HOW DOES IT WORK? I called my provider, the kid tells me there nothing they can see wrong and maybe it's just a one time incident. I DON'T THINK YOU HEARD ME! I JUST EXPLAINED 3 AND I KNOW OF 2 MORE OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS, IT'S NOT A ONE TIME INCIDENT! OK going no where there I should have know better but thought maybe there was some magical ball they could look into, my bad.
So now I'm thinking of all the e-mails I've sent out and never heard responses to. All the e-mails that maybe I haven't got and could in the future after the guy's all tweaked out cause I didn't respond to them. And what about that long lost Daughter I could have had years ago from whats her name that never told me she was pregnant and moved away. It really gets you thinking on how stupid and tied up we all get with technology and were SO use to it that when something goes stays we don't even think about the possibility's
I just sent an e-mail - Oh they'll get it in a few seconds and I'll just wait for my response.
No response - that bastard, I can't believe I never heard back from them I'm just going to stew over it and get pissed but do nothing.
Here's what should be done, CAll THEIR NUMBER! If I'm waiting for a response and don't get one I call. At least when you call there's a confirmation of some sort that comes with it, the line is busy! You get an answering machine!
Someone picks up and says Hello! or the operator comes on and says, I'm sorry this line is temporarily out of order.
And when that all fails, write a letter and send it. Yhea who the hell does that anymore???? Not that the government run post office is any better at delivery then my e-mails lately but I can say I still have a few customers that write me letters and I have saved all of them!
That's my rant for today.
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| WHAT MOST DON'T KNOW!| 11/12/2009 3:30:17 PM | |
What most of you do know is that Lloyd'z Motor Workz is a leader in Victory Performance work!
What most of you DON'T know is that we are some of the most approachable people going. Sure our name, or I should say MY name is every where, I'm the one writing this. Not some P.R. or marketing person. We are some of the most talked about when it comes to the world of Victory and I guess with that people think that we are also a huge corporation with many weenies working that don't really know what's going on in the real world or with your real world issues or needs. B.S! I'm in the front lines, I'm working to supply my customers with damn good product and back it up with the best support going, PERIOD! And I'm here if you need us. If there is ever a question or technical support concern that your supporting dealer can't answer feel free to reach out and get a hold of us, e-mail is usually the best way.
Yes we are a World Wide distributor of our products and yes we have a very good dealer base however we are also a full serving shop that can do a wide spectrum of work from oil changes to custom builds, race bike, paint and chrome and of course your high performance needs. We offer same day turn around on some builds and sit and wait service for intakes, cams, fuel controllers and tuning by appointment.
What some people don't know is that we build more then just race motors. We build you what you need and most of our business is for you street guys and girls. If you have a street bike that needs more power we will build you a Street Motor. One that makes smooth linear power from idle right to redline and runs on pump gas. If you want a race motor ? Not an issue, just be ready to set some shelving aside for those trophy's.
What most do know is I've been working on Victory's since 1999, I've worked on ALLOT of Victory's since 1999. We've forged frontiers with Victory that have never been taken before and yes I have a few arrows in my back to prove it. If you have an issue or upgrade that you feel needs my attention feel free to pick up the phone or drop an e-mail, it doesn't matter how far away you live I've been taking in bikes across the country for 10 years now and I know how it needs to be handled.
Lloyd
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