Lazy Saturday......

I got to go shake my brain out a bit today. While pulling the old Russian out of mothballs, I discovered that the starter relay is still kind of dodgy. I think I will replace it and clean all connections between the battery and the starter. That should give me a better feel for it. That being said, rainy days are the best days for bike-workin-on. Saturday was nice in the morning, so there was riding.

Since the weather was kind of nasty all directions from Austin, I decided to just run around the back roads. My initial plan was to make a lap around the lake. That was when muscle memory took over and I just let the bike go where it felt like going. I took our old loop down around dripping springs and wimbery. I ended up in San Marcos. Since I was there, I decided to get pizza at my old college hangout. Valentino's Pizza is still the worst pizza around, but it is nostalgia. What the hell. After some Pizza, I went over to the Humidor to hang out and have a cigar. Rob got in a couple boxes of the Auturo Fuente Reverves so I picked up a few. After that I went out to Mikey's shop and hung out for a while. I needed to drop some stuff off with him, and I happened to be in the area. While I was there, I picked up a set of anti-dive springs for Kel's bike too. The trip back was where things got interesting. I made it almost 5 miles back before the flying midget with a firehose found me. Little bastard followed me all the way home. This was the first time I have had the R90 out in heavy rain, so I am at least glad I know how it is going to handle now. I also learned that those new brakes are really good. In the wet, I get a lot better feel out of them so I don't have to guess where lockup is. After this little ride I think those brakes are the best money I have thrown at the bike.

One thing I do want to find out is who left the cage open.....all of the idiots got out and they were on the road. I had my rainsuit on, the one that is all reflective, and all of the reflective stickers on my bike. Reflective materials only work if the other vehicles have their lights turned on. I saw more cars running in driving rain with their wipers on high and their headlights turned off. No scares, no close calls....just a front row seat for the parade of stupidity. I know there are sobriety checkpoints, there are discussions of insurance checkpoints, I have even heard rumors that there might be insurance checkpoints in the future. When are there going to be roadside IQ tests. I am sorry sir, you are too stupid to be allowed to live....pop...pop...

Oh well, off to work on the russian. Have fun.

Dave

GRRRR.....Wanna go somewhere.....

Anywhere....Just go. I just got done with the 2k service on the R90, and took it around the block. The thing that I find on the bike is that when you get more than one days ride from home, you develop an instant sense of clarity. That is the moment you realize that the only thing that really matters is getting back home alive. Work stress, friend stress, any stress, is just not significant any more when you are on a bike in the middle of nowhere. My running joke is that a motorcycle is a machine to transform gasoline into perspective.

The problem you run into when you spend a lot of time traveling on the bike, is that when you get home you start thinking about the next trip. Right now all I can think about is my next trip. I am planning a big "Go away" this summer. I have not decided whether I want to do the Dixie overland East (US80 from Dallas, TX to Savannah, GA) or a Border to Border loop (Del Rio, TX to Canada). I guess it will depend on whether or not Gary can go with me. He has finally retired from the Army (27 years). I am planning 2 weeks in July for the trip, so I have time to decide. I know I can't wait that long for a trip, so I will probably eat a long weekend or two in between depending on what the weather and work will allow. Right now all I know is that I want to go somewhere.....anywhere.

'Bout damn time, and all that......

My life since my last post, has been what we call in the computer industry, an MPCCF. For those people not used to acronyms, Massively Parallel Cascading Cluster F(ail). That is where a bunch of things go wrong simultaneously, and cause other things to fail in a chain reaction.

It all started with the trip that I had planned to blow the cobwebs out of my brain got sidetracked due to a mess at work that had to be handled. While getting everything sorted on that front, I noticed that the gearbox on the R90 was starting to feel a bit notchy. On the way to work one evening, 3rd gear let go on me. This called for a new gearbox. Just about the time I got ready to get the new box put in, I ended up getting sent out of town for work for a week. This culminated in 6 weeks of work without a day off. When all is finally said and done, I wind up getting everything done on the thursday before labor day weekend. I get the R90 dropped off with Mikey, and Kel and I get ready for the Labor Day Weekend escape. This time we are dragging along two of our friends.

The trip starts falling apart with one of the participants running into family problems the wednesday before we leave. One bike down, three to go. We end up with a trio of airheads heading for Fredricksburg. Two R90's and a Ural. We make it almost 30 miles before we discover that the other friend's R90 is not charging the battery. This can't be good. We end up writing off Saturday getting the battery replaced. Now there is a good battery, but it is still not charging to the highest capacity. It will only charge to maintenance levels if the headlight is off. Sunday is spend tearing through the charging system with a voltmeter checking all of the outputs, cleaning all contacts, and making sure all ground connections are good. At the end of sunday, we are getting 13.8v out of the charging system and all is good.

This brings us to the ride. Finally, I get to put more than 5 consecutive miles on the bike. We end up taking Hamilton Pool Road to 281, and then to Marble Falls. Have Lunch at the Bluebonnet Cafe, and then come home down 1431. We only pushed about 125 miles, but it was better than a beating (just barely). In the end it was a nice ride. I had lots of fun.

Here is the route. Sorry, no pictures.



View Larger Map

Time to start planning a trip for sometime around my b-day.

TTFN,

Dave

Doodie calls......

No, that is not a typo. Two of my co-workers are going on vacation, I am their cover while they are out. One of them is stuck in the middle of a steaming pile of poop of an issue. I am having to work this weekend to cover for him on the issue. It was hoped that everything would be cleared up before today so I could leave on my soda run. Unfortunately, I didn't get out of work until it was too late to leave, and I have to be local for a conference call tomorrow. This means I get to re-schedule the soda run till next weekend (weather permitting).

Since I am in town for the weekend, and Kel is off on her Band Geek Weekend (tm), I am going to do the only honorable thing. I am going to take my R90 out to San Marcos, the back way, and spank the nasty right on out of her. I have taken the Ural down those roads alot, and it tends to corner unreasonably well. I am curious to see how a bike that is set up for this type of riding handles it.

Being back on the Ural after riding the R90 for a month or so has certainly highlighted the differences between then. The Ural is actually a much more nimble bike. It turns in faster than I realized, and it takes very little effort to toss around. It almost makes the R90 feel like I am piloting a brick. The R90 on the other hand, is much more definate. It takes more effort to turn the R90, but it feels more precise. The Ural feels a bit more approximate "I think I will go kind of that way-ish".

Oh well, Time to go to bed.

TTFN

Dave

Weather predicting shoulder.......

So this morning the weather predicting shoulder spoke. 35 degrees, 20 MPH wind, and an 80% chance of rain on Saturday canceled the plans for the bikes this weekend. Looking outside right now, I think it was a good choice. It is actually raining outside, and this is when we would have been hitting Dallas. I just hope the shoulder stops reacting to cold like this as it heals, cold and damp is not even a little bit comfortable. Oh well......

Enjoy

Dave