Sunday, October 25, 2009

Slowly getting it dirty.

This morning I went on the Club ride to St John's "Gildehaus" for the 48th Annual Sausage Festival. I was but one of the 3,877 diners served. They will have the 49th Annual Sausage Festival on Sunday October, 24 2010, so plan ahead.

After I was stuffed like a sausage I went my seperate way and explored some road's in the area that I had yet to ride, plus a few that I have.

The first and last photos were taken on Melrose Rd. The other two were taken on Grand Army Rd. Grand Army Rd. started out paved but quickly turned to gravel.



See you on the road.

GAW

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Two weeks and 600 miles...

Two weeks and 600 miles finds the motorcycle incapacitated and on the lift. It was just a flat rear tire, but I didn't find the flat until late Saturday afternoon as I was leaving for a Club event. Luckily I'm 2 deep with motorcycles at the moment, so I parked the new bike and took the old bike.

I had an appointment set up for Tuesday to get the 600 mile service done so at the Club event I asked around if any body had a tube that would fit my bike. It was suggested to call Dave Clark at Forever Endeavor Cycles, The shop was just a couple of minutes down the road and was still open. He didn't have a new tube, but did have a used one with plenty of life life in it and it was free for the taking. Dave left it outside the shop so I could pick it up when ever I got there. Art had a set of tire irons and volunterred time sunday to help me change it.

Saturday night my job was to remove the offending wheel, so out comes the tool kit and owners manual. Owners manual passed, it had the proper procedure for removal and installation of the offending wheel. The tool kit on the other had FAILED miserably, it was missing a wrench in the correct size to fit the axle nut. It turned out that the axel nut was a 26mm, not a size most people have laying around. I have a very nice selection of tool's in metric and standard, but it seems that most socket sets go from 24mm to 27mm, skipping the needed 26mm. My local Sears Hardware Store doesn't keep 26mm sockets in-stock, special order only. I got the wheel off using my adjustable metric wrench.

The tire had a 1 1/2 inch fine thread drywall screw in it. I probably have a few of those laying around someplace, so it could have been introduced to the tire in my very own garage. I was a little bit suspicious of the old bike, the past two weeks was the longest time period that it had not been started since early march of this year. I suspected it had gotten jealous of the new bike, and set it up for a flat tire. I do hope they learn to get along. I don't recall ever getting a flat on the old bike in my 13+ years of ownership.

On Sunday morning there was a handful of tire irons, plenty of grunting and some baby powder involved getting the tube changed out. A big thanks to Art for the time and tools on a Sunday morning.

I will be purchasing a 26mm socket in the very near future, as I'm sure this won't be the last time I will need the wheel off. It also looks like I will be cutting a $25 wrench in half so that I can get the wheels off the bike while traveling.

See you on the road.

GAW

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Buell Motorcycles, a thing of the past? Say it ain't so.

The motor company has apparently tanked in the third quarter, and has decided to ax Buell Motorcycles and sell off MV Agusta. Click on the title link to see an message from Erik Buell, in the short message you can see just how much Erik put into the motorcycles that carry his name. It's truly a sad day for American made motorcycles.

Harley-Davidson press release.
Buell press release.

I have always been intrigued by the (XB12) Lightning series of bikes, and finely got around to taking one for a test ride this spring. It was quite fun. If only my garage and wallet could go 3-4 deep in motorcycles I would have one.

See you on the road.
GAW