Back in the Saddle

Finally after much waiting and puzzling, my bike is back in action. I drove it to work last Friday for the first time this year. Stephen and I determined the fuel leak was probably in the petcock valve assembly, so I ordered one new online. I was going to try to save some money and get one off of ebay or something, but there are so many different kinds that I decided I didn't want to risk it and just ordered it new ($100, ouch). The parts took about two weeks to arrive, which seemed long but whatever. With a little headache I was able to install it and it seems to have fixed the problem. There is still a very small leak (like a half-drop is hanging off the valve in the morning), but I think it's due to the hose. It was pretty hardened and not very supple when I re-attached it, and I will probably try to replace it soon.

Then the battery... it was dead. Even after trying to charge it, it just wouldn't work. So basically I killed a new battery by leaving it hooked in for six months. Makes sense. But I bought a trickle-charger, so hopefully I will be fine for the next storage period. I bought a new battery, charged it, and installed. The bike kicked up to life for the first time in forever! It was a glorious moment.

I had a hard time reinstalling the seat for some reason. I wonder if it's a custom seat, because the seat fastener holes don't quite align with the frame bolt holes. I could get one side in, but for the life of me can't seem to torque the other side into alignment. I now know why the allen-wrench bolt heads were almost stripped (from the last owner trying to get them in). So for now my seat is only half-screwed in. Seems fine though...

Next up is new tires. I'd like to get these taken care of before I go on any major ride. I think I'll take it down to Stephen Wade Powersports and have them install a new rear tire along with my spare front tire that I got from the previous owner. Maybe I'll have them give the bike a once-over: brakes, hoses, etc. Then I'll be ready to rumble.

Dead Battery

Ugh, a week ago we had beautiful weather and figured it was time to finally get my bike in action. I tried to start it up and... dead. I realized I have forgotten to unhook the battery for storage. So I tried to charge it for several hours on trickle and nothing. I think my charger might be broken on that setting (works great for high Amp setting like my truck battery). I am going to try out Stephen's charger to see if I can get this thing going. It's a brand new battery... it shouldn't be dead-dead.

Fuel Leak

I've had a fuel leak the last few weeks and haven't gotten it fixed yet. So no updates and no rides until I do.

Ride 5 (dead trees) - Mesquite, NV - 10/4/09

View Larger Map
My brother Stephen and I hadn't ridden together since June, so we took a jaunt down to Mesquite yesterday to visit my sister Janet and her family. My most recent trip was also to Mesquite when Renee and I rode down there in the heat of July. During that ride I was struck by the awesome array of dead and burned out trees along the way, but I didn't have time to take pictures. So yesterday was my official "dead tree tour" and the pictures are below.

Before we left, Stephen and I got some gas and filled our tires with air at the station's pump. I have these nice metal valve caps, and I put one of the caps on my gas tank so that I would be sure not to forget putting it back on. Of course, when we arrived in Mesquite, I looked down and noticed that I had forgotten to put the cap on the valve stem after all. Doh! I figured it must have fallen off the gas tank somewhere on the long trip.

The trip itself was very relaxing. The temperature was much cooler than the last time in July. In fact it was fairly brisk until we reached the long Arizona valley (thank goodness for a windshield to deflect the cold air). As we dipped into the valley along the eternally straight rode, I could instantly feel the temperature rise.

It was great to see Janet, Dan, Trisha, and David again (and Jack the dog too). Their house is beautiful and I was tempted to jump in the pool. Janet fed us fruit, cheese, and muffins and soon we were on our way home. Here is a picture of their fun pool and also one of me, David, and Stephen looking cool in our black shirts.





On the way back I took a bunch of pictures of dead trees, as shown below. The juniper trees are fantastically twisted, like some nightmarish Halloween trees. The joshua trees look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Click pictures to see larger versions.

JUNIPER

TWISTED

JOSHUA

We stopped by the freaky urine-soaked cave again on the way home (how can you not?). Stephen hadn't seen it before, but once he got to the opening, the smell quickly deterred him from entering.

As we started up our bikes, mine suddenly started making an intense, intermittent "POP" sound down in the engine area. I had no idea what was going on. We determined that it had to do something with the chain. The sound would not happen when revving in neutral, but only when rolling forward. Soon the bike wouldn't even roll forward. We removed a few plates and looked all over, and finally Stephen found it: my metal valve cap was stuck in the sprocket! What are the chances that after 90 miles, the cap had not fallen to the road, but instead gradually and gently worked it's way down into the chain? Not only had it fallen down there, but the cap had landed on a sprocket tooth just right so that it was "capped" on top of the tooth as if the tooth was the valve stem. The cap was lodged on tight and tough to get off. So we had to demolish it to free it from the sprocket. See my fancy illustration below.

The actual cap

Add to this that I forgot to use sunscreen and my nose is more red than it has been for years. Think "Rudolph". I think my Mesquite trips are cursed. Cursed or not, they are always fun.

Ride 4 - Mesquite, NV - 7/11/09

View Larger Map
I finally did my long-awaited Mesquite ride, and an eventful ride it was! I had contacted two friends from motorcycle school, Renee and Dolores, and they wanted to come along with Stephen and I. I had set a time for 9am to meet in Santa Clara and head out. Stephen told me on Friday night "we should probably go earlier, like even 7am. This ride is going to be very hot". It's not like riding to cool Pine Valley. But I couldn't contact everyone in time, so we stuck with 9am.

Unfortunately Dolores had to cancel and then Stephen's rear brake went out that morning. So it was just Renee and I. We got going about 9:30am and hide a nice ride to Mesquite. Renee was worried she'd look like a newb, but she did great.

So we hit a convenience store in Mesquite and hung out for a while to rest before the ride back. I called my sister Janet who lives in Mesquite for a possible visit, but couldn't reach her and so left a message. As we were ready to depart, my motorcycle... was dead. Just wouldn't even make a noise. The lights would come on but that was about it.

Coincidentally, Renee had just learned from her dad how to push-start a bike and the poor girl pushed me around the parking lot forever trying to pop it into life, but to no avail. At least we didn't try this (haha):



To make a loooong story short, after talking to a Harley biker, after calling a bunch of people including my brother Stephen, after losing my glasses, after pushing the bike to two auto parts dealers, we finally got the thing jumped to life! The little lady at the Mesquite AutoZone rocked. Awesome customer service. Janet had gotten my message by that point and came out to meet us at AutoZone. She took my happy picture in the shade (it was HOT outside).



The funny thing was that I left my helmet in the helmet lock, so I had to (really fast) turn off the bike, pull out the key, unlock the helmet, and restart the bike. It worked (whew)!

So we rode back and I clicked a few pictures of the ride, shown below. Due to the casual pace of the ride and the hassle in Mesquite, I got home at 1:30pm. Four and a half hours after meeting. Much longer than I thought the ride would take (sorry Renee!). I also hadn't realized how truly hot it was. When I got off my bike from home, I was sweating like a dog. It took a while for my body to cool down. How did humans live in this area before air conditioning? (P.S. - I found my glasses after all, I had stuffed them in a pocket of my bike bag)

So that was the adventure. Let me describe the ride. It really was a beautiful trip.

North Half: The variety through the Shivwits Reservation was eye-candy. There are so many cool hills and types of rock. The road is very curvy which is always tons of fun to ride. And the trees! The dead trees are totally awesome. Apparently a major forest fire went through there years ago and the entire first part of the trip is filled with these gnarly, charred trees. I am so not an arborist, so I'm not sure what kind of trees they were (I think Juniper? no idea). Very twisted branches. Because the trip already took so long, I didn't stop to take tree pictures. I will do a "dead tree tour" another time though.

We passed an abandoned building that was falling apart. It had an old flagpole in front of it, so maybe it used to be a school or something? I'm not sure when it was built, but it looked very old. Click all pictures to see them large.



On the final edge of the curvy part of the ride we passed a funky cave. I think it was supposed to be the start of a mine-shaft or something.



I had seen the outside of the cave from the road on many car-trips in the past but never stopped before. I had this grand vision of some totally cool cavern or something. Well, in reality it went back about 20-30 feet and was unfortunately filled with litter, old couch cushions, and the smell of urine. We didn't stay in there too long.



Here is Renee's bike out in front of the cave. I believe she thinks her bike is cooler than mine. Hmm, you decide...



South Half: After the reservation, the curvy hills completely stop and the land spreads out in a vast, flat wasteland. Very cool to behold from the higher elevation. The road goes completely straight in a long grey line as it descends to Littlefield, AZ. As we dropped into the valley, I started to feel the heat kick me in the face. It didn't feel good.

The forest fire had spread to the first part of this stretch, and the trees had changed to Joshua trees. The dead joshua trees looked like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Insane shapes. Again, I will get some cool pics the next time I go.

The next time I do this trip it will be a little different. I will:

• leave earlier so the heat doesn't kill people.
• stop at Janet's house and swim in her pool. Partay!!
• take pictures of many dead trees.

Who wants to come?!

Ride 3 - Pine Valley and Cedar City, UT - 7/3/09 - 7/5/09

View Larger Map
Over the holiday weekend I took a nice long ride up to Pine Valley and then to Cedar City via Enterprise and back, broken up by a few days. I had originally planned to ride with Stephen down to Mesquite to visit our sister Janet, but Tamari's family was having a reunion up in Pine Valley over the 4th of July, so I had to (got to?) attend that instead.

I decided I still wanted to ride because it had been a while since my last journey. I rode up Route 18 to Pine Valley during the afternoon of Friday, July 3rd. It was a beautiful and peaceful ride. I have driven up there a few times before in a car, but it's a completely different experience on a motorcycle. I just seem so much more aware of the surroundings and the mountains. I also am more aware of the nature close by... like the flowers on the side of the road and the birds zipping in front of and around my bike.

When I arrived at the West family reunion (Tamari's maiden name), I was quickly greeted by two of her bike-riding siblings, Annie and Terry. Annie said she learned on a Honda Shadow like mine and she has a Harley now. Terry told me of his 10 bikes (wow). They were both impressed by my ride and that felt good.

Unfortunately I had rehearsal shortly afterward, so I drove the car to Cedar City and back. But the next day, the 4th of July, I decided to ride motorcycle to Cedar City for rehearsal, a 64 mile ride one-way from Pine Valley. I was worried about the return trip because I wasn't sure what time we would get finished with rehearsal and I didn't want to ride back in the dark. But rehearsal ended at 9pm and it was still a little light outside, so I decided to skip the fireworks in Cedar and just ride back to Pine Valley that night.

Finally I rode back home to Santa Clara on Sunday, making a total round trip mileage of about 200 miles. On my way home to Santa Clara, I took a small detour to Mountain Meadow to view the tragically historic site of the 1857 massacre of 120 people.

This first picture shows the site where the original encampment was at the south end of the valley where the first fighting took place and some people died (click pics for larger view).



This second picture is about a mile North up the valley (to the right of the first pic) where the settlers were betrayed and massacred.



It was sobering to look out at the beautiful landscape knowing what awful bloodshed had occurred over 150 years ago. It's like the valley still held a melancholy about it.

I had a few milestones on this trip. The first milestone was that for much of the trip I rode at 70mph (a few times to 75), the fastest I've ever ridden before. It was rather fun and I feel confident that I will soon be ready for freeway speeds. The difference is that on a freeway there are multiple lanes with large vehicles passing you at even faster speeds. This included 18-wheelers. Yikes.

The second milestone is that much of my return trip from Cedar was at night. Luckily there was a full moon, but it was still a bit scary at 65 to 70 mph. The cool breeze was so refreshing and there was something about riding at night that was mystical. I was on some pretty middle-of-nowhere roads at 10pm on the 4th of July and saw almost no traffic. It was like the night belonged to me alone. Well, it belonged to me and the three deer I suddenly saw standing on the side of the road. Heart attack. "Stay there little deer, please don't jump in front of this speeding piece of metal!" Thank goodness for high-beams.

The last milestone was that this was my first solo ride, at least over any distance. I didn't have Stephen with me. It was good for me because I realize how much more fun it is to ride with other people. It's just neat to share the experience. The only way I can share this ride now is by writing this blog, but nobody has the memory but me. The good part about it was that I was able to ride over an hour straight without feeling the pressure to stop or wondering if the other person is tired or needs to pee or something.

I also made a few discoveries. I discovered that after about 45+ minutes straight on the bike going at high speeds, my nose starts to itch. I am not sure why, but I think it's because of all of the vibrations running through me start to tickle my nose after a while. Also, once you get off of a motorcycle after riding for over an hour straight, all of your extremities are practically asleep. Very funky "pins and needles" feeling going on all over the body.

Here are a few last pics of Pine Valley. The mountains are beautiful. I saw a few huge birds that I thought were large hawks or maybe eagles, but after seeing them more closely, I think they were buzzards. At one point I saw about dozen of them together perched on the trees or circling around.

View Southeast from our camp.



A nice rock formation on a hill riding out from Pine Valley.



Large buzzard in the sky that wanted to eat me.

Yahama Midnight Warrior

Someday I will upgrade to a larger motorcycle. It may be a year or 20 years, I don't know. It will depend on when I save enough money and when I find the right deal on the right bike. Until then, I can dream!

So I am going to start posting some bikes that I think are really cool and why. I know ten times more about motorcycles now than I did a few months ago, but I still am clueless regarding specs and general technical good/bad about a bike. Therefore I am posting these based solely on "cool".

Today's highlight is the Yamaha Midnight Warrior, pictured below.




Man this is a hot bike. I love the belt-driven look and the general prowling feel to the bike. I like cruisers but I am not a fan of the Harley look. The problem is so many bikes, even Japanese bikes, look similar to Harleys. My quest for cruiser coolness is satisfied with the 1670cc Warrior, which has a modern look of it's own.

I got to see this beauty up close a few weeks ago. When Stephen and I returned from our first ride to Toquerville, we found that our older brother Mark was in town and had stopped by Stephen's house. He saw our bikes and then called his buddy over who owns a Warrior. It was sleek! My only beef about it was the wide gas tank. I'm just not into the fat-wide look, but you can't really tell that from the profile pictures.

Still, if I found a good deal on a Warrior, you can bet I'd buy it. :)