Getting Ready for Another Trip....

And how to change tubeless tires on a motorcycle.

A couple of weeks ago, UPS dropped off a set of tires for John's FJR. That same weekend, John rode up and spent the night here, and we mounted up his new Pilot Road 2 tires.

The new tires on John's bike replaced a set of Dunlop Roadsmarts. He managed 8400 miles from his set. I had to replace the Roadsmarts on my FJR at only 6320 miles. I think we both hope the PR2's will provide a longer life. I usually get closer to 10 or 11,000 miles from a set of PR2's on the Ninja.

I also ordered a tire to replace the nearly new rear tire on the big Ninja. Last month, I had the misfortune of picking up a nail in it while out in Nevada. With another 2 week trip coming up, I didn't want the patch to fail and have a repeat of last months incident! No more bikes on their sides!

To prevent that from occurring, I used a ratchet strap to secure the center stand to front wheel. This will keep the bike from going forward and rolling off the center stand and taking a nap on it's side..... again.

After removing the cotter pin, castle nut and washer from the right side, the axle slips out from the left. With the wheel removed, it's time to assemble the Cyclehill tire changer.

The changer, a custom base that John had made up, and a wood box to keep the rims off the floor while breaking the beads, also made by John.

Assembled with truck parked on the base to keep things from moving around. The tire's been deflated, and ready to break the bead loose from one side...

After breaking the bead loose all the way around the wheel... on both sides, it's time to remove the tire.

First, the wheel is clamped onto the changer, lube is applied to the tire near the wheel. The dismount end of the mount/dismount bar is placed inside the tire, catching the bead and prying up over the edge of the wheel. By pulling the mount/dismount bar around the steel post in the center of the wheel, the tire comes off quite easily. The process is repeated again to get the other side of the tire off.

With the old tire off, it's a good time to clean up the wheel.

To mount the new tire, some lube is applied to the bottom side of the tire and the top of the rim... The first side of the tire is easily pushed on by hand. Be sure to pay attention to the direction arrow on the side of the tire...

Getting the second bead of the tire over the edge of the rim is a little more work. About 1/2 of the tire can be pushed on by hand, but the mount/dismount bar must be used to finish the job. A little more lube, and a little technique..... and it's on. If it's going hard.. you're doing it wrong...

With the tire mounted and aired up, it's time to balance it. The heavy side of the wheel settles to the bottom. I marked the light spot with a bit of blue tape...

I use old weights taped to the rim to determine how much weight to add, and then replace them with new, self adhesive weights once I figure out how much to add. The wheel is "balanced" when it will stay in any position without rotating.

Put the wheel back on the bike, adjust the chain.... Done!

I spent some time cleaning off the road grime from the Nevada trip. I think the rash on the right side looked worse the day it fell over. It really isn't as bad as I thought. I'm not going to replace the plastic... If anyone notices the rash, the explanation will make a good story.

All cleaned up and ready for a trip to South Dakota and Montana!

Mounting Tires and Gathering Wood...

The UPS driver just left and he put a little something in my garage. My ridding buddy, John, had a set of PilotRoad 2 tires delivered to my place. He'll ride his FJR up here some day and we'll mount them up. I better hurry up and order a replacement tire for the big Ninja.

I've been keeping busy by cutting and splitting wood. My neighbor is building a new place just down the road from his current "vacation home". He has the garage framed up and continues to work on it a few weekends a month. A couple of weeks ago, he walked over to our place and we talked for a bit. He told me that if I wanted wood, I could take all the downed Oak trees from around his garage. Well, I didn't need to be told twice... I've been very busy. I've made quite a few trips over to his lot. I try to go over in the morning, before it warms up. I've hauled a lot of logs out of there, but there are still plenty more to go!

I've filled a few racks....

19'x4' in the garage...

2 pallets that hold approximately 3/4 of a cord each.

The big pile, 1 full face cord in the back row and about 3/4 in the front.

2 rows under tin in the back yard. Just a few inches short of 8' by 4'

I figure I have a bit less than 6½ face cords of firewood. 4 are dry and ready to burn, and the rest will need to dry until the winter of 2014-15.

I'd like to bring home enough wood so that I could fill another big rack! I'd size the roof over hang, and stack the wood so I could get 3 face cords under the roof...

Sigh, A Very Sad Day.....

As a pet owner, you know the day will come when it's time to say good bye to one of your pets. For Nancy and I, that day has been coming for a while, and today it happened....

The cat we never came up with a name for, the one we just called Little Boy Kitty, passed away at the vet's office at 8:25 this morning...

He's the one upside down...

He came to us a few years ago when we were still living in Prescott, WI. Like all our cats, he was a stray. He found our home and we welcomed him in to the family. He was a tubby little guy with short legs and kind of a short tail. He was over 16 lbs when he came to us. He was one of the sweetest cats you'd ever meet. Not shy, but not overly out going. He loved to jump up and lay with his front paws over my left shoulder. He'd push his chest into the side of my head and purr like crazy. If I sat at the computer, he was on my chest... He liked to be picked up and carried around the house. Many nights he'd jump up on the bed a cuddle into my side. He was crazy about me. When ever I went out to the garage, he was right behind me. He'd follow me everywhere. He was my buddy!

Over the last couple of months, he started to lose weight. At first we thought it was a couple of bad teeth that were affecting his ability to eat. The vet fixed Little Boy Kitty's teeth and we thought things were good. He continued to lose weight, slowly, but he was eating again. Then the vet diagnosed a liver issue and was pretty straight forward with us about the ultimate out come.

The one on the right...

In the last few weeks, his health took a turn for the worse. His little legs had a hard time keeping up with him when he'd run to the cat boxes in the basement. Then he started to have problems keeping food down. In the last few days, he was getting a little wobbly when he'd walk. His spirit never quit thought. He still wanted to be held and was purring right up to the end.

We called the vet Friday afternoon and he said to bring him in this morning and he'd give us his opinion. The vet told us what we knew, his liver was quickly failing and he was down to 8 lbs. 4 oz., and his ears and lips were turning yellow. There was really only one out come...

We brought him home from the vet so that we could bury him in the yard with his toy mouse and his zebra towel. Right next to Vinnie.

Rest in Peace my little buddy!!!!



I just found this................


Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Sunny in the morning and shady in the afternoon...

Finally, an Update on My Latest Trip...

When last I posted, I was spending the night in a tent at the KOA in Ely, Nevada. I made it home OK, and I wish I could claim that it was an incident free trip, but things went wrong on Tuesday morning, 6-18-13. I had finished my last blog post that morning because the camp's internet service was very slow the night before.

As I was packing my gear, I noticed that my rear tire looked a bit low. I kicked it and discovered it was dead flat! I hoisted it up onto the center stand and spun the wheel looking for something in the tire.... I found it, I pulled it out with a pliers and it looked like a rusty chunk of barbed wire.

I carry a Stop & Go brand tire plug kit with me and it has 4 CO2 cartridges to re-inflate the tire. I used the tool to plug the tire, and a guy from the neighboring tent site loaned me his bicycle tire pump to inflate it. It took a few attempts to get the plug in the tire, but in the end it worked quite well. I'm going to have to rethink my choices after this. I think I'd prefer some type of patch/plug with glue, and a pump powered off the cycle battery.

I had originally planed to ride out into the middle of Nevada, but with a glue less, mushroom headed plug in my tire I was rethinking that idea. It's not uncommon for it to be over 150 miles between small towns, and traffic can be light to non existent! Think of most of Nevada as America's Outback! If a person went missing off the beaten path, it might be days, weeks, or ???? before you'd be found. With that in mind I decided to get the tire patched with something a bit more permanent, before I traveled out to the middle of no where!

I drove into town and stopped at Gale Oil and Tire. They were great. They said if I took the wheel off and put it back on, they could patch the tire from the inside. Great, no problem, right? I mean I do all my own tire work and I have the 32mm socket and breaker bar with me, how hard could this be...

I had the tire off in just a few minutes. I usually use a small piece of 1"x6" scrap deck material under the center stand, just to rise up the rear a tiny bit. It makes it easier to roll the wheel out from under the bike. All they had was a bunch of pieces of 4"x4".. I finally found something thinner, more like a true 2"x4"... A bit thicker than I normally use..... I'm sure some of you can guess what happens next?

I had the tire off and Randy took his time dismounting and remounting the tire so he didn't scratch the rim. Thank You! It didn't take him long to put a patch over the hole on the inside and get the tire aired up and ready to put back on the bike. He was an interesting guy with lots of stories!

This is when my day turned bad! I rolled it back under the bike, slipped in the spacers, lifted it up so I could slip the axle though.... That's when I noticed some sand had blown onto the greasy axle. I held the tire in place with my foot and attempted to reach for a near by rag. That's when it happened. The bike rolled forward and off the center stand. It crashed to the ground, landing on it's right side! $$$$$

The guys from the shop ran out and lifted the bike up, while I got out from under it. I reset the stand and blocked the front wheel. I was so mad at my self. Once the wheel was back on, I sat and contemplated what was next.

I tried to call home and get Nancy's input but she was out for the day. I know she would have convinced me to break open the wallet, buy a replacement tire, and keep going. In the end, I decided to head for home. The GPS said 1640 miles.

I left Ely, Nevada about 1:00 in the afternoon. I drove up Alt-93 to Wendover and took I-80 to Lyman, WY, where I stayed in another KOA. The next day's ride was Lyman, WY to Rapid City, SD. The last day was the longest, 775 miles to home! The last 50 miles in rain and the last 10 in darkness.

I did get a chance to play with the GoPro. I shot some video while riding up US 85 from the WY-SD border up towards Lead, SD. When I get time to edit it, I'll post a link to YouTube.

It wasn't a total failure as a trip. I met some pretty interesting people along the way.. The guy in Ely, that loaned me his tire pump for example. He and his wife retired and sold heir home, gave their kids a bunch of stuff, sold the rest, bought a new pick up truck and now spend their time travelling... homeless by choice. He was very interesting to talk to. The strange thing is he has political and religious views similar to me... hummm. I guess living in a tent out of a pick up is not much different that owning a huge RV and no home. With internet banking and on-line bill pay, who needs a home!

I didn't snap many pictures on the way home, but I did stop for a shoe/hat/glove tree along US-93, south of Wendover...

I tried to get a few pictures of the dry salt flats along the road too.

If you Google, Blue Lake, Tooele, UT, switch to "Satellite View" and zoom out, you'll see just how big the area of salt around the famed Bonneville Salt Flats is.

The trip was 4099 miles.

1 flat tire

$700 in damaged plastics + another $178 for a replacement tire.... ouch!

9 days of riding with just a bit of rain on 2 of them.

Lowest price/gal for Premium... $3.49 Casper, WY Exxon

Highest price/gal for Premium.. $4.48 right here at home, BP station

Lots of interesting people, and more fun that I've had in a while, even with the unfortunate body damage!

I tried to update earlier, but no matter what I wrote, it sounded like I was the worlds biggest whiner!!!


Do I replace the cracked and scuffed plastic???? It's only cosmetic... OR, do I just ride it and leave the damage as a symbol that my bikes get ridden and used????