On the Road to Arkansas!

I left home Tuesday afternoon and headed for St. Paul, MN. Before I left, I tried all morning to cut the grass so I wouldn't return to a forest where my lawn should be. Every time I'd start to cut, it would start to rain. I'd stop and go inside and the rain would quit 10 minutes later. I'd go back out and 10 minutes later it would start again. I gave up.
I had the FJR packed and ready to go. John and I are headed to Marble Falls, AR for the Southern FJR Owners Rally. We were at the rally in Eureka Springs, AR in '09 and '10, but we missed '11. I'm really hoping for better weather this time. It rained the entire time both prior years.

Once I got 30 miles from home the weather was perfect! I got to my friend John's house in St. Paul around 5:00 p.m. I parked my bike in his garage then John, his wife Wendie, and I went out for diner. We had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant called Los Arco, in West St. Paul. I forgot to bring the camera and get a picture of the food. I spent the night at their house and we left around 8:00 this morning.

Our first stop was the Iowa Travel Center near the MN border. We picked up some new Iowa maps and took a short break.

Then it was down I-35 to Ames for gas. It's nice to pay only $3.349 for gas instead of the $3.739 back in Cable, WI. We had lunch at the Subway in Monroe, IA.

Gas in Monroe was $3.299!

We stopped for the night at the Super 8 in Moberly, MO. 464 miles today.

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Rainy Day Projects....

My riding buddy, John, rode up to my place on Friday evening. We were going to do a little motorcycle maintenance and some riding on Saturday. The weather did not cooperate, so we ended up having a full day in the garage working on the bikes.
What did we get done?
1. Changed the spark plugs on my FJR. The original plugs had 26,000 miles on them and didn't look too bad, but I still changed them. The spark plugs look better in person than they do in the picture.

2. We sync'ed the throttle bodies. John brought along his Honda carburetor vacuum gauges so it was a fairly easy job. It's a little tight under the fuel tank and the little rubber caps are small and easy to lose. John ran a little piece of fine wire through the eye of the spring clamp on the caps before trying to pull them off. That way, if he dropped one, it would still be attached to the wire and it wouldn't drop down into some deep, dark abyss.

We followed the FJR Service Manual and things went smoothly. The cats weren't too impressed, they sat and looked out the window.

3. We also wanted to take the rear suspension links apart so we could clean and lube the pivot points. We needed to hold the rear of the bike up and take the load off the rear suspension so we could take the bolts out. We rigged up an aluminum ladder, some pipe, some wood, and some tie down straps. It had all the makings for a "hold my beer and watch this" moment... Things worked out really well.

With 26,000 miles on the bike it was definitely time to do that job. A few of the pivot bolts looked a little dry. The bearings were still OK, so we cleaned, lubed and reassembled.
4. We took a short break from the bikes and hung up some racks to hold the kayaks.

5. As long as the system for holding up the bike worked on my bike, we thought we'd do the same thing to John's bike.

6. It was raining, so we had more time for the bikes. Time to put new brake pads in the front calipers of the Zx-14.

The pads were worn about half way, but they had 29,000 miles on them and I wanted to flush and bleed the brake system, so we did them now.
7. Before.... Yuck!

After..... Ahhh, better!

8. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a few extra garage projects including, putting up a couple of shelves, putting a longer cord on a florescent light, adding 2 speakers to the garage stereo, and cleaning the volume control with electrical contact cleaner.

Thanks John, I couldn't have done it with out your help!

A Day Kayaking on the Namekagon River.

It was a beautiful warm day up here, so we decided to paddle a bit on the Namekagon River. The closest river access, the County M Landing, is just 2 miles from the house, and our exit point, the Phillipi Landing, is about 6 miles further down the road. This is so much better than having to drive 2 and a half hours one way to get to the river like we did when we lived in Prescott. This was our first trip on this section of river.

Things started out pretty good, then we ran into a Beaver dam just 5 minutes into it. Not really a problem, just paddle and push our way up and over the top!

Looking back up steam at the dam.

This Bald Eagle was sitting on the dam as we approached. He took off and landed in a tree not far a way. It must of had a 7 foot wing span, it was huge!

We spent the next 3 hours going down stream with just a few small sections of tiny rapids. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon!

Required blog Croc shot!

Blogger.com Issues????

I it just me or is anyone else noticing some issues? I follow quite a few motorcycle related blogs. Frequently, I'll notice that I don't seem to be "following" some of them any more and my reading list seems shorter. Sometimes, when I look for a post that I saw, read and commented on even a few hours ago, it will be missing. I know that some blogs have never returned to my "reading list" and It will take me a while to notice that there gone. Others, I have re-followed and a half a day later it's gone again????

If you would rather have me not "follow" you, that's cool, just let me know and I'll unsubscribe. I'm thinking that this is a Blogger.com issue, at least I hope it is.

Another Day in the Woods, with a Bear Sighting(with pics)!

So, a while ago I ordered a Seat Concepts brand replacement seat cover and foam for the my Wr250x. The factory seat made my tailbone hurt after just an hour of riding. I don't have an air powered stapler to drive the staples into the plastic seat pan, so I called a local upholstery shop and asked them if they could do it. I brought the factory seat and the new foam and cover to them. They were busy working on a pontoon boat and said that they would try and squeeze my job in over the weekend. I'm cool with that, and the $25.00 price I was quoted.

Here's a picture...

On my way home, less than a half mile from my house, I turned off the main County road onto the road to my place, and what was in the road? A mama Black Bear and four little cubs! When they saw my truck, they ran off into the woods. They only ran maybe 10-15 feet away. A couple of the cubs climbed trees and watched me, while mama stood guard. I managed to snap 2 pictures and get a shot of one of the cubs!

I am so glad I moved up here! This is my second Bear sighting and my first Bear cub sighting!

A Little Maintenance and a Little Ride...

I haven't been out riding much since John and Wendie's visit 2 weeks ago. The weather hasn't been the best and I've been doing some much needed maintenance on the bikes. Last week I broke down and purchased a Mityvac MV8000, and a quart of DOT 4 brake fluid. Both the FJR and the ZX-14 are in serious need of a fluid flush. I replaced the front brake pads on the FJR when I had the leaky forks rebuilt over the winter of 2010-2011. I didn't flush the brake fluid then and I should have. The ZX-14 is in need of a set of front pads, a new chain and sprockets, and a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires.
I used an old syringe to suck the well aged fluid from the FJR's clutch and brake fluid reservoirs. Then used the Mityvac to pull fresh fluid through the lines until the fluid ran clear. I managed to avoid drawing air into the system and everything went pretty smooth. It helped to have Nancy watching the reservoirs and telling me to stop before the fluid got too low.

The ZX-14 front brake reservoir. It's getting to the low mark!

Parts ready for the '14...

I wanted to start with the FJR because I'll be riding that to the Southern FJR Owners meeting in Marble Falls, Arkansas. John and I will be heading there at the end of the month. We'll leave on Wednesday the 30th, and stay there until Sunday the 3rd of June. We should be home sometime Monday.
I've been talking to John, and discussing plans for our August trip to Sturgis and somewhere yet undecided. He mentioned that he had been talking to an old riding buddy of his, and wanted to get the 3 of us together for a ride. We made plans to meet in Turtle Lake, WI at 11:00 a.m. today.
I got the FJR cleaned up and was out the driveway by 0900. I stopped in town for gas and a little cash from the bank. I was down to Turtle Lake about 15 minutes early. As is typically John's style, he showed up at exactly 1100. After the introductions and a short break, the 3 of us were on the road for a short 88 mile loop through the WI countryside. I had a route sheet in my tank bag and managed to miss only one turn. I missed the intersection and failed to notice the street sign and the turn because there was a bright yellow Dodge Charger parked in the right turn lane. I was paying too much attention to the car and didn't see the sign. In that area of WI it's not easy to find fun road to ride. Most of the area is farmland and all the roads are straight. I picked a few roads that looked like they might be fun. It wasn't bad. one section had a lot of 15 and 20 MPH right angle corners. We stopped for a break in Ridgeland and stood around talking for a while. John and Mark were trying to figure out what years they went to Sturgis together. It was probably close to 30 years ago. We ended our ride back in Turtle Lake. John and Mark headed back to the cities and I headed north.

My route sheet!

John and Mark in Ridgeland.

It was a great day for a ride. Plenty of sun, mild temps and good roads! I put on 291 miles and averaged 50 MPG.