Last month I turned 50,000 miles on my bike and did some extra maintenance besides the usual oil and filter change. I also cleaned the air filter, changed the coolant and the fork oil, and checked the valve adjustment and the front sprocket for wear. I have checked the valve adjustment three times now and have not needed to change any adjustment shims. These bikes apparently have a very stable valve actuating system. This is good news because it means Jenny's bike, with over 30,000 miles and only one valve check, is probably good to go without one. If you have to pay somebody to do this job, like she would, it will cost over $300. It's a pretty tedious process.
I estimate the distance I will ride on this trip to be about 2000 miles, and my bike currently has 51,500, so I will not be due for another oil and filter change before I get back home. What I would be due for, and worried might be over-due for, was a new rear tire. I had 7,200 on the current one, and I normally get between 8 and 10 thousand miles on a rear tire. That would be cutting it close, so I decided to mount a new rear tire, which pains me because the current one still has quite a bit of tread and my normal penny-pinching brain hates to see good rubber go to waste. So I saved the old take- off with the idea of someday re-mounting it and getting the rest of the wear out of it. That means I have TWO take-off's sitting around because the same thing happened before my ride with Jenny in the spring.
The problem with saving these tires is that changing a tire can be such a hassle that it isn't worth having to do it more often by using already worn tires.......certainly if you have to pay somebody $50 or so to do it. However, I've gotten pretty good at changing tires myself, so I think I will eventually decide to use them.
So I'm ready to go with a new rear tire:
And just for the heck of it, I changed the front also. It was actually pretty worn on the left side because I do better in most left-hand turns. This is for two reasons; one is that right hand curves in the mountains often are blind turns because of an embankment or trees that hide what is around the corner, and secondly because the consequences of running wide and crossing the center line in a right hand curve can be much more serious.
I have to show you the latest modification to my bike. I got this from my friend Ross, who I have been riding with for almost 25 years. He is, I think, 83 years old and he is still riding. I'm hoping to at least match his record.
We leave on Thursday, the 19th, and the car, bike, and trailer (and me) are ready to go. Carolyn is doing her normal fantastic job of organizing lodging and visits with family and she has that done too.
Some examples:
Mike brought the almost finished trailer down and I've been working on some finishing touches over the past week. I figured a way to hold the loading ramp away from the bike. The knobs make a wrench unnecessary for loading and unloading:
At Carolyns suggestion, I ordered an additional tire and wheel for a spare and mounted it to the front of the rail:
Yesterday I took the trailer to the highway patrol office to get it inspected and a VIN assigned. Here is the inspector stamping the VIN on the frame after grinding the brand new paint away. He was impressed with the design of the trailer and the quality of the paint and steel. The more I work with the trailer the more I am also impressed with Mike's work......lots of quality touches and good workmanship.
After the inspection I went to the Department of Licensing to get it registered and plated. A few years ago a voter initiative in Washington set the vehicle registration fees at $30, but since then the state has been adding fees to everything until it has become ridiculous. Check this itemized list of cost for the registration:
Registration filing 4.50
Title Filing 5.50
Plate Reflectivity 2.00 (really!)
Original Issue Plate 10.00
Registration License 187.50 (extra cost because it never needs renewal)
License Plate Technology .25 (good lord!)
Dept. of Licensing Service .50 (I thought that is what all these fees were for)
Title Service Fee 15.00
Registration Service Fee 8.00 (so what's the difference between the first two and these last two?)
Vehicle Title Application 15.00
VIN re-assignment 5.00
Since these fees keep going up, I figured the life-time registration would pay for itself in a few years. In addition to these fees, I paid $30 for a three-day trip permit to allow Mike to bring the un-licensed trailer down to my house, and then I paid $8 for a one-trip permit to take it to the highway patrol for inspection.
Today Carolyn and I loaded the bike up and went for a test drive.
I also found the tongue weight by using a bathroom scale and determined it was 57 pounds. This doesn't even cause the back of the car to sag.
The combined weight of the trailer and motorcycle is about 700 pounds, and with the tongue weight of 57 pounds we are well within the specified limits for the car of 1000 pound trailer and 200 pound tongue weight.
Since we will often be staying in motels, security is a concern. The bike will be locked to the trailer, and the trailer will be locked to the hitch ball. The receiver will also be locked to the car's trailer hitch.
The test drive was very encouraging. There was no difference in the way the car drove and handled, and only a very slight need for more power on hills. Carolyn took her turn towing and quickly got used to it so we can share driving duties.
This September is my high school class 60th reunion. I thought it would be a good opportunity to ride some more East Coast roads that I have not been on yet......mainly in West Virginia and Ohio. . It was a balancing act to figure out how to meet certain criteria for this ride. I wanted to have Carolyn come along and I also didn't want to ride across eastern Colorado and Kansas. We also wanted to visit relatives along the route and see the new crop of babies. I considered several ways of doing the trip, including buying or renting a bike in St. Louis and either selling or shipping one home if I bought it. I also looked into shipping my current ride to St. Louis and back. I really didn't like the cost or inconvenience of of any of the buy/sell/ship options, and nobody rents a motorcycle that I want to ride. I really wanted to ride my own bike, which I like a lot, so I thought about hauling it there and back myself. Problem was, what to haul it with? I could load the bike in the 87 Toyota pickup, but after the problems we had with it when we took Jenny's bike back to San Francisco (https://thegoodroads.blogspot.com/2017/10/final-stage-of-ride-project.html), Carolyn refused to consider it......even though I think I have the problems solved. Our 99 Honda Odyssey van has a trailer hitch already installed, but the poor thing has almost 240,000 miles on it and the extra strain of pulling a trailer might just be too much. Our newest vehicle, a 2013 Honda Accord, has a lot going for it. It is comfortable, gets good mileage, and only has about 70,000 miles on it. But can it tow a trailer? It's only a 4 cylinder engine, and I didn't know if a trailer hitch could even be installed on it. Well, the owner's manual was consulted and shows the car is rated to tow a trailer up to 1,000 pounds with 200 pound hitch weight.
So now the problem was finding a trailer. I wanted it to be as light as possible to make the least about of strain on the car. After searching around, I decided to ask my good buddy Big Mike if he would make me a trailer. Mike has made several trailers already, and he is a great fabricator of metal stuff. He recently acquired the ability to weld aluminum, which was just what I needed.
After the Spring and Summer of texting back and forth with ideas and specifications, Mike came up with a design that looked like it would be perfect. I bought parts he needed and had them shipped to his house up in Blaine, Washington. He bought metal and aluminum from local suppliers up there and began assembly last month. Meanwhile, I ordered a trailer hitch for the car and installed it and the wiring loom on the car.
Carolyn and I did a week long hiking vacation on the Olympic Peninsula around the time of her birthday, and I used the opportunity to ride my bike up to Blaine so that we could do some measurements and fit the trailer to the bike. I also hoped to help him put it together, and maybe even haul my bike home on it. Unfortunately, the day we arrived at his house, he sprained his ankle and couldn't really do much work on the trailer. We tried, and this was the state of construction at that point (note Mike's ankle brace):
So, I rode the bike home and Mike continued working on the trailer after his ankle got better. Last weekend he finished it and sent me these photos:
It has the loading ramp hinged so that it remains on the trailer and is in the raised position in this picture. The tie-down holding it in place will be changed to a different method, yet to be figured out.
This shows the wheel chock and the front tie-down points for the motorcycle.
Annie is checking to make sure the bottom of the motorcycle will clear the hump between the loading ramp and the trailer deck, based on measurements I sent.
This shows how the complete aluminum deck and the channel for the bike's tires are completely coated with a non-skid adhesive tape. It not only looks good, but will provide better footing and keep the aluminum from oxidizing. Those are also the rear tie-down points. Since the only goal for the rear of the bike is to keep the tire from bouncing out of the channel, the tie-down can be minimal.
Mike plans to bring the trailer down this weekend and I am looking forward to the next steps of getting a title and license for it. This may open a whole new chapter for Carolyn and I to take trips where I get a chance to ride and she can visit gardens or friends and relatives, while we also stay together in the evenings.
After a couple of midsummer rides in extremely hot temps I've decided that spring and autumn are the times to take long rides. There is more chance of rain in the spring and fall, as happened two years ago when we tried to ride up into Canada in September, but last May's ride with Jenny and the September ride with Big Mike and Orv had great weather.
So this year I'm making another May ride where I meet Jenny near where we met last year in the foothills of the northern Sierras. I'm at the end of the first day and I'm staying in Klamath Falls, Oregon after riding 395 miles. I rode quite a few miles extra because I wanted to check out a road I hadn't ridden before. It is the Crooked River Highway out of Prineville, OR. It follows along the Crooked River and is truly a crooked (good) road, even if it is not very long.
I attempted to update this blog while on the ride, but the first day, when I posted the above text, did not go well with my portable keyboard and tablet set-up. Maybe because of slow internet at the motel, but whatever is was, I spent at least an hour on those two paragraphs and I decided to write this blog after the trip, rather than during it.
This ride was notable for some strange GPS problems. The first occurred when looking for my motel in Klamath Falls, where my Garmin Zumo led me to a parking lot of a construction equipment company. I ended up using my phone to navigate to the motel and discovered the phone would bluetooth the directions to my helmet intercom, which was pretty convenient. The next day I was planning on spending the night at a camp ground and lodge a few miles from Portola, CA. I entered the address, which was on hwy 70 that I was riding on, into the gps and when I got to what it said was my destination there was nothing. I went further on and stopped at another lodge and asked the desk clerk about the location of the "Dreamcatcher Lodge and Campground". She had never heard of it. So, I used the phone to navigate me back, and when I got to what it said was my destination there was only an un-named jeep trail that I rode down a short ways until it ended. I attempted to call the place, but nobody answered. At a loss for what to do next, I left a message to cancel the reservation and rode back to Portola where I found a motel available for only slightly more money. The owner of the Dreamcatcher Lodge returned my call later and apologized, said I would not be charged, and also acknowledged that others had had problems finding the place using gps. I think what they need is a sign on the highway.
The next day I arranged to meet Jenny at the Auburn, CA library, where I ended up walking the last 100 yards to the library because the gps had led me to a gated driveway nearby. And yes, my gps maps are updated to a 2017 edition. Jenny and I then rode on to Pollack Pines, CA where we stayed for two days before heading further south for more riding out of Sonora, CA.
On our initial meeting we had some problems with getting our helmet intercoms to work. They would pair up okay, but Jenny could not hear me. Eventually they started working somewhat intermittently, but at the beginning of the next day the same problem returned and did not look like it was going to go away. It seemed that the microphone on her intercom was not working. I had a spare controller for it, but not the microphone. It's remarkable how, once you have experienced the ability to talk to other riders, you cannot live without it. Even my riding buddies, who were initially reluctant to get intercoms, now must have them even though it is often difficult to get four of them paired up. So Jenny and I got desperate. The solution was to order another complete unit from Amazon and have it one-day delivered to the next day's motel in Sonora. Naturally, shortly after we did that, her intercom started working and was trouble free for the rest of the day.
I had been planning this ride for weeks during the winter, but as California was experiencing an extremely wet year I became concerned that some of the higher elevation routes I had planned were not going to be snow free by the time of our ride. I made some contingency plans for lower elevation routes and it was a good thing because we came upon this sign;
But I had to see for myself, and sure enough, there was snow:
I asked Jenny to lay in the snow and make a snow angel, but this is as close as she would get.
There had been predictions of thunder showers during the day so we took rain gear along with us, but experienced only a few drops during the ride. However, when we got back to the motel and were having our post-ride beer and snack at a picnic table on the motel grounds, there were some black clouds and thunder and then this (complete with beer belch at end):
This gives you and idea of the size of the hail. We were under an umbrella, so did not get hit with it, and like most hail storms, it was over in minutes. .
A few times my planned route turned out to be an un-paved road. When I am planning the routes I sometimes use Google Maps Satellite view to see if a road is paved our not, but it's a tedious process because I have to zoom in all the way and can only see a small portion of the road. If I see grey pavement with a line down the middle, I know I'm looking at a paved road. A brown road with no line is probably a dirt road. The difficulty is distinguishing between a single lane paved road and a gravel road made with grey gravel. We came on one gravel road that I could have determined was not paved because the gravel was brown, but I had not looked at it. It was pretty smooth so we rode it until we go back on pavement.
Between this and other problems of dead end or flooded roads, I was often working with my gps to figure out an alternate route. Jenny took this picture on her phone because she said this was my typical appearance during this ride:
The best part of the ride was on the morning of our first day riding out of Sonora. We had to leave the motel before 8:30 because there was going to be the annual Mother's Day parade down the main street that our motel was on, followed by a rodeo later. Maybe because of these two events, the roads outside of town were relatively empty, and we had a fantastic morning ride over the following route:
Much of this part of the ride was in a pretty high elevation forest that had been burned over several years before. This sort of destroyed the looks of the forest, but it made the riding better as it was possible to see around curves that would normally have been blocked from view by trees. You can see the road off in the distance in this picture:
This part of the ride made the whole trip worthwhile. It was fantastic!
The whole day's route looked like this:
Notice that section of hwy 49 that I planned to use going to and coming from the lower loop. It turned out hwy 49 was closed somewhere along there. The only alternative was to make a 40 mile detour out to the west both coming and going. This added a lot of miles to an already long day. It was made somewhat shorter by the fact that part of the lower loop turned out to be an impassible (to us} jeep road that had a name that had made me expect it to be paved. I tried to find a different way back, but the only alternative would have been to go through Yosemite valley, and that would have been a nightmare of motor homes and slow going.
On Sunday morning, the 12th of May, Jenny and I headed for home. For her it was a 130 mile ride to San Francisco, and for me it was another two days and 804 miles. My total miles for the ride was 2,724. The weather was perfect, my partner was fun to ride with, and there were a heap of Good Roads.
Yesterday I lost a good friend and riding buddy, Orv Olson. I've known him for over 20 years and still remember the day I met him. Ross and I had been building and maintaining trails in the local riding area for awhile when one day he called me the day before we were to meet up for a ride to tell me he wanted to bring along another guy who wanted to get back into riding after recently retiring from work. That was Orv. We unloaded our bikes and headed up one of my favorite trails, and old abandoned logging railroad bed. Being an old desert rider, this was one of my kind of trails......fast and flowing and not as technical as some of the rider-built trails. I started out in the lead with Orv following me and quickly got in the groove and was going as fast as I could. I had been up this trail dozens of times and knew it well enough to let it all hang out, but no matter how fast I thought I was going, Orv was always right behind me. I was pretty impressed that a guy who was just getting back into dirt bike riding seemed to not be rusty at all. I shouldn't have been. Orv was a very good rider, as I soon learned. In fact, at one time he was the Oregon state enduro champion.
That was the first of many, many rides together......most of the time in the early years with Ross, Orv and I working on building trails and maintaining existing ones and then riding what we had created. Later, as we got older, the dirt bikes required more strength and coordination than we could muster and we gravitated to dual sport and street riding, but we were still riding.
I've gone through some of my more easily available photos and thought I'd share some of our times together.
This is me (left), Orv and Ross after unloading our bikes and getting ready to ride at a secret location in Oregon. We often rode so far there that running out of gas was a big worry.
Here we are taking a break later on in that ride. Orv is always recognizable because he was the only hairless one.
When we first started mostly street bike riding, we used to go on rides that would require overnight stays somewhere. One time we stayed at a place out in the middle of nowhere Oregon that had a lodge with the only restaurant for miles. When we got there late after a hot day the lodge was open but the restaurant was closed. I rode 20 miles to the nearest town and bought a six-pack and a pizza to bring back for us to cook in the lodge's little kitchen, and it was a fine dinner. Ross calls this picture the "pizza bike".
Another one of our overnight rides was to the Oregon coast. Carolyn and I were riding two-up on this one and she took these pictures of the three of us.
Before we had GPS, paper maps were the way to go, and we were always looking for new, curvy roads to ride. Orv was a master at finding them and was usually the ride leader. I think he and his wife Gail had done a lot of camping and traveling in trailers and motor campers and he already knew a lot of good roads.
This was from another overnight ride that included this overlook of Lewiston Idaho and the Old Spiral Highway.
Not all of our road rides were totally on pavement. This was Orv showing us the way to an overlook of the Klickitat river gorge that he knew about.
Orv would find out about demo rides and invite me along to try out new bikes. He was always buying something new, whereas I was always riding something until it wore out. Here we are at a Triumph demo day at a local dealer, about to start out on a ride on the latest Triumph retro model twin. Orv ended up buying one of these.
And speaking of retro Triumphs, we both had old Bonnevilles that we restored to riding condition. Mine had been in our living room for almost 20 years when Orv bought one and started riding it. He seemed to be having fun on it, so I re-restored mine and we went on a couple of rides together on the old crocks. Mine is in the foreground and his in the back.
As part of the re-restoration of my Triumph, I converted the ignition and charging system to a modern electronic version and Orv helped me do that. He was a good mechanic, and restored three old cars during the time I knew him. Below is a picture of an old Hudson that he restored about the same time Brian and I were restoring the Mustang.
I was lucky enough to plan a dream ride for Orv and our friend Big Mike back to the East Coast to rent bikes and ride some of the famous roads in the Blue Ridge mountains. This was some months before he got his first diagnosis of lung cancer, and he felt very lucky to have been able to make this ride. We rode the famous "Tail of the Dragon", with over 300 curves in 11 miles, and we stayed at the Deal's Gap resort where there is this "Tree of Shame" decorated with crashed motorcycle parts.
Deal's Gap lodging
An overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Big Mike on the left.
Orv got to do one more multi-day ride with Big Mike and I last September when we rode up into Northeast Washington and Canada. By this time Orv was weakening and wanted to tow his bike up to the area where the good roads were and avoid the long distance slog to get there. This was his car and trailer that we used to get there.
The drive up included a ferry crossing where I took this picture
On the second day of this ride I discovered that my rear tire, which I expected would go the distance, was not going to make it. I found a shop about 50 miles away that had a tire in my size and Orv rode with me to get it changed. To save money we dismounted the wheel from the bike ourselves in the shop parking lot, and Orv was a big help in doing that.
Over the years other riders joined us on road rides and at times we had as many as six of us riding as a gang of old timers. Here is a picture of five of us with Orv in the middle at on overlook of Mt St. Helens. Big Mike was usually along, but by this time he had gotten a job in Northern Washington. Besides he is just a kid at 50, and not really an old timer.
We are all going to miss Orv. He was clever, funny, smart, friendly, and a hell of a rider.
Last year when our planned ride to the Canadian Rockies got snowed out (see blog http://thegoodroads.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fickel-finger-of-fate.html), we ended up riding some Good Roads that Big Mike found up in the north east part of Washington. It was still pretty rainy or with wet roads, so we had to cool it most of the time, but we vowed to return and explore the area more thoroughly.
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.
