Dodging Oklahoma..............Day 1

The most interesting thing about starting a road trip is to see where the brain drain-o takes effect. This time, it happened in the little town of Lometa, tx. When we hit Brownwood for lunch, it only felt like a few minutes, not like an hour long ride. The new bike is shaking out quite nicely, it goes like hell. after hitting the hotel in Abilene, it was straight to the pool. Soak good, vibration bad!!!!! Today was the short shakedown run, give us a chance to get in and get whatever we don't have. Tomorrow is going to be the bear. Probably around 300 miles to Roswell, NM. Then we get a day off to tour roswell.

Evening edit: There should be a rating system for hotels to be used by motorcyclists to guage the quality of the toilet paper. This is very important after a ride. I would give the Comfort Suites in Abilene, TX a rating of 80 grit.

Feed then bed.

Dave

Can't sleep, wanna go now, wah

I am officially at the point where I am too excited to sleep. The bikes are loaded, tuned, and pointed the direction that we are going. According to the weather forecast, it looks like we are ging to be riding in the rain tomorrow. Not thrilling, but I don't care......just.....wanna.....go. WAH!!!

Double super-duper poopie.......

My final shakedown ride before the trip was a bit more interesting than I had bargained for. I felt an odd pop under the seat as I was headed home. When I got there and started mounting my bags, I noticed that the rear sub-frame had snapped. The rear sub-frame is the section that holds up the rear fender, the top shock mounts, and the seat. No handling problem, but certainly needs to be fixed. Fortunately, this is a problem that is fairly common on old airheads. That means Mikey had a spare rear sub-frame sitting at his shop waiting for me. After work, I head down to pick up the part and swap it out. On the way down, my jeep is starting to act funny. I pull off the highway to check it out, and the right front brake seizes up. Smoke puring out from under the wheel well and all......on I-35. I have had this problem fixed by "Just Brakes" 3 times now. This time, they could not get a tow truck because it was 5:00 on a wed, so they did the next best thing. They sent a guy out with a jack, tools, a new rotor, caliper, and pads.....and he fixed it on the side of the highway. And the craziest thing was that he was actually cheerful about getting me moving again.

Now the bad part about this is that I would not be able to get down to pick up the frame section. I just want to say up front that I have the best wife ever. Kel went down to see Mikey and pick up the new sub-frame and brought it back while I was getting the jeep roadworthy. Now, here I am with my bike but back together, and the best wife ever sitting on the couch getting her music together for the trip. Who could ask for anything more.......

TTFN,

Dave

Finally starting to get used to the new bike.

So, here I am, two weeks on the new bike. I have new tires and rear shocks. I have adjusted the front brakes so they feel a bit better. I also switched the turn signals to the other handlebar. I think I am starting to get used to the bike. I have put about 200 miles on it, and it is starting to feel comfortable. I think it will take a bit to get my riding position shaken out, but that is to be expected. I am figuring that about 3000 miles in 10 riding days, should get me used to this bike fairly well.

We have now hit the point in the trip that Kel enjoys, and I tolerate. The packing. I have all of my clothes, most of my spares, tools, and most of my gear either packed or gathered. The hard bags are ready to be mounted. I have a a minor tune-up left to go, then we roll.

TTFN

Dave

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it home with the new bike without breaking it this time.....

I think the R90 (Athena) is going to take a bit of getting used to. I sit about six inches higher than I do on the Ural (Eyegor). The bars are about 8 inches narrower, and the engine is almost twice as powerful. It actually feels kind of twitchy, but I think it is more me than Athena.


As you can see from the pictures, I have not gotten the paint job, or the bags mounted yet. Next weekend I am putting a set of progressive shocks on the back, so I am waiting till then to mount the bags. As far as the paint job, I would not get everything back in time for the trip, if I went to paint now. I don't mind riding the "Frankenbeemer" till then.

Oh well, here are a couple pics, Hope to have some more when it is light outside. TTFN

Dave

crash update......

OK....I went to check on the new baby. So far, we have a new headlight bucket, valve covers, and instrument cluster ready. The parts have come in to fix the carburetors. All we are waiting on now is the new set of handle bars that go with my fairing. Once we get that done, the bike will have the fairing and saddlebags, and ridable for the trip in late June. I will have to ride with the dented tank, and the fairing won't match the paint job, but I can take that. There is not going to be enough time to get the new tank and fairing back from the painter before it is time to leave, so I am keeping the dented tank, and we are not going to paint the fairing until the tank is ready to go on.

I have decided to name the bike Athena instead of Artemis. After getting tackled by a deer, putting the bike back together, and still wanting to take a 3000 mile road trip on it, I figure the Greek Goddess of "Heroic Endeavor" would be more appropriate than the Goddess of hunting.

I got a few more miles on the Ural this weekend, but I got called in to work, so I couldn't get too far afield. Hopefully, tomorrow I can go somewhere interesting. Probably not very far.

Poopie.....

Well, I got my new bike on Tuesday. A BMW R90/6. After picking it up, Kel and I hit chili's to have dinner. Then on the way up the access road to head home.....I hit a deer. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the deer t-boned me. Basically, he came out from under a bridge on the access road at full speed, crossed the lane, and ran face first into the side of my headlight housing. Total damage on the bike......1. headlight : Gone 2. Instrument cluster : Gone 3. Tank : Big knee shaped dent 4. Right side Carb : Gone 5. Both valve covers : Gone. Total damage to me.... 1. Big bruise on left shin 2. Sore left shoulder (matching set of weather predicting shoulders now) 3. Stiff and sore all over. My bet is that the real pain will set in in the next day or so. Oh well, here are some pics, I will update as I get more. And hopefully of the new bike without the deer strike damage.




Have fun,

Dave