Well after a couple months hibernation in the garage getting a thorough cleaning and receiving a few more coats of wax, and some timely maintenance which included a few new parts, and the roads nice and clean after several days of absolutely gorgeous weather, the old girl was finally ready to hit the road and stretch her legs again. With me bachin' it this weekend with the Mrs down in Vancouver for a trade show, today was a good day to spend with my other favorite lady
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Just a couple of hours...but is was a great couple of hours. Out to Hope for a coffee, then back through Harrison and up along the lake to where the big slide was a couple months ago. Almost all cleaned up, but couldn't get all the way to Green Point yet. Then is was a nice leisurely ride through the farmlands of Agassiz and on the the Horn of Plenty café for a late lunch (a definite stop for anyone riding out this way....great breakfasts and soup, and the owner and the waitresses are the best).
I did a lot of tinkering on the bike this Winter including removing a lot of body parts to check, clean, and tighten things up underneath, and some timely maintenance as well...finding out that the drive shaft oil seal had failed and that the pinion cup was dry and full of rust. While the pinion gear and shaft are still useable with just some wear visible (if anyone may need them in a pinch, they're all cleaned up and available), I decided to just order up some new ones, as you never know how long parts like this will be available...now I'm good for another 18 years!
I'm happy to report that I arrived home today from my ride with everything still in tact, after having the back end dismantled as well as other parts strewn around the garage for the past several weeks. Not sure if anyone else experiences the same thing, but whenever I start a job on the bike and then it gets interrupted for a longer than normal time (in this case waiting for the new parts to arrive and then a few days work travel in between), I always worry that I forgot to torque something down or have missed a step along the way when I take her out for the first time...guess I should start writing things down, as the memory sure ain't what it used to be.
Bike sure did run good though...they do like the cooler temps
Hopefully Winter is in our rearview permanently this year and the decent weather continues for another couple weeks so we can ride rather than drive down to our lunch meetup with some of the WA gang in Bellingham March 1.
