I loved riding this thing EVERYWHERE. I rode, and rode and rode it some more, making sure I was continually monitoring the motor and doing the required amount of maintenance THIS time.

In Alexandria VA. I took this up to the D.C.
area when I visited my buddy Kyle. Went riding
in some of the nicest country in the U.S. Here
is where the engine problems started surfacing.

The machine work Sands did was adequate, but I wound up losing the same valve AGAIN after the motor was put together. It turns out that the valve insert that was rewelded failed. I think this bike might have been a little out of his lane. He was mainly a big-bore air-cooled drag race engine builder. It turns out, I wasn't the only customer of his who had problems. As with most rebuilding shops, the "shop labor" normally reassembles the motors, not the owner or head machinist. Unbeknownst to me, mine was assembled DIRTY.

There were other problems as well. The Web Cams that were supposed to be the baddest thing around turned out to be garbage. Their rewelded/ground lobes were too soft and eventually disintegrated on me, ruining the cams and rocker arms. In hindsight, I should have had the rocker arms rewelded and hardened (APE and Orient Express provide this service now) to handle the higher lift on the cams, and an aftermarket top-end oiling kit. I put these hard lessons to good use later.

My RS-38s before sending them away.

It was at this point, September 1995, I decided to take the bike back to Colorado and put her in storage again. I was heading to Korea anyway, and this would give me time to plan and get it right, hopefully.