Warranty work

Broken parts, uh oh. Nothing bad.
I changed the oil and transmission oil last night, 37K miles (for my reference) Stuck on another K&N filter. This one didn't seem to go on very well even backed it off and tried it again. so when I started the bike, quite a bit of oil leaked out around the filter. Tightened with a wrench, no more leak, hopefully I'll be able to take it off when the time comes.

But while I was checking for leaks I also tried to find out why my exhaust sounded different, and louder than normal. There is was, the rear header pipe, had a crack, almost a split, coming out of the rear head. I guess that explains why I though my bike sounded different. I was wondering if it was because I had been doing my long rides with earplugs (to reduce wind noise) and had gotten used to them or if my long trip had further "broken in" my slipons which really didn't make sense. I guess it also explains the recent increase in decel popping which I thought was due to the warmer temperatures as we are now well into the 90's.

I called the dealership, it should be covered under my extended warranty and I'm going to have them look at the small primary leak I have. From what I have been able to determine, and I could very easily be wrong, that leak may actaully be from the transmission drive seal.

The only other thing that has me concerned is the cam chain tensioner. Its one of those things that may or may not be a problem, but I don't know if I have a concern, or if its covered. Still trying to figure out how to proceed on that, maybe I'll just pick up a gasket and try to inspect it myself.

Assorted trip photos

Night shots on Las Vegas Strip. I have more but unfortunately most of the rest are blurry. double clicking on any of the images loads a higher resolution shot.






Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. Petroglyphs, critters and lots of cool rocks.









Highway 164 - Joshua Tree Highway - California / Arizona





Hoover Dam - Lake Mead





Kingman, Arizona - Route 66



Route 87 - Scottsdale to Payson, AZ




Route 260 Arizona, around McNary. Yes that white stuff is snow, I'm and 9100 ft. Especially considering that in 24 hours, the temp hits 110 in Scottsdale, just a couple of hundred miles away,




Pie Town, New Mexico - stopped for lunch.

Las Vegas Trip Report

Still sorting though pictures, will post several in the next day or two. Mileages listed below are approximate.

Day 1 – 435 miles, from home to Monahans, TX. I met everyone at the dealership and we were on the road just after 2 PM. Mini-T, Ray and Deb Caul, and Jerry and Dave Barnes. We started off in the rain and were under threat of rain most of the trip with periodic clearing. Rain gear came off after a couple of hours. It’s a good thing we stopped in Monahans, and not earlier as Midland had significant rain overnight.

Day 2 – 750 miles, from Monahans, TX to Glendale, AZ. This was a long one, my personal longest single day distance, previously was about 615 miles. While it was mostly interstate (including 80MPH limits in far west TX) we had a few stops. We did the two westernmost Lone Star Challenge Points, in Fort Stockton, and Horizon City. I have not ridden essentially all regions of Texas except for the farthest southern points. I also have no real desire to visit El Paso in the future. Just not a lot of comfort in that area. Close to the border, which unfortunately has a significant Mexican Drug war influence. The only relief was the time of day we went through, well under the light of the day! Long lunch as some small town Mexican restaurant as well.

Day 3 – 300 miles, from Glendale, AZ to Las Vegas NV. Very comfortable beds we had to get out of…. Took 60, then 93 out of Phoenix area, 93 is also called the Joshua Tree highway. Those things are pretty surrealistic for a foreigner. In fact on a lot of this trip I’m thinking no wonder they make “those” movies in these parts. Felt very Star Warsy. As well as all those bad horror movies, which are very easy to see the inspiration. You gotta be a different sort to live out it these climes. We also rode over the Hoover Dam which is very impressive, and apparently will not be an option in the future as they are building a bypass. Then…. Las Vegas Baby! It’s a much larger city than I expected, I guess I still think Dean Martin / Frank Sinatra when the city was smaller. We went to the Las Vegas HD dealership, very large place, picked up a couple of souvenirs then off to the Red Rock Resort and Spa. Its on the west end of the city and is a nice new facility. Darlene and the others arrived about 6:30 and we took a cab down to the strip to check it out.

Day 4 – 280 miles, Valley of Fire to Cali border loop. Day to myself as everyone is in class. Rode to the Valley of Fire State park. Even more surreal. Lots of critters too. Took lots of pics in the park. Then down to Searchlight and across to the California Border. Through another Joshua Tree “forest”? and over the border.. WTF, someone stole the California sign!!! Well at least I had to cross the border again so looped back on the interstate and got Cali. Oh yeah, 2 state signs, and I forgot my HOG tales book at the hotel. Oh well, I am sure I can make it work out.
We had the reception party, gambled a bit, neither of us were that interested in gambling, I don’t know if we even spent $20, then went to a bar and watched the nightclub act Zowie Bowie. They were pretty cool. Thought it was David Bowies son, but its not.

Day 5 – 325 miles, Las Vegas, NV to Scottsdale, AZ. Basically took the reverse route back from Las Vegas. Made a couple of stops including an old historic mining town in Chloride, AZ. Spent the night at Kris and Lindsey’s house. Thank you very much for the hospitality, food and margaritas! Phoenix metro area is pretty large, and not without traffic issues. Visited a couple of dealers.

Day 6 – 550 miles, Scottsdale, AZ to Roswell, NM. Early start, took 87 up to Payson, gorgeous highway. Then took a route along 60/260. Stopped to look at the snow… Elevation here was over 9100 feet. Into New Mexico, starting to need food and fuel. Had lunch in Pie Town and asked about gas. There was a power grid upgrade in the region, has been running over by about 3 hours, no electricity, next town has pumps but he wasn’t open today due to the upgrade… Uh oh. Next town after that also had pumps, and may have a generator to run…. Wrrrr, power comes on just before I finish up. Arrive in Magdalena at +180 miles on the odometer and no gas indicator light. Tempted to try to get to Socorro but didn’t want to push my luck. Wow, last 6 gallons at 45 mph, I’m impressed! Much better than the 37-38 we were getting pushing 80MPH on the first days. After this last stop the ride starts getting interesting again as finally there are big critters to watch out for. The antelope are crazy in these parts! First ones I see are on the shoulder and just about freaked me out, I went whizzing but and they barely even acknowledged me. Later one crosses the highway too close, in front of me. Also see lots, and lots of deer in the fields as well as more antelope, several turkeys and some Canada Geese.
Roswell on a Sunday night is dead, dead, dead…. Not that I needed any more excitement.

Day 7 - 550 miles, Roswell, NM to HOME! Took advantage of the bed, and took a detour to Clovis to check out the dealership, well, since it was on the way to Earth, another LSC point. Ah yes, the wonderful sights and smells of the panhandle plains of Texas…. Actually wasn’t bad at all. I have a state trooper give me a friendly reminder (warning) of the speed limit in these parts so I guess it will take me a tad longer to get home. Hit the highest temps of the trip, 102-103 F in a couple of small towns. Finally got home around 7pm and after 7 days in the saddle my butt was just beginning to get sore.

All in all it was a great ride. I really didn’t get tired riding at any point, except for one 45 minute period after lunch on Day 2. Saw lots of sights, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Bike Pics

Before I get into my trip report, I wanted to post some of the pictures of the motorcycles that were at the bike show at the 6th anniversary party at the dealership the other day. I always like taking shots of the bikes, including some detail shots.

States visited map

I've had time to update my map, added three additional states, Arizona, Nevada and California.



create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Later this summer we will get some additional states as we head to Milwaukee.

Sorry for the image, its wider than my column, but so far I haven't visited any of the easternmost state so I guess that's ok.

3250 miles...

In 7 days, what a trip. Too late to write up today, may take a couple of days as there was so much to remember. I rode the last three days by myself, 4 days if you count my trip around Las Vegas, and took quite a few pictures. This one below is one of my favorite but I haven't had a chance to look at all of them in detail yet, so this is a teaser.



I believe this was on AZ State Highway 87 somewhere between Scottsdale and Payson.

Motorcycle Stunt Team

At the dealership on Saturday, they had a stunt team performing. They had a Buell and a Sportster, and were going wheelies and assorted tricks and burnouts to the point of blowing up their tires.

The stunt team was Illconduct.

Here are some shots.

Mother's Day Weekend

It was a busy weekend, started off quite warm on Friday and into Saturday. The boys spent quite a bit of time in the pool.

Saturday was the dealerships 6th anniversary so there was a big party planned. I had to get my rear tire changes (note - 33,800 miles) and a state inspection, before my trip to Vegas. No way that tire would have made that round trip. I got there quite early and it was not very busy so I got that turned around and went out and finished the PTP location shots. By the time I got back, the girls were setting up for the bake sale and food.

We stayed there till about 3:30, with all the festivities, the chapter raised quite a bit of money for Cumberland as there were a lot of folks dropping by. There were some nice bikes in the bike show and the stunt riders were pretty cool. Mostly wheelies, but they beat the crap out of those bikes!

Sunday we had the Mother's Day dinner ride to Hanks in Mckinney. It was one of my training rides and although we had a relatively small turnout (17 bikes) it was a good ride of about 72 miles with some twisty and sweeping sections.

Since the destination was in Mckinney, it was a quick ride home. We went out and did a little garden landscaping before the boys got wet again.

I took a lot of pics at the show and will post some later today. Tonight am getting ready for my Vegas trip. It will be long riding days....

Rally pics

This is the view outside our hotel room.



Some of the paint jobs were really cool.





Very small sampling of bikes, since it was a HOG rally most of bikes were Harley's.