Documenting your Wrenching

I try and do what I call basic services on my motorcycles. Part of it is that I am cheap and owning beemers tend to get expensive in terms of maintenance at times. Part of it is the satisfaction of knowing the services was done and done right. Part of it is not liking to leave my motorcycles in the hands of others, and the logistics of bumming a ride from/to the mechanic/dealer to drop off or retrieve ones pride and joy.

Source: California Motorcycle Adventures (googled)
Click the above for a snapshot of Maria's log as of today

So where am I going with this you ask? Doing your own basic stuff, in my opinion, is all well and good but you must also be a zealot about documenting said services! Not only to track and schedule the next required work to keep your motorcycle humming along but also to prove to a buyer that you're steed was well taken care of in case you decide to sell it in the future.

I don't see myself selling Brigitta anytime soon but Maria? Maybe.

I spent part of this morning updating my documentation. The small little space in the owner manual that came with Maria is ludicrous for documenting work, works great for the BMW dealer to check off but that's it. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track my work on my motorcycles.

What do you use on yours?

Note: Yes, I do backups of my computer data monthly and nightly. Do you?

The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 6 Part 2: The Western half of the San Juan Skyway

As a followup to yesterdays posting, here is the scenery and thoughts I'd like put down while such are fresh in my mind.

I left Silverton, CO at 3:00 PM shortly after checking in with my loving wife after my business call was over. I took US 550, aka the Million Dollar Highway, north out of Silverton and while climbing up into the mountains almost immediately had to stop and take pictures. In fact, although it was only 24 miles to Ouray (24 really twisty mountain miles) it took me an hour to get there due to the many stops I had to make for picture taking:

The view just above Silverton, northbound on US 550

Looking towards Ouray on US 550

A closeup of Brigitta near Silverton

Once I managed to tear myself from the beautiful views near to Silverton and enroute to Ouray; I bagged another mountain pass for Brigitta. Red Mountain Pass, named as you will see for the red soil of the mountain peak it lies below of, is the dividing point between two National Forests:

Peak of Red Mountain

Heres some more shots of the Million Dollar Highway, somewhere between Ouray and Silverton I think. I was in such a rush, dammit, that I was not as careful to note locations as I usually do. Still, I hope you get a feel for the incredible mountain scenery provided by this highway.

Mount Abraham

By the way, its near the above location where the Alpine Loop exits. Just in case you want to pick it up from this end of it.

Arriving at Ouray at 3:00 PM, I cruised right through this pretty little town nestled inside a canyon, I'll have to come back and visit some day. I rode onwards, found Ridgway (beautiful ridges all around) and took CO 62 towards Telluride.

As I neared Telluride, I bypassed it by taking CO 145 which comprises the western half of the San Juan Skyway. The scenery around Telluride was quite magnificent as well I might add. Here is but two samples:

View near Telluride

Sunshine Mountain and Mount Wilson

Really, towns such as Ouray, Ridgway and Telluride deserve a whole day just to explore and photograph them and their surrounding mountains.

The rest of CO 145 is pretty enough, heavily wooded on both sides of the nicely paved two lane highway. You do go through a long stretch until you reach the borders of the Uncompahgre National Forest where mountain scenery is hinted at but not seen due to the many trees.

However, once you come out for a bit and view what I saw, it made the long wooded stretch worthwhile:

I believe this is Flattop Mountain

As you can see, I was quite taken by Flattop Mountain. The sun was hitting it just right and I could not resist taking picture after picture of it as I neared it and too soon passed it by.

While the rest of CO 145 was unremarkable except of course for tight curves and smooth roadways occasionally marred by tar snakes, there is one more sight to see before one just settles down to straight riding through Rico, Dolorores and finally Cortez, CO:

The rock formation of Lizards Head, next to the pass of the same name, I did not have time to ride the pass though, was fortunate to shoot the rock however from the side of CO 145.

The rest of the ride was straight up riding, fuel up when low and repeat. Cortez took forever to show up in my sights! It was 6:00 PM when I took the last picture of the day and then it was a race to get back to Pagosa Springs before nightfall.

Once at Cortez, I picked up eastbound US 160 and "put the hammer down". I made it back to Pagosa Springs and my family safe and sound at 9:00 PM as dusk finally settled in the valley. No deer sighted, which is a truly good thing!

Hope you liked the above rush tour of the Northern and Western portions of the San Juan Skyway. Its definitely one to return to over and over again I think.

EOD Mileage 77,320.

Addendum: 16JUL09: Today it was a six and a half hour of highway riding mostly along US 160 and US 285 back to Denver and reality. Not much to report really, just glad to be back home. My family joins me tomorrow as they decided to take in one more day in Pagosa Springs.

Here's a final panoramic shot of just Flattop mountain and the surrounding area.


EOD Mileage 77,652. Total for the trip: 1997 miles.

The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 6 Part 1: The Alpine Loop

A long day of riding today, so many pictures and grand views that I am having to split this posting into two parts!

The day started pretty early as the family and I rose before dawn to ready ourselves for a journey to Silverton and a family event: the touring of the Old Hundred Gold mine near Silverton. We were on the road by 0715 or so and I was riding along with my wife and kids following somewhere behind me in the minivan.

Here's a view of the ridgeline formations one sees to the west of the San Juan Skyway just north of Durango:

Looking north on Hwy 550, a few miles north of Durango, near Needleton

Last time I cruised the eastern half of the San Juan Skyway loop, it was in the afternoon. Today, I hit the same scenic points in the morning and as you can see, the light conditions today were very nice:

The Grand Turk and Sultan Mountains

Twilight Peak

As I continued on, I spotted this Harley Davidson parked off the side of the road with the rider obviously working on it. I pulled over and offered assistance. Turns out he had a flat tire. Not only a flat tire but one with three tire plugs in it. He had been headed, with his wife, to Durango to get the tire changed out. We worked on it a bit trying to find the new hole, turns out one of the old tire plugs had come out and let the air out! He replugged it with the sticky strings method kit and a short while later he was on the road and so was I.

I arrived at Silverton shortly after 10:30 AM and rendezvoused with my wife and sons. We got to the mine just before the 11:00 AM tour.


The tour is quite good, lots of historical facts about mining operations and work itself. Even my sons seemed interested at points, which is unusual. Hard work, mining, glad I don't have to do it for a living.

Once the tour was over, my family went into Silverton to look around. I spent some time taking pictures of the gorgeous views surrounding the mine area and enroute to the Alpine Loop's entry point:

The view from the mine's parking lot

Along CR 4, near Silverton

I got on the Alpine Loop road and started heading up into the hills that it is laid out against. The first mile or so is similar to the start of the "Oh My God" road so not too bad but it does get progressively rougher. Its rated as a four wheel drive road for high clearance vehicles and they mean it.

Still, I took it slow and did fine enough that I did not have any incidents. Lots of times I had to stand on the pegs to negotiate the rockier portions but it was all fine. Here are some of the views along the portion of the loop that I rode on:

An apparently still functional mining operation along the Alpine Loop Road

Views along the Alpine Loop

Not sure which, one of the several mountain peaks surrounding Silverton

I ran out of exploring time around 1:15 PM as I had a business call to make at 2:00 PM. So I turned around where I was on the loop and headed back towards Silverton where my cellphone could get a signal. I made it in about seven miles, some day I'll do the whole loop!

On the way down, the experience I'd gained with the really rocky terrain of the loop road evidenced itself in how easy I found the rest of the dirt trails back to town! I must have barely gone over 20 mph on the way up the loop, on the way back I was reaching 30 mph with no trepidations or issues.

One obstacle I did hit on the way to town though. Sheep. Lots of them. Apparently I'd picked the one day when the sheep herders truck their sheep down from the mountains for feeding around Silverton:

I parked here since the herd was blocking the road

Lucky I stopped, the herder decided shortly afterwards to push them up the road towards me!

I wonder what the sheep thought of Brigitta as they went past?

After the sheep left, I continued on into town and my teleconference. An interesting road that Alpine Loop, turns out it dumps you out on the San Juan Skyway.

Finally, a couple of panoramic shots of the area leading to the Alpine Loop:




Next: Riding the remainder of the San Juan Skyway.

EOD Mileage 77,320

The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 5 Chama Loop

Today I decided to explore to the SE of Pagosa Springs, in the Chromo/Chama area of the state. The mountains that form the southern portion of the divide spanned by the Wolf Creek Pass are to the east of Chromo so I figured it was a good jumping off point.

After tanking up Brigitta on the east side of Pagosa Springs and picking up more hypoid gear oil for another transmission oil flush; I headed south out of town on US84 towards Chromo. US84 is a really nice motorcycling road, nicely paved and with easy curves generally following the contours of the river which created the valley it sits in.

I could see beautiful views of distant high mountains but never did get close enough. About 30 miles later I got to the very small settlement of Chromo, blink an eye and you're through it. I kept going, hoping to find county roads that went eastward closer to the peaks. The countryside was pretty with some nice looking ridges and mesas here and there.

Soon I was at the New Mexico border and I spotted the twin to Colorado's Chimney Rock shortly after transiting into New Mexico:

Chimney Rock's Twin in New Mexico, I think it's called Eagle Point

As I rode towards the next town, Chama, I spotted a sign for a historical marker just up ahead. I was riding through what I thought was a small valley at the time and being a sucker for such things, I stopped to take a look:

Looks like a valley to me, just goes to show you have to read the signs!

I got to the town of Chama and after a brief stop at the tourist information office, I headed east out of town on NM 17. The lady at the tourist office said this was a pretty drive and I must say, I now agree with her!

The Cumbres and Toltec Railroad line played a huge part in the mining history of the area. There was a museum and exhibit area in Chama and I stopped briefly for this shot of the depot:

Chama RR Depot

I kept riding east/northeast-wards out of town and surprisingly soon I was once again at the border between New Mexico and Colorado! Here's my last view of New Mexico today:

My last view of New Mexico at the state border

What had been easy curving roadway on NM 17 now became rapidly ascending and increasingly twisty roads on CO 17. The air got noticeably cooler as I felt the elevation changes.

Just before Cumbres Pass

The requisite Cumbres Pass sign

Crossing Cumbres Pass, I noted a small rail station for the Cumbres & Toltec line. The road became flat at this point and I was wondering why they called it a pass since a pass usually drops down towards a valley soon after its summit.

The answer presented itself as I was zooming along, delighting in the tight curves and views of approaching mountains. I was going fast enough that I passed the sign for La Manga pass and had to stop and turn around for the requisite pass picture:

The view back towards Cumbres Pass from La Manga Pass

After this pass, the road started gently sloping downwards and with moderate curves to enjoy. I soon entered Conejos County and came upon this grand view of Conejos Canyon:

Brigitta at Conejos Canyon

A broader view of Conejos Canyon

CO 17 really starts sloping steeply downwards at this point and disappointingly soon deposits you down on the valley floor. You transit through small settlements such as Fox Creek and Las Mesitas. It was at Las Mesitas (which means "Small Tables") since it's surrounded by small mesa formations; that I spotted what I though was an abandoned church. On closer inspection, I think it's a half-finished church which ran out of money to be finished perhaps.


Continuing on CO17 (you really don't have much choice) I was soon at the junction with US 285 near the town of Antonito. Here was another Cumbres and Toltec railroad station, the one for Antonito. I stopped here next to an old train to check in with my loving wife and take pictures:

Antonito's RR Depot

I headed north towards and through Antonitos. As I went through the town of Conejos, I spotted a small sign stating: Colorado's Oldest Church. Needless to say, I turned Brigitta in that direction!

Shortly I came upon a standard Catholic style church, located next to the Conejos County courthouse complex. The church is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and you can see the details about it in the sign below.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Colorado's Oldest Church

Heading back north on US 285, the ride became a straight road slog to US 160. I was now fully into the southern part of the large San Luis Valley and it was just farmland and ranches all about me.

I tanked up again in the town of Alamosa and headed westward towards the western valley mountains as fast as traffic would allow. Looking back on things now, I would recommend that you turn around at Antonitos and re do both La Manga and Cumbres Pass instead of completing the loop I rode.

I hit the area near Wolf Creek Pass after about an hour of riding. The riding got more enjoyable at this point as one approaches the pass as you might imagine. Soon enough, I'd traversed the pass one more time successfully and safely and was heading towards Pagosa Springs.

That's Sheep Mountain to the left, the rocky formations in the center are where the Wolf Creek Pass Scenic Overlook is located.

Another view of Sheep Mountain

Indian Head Rock on US 160

After these pictures, it was a straight up ride towards Pagosa Springs which I got to around 5:30 PM or so. After resting a bit, I drained the oil again from the Ebay transmission. The almost 600 miles I'd racked up since the last oil change revealed oil that was less cloudy and dirty looking. So I am hopeful I am successfully removing the water contamination it came with.

EOD mileage 76,918. Now using GearSaver 80w90 GL5 Hypoid Gear Oil I got from the local Yamaha dealer. Its red instead of golden brown like the BMW stuff but should do fine.