It’s October in Texas – phenomenal riding weather. About two weeks ago there was a big cold front that ran through. It brought rain and lots of cooler weather. Instead of averaging temps close to 100F it’s now down around 70 or 80F each day. So why am I inside writing? Recovering from partying too much and a rough work schedule. Besides – if I get enough of my chores done today I can ride tomorrow before work.
So what have I been up to since my last post? I really haven’t done much riding outside of commuting – but it was commuting through temps from 60 to 100F and rain. I was lucky last night and escaped having to ride in the hail. Most of my wet riding was more a case of dealing with damp pavement and just enough precipitation to get my visor damp. And get my knees damp on the occasions when I wasn’t expecting a shower and didn’t have my rain pants on. The hardest part of it was stopping – my boots don’t have the best traction on wet pavement so I had to be much more precise about stopping with my brakes and not my feet.
The challenge of riding when the temperatures drop is figuring out how much clothing I have to have to keep from shivering off the bike without having to strip off most of my wardrobe when I get to work.
The other projects I’ve been up to are taking care of my bike. Regular maintenance is one of the keys to riding safely. I started reading the shop manual I bought for my bike, learning the methods and intervals to care for it. So far it seems like most of it is checking the control elements, making sure the tires are in safe condition to ride, and making sure all the fluids are clean and getting where they need to be in correct amounts.
First, it started because of a strange pattern of sound from my engines at certain speeds and temperatures and I was trying to troubleshoot it. I’ve since figured out that it was the angle i was hearing that was confusing me. I’m fairly sure it is just variations in the rumble of the pistons as the engine rpms slow. It’s not knocking – I’ve tried all three octanes of gasoline, and all that earned me was an engine that didn’t like to start. Apparently the point of the higher octanes is to prevent spontatneous firing – aka “dieseling.” I’d experienced that phenomena in my truck, when I would turn it off and it would keep turning over for a few rotations. So maybe in hot weather it would do me better to use higher octanes in the summer, when dieseling is more likely to happen, but use the lowest grade in the winter to make starting easier.
Another thing I did was change the oil. It’s really not that hard, especially on a small little engine like this. A trick I found was to use old 2-liter soda bottles to store old oil until I can get it to a recycling station – since I didn’t use all the new oil to free up that bottle.
Oiling the chain was remarkably easy. I also cleaned it since it was nearly black with dirt. The lube I got looks and acts basically like a super-duper version of WD-40. Worked great in my stubborn front door lock.
While I was down by the tires I looked them over – only to find a very odd screw stuck in my rear tire. Now to search for someone to fix my tire. It turns out that virtually all motorcycle places refuse to patch or plug a tire. I’ve heard that plugging a tire tends to make them come apart. I did manage to find a little place that specialized in ATVs and off-road bikes that would plug tires. So, that is fixed until I get new tires – since my current ones only have about 3/8ths inch of tread left on them. Though I will get the tools and patch kits to patch them myself – it is possible to patch even tubeless tires at home, it’s just a ROYAL pain, and you can get tubed tires still, which aren’t as hard to put on or take off at home, or in an emergency.
That pretty much sums up my mischief for now – off to watch more Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s the only thing that has a hope of keeping me on my computer instead of out on my motorcycle or my bicycle.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
