Polar Bear Run

New Year's day 2018 was dry, but cold.  Orv had asked me if I wanted to do the Polar Bear Run with him, and we decided to give it a go.  The Polar Bear Run is an event put on by the Christian Motorcycle Association every year on New Year's day regardless of the weather.  Usually it would be raining, but this was one of the rare dry January days.

Although it was dry, the roads were still damp in shady spots, and could be frosty.  I took a test drive at 9 am in the car on some of the roads near our house that I would have to ride to get to my meeting with Orv, and the car thermometer showed 29 degrees in some spots.......and there were some frosty looking areas.  We decided to postpone our meeting until 11 am to allow for a little more warm-up.

One of the essentials for me to ride in really cold weather is to wear a balaclava under my helmet.  There is enough air leakage into the helmet to get cold air above my heated vest collar and that soon hurts.

So, with the addition of long underwear top and bottoms, rain pants over my leather pants, heated vest over a long sleeve henley, and my leather jacket with the liner in, I was ready to go.
On the way to Orv's house I had my heated grips on the highest setting and my palms were toasty, but my finger tips were cold.  Otherwise, I was comfy.

The ride started from the Portland Cycle Gear store and by the time I got there I had already ridden about 40 miles.  There were a lot of bikes, even though we got there late and many had probably already started on the route.

The CMA were well organized.  This was their sign-up spot for people who had pre-registered.  I don't see any reason to do that.  You can save $5 off the $15 entry fee, but not knowing what the weather will be in advance, you could end up losing $10 if it was too nasty to ride.

This was the interesting looking guy at our sign up.

After downing a free bowl of chili (it was lunch time), Orv and I were off on the ride.  The club provided a route sheet with mileage to turns and road names.  We chose to do the longest route, which was about 90 miles.  Much of it was city streets or fairly straight country roads (I think the CMA is made of mostly cruiser riders), but we did find one nice curvy section that we had never ridden before.  It's pretty hard for us to find new curvy roads in the area, so this alone was worth the $15 entry fee.  I have already figured out how to incorporate it into one of our standard summer rides over to the coast.

By afternoon, the temps had got up to the mid 40's I guess, and it was quite comfortable.  It was a real treat to get in a ride at this time of the year, so we both enjoyed it, and maybe our entry fee did some good for the community.

You know those pins that the cruiser guys have all over their jackets (like the guy in the pic above)?  Well, this is how they get them, and I have one now too (not going on my jacket, though).

Final Stage of the Ride Project

Before we headed back to San Francisco with Jenny's bike, I needed to do an oil and filter change on the truck.  In the process of doing that, I noticed the clutch master cylinder was low on fluid.  Further investigation showed that it was leaking into the cab.  I put a new (rebuilt) master cylinder on the day before we left, and this turned out to cause some big worries during the trip. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, we decided to take two days to get to SF, and here is a picture taken from outside our room at our motel in Yreka, California:

I noticed during the first day that the clutch pedal had very little free play, even though I had adjusted it according to the specs.  As the day went on it seemed like I had less and less free play.  I adjusted it some more, but on the second day it actually slipped when I was leaving a rest stop.  I adjusted it again, but it didn't seem to be making much difference. 

Nevertheless, we got to San Francisco and unloaded the bike:

On Monday, Jenny was off to work:

And Carolyn and I were off to spend a couple of days with friends on their house boat on New Malones Lake near Angels Camp, California. 

It was pretty much the end of the season for house boating, but the weather was fine and we had the place all to ourselves.  Here are all the boats tied up to the dock.  We didn't take the house boat out on the lake, but did take a short cruise in their ski boat:

 
In the evening we had snacks on the top deck and later that night got in the hot tub:

The next day we toured some of the old mining towns near Angels Camp, and I noted some really good-looking roads for riding.  This could be a destination for another long ride.  One of our stops was at a winery where I took this picture of Carolyn with her friends and former employees Vicky (left), and Leti (on right).  The creature is a cross between a frog and a chicken and is called.......wait for it........a Fricken:

We got back to the house boat just in time for a windstorm that nearly caused the ski boat to self destruct against the house boat, but we saved it. 

I had a theory about what was happening with the truck clutch that I discussed with our friend Gary, who is a car nut and he agreed that it could explain what was happening.  My thought was that the new master cylinder was defective and was not allowing fluid to return after the pedal was depressed.  If this was the case, I could perhaps relieve some of the pressure by cracking the bleeder screw on the slave cylinder and letting some of the fluid out.  So the first time the clutch started to slip on our drive home, I got under the truck and let out some hydraulic fluid.  It worked!  I had to do it again the second day and I'm sorry I didn't get Carolyn to take a picture of me in the Starbucks parking lot laying under the truck on a piece of cardboard that I had bummed from them.  She says she thought about it but was afraid I was too pissed-off to allow it.   

At any rate, we made it home and I don't think I destroyed the clutch, so all is well and the epic ride is really over. 

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.

If You Ride an Adventure Bike........

You've got to have an adventure, right? We did, but more on that later. Brian, Mike and I had planned on a ride to eastern Oregon and Washington a couple of weeks ago, but we ran into a hot spell with temps predicted to be near 100 degrees in that area, so we postponed the ride to this past weekend. Unfortunately, another hot spell was predicted. This time we had a secret weapon to combat the heat.......cooling vests. These are garments containing some kind of gel material that holds water, so that when they are soaked they provide evaporative cooling provided by the air stream from the moving motorcycle. It's really a high-tech form of the old wet t-shirt that riders have used for years. The advantage over the wet t-shirt is that the effect lasts a lot longer. The vest is worn under your jacket, so the more vents the jacket has the better. In fact, my mesh summer jacket was perfect. Here is what my cooling vest looks like:

It really works, too. It's not exactly air conditioning, but makes the difference between unbearable and bearable.

Brian rode down from his home in Tacoma on Saturday morning, arriving about 0815. So by the time we got started he had already ridden 135 miles, and we had about 350 ahead for the day. He was riding his new (to him) Triumph Tiger 800 xcx adventure bike fully kitted out with all the off road stuff including semi knobby tires, which didn't look like they would work so well in the curves.

Our first day's destination was Unity, Oregon, and we got there by the oft-traveled route through Maupin, Shaniko, Fossil, and John Day. After Shaniko, the route was identical to the one Jenny and I rode last year, at least for the first day-and-a-half, as reported in my blog back then.

When we got to Fossil, it was time to put on the cooling vests, and a couple of hours later we took and break and Mike was recharging his in the parking lot of a mini-mart gas station:

We stayed at the same motel in Unity and ate at the same bar/restaurant that I had been to before. It is beginning to seem harder for me to find new roads and places, but Good Roads are worth revisiting. Here is the only motel in Unity:

And here is the bar/restaurant:

It was quite a wait to get our food, but we didn't care.....we weren't going anywhere. After the hustle and bustle of the Portland/Vancouver area, it is quite a contrast to be in a town where you can stand out in the middle of the road and take a picture in either direction without fear of being run over:

The next day we headed for Dooley Mountain Road. I first rode this road several years ago and it was fantastic. I was anxious to show it to Jenny last year but it was a bust. There had been a huge fire in the area and the pavement was destroyed in a lot of places and there was road construction that caused us long delays. This year, however, it was perfect. Except for a bit of gravel in some of the turns, the pavement had been fixed, and one advantage of the fire was that there were improved sight-lines around corners because the vegetation was gone. It was on this road that Brian got impatient with the rate of Mike and I and charged on up the road ahead of us. I guess the knobbies worked after all. It kills me to think that I taught him to ride motorcycles and to ski, and in no time at all he was better than me at both. Makes me a bit proud, actually.

Next Good Road on the agenda was Rattlesnake Grade, and here is where the adventure began. We had pretty much completed the best parts of the road when Brian's bike went into survival mode and would only let him go about 10 mph. It looked like a flat tire was to blame. There was a state park just a little way up the road that we got to for an inspection. Both Mike and I carry items necessary to plug a hole in our tubeless tires, but here was the problem: first there was no hole or nail visible, and second, Brian's bike does not use tubeless tires. Because it is a more off-road capable bike, it uses spoked wheels which require tubed tires. Because we could find no hole in the tire, I thought that maybe the tire had spun on the rim and pulled the valve stem out of the tube. It happens on dirt bikes when there is no rim lock or the rim lock is too loose. We took the wheel off to see if we could break the bead and get to the tube:

But it was impossible to break the bead. Because the tire is actually a tubeless tire with a tube in it, it fits the rim like a tubeless tire, which is to say, very tightly. Even with Big Mike standing on the tire it would not budge off the rim. This is a major problem that Brian is going to have to find a solution for. Flats happen, and you need to be able to fix them on the road since bikes don't carry a spare. This is where good fortune and some very nice people came into our lives. There was a Forest Service maintenance station at the park, and since this was Sunday there was only one person working there, but he was a young high-school grad who was working there for the summer. His shift was ending and he offered to take Brian and the wheel down to Clarkston, WA. We put the wheel back on the bike, rode it to their garage and then took the wheel back off again. Brian got the clothes he needed to spend the night and took the wheel with him while Mike and I rode down the hill into Clarkston.

So, we had a place to stay for the night, but we had serious problems with no obvious solutions. There were some motorcycle shops in Clarkston, but the next day was Monday and, typical of bike shops, they were closed on Mondays. The closest shop open on Monday, which also happened to be a Triumph dealer, was in Kennewick, which was 130 miles away and opened at 0900. Even if we could get the wheel there somehow, by the time we got it fixed and back up to where the bike was it would be a late start for a long day's ride and Brian needed to get to work on Tuesday. Things were looking bleak. Then Brian or Mike, I don't remember which, was surfing the web a discovered a 24-hour emergency motorcycle service IN Clarkston! We called the guy and he came to the motel in 10 minutes, picked up the wheel, and he and Brian went back to his shop where he dismounted the tire and discovered the tube was torn in half. He had only 16 inch tubes because he mainly provided service for Harleys (because they need it more?), but that was good enough. For this emergency service late at night and providing a tube, he charged Brian $50. That's only abut $10 more than it would cost to change a tubeless tire in a shop during normal working hours. I took a picture of he and Brian when they got back to the motel, but I was in a hurry and didn't get the settings right, so it is blurry. Nevertheless, I think it worth posting:

You can't really see what is on his t-shirt, but it is a picture of an m-16 rifle with the logo "Black Rifles Matter". I think it best that I make no further comment.

Brian texted the kid who drove him down to the motel and offered to pay him $60 to take him back up to the motorcycle the next morning. I rode up to help him put the wheel back on the bike, but by the time I suited up and rode up there they had already got it mounted. So by 0900 on Monday we were on our way, except we were about 85 miles further from where we planned to start the day. Still, we were feeling VERY good about how it turned out. However, the adventure wasn't quite over yet. We stopped for lunch in Walla Walla and discovered the tire was going flat again! This time we found a shop open just 3.5 miles away, so we shot some CO2 in the tire and quickly put the valve cap back on and rode over to the shop. There they put the bike up on the rack for an inspection:

Turns out the valve stem core was defective, so they replaced it and also provided a valve cap that was metal with a sealing washer. Total charge for that job? Zero. On our way again, I told Brian we had had enough adventures. We split up south of the Tri Cities where Brian headed up to the 90 freeway to Tacoma, while Mike and I took hwy 14 to Vancouver. We had no more "adventures", but it was a long, hot day. Mike and I took a break near Bonneville dam and re-hydrated our cooling vests.

We missed riding the Old Spiral Highway out of Lewiston, but we'll get it another day. I ended up riding 1100 miles, and they were all good. There is still the mystery of why that tube broke apart. I have no clue.