The First Ride of the 2013 Season!

The riding gods were smiling today! Weather.com said it was 41º, the outdoor thermometer at our house said 56º. The driveway was almost ice/snow free, but very, very soft. I knew I had to do it!! So I rolled the Wr250X out of the garage, fired it up and let it warm up a bit while I checked the tires and put on my gear. I headed for town to fill the tank with a bit of fresh gas. If it was under 50º, I didn't notice, it felt much warmer.

I circled Lake Namekagon and stopped along the way for a few pictures.

The Great Divide...

The ice is still thick. A couple of people were out fishing...


Lane markers and traffic signs on the ice?


The Maple sap is flowing and being collected...


The public access looks more like a freeway entrance ramp...


It was nice to finally get out and ride. Fresh air and sunshine!! I needed this, winter has been here for too long!!

Spring has Sprung!

I don't want to jump the gun and speak too soon, but today the weather is nicer than it's been in a long time. The forecast high for Friday is near 50ºF(10ºC). Yesterday, the township had a large front end loader out and they scraped the accumulated ice and snow off the side roads. All that prevents me from getting a bike out is the icy wet driveway!



A few more days of strong sunshine or a day of rain and my driveway will be clear. It might take a little longer for it to dry out and firm up. Maybe I'll try and get the Wr250X out for a ride Friday.

There was a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers in the back yard today. I don't know how to determine their sex, but I'm guessing there was some flirting going on. They were hopping from tree to tree, one chasing the other.



Last week, Nancy and I were down in the "cities". We stopped by to see my riding buddy John, and his wife, Wendie. John and I had been talking on the phone about pulling the engine off the tractor. I had been telling him about needing some way to support the tractor after I removed the front axle. Whatever I used would also have to support the transmission after the engine was removed. On both sides of the tractor, at the end of what Allis-Chalmers calls the "torque tube", or clutch housing, are 2 threaded 5/8" holes. I had given John the dimensions over the phone and we had talked about a reinforcing plate and lengths of 2x4's. John, the craftsman that he is, came up with a perfectly fitting aluminum plate, and a bag of hardware.

The plate...


Plate placed over the threaded rod studs on the left side... The plate will be attached to a correct length of 2x4, then tightened down to the studs.


The engine separates from the clutch housing, AKA "torque tube" right in front of the plate. I'll take plenty of pictures when I get things set up to pull the engine. It will be clearer then.

In the mean time, I wait patiently for more warm weather!!

Say Hello to Big Brutus...

This winter weather is really getting to me. I'm starting to suffer from PMS (parked motorcycle syndrome).

Today, I was sitting in my office looking at the display boards I made. I used 26" x 19" poster frames and added different things to them so I can recall each years rides just by looking at them. 10 years on one board and the other is still being added to.


I was noticing one of the pins.


It's one I picked up at the Big Brutus Visitor Center in West Mineral, Kansas. In 2009, my ridding buddy, John, and I were on our way back from the Southern FJR Owners Rally in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I wanted to make a side trip to see Big Brutus. It took us a little out of our way, but not too far.
Big Brutus is a Bucyrus-Erie, 1850B, electric shovel. It weighs 11 million pounds, and was shipped to the area on 150 rail cars in 1962. It's not the largest electric shovel ever built, but it's the largest electric shovel still in existence. The unit is 160 tall, and the bucket holds 90 cubic yards. It was all electric powered and had what was basically a long 7,200 volt extension cord behind it. It was operated by the Pittsburgh & Midway Coal Mining Company until 1974. It's now a museum dedicated to the coal mining history of southeast Kansas.
For a small admission fee, you get a fact sheet, and get to walk through the insides of Big Brutus on a self guided tour.


It's hard to get a feel for just how big Big Brutus is, maybe this will help.. Look at the people coming down the stairs...


One more picture of the bucket. I didn't take this photo, I found it on Google Images. It's from a Kansas tourism web site, so I hope it's ok to use their photo...

Interesting info can be found HERE.

Finally, Something Motorcycle Related.

I follow many different motorcycle forums. Some are brand, or riding style specific, and some are activity based. On one of the forums, someone posted a link to Motorcycleroads.com's list of the "top 100 motorcycle roads in the USA". Here is the link. The person that made the post asked the question, "How many of the roads on the list have you ridden?"

I went through the list and think I'm up to 15.

Here are the one's I've done.

#6. San Juan Mountain Skyway. Only a portion, Cortez-Durango.
#8. Twisty Road Next 140 miles!! California Hwy 36. Red Bluff to the coast.
#9. Arkansas Pig Tail, Hwy 23. I may have done only parts of this one.
#12. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Hwy 12 in Utah.
#20. Coronado Trail. Hwy 191 (the old hwy 666) in Arizona.
#27. Central Hills Loop. Black Hills, South Dakota.
#28. Rattlesnake Pass to Wallowa Lake, Oregon to Washington, Hwy 3+126.
#32. The Incredible North Shore Tour....***Only by car*** so I won't count it.
#33. Mexican Hat to Bryce Canyon. Utah, only part of the route.
#45. The Lolo Pass. Hwy 12 across Idaho. Many times!!
#54. Big Horn Mountain loop. A route over the Big Horn Mts. on Hwy's 14 and 16. Most of it!
#55. Heber to Hannah & the Wolf Creek Pass Loop. Outside of Park City, UT. Most of it!
#58. Arkansas At Its Best - Highway 7. Parts north of I-40.
#66. The Devil's Tail. Devils Canyon area of Oregon.
#85. Hwy 16 from the Pig Trail to Scenic 7. Through Deer, Arkansas.
#90. Yuba River Ride. Part of it along CA-49


How many have you done??

Pulling the Head off the Engine

I took some pictures as it came apart.
Head ready to come off...

Cylinders 1, 2,3 and 4... The red stuff in #2 is ATF/Acetone....


The same after a bit of cleaning... I don't think #2 is salvageable The surface is completely pitted and rough, #4 might be, but the rust groove is quite deep?? Doug, or John... got an opinion?? Pistons, rings and sleeves??? New rings and an afternoon with a hone???


The head will need a day at the spa/machine shop to recover. A complete disassembly, soak in the hot tank, magnaflux to check for cracks, and a valve job...

Started Work on the Allis-Chalmers B...

The temps were pretty mild here today and that inspired me to go out to the garage and start working on my tractor. I'm pretty sure the reason it's frozen or locked up, is from water getting down the muffler and into a cylinder or two. When I first tried to turn the engine over it wouldn't budge. I pulled out the spark plugs, used my MityVac and sucked a bunch of rusty water out of the #2 cylinder.

Today, I started to dig deeper.

I first removed the muffler, air inlet cover and the hood. Next, I removed the valve cover. There was a bit of oil in some low spots in the head, but it was pretty clean. There are 3 frost plugs in the head. They have been known to rust through and when that happens, coolant will leak into the head and it will run down the oil return paths and mix with the oil. Not Good.... The 3 plugs in my B's head were in good shape! I cleaned them off, tapped on them with a heavy screwdriver, and they look good with no visible rust... They'll be replaced when the head gets serviced.

I kept taking things apart. I removed the carburetor, air filter, and started to remove the cast iron manifold. The manifold is a one piece unit that is both the intake and exhaust. When I got the bolts loose, clear water started to run out of the manifold and exhaust ports in the head. That confirms my thought of water down the muffler...

Once I got the manifold off, I could see the rust in the exhaust ports of the head.


I drained the antifreeze from the block, it looked to be in really good shape, bright green and not rusty. I have to clean a little spilled antifreeze off the floor before I can let the cats back out in the garage.
I'll be working on removing the head next. It will be interesting to see the condition of the cylinders....

Not Really Motorcycle Related at All...

I just wanted to point out a few internet and keyboard related things. I noticed on some of the blogs and internet forums that I frequent, that some people might not know a few easy shortcuts for things....

As an example, when writing about the temperature, it's easy to get the little ° symbol to appear. If you hold down the Alt key and, at the same time, use the number pad on the right side of your keyboard and type the numbers, 0176.... when you do, the ° appears when you lift your finger off the Alt key.

There are lots of symbols that can be typed that way, Alt + 0189 = ½, Alt + 3 = ♥ And plenty more!

Here is a link to Howtotype.net. They list plenty of handy keyboard shortcuts.

Also, it was discussed on another blog, but it might be good to repeat it here.... How to search for an image on the internet...

One of my favorite pictures is my green ZX-14 parked across Hwy 6 in Nevada. I took that picture 6-19-2011 on my solo trip out to California. Here it is...

If I want to search the internet to see if my picture is being used somewhere I didn't know about, I can easily do a search.
Go to Google, click on Google Images, see the search box with the little camera icon in it? Click the icon. A box opens and it gives you the choice to either enter the URL of the picture, or upload a picture that you have saved in your computer. I uploaded the above picture and searched.
Google said that it found my picture 29 places. I noticed that one of the places my picture was being used, was some Kawasaki forum that I've never been to. I followed the link, and it turns out that there are actually 2 of my pictures being used. They're in a thread about being an older rider, and wanting to make the ZX-14 a more comfortable long distance touring bike.
I guess I'm cool with that, but I'd hate to find out my pictures were being used to scam someone, or to find out that someone is using my pictures and they're claiming them as their own!!!! Worse yet, making money off my pictures!!!

A Little Change of Color...

One reason I bought the 2009 ZX-14 was the color, Kawasaki calls it, Candy Lime Green (CLG). I know it's a color that most people either love or hate, but I love it!

This is it the day it came home.

I had always wondered what it would look like if it were all CLG. In 2011, Kawasaki released the ZX-14 in a 2 tone, CLG and Black. I immediately started lusting after the CLG grills(the green panels under the gas tank) and lower cowling.
This is a 2011....

Last spring, one of the on-line parts dealers was having a good sale on OEM parts, so I bought a set of 2011 grills in CLG...

Here's the bike with the new grills...

The Givi side cases are CLG too. Kawasaki offered the Givi cases and color matched panels as an option for their Versys bikes. I figured it was much cheaper to buy the pre-painted panels for the 2009, CLG, Versys, than it was to try and get them custom painted.

This summer, I had an unfortunate incident... I dropped the bike during a low speed u-turn. I scuffed the lower cowling on right side.

A few weeks ago I started shopping the on-line OEM parts dealers for CLG lowers. The first few places I checked had either "unobtainable" or "call us" next to the items. I was able to locate a set at a decent price.

Late last week, the big brown UPS truck stopped at the house and left a package!

Before I could get them mounted we had some cold temps and a small snow storm.