Lookout Mountain and Red Rocks rides, 14 Years Apart

Today, I basically replicated a ride I did back on Christmas Eve, 2011.

The weather was radically different from the previous ride, as was the choice of motorcycle.  14 years ago, it was on Yoshi, my Suzuki DL1000 with a sidecar, today it was a vintage BMW R80 Airhead: Brigitta.

Lookout Mountain Road is a steep, windy road rising out from nearby Golden, CO.  At the top is Buffalo Bill's gravesite and museum.  Here's a link for the museum:  LINK.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here in the Stoner State.  The road up to the top wasn't crowded at all, being a weekday.  Turns out, they now close the road at night.  Not sure why or when that started.

Gateway Towers at bottom of Lookout Mountain Road.

Golden with South Tabletop Mesa in background 

Christmas Eve 2011

2011

Yoshi, 2011

Now folks are barred from walking out onto 

the outcropping known as Wildcat Point 

Martha on Wildcat Point 

You can see North and South 

Tabletop Mesas

View from museum parking lot 

As I rode back down the mountain, I stopped at Windy Saddle Park to hike up the 305 steps on the Mount Zion Trail.  The recent flu had robbed me of wind and stamina and it was a bit of a struggle for me to do this little climb!

You can see the top of the tabletop mesas 

from the top of the trail.

Next, as I did 14 years before, it was a ride to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre area.  No snow this time so I didn't get stuck as I did with the sidecar rig back then.

The below pic actually had swarms of parked cars....I edited them out 

There's some kind of drive thru Christmas Lights setup in one of the parking lots.  I'm sure it looks great at night but it looked like crap in the daytime.  I can't even imagine the crowded chaos it must be at night.

Construction work shown above prevented me from accessing the area where I got stuck 14 years ago:

2011

I drove through the town of Morrison and had a near incident with a clueless cager while on the main street.  This was my cue that it was time to go home, all the ass wipes were leaving their late breakfast and desperate for tourist attractions such as Red Rocks 

Made it home with no further issues, a 110 mile roundtrip fore Brigitta, likely closing out the riding for her this year.  She did great.

Replacement of Brigitta's Failed Rotor

I had mentioned in my previous post, that Brigitta my '87 R80 BMW Airhead had developed charging issues. 

Diagnosis had led to planning a replacement of a failed rotor that was not passing the continuity test.

Dick Paschen is the Colorado AirMarshal for the Airheads Beemer club (ABC).  He told me that he had a spare rotor and was willing to help me install it today.  

So I showed up at his home and he even fed me breakfast before we started work on the motorcycle! 

Dick patiently guided me through the whole process beginning with removing the front cover after disconnecting the battery in negative cable and disassembly of the alternator.

It's very important, to disconnect the battery, otherwise you may cause an electric arc while removing the front cover and burn out your diode board! 

Here's the alternator, wires disconnected.  A couple of the black plastic insulator bits broke as we removed the wire connections on the alternator. We would use some shrink tubing at the end to fix that.

Here the stator has been removed exposing the rotor.  The shiny bolt in the center is a special tool to help pull the rotor out of the alternator.  

Note the large screwdriver jamming the rotor in place preventing it from turning as we worked to loosen and later tighten the rotor.  Simply putting the transmission in gear did not do the trick, probably a harbinger of clutch pad work sometime in the future. 

I had only observed the brushes, shown below while mounted. It was one of the things that RichardM suspected.  However, the fact that the rotor was failing the continuity test bypassed that thinking until today. 

Once the stator was pulled off I was able to observe easily into the rectangular wells that house the brushes and they were very worn down!  

Luckily, Dick had a spare set of brushes!

Below you can see one of the old brushes lying on top of the brush housing to illustrate how worn down it had become. 

The new brush is flush with the end of the housing. 

Note: the old brushes were soldered on, so Dick cut off the wires and we just used the new brushes' connectors to secure them onto the 8mm nuts that secure the brush assembly.

It was a bit fiddly, working to put the brushes in while holding the springs out of the way but we got it done.

Fully assembled, awaiting heat shrink tubing.  

Before we put the front cover back on, Dick had me reconnect the battery negative wire and we did a quick test.  The generator light came on as expected and desired, and the bike fired up right away, and the volt meter showed she was charging up!  Success!

Quickly disconnecting the battery again, I put the front cover back on with Dick's help and we rolled the bikes out onto the street. 

Brigitta back home

My thanks to Dick Paschen, Colorado AirMarshal for his time, patient training, and of course the spare rotor and brushes!

Here's the broken rotor:

A Few Days at Home, waiting for Umarang to be fixed

September 24:

I had lunch with 3 fellow uralisti: Jay, Dan and John (Spat).  I was distracted by Spat's new (to him) sidecar rig, so no group pic like last time.

Quite the rig, it's a R1200 Hex head tug so quite powerful to haul the sidecar along.

September 25

I drove Thing 2's 1990 Toyota Pickup to a truck scale to get it weighed.  The Internet said they're in the 3000 lb range but I didn't believe it.  

Alas, she was 2920 lbs, almost empty in back   I had been toying with the option of using it as a towed vehicle but no longer.  After all, the Honda CRV is only about 700 lbs heavier.

The fact that it also requires the drive shaft to be removed for towing due to it being an automatic transmission is the other nail in the coffin.

September 27

A 100km ride with Scarlett down to Castlewood Canyon SP area.  I wanted to see what Fall coloration might be there, there was none.

Here's a picture of the damn that failed, the waters of which flooded Denver apparently a few decades ago. 

September 29

A ride with Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead ride ended sooner than planned.  I noticed while riding that her battery wasn't charging after initially doing so at the ride's beginning.

Made it home with no issues and the diagnosis is a failed rotor in the alternator.  

September 30

I am still waiting for Uma to be fixed, the mechanic has encountered parts delays and some lift availability issues.  She's in for a fuel pump system replacement to hopefully get rid of recurring OBD codes causing Check Engine warnings.

Some Fall Colors have started to show up in the neighborhood: 

October 2

So bored waiting for the RV to be repaired that I performed some half-assed fence repairs.  A tree on the side, it's trunk had grown over the years, pressing against part of the fence.

This fellow watched my efforts sporadically, I think with a critical eye:

Now it's only two fence slats bowed inwards, as opposed to a whole section.

RV work complete notification just after 5pm!  I pick it up tomorrow.

October 3

I picked up the RV and drive it home in the morning.. I spent The rest of the day we mounting the front motorcycle carrier rack. I had to remove it to give the mechanics I'm working room as a requested.  I also move some supplies into the RV, filled the fresh water tank, and improved the way I'm carrying the spare gas can on the rear bumper.

I'll finish packing up the RV tomorrow.

Evidence of what idle hands can lead to, some of my favorite movies:

Sunday I will be riding Brigitta over to the Colorado Airheads Airmarshal's home. He has a spare rotor and is willing to help me install it, what a guy.

Learning about Check Engine Lights and a couple of Sunsets

As I was driving back from the Red Feather Lakes area last week, I got a check engine light while the VRRV was climbing a hill. 

It was a code P0171, new one to me....not the usual P0191 which I believed to be an O2 Sensor fault. (Reporting too lean fuel mix)

I have this inability to not be able to continue driving without clearing the check engine light first, so I did using the scan gauge device. 

This week I took the VRRV through the mechanic to have them look at that P0171 error.  

Turns out, I should not have cleared the check engine light by erasing the code before the mechanic could do a full diagnosis. 

Turns out, that along with clearing the code I also cleared what can be referred to as a freeze frame of existing engine conditions at the time of the error!  This is data that is key to letting the mechanic figure out what's going on.  Doh!

I also learned, that a steady check engine light is just reporting error codes and it's okay to continue driving until you can have the codes looked at. 

However, if the check engine light is blinking, that is bad and you need to stop driving immediately and have the vehicle towed to the mechanic in most cases. 

Tuesday Sunset with Brigitta:

My Sony A6000 has started acting up since last week.  Got the apparently common "camera error, turn power and back on" issue.  The camera becomes unresponsive and you have to take the battery out for it to boot up again. 

Tried all the "fixes" on Google, but they don't last.  Something with the shutter mechanism I believe.

Just as well that I rarely use it anymore, mostly for sunset shots. In fact,  I don't think I used it much if at all the second half of the Iberian Wanderings trip!

This may be the last pic for this blog from the A6000:

Thursday Sunset 

The mechanic hasn't found anything conclusive are the check engine codes I reported.  I'm to drive it some more and see if the codes come back. He suspects it's a possible fuel supply issue, leading to lean fuel mixtures under high engine loads.

Tepees and Buckley's Golf Balls

Tuesday, November 12

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.

A Good Start for 2024

Yesterday, New Years Day, I was able to get a couple of short rides in.  

The first ride was with Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 Dual Sport.  Her new front tire feels good along with the new front brake pads I just installed.

Some patches of ice/snow remain in the neighborhood and in the RV Storage lot within Buckley Space Force Base where I took this picture:

Do you see the small bird perched on Yagi's mirror?

The second ride was to Buckley SFB to get a shot of Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80.  However, as I'd switched jackets due to the weather having turned colder; I managed to forget my VA ID card and was unable to get into the base.

Still, it was almost a 20 mile ride for Brigitta, so its all good.  Exercise is exercise, right?

Tuesday, January 2

Clear skies today, the sun warming things nicely into the 40s in terms of temperature.

After a visit to the VA Clinic, I rode Brigitta again back to Buckley Space Force Base and this time I managed to get in.

Here she is by the F-86F Sabre Jet that used to be part of the Colorado Air National Guard:

Some more info on the above aircraft:  LINK

I rode home in the usual heavy traffic of the mid-afternoon here in the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area.  I am looking forward to getting away from here soon, perhaps as soon this coming Sunday.  It all depends on the weather of course.

A Ride for Brigitta while Enjoying Neighborhood Fall Colors

The time for Fall Colors is actually a couple of days or so past peak for my home neighborhood trees to display their Fall Colors.

I had decided to finally get Brigitta out of the garage and get some exercise.  My departure was delayed when she expressed her displeasure at not being out since September 4 however.

Yep, she leaked gas from her right side carburetor onto the garage floor as I readied her for riding and got my riding gear on!

Tried new cork seals, that didn't work, still leaking.

Tried doubling up of the seals, still leaking.  Finally figured out it wasn't the seals for the fuel bowl, but it was coming from a overfill tube in the bowl.  I then used some needle nose pliers and bent the metal tab for the floats a tiny bit downward.  

That seemed to do the trick and I went riding.

The first two pics were taken with RichardM's comment in mind that Fall Colors should be more than just yellow.  So here you go, RichardM.

Of course, the rest will be of the yellow variety:

So what do you think?  Landscape or Portrait format better with the below scene?

I only rode perhaps 12 miles, more tomorrow.  No further fuel leaks from the right side carburetor.  Hopefully, Brigitta has finished showing her displeasure at me.