Tire replaced, bling on, ride had...

[hubcapsc]

We put a new tire on Henry's valk a couple of weeks ago, and ended up leaving it on my lift while we
ordered a new flange and a Pinwall final drive. The Pinwall final drive hasn't shown up yet, gotta call
them.... anyhow, as Henry's bike is sitting (all covered in pollen hehe) on my lift, and I need a new
tire, I went and borrowed my buddy Dan's lift... so, I got a lift, but my "shop" (dirt floor, tin roof) is
occupied - if I wasn't a shade tree mechanic before, I am now!



As some of you might remember, Henry's Honda Shop maintained flange looked like this:



My "VRCC maintained" 30k flange looks like this (this is right after I yanked it out):



The VRCC is a good influence!

I don't have cable TeeVee, but I think this is what they mean by Pimp My Ride (I've
been waiting for a tire change to put these on):



All done...



Next day I hooked up with Dan and we put a tankful of gas through our bikes... I don't ride with
Dan as much as I wish, he's flying his Luscombe, rebuilding his dump truck, riding his mountain
bike, working on his model A, refromulating his BMW, rewiring his John Deere from scratch without
a manual, buying Beetles, or otherwise occupied 



We headed up (and down) through the South Carolina mountains...



We took a side trip down Damascus Church Road... I knew it would eventually go dirt, so I had
never been down it before... people have told me there's cool stuff there... it is at the top of
the hill, you have to go up 76 to get there, and then 76 heads down to the Chattooga River... it is
all in agriculture, so it turns out there's this awesome panorama from up there... this picture
from my little on-board camera doesn't do it justice:



Down at the end there's this music park, Bluegrass I think - you can see where the pavement
ends down there where Dan is...



Anywho... back to some roads that don't end in dirt:



We finally stopped at the Lake Jocassee overlook and I turned off the little camera... that's an
awesome lake to swim in, almost no private lots on it, and you have to be a millionaire to own
one...





I read some of the other ride reports from this weekend - we didn't go through any speed traps 

Finally - I'm jealous! I bet nobody has a picture of my bike on their fridge!



-Mike

[Spirited-6]

Mike, great pictures.  You are one brave soul, raising a Valk. on a Jack on dirt. WOW, that had to be some "HARD DIRT" 

[hubcapsc]

Mike, great pictures.  You are one brave soul, raising a Valk. on a Jack on dirt. WOW, that had to be some "HARD DIRT" 

I live on the back part of an old worn-out farm. I'm sure it's been in agriculture for more than 150 years. South Carolina red
clay (under the right conditions) has similar compressive strength to concrete. A couple of summers ago, during the drought,  I had to give up
on running the post-hole digger on the 8N for a few holes I needed and do it by hand with a digging bar, though it is usually not that hard...

With the rear fender section off, I barely lift the tire off the floor/ground...

-Mike

[JimL]

That is some beautiful countryside where you live, I am looking forward someday to exploring some of it on my Valkyrie.  I'm just like Don....I was wondering about raising that bike on the bare ground....obviously you knew what you were doing!

[6jugzz]

Great post Mike............we do have some very good places to ride in South Cackalaky.

6JUGZZ.........remember the 6 is silent

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Nice ride report Mike you've got the bike looking good with all the added bling 

Send me a picture and I'll get it on the fridge 

[Jess from VA]

Nice post Mike.

That is one fancy shop, er.... tree ya got there.