Workin'

I have ridden to work several times this week. Excellent coolness in the morning. It's great to be on the road again.

Fixed Up

I'm living in the Salt Lake area now and my bike had sat for quite a while due to a few reasons, mainly I was concerned about the 11 year age and if it needed any overhaul. I was particularly concerned with the tires, as they had some cracking on the side. I also had some leaks (I thought an oil leak) and my rattling tank after I replaced the petcock assembly myself.

So I took it down to Nexus Powersports which was recommended to me. These guys were great, down to earth and honest. The owner (?) Blake told me that my tires were fine, as the cracking was minor and I had tubes so I could still base the life off the treads which are nice and deep. He found right away that my "oil leak" was not oil but an old gasoline leak. I imagine it came from my petcock attempt. Anyway, he said the bike was in great shape and just needed an oil change, a chain adjustment, and a few other minor things. They even fixed the annoying rattle of my fuel tank. The whole deal cost me just $73!

So I'm back in action and have ridden to work for the first this year. It feels great to have the wind on my face again. I want to find some rides near here, but it's a lot more metropolitan than St. George and I don't like going on the freeway. I'm not sure what my options are... I'll have to research.

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

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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

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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?!