Over the last few weeks we’ve had several cold fronts sweep through and made things quite chilly. For the last few days I’ve ridden to work with temps in the mid to upper 30’s. This morning was no exception..24 degrees when I left the house. I really did debate riding in or not and once I walked outside I just started the jeep and let it warm up..I’ve found that my cold weather gear is a bit lacking for temps under 30. I’m searching for some good over pants and a nice warm jacket. Currently I’m riding in with a sweatshirt under my jacket and it does the job but it’s still quite chilly.

I’m starting a new section here called “A Day In The Ride”. Basically I’ll be taking my camera with me and taking random pics as I ride…I keep seeing things as I’m riding that would make really good pics but I can’t usually pull over to take them..My thinking is to have my camera on a lanyard around my neck..I’ve played around with the setup and so far that’s the best choice..And don’t worry I’m not going to be taking pics when I should have my eye on the road ;-). I’m inspired to do this because of pics I’ve seen on a forum I frequent, AdvRider. I’ve got a few pics already that I’m going to upload tonight so look for a new post in the next few days.

continue reading "Winter Is Here In North Carolina"

Been sick the last week or so but I dragged my sick ass out to get the bike fixed Saturday afternoon. Took me all of an hour to drop the exhaust, pull the old oil filter relocation kit, get the new one installed and fill the oil back up…Took a short test ride to make sure no oil was leaking and then re-tightened all the bolts again. I was planning on riding Sunday but the little voice in my head told me not to so I listened
It was 35 degrees this morning and let me tell you..50 bucks for a pair of gloves, totally worth it!! It was actually really nice riding in and just felt good to be back on the bike. I haven’t ridden since I got back almost a month ago. Anyway..Rambling post but I don’t care cause I got to ride again :-D..Back to work..

I usually don’t make posts about politics or religion but I just have to say this…

Well done Mr. President-elect Obama. You had my vote months ago. And I was proud to vote for you yesterday. I believe in you and I believe that you can bring the change to this nation that you promised and we so desperately need. My future and my retirement years are in your hands now. Please don’t let me down.

Just to try and keep my sanity I decided to take the Oil Filter Relocation Kit (ORK) off yesterday to see if I could patch it enough to ride a few miles this week. Once I realized that my tool selection was woefully inadequate for this kind of work a quick trip to Lowe’s was in order. I picked up a 150 piece metric/SAE tool kit and honestly, best money I’ve ever put on credit :-D.

continue reading "Something Motorcycle Related"

So today makes 7 days since the last time I rode my bike since the oil leak got bad…I’m going through withdrawls. Still no luck on tracking down the right hoses for it..I’ve narrowed it down to 2 manufacturerers Jardine and Baron’s Custom. I’ve sent both companies a picture of the oil filter relocation kit and neither one can give me a for sure answer. And since the hose replaces are $50 and $80 respectively I really don’t want to just throw money at both..Although doing it that way would still be cheaper than buying a new kit from either company..

Picked up an iPhone on Friday…I feel a bit dirty by using it but I have to admit it’s a damn nice phone. I went to T-Mobile with the full intention of buying a G1 Google phone. 3 things, 1. They had no working phone instore to play around with..I’m a geek I like to play with technology before I buy it. 2. There is no 3G network in this area and won’t be until next December. I spoke with a guy who has one and he said it was slow but there was a fix going out this weekend that would speed it up. 3. The sales person that I talked to had some song blasting out of his phone, which was in his pocket, the entire time I was talking to him and it was annoyingly loud..

So I have an iPhone now…I have loaded it up with music and downloaded a few custom ringtones (The Knight Rider theme and the Imperial March)..So far I’m really happy with it…I also have a free app called Lightsaber which is freaking awesome…

As I said in an earlier post I had to cut my vacation short due to an oil leak on my bike. I found where the leak was and I used some teflon tape to patch it up. Well, this morning that leak graduated to a spray. I stopped to put air in my back tire no more than 2 miles from the house and before I got my kickstand down there was a puddle of oil under my bike. *sigh* Luckily I have been carrying a 2qt container of oil since I left MS last week..So I filled er up and limped back home.

By the time I got home it was halfway down again. So I’m trying to identify the type of oil relocation kit so I can order new lines and fittings to see if that fixes it before I drop 280 bucks on a new relocation kit. I’ve emailed the previous owner and he’s looking through his docs to see if he has that info..

I’ve also had to bump up a project I was hoping to save up for. I need a place to work on the bike. Currently I work on it in the front yard and that is just not a good place with all the grass and bugs and what not. So this weekend I’ll be buying the material to add a deck setup to our small storage shed in the backyard. Not ideal but since Feb when I last tried to buy a 24×24 metal building the price has gone from 5k to 7k. So while I’m saving for that it’s going to take a nice long while to get that much money and I’m pretty sure the price will only go up in the time it takes me to save it. So the deck is my only short term option.

So I took a few days off when I got back to recover and I was lax on getting everything posted…Pics are finally up in my gallery and I’m working on a write up of the trip that I hope to have up in a couple of days..Until then I’m back at work and trying to catch up on 16 days worth of emails :-(.

The pics are not labeled yet and there are ~170 of them…

15 hour ride

780 miles from Brian and Mary Jo’s in Hattiesburg to my house.

Tired..

More tomorrow.

The last night Brian and I were camping my bike developed a slow leak in the front tire. I was able to ride back to Brian’s house yesterday with no issue only having to air up once to top it off…Later last night Brian and I were trying to locate the leak by using soapy water and we found it. It was leaking by the valve stem. I say it was leaking because as I was  messing around with the nut holding the valve stem tight to the tire I over tightened and and caused the slow leak to turn into a fast leak so now the tire won’t hold air all.

So out comes the shop manual that I brought with me and we proceeded to take the front tire and wheel off the bike. Brian and Mary Jo were kind enough to let me use their vehicle this morning so I can take it over to a local bike shop that Brian frequents so they can hopefully fix it for me. I say hopefully because since I run spoked wheels I have to have an innertube. I’m hoping the inner tube can be patched or that I can find one in stock somewhere around town. Brian has just gone through this with his bike where the innertube wasn’t in stock  here and it took a week and a half to get a replacement. I don’t have a week and a half.

If all goes well I’m planning on getting on the road early tomorrow morning and super slabbing it back to NC. It’s 800 miles from here to my house according to google maps. I had planned on passing back thru KY and stopping at Ft. Knox where I was stationed when I was in the Army but with the problems i’m having with the bike I think it’s best to take interstate back and just shoot straight for home. Because honestly I passed through some small towns coming down that I would *not* want to break down in.

Current stats for the trip:

Miles Travelled: 1518 miles

Total Gallons of Gas: 32.248

Total MPG: ~47mpg

To be perfectly honest this trip has forced me outside my comfort zone on so many levels. Before coming down I had a little talk with my bike letting it know what I expected out of it.

1. Smooth ride (so far so good aside from the shitty roads in SC and AL)
2. No fluid leaks of any kind (fail..Have a small oil leak from the oil return line of my oil relocation kit)
3. No tire or wheel problems (epic fail on this one since the bike is sitting on a jack stand with no front wheel atm)
4. No more electrical problems (looks like the voltage regulator fixed the battery overcharging problem. Although there were several casualties of the repair. High beam of headlight blown, Right turn signal blown both front and rear, taillight blown, backlight for speedo blown, indicator light for turn signal blown, high beam indicator light blown. Most have been replaced with the exception of the instrument cluster.)

My first thought when all these problems started was to just rent a uhaul and tow the bike back. And that still may happen but I started this trip on two wheels and I want to do everything within my power to finish it on two wheels. Life is about taking on challenges and overcoming them. I used to be really good at that but it seems over the last several years since I got out of the Army I don’t challenge myself enough or I take the easy way out instead of dealing with it. So anyway I will be working to get the bike in running order today and hopefully set out tomorrow. There won’t be any SPOT updates today since I’ll be in Hattiesburg.  Not sure if I’ll get to update tomorrow if the bike gets fixed since I’ll be beelining back to NC. Check in with the SPOT pages and I’ll have tracking mode on if all goes well..