Rode to Work, by way of the Dinosaur National Monument.

Yep, rode to work today, National Ride to Work Day.

As I wasn't due at the Rangely, Colorado Field Office until 2-3PM, I went into the Dinosaur National Monument to see what there was to see.  I skipped the portion of the monument where the dinosaur fossils are located though and went straight to the Canyon Area portion.

Bottom line: The monument is okay, perhaps I've been spoiled by the sights in other parts of Colorado, with majestic mountains in the distance and towering rock formations to pose my motorcycles in front of.  The monument does have some nice spots and what it might lack in majestic scenery it makes up for in the availability of solitude.

I don't know if the sparseness of tourists if because of the time of the year or because it was a weekday, but most of the time I felt like I had the entire park to myself.  The quiet would have been deafening except for the winds which were pleasant at first but grew to strong buffeting winds in the afternoon.

I entered the monument and rode along the main paved road in the monument: Harper's Corner Road.  You have to drive almost to the end, and into Utah before the scenery is something worth mentioning.

 A few miles up Harper's Corner Road, the scenery got a little interesting.

 Canyon Overlook, meh.

Scarlett and I rode all the way to the end of the road, had crossed into Utah a few miles back and we decided to take Echo Park Road down to Echo Park to see Steamboat Rock.  You pick up Echo Park Road about 2-3 miles south of the Echo Park Overlook, it starts rather steep and rocky but quite doable on Scarlett.  The road is marked as impassable when its wet, apparently the mud is quite slippery.

The view from the Echo Park Overlook

We motored our way down the eight miles to the Y Junction where one takes a left to go to Echo Park or a right to go to Castle Park.  We turned left and four miles later, we were entering an area with high rocky canyon walls.  

I stopped along the way to check out some old log houses.

Riding further long, I saw a small sign for the "Whispering Cave", sounds interesting doesn't it?  I turned towards the cave and parked Scarlett alongside.  I went inside, not really a cave but a shallow overhang and while it felt nice and cool under all that rock, I heard no whispers.  Oh well.

 Whispering Cave

 I am thinking the whole area we were riding in was once underwater

 Steamboat Rock at Echo Park.

So a quick circuit around the campsite loop near Steamboat Rock and I decided to head back the way I had come.

I didn't want to retrace my route back to Harper's Corner Road so at the Y Junction I turned towards Castle Park.  At this point, I was thinking it was only perhaps 10 miles of dirt road before I got back on US40.

 I liked Castle Park and it's overlook the best.  I had the place all to myself and the only

people I would see were folks in rafts paddling their way down the river.

It was close to 12:30PM by now and it was time to head back towards Rangely where I was picking up some equipment for work tomorrow.  I kept heading east on what turned out to be Yampa Bench Road, little did I know I'd be on this road for the 90 minutes.  

The road had portions strewn with small rocks and washboard dirt.  Twists and turns, uphill and downhill portions that tested the limits of Scarlett's grip on the road, sandy portions that required 2WD, and seemingly endless stretches of loose gravel and fist-sized rocks.

Taken shortly after Castle Park Overlook, this would be the

last picture of the day for us.

Wow, Yampa Bench Road is a long road.  Perhaps it was because I had an appointment before 3:00 PM in Rangely, or the fact that the road seemed endless but all kinds of breakdown scenarios worked their way into my brain.  

Still, I finally reached Moffat County Road 95 which would eventually take me south towards County Rd 16 which would take me back to the paved US40 highway.  It was after 2:15 PM when I reached the pavement and it was a hurried ride back towards Dinosaur.

Just before Dinosaur, I spotted County Road 134 and a sign for Rangely, I took it and made it to the Rangely field office with 2 minutes to spare!  

The solitude of the monument, I realize now it could cut both ways.  Sure, you're alone with your thoughts but if something happens to your transportion......you see what I mean?  Oh well, it's not an adventure without a little uncertainty right?  Scarlett, as you are probably inferring, did great.  Got me through all the challenging portions of the dirt roads with no complaints or issues.

Now that I've seen the canyon portion of this monument, I probably won't be coming back.  I guess that's the criteria for a location isn't it?  Would you return willingly?

Orienteering Course Setup and Starting Scarlett's 5K Km Service

It was a busy Saturday for me today.  The morning started with a rendezvous with fellow Uralisti Jay and his lovely wife Deana and Tim L. over in Morrison, CO.

We rode the two hours or so on US285 South until we reached County Road 311 just south a bit from Antero Junction.  We were there to install metal tags with seemingly random sets of letters in pre-selected locations.  The idea is for our fellow Uralisti to go through one of two orienteering routes, using published guides/hints/photos to get them to the vicinity of the tags.

Once found, the rider is asked to write down one or two of the letters on the tag, at the end of the course, these selected letters are to be unscrambled into a phrase, to hopefully win the contest.  We got the general idea from this video, though we will not be doing it in such a large scale both in terms of land covered and time used.  The goal is to have fun riding offroad, hunting the metal tags, using no GPS, just the clues and maps provided.

I split off from Jay/Deana and Tim L. as they were doing one route and I had the other.  During the upcoming CZAR Rally, I will ride their route and they both will ride mine.  This way, no one knows where the tags are for their assigned route you see.

There's some great views of the nearby Collegiate Peaks as one rides off road in the San Isabel National Forest roads to the East and North East of Buena Vista, CO.

I was done shortly before 3:00 PM and found a voicemail from Jay saying they were done and were waiting for me at the junction of FR 376 and County Road 375.  I hurried on to that junction and met up with them.  A look at the stormy looking clouds cresting the Collegiate Peaks to the west decided our next move:  Run before the storm and try not to get rained on!

We made it out of the national forest and into Buena Vista which we transited quickly to get back on US285 Northbound.  I could see the tops of the Collegiate Peaks disappear due to the incoming weather clouds, a sight which no doubt drove our mostly above normal URAL speeds!

Alas, as we were approaching the town of Jefferson after tanking up in Fairplay, Jay's rig suffered a flat tire on the pusher!  He limped his rig to a nearby exit and Tim and I followed him in and we started working on getting Jay's spare tire on the pusher position.

 Jay admitted he may have stretched the use of the old pusher tire a bit far.

Between the four of us, tools flew, wrenches turned and of course a hammer was used.  About 35 minutes later, Jay was pumping up the spare to specified air pressures and we were all putting away tools and gearing back up.

We lucked out, the weather didn't catch up to us but had gotten noticeably closer.  Once more we motored on US285 and soon Kenosha, Red Hill and Crow Hill Passes were behind us and we made it to the western edge of the Denver Metro area with no further issues.

We all split off soon after passing Morrison, Tim heading towards Longmont, Jay and Deana down south on E-470 and I stayed on US285 heading into the metro area.  Made it home shortly before 7:00 PM and quickly got to work on a few major tasks related to the 5000 Kilometer service for Scarlett.

Scarlett's odometer rolled past 5000 as I neared home so I had that one timed right!  The evening tasks were to include the check and lubing of drive shaft splines, both main and sidecar shafts.  Check the lube of the pusher wheel's splines and the Final Drive's Splined Hub.  All fluids were drained out and will be replaced in the morning.  Also, as I went through not one but two water crossings as part of the orienteering course, I re-greased all the U-Joints with fresh stuff.

Rear Brake Pads were checked still have enough material on them, the minimum being 1mm per the user manual.  I'll check the splines on the sidecar wheel in the morning, too tired now.  I'll be finishing the other checks of the 5K service tomorrow as well.  The major concerns for me where the splines mentioned before.

 Looks like a few traces of surface rust, even though there still was a

thin film of grease on the main drive shaft splines.  

 More evidence of surface rust, this is the other half of the main 

drive shaft that connects to the Final Drive seen in the picture.

Whatever grease had been applied at the factory was gone as 

you can see.  This is why you check the splines!  I put a 

good coating of Honda Moly 60 on the splines above and in the

present pusher wheel splines which looked the same as above.

Pumped even more grease on the drive shaft U-Joints, pumping until I saw the fresh grease come out of all the seals/cups.  Messy but I know for sure the joints are full of fresh grease this way.

So, as you can see, a full day, I wasn't done with the above maintenance till 9:30PM, but it all went well.  Valve clearances checks in the morning when the engine will be cold, check the air filter, and the rest of the checklist shouldn't take very long.  More riding tomorrow, but that's another post.

Update: 15JUN:  Woke early, grabbed some coffee and went out to the garage to:

1.  Check and adjust valve clearances, left side were a tad loose, right side as well.  Now back to .004 inches.

2.  Put in new oil in the engine and transmission as well as the Final Drive getting gear oil.

3.  Removed sidecar calipers (brake pads are fine), removed wheel and was heartened to see both the shaft splines and the wheel splines were well greased.  It figures actually, Randy would have put the sidecar wheel on when assembling and he would of course have greased them.  I put one a fresh coat of Honda Moly 60 and re-assembled.

4.  Adjusted the parking brake as it wasn't holding as well as I'd like, and used blue loctite on the caliper mounting screws.

Started the engine for a couple of minutes, no leaks, no explosions, no smoke.  It's going to be a good day for riding.  One final overall check for tightness of everything I touched and I'll be on my way.

Brigitta gets a ride in the Trailer

Yep, once again, Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead had to be taken home by trailer.  Last time, the transmission input spline had worn away to the point it no longer engaged.  Today, it was a flat rear tire.

I was motoring home eastbound on 17th street heading away from Downtown Denver, as I neared Peoria Street, I hear a loud noise and it felt like my rear tire had clipped some object on the road.  I distinctly remember seeing a dark object flying across the street in my left side mirror.

Nothing felt wrong at the time so I didn't stop.  I continued for perhaps two miles, the rear of the motorcycle feeling a bit "squishy"....I stopped after turning right onto Smith Road from Peoria and checked the tire.  It felt soft to the touch so I knew it was low on air.

I rotated the tire at least twice looking for punctures and finding none.  I was perplexed since my air gauge reported zero pressure in the tire!  I broke out my electric air pump and aired up the tire, it never got above 20 PSI even though I let the pump run for at least ten minutes!  Weird.

I decided to head back towards a gas station I'd seen on the way to Smith Road, thinking perhaps my air pump wasn't up to the task of inflating the rear tire to 32 PSI.  And yes, the mystery of where the air had gone and my not seeing any punctures nagged at me.

I rode slowly, the rear end feeling quite squishy, for perhaps a half mile and then I spied an air fill up station at a 7-11 convenience store so I stopped there.  After $1 and five minutes of pumping air into the tire, it still wouldn't rise above 20 PSI.....hmmmm.  I rotated the tire some more and this time I managed to hear air escaping and found this:

One heck of a cut isn't it?  No way I could repair that with my

tire puncture kit!

Apparently the tire has some strong sidewalls, this is without any air!

First move was to call roadside assistance, after navigating through the automated voice prompts, finally got a live person and they promised to send a tow truck my way.  I called Martha to let her know what was going on.  

I got a text message soon afterwards advising it would be about and hour and 45 minutes before the tow truck would arrive!  The neighborhood I was in proved a bit "sketchy" for me so after talking it over with Martha, it was decided they'd hook up the trailer and come get me.

I am happy to report that Miles was able to move the trailer out of the backyard and hook it up with some assistance from Sean, our next door neighbor to make sure all hookups were correct!

A bit over 30 minutes later, my rescuers arrived in the form of Martha and my youngest son Miles, driving Schnitzel the BMW X5 and pulling the Aluma trailer.  Yay.

The following shots were I suspect gleefully taken by Martha as Miles and I rolled Brigitta onto the trailer and I tied her down with straps.

 Miles and I felt all 532 pounds of Brigitta, not counting the stuff in the cases, as

we rolled her up the ramp and onto the trailer bed.

 Here I'm position Brigitta onto her center stand in preparation for the straps.

A later discussion with Oscar over the phone reveals that perhaps the best way is to not use

the center stand but to tie her down on her two wheels, using of course

four straps to the four corners of the trailer.

I am going to have to research proper tie down of two-wheeled motorcycles to be sure.  Still, she was tied fast while on the center stand and her front wheel was in contact with the trailer bed.  I also made sure to secure the center stand to the front wheel so Brigitta wouldn't come off her center stand while being moved!

Upon a safe arrival home, the boys held Brigitta steady while I removed all the straps.

 We carefully rolled her backwards down the ramp, me using the front 

brakes to keep her from gaining any speed or getting away from us.

Safely on the ground, we pushed poor Brigitta into the garage,

there to await Friday when I can remove her rear wheel and tire

and take it to performancecycle to get a new tire.

I am kind of bummed that this happened on what was basically a brand new tire with less than 2000 miles on it!  But, the fact that it held up enough to allow me to slowly ride it to the 7-11 is truly a fortunate thing.  I am glad I stopped to check instead of ignoring the squishiness and attributing it wrongly to bad pavement conditions!

So, a successful test of the Chang Rescue Team in coming to pick me up!  I had intended a rehearsal to work out procedures but I think we'll call this one good.

Adding Tools to the URAL Kit

Over the last 2-3 weeks, I'd been trying out various grease fittings in order to inject grease into the zerk mounted onto my rig's main drive shaft's u-joint.

The deal is, one should grease a rig's u-joints on a consistent and periodic basis, more often if one does a lot of water crossings in the course of having fun off-road.

Before, with my other rigs, I thought that one had to dismount the pusher wheel, then pull the final drive with main drive shaft attached off the motorcycle in order to access the u-joint's zerk fitting.

I had planned on doing this on the upcoming 5000 KM service.  Still, I'd found water drops being squeezed out when I thought to inject grease in the sidecar wheel's u-joint which is easily accessible as the zerk is mounted on one of the u-joint caps.

My mind started worrying, is there water in the main drive shaft u-joint?

Here's the access I have with the drive shaft in place:

Looking at the U-Joint from the top, note the small gap 

one has to access the grease zerk itself.

Tried a regular coupler, too wide.  

Went and bought a needle fitting similar to the one below.

Turns out, not correct for U-Joints, but correct for Ball Joints.  I tried it anyways, even to the point of cutting off the tip, and still the grease just came out the way it went in.

Next, I tried a wider needle, based on info I saw online, mainly on sovietsteeds.com.  There seems to be, in the grease gun industry, some descriptive lapses when it comes to describing fittings designed to get at hard to get zerks.

All the above having failed, I decided one afternoon to take my trusty angle grinder and pared down a regular grease coupler so that it's outer diameter was 10mm.  This allowed the coupler tip to get past the gap and with a bit of "finesse" managed to get it to mate to the zerk.  Grease flowed into the U-Joint and all was well.  Of course, then I dropped the modified coupler and while searching for it, managed to roll the pusher tire over it and it cracked the housing.  :(

Tried for a long time to search for a grease coupler with an outer diameter (OD) of 10mm, to no avail.  So much time wasted.

Thought about replacing the grease zerk with one that had a 45 degree angle to it, but just placing it near the existing zerk showed there would be clearance issues with the U-Joint arms itself.

So, I'd resigned myself to dismounting the final drive each time I wanted to grease the driveshaft zerk.  Then I decided to give it one last try with a fitting mentioned in SovietSteeds:  a Lincoln 5803 Needle Nozzle.  Got it from Amazon.com today and it worked!

Kind of looks like the second fitting I tried doesn't it?  Well, it works and I am not looking back!  You still have to get a good square-on connection to it but I was able to inject grease into the zerk without getting grease all over the place!

The plan is to grease all the U-Joints every 2500 KM.  So glad I don't have to remove the rear disc brake caliper assembly, pusher wheel and final drive with drive shaft to get at this zerk.  I still plan to dismount all these things at the 5000 KM intervals to grease the splines on the wheel and drive shaft of course.

The other tool I hope will work out for my tool kit is a Valve Socket Wrench, 29/32", to access a recessed 22mm nut that holds in the seal through which the drive shaft transits from the transmission.  You can't use a regular 22mm socket as the walls are too thick on regular sockets.  I had almost bought what the British call a Tubular Box Spanner that came in 22mm but they wanted around $23 for one at amazon.com.

I've not tried to change out this seal yet, nor is it leaking.  Darrell S., a fellow Uralista has tried because his was leaking oil and discussions on sovietsteeds.com had lead to tool fabrications by another member to meet this requirement.  Yep, you can grind down a regular socket but it weakens it, so it's only good for a limited number of uses.

Instead, I finally figured out that here in the US, we call the same tool a Valve Socket Wrench!  It's mostly used by plumbers, go figure!

It's 29/32", not 22mm but 23.01mm, which I hope will work.

Note the thin sides, allowing it to access the 22 nut which is recessed into

the rear of the URAL's gearbox.

source: mural.com

A view of a 2007 Gearbox, showing the 22mm nut holding in the forward yoke

onto which the donut mates, and the rear yoke is part of the driveshaft leading to the final drive.

The clearance is less on the yoke for the 2014 models because they have a wider Nyloc nut instead of the castellated nut you see above.