by B.B. Pelletier
This is part 2 of Vince’s disassembly and repair of the Falke model 90 underlever spring-piston rifle I sent him several weeks ago.
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by Vince
Yesterday, we saw the first of many problems. Now, it’s time to dive into the gun. The first step is to remove that troublesome tap and the stuck pellet.
Here are the tap screw, washer and opening lever.
I can pull out the tap AND the completely undamaged pellet. Curiouser and curiouser — I thought the pellet would be a little chewed up from the failure-to-feed episodes that we seemed to experience. But, no, it looked perfect.
Left to right: Front linkage guide, main retaining screw & rear trigger retaining pin.
The rest of the gun slid apart easily. This is a very Hakim-like cocking linkage and trigger.
After removing the front linkage guide, the main retaining screw, and the rear trigger retaining pin, the cocking action and trigger assembly just slide forward and off. The rear spring retainer just screws out:
The end cap shouldn’t be hard to remove, and I don’t expect the spring to be under much compression.
At this point, I have no idea how much preload I’m looking at. As I get it within a few turns of removal, I can feel a little free-play in the threads. This means that I can push against the spring and get a fair idea of what kind of pressure I’m going to have to deal with. It’s not much. Still, as a precaution I toss an old t-shirt over the end cap before I completely unscrew it.
Ready to remove the spring.
Note: Vince is highly experienced and knows when a spring is beyond his ability to remove it without a compressor. Most springs should not be removed without a mainspring compressor. However, this rifle is under so little pre-compression that there’s no danger at all.
Even if it tries to go sproing, the rag will quickly arrest whatever tries to come shooting out. Which it doesn’t. I was correct. There’s very little preload in the powerplant.
As expected, removing the end cap was a piece of cake.
Next, I attempted to slide out the piston. I say attempt because every time I started to pull out the piston it popped right back in as soon as I let it go. That’s weird — it feels like I’m pulling a vacuum. That can’t be. Heck, the loading tap isn’t even installed, which means the transfer port is open to the atmosphere. Regardless, after a few tries of this sort, I kind of forced the issue and finally extracted the reluctant part.
Gooped-up piston.
Man, that’s one ugly piston. Not sure what’s on it — semi-sticky, dirty, icky — it really needs a good clean-up, which it gets from a wire wheel. And, is that seal ever beat. Hey, what’s that? Looks like a big metal flake stuck on the end of the piston!
What’s stuck to the end of the piston?
I peeled off the metal flake and hit it with a small torch. It melted immediately. Just as I thought…lead. Now, things are making sense. Why was the piston so reluctant to come out? Let’s take a look into the now-empty compression tube, shall we?
That little circle at the bottom of the tube is supposed to be a hole. A whole hole, not half a hole. Something’s in there that’s not supposed to be in there. So I went in from the muzzle with a long steel cleaning rod. I banged on it a bunch of times.
The cleaning rod should pop out whatever’s stuck.
Two .177 pellets popped out of the .22 cal. rifle.
Apparently someone tried loading .177 pellets into this thing. An easy enough mistake, I guess. But when he (I’m assuming it was a guy!) closed the loading tap, the pellet would slide backwards into the transfer port and into the compression chamber. Looks like this was attempted more than once, and eventually the piston just mashed the errant pellet(s) into the transfer port, plugging it pretty effectively. Which is why, when I tried firing it, I just got pffffft. The pellet in the tap wasn’t getting jammed. The fact is that no air at all was even reaching it.
We’ll continue Vince’s resurrection of this rifle next week. Stay tuned!
Well on my end it shows no one has posted since 6:40pm yesterday, so I’ll drop a quote:
“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
Albert Camus
rikib 🙂
Vince,
Outside it looks just old, but inside – ew… I didn’t expect it to be so bad. I just wonder how pellets got inside compression chamber. My guess – somebody loaded them first and then cocked the rifle so they just got sucked in.
Well, IMO there are people who desperately need their hands tied behind their backs permanently – as they ruin everything they touch and at least one of this Falke’s pre-B.B. owners was of such men.
I very much like the the way this rifle is built, all metal, nice finish, no cheap tricks… Maybe I’ve got a sort of soft spot for this type of underlevers, they seem tome aesthetically superior, on top of all the other lever-cocked airguns.
duskwight
duskwight,
The smaller pellets get into the compression chamber because they are smaller than the air transfer port. So when the gun is loaded and the tap is closed, they fall back through the port. Once inside the compression chamber, they have no place to go.
This is extremely common to find in a Hakim, which is only in .22 caliber. I have also found lots of small finishing nails embedded in the piston.
B.B.
BB:
Is the transfer port on the Falke particularly large or are the dimensions quite normal for the USA.
I don’t think I have had a springer of any calibre with a transfer port large enough for a .177 to drop through.
Not unless the owner has drilled it out in an effort to gain power.(it wasn’t me lol)
Cheers.
DaveUK
No, it’s big. I don’t think I’ve seen ANY modern gun with a transfer port big enough to pass a .177 pellet, even if the gun is a .22.
DaveUK,
This Falke transfer port is large for today’s spring piston rifles, but both the Falke and the Hakim used it, so I guess it was considered okay for the 1950s. Maybe the loading tap drives the need for a larger port. The Hakim was only made in .22 but the Falke 80 and 90, which were both taploaders, existed in both .22 and .177. I guess the ,177 rifles had a smaller transfer port, or there was something else that limited the pellet from going back.
B.B.
B.B.
Eek! Mommy… Whoever previous owner was, he’s becoming a scary person… Mismatched ammo, nails (that’s really beyond my comprehension) what did this rifle do to deserve such treatment?
On the other hand, just like Dave asked – transfer port sounds way large to me, in my experience 3.2-3.9 are optimal for any springer, be it .177 or .22. Any signs of drilling it out? In fact that kind drilling is the way to _weaken_ rifle.
A choleric kid with access to instruments trying to tune airrifle?
duskwight
Drilling this one out would be tough, and would requre a very long bit or an extension. Ihave no reason to believe this was done.
duskwight,
No, the port wasn’t drilled out. I have seen the same thing in Hakim rifles, which are very similar, many times.
B.B.
B.B. and Vince
That’s interesting. Well, maybe in 50s airgun theory was not so developed and there was no fps race, when every thosandth of millimeter counts.
However, Vince, don’t underestimate human will when people do stupid things. I’ve seen myself photos of a Mp-512 with barrel HAND-drilled up to 5 mm – the poor and work-loving fella thought that this would decrease friction and give him some more accuracy.
duskwight
Sorry I didn’t get time to thank you yesterday. The IZH I got has the red wood stock and the dove tail, it seems well made and pretty solid altough the actions seems a little loose in the stock, I didn’t have time to take a good look at it yet.
Thanks again for the info keep it coming.
J-F
J-F
From your description I judge there’s no opening lever. Well, then it’s a new series, well-made but older ones got more charisma 🙂
Are you acquainted with bedding? It’s nothing difficult, just don’t be afraid and believe in yourself. There are lots of online manuals, so you can just read and watch. Bedding can increase rifle’s performance in means of accuracy and even give you some aditional fps (the more the mass of the rifle, the more effective piston works and less recoil felt, it’s something like that, so making your action as solid to a stock as possible is Directive 1).
Trigger work requires some straight hands, but if you need and ready to do it, I can send you some pics and some manuals. It’ll make trigger lighter, shorter travel and more predictable.
duskwight
Just boasting:
http://i2.guns.ru/forums/icons/forum_pictures/001496/1496833.jpg one of my Izh-38s. I love this rifle since I shot it in shooting galleries, so wherever I see a 38 – I check it and if it is interesting, I buy it.
You guessed right, no opening lever, sorry I forgot to mention it. I have no idea how old it is but it sure looks old it seems “well used” but still in perfect working order and well maintained.
Keep the infos coming, I’ll take everything you have. Mine doesn’t look as nice as your does but may e it’ll shoot as well someday.
J-F
J-F
All right, here it is. All photos are from my friend Gnom’s website.
First – piston hook. Make it like this http://mpmurka.narod.ru/06.files/image004.jpg It will allow an easy cocking and reduce load. Next some trigger work, watch pics here, it’s really simple http://mpmurka.narod.ru/08.htm that’ll give you shorter trigger pull at less that 500 gram force.
duskwight
B.B., Are you still planning to do a write up on the TF79 bulk fill option?
OJ,
I am. But first I have returned the TF 79 I had in exchange for another one that I will test for accuracy.
B.B.
BB Re: Bulk-fill on the TF79
I could sure use your help on bulk-fill of my AR2078 (TF79). I have a new, 20 oz paint ball tank and the correct valve with braided hose & QD couplings. The interface at the gun, is the typical QB78 adaptor with integral one way valve and the male QD fitting. When I try to fill, I get leaking directly behind the collar at the threaded connection of the rifle cO2 tube to collar connection. Initially, I suspected a bad o-ring or other issue and Stephen Archer was kind enough to take back the bulk-fill adaptor and send another which he tested first. I have now tried the new adaptor and I still have the same problem. Note: the rifle never fills, as the leak is immediate while filling.
BTW the tube cap for the 2 X Powerlets seals just fine, and the rifle holds cO2 for days when using the Powerlets. I have also tried both the white and black type o-rings as Stephen sent some extras with the new adaptor. Mr. Archer and I are befuddled on this one and I am guessing that this is a filling method or process issue, not a mechanical or sealing issue? Help!
Brian in Idaho
There are two different tubes and caps on QB 78 rifles you probably have the wrong one. The bleed hole is lower on the later type. Check with Archer on that.
Loren
Loren, thanks, but, “bleed hole”?
My bulk-fill cap/adaptor has one, external threaded port for the male QD fitting at approx 30 deg angle. This is followed by the threaded collar that mates to the rifle tube, and followed again by an O-ring. The only external parts are the collar and the QD fitting. On the inside face of the adaptor, behind the o-ring, is the exit port of the one way valve.
I did notice that Archer has an “old” and “new” cap for the 2 Powerlet co2 supply, and I do have the newer cap for that. (the o-ring seats further back on the new style)
What am I missing here?
Signed,
Bulk-fill Newbie
Brian,
Have you used Pellgunoil? Because you need it for bulk-fill as well as for powerlets.
Other than that, I have no idea what to do but return the setup.
B.B.
Yup, did the pellgunoil first thing.
I’ll go study this further.
Speaking of pellgunoil, well ,oil in general, is the Gamo Oil OK?
/product/gamo-air-gun-oil?a=306
I have pellgunoil and silicone grease, but I got a good deal on the Gamo Oil also. Is it okay for most use (besides chambers, of course), or is it one of the horror story oils out there, i.e sticky, gummy, etc.? I have heard so many conflicting opinions on oils, all from people whom I trust their opinions, I just use their suggested oils on the guns that they prefer or work on…
OJ,
I used Gamo oil in lieu of Pellgunoil for many years with a CO2 target pistol and it worked fine.
B.B.
Well, I hope I do not get the one that you send back;)
BB,
Maybe quality control from the Chinese is really tanking. As I mentioned before the one I got from Mike Melick won’t group worth a darn. And I asked him to adjust the trigger to 8 oz and nice and crisp. The creep on that thing goes on forever and a day! The trigger also feels rough and gritty.
He said he would exchange or refund, but it is still my dime return shipping, and I would hate to exchange it and get another ringer!
Guess I am going to have to hunker down and save my dimes and get a real competition type gun like maybe a Crosman Challenger 2009.
Do you think that would have 10 meter match type accuracy?
pcp4me,
Yes the Crosman Challenger PCP does have 10-meter match accuracy, but not the accuracy of the top 10-meter rifles. It’s a Junior-level competition rifle. But read my report on it and look at the groups to see if that is good enough for you:
/blog/2009/11/crosman-challenger-2009-target-rifle-part-5/
B.B.
Vince…
That’s one nasty, gunky mess you have there. At least no very hard foreign objects.
B.B. is going to owe you quite a bit of beer for this one.
Let’s see now…
Pellet removal…1 case.
Gunk removal…2 cases.
Piston seal..1 case.
Relube…1/2 case.
Tap lever….4 cases.
Of course, I am talking about the 30 can cases….not the 24 can cases.
twotalon
twotalon,
Eight and a half cases of beer? No way! Vince will be so loaded he don’t know if the gun is loaded or not!
Wow! What a way to satisfy a cliff hanger! Your detective skills are frightening.
Before I completed reading the reason for the plugged hole I thought maybe the shooter was intentionally trying to detonate pellets and drove one into the hole with one of the blasts.
-Chuck
A friend of mine has a number of rental properties, and his philosophy about damage that the tenants do is: “Well, at least they didn’t do anything I can’t fix.” Keeps him from getting stressed about the normal wear and tear stuff.
But WOW, this gun is bordering on something that can’t be fixed. Vince, I know you’ll put your magic touch on it! It’s like an example of all the bad things someone can do to a gun.
Lloyd
Lloyd,
After you start fixing old spring-piston airguns a while you will have similar experiences. These are “experiments” that owners do. It’s why I know that every bent barrel is not due to the barrel slipping out of someone’s hands, but rather a “Let’s see what will happen” experiment. I have found nails in about a dozen air rifles so far.
B.B.
Some time ago I had a conversation with Sweepea who couldn’t figure out why our 5-year-old grandson (who lives with us) keeps doing things that are so evidently stupid. I pointed out that, for some reason, boys/guys frequently find themselves doing stupid things a) just to see what happens, or b) to find out how much it hurts.
She didn’t believe me at first, but I think she’s finally convinced…
Vince,
I agree about the boys/guys dumbness thing. And if a brother is involved, it gets even dumber. It’s a miracle some of us made it to adulthood.
Lloyd
I try and leave the bad experimentation to guns in the B3 price range… usually! I do have several boxes of “altered” parts and pieces that someone will have to throw out some day. Too soon for that now, though.
Lloyd
Morning B.B. and Vince,
Does the picture of the piston labeled “Gooped-up piston” show what, to my untrained eye, look like buttons on it near the right edge of the piston?
I meant to ask you yesterday which of the two screws holding the trigger guard is the stock screw since just one of them is a Phillips head?
Bruce
The phillips head is a replacement. The Falke was missing a screw. The other triggerguard screw is just a short wood screw.
Brian in Idaho…
I got shy of the .20 R9 . Was edgy about finding the right pellets, considering the limited availability of different domedes in this cal.
Got the .177 instead. Bore is a bit tighter than my 97K, but easy enough to load the same pellets without skirt damage. Chrono is bouncing low to mid 800’s with FTT. No other pellets tried over the chrono yet. Want to break it in a bit more than 20-30 shots.
A bit of spring noise when cocking, but is going away and smoothing up quickly. A bit of buzz, but not bad. Very little felt recoil. Zero droop as far as I can determine with a level.
Got the Leapers 3-9 from the Titan installed and pretty well zeroed. Thread lockered the screws and adjusted the trigger.
Like the feel. And VERY easy to cock compared to the 97K. It’s so easy that I would have trouble believing that it would shoot any faster than low 700’s…if that much.
twotalon
TT when did you get the R9? Is it a new gun or used?
Brand new. FEDEX brought it at 8:45 this morning.
twotalon
Brand new, very cool.
I’m guessing that the longer break-barrel leverage is a lot of the reason it is “easier to cock than HW97K” ?
Could be. 15″ of “lever” is easier than 12″.
Makes you wonder why you frequently hear about guys who want to chop down their barrels.
Very nice little rifle. Looks well lubed (clear grease). Just a bit of smoke. No heavy detonations.
If it shoots half as good as the 97 I will be very happy .
Have to have a better rest and less wind to get a better look at it. Was shooting out the back door at small pieces of crud on the snow.
twotalon
Wow, what a mess. The shirt trick reminds me of the measures I take to keep the spring from shooting out of my 1911 when I disassemble it. You can never be complacent. It shot out the last time and the barrel bushing was very hard to find. It’s nice to see you restoring this fine rifle. I’m reminded of a sequence of Tennessee repairing Herbie the Love Bug which I used to listen to on a record when I was a kid. Tennessee took loving care of Herbie ending with: “Now for a nice long drink of fuel….glug-glug-glug…Ahhh.”
Fred PRonj, I have trouble visualizing how you would turn handlebars the wrong way when turning at high speed. But the very need to turn handlebars at all makes it especially mysterious how the guy on the back seat of the tandem bicycle was able to negotiate the turn without being able to touch the handlebars. But it did happen. He passed me in a turn at fairly high speed and seemingly without effort.
BG_Farmer, my book says that the electric field and magnetism are not understood and Maxwell’s equations are purely descriptive and based on empirical data. So, I wouldn’t look for an explanation any time soon. In fact, I read a historian of mathematics named Morris Kline who said that Western science only got going when people stopped trying to understand the real nature of things like philosophers and just started measuring and deriving.
Victor, thank you for your wealth of information. You remind me of a character in an enjoyable book that I recommend called The Far Arena. The character is one of the finest gladiators of ancient Rome who has just been unfrozen after 2000 years. No one believes that he was a gladiator, and they arrange a match with an Olympic fencer to prove him wrong. He kicks the guy in the groin and walks away. Maybe your sensei would have been intrigued. Anyway, the fencer, naturally, is very upset and tracks down the gladiator in a kitchen. As the gladiator recalls, “I knew he was going to kill me for I had but a meat knife in my hand. But then he cut me on the cheek, and where the mind failed, the muscles remembered. One does not survive the arena without some skills as deep as bone.” So, I’m sure it’s all there for you. That training you describe is ideal for fighting but would be hard to motivate yourself for, I would think. I read about a workshop for a brutal military combat system, and the participants gave an interesting array of reasons for participating like: “I have a contract out on me.” or “When the IRS comes through the door, I’ll be ready.”
A technical question. Did you guys come up with a defense against the lead jab for boxing? The jab is performed with a bladed body giving it longer reach, and since it is generally not thrown as a power punch it tends to be faster. The classic Karate block with all its mechanics tends to be too slow to respond. What did you do?
As for follow-through, I have wondered at how relevant it is since the bullet/pellet is long gone by the time the consciousness registers the shot. How can what you do after the shot affect what happened in time before? My guess is that the follow-through is not reaching back in time… Since nature abhors a vacuum, the slightest failure to concentrate during the shot will open the door for interference, and the very speed of the shot suggest that the slightest of angular deflections to the barrel before the shot leaveswill have an enormous affect. So, concentrating on the follow-through after the shot really plugs up and secures the concentration during the shot at the smallest levels. Anyway, that is how I have reasoned about this paradox.
Matt61
Matt,
That is really a slippery slope — I would cite Copernicus as a counter example.
Follow-through is just a mind trick, but it is probably more important than anything else in the process.
Really? How is Copernicus a counter-example? The Kline argument was that only when we got away from attributing the falling of objects to the nature of weight and the essence of the object like the ancient Greeks and started measuring the fall could we make progress ending up with the inverse square law. We still don’t know what gravity is really, but the measurements have allowed us to manipulate it. I don’t know Copernicus’s work well, but it seems heavily observational and dispenses with the human-centric assumptions of the Ptolemaic model, so it would seem to prove the same point.
Matt61
I suppose it depends on the meaning of the “nature of things”, and perhaps I misinterpreted the quote. My point is that the Ptolemaic astronomers did exquisite calculations and many observations, much more work over centuries than Copernicus in a lifetime. The problem was that their model of the “nature of things” was completely wrong, so they had to keep making corrections. Copernicus made an educated guess (it was not without precedent in ancient literature, either) about the way the solar system was arranged (the “nature of things”), and many things fell neatly and simply into place. In related illustrative argument, I would state that — despite being a certified nutcase — Tesla somehow had a better (though muddled and often only intuitive) understanding of how electricity works than Edison, and that paid off in practical applications. Which would you rather live without, the inventions of Tesla or the inventions of Edison?
Neither would have been successful without the other. Simple example: without the incandescent light bulb to create a market for piping electricity into every building, nobody would care whether Tesla and Westinghouse’s AC was superior to Edison’s DC. But then, w/o AC the transmission of electric current would have been wholly impractical.
Pete,
I agree more or less with what you are saying, with the reservation that Edison did not invent the incandescent bulb (nor perhaps even the carbon filament); he merely implemented a practical, relatively long lasting version of it suitable for inclusion in his system. He was a marketing and business genius.
Matt61,
The description, “where the mind failed, the muscles remembered. One does not survive the arena without some skills as deep as bone.”, is exactly right! Proper training will give you this, and precisely the advantage that one can have over a boxer. Training style gets deeply ingrained into you, so versatility is important. Proper training will include lots of low stances, which provide a means of creating distance from something like a jab. Also, Karate defense includes blocks that would be illegal in boxing. We train to deflect and “intercept” punches, and even hit the opponents arm. If you can catch a baseball, you can catch a fist, and then break an arm. Much of the solution is in offense. Also, the boxer is not trained to handle kicks or leg sweeps. We also train to grab clothes for leverage and control. In fact, many styles of self-defense train abilities OUT OF YOU, including blocking. I’ve seen fighters who did not have the reflex to block thier head because their particular style did not include this. Regarding “classic Karate blocks”, this is an area of confusion for many, as even instructors don’t know why certain things are taught. Form is what we call, “exaggerated movement”, and is used to perfect reflects, power, and stamina (think taiwazi’s or ipon kumite’s). However, in a real fight, we do not use full classic form, but rather quicker, abbreviated, movements. You’ll rarely find yourself doing the complete “middle-outward-block”, but instead will only deflect the strike, but with POWER. Blocks will hurt an opponent, making them wonder if the fight is worth it. There is way too much to be said about why we do the things that we do in Karate here. Everything has a practical purpose. Kata is the WRONG place to teach abbreviation. Only in Kumite (fighting) do you resort to shorter, quicker moves. That’s why you train in both kata and kumite. But it is Kata that makes you a perfect fighter. Many dojo’s don’t understand this, or realize that you won’t keep many students if you “waste their time” on seemingly nonsense formality. Instead, they go straight to the fun stuff. The bottom line is that it takes real time to be a trained fighter, and that applies to any style.
The relevance of follow through is not that it helps with the execution of a shot up to the point of firing, but rather that it helps to prevent you from making common mistakes at the time that the shot is made. Again, the issue that we are trying to solve is anticipation. This is a mental issue, more than anything. All shooters suffer from this, even world class champions. We dry fire to practice and demonstrate that our execution is solid. We follow through to guarantee that we complete the execution.
Victor
Matt,
I believe the follow through defeats the flinch.
Vince,
It sounds like the previous owner was on a mission to see how badly he could break this thing. lol
I’ve thrown a few airguns away. Now I realize what a huge mistake it was. None of them were nearly in this bad a shape.
Thanks,
Victor
Vince,
It doesn’t look bad at all — just a little junk gumming up the works :).
Matt61,
Get your bicycle up to 10 mph or so and push on the right handlebar. You won’t have to turn it much, and see what happens. Likewise on a motorcycle but go a bit faster. Rule is “push right to go right, push left to go left”. It’s called “countersteering” and we all do it. We just don’t realize it.
Vince, this rifle reminds me of the last words of a “redneck”. “Hey ya’all, watch this”
Exactly. I also think the rake and trail setup is what enables the bicycle to countersteer itself at speed in response to a lean, so that you don’t have to push the handlebars at all.
Are you serious? That seems counterintuitive. I thought I pushed the left handlebar and pulled the right one to go right. I’ll try this out on the way home.
Matt61
What Anonymous is saying here is, because it’s easy to misunderstand, turn the front wheel to the left to make the motorcycle go right and turn the wheel to the right to go left. This only happens on a motorcycle at speeds over about 10-20 mile per hour. Below that speed it steers just like a bicycle. Beginners usually end up in on-coming traffic until this becomes ingrained. A beginner’s auto reflex is to do the opposite.
The mystery I have not been able to solve is why the motorcycle rights itself when power is applied. If I’m standing still and the bike begins to tip over applying power automatically rights the bike. The wheels have not hardly begun to turn so centrifugal force is not a factor here.
I agree with everything you have said. One additional thing I have learned, riding a motorcycle is not not like riding a bicycle, you do forget! I was a motorcyclist for a little over 20 years my last bike being a Kawi 1100 crotch rocket, 100+ mph was just fun. I took a 15 year hiatus from bikes as I got older, then last October bought a Suzuki 650DR. It’s mid-February and I have not renewed my license or taken it on the road yet, just ride it on my land. There are so many things to relearn and understand that you think more about when you are older. For all you bikers out there be safe, just think that other driver is going to do something stupid. Also, any new riders DO NOT think you can just jump on a bike and ride, take a safety course seriously.
rikib 🙂
rikib,
I know this motorcycle thread seems so off topic for an airgun blog but I’ve noticed there are a lot of you that are bikers or that want to be. So I justify this by thinking that if I help you be safer on your motorcycles you’ll continue to enjoy and contribute to this blog.
So here’s a tip:
Another thing I learned is that the motorcycle will go in the direction your head is pointing. Not necessarily where your eyes are looking but mostly the direction in which your head is pointing. When you approach a curve make sure your head is turned that way and the bike magically follows. Along the same lines, if you see an obstruction in the middle of the road, don’t look at it or you will surely hit it. Look in the direction you want the bike to go.
This trick kept me from failing the license test 10 years ago. One of the tests was to do a very slow figure-eight inside a rectangular box drawn on the pavement. If you put your foot down on the pavement you failed. I made the first short turn OK and the first long turn but heading into the second short turn I couldn’t get the bike to make that sharp turn. I was about to put my foot down when I immediately turned my head in the direction of the turn and the bike magically followed. You bikers try it next time you’re in a tight or high-speed turn. You’ll see how easy it is to make that turn. It’s also easy to over steer that way, too, so be mindful of that.
-Chuck
Chuck,
You make another good point, basically steering with the head.
One thing riders do need to keep in mind though maybe obvious, but sportbikes, cruisers, and dual purpose bikes all handle differently.
Your trick reminded me of back around ’82, I was already on my third bike a Honda CB750F. The military required that you take a safety course to ride on-base. I completed everything fine until the small circles at low speed, feet not touching the ground, for the life of me I can’t figure out the purpose of that test. Anyway, several attempts and I could not stay within the lines, I was pissed. Instructor had an attitude, about how easy it was. So me being a smartass gave him my keys and told him to try it himself, lol, he dumped my bike. The rest of the class held in their laughter, I just shrugged my shoulders. After all was said and done I passed the class.
You’ve a great service, gotta go Dad’s coming over to use my computer!
rikib 🙂
Brian in Idaho,
Doubt this is it, but did you cock the AR2078 first before attaching the bulk CO2 tank to fill?
If you compare the bulk-fill adapter to your 12 g cap, do they look similar as far as how deeply they seat into the gas tube?
I have a couple Crosman 600 pistols that I’ve bulked and there is a tiny bleed hole drilled in the threaded tube. Had leaks similar to what you described until I filled the small holes with a smear of JB Weld. Once the extension tubes were installed, the female thread holds the epoxy from being blown outward. I know yours adapter is a slip fit, but maybe it’s a similar problem.
Thanks Derrick, I will check both items, I believe I cocked it before filling but… and I will check the length and the position of the o-ring etc compared to the other cap.
Derrick, guess what I just found on the Archer Airgun Blog, dated Feb 11, 2011 !
There are two versions of “bleed holes’ (and they must be darn small ones) that have different set-back dimensions from the end of the threaded tube. One is closer to the end and the bulk-fill will work, and one is further back and causes the leak (ie o-ring doesn’t seal)
JB Weld and/or acid-core solder to the rescue! Or… after a few measurements, I may just cut a new o-ring groove in the adaptor to be in front of that hole!
Thanks for the great lead in helping me with this mystery.
Loren, I live in Davis, CA which calls itself the bike capital of America. I don’t know how official that is but they have the best bike paths and etiquette here that I’ve ever seen.
Matt61
Matt
Sounds good to me.
Loren
Brian look carefully at the threaded section on your co2 tube you will see a small hole this is there to bleed co2 off when you back off the cap so it won’t blow off in your face. The reason yours won’t fill is because the hole is too far down on the tube (later model) Archer addreses this situation. Just look up the fill adaptor in his parts section.
Loren
Yup! That would be the problemo!
I’m gonna see about turning a new o-ring groove about 18mm back from the collar (end of tube dimension) in my bulk fill adaptor.
Thanks to you and Derrick for the help! I wasn’t going crazy after all! (sorta)
Kevin, good to hear from you and thanks for the update on the XM25. It is nice to hear of real data as opposed to tests and projections. And it would be nice for once to have a military solution to what is not entirely a military problem. On the other hand, I’m skeptical of the tests. They just do not seem to predict reality very accurately. The Marine Corps proved that the M1 Garand was not as reliable as the 1903 Springfield, but that turned out not to be true in combat. The M-16 handily defeated the M-14 in tests in all areas for which M-14s are now being recalled decades later to replace/supplement M-16s. No doubt the Beretta handgun defeated the 1911 in field tests, but the 1911 is going stronger than ever today. So the new technology bears watching. I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming trials for a new service rifle.
By the way, I’m hoping your daughter’s leg is completely healed now.
Matt61
Matt61,
I’ve been following the XM-25 evolution with great interest.
This weapon is revolutionary. Prior to its’ introduction troops had to wait for air support to eliminate these “hidden” threats. The XM-25 can be an immediate solution for ground units. Waiting, while pinned down in a firefight, for air support is over for troops. It’s no wonder the soldiers that were given these guns for testing didn’t want to return them when the test period was over.
Thanks for asking about Danielle’s leg. It’s completely healed. We just returned from the Virgin Islands where she spent 12 days hiking and snorkeling with us. She’s not only fine but can run circles around us.
kevin
Pardon me if I am not posting this question in the right way/spot.
If not, please advise as to how one posts a new question.
Risking getting slapped across my knuckles with a ruler…
If an airgun velocity test gives an average velocity of 500 fps with a 7 grain pellet, the calculated muzzle energy comes out to 3.9 foot pounds.
Working the calculation backwards for an 8 grain pellet, the predicted velocity comes out to be equal to 468 fps.
Does this prediction “generally” work?
JGC,
We are not slaves to the topic of the day here, so welcome to the blog. No, the prediction might get you in the ballpark, but there are too many anomalies for a straight-line relationship to exist. The 8-grain pellet might only go 425 f.p.s.
Each type of powerplant performs differently with light and heavy pellets, and that plays into it, as well. For instance, a spring gun usually develops higher power with lighter pellets, while a CO2 gun or pneumatic develops higher power with heavier pellets. That tendency skews the numbers.
B.B.
DesertDweller,
Sorry I didn’t respond earlier to your comment of a few days ago– I only saw it now. Train driver, huh? That’s a very interesting profession. Ever fewer of you left these days. You’re right about the noise; the ducks ignore it. Regarding your eagle, seeing those documentaries of little birds perched on the backs of elephants in Africa, it occurs to me that birds and smaller animals in general don’t fear the huge ones, because their instinct has learned that they are beneath attention for the huge ones, as prey. No doubt your train is so huge to the eagle that it does not perceive it as any kind of threat. Beneath the train’s dignity to bother with it, so to speak!
You guys have all made me paranoid about tackling those ducks. Sorry Fred– I think I’ll put that recipe for Duck a l’orange away for now… It’s either whacking them outright or leaving them alone I think. Since the former means a headshot with a poweful airgun I can’t risk it because if I miss the neighbors across the lake will be most unhappy…
AlanL
Alan,
There soon will be one less train driver. I’m retiring on April 6.
Next career: US Coast Guard Auxilary!
Les (soon to be home from the desert)
I think I may already have mentioned this but I’m truly amazed at the people and comments that are found here both in quantity but even more in QUALITY.
We have newbies (me), experts, young, old, smart and wise, others… Not so much (me again).
People from different countries, different religions, different way of life, people who hunt, people who don’t all getting along well, no argument, no disrespect, we don’t always agree with each other (can you imagine how boring that would be) yet everyone is nice and always helpfull to one another.
We have martial artists, engineers(some who even help design new airgun powerplants), locksmiths, photographers, train drivers, military personnel both active and retired, physicists, hell we even have a rocket scientist!! I just can’t give names, theres just so many great people here. All together for the love of airguns and all here thanks to Josh Ungier (we are still waiting for more his blogs), PyramydAir, BB and the unforgettable Edith.
My name is J-F and I’m an airgun blog junkie
Thanks to all of you this is THE best place on the internet to hang around.
J-F,
I agree with all that. When there is nowhere else to go, I know I can always come here.
rikib 🙂