After another hot and smokey summer, Mike and I planned for a September ride to that area and Mike did the planning for a three-day ride with staging each day out of Republic, Washington. One advantage we had over last year was that we had some flexibility as to choosing the dates that would give us the best weather, rather than being locked into pre-set and approved vacation schedules.
I spent some time talking to Orv about the ride and he got enthusiastic about it and decided to give it a try if he could trailer his bike up to Republic rather than ride the extra day or two each way. Well, if he was going to ride in a comfortable air conditioned car instead of riding boring roads to Republic, than so would I. I asked to ride along and share the gas expense and enjoy the company.
Loading two street bikes into his utility trailer was not nearly as easy as loading dirt bikes. I realized that loading a 450 pound street bike is like loading a 250 pound dirt bike with a heavy rider already on it. Nevertheless, with help from neighbors and wives, we got it done with no drops. We did have a minor problem with the front brake rotors on the bikes contacting the wheel chocks that were designed for dirt bikes with much smaller rotors. If you look closely you can see where the rotor is making contact on my bike. It wasn't much, but with the bouncing around that a bike gets in a trailer there was a fear that the rotor would get bent, causing some real problems on the ride.
The temporary solution was to jam a chunk of wood in front of the tire to get the needed clearance:
Here is a pic of the loaded rig at my house where I loaded up my riding gear and clothes for the trip.
I must admit I felt a little guilty trailering my bike. It's the kind of thing the Harley riders do and that I make fun of. Oh well, I guess I will be more tolerant and understanding in the future.
About 50 miles from Republic we had to cross the Columbia river on a ferry (Keller Ferry), and the approach road to the ferry had us drooling. I just had to come back on my bike:
The ferry was free and we were the only rig on it:
We got to the motel in Republic shortly after Mike and his friend arrived. Mike's friend.....we will call him Mr X.....didn't want to have a picture of either him or his bike to appear in this blog. He was apparently playing hooky from work and did not want to be identified. Since only a few dozen people ever read this blog, I don't think the chances were great that he would get caught, but I will honor his request.
The next day we rode our first loop, which went into Canada up the west side of Lake Okanogan and then crossing the lake at Kelowna and back down the east side. It was a scenic, but not particularly curvy route except for one short side route that Mike found. Still, it was a good way to get started and see how compatible Mr. X would be riding with us. The total distance was around 300 miles.
Before I left on this ride I had agonized over replacing the rear tire on my bike. It seems like every time I plan a long ride I have a tire that has tread left, but not enough to go the distance, so I put on a new one and waste some of the life of the old tire. This time I knew I would have to replace the tire if I was going to ride up to Republic and back, but thought I could get by since we were trailering the bikes. Bad decision. When we got back from the first day's ride my tire had a spot that was almost down to the cord:
That faint diagonal line in the center of the tire is where the tread was almost showing. No way could I ride another 700+ miles on that tire. It was weird, because you can see just below that the tread was just down to the wear bar.
This was a potential disaster, but by using the internet I found a few motorcycle shops between 50 and 100 miles away that might have a tire. The only one that was open late in the day did not have a tire, and the rest would not open until the next day. The next morning, after striking out at one shop, I found another one in Coleville that had the right size. Orv decided to accompany me to go get it while Mike and Mr. X started on the planned route and would meet up with us later.
I was very thankful that the shop had the right size tire as their business seemed to be mostly in selling quads to the local ranchers and hunters. Still, the cost of buying a tire from a shop and paying them to mount it reinforced why I buy my tires online and mount them myself. They wanted over $50 just to take the wheel off the bike, and then another $50 to change the tire. I had the tools with me to remove and replace the wheel, so with Orv's help we did that and saved the $50.
Removing the Wheel
Waiting for the shop to mount the new tire
Ready to Ride
It was a good thing we had two of us who knew what we were doing and that Orv was along to help get the spacers lined up and the axle inserted.......a job I often ask Carolyn to help me with when I do the job at home. It was also a good thing that I had added a center stand to my bike that allowed us to remove and replace the wheel. The total cost was $250, but I was happy to pay it.
We did meet up with the other guys and got in about 250 miles.
The third day was the best. We hit all the most curvy roads, including Flowery Trail road:
Bridge Creek Road:
And Cache Creek Road:
This was a long day. I started around 8am and got back to the motel about 6:30 pm and went over 400 miles. But it was a great ride on really good roads.
The whole area we were riding in was very scenic, but we were in the go mode and didn't stop for pictures except for one time I convinced Mike, who was leading, to take a picture break:
The drive back home was pretty uneventful except for a range fire along the freeway just before we got to Ellensberg:
Fortunately, the road wasn't closed, but slowed down to one lane.
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