Topic: 24 Rides in 2024, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[newday777]

We ride all of our bikes, isn't that the point.

At least 24 rides 2024

On each bike!

I don't know if I'm up to 312 rides in one season.

It was said in jest. Just a brotherly jab.

[jgger]

Right on Terry, I know that I couldn't go for a ride after giving the bike a bath. Once I grab the hose and bucket, it's like " if you give a mouse a cookie" and my HLTAS ( hey, look there's a squirrel) kicks in and it becomes an adventure all its own.

Sounds like the RE could use a brake flush and ABS activation, glad it didn't hinder your ride. Now make yourself a note to not forget your riding gear at home for your next ride, I know I would forget.

Sounds like it was a good day, nothing beats " and that all lived happily ever after" . Now you have us wondering about that kebob place, I'm sure you have Pewe's attention on that one.

Kelly, no pressure, just think of the fame and glory as the sky opens up and the sunbeams shine down on you while the music starts and all the people chant, KELLY KELLY KELLY.!!! or not. The choice is yours, grasshopper. Bawhahahaha!

[Kelly E]

My long distance riding buddy and I are planning at least 3 long rides for this year. We're going to western Montana, Crater Lake/northern California and an undecided destination. Those rides should take care of more than half of my 24 rides.

As far 312 rides go, that ain't happening.

We have to resurrect the 03' Honda TRX 350 Rancher 4x4 ATV. Then we can start on our last resurrection, an 83' CB 1100F. This summer should be more riding than wrenching.
The hardest thing is still to come, deciding which bikes to sell. 14 bikes counting the quad is too much. We'll have to get rid of 5 or 6 bikes. I need one of the bays in the shop open again, not stuffed full of bikes 

[jgger]

Truth be told, I envy you guys that have more than one bike to ride.

What is your destination in Northern California, if I might ask? I'm in So Cal, so if you get down this way give out a shout.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, it was great to get out on the RE again, the more I ride it, the more I like it. When Tim bought it I test rode both the Conti and the Dominator and preferred the more upright riding position of the Dominator but Tim loved the “Factory Cafe Racer” look of the Conti, and it was his money so if course he won. If/when I inherit it I’ll have to move the clipon bars up on top of the triple clamp which will raise them about 2 inches and should be a lot more comfortable for me.

I go back into hospital on Monday to get some more work done on my back, but to be fair to the Conti, the riding position isn’t as extreme as most sports bikes, so it didn’t marr my enjoyment, once I got used to it, but the riding position isn’t as comfy as most of my other bikes. The suspension and handling is outstanding, it reminds me of my old Ducati 900SS, except it’s a damn sight more reliable.


I’m going over to Spotty’s place this evening to try to get the lights and blinkers working on the DT250 so I can take it to the shop to get the Roadworthy Certificate done and get it on the road. I’m looking forward to using it as a commuter for my 70 mile daily commute into work on nice days. It’s unseasonably warm at the moment with temperatures in the 90’s again today through the rest of the week, but should stay warm and hopefully dry until May.

Jim, be careful what you wish for, my bikes are all insured as are my cars and house, and my monthly premium is around $350 USD. Only 6 or so of my bikes are runners so the rest are either “laid up” or “low use” policies and are really only insured in case they get stolen are there’s a fire, etc. in the last couple of months I’ve bought 4 or 5 new batteries and some have tyres that are past their “use by” dates, so owning more than one bike, while good fun, can be expensive. I’ll be happy when I’m down to 4 or 5 bikes, but as I sell off the ones I care about the least, the decision on which ones to sell next is getting more difficult as I bought them because I always wanted one, and had no intention to sell them.

Unless I win the lottery and buy a house on a big block of land with a huge garage, once retired at the end of next year I won’t be able to afford to keep them all. Sometimes just having one bike that pretty much does everything is better than having lots of bikes that are so different. And the “Retirement Clock” is ticking…..

[jgger]

Well Terry as much as I love my FJR, it is a crap handler in sandy or dirt roads, so.......... What I would love to have as a 2nd bike is a Honda XR650L.  Air called carburated basic Dual sport and simple as a drink of water. There are plenty of Forrest roads close by and the FJR just isn't made for that. Oh well, one of these days

[Terry in Australia]

Well Terry as much as I love my FJR, it is a crap handler in sandy or dirt roads, so.......... What I would love to have as a 2nd bike is a Honda XR650L.  Air called carburated basic Dual sport and simple as a drink of water. There are plenty of Forrest roads close by and the FJR just isn't made for that. Oh well, one of these days

Go for it Jim, the FJR is a truly magnificent "Sport Tourer", but definitely not in it's comfort zone (or design brief) for lumpy dirt roads. The XR Honda's are good, as are most of the basic Kawasaki and Suzuki big singles, or even some of Yamaha's new twin cylinder "Adventure bikes", not to mention just about any BMW Adventure bike. The old Suzuki T500 is excellent in the dirt with it's reasonably low weight, wide bars and big skinny tyres, and still a fun road oriented bike, and being a 2 stroke twin couldn't be simpler, so I quite like exploring dirt roads on it, although some heavier duty rear shocks would be handy as the ones on it are better suited to someone under 200 pounds. I'll do some dirt road exploration on the DT250 too, it doesn't have the grunt of the T500, but has better off road capabilities again.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry….. That RE is a  VERY good looking bike indeed.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks John, yes it’s got some beautiful lines. If you ever see a pic of Royal Enfield 750 Dominator of the 1960’s you’ll see where the engine design came from. RE “Mirror Imaged” the original engine externally as a tribute to the original engine but filled it with modern internals. The original 750 was no slouch, but like most bikes of the era vibrated badly and leaked oil, overheated, and was pretty much a sales flop. What RE need to do now is a production V twin.

A budget priced 1000cc V twin would be a great sales success. Ian Carberry built the first V twin Royal Enfield of the modern era (not the Indian scammer who stole Carberry’s idea and got himself on the Jay Leno’s Garage show) and I love that Classic 1930’s British V Twin look, once again I know I need to thin the herd, but if one came along……

[jgger]

Well, usually, Monday thru Thursday, I have to taxi my grand daughter to and from school, but today, she didn't have a class today. Sooooooo I said screw it to my yard work and knocked off #9.

So the plan, yes I had a plan this time, aren't you guys impressed? So the plan was all the way over Ortega to San Juan, hit the Frwy down to Dana Point/ Doheny, cruise Pacific Coast Hwy to Newport Beach, visit my nephew at his shop, do a u-turn and go hone the same way. We'll Ortega was nice, and PCH wasn't too bad except for the massive accident going the other way so I decided to just make a big loop. Went to the nephew's shop and the guys told ne he was in Idaho.  Seems like every time I try to visit, he is gone.......it must be nice. Oh well another time maybe. Next I headed down Balboa Peninsula to the end and back up to PCH. Took a spin around Lido Island and took a pic of a house we framed about 5 or so years ago. I decided to take the Freeway home because I had to get home by 5 o'clock.  Stopped for a quick bathroom break and some old guy saw my bike and cornered me into a 15 minute conversation, I checked my watch and saw I had an hour to make it home, of course it was rush hour. When I was working g down there that trip at that time of day was easily 1 1/2-2 hours. I made it in an hour and five, gotta love legal lane splitting!

Anyhoo ride 9 is done.

Stats:
    Begin temp      72°f/24°c
    Lowest temp.  64°f/18c
    Home temp.    68°f/20°c
    Total distance 128mi/206km

[PeWe]

I can imagine how fun  it is with taste of the magic bike freedom, jgger!

You are soon the leader of the  2024 rides?

Nice to see how California look like too!

[jgger]

Thanks Per, your turn is comming soon.

[PeWe]

Thanks Per, your turn is comming soon.

I got a package delivered to my door yesterday evening.
A new Garmin Zumo XT2 bike GPS.
I look forward to new routes on for me unknown areas.

[jgger]

If I wasn't so cheap I would probably have one too. Look forward to see how it works for you. For now you can try it out in your car.

Jim/jgger

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Jim, your FJR looks magnificent, I loved mine, best $2K I ever spent. We’re neck and neck at 9 rides, I’m hoping to get #10 in on Sunday.

[jgger]

Thanks Terry. I'm hoping for 10 tomorrow (Friday here in the USA)  We are supposed to have another storm comming in on the weekend.......we will see.j

Which bike is next up?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Jim, I’m trying to decide whether to take the T500 again, or something else. If Spotty and I can get all the lights and blinkers working on the DT250 I’ll be sorely tempted to get an “Unregistered Vehicle Permit” and take it for a scoot. From memory my 1977 DT250MX was quick enough to keep up with traffic on the freeway back in 80/81 when I was about the same weight as I am now, so the first 15 miles of freeway riding before I hit the backroads should be manageable.

I’ve only ridden it around the local streets near Spotty’s place but it feels pretty good, so a longer ride to “blow out the cobwebs” would be nice, and Spotty will probably be happy to have it out of his garage. Next job at Spotty’s speed shop is bringing my BMW K100RS back to life after sitting neglected in my storage unit since 2015.

I bought a new battery, fuel pump and front brake MC rebuild kit for it, so once we’ve washed it, cleaned the sludge out of the fuel tank and replaced everything we’ll give it an oil change, pump up the new (10 year old) Pirelli’s, check the coolant levels and call it good. Once it’s going I’ll open up the box containing the turbo kit Ted sent me all those years ago, and see if we can turn it into a real “Bavarian Murder Weapon”…..

[budman]

Ride #6, 111 miles.

Been busy and I haven't been able to get out when the weather was decent.  Temps have been all over the place.  Two days ago, it was 36F when I woke up and 75F in the afternoon.  But it seems as though we are now in Spring.  First Texas Blue Bonnet sighting of the season, and just a mile or so from my house.  I did the entire ride without seeing any others.  Soon the Hill Country will be covered with them.

All familiar roads today.  I was scouting for some new roads on Google Maps.  Not that I'm getting tired of these...I think I just need one of those 300 miler, all day rides.  Maybe head a little farther west then I've been.

Great to see folks adding to their ride counts.  With Spring in the air, I'm going to have to shoot for at least one ride/week.

[jgger]

Nice, Bud. Not to worry, I'm sure you will be clocking the miles soon, this is the fickle time of year foe weather.

I was hoping for #10 yesterday but got carried away with stuff around the house. Of course now it's raining for the weekend, but Monday looks good. At least with all this rain the wildflowers should be awsome this year.

I know that I don't post many food pics, so after I didn't go for a ride today I did this.


So this is to make up for that.
yum!

[PeWe]

Good rides with spring flowers, the best part of the year with the knowledge much more to come.

That meaty meal looks tempting. I have most of a bottle of  Californian Maple & Ash Pinot Noir I'm currently working on that should taste fine in that company and weather

[jgger]

Well Per, I feel as though I have let you down for not posting pictures of food and since I can't ride because of the rain and you can't because of the snow. I figured we could both enjoy a good BBQ tri- tip.
L

[PeWe]

Well Per, I feel as though I have let you down for not posting pictures of food and since I can't ride because of the rain and you can't because of the snow. I figured we could both enjoy a good BBQ tri- tip.
L

A BBQ trip would be fantastic, that's for sure!
I'm too busy in my life here, but a ride as Terry has planned for 2025 would be really nice.

I have seen episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Triple D). You have delicious food over there!!

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Bud, and Jim, that meat looks magnificent. Spotty and I got the blinkers fixed on the DT250 yesterday, so today I decided that it needed a shakedown ride to make sure it didn't explode before I take it in for it's Roadworthy Inspection certificate later in the week. I rode it home from Spotty's place and noticed that it was a bit ragged down low, but smoothed out after I gave it a rev.

There was no foam "sock" on the air filter frame.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So I "recycled" the foam from the old seat cover, and wrapped it around the cage, using zip ties to hold it in place.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Magnetic parts trays are really handy, I bought a set of these recently, but hadn't used any of them until today.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The bike had a B9EV plug in it, so I googled the correct type, and it was a B8ES. As luck would have it I had a new plug so I installed it, and put the colder plug in my tool kit, which I'd borrowed from my Suzuki T350.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The bike started on the second kick, and settled into an easy idle. It was quite cool today, barely in the 70's, so I found a big warm jacket that also had nice big pockets that I could put my tool kit in. I took off into the traffic, and while it was still missing and farting a tad, it still kept up with traffic. I stayed away from freeways, but did manage to do 60 MPH for awhile, @ 6000 RPM, and it seemed happy enough. As soon as I was able I got off the bitumen and onto the dirt, where I had an absolute ball. The longer travel suspension was great on the potholed bitumen roads, but on washboard gravel roads, it was delightful.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I had a cigarette, and decided to do a plug change. The new NGK looked fine, but I installed the 40 year old B9 and it started on the first kick and seemed to run a tad nicer, but it still missed and farted a bit. It delivered me home with no ill effects, so any shakedown ride where I don't need to call a towtruck is a good ride, in my book.

DT250 Sunday 3 March 2024 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'll pull the carb again on Tuesday (going into hospital tomorrow) and check to see if there's any crap in it, and I ordered a new ignition coil ($29 on Ebay) just in case it's a failing coil. Apart from that, it's on the road after a 36 year hibernation, and I'm happy that I did ride #10 on my new(to me) Yamaha.

[PeWe]

Good progress of your DT250, Terry.

I see now it is looking good and has for its years a good patina.

Some bikes have the colors and graphics design that makes them look better than their real condition revealed at a closer look.

My blue K6 looks mostly good in photos despite it can be dirty and in need of polishing chrome and aluminium.

My car has metallic silver grey, a good color that seldom need a wash.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry….. that’s a good looking machine!

I got a chuckle from a few of the above posts. A “tri-tip” became “BBQ-trip”. How many miles/oz. will qualify? If the meat is more, can the mileage be less?