The Bike is Ready

I decided to put a new front tire on after all.  I think the one on there would have got me through the first seven days of the ride, but probably not the next five.  That means I would have to change it during the time Jenny and I are in Woodland, and we already have plans for that five day period that include a valve adjustment check on her bike.  This is a major operation and might take most of a day if shims are needed for the valves.  Plus there are lots of other things we plan to do during that time, including taking a day ride to the coast.  So I took the old tire off, and this time it only took me an hour and a half.....but I had some help from Carolyn at a couple of critical points.  One of which was getting the front wheel back in the forks.  It takes at least four hands because the wheel has to be lifted so that the axle can be slid through the forks and the hub, while the brake rotor slides into the caliper and the spacers at each side of the hub don't fall out.  Then the axle is threaded into the right fork leg while keeping all this alignment intact.  Crazy.  Anyway, I'm keeping the old tire in case I get desperate for a front tire I can re-mount it at some later time.  To remove the front tire I have to use both a front and rear lift, and while I had it up there I also installed the brackets for the Givi side cases:

Next, I mounted my Garmin GPS with the maps of the route already loaded:

All that's left is to do some yard work, make a dentist appointment, take a load of trash to the dump, and then pack and RIDE.

I don't think I will be able to keep this blog up to date during the ride.  I've been taking my pictures with a Windows phone, but I take along an Apple Ipad, and I can't see any way to download the pictures except by emailing them to myself.  Maybe there is a cable that connects a Windows device to an Ipad......I'll check into it.