Moto maintenance and more...

That kind of day, I guess. I thought I’d ride the KLR 650 today but it just wasn’t in the cards. When I went to crank it over, even though I keep it on a battery tender, that thing was deader than Julius Caesar.

The battery in that Kawi just doesn’t last as long as my California Scooter battery…I pulled about 3 years on my first CSC-150 battery before I needed a new one. I’m lucky if I can get a year out of the KLR battery. I guess I just don’t ride it enough now that I have the CSC motorcycle.

So, it was off to my local parts dude, the Cycle Rider store, where I had a nice conversation that culminated in a $93 KLR battery. I hope it lasts longer than the one it replaced (I sprung for a better battery this time). I’ve got to give a first charge on the battery tender, and then I’ll install it in the Kawi (most likely tomorrow).

You probably noticed that bent license plate on the Kawi. That’s from the last time I ran down through Baja with it. My buddy John and rode a bunch of dirt on that trip in a quest to find some of Baja’s abandoned missions, and we did. Very cool stuff. The only downside of that trip was that the Kawi’s rear suspension travel and fender arrangement are not terribly well designed…the Kawi design lets the rear tire smack into the license plate when it bottoms, and that’s what I did. I thought about getting a new plate, but I kind of like the look of the one that’s on there…well worn, well used, and not pampered.

While I was doing my best imitation of a motorcycle mechanic, I pushed the Baja Blaster out of the garage after taking it off of its battery tender. I hadn’t ridden it in several weeks. Sure enough, with a little bit of choke and a single touch of the starter button, that puppy fired right up. I spent a bit of time going over all of the nuts and bolts making sure everything is tight, and my Scooter is ready to rock. I’m going to get out on it this Monday, and I’ll grab some video while I’m at it.

Another interesting photo, folks…while I was picking up the KLR battery, this fellow pulled into the parking lot in a very interesting rat rod. It was cool. The guy driving and the car both could have come directly off the set of American Pickers. It sure sounded good, too…

The afternoon got away from me…I was in a wrenching mood and the next bit of work was on my air compressor. The air release on the bottom broke several months ago, and I kind of made do with a bicycle pump (and yes, I have strong arms now). After playing with the fitting for an hour, I finally got the thing off the tank. I’ll visit Harbor Freight tomorrow for a new fitting. It’s not easy pumping up motorcycle and car tires with a bicycle pump, but after tomorrow, I’ll be back in business with a real air compressor. Before I realized it, though, it was getting dark out. Enough wrenching for today. Time to get back on the blog….what with Christmas and all, I haven’t posted anything in a few days. So…

More cool stuff…

Yesterday, Susie, my good buddy Greg, and yours truly pointed the Subie (aka Il Tangerino) north at 4:00 a.m. and we headed toward Death Valley. Greg and I had been talking about a mini photo safari, and he and Susie had never been to Death Valley. Greg and Susie are both California natives. Their never having been to Death Valley just didn’t seem like a situation that I could allow to continue.

It was sure a fun day…the temperature got as low as 28 degrees on the way in, and it was as high as 80 degrees in the afternoon. We had a great breakfast at The Mad Greek in Baker (you’ve got to try it if you’ve never been there), and then we headed into 20 mule team country. The cameras were doing double duty. It was great.

It was fun. The scenery was incredible. In addition to the regular photos, I also put together a few panorama shots using Photoshop. We had some great photo ops, and there was even had a friendly roadrunner (the real one…not the Plymouth) hanging around our table when we had lunch at the Furnace Creek Inn. Fun times, and I think I grabbed some good shots (take a look and tell me if you agree).

I really like the roadrunner photos. Roadrunners are hard to get close to and this one was almost tame. My guess is he was used to folks feeding him. Beep beep, and all that. I didn’t have the heart to warn him about Wile E. Coyote, whom I had photographed just up the road.

Death Valley is an awesome ride. You may remember when TK, Arlene, and yours truly rode our CSC motorcycles there for the Hell’s Loop Endurance Rally. Here’s a shot from that event…