Orienteering Course Setup and Starting Scarlett's 5K Km Service

It was a busy Saturday for me today.  The morning started with a rendezvous with fellow Uralisti Jay and his lovely wife Deana and Tim L. over in Morrison, CO.

We rode the two hours or so on US285 South until we reached County Road 311 just south a bit from Antero Junction.  We were there to install metal tags with seemingly random sets of letters in pre-selected locations.  The idea is for our fellow Uralisti to go through one of two orienteering routes, using published guides/hints/photos to get them to the vicinity of the tags.

Once found, the rider is asked to write down one or two of the letters on the tag, at the end of the course, these selected letters are to be unscrambled into a phrase, to hopefully win the contest.  We got the general idea from this video, though we will not be doing it in such a large scale both in terms of land covered and time used.  The goal is to have fun riding offroad, hunting the metal tags, using no GPS, just the clues and maps provided.

I split off from Jay/Deana and Tim L. as they were doing one route and I had the other.  During the upcoming CZAR Rally, I will ride their route and they both will ride mine.  This way, no one knows where the tags are for their assigned route you see.

There's some great views of the nearby Collegiate Peaks as one rides off road in the San Isabel National Forest roads to the East and North East of Buena Vista, CO.

I was done shortly before 3:00 PM and found a voicemail from Jay saying they were done and were waiting for me at the junction of FR 376 and County Road 375.  I hurried on to that junction and met up with them.  A look at the stormy looking clouds cresting the Collegiate Peaks to the west decided our next move:  Run before the storm and try not to get rained on!

We made it out of the national forest and into Buena Vista which we transited quickly to get back on US285 Northbound.  I could see the tops of the Collegiate Peaks disappear due to the incoming weather clouds, a sight which no doubt drove our mostly above normal URAL speeds!

Alas, as we were approaching the town of Jefferson after tanking up in Fairplay, Jay's rig suffered a flat tire on the pusher!  He limped his rig to a nearby exit and Tim and I followed him in and we started working on getting Jay's spare tire on the pusher position.

 Jay admitted he may have stretched the use of the old pusher tire a bit far.

Between the four of us, tools flew, wrenches turned and of course a hammer was used.  About 35 minutes later, Jay was pumping up the spare to specified air pressures and we were all putting away tools and gearing back up.

We lucked out, the weather didn't catch up to us but had gotten noticeably closer.  Once more we motored on US285 and soon Kenosha, Red Hill and Crow Hill Passes were behind us and we made it to the western edge of the Denver Metro area with no further issues.

We all split off soon after passing Morrison, Tim heading towards Longmont, Jay and Deana down south on E-470 and I stayed on US285 heading into the metro area.  Made it home shortly before 7:00 PM and quickly got to work on a few major tasks related to the 5000 Kilometer service for Scarlett.

Scarlett's odometer rolled past 5000 as I neared home so I had that one timed right!  The evening tasks were to include the check and lubing of drive shaft splines, both main and sidecar shafts.  Check the lube of the pusher wheel's splines and the Final Drive's Splined Hub.  All fluids were drained out and will be replaced in the morning.  Also, as I went through not one but two water crossings as part of the orienteering course, I re-greased all the U-Joints with fresh stuff.

Rear Brake Pads were checked still have enough material on them, the minimum being 1mm per the user manual.  I'll check the splines on the sidecar wheel in the morning, too tired now.  I'll be finishing the other checks of the 5K service tomorrow as well.  The major concerns for me where the splines mentioned before.

 Looks like a few traces of surface rust, even though there still was a

thin film of grease on the main drive shaft splines.  

 More evidence of surface rust, this is the other half of the main 

drive shaft that connects to the Final Drive seen in the picture.

Whatever grease had been applied at the factory was gone as 

you can see.  This is why you check the splines!  I put a 

good coating of Honda Moly 60 on the splines above and in the

present pusher wheel splines which looked the same as above.

Pumped even more grease on the drive shaft U-Joints, pumping until I saw the fresh grease come out of all the seals/cups.  Messy but I know for sure the joints are full of fresh grease this way.

So, as you can see, a full day, I wasn't done with the above maintenance till 9:30PM, but it all went well.  Valve clearances checks in the morning when the engine will be cold, check the air filter, and the rest of the checklist shouldn't take very long.  More riding tomorrow, but that's another post.

Update: 15JUN:  Woke early, grabbed some coffee and went out to the garage to:

1.  Check and adjust valve clearances, left side were a tad loose, right side as well.  Now back to .004 inches.

2.  Put in new oil in the engine and transmission as well as the Final Drive getting gear oil.

3.  Removed sidecar calipers (brake pads are fine), removed wheel and was heartened to see both the shaft splines and the wheel splines were well greased.  It figures actually, Randy would have put the sidecar wheel on when assembling and he would of course have greased them.  I put one a fresh coat of Honda Moly 60 and re-assembled.

4.  Adjusted the parking brake as it wasn't holding as well as I'd like, and used blue loctite on the caliper mounting screws.

Started the engine for a couple of minutes, no leaks, no explosions, no smoke.  It's going to be a good day for riding.  One final overall check for tightness of everything I touched and I'll be on my way.