Part 2: Yesterday, August 13, was the 20th anniversary of this blog. I want to mention the people I have met through this blog and through riding who have enriched my life and made the journey enjoyable so far. In no particular order or precedence.... One of the motor bloggers I first found online when starting to ride, especially in all kinds of weather, and not letting weather stop me was Steve…
Today is the 20th Anniversary of this blog Part 1: The last two decades have seemingly gone by in the blink of an eye, that's a cliche but there you go. The first post of this blog was on August 13th, 2006 where I described my first motorcycle: Gretl (yes, A Sound of Music naming convention I would continue to use). She was a 2006 Honda Aero, I knew nothing about motorcycles really, only that I…
Saturday, August 8 Saturdays are definitely the busy time here on Rampart Range Road. I stopped counting the number of vehicles passing by after 20 or so. The only annoying bits were the idiots on dirt bikes growing up and down the trails raising up dust and disturbing the peace with their seemingly unmufflered bikes. Did a little bit of exercise at camp, nothing major. Just trying to strengthen…
It's been quite hazy here in the stoner state, due to wildfires both in state and without. The mountains of the Front Range have barely been visible most days from my home neighborhood or anywhere on the Front Range really. To give you an idea, here's the view of pikes peak from my campsite. The first picture is without any post processing to eliminate the haze, the second picture that dehaze…
Finally got Uma, the VRRV's most pressing issues repaired. The last repair was replacing the front shock absorbers as they were toast according to the mechanic! Being almost 20 years old, it's not surprising stuff is wearing out. After all, we have put more than 105,000 MI on the motorhome since we got it. The new shocks had been replaced sometime ago, but the tire cupping issue I saw on the old…
Colorado, as a state, turns 150 years old today. Funny how the state doesn't make a big deal of this....oh well. Here's a compilation of pics taken in the state while riding/camping.
I've got to be more thorough when it comes to examination of my tires on the VRRV. Last week, I'd noticed an unusual wear pattern on the RV's front tires: Notice the tire thread portions that are darker? I did too. So today I took the RV over to the tire alignment shop early to have them look to see if I needed to remove the cargo rack for the motorcycle. Yes, it would have to come off but before…
I'd been suspecting slight slippage on the clutch of my TW200. I'd been putting off, looking into it due to my ongoing malaise towards motorcycling. This has been going on for a while with Yagi, it was brought to the fore most recently when Yagi was briefly ridden by Steve of ScooterintheSticks . while showing me around his neck of the woods. He experienced noticeable "lag" when upshifting gears…
I was awake at 5AM, previous experience said it was probably not worth it to try and get more sleep, so up I went for some coffee. It was a mere 75°F this early here in the Colorado Front Range so I sat outside on the driveway watching the eastern horizon begin to light up. The coolness got me thinking, once minimally caffeinated, that this was probably a good time of the day for a short ride. It…
Umarang, or Uma the VRRV, was retrieved from the mechanic shop this afternoon. She went in for frequently occuring OBDII error code P0152. Here's what Google AI said of the error: The Ford E-450 P0152 code indicates that the upstream oxygen sensor on Bank 2, Sensor 1 is stuck at a high voltage reading (typically above 0.9 volts). This tells the powertrain control module (PCM) that the engine is…
About two days ago I got the word from Randy F. (retired Ural dealer) that he was willing to do the work involved with replacing leaking seals and the worn driven gear hub on the final drive. To prepare the final drive for transport to Randy's shop, I removed it (carefully slow due to my still recovering back) and cleaned it up. The final drive is the component which takes rotating input from the…
Last month I had learned that the starting issues on Yagi, my TW200, boiled down to a bad battery not providing enough power to start the motorcycle. I had wasted too much time thinking it was a starter relay, or starter switch issue when I should have checked the battery first along with its connections. Today, June 6th, I relearned this lesson. I had cleaned out and sprayed graphite lube into…
Wednesday, July 1 As part of the house battery short-circuit debacle, the RV had lost the ability to be charging its house battery while the engine was running on the chassis. I tried for several hours on and off and could not figure out what was the deal. I suspected it was the battery isolation manager solenoid but lacked the expertise to troubleshoot much beyond the point of accidentally…
June 29 The last day of this last trip by us via motorhome to the eastern half of the country! We left the Sylvan Park COE campground at 0645 CDT and arrived home at 1247 MDT. We're very glad Uma, the VRRV gave us no further issues since the small scare involving the air filter in Wentzville, MO. We unloaded Uma and started in on the post-camping trip chores Some of the lessons learned: Anything…
We got an early start to the day today, leaving the Missouri Conservation Dept's Boat Ramp/campsite at Roberts Bluff, Missouri at 0615 hours. Driving was very tiring as it was a very windy day, and we were fighting winds from the West and Southwest all morning! By 1300 we were almost done setting up camp at the Sylvan Park campground near Wilson Lake. It is a Corps of Engineers campground, and I…
Due to foggy conditions we weren't able to leave the Richards farm HH until almost 8:00 a.m.. Traffic on I-70 was heavy at times and there was many construction zones and two spots where we experience delays due to crashes that happened before we got there. In other words quite the slog, and then we had our little scare near the town of Wentzville. We were cruising along and all of a sudden the…
We didn't leave the Blueberry Patch Harvest Host until almost 9:00 a.m. this morning, the rest of the day was spent driving towards and then on Interstate 70 and it's many instances of construction delays. It rained on us several times and the skies remained solidly overcast. Now near the town of Casey, IL at a different Harvest Host, though this one is also a farm. It's main draw however is a…
We drove down to Mansfield, OH to the Ford dealership from Martha's sister's home in Brownstown, MI. Our thanks to Laura and Andy for allowing us to stay with them since Thursday of last week! Along the way we had a couple of issues to resolve. First, the starboard strap holding Yagi onto the rack in back of the CRV broke. Luckily the other straps held it in place but seriously leaning outboard. I…
June 18-24 We would hang out at Martha's sister's home in Brownstown, MI. Lots of waiting for the Ford dealership in Mansfield, OH to call us with updates. A couple of calls from me to them when I couldn't wait any longer. Very frustrating. Lots of binging TV series such as Marshals and Dutton Ranch. Lots of trying not to fixate on the RV-relared woes, such a first world problem after all eh?…
Tuesday, June 16 There we were, motoring along southbound Interstate 71 in Ohio, heading for a Harvest Host location for the night. Suddenly, all the gauges in the RVs dashboard turned off! They turn back on immediately and we motored on wondering what was going on. Less for a couple miles later, the gauge needles went down again and stayed down and the engine quit. I pulled over onto a flat spot…
We left the Saxtons Distillery Harvest Host just before 7AM and made it to the Pennsylvania border at 940 AM. It felt good to leave New York. By noon we were at the Shenango Recreation Area Campgrounds, which is run by the COE: Corps of Engineers (US Army). Not too far from the interstate though we had to take a detour off a few miles to avoid a low railroad bridge. The site I had originally…
Heading west towards home! As far as the use of the RV for traveling, this will be the last time it will be driven to the eastern seaboard states of the US. Today was the real start of the westbound portion of the trip. We drove over 323 mi and are now overnighting at a harvest host location provided by the Glen H. Curtiss Museum. Known as the fath er of Naval Aviation, he designed and built not…
Our last day of this spring Fling before we start heading back towards Colorado. We drove to Stowe, VT to take part in the history tour of the real Von Trapp family of Sound of Music movie fame. Hollywood of course changed the timeline, names, history and general details of the story involving this family. We listened to a briefing on the true history and how it differed from the version offered…
Friday, June 12 The friends we were visiting in Vermont, Tracey and Jason, were at work so we decided to drive over to Ticonderoga, NY to check out a kitschy tour of the movie sets reproduced from blueprints used in the Star Trek original series TV show. I say kitschy because that's what it sounded like to me before I got there. It turned out to be a pretty cool and fun experience. Due to the fact…
We left the RV at Otto's place in Jaffrey, NH and drove the Honda CR-V the 3 hours or so north into Vermont. Enroute, we visited a few places. First was the Saint-Gauden National Historic Park. Run by the National Park Service, the site is dedicated to the Gilded Age sculptor: Augustus Saint-Gauden. I'll be the first to admit I'd never heard of the man, but I do like his work! The realism and…