A Warm Colorado Fall Sunset

Another beautiful day here in Colorado as the Fall season begins to have its effect on the foliage in the Metro Denver Area.

After a long day of staring at computer screens, I rode out with Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar rig to see what kind of a sunset this Monday would bring us here.

The sunset did not disappoint, no low lever cloud banks on the western horizon obscuring the front range mountains and a nice golden orange glow as the sun set.

 Totally by accident, I got the right angle to make the headlight

look like was part of the sun's vanishing light

It's still in the mid-60s Farenheit as I type this, a warm Fall evening to be enjoyed as the NE part of the country gets the first big taste of snow.  Here's hoping its not too far behind for us here.

Scouting Ride for Fall Colors

In order to give Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead Beemer some exercise and also check out the conditions for Fall Colors in the DTC and South Denver area, we rode out a bit after 9AM into some cool and sunny riding conditions.

Fall riding can be quite nice, it's not hot, it's not cold and when the sun is out, it's almost as great as riding in snowy conditions with the sun out.

The leaves on the deciduous trees are starting to turn with the incoming Fall weather but they weren't quite there yet for pictures.  The peak should happen in the next week or so I think.

Here's a couple of pics of the entrance to Westlands Park in the DTC (Denver Tech Center).

 That's Mount Evans in the distance.

About 55 miles of city driving, and only one dumb cager not paying attention to her lane positioning.

Got home before lunch, hopefully we'll have better Fall coloring by next weekend.

Scarlett has two new shoes.

Spent the morning replacing the worn out tire on the sidecar wheel with a new Heidenau K37.  Got a total of 10,949 Km on that tire, not too shabby since it did both SC duty and Pusher duty.

The old pusher tire still has some "meat" left on it so I'll keep it as the standby spare as I am not going to replace the new Duro 308 that's presently on the spare wheel today.

Replaced both pusher and SC tires at mileage: 25433.

Front tire still has over 1/4 thread on it, will leave it for now as it's not really great for traction as opposed to the pusher and SC tires when on slippery stuff like snow and such.

Couple of fellow Uralisti came by to kibitz, get a part that I no longer need and to borrow the use of the Harmonizer to check the balance of his M70's carburetors.  They were a tad "off" at idle but still within specs, he also borrowed the use of my timing light to check his timing, which was spot on.

Done by noon, would have been done sooner but there was a bit of BS'ing done while Steffen and Dan were around.  Go figure.  :)

Winter is Coming, Scarlett is ready.

Measuring the temperature on Scarlett's heads.

Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar, has what is commonly referred to as a Boxer engine.  The formal description is "Horizontally Opposed Pistons Engine" I believe.

These pistons, function inside what is known as the cylinder heads, or "heads" for short.

During the last long set of riding days down in southwest Colorado for the Fall Colors, there had been a time or two where I'd smelled the distinctive smell of burnt engine oil.  Usually that's either a sign of leaking oil falling on some hot surface or an engine that's running hot.

I recalled seeing a set of engine heat sensor gauges on a fellow Uralista's rig during the last group ride.  Tim L. had installed digital sensors from TTO which used as a sensing device a brass ring which is mounted under the spark plug used in each engine cylinder head.

The price was right, less than $40 each and I got two of them yesterday from Amazon.  Installation was easy and the only real complaint so far is the length of the wiring is a bit short, forcing one to use the leg shields as a mounting point, and not the handlebar.

 Left cylinder's sensor, mounted near top edge of leg guard
LINK to product on Amazon

 My view of the sensors while riding.

 views of the sensor cable at each spark plug

As I had already suspected from comparison to other thermometer readings I'd seen while riding, the aquarium thermometer I use to measure ambient temperature on my handlebar reads two degrees warmer than actual air temperature:

Tim L. reports his cylinder heads run in the 300s Farenheit when riding, I'll be tracking my own to see how hot the heads on an EFI rig run.

Once I have a baseline, I'll be in a better position to judge whether the engine might be overheating on the hotter days of riding.

First ride with sensors: Ambient temp 54F, heads ran in the 330s Farenheit.  High was 369F on left head and 368F on right head.