A couple of Gatherings

 April 6-10

We had a visit from Blazeourway's Lori and Chris Z.  They were having some stuff done to the Bowen truck bed of their new camping rig.

April 11

There was a meeting of Uralisti up at the 300 Suns Brewery and Pub.  I got there an hour too early due to a "senior moment" on my part.  Once I realized this, I drove Scarlett West a bit for this view of still distant Long's Peak:

I returned to the brewery and got these pics of before the others showed up:

Randy, the former Ural Dealer and who had helped keep all our sidecar rigs running, was there as I arrived.  john S. (spat) Showed up as I was parking Scarlett:

Randy and John

John's BMW with Watsonian sidecar

The rest of the guys showed up soon after and we went and got a table.  Tasty food, craft beers and tall tales were enjoyed as we caught up with each other.

Now that's a bunch of friendly looking riders huh?  From left to right:  Dan, Dezo, Jay, Tim, John and Randy.

The ride home proved longer than the ride up.  Google Maps took me almost 20 miles out of the way and I was too trusting of it.  Oh well, at least it only sprinkled on me a couple of times as the skies darkened overhead with storm clouds.

Yagi Maintenance

Since I'm home for a bit, it was time to do some maintenance on Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 DualSport.

I replaced both the front and rear sprockets, managing to break both mounting bolts on the front sprocket while torquing to spec!  I'm guessing it was time to replace them too huh, luckily the local hardware store had same and they didn't break during torquing actions.

The rear tire was exhibiting a small cracks caused by age and weather so it got replaced along with a new inner tube that has that slime sealant already inside, put in by the tire mounting guy at the local motorcycle shop.

The chain was also replaced.  I don't do this often so the operation was a bit time consuming since there's a specific order in which one installs a chain and the rear wheel but in the end I got it.  Some YouTube research led to the technique of using a nut and a c-clamp to help press in the new master link plates together so the clip can be mounted:

The oil and oil filter was changed as it was due since Yagi has reached 24,000 miles.

I checked Yagi's valve clearances and they were spot on!  The intake was at .003" which is midpoint of the range spec.  The exhaust valve was at .005" which also is in the middle of the spec.

Bought a stubby 1/4" drive 5mm Allen socket for the torque wrench tightening spec of 10 newton meters.  Regular sockets are too long you see, given the closeness of the valve covers too the motorcycle's frame at different points.  Now, no problems!

A neighborhood friend noticed the bolt that covers the access port to the automatic cam tensioner was missing, no idea for how long, and it was replaced.  It kind of functions as a dust cover.

Same friend noticed slight seepage on the right side of engine cylinder's base and I tried to tighten the relevant boltss, but they're on tight.  Probably requires new gasket for base of cylinder head ... Don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon.  Yagi is 20 years old, I'll live with the seepage.

The last maintenance is replacing the right fork's seals as they've been seeping for a few months now.  

Home for a bit.

 It was going to be a windy day that while mostly sunny, would only reach 68° according to the weather guessers. 

Sunrise:

So instead of hanging out for one more day, I drove home, arriving at around 1:00 p.m. to an enthusiastic hug from Martha. 

According to the trip spreadsheet, I camped for 71 days this time at a cost of $31.90 a day.

The largest cost, not surprisingly, was fuel for the RV at 46%, next was groceries at 25%, 17% for RV related tasks/propane/Starlink, 10% for camping fees and final 2% was gas for Yagi and meals bought while visiting friends.

About 3000 miles covered by the RV.  Average MPG: 8 .   

Lazy Weekend at the San Luis Lake SWA

I chose to do very little riding over Saturday and Sunday....sallying forth just to pose Yagi for these shots mostly.

Blanca Peak (amongst others)

Challenger Point

Bino shot at 1x

Crestone Peak

Bino shot at 1x

Sunday's sunrise:

Saturday was nice and warm with a high of 81°F, sound would turn out cooler with a forecasted high in the low 70s.  It was sunny though which warmed things up a bit.

After lunch, I rode Yagi to the nearest point where one can walk out onto the ever expanding lake bed.  I wanted to see if I could get a reflection shot of the mountains.

I made it all the way to the waterline, quite soft and muddy.

Sunday's sunset: