Adventures By Guy

1. I retired 14 months ago and left immediately on a 13,000 mile jaunt up to Prudhoe Bay and then down the west coast just above San Francisco. Crossed the valley and went north through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Eventually wandered home but not until I went on the Chief Joseph Hwy twice and then over Bear Tooth Pass then wandered over the Bighorn mountains via 14A. Then hammered home to Illinois in one straight 20 some hr shot.
   Gone 44 days. Had to tear into my Super Tenere and change all the fluids and clean everything as the Haul Road has calcium chloride mixed into the gravel. Then I rebuilt the forks as my seals had started leaking badly due to the fine grit on the haul road after we went through rain from Coldfoot to the other side of the Brooks Range. The bike was coated with it. Use shock sox’s if you go and you won’t blow your seals. In October I went and did the CPAAT across Pennsylvania. Then came home and didn’t touch a bike for at least 3 months. I didn’t do much of anything but lay around and be lazy. Gained weight too. I finally went out into the garage and sorted through the two large tool boxes I got from my uncle when he passed. I integrated them into my tools. That took almost two weeks! Now the garage wasn’t a mess so I started wanting to go out there again.
2. Early spring of 24 I and two others went down to ride the rough fire roads on the ridges of Georgia east of Ellijay and then around Dahlonega, GA. Came home and didn’t ride much at all after that.  Slinstead I started to do small projects that needed doing around the house that I had put off as they were lower priority when I was working.  I still took several long day rides with someone who is on the Super Tenere forum. Then did some long distance days on the Wing by myself. I am  spending a good amount of time each week helping African refugees (around 60) at the church I attend. They are just trying to understand the basics of our modern society.
   On Labor Day weekend early Saturday morning I got a call from a friend. He and his wife booked a hotel in Marquette, Michigan on the edge of Lake Superior and were going up on their Wing. It had two queen beds… did we want to come along and use the other bed? We did, so 3 hrs later we are headed up north all hwy riding as we started late. Was beautiful weather and we went to the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore park. Wind was over 20 knots all day so waves were building up and had white caps on the Lake and they were piling into the beaches and cliffs. Quite beautiful! A friend called me in early August and said… We haven’t been to WV in the fall to ride for 2 years. We should go. I answered… how about going out to central UTAH around Boulder instead. So we both thought that would be a good idea. I called two more buddies and asked if they wanted to go. Sure! I wanted to ask two more but I didn’t have room in my truck to take them. If you remember I bought that 24′ box trailer for just this reason. That meant I had to get it set up to haul bikes! I have been doing that on and off for the past month. On and off because two kids went to college and we also had to travel out to Utah for a good friend’s 50th wedding anniversary. The trailer is now ready to go and now my attention is turning to my Super Tenere. I am tired of being out of cell range and losing GPS while two of my buddies have tablets that never lose GPS and they are discussing routes and I just have to follow along trusting them. In most cases it has worked out well… but there was a time in Georgia that it didn’t… So I bought a Samsung Active 5 tablet, Ram ball mount and some wiring and am figuring out how to put it on and where to run the wires. Also removed the tweaked aluminum panniers because I bought a used set of Mosko 25L bags. Only used on one trip and they looked new when I got them out of the box. I didn’t want them as I wanted 35L bags. Just like my riding buddy. He said he wanted the 25L bags so he said if I bought them we could swap when he gets here. So I bought them… The bags and mounts usually are right at $2000 new. I paid less than half of that including shipping! My rear MotoZ tire started cracking at the base of the lugs and I have been on two trips and have been watching them closely. The cracks are getting bigger and I could probably get through this trip as most of our riding will be gravel, sand and dirt… I  just don’t want to chance it and Loraine saw them when I pointed it out. “Buy a tire. It’s not worth injuring yourself!” I told her I already ordered on yesterday.  I Love the tires but this cracking had me worried. I did some research… this cracking can start if loaded heavy and running around 80 mph for hours. OH, GEE… I’M GUILTY OF BOTH.
   Especially when leaving the Bighorn mountains. I ran 80 mph all the way home to Illinois. So for safety I bought another MotoZ tire but this ttime it was the Tractionator Rallz and not the Tractionator Adventure and I won’t  e running 80 mph and loaded anymore,  well hardly anymore!                  My truck has given me on 6 different occasions a low fuel rail pressure code! Signs my CP4 pump was maybe failing so I took it to Dan’s Performance Diesel  and let them do their thing. They did all sorts of stuff to it… and I asked if they could put a bigger fuel tank in it. Why sure we can. Your choice 56 gallons or 62 gallons. Give me the 62 gallon tank! Stock is 36 and if I am not hauling anything I can do a bit over 600 miles. Now theoretically I can do around 1000. But if I am hauling I can get as low as 7 to 10. Only if hitting a stiff head wind… which seems to happen to me a lot! I haven’t filled it up all the way yet just 28 gallons
   It will be nice hauling out to Utah with it though.
   My poor CBR 1100XX Super Black Bird has been just sitting. I have only had it out twice. I may fix that and take it down to Texas this winter but first it needs some fluid changes and minor stuff. I haven’t been doing any videos as I am just enjoying the riding that I am doing but I plan to video out in Utah