The three day ride from Virginia to Albuquerque was a good shakedown ride. I ran at about a rally pace, and picked up Tour of Honor, Whispering Giants, and Virtual Cache "bonuses" along the way, which are reasonably good substitutes for rally bonus locations.
More importantly, I settled in to where things should be stored on the bike so I can find them quickly, and convinced myself that I hadn't left anything essential at home. I haven't used everything I packed, yet, but I'm convinced I will.
This morning is a bit of last-minute adjustments, and a little quiet time before the planning begins for leg one. The last thing I will do before the rider's meeting is refuel the bike -- I'll do that when it's warm so the fuel doesn't overflow while the bike is sitting in the sun this afternoon.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Headlights
The intermittent headlight problem that appeared on the ride west turned out to be a short -- the hot wire is discolored, and there is some bare conductor. The tech at Sandia BMW is going to insulate the hot wire spade connector to see if that fixes the problem, enough to get me back on the road.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
2015 Iron Butt Rally
As it so often goes, the plans I have (in this case, blogging about my preparations for the 2015 Iron Butt Rally) go unexecuted. It's not that I haven't thought, oh so many times, that I had a nice thought to share -- it's been more a choice to spend time doing other things (in many cases, working on preparing for the Big Dance).
The weather was poor again this winter -- cold and windy -- and with two big proposals to get out the door, the time got away from me. I did get in a few very nice rides, between the Big Money Rally, Cape Fear (which turned out to be a DNF because of a universal joint failure), one of Hammy's rallies, and the Mason Dixon 20-20. I also had several very enjoyable weekend "fun run" rides that served double-duty as practice rides.
In addition to the universal joint failure near State College, PA, I had a final drive replacement, and a main shock replacement. The repair to the universal joint involved a new drive shaft, so the entire drive train aft of the engine has been replaced in the past 12 months or so.
Tomorrow, I head to Albuquerque to ride my first Iron Butt Rally. My goal: to finish safely, earning a three-digit Iron Butt Association number.
The weather was poor again this winter -- cold and windy -- and with two big proposals to get out the door, the time got away from me. I did get in a few very nice rides, between the Big Money Rally, Cape Fear (which turned out to be a DNF because of a universal joint failure), one of Hammy's rallies, and the Mason Dixon 20-20. I also had several very enjoyable weekend "fun run" rides that served double-duty as practice rides.
In addition to the universal joint failure near State College, PA, I had a final drive replacement, and a main shock replacement. The repair to the universal joint involved a new drive shaft, so the entire drive train aft of the engine has been replaced in the past 12 months or so.
Tomorrow, I head to Albuquerque to ride my first Iron Butt Rally. My goal: to finish safely, earning a three-digit Iron Butt Association number.
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