Ah, the first day of spring here in the Front Range of the Rockies. Temperatures in the mid-40s and overcast. Still, it's supposed to get into the 60s this afternoon so no complaints from me!
Brigitta, my 1987 R80, hopefully as a mark of homage to the motorcycling gods, decided to offer up a libation to them. This was in the form of gasoline leaking out of my right side carburetor bowl as I was sitting on her, right after I'd cranked her up for the ride into work.
As soon as I backed off the choke control, I heard an unusual dull metallic clattering noise. It was like something was loose and vibrating. The motorcycle vibrates a lot before she settles into a nice idle once barely warmed up. I was looking around the motorcycle and finally noticed the spreading pool of gasoline by my right foot. Whoops!
I shut Brigitta off, got off the motorcycle and removed the float bowl which was overfull. Salvaged the fuel in the bowl and poured it back into the tank. I checked, with the bowl off, the action of the floats and they seemed fine. No debris in the bowl, so I put it all back together and fired her up again. No leaks.
I am thinking I might have accidentally kicked the bowl when dismounting the motorcycle yesterday after coming home from work. So that, when I fired her up the first time this morning, it vibrated the bowl loose enough to spill fuel. Perhaps the choke cable on the right side was binding, I'll look at that as well.
If not, then I guess I'll be working on the right-side carburetor this weekend. I still rode Brigitta in to work since the weather would turn sunny and warm by the ride home. No further leaks. So maybe it's all good.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
LINK: Traveling with BMW Motorrad
I saw this on Keep The Rubber Side Down's Blog today: LINK
It's a blurb and a link to BMW Motorrad's photo contest which ends at the end of this month. There's more details at the BMW, along with a link to upload your own pictures if you want to compete.
From the BMW Calendar 2010 Contest site:
The theme is “Travelling with BMW Motorrad“; all amateur and professional photographers are entitled to take part. The requirement is that one or more BMW Motorrad machines are shown in the photograph, no matter which model or year of construction. So you are welcome to send older photographs if you like, as we are equally interested in historical pictures.
It's a blurb and a link to BMW Motorrad's photo contest which ends at the end of this month. There's more details at the BMW, along with a link to upload your own pictures if you want to compete.
From the BMW Calendar 2010 Contest site:
The theme is “Travelling with BMW Motorrad“; all amateur and professional photographers are entitled to take part. The requirement is that one or more BMW Motorrad machines are shown in the photograph, no matter which model or year of construction. So you are welcome to send older photographs if you like, as we are equally interested in historical pictures.
The only thing that is important to us is that you provide an impressive perspective on the theme of travelling on a BMW. Along with the photo you should include a short report, a route description and a rider profile including picture. And if there is a GPS file to go with it, so much the better. You should also include a brief statement as to why you chose this BMW motorcycle – and then just send in your entry!
Of all photos submitted by the deadline of May 31st, 30 will be shortlisted. These will be shown online in advance and all visitors to the website can enter a rating for their favourite photos (though this will not have any direct influence on the final decision of the editorial team).
A panel of 13 judges will then select the best and most suitable pictures (one for each month of the year plus a cover photo) for the 2010 BMW Motorrad calendar. The 13 winners will be invited to the BMW Motorrad Days 2009 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Here they can look forward to a great weekend with a “BMW Motorrad Days 2009 Package” consisting of two nights at a hotel, a fan package (T-shirt and cap) and a VIP armband for free food and drink on the grounds, as well as access to the VIP area in the main tent in the evening.
The above picture near Teec Nos Pos in Arizona is one of a few that I sent in, the prize sounds pretty great. My only worry is, besides not making the cut, is that the size of the pictures is not large enough for their requirements. Oh well, you can't win if you don't enter right?
The above picture near Teec Nos Pos in Arizona is one of a few that I sent in, the prize sounds pretty great. My only worry is, besides not making the cut, is that the size of the pictures is not large enough for their requirements. Oh well, you can't win if you don't enter right?
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Last weekend ride for this winter
Today being Sunday and the last weekend for the Winter of 2008, I thought I'd ride up into the mountains to see what was there before Spring is here on Friday.
I rode County Line Road out of town, getting on the C-470 slab westbound for about a mile and then exiting on Wadsworth Blvd. I cruised onto Deer Creek Canyon Rd and along with many bicyclists, enjoyed the winding turns and twists all the way to Fenders. I headed down South Turkey Creek Rd at this point, a winding road in its own right, until I junctioned with US285 which I took southbound.
As I was approaching the small town of Pine Junction where I normally turn South on CO126 towards Deckers; I spied a sunlit mountain peak off to the right. So I turned off instead onto Mt Evans Blvd in the hopes of getting a better look at that sunlit, snow capped peak.
Down the road a ways, a bonus terrain feature showed itself. It reminded me of a smaller version of the El Capitan rock formation at Yosemite National Park at first. What do you think?
Mt Evans Blvd ends at a private ranch which I think is really a housing development. However, there's a side road one can take to get a little bit closer to the Lion's Head. The road itself ends in a cul-de-sac and that's where I posed Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Beemer, for this shot:
I made my way out, exploring the side roads which lead one to more housing sites and dead-ends. Once I was back on US285, I continued on towards the South to see what I could see. The weather had turned a bit overcast and it felt chilly as well with temperatures in the mid 40s since I was in the mountains.
Near the town of Bailey, I turned onto Park County 43 because once I again I saw a glimpse of Mt Evans. This county road is nicely paved and eventually splits off with Park County 47 heading NW and Park County 43 continuing sort off towards Mt Evans. I stayed on CR43 hoping to get a good look at the mountain but soon reached a point where surrounding hills obscured my view of it.
I turned myself around and rode back to where the road splits off and posed Brigitta once again with Mount Evans in the background:
I made my way back towards US285 and this time turned North on it heading back to the Denver Metro area. I stayed on US285, making my way into the city until I came to the junction with the I-25 superslab. I slabbed it all the way to I-225 which I took to the Parker Road exit. Parker road of course took me to my home neighborhoods which I reached around 3pm. About 131 miles of riding, it surely has been a mild winter for us here near the Colorado Rockies.
I rode County Line Road out of town, getting on the C-470 slab westbound for about a mile and then exiting on Wadsworth Blvd. I cruised onto Deer Creek Canyon Rd and along with many bicyclists, enjoyed the winding turns and twists all the way to Fenders. I headed down South Turkey Creek Rd at this point, a winding road in its own right, until I junctioned with US285 which I took southbound.
As I was approaching the small town of Pine Junction where I normally turn South on CO126 towards Deckers; I spied a sunlit mountain peak off to the right. So I turned off instead onto Mt Evans Blvd in the hopes of getting a better look at that sunlit, snow capped peak.
Down the road a ways, a bonus terrain feature showed itself. It reminded me of a smaller version of the El Capitan rock formation at Yosemite National Park at first. What do you think?
Lion's Head
I made my way out, exploring the side roads which lead one to more housing sites and dead-ends. Once I was back on US285, I continued on towards the South to see what I could see. The weather had turned a bit overcast and it felt chilly as well with temperatures in the mid 40s since I was in the mountains.
Near the town of Bailey, I turned onto Park County 43 because once I again I saw a glimpse of Mt Evans. This county road is nicely paved and eventually splits off with Park County 47 heading NW and Park County 43 continuing sort off towards Mt Evans. I stayed on CR43 hoping to get a good look at the mountain but soon reached a point where surrounding hills obscured my view of it.
I turned myself around and rode back to where the road splits off and posed Brigitta once again with Mount Evans in the background:
I made my way back towards US285 and this time turned North on it heading back to the Denver Metro area. I stayed on US285, making my way into the city until I came to the junction with the I-25 superslab. I slabbed it all the way to I-225 which I took to the Parker Road exit. Parker road of course took me to my home neighborhoods which I reached around 3pm. About 131 miles of riding, it surely has been a mild winter for us here near the Colorado Rockies.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Finishing Maria's 66K service
I replaced the rear brake pads on Maria, my 2004 R1150RT Beemer today, finishing I believe the services/checks required by the 66k miles service interval.
There was minimal pad left on the old brake pads so she was overdue. The wear mark was gone from the port side pad and the starboard side pad just had a bit left:
Took me several attempts but finally got the caliper back onto the rear rotor with the new brake pads in place. It was a tight fit but you can see how much more brake pad material there was on the new pads:
Finally secured the caliper with the mounting bolts and torqued them down to 30nm as per the manual.
A short test ride and no issues, Maria stops great as usual. Gorgeous day today, but only got two short rides in since I am still feeling the effects of the bug I've been dealing with the last week or so.
There was minimal pad left on the old brake pads so she was overdue. The wear mark was gone from the port side pad and the starboard side pad just had a bit left:
Took me several attempts but finally got the caliper back onto the rear rotor with the new brake pads in place. It was a tight fit but you can see how much more brake pad material there was on the new pads:
Finally secured the caliper with the mounting bolts and torqued them down to 30nm as per the manual.
A short test ride and no issues, Maria stops great as usual. Gorgeous day today, but only got two short rides in since I am still feeling the effects of the bug I've been dealing with the last week or so.
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