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

[BallAquatics]

Looks like a beautiful day Lash.  Fantastic looking bike too!  We are being blessed with some exceptional weather for this early in the season.   

Beautiful day for ride #11.  72 °F with lots of sunshine.  Rode to work to finalize my leaving and then just meandered.  Hit some roads I haven't ridden before.  Stopped once at the equestrian area of Kiser Lake State, https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/kiser-lake-state-park, but forgot to take any photos.  99.3 miles, (160 km) in total.

On the Yamaha Turbo again.  This bike likes to run free.  Seems to run better each time I take it out.  Cold weather fuel mileage dropped to around 45 mpg, but in warmer weather she gets around 53 mpg.

[BallAquatics]

Rain moving in this afternoon so a short ride #12 today.  56.6 miles, 91 km.  Took a trip out to Mom's place to give it the once over, and then wound my way back home going the long way.

Sunny and mid 60's at the start, cloudy and 69 °F when I returned.  Hoping the rain holds off a bit as I told a friend I'd take the trailer and fetch a riding lawn mower from Dayton this afternoon.

[jgger]

Looks good Dennis. Wondering can be the best destination sometimes.

30 plus m.p.h. wind here today, so not riding. ☹️

I believe you're in the lead, but watch out for lash, he is comming up quick.

[lash]

Managed to get in #11 today. Only 80km but had to beat the rain. No time for a pic today..Next two weeks don’t look very promising but you never know!

[willbird]

#3, 93 miles pretty windy near zip 43543

Bill

[ofreen]

I'll call this one #2.  It was a very nice spring day, so I ran a tank of gas through the faithful 750F.  I went up Harris Creek Road to find some Kodak opportunities.

[jgger]

Looks like fun, Greg. Was it cold?

[PeWe]

Beautiful pictures of fantastic landscapes and the long running CB750 with a good oil.

[ofreen]

Looks like fun, Greg. Was it cold?

It was nice, low 50's when I left the house and 70 when I got back.

Beautiful pictures of fantastic landscapes and the long running CB750 with a good oil.

Thanks PeWe, good oil and good design and construction it appears.  It will roll over 169,000 miles in about 20 more.

[BallAquatics]

First nice day in almost 2 weeks.  So a leisure 80 mile ride #12 #13 today.  Temps in the low 60's F, but pretty strong winds.  A mix of sun and clouds.  Kept warm except for my hands.

The NC700X is the least exciting bike in my garage, but I love this bike.  It's so well balanced, most of the weight down low.  Gets 80 MPG, and is quiet and smooth.  With the Michelin Road 5 tires it will carve up a twisty back road like nobody's business.

I guess when the time comes to thin out the heard, it's going to be hard to part with this one...

[jgger]

So Dennis, is this your " I'm unemployed " ride?  It looks like youe the leader now. 80 miles is enough to clear the mind too, so well done.

I have a bunch of maintenance to do to my 1 horse herd, so maybe I can squeeze in one more short ride and then its;
  2 new tires
  Install my angle valve stems
  Clean/ grease steering head bearings
  New rear shock
  Service the rear suspension
  Service the drive shaft
  Service the swing arm bearings
  Install the Barkbuster hand guards
  Find/ fix whatever is making the fork cap weep
  Oil and filter change
  Clean the K and N air filter
  And probably about 20 more OCD things while I'm in there too!

But dadgummit when it's all done I will try to catch up with you guys!

[BallAquatics]

So Dennis, is this your " I'm unemployed " ride? 

It is Jim, and I'm kinda freaking out about it.  I started working at 13 and have always had a job for the past 54 years.  I've run all the numbers and everything looks great, but I don't have a pay check after this week...  I guess I'll get used to it.  It doesn't help that the weather has been #$%* and I can't really get out and do anything.

I'm supposed to be happy right?  Everyone wants to retire and live a life of leisure.  Well it's like my signature line says, It's never too late to start a new adventure!

Too bad we are so far apart, I'd come over and give you a hand with your maintenance work.   

[jgger]

The help would be nice, but I'll get it, you just concentrate on getting those rides and stay safe.

Yes being retired is weird after working for so long (56 years for me). It does make you a bit of a loner and there are things that I miss and things I don't miss. But it is what it is, just stay busy and enjoy life, if you don't like it you can always find something to do, like ride to new places!

[jgger]

Tuesday, the warden let Eeyore the Magnificent and yours truly out on parole, because she was sick of looking at my face, but we'll take it!  Got # 12 in the books for 97 miles of exploration.  On my ride #10 I wrote about a new to me roads to check out, but due to some recient rains I was too chicken to try it out. Well it has dried up a bit so I decided to go for it. A burst up Ortega hwy to my normal stop at the trail head/ rest area for a snack and cup of coffee, then it was off to explore. I had to backtrack a bit to get to South Main Divide to see where it would end up.

It turns out that this is a seasonal road that they close during fire season, so I'm glad I went when I did. It was a Magnificent ride although not exactally suited for a 650 pound sport touring bike with worn out street tires. So I'm not sure if I was sporting or touring or just plain crazy today ( the jury is still out on that one!), It started out paved, then started showing some major pot holes, like 3 feet in diameter and about 8 to 12 inches deep. After that it started getting bad. I was begining to wish that I had a 21 inch front tire and about 400 pounds  less bike, but Eeyore handled everything well. I spent most of 20 miles in 2nd gear and even down to 1st for some obstacles. This road was so narrow that many places 2 cars could not pass each other, but it was all worth it. I had to remember to ride like when I used to race Desert, when you see an obstacles look away or you will be drawn to it like a magnet! I found a nice river crossing and some waterfalls and just alot of pretty rugged landscape.

It was important to me to take this ride because Eeyore is due for a bunch of service items and both tires. That means my entire stable of one motorcycle will be out of commission for a while.  Anyhoo how about some stats and pics...............OK!

Stats
   Start temp.         61°f/16°c
   Lowest temp.     57°f/14°c
   Home.                  70°f/21°c
   Total distance     97mi/156kms

[newday777]

You did it jgger! That looks like it was an awesome ride. I wanted to do it back in 2010 when I had just gotten my 83 Goldwing Aspencade on the road and was riding up that way alot but didn't know of S Main Divide Rd and figured there must be one up there. Great report.

[BallAquatics]

Wow Jim, that looks like quite the adventure.  I love it when you can find a new road to travel down and it turns out as cool as yours.  Congrats on ride #12, and thanks for sharing with us.  Fantastic photos.  I need to get better at stopping for some pics.

Be careful with those tires.  I'd not like to get caught in a big rain with them...

[ofreen]

Nice ride jgger.  The mountain lion sign made me think of the Brooks brothers and their encounter with a lion a couple of days ago.  Sounds like they did the best they could with what they had.

[Terry in Australia]

Well I managed to get my "Club Permit" red plate for the DT250 on Friday.

DT250 Thursday 28 March 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Even though I was still waiting on parts, on Saturday I had to get ride #12 in. The tach was off the bike as I was still waiting for 6V "idiot light" bulbs and couldn't be bothered putting it back on. It was interesting riding along watching the tach cable spinning away. It's till missing and farting, but running better after I swapped in the carb from the "spare" DT250 I picked up last week, after I put it in my heated ultrasonic cleaner overnight, and scrubbed it clean. I'd sprayed carb cleaner around the intake joint with the engine running, and there were no leaks, so I was still convinced that it was an ignition issue. No biggie, it was running better with my home made exhaust end baffle tube/ebay el-cheapo muffler, if not a little loud.   

DT250 Thursday 21 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, for most of the ride it ran well enough to allow it to cruise at 60 MPH, plus I got to explore some dirt roads, and although I didn't stop for food again, it was fun.

DT250 Saturday 23 March 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I did have one casualty, that luckily must have happened a few hundred yards from my place. The bolts for the chain guard fell out and the chain ate it. Poop. These things are like rocking horse manure, so I'll have to patch it up.

DT250 Saturday 23 March 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Spotty and I left at 5am Sunday for a swap meet two hours away. Of course I was hoping to find a chainguard, but didn't really see any parts that I could use, so apart from a workshop manual (for the earlier DT's, but for 10 bucks, still good for a read) and some Suzuki T350 chain adjusters in nice condition for $3. We didn't take anything to sell, as there's a bigger swap meet in a couple of weeks closer to home, and we figured that it'd be a better swap to take stuff to. There was a mint Suzuki DT250 with only a couple of thousand miles on the odo for only $2200 (AUD, say $1500 USD) but I don't need two 250 trail bikes.

Monday was a great day, my bulbs, rec/reg arrived, and the new CDI box arrived on Tuesday. I had to modify some of the wires to suit. Gotta love those solder connectors.

DT250 Thursday 28 March 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I installed the bulbs, CDI and rec reg, and apart from the lights all working and brighter now, the engine started first kick with the new CDI, but it made no difference, still missing and farting on acceleration. Oh well, I'll sort it out.

DT250 Saturday 23 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As much as I like the louder pipe, once the bike's running properly, it's too loud to fire up at 5am and will piss off the neighbours. I spoke to Spotty and he suggested a hot caustic bath, so I filled my rubbish bin with hot water and a pound of caustic soda, and was very impressed at how quickly the water went from clear to black. After an hour I'll tip it up the other way to clean out as much gunk as I can, then repaint it (caustic is great paint stripper) and reinstall it. Ride #13 next, not sure which bike I'll be taking.

DT250 Thursday 28 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[jgger]

Terry that is some nasty looking goo! Congrats on #12, I think 3 of us are half way there. That DT250 would have been really fun on my #12 ride

Stu, it was an awsome ride, or should I say putt. Very straight forward comming from Ortega, might be a bit harder to find comming from Murrieta.

Dennis, this was the last ride I think before new tires, these are cupped and feathering. I was pleasantly suprised at how pretty it was back there. I have lived in this area since 1979 and this was a first foe me.

Greg being a Desert racer from the 70's the only Brooks brothers I know of are Cordis and Tommy, both were awsome fast on DKW's. What is the 411 on the mountian lion, and are these the same Brooks brothers?

The tires I got are kinda of a new kid on the block and we're just  over $200 US dollars with tax for the pair. So we shall see, FJR's are hard on tires.  Got angled valve stems too so it should be much easier to add/check the air.

[spotty]

for those that don't know, re terry's post above, caustic soda is NOT suitable for any alloy parts unless you are going for that fine aluminium silt in the bottom of the bucket look

years ago a friend who didn't know this put an extremely rare lambretta cylinder head into caustic and left it for the night, took him 2 years to find another one ( obviously pre ebay, chat rooms etc days )

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, well I just got word back from Rex’s speed shop in Britain that they don’t carry parts for my ignition as apparently the ‘79 model DT250 had a really bad ignition system so it looks like I’ll be up for an expensive aftermarket system that they make. Oh well it explains why the bike has been sitting for so long. I’ll pony up the dough for their system and hopefully won’t have any other issues. Luckily I have plenty of other bikes to ride while I wait for the new ignition system to arrive.

[PeWe]

Caustic soda is good for alu parts!
If used a minute or less in a bucket. Need to look at it constantly. Then rinse it with water.

I cleaned off the bad corrosion on valve cover and wheel hubs. Think 30sec- 1 minute was enough.

The alu oxide turns black, clean it off with steel wool.
The result is old good grey alu look.

I have heard about people that left engine cases too long finding nothing next time. Maybe steel parts only.
Think that was a Harley engine.

[ofreen]

Greg being a Desert racer from the 70's the only Brooks brothers I know of are Cordis and Tommy, both were awsome fast on DKW's. What is the 411 on the mountian lion, and are these the same Brooks brothers?

Sadly no.  The brothers were attacked by a mountain lion last weekend north of Sacramento.  The older brother was killed and the younger brother was severely injured. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/family-identifies-brothers-fatal-northern-190714876.html

[jgger]

Thanks Greg, that was a good article. Not the Brooks I know of. I can't imagine what that young man's life will be like after something like that.

The last fatal attack in Northern California was nearly 30 years ago, in April 1994, when a 40-year-old woman was killed in the Auburn State Recreation Area in El Dorado County.

I was working in Sacramento when this one happened and was hiking along the same trail she was taken from a day before that attack.

[budman]

Ride #8, 132 miles.

The weather here has been goofy since my last ride.  It's either been too cold, too wet or too windy...or I had work to do.  But today!...incredible.  It couldn't have been much nicer.   It was all about the wildflowers, more specifically the Blue Bonnets and the Indian Paint brushes.  I was getting a little worried that I might miss out on the show.  They were just starting to appear on my last ride at the beginning of the month.  I think the bluebonnets might have another week or two in them before they say adios for the year.

The first pic of the longhorn, I actually took yesterday on my way into town in the truck.  I think this may be the widest set of horns I've ever seen in person.  Unfortunately, it decided to turn its head when I went to take the photo.

The second pic of these other cows I took today.  I don't know what these are, but they aren't longhorns.  Look like maybe some African breed.

The wildflowers were out in abundance, more so that last year.  We've gotten a bit more rain this year.   The Willow City Loop is famous for the Blue Bonnets so that's where I headed first.  I thought it would be mostly tame being a weekday, but the people were out looking.  Folks stopping their cars wherever they wanted to take pictures and driving super slow.  Once I got a few pics I headed up to Inks Lake where there's a small overlook that I knew I would be able to chill and eat a small lunch I brought with me.  As I was finishing up another old dude pulled up on his Street Glide and we chatted for about 20 minutes, trading riding stories.

I zig-zagged my way back home, stopping for photos opportunities along the way.  At my last stop I happened to pull up where this calf was chilling in the flowers.  It was about 30 feet away.  Didn't seem afraid at all and just sat there.

I'm going to try and get out next week.  My son is coming in for the eclipse next weekend.  It's going to be crazy.  The crowds are going to be flocking to the Hill Country.  I'm in the direct bath.  Got me some eclipse glasses.  My son bought us tickets for an Eric Johnson concert in San Antonio on Sunday night, before the eclipse on Monday.  I don't think either of us thought it through.  I think San Antonio is going to be crazy.

Looks like ya'll have been busy.  Keep it up.  I'll try and catch up to the pack soon.