A pretty mellow day for Martha and I, this day marks the 29th Anniversary of her putting up with me as a husband. I say it often, the woman should be sainted!
No festivities planned for or wanted by either of us, there'll be trips to foreign lands in our future we'd rather save our money towards.
I did get a short ride with Scarlett, out to the VRRV storage yard for some minor chores. On the way home, I posed the rig at the Plains Conservation Center:
Thursday, November 14
The weather was sunny and in the mid-50s so it was time for Brigitta, my '87 R80 BMW to get a little bit of exercise.
On the return half of the ride, I almost had a close encounter with a herd of Buckhorn Sheep that was thinking of crossing over the road which borders Buckley Space Force Base's northern perimeter. They turned around back towards the snow covered fields as I passed by.
I turned around as quick as traffic allowed and parked the motorcycle near the herd which was once again timidly edging towards the highway in another crossing attempt.
Before they made it though, more cars and trucks came along and this time succeeded in scaring them into giving up crossing the highway at this location.
I managed to get within telephoto lens of them though. No time for tripod or manual focus though as they moved steadily away from me:
I believe this is the largest herd of Buckhorn Sheep
that I've seen!
Walking back to where Brigitta was parked on the side of the highway; I realized she was in a good spot to get Long Peak and three of Buckley SFB's Golf Ball shaped satellite dish enclosures:
Lots of post-processing went into the above two shots, it was very hazy and the conditions precluded sharp imagery of the front range mountains.
I think there's also some slight calibration/focus issues with the telephoto lens, it's a smidge out of focus unless I go manual and use a tripod. Oh well.
Record-breaking snow falls, this past three days. We approached two feet of snow accumulation I think here in our cul-de-sac in the SE portion of the mess which is Metro Denver!
Lets just say I spent quite a bit of time running the snow-blower and doing some shoveling along with my loving wife Martha.
I elected not to ride out immediately after the snow storms, I was concerned my worn tires on Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig, were not very grippy anymore. Subconsciously I think I also knew the snow was deep enough to high-center the rig easily and probably immediately.
The above concerns were proven out when after the last snow fall, and once the cul-de-sac was mostly cleared, we went riding. Martha accompanied and asked to be taken through a neighborhood next to ours so we could visit friends.
Our friends weren't home, and I managed to high-center Scarlett as I tried to leave from our friends' driveway area! Doh! Martha secured a snow shovel nearby and I dug out the high, solidly rutted snow, from under Scarlett.
We finally got her loose and moving again without any cursing. We slipped and slid our way to the library and from there back to the house for more snow blowing and shoveling.
Today, I rode out to Buckley Space Force Base to check on the VRRV's snow accumulation.
That's Mount Blue Sky
formerly known as Mount Evans
Before the storage lot though, I quick ride to the gravel/dirt pit area on the eastern part of the base:
Found perhaps 1.5 feet of the stuff on the roof and spent some time clearing it off.
Leaving Buckley SFB, I motored over to the Denver Tech Center to check out the archway at the entrance to the Westlands Park.
These two geese sauntered by to get
their picture taken
After the park, it was a ride on the Arapahoe Road of Death, thankfully without any attempts by cagers to share my lane back to the home neighborhoods.
One more stop by the golf course for one more shot of Mount Blue Sky:
As you can see the sun was out, temperatures were in the low 50s and it felt quite balmy. Roads were wet as the snow melted rapidly, I expect things will be dry again in a couple of days.
Amidst rather nice weather, I've been catching up on household chores.
I also realized finally and youtube'd some lessons on the correct way to use butt and crimp connectors for low voltage wires. I'd been doing it with the wrong tools and methodology you see; now I have new wire crimpers which should lead to better repairs in the future.
Changed the oil on both the Onan 4KW generator on the VRRV and also the Predator 2K Generator. I've lost track of the hours on the Predator so I just change its oil when I do the Onan generator, which is at least every 50 hours of operation.
Changed the engine oil and filter on the VRRV, she's now over 119K miles. I bought her with 22,240 miles on the odometer back in 2016. That works out to an average of about 12,095 per year.
Received a replacement for the Chicology Blinds that broke in the VRRV. Gotta like a company that stands behind their product! It's installed and hopefully will last a while.
Paused briefly to shoot a pic of my neighbor's tree as it steadily begins to lose its leaves:
The trees in the neighborhood are also in the final stages of Fall Colors but not finding the motivation to go get those pics. It's not the same with houses in the background.
Fixed the Aluma trailer's wire connection to the VRRV, again. Though I'd done a good enough job last time but a bare wire on the right rear light had grounded and caused lots of current to flow and generated enough heat to burn things up!
Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig's front brakes had felt "mushy" when I last rode her. Today I checked the pads (close but still good) and then discovered a failed speed-bleeder valve. The rubber cap had come off a while ago it seems, dirt got into the opening and air got in.
Luckily I had a spare in stock, installed it, bled the brakes and all good now.
Normally, you'd see a small ball bearing sealing
the opening above
I keep rotating through the motorcycles as I run chores and such, no riding for pleasure since I got back from camping. Mostly though, working on regaining trust in Yagi, my recently repaired TW200.
A neighborhood friend, Chip C., who's a pretty good handyman/mechanic has agreed to swap the wiring harness on the stators so that I have a good "spare" for Yagi. My soldering skills remain crappy but I bought a "helping hands" tool based on Chip's suggestion for the next time I try soldering wires:
It's been a series of nice and warm afternoons with cool mornings in the 40s-50s. Snow is rumored for the latter half of this coming week, we shall see.
So many notions, most unrealistic in the end, ran through my feeble brain the last week or so.
Substitute the TW200 with an E-Bike? Less moving parts, yes but costs and their performance envelopes just didn't justify costs.
Give up taking a motorcycle, whether the T-Dub or Scarlett, the Ural Sidecar Rig, when going camping? Just take the Honda CR-V for transportation right? Not quite, sometimes the CR-V will stay home with Martha if she's not camping with me. So some kind of ride must come along.
Sell Yagi for something newer and hence perhaps more reliable? Nope. Still have to fix Yagi to sell her and new motorcycles are pricey these day. I looked at the Honda Trail for a bit, but my cheapness won out.
Martha and I have also determined that we were getting "on the bus to Abilene" in terms of replacing Umarang, the Class C motorhome I call the VRRV (Vehicle Recovery RV) with a pickup truck and travel trailer. That idea has now been shelved until Uma suffers some unfixable issue or we give up camping hopefully years from now.
Will I continue to ride solo down sketchy trails? Nope, that's the shift in paradigm I believe. I will ride safer trails and remain within cell signal distance when possible; even though I might have to walk a few miles to get to said signal sometimes. Solitary riding is good for the soul but having someone come by and give aid or a ride back to the VRRV is "mo better".
I'm still debating the replacement cost of a refurb'ed inReach Satellite Beacon locator.
I replaced Yagi's stator with an OEM one from Partszilla.com today. Double the price of the previous one from Caltric but the warranty is a full year vs 3 months as I found out from Caltric. My fault, I "assumed" their product would have the standard 1 year warranty, nope. Caveat Emptor. I do NOT recommend their stators.
So, at almost 22K miles, the T-Dub is now on her second replacement stator. The original's wiring was damaged due to carelessness on my part. The first replacement failed shortly after 3 months. I hope this third one lasts until I sell her if ever.
If I can find someone who is good with a soldering iron, am going to ask him/her to transfer the wiring from the Caltric unit to the OEM stator that came with the motorcycle. Then, I'll have a spare.
And now to paraphrase and with apologies to George Michael:
Well, I guess it would be nice if I could trust you I know not everybody has got a ride like you But I gotta think twice before I give my heart away And I know all the games you play because I played them too
[Chorus] 'Cause I gotta' have faith I gotta have faith Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith I got to have faith, faith, faith
[Verse 2] Baby, I know you're askin' me to ride Say, "Please, please, please let's go and ride" You say I'm givin' you the blues Maybe you mean every word you say Can't help but think of yesterday And someone who let me down without a clue
[Chorus] Yes I gotta have faith Ooh, I gotta have faith Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith I gotta have faith, faith, faith
In case you're wondering what the song sounds like:
Note: Back in the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area. I'll be here for a bit as I've upcoming medical appointments with the VA.
Recently, Starlink raised the price of the Roam Unlimited plan I had selected when I bought into the system. It went from $150 t0 $165. They said they were adding a benefit of being able to use it while moving as a way, in my opinion, to soften the blow of it costing more money.
This led me to examining the data usage during the periods where I had used Starlink while camping. I saw I never exceeded 50 GB, heck I didn't get above 40 GB!
Starlink has a plan called Mini Roam, initially rolled out with their new Mini Dish systems. It had a 50GB plan for a mere $50 per billing period. If you exceed the 50GB, you can opt-in for $1/GB if needed.
This plan is available to us regular dish users and I signed up for it starting on Oct 2 which is when my billing period begins; on the second of each month. We'll see how that goes.
In the meantime, based on posts I saw on FB, it turned out usable data connectivity is achievable with the Starlink dish being inside the vehicle! This assumes of course the vehicle roof's material allows Starlink signals to pass through.
Turns out, the bunkhouse area of the VRRV, which we use for storage, allows signals to get through.
I tried just setting the dish flat in the center of the bunkhouse, pointing straight up and no bothering with the tilt. The results of some testing are below, the first number is download speed, the second number is upload speed in MBs.
189/26, 183/7, 135/3, 172/8
Quite usable speeds in our case.
Then, I thought to insert the dish into the wooden cubby which used to house the DVD Player that the VRRV originally came with from the factory.
After breakfast, I geared up and went to fire up Yagi my Yamaha TW200 for a ride to check out the last of the Fall Colors along Marshall Pass Road.
Alas, it was not to be. She fired up and ran for perhaps a second then died. I tried for a bit to crank it but the engine wouldn't catch. Subsequent troubleshooting revealed no spark getting to the spark plug.
Based on recent events that led eventually to the stator wiring having been found damaged and then replaced, I tried replacing each component along the way. CDI Module, Rectifier and Coil. No Spark.
Even took the cover off the stator and verified no damage to wiring visible.
So, using the Green Chile Z-Drag system and a nearby tree, I was able to drag/push the dead TW200's 300 lbs of dead weight onto the cargo rack in from of the VRRV. Pretty sure I couldn't have done it by muscle power alone! I was very fortunate to have the motorcycle die on me just feet from the RV, not alone and miles from nowhere down some rough trail.
The title of the post is "A Paradigm Shift". Basically, I'm thinking the days of solo riding down mountain trails are over and this is my official sign from the motorcycling gods. The fact that recently my Inreach satellite beacon locator had failed might have been an omen.
I'll take Yagi home, maybe work to repair it, maybe take it to a shop for diagnosis. Either way, there's major trust issues now with her; akin to the ones that I experienced a lot with all of my Ural Sidecar Rigs! That's saying something about a Japanese motorcycle!
Part of the paradigm shift also argues that perhaps the motorcycle (either the repaired TW or the Ural) need not be included in the next camping trips. After all, the likelihood of Martha coming along also means there will be a towed car for transportation while camping.
Anyways, these are things I'm pondering along with future camping vehicles that may not include Uma, the VRRV. That's for future postings though as I'm still debating options and discussing plans with Martha.
Saturday, October 12
Lacking a motorcycle, it was actually quite a nice and relaxing day at camp.
Seen while taking a walk:
Enjoyed a morning and evening campfire, read a lot, researched e-bikes (doubtful) and just enjoyed not going anywhere or doing much of anything.
The sunset was pretty good too:
Sunday, October 13
I couldn't help myself, I decided to do some more in-depth troubleshooting on Yagi. I compared ohm readings to the service manual and between two CDI modules, two rectifiers, and two stators.
The CDI modules' readings seem to be identical, so I think they're okay. The same with the rectifiers. I have with me two other coils besides the one installed on the bike, two were out of spec in terms of resistance so I put the one that was in spec on the bike.(It was the original one).
I did find a lack of resistance on the stator connections that lead directly to the unit installed. The one I had for comparison, AKA the old one, registered a 0.862 ohm reading!
I've written the seller on eBay asking for a replacement since it has been less than a year since I bought this stator. We'll see if they stand behind their product or not.
Did I mention that I have major trust issues with this motorcycle now?
On the plus side, the weather remains gorgeous in the afternoon. A bit chilly in the morning but not bad yet.
I believe I'll head home tomorrow morning, the weather is cooling here ...
It turned out to be a very propitious displacement on my part to be here by Thursday. Martha, my loving life, alerted me to the fact they were expecting the Aurora Borealis to be visible as far south as Colorado that night!
It must have been a heck of a Coronal Mass Ejection event to enable the sight of the Aurora Borealis this far south!
Close to 8 pm, I thought I saw a brightness in the skies that was unusual. So I set up the camera using the instructions googled for me by Martha. It took a while to figure out focus, framing and exposure settings but eventually:
The above pictures were taken over the course of about an hour and 15 minutes. Then the light display from the Aurora Borealis became to dim.
Notes:
Use ISO 3200, F3.5, aperture priority mode, manual focus (watch for Infinity symbol), and step down the exposure to perhaps minus 2.0. Tripod of course! Keep exposure in time under 8 seconds if possible otherwise you get star trails.
Woke to temperatures in the mid to high 30s. A bit brisk but OK after I turned on the catalytic propane heater.
I ended up mostly hanging out at the camp in the morning. I did ride out in the afternoon to check out the rock climbing areas. Several campsites nearby these rock climbs too, but a bit crowded in for my taste.
Thursday, Oct 10
It was a few degrees colder when I woke this morning, which made up my mind about displacing to warmer locations. Such as the BLM Dispersed camping area south of Poncha Pass, near Salida, CO.
Decision made, I was packed up and heading into town by 10AM, got the tanks dumped and took on water by 11AM and by 1230 or so was choosing a site to camp at. I tried the usual spot but found it hard to get the rig leveled, so I went up hill a bit and got a snug little spot instead.
I may have arrived at the area at the beginning of the tail end of the Fall Colors. Here's a few show of it near the campsite within the BLM area. I think I'll try and check out the Fall Colors along nearby Marshall Pass tomorrow.
I displaced today from the dispersed camping area southwest of Montrose Tuesday morning. I wanted to try and get across the bridge that is under repair at the Blue Mesa reservoir.
I got to the construction zone just in time to only have to wait 1 minute before it was the eastbound traffic's turn to cross the damaged bridge!
I cruised past the Curecanti National Recreation Area, noting how few campers there were at the two or three campgrounds located by the water.
As I approached the city of Gunnison, I mistakenly took the back way via county road 32 into the Hartman Rocks Recreation Area. Some of the reviews on iOverlander had made a big deal of the steep hill at the front entrance to the recreation area so I thought I would try the back door. (after reading reviews on iOverlander)
The back door route is even steeper and narrower and rockier and gets one into the recreation area furthest away from all the camping spots. So, I recommend you just take the main (eastern) entrance because the hill in question is no big deal.
I did find myself a good spot, away from the other campsites.
I rested a bit in the afternoon but then went out riding on Yagi to check out the nearby rock formations.
On one of the routes, I found some past prime time Fall Colors:
A couple of brief rainstorms hurried me back to the campsite but then after dinner I went out again for the golden hour shots:
I am glad I displaced today, it will give me a few days here at Hartman Rocks. Initial impressions are very favorable, I like this area!
