The Delta Diner.

A fellow Wisconsin motorcycle blogger, Doug, e-mailed me about my latest posts. He mentioned the Delta Diner. I had not been there yet and it was on my list of things to see. Much has been written about the diner by riders of the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail, AKA the T.W.A.T.
I went for a ride today with the intention of finding the diner. I found a great local road, Forrest Service Road 35. It runs north from Drummond, WI up to Delta, WI. Just a few hundred feet from FS-35 and County H is the Delta Diner. I stopped in the lot for a few pictures. There were a lot of bikes parked in front, and lots of people standing around. I didn't go inside, I'll wait until I can bring Nancy there.

I also checked out the National Forrest Service campground at Perch Lake, north of Drummond. It's a very nice place with a boat ramp and some camp sites on the water.

I also rode down towards Hayward to check on my sister's cabin. The snow has vanished in just a few days. The temps here have been in the mid to upper 70's lately. The Smith Lake Association has made fish cribs and placed them on the ice. When the ice melts, the cribs will sink and provide an environment for small fish to use as protection.

The ice is gone from the Namekagon River. It will soon be time to get out the kayaks.

Visitors in the Backyard.

When Nancy and I were living in Prescott, WI we lived in small neighborhood of about 95 homes. Now we're 5 miles east of Cable, WI in a small development. I can see 2 other homes, but they aren't occupied full time, they're summer homes. When the trees leaf out, I might not be able to see any homes.
Nancy enjoys nature and likes watching birds at the feeders and the antics of the squirrels. We mounted a corn holder to a tree in the back yard and the squirrels go crazy for it. We had seen deer tracks in the driveway and in the snow in the back yard, but they never made an appearance until today.

The night before, I was sitting in the kitchen and I heard one of the cats growl. He growled just like a dog would if you tried to take his bone from him. I looked out the patio door to see this about 10 feet from the house...

The cats are really enjoying their new home. There's so much to see outside. The cats will sit motionless for hours watching this....

Waiting For Spring Challenge

On Trobairitz' Tablet, she issued a challenge. Post a web cam picture. Seems easy enough, but it took me a while to figure out how to activate my computer's built in camera. Here I am.

Trobairitz' Tablet, spring challenge


OK, so the first pic was too serious??? Well how about these two...

Making it Legal

Last Friday, I attempted to register my new bike at the local Deputy Registrar. She got all of the information into the computer but it wouldn't let her finalize the paperwork. She called someone on the telephone and when she was done, she told me I should bring my paperwork to the DMV in Rice Lake, WI.
On Monday, Nancy and I drove the 67 miles to Rice Lake. The first stop was the WI DMV. I waited for almost an hour. When my number was called, I walked up to the counter and spoke with Garret. He was nice enough, but informed me that the VIN on the bike came back to a "dirt bike". I think he was thinking that I was trying to register some sort of conversion. Buy a dirt bike, stick a light on it and get plates for it.... I tried to convince him that it was a factory made, street legal, looks like a dirt bike, supermoto. Garret wasn't buying it. He told me that without seeing the "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards" sticker on it, there wasn't anything he could do.
I let the DMV thinking I had been scammed by buying some one-off conversion. I went across the street to the Yamaha dealer. I explained my situation to the parts guy and asked him if he could check the VIN and tell me what it started life as.... Was it a Wr250F? or an X? He went in the back and came back with a print out showing the sale date, warranty expiration date, original owners name, and model, a Wr250X!
I went back across the street to the DMV and talked to Garret again. It was a few minutes past closing time so he wasn't too helpful. He asked if I could bring the bike down tomorrow. He told me that he'd be there all day, and he could straighten out the problem.
So this morning, at 37 degrees, I bundled up and went for a ride. Down through Hayward, through Stone Lake, then back roads all the way to Rice Lake. I walked in to the DMV a little after 11:00. I told the receptionist that I needed to work with Garret on a problem from yesterday. She went in the back and got him. Garret and I walked outside. He compared the VIN to the old MN title, noticed the FMVSS sticker and seemed confused. We went inside and he called someone in Madison, WI at the main DMV. He read someone the VIN. After a few yes's and no's, he got off the phone and told me that the VIN was correct, and it was a Wr250X and that he'd be getting me plates and a title!!! Thank you Garret!

I rode home, put on the new plates and headed out!

First stop, The Great Divide. Click the pics for a bigger view.

I made a 44 mile loop around Lake Namekagon, up to Grand View, down to Drummond, to Cable, to home.

I was near Grand View when I spotted this gem.

By the time I got close to Cable, it was getting dark quickly.

I've put 257 miles on the bike since I brought it home last week. It really is a fun little bike to ride!

Bring on Spring.... The Girls are Home!!!

Since the move up north I have had an empty feeling every time I looked in the garage. Today I cured that. I rented a trailer from the local U-Haul dealer and brought the two big bikes home from the storage locker.

A full garage is a happy garage!!!

The trailer was pretty neat It had a built in wheel chock for the front tire.

Hi, My Name is Erik and I Have a Motorcycle Problem...

Or, we went shopping, and look what followed me home!

Early in the morning on Wednesday my sweetheart Nancy and I left the snow covered north woods of WI and headed for St. Paul, MN. Nancy had an 11:30 Dr's appointment. When her appointment was over, we went down to Hastings, MN to do a little shopping. Then up to Woodbury, MN to do some more. Around 6:00 in the evening, we stopped at our friends(and riding buddy) John and Wendie's home in St. Paul. The 4 of us went out for dinner. After dinner, we parted ways and Nancy and I started to head for home, but I made a small detour...

I have been shopping Craigslist for most of the winter, and Tuesday night I spotted a gem. I found a 2008 Yamaha Wr250x with only 1561 miles on it. It was priced right, $800 less than others I'd seen lately, and less than 1/2 the price of new. Tuesday night I e-mailed the owner and made arrangements to come see it on Wednesday evening. After dinner, I called the seller, got an address and found my way to his place.

I looked at the bike, started it up and let it run for a while. With only 1561 miles on it, it's really clean. It was too cold for a test ride with no riding gear so I purchased it on the spot. The guy's garage was spotless. He had a set of summer wheels and tires for his car up in a rack mounted on the garage wall. They were in zippered, protective cases. You could have eaten off his garage floor. A sport bike was sitting, covered, on front and rear stands along the other garage wall.

As we stood in his garage, I wondered how I'd get it home. He made a call to his friend and asked him to come over and help us. We went in the house, counted some cash, did some paperwork, and finished up about the time his friend arrived. The 3 of us loaded it up into the back of my pick up truck. I strapped it down, shook his hand and headed back home.

Now updated with daylight pictures.......

I haven't posted anything to my blog in almost a full month. I've been busy with unpacking and minor home repairs. I can't work on my motorcycles because they're still in a storage locker a few miles from my house.
For the last 2 days, I've spent the better part of the day trying to clear out my driveway. We finally got a MAJOR snow fall. I measured anywhere from 16 to 24 inches depending on where in the driveway I measured.

So, setting free my inner geek.....

My driveway is 30'x50'= 1500ft/sqr plus I cleared a horseshoe shaped path that averages 11 feet wide and 145 paces long.

18 paces = 50'(I measured) so,
145 paces = 402.75' Ill say 403'

403'x11'=4433 ft/sqr
plus
1500 ft/sqr of driveway = 5933ft/sqr

5933 times an average depth of 1.75'= 10,382.75 cubic feet of snow moved.

10,382.75 divided by 27 = 384.5 cubic yards of snow

When I was younger I worked for a excavation and demolition company. Our large dump trucks had a 30 cubic yard box on them.

So, did I really move 12.8 dump trucks full of snow with an 8 horsepower snow blower? No wonder I'm sore.

The new house has a wood burning fireplace, so I made a rack to store some wood.

The sunsets up here in the north land are fantastic!

I did do something motorcycle related...
I ordered some Kawasaki body panels in Candy Lime Green.
I'm going to replace the stock black side grills with matching green.

New Grills:

Before Grills...

The "after" shot will have to wait until I can get to the bike!

2012 Motorcycle Show.

So, earlier in the week my riding buddy, John, calls me up and asks if we are going to the motorcycle show on Saturday.
It used to take me 25-30 minutes to get to John's house in St. Paul. Now it takes me 3 hours. A few weeks ago, I made the move up to God's Country, AKA, the north woods of WI, between Hayward and Ashland, right along side the Chequamegon National Forest. My father was raised in Hayward, and my mother was from Ashland. My paternal grandfather settled in the area in 1895, and my paternal grandmother, 1885. . I can trace my roots back to the area more than 125 years ago.
I met up with John and we drove to the MPLS Convention Center. This year the show seemed busier than past years. The parking ramps were fuller. Even the sales people from the local dealers seemed to be more motivated to try and talk to people. This was a nice change from 2009, when I wanted to buy a ZX-14, and NO ONE would take the time to talk to me.

We spent a solid 2 and a half hours looking and all things motorcycle!!

The new 2012 ZX-14R, in the best color!

The 2012 FJR is Cobalt Blue, the same as my 2006. The MSRP is now $15,590.00 YIKES!!!!!

Like years past, there was a nice display of clean vintage bikes.

I was a bit more selective about what I picked up from the displays this year. My bag was almost empty.

One thing that caught my eye was the device that the Cyclehill Tire changer was bolted to. I used to have my changer bolted to my garage floor. Now that I've moved and my garage has in-floor hot water heat, I don't know if I want to be drilling into the floor to bolt it down. The changer at the show was bolted to a metal frame that was designed to have a car park on it to hold it stationary. John told me he has a friend that welds, and that he could probably come up with something similar. I was thinking of mounting the changer to a 4' square of 3/4" plywood. Or, maybe bolting it to a large pallet?

I'll have to check out the new Shoei Neotec modular helmet. It looks like it has some features that my Multitec does not have.

2011 Year End Milage Totals

Now that the 2011 riding season is over, I have the milage figures.

'09 Kawasaki Zx-14...start 16,788 end 29,209 for the year 12,421

'06 Yamaha FJR ......start 25,145 end 26,791 for the year 1,646

There are 11,089 miles(17,843 Kilometers) on the set of Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires on the Zx-14. I mounted them 6-10-2011. They are well worn and starting to cup. I wouldn't take them on another road trip, but they'll be OK for another 1,000 or so miles this spring. I have one more set of the PR2's ready to mount.
I think I need to re-evaluate keeping the FJR, but it is such a sweet ride.