Returning the Bike

After Jenny flew home, I started working on her bike.  First task was mounting and balancing a new rear tire.  I've done three tire changes in the past month and they have all gone exceedingly well.  I attribute this to using an actual tire lube designed for the job rather than soapy water.   Here I am static balancing the wheel.  Just after this picture was taken I added the sprocket back on the wheel as it is part of the rotating mass. 

I also changed the oil and filter, but the big job was a repair of the paint on the forks.  For some reason it had blistered as if she had ridden through some acid, and the two days of rain had completely removed the bad paint.

 I decided the best way to repaint the forks was to first remove them:

Since the clip on bars are attached to the forks, they had to be removed also:

At first I thought about hanging the fork legs from a wire for painting them, but then decided to make this rig.......woodworking tools to the rescue:

The final result looks pretty good.  I hope it can withstand the rigors of San Francisco streets.  The bike should be in good shape for Jen to ride with no problems.   

The bike is now loaded in the truck for the trip back to Jenny's house.  We plan to take two days this trip as the 700 miles in one day in the truck is a bit too much. 

The Fickel Finger of Fate

After a very hot dry summer, a taste of winter came on the very day we started our ride.  We got underway in the rain, and it rained off and on (mostly on) for the next two days.  At least we could put our rain gear on while inside and not out on the road somewhere:

Mike came by and we headed out to meet Brian and his friend Albert at noon in Packwood.  On the way we stopped for a break at the snow park parking lot at the base of the Windy Ridge road.  Here I am trying to sync my intercom with Mike and Jenny.  We seemed to frequently have difficulty getting all three to sync together, and later when we tried four it was almost impossible.

We successfully met Brian and Albert in Packwood and then continued over White Pass.  I was concerned about running into snow at the pass, which is 4500 feet and predicted to have a rain/snow mix, but it was OK when we got there.  On the east side of the mountain is was generally dry and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, although we arrived at our destination of Grand Coulee too late and tired to see the laser light show on the dam.  Brian and Albert camped and had their own adventure hiking up to the top of a rock in the dark.

The next morning was supposed to be the start of a cloudy, but generally dry day, but it was already drizzling when we started out.  Soon it was pouring rain, which continued on when we arrived at the Canadian border:

Brian was concerned that he would have trouble at the border because of previous issues on ski trips or school band trips to Canada, but it turned out the only people who had any problems were Mike, because he has a concealed carry permit, and Jenny, because she has had so many last names plus a finger print record.  She had to go through quite a bit of questioning and we ribbed her a bit about it.  She should have said she was a refugee from the Trump administration and she would have been welcomed immediately.  Here she is before the grilling:

A selfie at the border (not much to do while waiting our turn):

After the border crossing we continued on toward our day's destination of Radium Hot Springs, but first we had to get over a mountain pass.  Going up the pass it got colder and colder until finally this:

And we were still not at the crest of the pass.  Even as we were debating what to do next, the snow got heavier and heavier.  Our plans were screwed.  Nothing to do but turn around and head back to the nearest town to hold a powwow and decide what to do next.  We spent at least an hour in a restaurant leaving puddles on the floor from our gear and debating what next.  Weather radar showed lots of snow in northern BC where we had planned to go.  The only clear area seemed to be eastern Washington, so we decided to head for Colville and look for a place to spend the night.  We spent a total of about four hours in Canada.

At the motel there we found a map of the local area and Mike scoped out some good looking roads that we could ride to get some semblance of  salvaging the trip.  And Good Roads they were.....they met all the criteria except they were sometimes wet, but we had very little rain.  Part of ride involved crossing this ferry over Roosevelt Lake:

 We spent the night in Wenatchee.  Mike stayed with his dad, Brian camped by himself (Albert had split to get home due to a sick kid), and Jen and I did the motel bit.

The next day we were back on the planned route, but two days earlier than expected.  Part of this route involved a "secret passage" that I was anxious to show Jenny.  This was a road washout on a really neat curvy road that closed the road to all traffic except motorcycles.  This is what it looks like:

This was all familiar territory and after dodging some showers, we got home in time to clean up and go out to dinner.

So we were home two days early.  What to do?  GO FOR A RIDE.  Jenny, Mike, Ross and I did a 250 mile ride in perfect weather over one of our standard routes that parallels both east and west sides of interstate 5.  We had lunch at one of my favorite little dives in the little town of Toledo:

My thoughts on the ride?  Pretty disappointed that I didn't get to show Brian and Jenny the Ice Field Parkway, and frustrated that the weather happened to turn bad on this one week when we needed it to be good (next week looks perfect).  But I'm grateful that we had a safe ride and found some new Good Roads.  Looking at the big picture instead of my little world, the rains were a blessing to the Northwest.  The numerous forest fires have been suppressed, and the smoky air is clear again.  The gardens around our house that Carolyn has spent so much time watering and worrying over are now in good shape.

Bike Retrieval

The truck ran fine all the way to San Francisco and back.......1360 miles.  I had a few tense moments when the check engine light came on a few times, but it always went out again.  Usually the CEL is some kind of smog control issue and on this old truck (1987) it can't be expected to be smog compliant all the time.

I was a bit concerned about loading Jenny's bike since she doesn't have a nice ramp like we have at our house.  So Jen asked her neighbor if he would help and here we are planning on how to do it:

Got it done with no problems:

To make sure somebody didn't try to steal it overnight, I set my secret ignition kill switch (left over from when we lived in Riverside California), and backed the truck up against the garage so it couldn't be unloaded:

So tomorrow we ride.  We will not know what route we will take until morning because one of the passes we planned to go over may have snow.  I will check a road cam at the pass in the morning and see if it is clear.  I suspect it will not be, in which case we will have to go down the Columbia gorge on hwy 14.  This could be a problem for a couple of reasons.  One is that it increases the length of an already fairly long day, and the other is that the freeway on the Oregon side of the river is closed due to downed trees and rocks from a forest fire.  This could put a lot of traffic on our side of the river on hwy 14.  We shall see.

2017 Long Ride.......Getting Ready

I like to get in at least one ride every year that is a week or so long.  Last year Jenny and I did the Pacific Northwest Grand Tour and this year we are going to visit the Canadian Rockies.  Unlike last year, though, where it was just me and Jen, this trip may have as many as six riders.  One of them is going to be my son Brian, so it will be sort of a family affair.  I've got the route figured out and reservations made at motels.  The highlight of the trip should be the Ice Field Parkway between Banff and Jasper.  Carolyn and I rode this highway back in the early 80's and it is pretty spectacular.  Here is the planned route:

The plan is to start riding from my house on Sept 18 and return here on the 23rd.  Since Jen could only take a week off, we had to find a way to get her bike to my house because otherwise she would have to take an additional four days getting from, and back to, San Francisco.  So Carolyn and I are going to take our pickup truck down there the week before the ride to fetch the bike, and Jen is going to fly up the day before we start the ride.  Then, after the ride she will fly back and we will truck the bike back down to her house.  Preparation for this trip actually started last winter when I replaced the head gasket on the truck and also installed a new exhaust manifold, water pump, cam, cam chain, and sprockets.  It should be in good shape for the drive, but I'm still having some problems with the temperature gauge that I should get sorted before we leave.  We hope to get to SF in one day and then back in a day.  That's about 700 miles each way, and the truck doesn't have air conditioning.  Right now the high temps in Redding on interstate five are over 100 degrees.  Hopefully that will change to cooler by the time we leave.  Another problem that has me worried is that there are forest fires all over the west, including British Columbia, and it would be a real bummer if the views on the Ice Field Parkway are obscured by smoke.  What we need is a good rain, but NOT while we are riding.
But, as we get closer to the departure date, it looks like rain is exactly what is going to happen.  That's still six days away and things can change, but it looks like we may be in for a real adventure.  Tomorrow we leave to get Jenny's bike.