Saturday, July 9
A very hot day today! I believe the weather app reported almost 99°F (37.2°C) and it sure felt like it! Luckily, it wasn't too humid, it would have sucked to still be in Wisconsin.
Dan K and I did a short ride, first back to the the "secret spot", not far from its entrance, to establish viability of any possible boondocking sites on this BLM land. Found only one really viable site. More on that later.
As we rode around the lesser trails seeking other sites, I noticed that Dan was no longer behind me. I turned around and found him getting his tools out and his rig parked under the shade of a tree. Uh Oh.
Turns out, what Dan K had been thinking were jetting issues with his carburetors may have actually been symptoms caused by a massive air leak. Dan's rig's right side carburetor's compliance fitting had developed a large crack in it's rubber body.
Compliance fittings, by the way, mate the carburetor to the cylinder head. They allow the passing of the air/fuel mixture from the carburetor for combustion.
But Dan K was prepared, he had a spare compliance fitting and gasket and his rig was soon purring smoothly. I won't mention the fact that initially after the replacement, the engine was "running away" at high RPMs when he cranked the engine to life. I won't mention, that after several diagnostic attempts at the idle screws and just before we started messing with the idle air screw; he found he'd accidentally engage the throttle lock while twisting the throttle. Doh.
So we then left the area and rode the short distance to Crawford and Needle Rock.
It was getting rather warm by this time, around 11AM, so we rode back to the rally location via CO Hwy 92. Lunch was a pitiful chicken sandwich in Hotchkiss at the 133 BGR diner. Not recommended!
Neither of us remembered that a local vendor had setup a hotdog stand at the rally. That would have been better. Doh!
OK, later on that afternoon, I walked around the fairgrounds and tried to get a picture of most of the sidecar rigs that were in attendance:
Sheltering from the hot sun
Spat's faithful Patrol
A KLR and a Triumph
A cute cargo trailer
A lovely K Bike
A lovely /2 with a later engine
My camping spot during the rally.
Last but definitely not least, here's Marley, a very good dog. His riders rode with Dan and I earlier in the Rally: John and Jo.
There were a few more rigs that I either missed because they were out riding, or were Ural rigs which are represented by Scarlett, or I simply didn't get a good picture of some.
6 comments:
That /2 looks pretty nice!
Indeed, RichardM, indeed...
37°C? Sounds like hell to me. We are also waiting for a heat wave over here. A good reason to step out of home office and into the nice ambient temps of an air-conditioned office ;-)
SonjaM, it was like riding and walking around inside a furnace!
You got some great photos there. Send your favorites to the Sidecarist editor, OK?
Marley is an interesting dog. He rides without a leash, never tries to jump out until commanded to do so. He is also deaf. Responds only to hand signals.
Thanks CCjon and will do....or perhaps you'd care to choose the more appropriate ones and I send the large file size version?
Marley is definitely too cool.... wasn't aware he's not tethered while riding.
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