Day before Thanksgiving

So with Thanksgiving around the corner and with pies and dressing to do, I get home early embraced with a laundry list of stuff with no guarantee of uninterrupted time in the house and decide that before I get down to chores I'd rather have a break. "Want to go out on a ride?" I ask expecting the "no, it's below 50°f and too cold", but instead it's "let's go for it" so off we go for a 45 mile jaunt and test the new suspension 2-up.


I'm loving it, and so is Mrs. RedTigre. A cool 45 minutes out and a nice glass of Port upon return, easy on the soul...



Now it time to get down to business and enjoy the smells of home kitchen cooking.

*UPDATE* New suspension

How do you improve an 850 lb. Sport Tourer?

Buy performance progressive springs (HyperPro) from Klaus (http://www.wilbersusa.com).

That, and add said springs to newer/used front and rear struts with 10k each off eBay. Find a place to do the spring swap and spend a day installing and learning this is the workout you've meant to get lately.

Holy shmoly... took the test ride today and cornering was usually 35mph in a 20-25 curve, hit the same curve at 35 mph and hmmm...there was no effort.  Went back and hit it at 40 mph... no effort.  Hit it again at 45 mph... no effort and no center stand dragging. This thing corners like it was on rails.

Not brave enough to hit it at 50... how low can you go?  Braking, tracking, bumps on bridge joints passing like they aren't there , talk about regaining control... never had Ohlins or Wilbers but for $600 total, I am pleased.

Now I just have to figure out why I failed to connect the fuel gauge... another tupperware party, there goes an hour I'll never get back.

*Update*

Yep, took apart the side tupperware and found the missing wire not connected. Had her apart, connected, and back together in 30 minutes.

I'm getting pretty good at this.  ;)

Shock and Ahhh...... *@&#^%!

Today was the day I swapped out the full front and rear suspension. Had my new HyperPro progressive springs mounted on my low milage eBay procured struts by Wenatchee Driveline (the ONLY place in Wenatchee that would take on the project- thanks Dave!) and picked today because daylights savings is ending and I get an extra hours to be sore from the continuous up, down, kneel, floor, up, croutch "where did I put that tool, part, coffee, part, tool, etc"floor, down... damn if I don't feel old after 11 hours of this.

Why BMW Technicians get paid so well...

First, off comes all the tupperware (plastic body trim and panels), mirrors, air wings, total of 15 pieces and 42 screws. Then disconnecting the fuel tank cage and removing the tank with the fork bridge, removing the rear tire and battery, all the front and rear suspension bolts, completely breaking apart the front fork bridge and letting the front flop around while working the front strut out, raising different parts and clearing space without doing damage throughout to the radiator... and then reversing the entire enchilada.

Minus what feels like 40,000 removed parts later..

While in there I found my fuel lines were beginning to crack in places and wanted brass fuel hose connectors instead of plastic to go with my $6 a foot nylon file line.

Learned a lot, realized I'm not that 30 year old I used to be near 20 years ago, but I got it done in 10 hours.

Rear spring and strut assembly

Anxious to feel the difference when I take her on her maiden voyage with the new springs tomorrow, no extra stuff at the end so we'll see.  ;)

Front spring and strut assembly

Oh... and the front line is the fuel injection rail and the rear line the return, which matches the fuel pump lines where gravity flow is the return line... don't ask me how I now know this.  :P

Another Year Beginning to Close...

Mid-October... yikes.

Tonnes of chores got done this weekend and I wrapped up at 1:00 with the urge to ride.  Got a text from a friend while I was working off the list but their plans were made so I went on a spur of the moment shot up around Lake Wenatchee and off to the summit of Stevens Pass on Hwy 2.

Traffic sucked, 'nuff said.

Colours rocked!!!

I love the colours up the Tumwater this time of year, coming down the canyon against the overwhelming stream of oncoming traffic kept my attention more to road than the usual relaxed pace, but pulling over enough gave me windows to the change of season that was good for the soul.

One of the things I noticed most was the spawning of Salmon all the way up the river... there was standing room only in some areas and those people that think there are not enough fish making it up and dams need to go, need another look.. and they can do it by candlelight if I had my way.

Worth every moment...

I have an upgrade lined up this Winter that will keep Mistress down for 6 weeks as I have procured replacement shocks with only 10,000 miles on them (gotta love eBay) and ordered in new HyperPro Progressive load springs that I intend to replace on my used "new" shocks (my current set have 90,000 miles on them) and rebuild the steering damper at the same time. My oil leak has resolved itself after tightening the pan bolts to spec so life is good and the upgraded suspension will keep the canyons interesting for another 90,000 miles.

Also, as I am always looking for improved riding gear, I think I have some new "under armor" in mind as Christmas comes into view (click HERE to see the vendor information on this piece of safety gear!).

Basin Blast

After riding solo last weekend, John B. let me know that I didn't HAVE to go solo if I'd had called him and that he wanted to get out this weekend to see a friend that was riding up from the Spokane area and meet in Grand Coulee for lunch, and I could redeem myself by riding along if I were interested.  Well, always looking for redemption in any form I can find it, and that I hadn't seen Mots (Bill) since our Glenwood adventure, I worked out what the chore list was, figured it could get done Sunday, checked-in with Mrs. RedTigre (who consistently calls me names for being willing to ride without her, and committed to a Saturday ride.

I arrive at Mickey D's to find John's NT700V and a Ducati MultiStrada are the only bikes in the lot.  Hmmm... so who own's the Duc?  I met Ted inside with John and after introductions and the hint that Kevin P's flex schedule isn't fitting our ride (I think he is afraid of that factory seat on his ST1300 from our last ride), off we go.

John in Quincy outside of Ted's Storage Business

We take off from Wenatchee on the 28 to Quincy and then cut to Martin road where the canal twisties are the best in the area. n the low bank maneuvering,  I notice two things... I haven't adjusted the suspension tight enough and am scraping way too ofter in the uneven corners, and Ted's Ducati is missing some tupperware made obvious as the profile of the Duc changes in the leaning. We stop in Ephrata for John to dump some skins and while talking to Ted find out that the loss of Tupperware is form a deer impact up Badger Mountain.  Still finding the pieces from the cheapest place... bikes are a B***H to get plastic body parts for.

Out of Ephrata on the 28 to Soap Lake and Hwy 17 past Dry Falls and to the 2 and Coulee City and Banks Lake... or what is left of it anyway.  Seems that are lowering it for Dam maintenance and have dropped the lake 30 feet already... looks like Moonscape and supposed to be a fly fisherman's dream right now. Never seen the lake look like it did before the dam went in... eerie!

Back side of Grand Coulee Dam

Shooting up around the 2 to the 155 and Steamboat rock up to Electric City and the Safeway parking lot where we meet Bill and find a place for lunch. Grab some lunch at the only restaurant in town and on the way out we are discussing the route to take out and John asks a local how far/many minutes to Wilber form there. "20 mile, or minutes, take your pick" she says, so John  says to us from Wilber we'll head to Odessa and Ritz- "NO, comes back more information from our local, "Wilber Creston, Davenport and then Spokane, sheesh"! And off she goes.  So, curiosity getting the best of me, I walk over to John and ask him that the way she was talking to him I was wondering if he hadn't been married to her in a previous life!  :D

I think he was wondering the same thing.  ;)

Odessa

Off we go onto the 174 SouthEast and some gas up in Wilber, then head down the 21 to Odessa and take a break outside the Rolling Thunder Saloon. Looks like a Harley place, and I'm the only in-line 4 in the group I am wondering what trouble I am in.  Wait, I'm on a Beemer!  In Odessa! Any trouble and I'll start singing "Deutschland Über Alles" and get free beer and schnitzels so the escape plan is in place until John tells us of his East German Polizei experience, so I decide my singing of old German National songs won't work and take him up on his ice cream offer instead.




From Odessa south on the 21 we stop at the Rosenoff Road where we say goodbye to Bill as he heads East and we shoot West on Rosenoff/3/Wheeler Road into Moses Lake.  Taking 17 toward Ephrata, to the 282 and then backtracking on the 28, Martin Road (John got pretty zippy on it coming back!), Quincy, and back to Wenatchee was a kick.  Weather is turning cool but now is the time before the weather turns mean and I strip Mistress down for some new shocks and springs for the season.

Thanks for the 300+ mile invite John, it was a great ride!

Flying Solo

Several rides fell though this weekend, but that never stops the BMW rider from knocking out near 500 miles on a lazy Sunday when everyone else bails on the weekend rides.

Tried enticing several different groups but nobody bit, so I went to bed last night thinking "where haven't I been and need to go"?

My friends talk of the Goldendale-Bickleton run and I have never gone so South is where I am headed. Coffee with Mrs. RedTigre before I head out (cold weather and a sore back have her sitting this one out) and off I go. Shooting out over the favorite route of 97 and Blewett Pass, Ellensberg onto the 82 for a Luftwaffe run down to Yakima is a start.  I top off in Union Gap and decided to try my luck heading out Ahtanum Road and blow by my mark hitting South Fork before I realize my error.  Cut back to Wiley Road and shoot south until I hit gravel (I NEED an adventure bike), then shoot back to Union Gap and then take 97 South to the White Swan cutoff.

Glenwood to Goldendale is my destination, and I work my way to Signal Peak Road and BIA 140. This is one road with absolutely no traffic! GPS says it's road all the way to Glenwood and off I go.  About 6 miles from this picture I hit a guard post  (yes, GUARD POST) set up by the Yakima Nation. A Forest Service type station is to the left with a well marked cable across the road and as I approach a woman comes out with a ranger type uniform and a notepad. "Does this road go to Glenwood and is it paved" I ask. Yes it does, but unless you are part of the nation or escorted you get no access. "Your name?" she asks. "Why does it matter if I get no access" I question?  "You are in the Nation now and I am asking". Ok... give the name and she  says "What kind of bike... ooh, BMW, very nice bike, it have a plate?"  Of course it does and she writes down the plate. So I ask, "am I getting to go through"? "No" she says, "you have to turn around".

Bullocks.

It was a nice ride up anyway...

Off I go and backtrack to White Swan and take the 220 back to the 97 and fly to Goldendale where I get to try the road of my destination, the Goldendale-Bickleton Highway.

It was everything they said... I'll detail it on my next run when I can savor it at less than 70 mph trying to be home by 6:00 PM... I should take a vacation day.  ;)

Worked my way to Mabton, hit the 241 north to the 24, followed it to the 243 then onto I90, George exit on the 281 to White Trail and the 28 into Wenatchee. 475 adventuresome miles in 10 hours.

Life in the Luftwaffe Lane.

The Forks Fandango for Four

So, mid-week we have a meeting that pretty much ruled Nelson out. The weather was to be beyond perfect on the coast and all seemed to have had enough of the Nelson, BC area so we all agreed that the coast was to be the destination for whomever came.

We met at the Olds Station Shell (Kevin, John, Terry, Fred and I) where Fred (Deal) graciously escorted us to the top of Stevens Pass to send us off on our adventure. We packed for camping the 2-3 days, and adventure was the word of the day.  Coming into Sultan we stopped at a bakery that served breakfast and decided on substantial nourishment to send us off right.  The others ordered pancake platters while I decided on a breakfast sandwich that seemed light enough but gee... when the plates came I snickered until I saw what I had to deal with.  While others suffered I thought twice and put part of my sandwich into my fritter bag for lunch and maybe dinner later!  I've never seen so much food and the other three ate until "mercy" was called !  :D

Totally stuffed, Terry takes us on the "Old River Road".  What was that smell Terry? Schmoly-oly!! (It was) Bad enough to be stuffed to the gills, but the smells of who-knows-what came across like nobody's business!  Terry will have to write that one off on the next trip (I think he was having one of those Mukilteo flashbacks)!  His route was true to aim though, and he landed us onto the ferry dock in time to board and lift anchor before the bikes were idle for more than 30 seconds.

Hopping across to Whidbey Island was nice as we toured some areas before hopping to the main thoroughfare and waiting at the ferry to take us to Port Townsend where I met another BMW Purist... a retired teacher that rode a 1975 R90 with 77,000 miles that stretched from Guatemala to Seattle. Lots of good stories and had me longing for retirement. Once off the docks, Port Townsend to Sequim was to be less than 25 miles, which John and I agreed was cool as we hit reserve in Pt. Townsend and on the way following Terry we end up with a  shortcut that we had to back out of, and a Worldmark Tour with both the GPS economizer and the low fuel lights flashing in sync!! We were thankfully led to fuel with Terry's nose for cheap gas and slots at a casino gas station before heading heading off to the cutoff to Neah Bay and the Makah Nation.

Crescent Lake was a dream to plunk a boot into, (my only regret not doffing the textiles and dunking in) and having dinner in Sekiu refreshed us as we headed out, while John and I entertained a county mountie for a few miles (John's confidence has him taking corners to earn my AND the local establishment's attention!) and then on to Forks.

Forks... what a happening Friday night.  Drag races at the airstrip, Bella's birthday (who is Bella?), HS football, meeting the locals, what a kick. We pulled into town to see Terry and two local law enforcement chatting...seems Terry is trying to score us some digs to place the tents and doing a fine job of it! We found out that the transit center (I had to make sure Terry heard "transit" and not "transient" before I'd offload a tent) and behind the bus terminal there was a field where we could set up. While we were setting up, we could hear engines dragging down a strip so we went to see what was up to find a comp strip set up on the airfield!  After watching several runs though the paces we went off to get some ice cream and check out the local pigskin preview going on. We also saw "Twilight" parties flowing out onto the street and simply enjoyed the best weather I have ever had on the coast.

Waking up very damp the next morning and John letting Terry and I know we each have our own talents for snoring had us off and down to Kalaloch for breakfast and then zig-zagging the Moclips Hwy and down the 109 to Copalis Beach where he made every effort to find Don, who was with his wife and their motorhome.  Kevin said we could find Don easily by all yelling "Hey Don" and listening for the motorhome that started it's engine!

We worked our way down the beach and ended up actually on the beach where I realized that the LT bears no capability to a GS as hard as one tries. We paraded on the hardpan and then Kevin heads off to the surf.  Heck, if a Honda ST1300 can do it, so can I! Since the LT has the turning radius of the Nimitz, I made a wide maneuver around him and stopped.  Realizing that I could touch flat-footed easier than normal I quickly powered forward (you don't pull forward while plowing sand) and moved on out to firmer ground. Kevin let me know I was sinking rather quickly with all 1100lbs of bike, gear, and rider bearing all weight down into a rather small per square inch tire area. Leaving the beach, we wound down and around the 109 to the 105 (I never did get my clams) to the 101 and on into Long Beach where all heck was breaking loose. Push, pull, drag, or tag, the place was hopping with the most layered versions of street rods with anything and everything in between. The weather was kicking and so were the people and rods! Terry wanted to get a coffee at the Worldmark there (Terry, I worry about you at times, my friend ;)  while we looked around. The place was packed!

We decided on heading south to Astoria, so wound our way through Ilwaco and Chinook, where as I was accelerating to catch up when I impacted a fair sized bird that failed to remove itself in the force of impact as I found by the rapidly increasing temperature on my gauge and the lack of bird behind me (what is it with birds and their desire to try to outmanuever me?). Pulling off into the Chinook Park just short of the Cape Disappointment, State Park,  I found my little friend spread across my right radiator. There was a camper cleaning it's daily catch so I borrowed a bucket after pulling out the unfortunate hitchhiker and washed the blood from the radiator area and moved on to fight the Astoria traffic moving east on the 30 and then North on the 433 and catch up with the group at a Starbucks just over the bridge in Longview.

Kevin and John were calling "Uncle" (Kevin, you have to ask Mrs. Claus for a new seat), but Terry showed them they had more in them (and Kevin with my AirHawk) as we ate dinner and then decided to blast up the I-5 at at 80mph long enough to hit the Toledo-Ethel cutoff and shoot into Morton for gas and deciding to stay the night there.  Terry, Kevin, and John went to crash a wedding for dessert and I grabbed a shower and we met up for chatter where I realized Starbucks at 5:00 PM was a bad idea. I tossed and turned all night and just started to get into a decent sleep when the wake up calls came. If I thought my tent couldn't be any wetter by morning I was wrong and the dew saturated it. Packing up and knowing that dry awaited us (it was dry after 20 minutes spread out in my driveway in Wenatchee), we headed off to Packwood for breakfast, a shot on over White Pass to be passed by some curve cowboys that irritated Kevin something fierce, a shortcut from Nachez to Selah, through the Yakima Canyon, Ellensberg, over Blewett and home.

A great ride with great guys whom I enjoy time, humor, and stories with... who could ask for more!