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Bringing the next generation along...

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Tourmeister said:
Got in a FAST and HOT ride on the 530 this evening so I could make sure the new countershaft seals were good to go. They are. I also mounted up my new Insta360 X3 camera. Now I just have to figure out how to edit it for YouTube.
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Seal good to go?
 
Another vid from last night's ride,


The audio is horrible. It mutes the sound of the bike while trying unsuccessfully to mute the wind noise. Also, there is a scratching sound which I think is the extension pole creaking as the unit bounces around out there on the end of the pole. I am impressed with image stability given that the unit is way out there flopping on the end of a three foot long pole! Some of those roads were VERY bumpy!

I ended up getting the DJI Mic kit. This will let me record audio independent of the camera. Hopefully, strategic placement of the mic will improve the sound.
 
woodsguy said:
No dreams here, documented over 11000 on GS850. Have to go outside to shop actual number. Too hot right now. 30% Dirt maybe, rest hard top. I'm no GP racer but ride fairly hard.
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lower HP and weight bikes are a different story, but I commend those that can do it period. I can't but again, I used to ride my bikes harder than most. I'd get get 2500-3000 out of mid sticky basic GT tires on my CBR1100 Blackbird. I did see one go to 4500 miles once :-)
 
We got out for a quick ride last Saturday to test out some new mods to the KTMs and also to experiment with my Insta360 X3 camera. I am working on getting the kids used to riding in the sand! Daniel loves it. Sarah... not so much, but she is getting it done!

The volume is intentionally low because of the bad wind noise, it is not your speakers :-P

 
Many of you knew Phil "Pkiser" Kiser here on TWT. He was a long time personal friend from the very early days of TWT. For years he has always graciously helped me change tires whenever I needed a set done. It was always a time I looked forward to because we'd bang out the tires pretty quick and then typically spend a few hours hanging out in the garage or sitting on the tailgate of the truck talking about life, family, church, politics, bikes, and pretty much anything else you might think of. The last time I got to see him was early this Spring when Daniel and I went over to do a set of tires for my GS. Unfortunately, this was not one of our typical visits and we pretty much just banged out the tires and we all had to get going because of other plans.

He left us far too soon May 11th, 2023 :zen:

So it was with trepidation that I spoke with his wife recently and she agreed to let us use his shop to mount new tires for all our bikes in preparation for the upcoming big trip. She's doing as well as can be expected, taking things one day at a time. While I had fun teaching the kids how to do the tires, everywhere I looked in his shop just made memories come flooding back. His "Man Cave" was not grand like some, but it is cozy and fully functional. It just really made me miss him something bad...

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Sarah learning how to replace the stem core after getting her new front tire on the rim. The bead snapping back in place made her jump pretty good :lol2:
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Daniel showed up a little while after we got there to help. We were doing his tires as well.
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Ranchel... well... she's a crazy little sister, but she was actually helpful this evening!
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I can't even begin to count how many tires we've done with this old machine over the years.
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Someone has been slipping this boy some growth hormones or I am shrinking... maybe both... :doh:

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It took us about 2-1/2 hours going slow and taking our time. We mounted the Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires on all of our bikes. I had seen comments on Facebook and here on TWT about them being hard to mount. We had no trouble at all. I did use liberal amounts of the Yamaha spray tire lube. It is a bit messy, but that stuff makes tires slide on/off the rim super easy! While we had the tires off my rims, I replaced the TPMS sensors for both wheels. The rear sensor battery was going out and both are six years old, so I just went ahead and replaced both while we were at it. Once done, we cleaned up the place and visited with Bambi (his wife) for a bit and then grabbed a quick dinner before heading home.

All three bikes waiting patiently for their new tires!
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Daniel's 2020 KTM 390 Adventure
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My 2017 BMW R1200 GS Rallye with the new Mosko Moto tank bag. The laptop is hooked up to the bike via the GS-911 so I could make the computer recognize the new tire pressure sensors. The little red thing on the chair is the doohickey that makes the sensors "wake up" so the bike will recognize them. It has one button. Push and hold that for five seconds, job done. So easy even an Aggie could do it... WHOOP!
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Sarah's 2022 KTM 390 Adventure.
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The two 390s are getting new chains and sprockets. The original chains and sprockets are really only good for about 5K miles from everything I have read online. Daniel's bike is right at that and the chain is pretty well used up and the sprocket tips are showing a good bit of wear. I got a nice kit for each bike that slightly lowers the gearing by using a bigger rear sprocket rather than dropping from a 15 to 14 tooth on the front. From what I have read, going to a 14 front is great for the low end, but really cuts off the top end. Going with the bigger rear sprocket and staying with the 15 front puts me halfway between stock and dropping to the 14. So hopefully, it will help a little on the bottom end without killing the top end because we will have some places where we have to cruise the highways on our trips and I don't want to get run off the road if we can't run freeway speeds. So pretty much all that is left now is to do their chains and sprockets, and then an oil change and air filter replacement. All the luggage is setup and we've figured out how to pack everything.

Now we just wait...
 
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Those pictures bring back memories. Harsh reminder. Glad Bambi is doing ok.
 
A couple nights ago I did travel the Crystal Springs road here in Wyoming , crossing the basin east side from hiway 14 to 14A , It is not a haul road for the bentonite trucks as I thought , a few miles at the south end is otherwise typical one lane dirt road through the foot hills , impassable if wet and probably 30 miles from pavement to pavement . Made a couple trips up on the mountain late evening to see if we could get a glimpse of northern lights this week . No luck with northern lights but did watch somebody drive around on the side of another peak for well over an hour a few miles away , head lights then tail lights and they never seemed to get very far , must of given up and decided to sleep in the car after a while . Gobbs of satellites , space station one night and a thunder storm crossing Montana over the horizon put on a nice show . Quite a few elk , moose and deer on the road coming down late at night too . Driving in the out back at night without a gps would mean spending the night in the outback if you were to try it and haul roads are not on the gps .
 
Just adding a link here to the big trip report,

www.twtex.com

There comes a time...

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12 KJV As a youngster, it was easy to take the days and time for granted. Looking back down the years and getting into my late 50s, not so much anymore... We all know our time is limited, but few of us KNOW in...
www.twtex.com www.twtex.com
 
So as part of getting ready for our big trip this past summer, I sold the 2017 Yamaha XT250 Daniel and Sarah used to learn to ride on the street. This helped pay for Sarah’s 390 Adventure. I should have kept it. Rachel recently decided it is time for her to learn to ride. We got her a helmet and boots a few weekends ago. I have a small sized KLIM Badland Pro jacket used by Daniel and Sarah and a pair of BMW armored riding pants that both fit her perfectly. Just need to get her some good gloves. Anyway, back to the XT250. When I sold ours, the prices seemed low. I started looking for another and the prices seemed high!! I found one on Facebook that looked like a good deal. I contacted the seller and spoke with him. It was a 2023 model with just under 800 miles on it. He had all the desired extras already installed and a TON of extra parts he bought for it: spare brake pads, air and oil filters, spark plugs, second chain and sprockets, and much more! I made him an offer and he said, “Come and get it.” We had to wait a week before I could take off. Daniel and I left around 11:30am and headed East toward New Orleans. He lived North of lake Pontchartrain. We made good time and arrived just before 6:00pm, did the deal and had a nice visit, loaded the bike and beat feet back home, arriving just before 1:00am. 760 mile round trip. Now the fun begins!

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Tourmeister said:
Well, technically all of our bikes are hand me downs! :-P It has been a LONG time since I purchased any bike new from a dealer!
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Thats very sound logic these days from so many angles. 4 of the 6 new bikes i bought in my life were before i was 19. Thats 6 new in a total of 73 owned so far. :-) i learned value shopping early in life.
 
So, it is time to start planning again. Rachel has been really busy with her gymnastics training and competitions. Between that and the short winter days, I've not had a chance to start her motorcycle training with the XT-250. Hopefully, that will change in a month or so. Meanwhile, Daniel will be graduating high school in May. We are heading to Pensacola like we did last year with Sarah so he can walk across the stage and get his diploma in person with all the other home schooled kids that used the Abeka curriculum and decided to attend the graduation. After that, he and I will head on up into the Smoky Mountains to meet Rsquared and his B.I.L. to ride for 8-9 days. So it is time to start prepping bikes and planning routes again!
 
Just adding this to this thread for archiving purposes...

www.twtex.com

Daniel Graduates Highschool and We Head for the Smokies!

All of our kids have been home schooled. We have used the ABEKA curriculum for most of their education. This curriculum is created by Pensacola Christian College (PCC). It is not required, but if you submit the student's work as they go along, the school will keep track of it and upon completion...
www.twtex.com www.twtex.com

I think I have links to ALL of our trips and adventures in this one thread.
 
Rachel is finally done with the gymnastics competitions for this year, but not it is freaking HOT and HUMID! I think we may wait until it cools in the fall or maybe we find a nice evening here and there before then. She won't even be getting her driver's license until mid August, so no super hurry.
 
So some of you may have read from the intro to the trip report for the graduation trip to the Smoky Mountains for Daniel where I had new suspension installed on my GS and the new front shock ended up being defective. The repaired shock arrived the day after we returned from the trip. It took me a week to build up the motivation to start the process of tearing the bike apart so I could access the top mounting bolt. It can never be easy... :doh:

My “assistant”
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Checked for continuity before installing. Getting meter probes down in there and maintaining contact with the leads while trying to hold everything was a challenge!
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The threaded insert at the back right end of the gas tank started spinning in place!? I could not pry it out. Turns out there is a lip around the bottom preventing them from being able to pull out. It spun so freely that I didn’t bother breaking out the impact wrench. So I posted on Advrider asking for advice. The best solution I saw was to just cut the head of the bolt and turn it into a 1/4 turn fastener. It was late. I was tired. I went to bed and slept on it.

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Saturday I mowed the yard for the first time since the end of April. It was impossible to do earlier because of all the rain the first two weeks of May, around 26”!! Then we were gone for two weeks for the trip. It rained another 7-8” while we were gone :brainsnap I tried mowing shortly after we got back and promptly got the mower seriously stuck. Then it rained some more. After maybe 5 days, it had finally stopped raining and dried out enough that I was able to extricate the mower and spend all afternoon mowing. The grass was THICK and literally over two feet tall. My big Kubota 220 zero turn got it done after I raised the deck to 3”. Even then I had to go really slow and make 3-4 passes to get it cut even remotely even. This had me feeling productive so I decided to go with that momentum and revisit my bike…

The results of my Dremelling (is that a legit verb?)
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Pry mark from early attempts with screw driver
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Gas tank and bodywork removed, but still had to pull the air box back for access
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Used the rubber mallet as an assistant’s hand to keep air box out of the way. I was just able to get my cheater bar on the wrench and get ONE click of rotation each time. It took a while :argh:
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Once the top bolt was loose, the swap was quick and easy! Then started the process of remembering where all the various little screws, plastic rivets, and electrical plugs went. And… one of those little screws fell down inside the bodywork :suicide: And… ultimately I had to remove everything on the right side to find it and get access to it. And… start that whole inane process's again. I’d like to have a few words with the engineers at BMW 😬

The new 1/4 turn fastener. I put a dab of anti-seize on the other threaded inserts for good measure.
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Finally back together and ready to ride some time after midnight. Daniel was helping Sarah put new sprocket and a chain on her bike, so I did a bit of detailing on the GS with some Honda Pro Polish.
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High and low speed damping circuits for front and rear shocks.
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The Sunday ride after church was great. I headed to Mallet Bros BBQ in Iola for lunch. They close at 2:00pm. I got there at 1:45pm. The only vehicle was a lonely old KLR 650. Inside I spotted the owner as I placed my order. When I got my food, I asked him if he minded me joining him. We got booted out a few minutes after 2:00, but then sat at the picnic table outside under the oak trees visiting until a bit after 3:00! His name was Sam Holletts (not sure on spelling of last name). He was 71 and still riding :thumb: I told him about the forum and gave him my contact info. Then we headed our separate ways. I still had some tweaking to do on the suspension settings.

I headed out of Iola on the backroads toward the Navasota River bottoms. I had gone up a click on the front low speed and down two on the front high speed adjusters. This made the front end firm on the smoother stuff and smooth on the sharper hitting rough stuff. Now, instead of the impacts rocking the bike back and forth like a rocking horse, it just glided through the rough stuff like it wasn’t there! It was REALLY making me wish I’d had it installed for our trip!!

The other effect of the suspension was to throw off my feel/sense of speed. At one point I happened to glance down at my GPS and realized I was hauling a bit faster than was prudent for these roads. Seeing deer out here during the day was not uncommon. I've had several unfortunate deer encounters on a bike over the years and they were not fun! No sooner had that thought finished forming in my mind, an adult deer shot out of the high grass on my left, cutting straight across the road into the high grass on the right. I had already begun rolling off to slow down but didn’t even remotely have time to hit the brakes. I missed its hindquarters by a foot or so!! Amazingly, it managed to turn on a dime and started pacing me for about 20 yards before finding the hole in the tree line it was looking for and then disappeared.

Message received :wary:

I rode slower the rest of the day.

Bridge southwest of Bedias has been repaired.
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I am very happy with the improvement of the bike’s handling, on pavement and dirt. It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it. It probably saved me from trying to rationalize buying a used 1250 Rallye :lol2:
 
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