Panos anyone?

I was looking over all the panoramic shots I've shot from last year and this year, looking to replace the header picture on this blog, for variety's sake if nothing else.

As I searched and found these panoramic shots, I revisited those rides in my mind and thought you might enjoy seeing them again as well.  Here you go, in no particular order. (click on the picture's caption for a link to the ride when the picture was taken, except for first picture).

 On Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountain National Park

 Overlooking Silverton on the San Juan Skyway

 Descending into the valley at the Rocky Mountain National Park

 Riding the "Oh My God" Road

 Guanella Pass

Colorado Highway 103

 Coal Creek Canyon Road

The Hairpin Turns of Lookout Mountain 

 Sunshine Mountain and Wilson Peak

 Molas Pass along the San Juan Skyway

The Uncompagre Mountains 

Pikes Peak

 Flattop Mountain on the San Juan Skyway

 Mount Princeton at the Collegiate Peaks

Sunset near the foothills 

Twilight Peak along the San Juan Skyway

Airhead Bean Cans and Fog Banks

Recently, I'd bought a used Bosch Ignition Trigger Unit from a guy on advrider.com who was parting out a 1983 BMW R80RT motorcycle.  His motorcycle had only 30K miles on it when he decided to part it out and so the ignition trigger unit or "bean can" as it is nicknamed was less "used" than Brigitta's own bean can.

You see, once you put enough miles of use on a Beemer Airhead's bean can (over 90K on Brigitta), you have to take them apart and lubricate some linkages inside.  Otherwise, you sometimes get some surging type behavior while riding at speed, very annoying.  Last year, the indie mechanic I take Brigitta to had done this and recent behavior on the part of Brigitta had led me to purchase a working spare.

The job of the bean can, is to trigger the coil's generation of electricity to the spark plugs I believe, there's a mechanism inside, which spins in conjuction with the engine's crank shaft and as it moves, another mechanism senses its travel and "triggers" a signal to the coil to do its thing.  Not sure if this entirely correct but you get the idea.

Why not a new one you ask?  Well, BMW or Bosch are really proud of this unit, and it costs well north of $500!  The cost of a used unit was $100.

This morning, I followed the manual's procedures in removing the front engine cover on Brigitta and exposing her bean can and alternator:

The bean can is the smaller can shaped object, the thing with all the wires is the alternator

 Rear view of the old bean can

Front view of the old bean can

Removal and installation are pretty straightforward, the hardest part being to disconnect the old unit from the ignition system.  It's only hard because its located in an ackward location.  Just take it slow and careful so you don't break off the locking tabs.  Make damn sure you disconnect, as it says in the manual, the battery's ground cable when removing/installing the front cover...you don't want an accidental electrical short frying your ignition system module.

The new(old) unit in place, I fired Brigitta up and checked the timing mark.  It was not right, so a slight rotation of the new bean can and I could see the timing S mark centered.  I ran the revs up to 3200 rpm and saw the Z timing mark as expected.  Cool!.  I tightened things down, buttoned her up and of course took her out for a ride.

I went to the nearby prairies which are north of the Aurora Water Reservoir and Park.  Brigitta was running a bit smoother than yesterday and running nicely by the way.  I wandered about the dirt trails and posed Brigitta as usual atop on of the small hills:

Sunny skies and Colorado Prairie

 Distant fog bank

Notice that fog bank in the picture above, I went to see if  I could get closer to it.  It was a thick fog bank rising from the water reservoir, caused by the temperatures in the low to mid 30s we were enjoying here in the east side of the Denver Metro area.

A little bit more dirt riding, along trails which occasionally showed deeply rutted channels where trucks and such had probably gotten stuck when it was muddy.  The end of the trail was a fenceline barring further progress to the reservoir itself.

I turned around, topped another small hill and posed Brigitta while we were in the fog bank itself:

Inside the fog bank

The fog bank moves on 

As you can see, the slight wind I was feeling was moving the fog right along and soon I was under sunny skies once again.  I rode back towards pavement and noted while doing so that my Brigitta's idle was a bit lower than usual.  The tachometer only registered in the 800 rpm range and while not causing issues, I knew it was suppossed to be closer to 1100 rpm.

Rode home, turned the idle stop screws 1/4 turn inward, now she idled closer to 1000 rpm.  A quick followup ride and she was just fine and dandy.  It'll take more riding to see if swapping out beancans will eliminate the surging I'd experienced.  The behavior is very random you see, some days you get it, some you don't.

Now I can see if I can do the linkage lubrication myself or have it completely rebuilt for about $150, still much cheaper than a new unit.

Hope you got some riding in today.....

A new battery for Brigitta after some unexpected snow

Brigitta, my '87 R80 Beemer had been, of late, hard to start as the days got colder around here.  I'd been putting off buying a new battery as they are quite pricey and I have been known to "try and save money" by trying other remedies, doing the work myself, etc.  Usually, it worked out but not in this case.

Today, I rode into work with temperatures in the low 30s but sunny and dry roads.  I put the grip covers on Brigitta's grips and didn't even have to turn on the heated grips during the 12 miles or so to work.

During lunch, it was nice and sunny, temperatures in the mid to high 40s as I rode down to the Beemer dealer to pick up some parts and a new battery.  I wasn't going to install it you see, just have it with me if the current Panasonic LC-X1220P battery failed me on the next cold day.  The parts lady confirmed I'd be able to return the unused Westco battery so long as I didn't break open the plastic covers on the terminals.

Well, turns out I didn't have to wait till tomorrow's forecasted colder conditions.  As 4:00 PM approached, I could see the skies darkening and clouding over.  As I was packing up my gear, my co-workers stopped by my cube and told me it was snowing.  Yep, snowing.  I thought they were just kidding me but when I looked out the window there were big thick snow flakes coming down in a pretty stiff wind.  Damn.

Still, it had been such a warm day till then that the roads were warm and the snow was not sticking, just melting immediately so I hurriedly made my way to Brigitta and got ready to go.  I found her in the parking lot, covered in a thin layer of snow/ice mixture, which thankfully was melting.

I packed up my gear onto her and I turned the key, hit the starter button and she weakly cranked several times until I knew the battery wasn't going to do it, even though it had come close a couple of times. Did I mention it was still snowing?

But I was prepared, as it continued to snow, I broke out the spare battery from the side case, used my small jumper cables to hook it up to the onboard battery and a couple of cranks later, she fired up!  I used the throttle screw to keep the revs up as I packed everything back up.  This had taken only a few minutes but now the snow had stopped and it was just dark and windy and rainy....perfect riding conditions!  Not!

The winds were pretty strong so I elected to take city streets instead of the usual open county roads back towards my home neighborhoods.  It was rush hour, cagers all about me with rain coming down and nicely wet road surfaces.  I will admit it was a bit of a tense ride, but I had only one instance of the rear wheel attempting to slide during a stop.  I kept my following distance longer than usual and thankfully all the cagers I had behind me kept their distance for the most part.

I'll admit the heated grips were quite nice on the ride home, in fact, in the HIGH setting they get almost too hot!  I had to turn them down to low as they were almost burning the palm on my right hand.  No, I elected not to put the grip covers on in my rush to get going.  They would have helped but tend to be a bit in the way when wet.

Brigitta did great all the way home, and I was happy the snow had stopped before I left the parking lot at work.  I didn't get too wet (didn't bother donning my rain pants), got home and changed out the battery forthwith!  I started Brigitta up with the new battery and she kicked right over, we'll see how she does tomorrow.

As you can see, I'll be keeping the new battery.  I really hope I get Natasha, my Ural Sidecar Rig back soon....today's weather was more her style than Brigitta's!

Veteran's Day

Traditionally, I would ride to the Logan National Cemetery in the west side of the Denver Metro area and pay my respects to the many veterans buried there on Veteran's Day.

Lacking my Ural sidecar rig, Natasha and having to work, will curtail that activity for me this year.

Picture from last year's ride to Honor an American Serviceman

Still, I ask you to remember and honor the veterans who've served this country so well, those that gave their all serving the nation in its many wars and in peacetime, and finally those men and women currently in harm's way overseas.

I thank all veterans for their service, and inter-service rivalries aside, couldn't possible imagine a better representation of what makes my adoptive homeland one of the greatest countries in the world.  A country I am proud to have served in my own meager fashion.

I leave you with this, easily found in a myriad sites across the Internet, which pretty much says it all:

It is the Soldier, not the minister

Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter

Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet

Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer

Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer

Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician

Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,

Who serves beneath the flag,

And whose coffin is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Charles Michael Province, U.S. Army

The National Colors fly at my house today, do they at yours?