Redlegsrides' 20th Anniversary - The Motorcycles

Today is the 20th Anniversary of this blog 

The last two decades have seemingly gone by in the blink of an eye, that's a cliche but there you go. 

The first post of this blog was on August 13th, 2006 where I described my first motorcycle: Gretl (yes, A Sound of Music naming convention I would continue to use).

She was a 2006 Honda Aero, I knew nothing about motorcycles really, only that I wanted to somehow emulate my colleagues at work that road, and they rode for the most part cruisers. Oh, and also, to save on "gas money".  Hah.

I very quickly outgrew her and during a trip with those colleagues from work to South Dakota in October of 2006, I ended up trading her for Maria (you see the theme here?) She was a much larger motorcycle, built to span continents and would carry me on some of my longest rides back when I was able to do such things. 

Maria was a 2004 R1150RT, big and heavy but a comfortable ride during long hours in the saddle.

Quite the number of adventures and rides with Maria.  I really learned to ride with her.  I took her places that she shouldn't have been, dropped her several times and still she got me home.  That is, until June 6, 2008.  I was enroute to a the Two Bits Rally and managed to find a bit of ice as I approached the Eisenhower tunnel from the east.  I foolishly downshifted to slow down and down we went. I'm told by a driver who stopped to help me pick up Maria that I slid 200 ft along I-70!  Maria of course had to be taken to the dealer.

While Maria was getting repaired, I somehow ended up with Brigitta, a 1987 BMW R80 Airhead on June 12, 2007.

Brigitta and Maria co-existed peacefully, providing me with great riding adventures.  It was with Brigitta that I learned to love riding smaller motorcycles.  Maria was never quite the same smooth riding machine that she was prior to the accident, so it came about, in September of 2009 that I traded Maria for Natasha; thus beginning my love/hate affair with Ural sidecar rigs and the beginning of my education as a shade tree mechanic.

In an oh so very truthful jest, they say that Ural motorcycles have been making mechanics out of their owners since the 1940s. I am living proof, even though there are days when I should not be allowed near tools.  Let's just say my ability to turn a wrench increased exponentially with ownership of Russian sidecar rigs! 

Natasha was a 1996 Ural Sportsman with fulltime 2WD.

Still, Natasha would provide me with some pretty good adventures and riding.  Knowing what I knew later some of those rides should never have happened, but I didn't know any better about Russian reliability and metallurgy then. 

The ability to bring along a passenger was priceless:

Martha's first ride in the sidecar:

Alas, being a sidecar rig from the 1990s, before things got better thanks to the efforts of IMWA (Ural Motors based in WA)... Natasha would not last very long and I would end up selling her to a guy in Michigan in May of 2011.

A writeup of my life with Natasha

Then there was the dalliances with using Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom tugs for my sidecar rig.

First there was Vikki (so named by previous owner), a 2004 Suzuki V-Strom that I first bought in March 4, 2011, as a two-wheeler in preparation to mating her to a sidecar.  

Once her new sidecar (with subframe) arrived, she became the most powerful in terms of engine performance and speed sidecar rig that I'd ever owned.

Vikki, was quite capable of holding 75+ MPH speed for day long riding.  She was also pretty good in the snow on many a snowy ride:

She would challenge the snow during an Elephant Ride.

Vikki, however, suffered damage returning from an epic trip to Montana and was declared a total loss July, 2011.

Vikki was then shortly replaced by Yoshie in August of 2011, another Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom since I still had the sidecar and subframe.

Then there was the  accident during Feb of 2012 where she basically saved me.  

I would be without sidecar until March of 2012 when I returned to the world of Ural sidecar rigs with Valencia, a 2011 Patrol.  Yoshie was still around but didn't get ridden much.

Valencia would take me to Alaska and back (several major repairs notwithstanding)

She and Yoshie, the V-Strom would co-exist until early 2014 when both were first attempted to be sold as consignments but eventually traded in on February of 2014 for a 2014 Ural Patrol.

And so we come to Scarlett, the last Ural sidecar rig I would buy on March of 2014.  

Scarlett has provided a plethora of adventures, frustrations and enjoyment as all my other sidecar rigs have done.  As I write this post, I still have Scarlett though she's currently deadlined awaiting parts for her final drive.  

Almost forgot, Fiona!  My sadly brief period with my fourth Ural Sidecar rig onto which a BMW R80 engine had been grafted.  I bought her from a guy in Kingman, AZ in March of 2016.  Powered by a R80 engine, she could outclimb newer, hell all Ural sidecar rigs, on hills.  You still had to drive her like a Ural as her final drive was still Russian but she did have lovely power when wanted.

I was introduced to Bural, the guru of such BMW/Ural conversions via this rig.  Richard Winter was an amazing mechanic and famed in the Ural community.  He patiently walked me through repairs/mods of this rig and provided help as needed.  I never got a chance to meet him in person, much to my regret.

I would lose Fiona to a fire on November 21, 2020, a sad day while camping in Arizona.

Last but not least (though probably the last motorcycle I will own) is Yagi, my 2006 Yamaha TW200.  I got her February of 2019 while Scarlett was undergoing repairs again.

Yagi would prove to be a wonderful motorcycle to let me explore the trails and roads that my sidecar rigs could not easily handle.  She was so easy to ride and once I figured out some off-roading stuff a joy to explore with.  

Alas, I guess I have been too hard on her or being 20 years old and having over 24,000 miles on her odometer have taken their toll.  She has not been that reliable in terms of electronics for the last year or so and I have lost all trust in her. Her days are probably numbered in terms of me owning her. 

Which brings to an end this compilation of the motorcycles that have carried me throughout the 20 years of this blog so far.  I have gone from riding at the drop of the hat, at any excuse, in any weather to a blogger who now prefers apparently to sit quietly at his RV campsite enjoying solitude and the company of his loving wife.

How times have changed and with time so has the tone and focus of this blog.

I've really no idea of where this blog is going, but motorcycles will most likely not play a big role in it anymore.

More Boondocking...and now back home

Saturday, August 8

Saturdays are definitely the busy time here on Rampart Range Road. I stopped counting the number of vehicles passing by after 20 or so. The only annoying bits were the idiots on dirt bikes growing up and down the trails raising up dust and disturbing the peace with their seemingly unmufflered bikes. 

Did a little bit of exercise at camp, nothing major. Just trying to strengthen my core and lower back muscles mostly.

It's definitely a cooling trend this weekend, pretty cloudy most of the day and the breeze cool things off almost to the uncomfortable level. 

Sunday, August 9

A quieter day, less cars/trucks and the Motorcycle I saw had mufflers on them, go figure. 

Relaxed all day, did some light hiking, but mostly read books.  I also started work on the posts that'll celebrate this blogs upcoming 20th anniversary, stay tuned.

I'm presently leaning towards selling Yagi, my 2006 TW200.  Since she's 20 years old and with over 24,000 miles on the clock, Google AI did not estimate more than say 1500 for a pristine condition model. 

I've ridden the stuffing out of Yagi over the years, pristine she is not!

Sundays sunset was meh, post-processing was required.

Monday, August 10

Overcast, mostly, with brief periods of sunshine in cool temperatures while the I-25 corridor baked with temperatures in the high 80s almost 90 I think. 

Since Yagi, the Tw200 is deadlined, again, I did some exercising and I went for an almost 2 mile brisk walk.

The local chipmunks have grown comfortable with the RV and my presence it seems.  I count at least six of them running and darting about the site.

This one popped out of a hole next to my chair:

3x optical zoom

This one watched me from underneath the RV rear bumper:

Digital zoom 10x

It rained overnight, cleansing the haze/smoke particles from the air allowing this morning view of 18 mile away Pikes Peak.

No post-processing 

With post-processing 

Tuesday, there's a cooling trend inbound and so I decided to come home a day early. 

Boondocking along Rampart Range Road - Pike NF

 It's been quite hazy here in the stoner state, due to wildfires both in state and without. The mountains of the Front Range have barely been visible most days from my home neighborhood or anywhere on the Front Range really. 

To give you an idea, here's the view of pikes peak from my campsite. The first picture is without any post processing to eliminate the haze, the second picture that dehaze function was used and still you can barely see the mountain.

About 18 miles away

Same pic but dehazed

This morning, thanks to RichardM, I gained further insight and knowledge about the function of a accumulator. Suffice to say, that I had completely misunderstood the leaking reading I had gotten from it. 

You see, I thought it was air leaking through a failed diaphragm or seal. It was in fact a leak caused by water getting by somewhere in the system!

Now that I understood, and with guidance from RichardM, I set about finding this small leak. Fortunately, it was not any of the Pex fittings, nor any of the faucets leaking a little bit. 

I noticed, while shining the light about the compartment that housed the water pump that the valve that one has to open to allow city water into the tank didn't seem quite fully closed. 

It turned very slightly as I applied more pressure to close the valve. The periodic (every minute or so) mystery cycling of the water pump stopped. I waited for 30 minutes, no spurious cycling! 

After 1 hour of silence, I refilled the air reservoir and the accumulator and it seemed to be holding pressure!  Dare I hope? 

So far everything seems to be working, so it's not a failed accumulator diaphragm it was a very slow leaking or rather not fully closed valve. 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and reading books, time well spent.

Campsite altitude: 9288 ft.

Humidity: 9%

Temperature at 1300 hrs: 84° F.

Saturday, August 8

I woke to 62°F outside, nice and cool.

Here's my view of Pikes Peak in the early morning before the heat haze and current wildfire smoke hides it.

Pre-dehazing

Post-dehazing

Sunrise, through the pine trees was briefly "OK".

I went riding, mid-morning , just checking out the trails nearby and verifying that Yagi,  my TW200, was charging its battery as it rode along. At first, it was looking good,  I was seeing 13.1 volts on the meter that I had installed recently to verify charging. 

However a couple of miles later, I noticed that she was at 12.4 volts and it would not climb higher even that higher rpms.  Dammit.

I got her back to the campsite, checked the wiring once again and thought I had found a loose connection on the charging circuit.  Went out on a test ride and she would not climb past 12.6 volts while riding, ergo she wasn't charging.  Dammit.

Some more fiddling with the wiring, another test ride, and this time she died on me while riding along the trail!  In disgust,  I pulled over and looked things over again.  Finding nothing, she did start again and I rode her home and put her back on the cargo rack.

As the 20th anniversary of this blog approaches, my feelings toward motorcycling have been winding down in terms of enthusiasm and will to put up with mechanical issues. 

Not only is Scarlett, the Ural Patrol sidecar rig, down for the foreseeable future due to parts availability from Ural (major issue found while Final Drive was taken apart for what I thought would be just replacement of worn components); but now the TW 200 continues to fail me with electric issues. 

Electric issues which are intermittent at times and very frustrating not to mention not building any kind of trust in her to get me back home each and every time.

So I am not sure what will happen with my remaining motorcycles as the 20th anniversary of this blog approaches. Stay tuned.

Back Again to Rampart Range Road's Dispersed Camping

Finally got Uma, the VRRV's most pressing issues repaired.  The last repair was replacing the front shock absorbers as they were toast according to the mechanic!

Being almost 20 years old, it's not surprising stuff is wearing out.  After all, we have put more than 105,000 MI on the motorhome since we got it.  The new shocks had been replaced sometime ago, but the tire cupping issue I saw on the old one tires dictated new shocks.

Anyways, I decided to do some short term camping, to test everything out again.  Probably just for a week unless I find it more enjoyable than expected.  I left the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area just before 8:00 a.m. and by 10:30 a.m. I was at the site and setting up. 

I have used this side many times before, it works for me and so far there has not been a lot of vehicle traffic. I expect that to change as the weekend approaches. 

As you can see in the pictures, sunny with very little clouds if at all.  The temperature is 82° f as I write this, but there is a nice cool breeze blowing through once in awhile.  The humidity is a nice 18%, quite the change from the eastern half of the country. 

Encountered a minor issue in the afternoon, the accumulator for the water pump had failed.  I kept hearing the water pump cycle on and off without the water being run. After some troubleshooting I saw that the accumulator was not holding air pressure. 

The particular model I have requires operating PSI of 30, but repeated attempts to air it up with an air compressor failed.  That condition, the manual says, to replace the unit. So one is on order and will be brought out by Martha on Tuesday.

In the meantime, water still flows when required. But the water pump cycles a lot more than normal since the accumulator is not online. I have to shut off the water pump when not using water to not hear the pump cycle on and off.