Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

Weather has finally been nice enough to ride to work again, adjusted the slack in my chain for the first time at 4600 miles, apparently I’m supposed to check it every 700 miles, oops.

Bike felt a little squishy this morning, didn’t think too much of it, attributed it to being off the bike for a while, being tired, and weather.
Went to lunch and didn’t really notice anything, started to leave work and immediately knew something was wrong, rear tire was flat, luckily traffic was light and I crossed the road and rode the power line access back to work where I opened up the shop and aired up the tire.
No immediate hiss, lost air at about .1 lb per minute, decided to ride about 20 minutes to my
Parents house as dad and I are taking the bikes on a trip this weekend and mine needed to be on the trailer at his house by Friday.
Found this nail in the tire when I got to their house, dad is going to Louisiana to pick up a tube for me tomorrow and we’re gonna replace the tube.


And tomorrow we may also replace the tires on my dads bike, replace the rear spring, and do an oil change if he can find a filter.

 

That's all it takes to be a finisher and get a t-shirt. How many you go after will depend on how competitive you want to be. I would also imagine that depending upon where you live will be a big factor in how you can finish. Where I live in PA I know that there have been several cities that have commissioned having murals painted to help revitalize the downtown business districts. The past 2 days we've been slow at work so I've been working on creating a .gpx file to transfer to my Garmin with a list of murals in PA. I'm up to 130 so far and I've learned that Philadelphia is considered the mural capitol of the US and is supposed to have somewhere around 4000 murals scattered around the city.

 

Pullman has 2 Sounds fun though! Any other rallies this year? You were doing a lighthouse run last year, yeah?

 

Sadly the rallies I usually took part in no longer are being held. I knew the Mason Dixon was ending after 20 years but the rally master for the Void Rally just dropped the news last Fall that he was retiring citing personal reasons. I get it, these events surely take a LOT of hours of planning with finding and scouting the bonus locations, arranging a host hotel for the finish and setting up the banquet. There is insurance involved and liability waivers you need everyone to sign, trophies for the top finishers, having rally flags printed and t-shirts. I'm just really grateful I had the chance to participate in every one I did. I learned so much geography, history, and about my own limits and abilities. I will forever be appreciative to those people who gave up so much of their time and lives just for a group of us to go out and play and have fun.

Dianne and I finished the IBA Lighthouse Challenge over Labor Day after starting it around Easter. Final tally was 66 lighthouses visited in 10 states and we covered about 8000 miles. It was approved and certified in October and the certificate is hanging in our rec room.

I'm already signed up for the mural ride I posted. There are at least 4 other names already registered of riders I know who have finished the Iron Butt Rally so there are a few competitive folks coming out to play. I posted the link in hopes of maybe getting some fresh riders to come out and get a feel for what these rallies can be like. It's also your chance to earn a t-shirt that you're not likely to see another one like it at the neighborhood bar!

 

Did the DamTour a while back. 20 dams between WA and OR. Changes every year with thousands of dams to choose from. It has since gone defunct, but I still use the concept when I want somewhere new to go.

 

There was a member of the FJR forums who did that dam tour. He posted pics and wrote up a ride report. Looked like a nice ride.

 

Decided to cut the hips on the klx and I did one side good the other side was slightly off sadly haha but I’ve been wanting white rear number plastics so this was a test

 

I’m really considering the mural rally. Lots of small plains states towns have them, and are way off the beaten path. I know our city has 5 or 6, but almost all the town within 100 miles have one or two. I think I could hit 20 without leaving Eastern KS, probably in one day. Maybe I should ride up to Nebraska and visit my brother, or out to PA if my other brother gets his job there….. could be a fun summer.

 

i have some new tires that I never used on my ktm
before I return them for store credit, if anyone wants them on the cheap..
Michelin Enduro Medium
140/80-18 rear
90/100-21 front

 

Do it! I'm not involved in any way with the organizers of the event and get nothing from promoting it for them. I just thought it was a really cool theme, it runs for almost 9 full months, and anyone who signs up and even does the bare minimum to get a t-shirt should still have a good time and see some cool stuff. Face it, everywhere you go, to any sort of motorcycle event you'll see shirts for Sturgis, Daytona, even Laconia or some smaller biker rally attended by thousands and you can even buy those t-shirts at Target or Walmart anymore. To get this shirt you're going to have to get out and ride. Yes, you're paying to enter the event but if you don't fulfill the requirements you get nothing so in reality you will have to earn this shirt and trust me when you wear it somewhere you will get questions about it.

You mentioned possibly coming to PA. What part and when? If you end up close to me look me up and if available I'll even tag a long with you and help you get a few murals in my area!

 

Just signed up for it, Chuck. Was chatting about it with the wife and if nothing else it's cheap motivation to get out and ride more. Thanks for sharing

 

My brother coaches college football and had an interview at a school outside of Pittsburg. Cont remember the school. He is also talking to a school in TN, and FL, so anything can happen yet.

My youngest brother coaches football in Nebraska…. Well, council bluffs Iowa. So I would ride up that way for sure.

 

I also just signed up. Going to be some long rides on my little bike this summer.

 

If you guys have ANY questions that I can help with feel free to reach out! I think you're going to enjoy this and get to see some cool stuff. Make sure to read over the rules and make sure your rider placard with your number clearly visible are in every picture. Feel free to post up your pics here too. Might get some more victims.....I mean riders!

 

We’ll it’s raining which means bike isn’t leaving the garage today, so I installed some parts that Santa brought. I couldn’t wait to get rid of the antennae they call mirrors. I should have done them a long time ago because they look so bad to me that they were a focal point every time I looked at the bike. The stock turn signals aren’t as bad but the low profile LED signals really clean up the aesthetic of the front end when combined with the mirrors.





EDIT: these pictures brought to light how terribly crooked the decal on the windscreen was applied by the PO. The wrinkle always bothered me but this is gonna have to come off.

 

Three headlights..... Getting some Total Recall vibes for sure!







The mirrors are a nice aesthetic upgrade. Any major visibility challenges with them?

 

I wont know for sure until the ground dries up and I can get out for a ride. Judging by the amount of adjustability, I’m sure I’ll be able to get them where I need them. They’re 3-way adjustable. So, the arm that the mirror is mounted to can rotate and so can the mirror itself. The mirror also tilts obviously. The tricky part will be trying to find a position where visibility is good while not having to change their position every time I split lanes.

 

Doesn't look like they are any wider than the other mirrors overall. Just do your lane filtering slow, as legal, and you should be ok. At least that's what my eyeball sees.

 

Went about a hundred miles inland for the weekend, dad trailered my bike up for me and then he and I did a few hours of riding, rode a bunch of backroads and some two lane rural highway and about 30 miles in a WMA.

 

Just got back from my annual New Year's Day Polar Bear ride. Normally a cold weather, bundle up deal but it was 46 when I left the house and 55 when I returned. Knocked out about 130 miles. I saw after I got home the flags for the mural ride a few of us signed up for have hit the email boxes. Wish I'd gotten that before I left so I could have printed one out. Passed 3 murals this morning.