Almost Time for My Beauty Sleep

Writing this at a couple minutes before 9:00pm.
Work today had a lot of shit to do, since, basically, our parts and accessories suppliers were closed for the 4-day holiday weekend, but our shop was not.
So, the orders we submitted on Wednesday evening, Friday and Saturday just piled-up on the computers of our suppliers, and come Tuesday morning - POOF! - there was two days worth of shit to do.

It's no secret to anybody that I work with that I'm more than a little jaded with this line of work.
I mean, how many tires, clutch levers, spark plugs, purchase orders, backorders, shipping labels, packing lists/invoices, and wise-assed customers can a guy deal with before he says, "Fuck it"?
In fact, the age of one of the guys working the parts counter is equal to how long I've been doing this job.
Really.
After a day like today, having a job where I would, as it was back in the good ol' days, only have to worry about my own motorcycle parts seems like not too bad a deal. :)

Well, hopefully, tomorrow's shit off the UPS and FedEx trucks will be back down to the normal amount, and I'll feel a bit better about the whole friggin' mess.

Good fuggin' night,
-John

208, and Monday Ain't Great

Taken in 1984 at the big Coventry, RI. gravel banks, often called the Coventry "desert" by locals.
The reason it got a nickname like that is because it is pretty big for a gravel quarry around here.
I should drive out there soon with my trusty ol' digicam and snap a few pics of what it looks like these days.
That sounds quite interesting because I haven't been near the place since around the year 1991 or 1992, the last times we rode dirt bikes there, and I don't know how the area looks today.
By those times, it was already known that the people in high places didn't want you out there for whatever reason (they'd probably claim either fear of liability or that you were hurting the fragile environment by squashing some grains of sand), so we had to basically ride and hope we didn't get caught, which we did not. :)


Well, today doesn't feel like a terrible day, other than being a reminder that, unless you are living off some kind of free loot thrown your way (or, unless you're a crook like a politician or some kind of non-elected bureaucrat, where you'd be living off the loot of the taxpayers and collecting quite the whopper of a salary), you gotz ta' git off yo' ass an' git ta' work.

This is the first full week of the Christmas shopping season, and at my age, it seems like it's simply a time for retailers to try and sell, sell, sell.
Does that turn you on?

The weather for this week is supposed to be not so bad as far as temperatures go, and a bit of rain mid-week.
Forecast for the weekend seems average, so, let's hope for some riding weather.

Off to jerk,
-John

The Sun is Out on a Sunday

That's a pretty good match, in my estimation.

Although I felt well and suffered from no physical ailments, I decided to not go for a Saturday Pachaug rock pile ride yesterday.
The reason was that the weather was a bit cold and windy - it was about 10 degrees below average, which in itself ain't automatically a deal-breaker, but when the windy wind that was blowing was added, I felt a bit too cold for true comfort.
So, I passed.
On another day the weather might not have bothered me, but, it did yesterday.
Listening to your conscience is a good thing to do.
I'm all set to go this afternoon, though, and I'll report back later with an edit.

Wednesday is December 1st, and, frankly, we can't get through winter fast enough.
I really start looking up when the calendar hits March, and that's something to look forward to.
I'm at the stage of the off-road-riding game this season that I feel the days left before the ground starts to freeze solid and the weather starts to get bitterly cold are numbered.
So, I want to ride the decent weather while it hangs on.
If we'd all be pleasantly surprised with a relatively mild winter with no snow and few bitter-cold days and nights, I wouldn't complain.

It's edit time.

Today's rock pile ride was a good one.
The weather wasn't warm enough to feel balmy, but, once I actually hit the trail, it wasn't too much of a problem.
My fingers were a bit nippy after some of the road sections, but, it was decent.

I did the longer version of my loop and did 51.9 miles in total.
I felt pretty good on the bike, pulled some decent-feeling maneuvers, and my engine stopped only one time when I shut the engine off so I could take a piss on a nearby tree.
Oh, did my language offend you?
I'm sorry.
I should have said that I relieved myself. :)

While riding down one of my favorite pine-needed forest sections, a big (big for around here, anyway) bird of prey swooped down right in front of me and escorted me down that section of trail.
I kept pace with this feathered flier as it flew exactly down the trail, it's tail feathers about 20 feet in front of me the whole way, which was about a quarter-mile.
You don't see that happening every day.
I'm not sure what species of bird it was, but I'm guessing some kind of hawk.

I ran into (not literally) a couple groups of friggin' horses, too, but luckily they got the frig out of my way without taking too much time.
I'm not a fan of running into people on horseback because I always get the feeling that they feel they've got a lot more right to be out there than I do since they're on a horse and I'm not, and it's like there is some unwritten rule that says horses are OK to ride where and when you want and dirt bikes are evil.
Well, I've met some nice people on horseback, as well as some real douchebags, too.
The nice ones appreciate that I stop whenever I see one of these goddam fleabags out there (the horses, not the dykes riding them), while the douchebags give me the ol' you-lousy-dirt-bike-rider-scum-you-shouldn't-be-allowed-to-ride-those-things-out-here-and-don't-you-know-this-is-my-forest look.
Those are the ones that can kiss my ass.
Hard.

No crashes, no panic moments, a bit of standing water I had to go through (thanks to Friday's rain), and the last few miles heading toward the start/finish was very good, indeed.
All-in-all, it was a good ride.
The WR-250FY is washed all squeaky clean, I stuffed my face with a good supper, and life is good right now. :)

-John

Saturday. Already?

Hmm.
Even though yesterday was known as "black Friday", I didn't see this guy all day. :)

Not much to do at jerk, yesterday, so, I stood there for just long enough to label a few bottles of oil for the oil display racks, updated the incoming parts orders with some important info, then left.
As I was pulling out of the Ghandimart gas station in front of our building, though, I immediately noticed the 2009 WR-250FY in the back of a pickup truck heading toward Motorsports Nation, your source of motorcycling elation.
I assumed this was the bike we sold just the day before to some lucky guy, and I say lucky because, don't forget, the Yamaha WR-250FY is the bike I ride out in Pachaug.

I followed the guy to the back of our building and watched him unload his bike on the loading dock for the Service Dept., and I was wondering if he was bringing his new bike back to have someone check it over for him.
Specifically, I wondered if he was concerned with how weak it ran in off-the-showroom condition.
Turns out he was most concerned with how the level of oil, when viewed through the little, round oil level window, seemed to show that there was too much oil in the engine.
On any other bike I've owned, if the oil level was up past the top of the little window, then there would in fact be too much oil in the engine and you'd have to drain some off.

However, the WR-250F, from 2007 to the present, is a bit funny in the oil level window department.
Basically, there is no dip stick used for measuring how much oil is in the engine.
Instead, you stand the bike straight up-and-down and take a peek through a little, round window down near the gear shift pedal.
Many other bikes use this method, but, on any other bike, if the oil level is past the top of the window, it's over full.
On this model WR-250F, though, the normal oil level (after the engine has sat without being run for a minute, at least) is actually about 10mm up past the top of the window.
Yes, really.
I'm not kidding.
In fact, the only time the oil level appears to be correct when viewed through this window is about one-half of a second after shutting the engine off.
Wait any longer, and the oil settles toward the bottom of the engine crankcase, raising the oil level past the top of the window.

I found this out through my own experience with my own WR-250FY - even with the exact amount of oil added to the engine while changing the oil, the level viewed through the window will always show an over-full condition.
This being the case, it appears that, for some reason, the physical location of this oil level window is about 10mm too low to allow it to function like any other bike with an oil level window.
When I was talking with this guy after his bike was wheeled into the Service Dept., I basically told him what I wrote above.
I also told the guy in the Service Dept., named Dan (who you've all met in one of my early posts to this bloggy blog), about this.

Strange, but true.

I also told this guy with the new WR-250FY about the uncorking modifications his new bike requires in order for it to run and perform as a 2009 model off-road motorcycle is to be expected to perform (meaning a very good performer, at least. I know that I would expect my new $6,000-plus dirt bike to run like a dream.).
As I'd guessed, he was not aware of them.
In fact his exact words were, "Yeah. First gear is OK, but once into second..."
He meant that once he shifts into second gear, the bike runs like a dog.
Well, as I told him, that's because it is a dog in stock condition, and nobody in their right mind (or left mind, for that matter) would ride the bike like that.

I told him about what needs to be done to make the bike run like it should, and I hope he understood.
I feel it's an outright shame this is the case when just trying to buy a freakin' dirt bike and go riding, where instead of riding, you need to first deal with a bike all plugged-up with EPA-mandated parts on it.
This environmental protection bullshit is just a staged act to make us all fear we're all guilty of hurting the poor Earth's extremely fragile environment, while industry billionaires and wealthy elite think nothing of building new factories in China and belch as much smoke as they can in order to make a profit.
The sickening thing about that is not only are you not supposed to know anything about that, but they'll also blame you and me for any pollution or damage to the environment caused by them, charge you and me for any clean-up, and sit back and laugh while their money from the slave labor in Chinese sweat shops pours into their pockets, money from when this cheaply-made crap is imported into the USA and bought by us - you and me.

How's that for a deal, eh?
These guys will demolish mountains in order to get valuable minerals out of the ground (not to mention pulling-off some pretty bold and heavy-duty lying and killing to get that done), but you and I are supposed to feel guilty for riding our dirt bikes out in the middle of the woods.

Think about that one for a minute.

Off to another (hopefully short) freebee Saturday at jerk,
-John

205 and I'm Stayin' Alive

Oooh, it's Black Friday.
Makes you think of some kind of stock market crash from 1929, doesn't it?
Now that we're actually past Thanksgiving, expect to see the Christmas advertising/merchandising to come out in full force.

Weather is cold (though not quite as cold as yesterday) and rainy, and being November, kinda' makes you think of a particular Guns N' Roses song, doesn't it?
I never really thought Guns N' Roses was a fantastic band, myself.
I like catchy guitar rock songs with a really catchy guitar riff, and although they had a couple songs that almost qualified in those areas for me, I always got more of a kick out of the guitar player's tall, stove pipe-style hat.

I suppose wearing something like that while playing your guitar is supposed to make some kind of impression that will get you noticed, especially if you have a cigarette hanging out of your mouth at the same time.
For me, it was just another thing to point and laugh at since it was more silly than cool.
The guy (nicknamed Slash. Really.) may as well been wearing a Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat-style striped hat while on stage as far as I'm concerned.
Oh, shit, I hope he doesn't read that - maybe he'll start doing that, too.

Not so sure there will be a whole lotta' work for me to do today at jerk, seeing that UPS is delivering only packages sent via air delivery, today.
FedEx is running as usual, but since only about 10% of our daily shipments come by FedEx, I don't expect much.
And, since FedEx gets there anywhere from 12 noon to 4:oopm, who knows when the stuff (if there is in fact any to begin with) will show up.

So, my plan is to go in as usual, go through my usual routine for the first hour, then leave and return in the afternoon to see if any FedEx stuff arrived.
In the meantime at home, I can change the rear tire on my WR-250FY, which is now worn enough to warrant that.

Off to jerk,
-John

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that (at the time this pic was taken in the mid-60s) 50-something-year-old beatnik/hippie/freak Vito Paulekas.
Just what is he doing in this pic?
Promoting what he was quite happy to promote:
How to be a hippie-dippie freak show and love it.

Even though the weather for today will be 5 to 10 degrees colder than average, and I can feel some body aches along my sides and lower back (I guess I still have some kind of thing that I'm fighting off), I do plan on going for a Pachaug rock-n'-roll pile ride, today.

The WR-250FY is all set to go (since it was for this past weekend when I decided to skip it), and a mere shot of lube down the clutch cable, fork air bleeding, and tire pressure check is all I'll need to do before loadin' 'er on up into my clammy Ranger.

I wonder if I'll find any other people out there.

Edit:

Went on my Pachaug rock pile ride, as planned, and it was a good ride.
Not fantastic (mainly because I felt a bit cold and rode the bike a bit stiff and cautious because of that chilly feeling I couldn't completely get ride of), but I was able to pull a few decent moves that felt good and went as planned.
No crashes or close calls, and I never even had to use the kickstart lever more than once when I first started the engine at the beginning of the ride, which means I had at least decent coordination and didn't stall the engine at any time.

The lower fork oil level felt good and has so far shown to be worth the while.
The fork got to within about an inch of full travel, which is about where I'd expect it to be considering the size and speed of the bumps and jumps out there on the ol' rock pile loop.
The fork felt like it absorbed the smaller bumps better, kept better traction over those small bumps, and basically worked a bit better for me.

Today's mileage was the shorter version of my loop at 34.4 total miles from start to finish.
Not a bad time. :)

A few days ago, I was reading about the supposed origins of the hippies (as I mentioned a few days ago), starting at a spot around Los Angeles, California in the mid-1960s called Laurel Canyon.
Basically, the gist of what I read (when you boil down the 5 hours worth of reading that's broken down into 17 chapters) was that the hippie movement and the 1960s "classic" rock and roll movement went together, were started-up together, were financed by the same people, were promoted, encouraged, and allowed to happen by the same people, and were meant to brainwash the youth into lowering their moral standards and, basically, into not giving a crap about what was really going on around them, but to instead get involved with this freaky way of living.

"Freaks", by the way, was what these freaks were called before the word "hippie" became popular.

If you want to get a feel for this stuff, Google or YouTube the names Vito Paulekas and Carl (sometimes spelled Karl) Franzoni, who was Vito's sidekick.
You'll be able to read some interesting material about the start-up of this way of life.

My grandfather, who was just two years younger than this freaker Vito, would often tell me his opinion on the freak/hippie movement when I was a kid in the mid-1970s.
Basically, it was totally against any kind of living standards he and others of his generation were taught and lived by, and he felt they all not only were dead wrong about what they were into, but all should get a bath and a haircut and a clean shave, as well as lay-off the pot, LSD, and booze.
Myself, I always felt this way of living was about overriding any natural self-preservation instincts you were naturally born with and indulging in a lot of stuff that would only leave you wide open to manipulation by some other group of people.
In other words, not listening to what your parents taught you and what your conscience was telling you, but, instead, going with the hippie-dippie crowd.

I didn't like them, either.

The funny thing about all of this is that you are led to believe it was some kind of grass-roots counter-culture movement that started from the bottom and went upward as it gained popularity.
I believe, in reality, it was quite the opposite, getting big bucks thrown at it by wealthy and powerful people who wanted (and still want, today) to mould the world into a better place.
Better for them, of course.
This involves, as is demonstrated by the pic above, a heavy duty dose of human psychology, aimed squarely at young people.

Ever consider the possibilities of things like that?

-John

View a Pic or Pick Your Nose

This pic is from 1986, and the bike is a 1986 Yamaha TT-225S.

Not all of the bikes I've owned have been classified as firebreathers, that's for sure.
I've owned, ridden, and enjoyed a lot of bikes that were, in all honesty, pretty slow and rather low-tech, some even intended for kids.
The bike in the above pic is one of the low-tech, slow ones.

The TT-225S was, basically, a trail bike, play bike, foo-foo bike, or whatever name you call a bike made for general off-road riding when racing or riding like you're racing isn't required.
It had a 223cc (going by memory) 4-stroke, air-cooled, 2-valve engine that got it's design from the 1981 SR-185H Exciter street bike.
Yes, there was a 185cc street bike.
Everyone seems to have heard of the Honda XR-200R, and this was basically the Yamaha version of that, and it was fun to play on.
The engine design still lives on in today's TW-200 and TT-R230, by the way.

One of the smallest-displacing bikes I've owned and spend a considerable amount of time on was a Yamaha BW-80S, a dirt bike with fat tires made for kids, and this was at least 14 years before the trend of adults or near-adults riding dirt bikes made for kids became the cool thing to do.
I'm actually criticized these days for not giving a big thumbs-up to the idea of buying a Honda CR-F50F or Kawasaki KLX-110 and riding the shit out of it.

That's not really true.

While the fact that I'm a generation older (and more) than most of the riders out there that are into this stuff has much to do with my viewpoint - and back when I was that age, you'd basically have been given a funny look if you went around telling everybody how great it was to play at motocross on your Honda Z-50R - what seems silly to me with this trend is buying one of those bikes, and then spending more than it took to buy the bike in the first place in order to make it good enough to ride on a homemade motocross track without either being bored or breaking the bike.
That's the part that seems silly to me:
Pouring money into a tiny bike to make it seem like something that ain't so tiny, and when I owned and rode my BW-80S (a whole lot, for a couple of years, too), it was stock, other than a one-tooth-smaller front sprocket.
Yup, I sure had a lot of money tied-up in that one. :)

But, on the other hand, there's the old saying of different strokes for different folks.
I just hope I don't have a stroke before tomorrow's over with so that I can go for a ride on my WR-250FY.
Then, bring on the seizures. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

202, and Nothing New

Another old timer of a pic, shot with real, genuine, honest-to-gosh 35mm film from a camera that actually used film.
Does anybody still use a camera that shoots film?
The year this pic was taken is 1984.

Writing this from my desk at jerk this morning as I spent more time going through my old pics while at home.
My collection of old photos is pretty big, and although I've never counted them, there must be a couple hundred of them, at least.
Probably more, and that's not even counting the duplicates.
I can only imagine how much we spent on old-fashioned 35mm color film. :)

Weather feels good this morning, being on the warm side (for mid-November), with fog in the air and condensation on the ground.
Looking toward having Thursday (Thanksgiving) off and doing some riding on the ol' warhorse WR-250FY.

At jerk,
-John

Where the Hell Did the Hippies Come From?

What's your immediate impression when you first see this pic?
Be honest.
Myself, I see some guy who needs a shower and a bar of soap and some underarm deodorant and a good shave and a haircut.
I see some irresponsible bum who wants to get nothing important done or anything worth getting out of bed for accomplished - just wanting to get stoned, drunk, and basically meander through the day with no clear plan or even a vague idea on what will take-up his waking hours.
Basically, just wanting to do nothing more than hang-out with like-minded people who all want to do nothing other than what you see in this pic:
Look silly, smelly, and repulsive, and basically wander thought the day with his brain and self-preservation instincts unplugged via drugs and being brainwashed with this "hip" lifestyle, not even caring where he lays his head down to sleep.

Other than that, he's OK. :)

Some people who have done research into hippies claim this way of life was concocted and promoted by people who had connections to power and money, even though these same people promoting this shit would rather punch this guy in the face instead of be like him.
Also, the start of this hippy-dippy movement supposedly started right alongside the start of the psychadelic rock-n'-roll movement of the mid-1960s in a sleepy little neighborhood out in the LA suburbs called Laurel Canyon, a place that had, tucked away in the hills, a secret military base that was involved in film-making and propaganda (AKA fabricating brainwashing and misleading bullshit to feed to the public).
As a coincidence, a lot of the rock stars that came out of this town and time period came from families with military backgrounds, including Frank Zappa and Jim Morrison.
There are many others.
Supposedly, more than a few big names that went on to what is now called classic rock stardom couldn't even play a guitar or sing before they moved to Laurel Canyon.
Yet, they all magically came together in that spot as if by some coincidence, and shortly after getting there, started playing at local clubs, and then went on to rock superstardom.
Supposedly, these people went to the top of rock and roll purely on their own abilities and their appeal to the public, the younger people with the softer heads.
Where, in reality, they were heavily financed and promoted, even though they couldn't play or sing well enough to record an album without seasoned session musicians standing in for them while the recording process was being done.

Something to think about.



Oh, look.
It's a new 470lb. "Enduro/Adventure" bike, set to go on sale for the 2011 model year.
Truly disgusting to me that the marketing hype manufactured with these bikes wants you to think this is an off-road-worthy motorcycle.
I'll bet you a million dollars the guy riding the bike in this pic is on the verge of shitting his pants, praying he doesn't hit any unseen bumps or run over a patch of loose dirt he didn't notice.


Tons of fun would have been nice this past weekend, but, alas, it wasn't a good one for me.
No edit to yesterday's post about the Pachaug rock pile ride because I decided not to go.
When the moment of truth came and it was time to get my stuff loaded into the truck, I looked in the mirror and asked the guy I saw there how he felt and if he REALLY wanted to ride.
If I were to go, would it be because I wanted to ride, or would it be because I wanted to keep the streak alive?
The guy in the mirror said it would have been more because of the latter, so, I used my head and stood home to rest-up.

Apparently, I still didn't feel my usual self, and wondering if I should even be on the bike at all is typically not a good sign.
With Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday, though, I hope to make up for missing Sunday with a ride.
The current weather forecast is for rain showers, but, there's always a chance the prediction will be wrong, even in 2010.
We'll see.
Maybe, before Thursday comes, I'll feel like installing a new set of chain and sprockets that my WR-250FY could use by now, as well as a brandy-new rear Bridgestone M-22 tire. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

I'm 200, Today

This is the 200th post in my little bloggy world.

My, my, how time has passed.

I hope you people are paying attention and actually learning something. :)

....................More dots required..........................

........................................................

I feel noticeably better this morning, and getting out there for a Pachaug rock pile ride seems like a doable thing, today.

The bike is ready, only requiring the usual last-minute tire pressure check and air bleeding of the front fork.

The way I feel right now, I think I'll have the energy to do the longer version of my loop, although that could change when the moment of truth comes.

I'll post back later tonight and update with an edit.

........................................

........................................

I should drain my clammy Ranger's radiator and put in some new coolant/anti-freeze, something I think it's a bit overdue for.

I'll probably do that in a bit.

...................................

.................................

-John

199; On the Brink of a Double Century

Turns out I didn't go for a Pachaug rock pile ride today, Saturday, as I'd been doing a lot lately these past couple of months.
Oh, I had the time to do so, but, as luck would have it, after I came home from jerk and grocery shopping, I ate lunch and then commenced on feeling funny, as if I were trying to fight off the flu or a cold.
You know - that feeling of suddenly being a bit weak, down on energy, and even a bit dizzy in the head.
Well, some might say being dizzy in the head is normal, but, it was more noticeable. :)
I wonder if it was something I ate, or if somebody who got close to me coughed in my face and gave me something nasty.

So, I decided to make the somewhat sad decision to skip a ride today, rest-up by taking an afternoon nap, and hit the trails tomorrow, hopefully feeling in better shape.
I guess I shouldn't gripe about it, since I've been riding both weekend days out there fairly regularly lately, and I can't even remember the last time i didn't ride on at least one day of the weekend.
Sheesh, that must have been sometime back in the summer months.
If I'm correct, I haven't missed more than three weekends all year long since mid-March, which is a pretty good record, I say.
I think I missed two for poor weather, and one where I didn't feel well.

Well, as I'm writing this on Saturday evening at 6:05pm, I do feel considerably better, so, odds are, it'll be a go for tomorrow.

-John

198, and a New Forum to Join Might be Great

You all have read that hanging around motorcycling forums on the Internet is a hobby of mine.
I'm naturally interested in the motorcycles that I like, and that not only means riding them, but maintaining them and talking about them to like-minded people when I'm not riding or maintaining.

The forums/message boards I've hung around on a daily basis has changed over the years, and this has to do with what motorcycle I'm riding at the time.
Since I'm riding my WR-250FY firebreather these days, I'll be on forums that have to do with riding dirt bikes.
The one called ThumperTalk is one of these, and I'm also on another one called WR-250R/X Forum, even though I sold my WR-250R in September.
Gee, that was already two months ago.
I hope this coming winter passes as quickly. :)

One thing about cruising around the message boards on a daily basis is that there are times when things seem a bit slow and there is little or no interesting stuff being written that I can really sink my teeth into.
I mean, somebody posting a question asking what way you turn the wrench to remove the rear axle nut on his 1998 KX-250K5 is hardly enough to make me feel a shot of adrenaline rush through my body.
These are the days I wish I might have yet another message board to peruse, so, I've decided to join yet another one.

This morning, I've sent in my registration request to join what seems like a pretty big one:
ADV Rider.
While there seems to be a lot of space devoted to those huuuuuge "adventure bikes" that seem so much like street bikes to me, there is also a lot of real dirt bike gossip going on, and there are even a lot of threads with riders from my very neck of the woods on there, chatting about the very same Pachaug rock pile loop that I ride every weekend.
So, I have decided it's time for me to hook-up with some of these guys and to get to know them to some degree.

Hopefully, by the time I get home from jerk tonight, my membership request will have been approved, and I can start making my presence there known.

Off to jerk,
-John

It's Better to Sleep in Bed

It's the 1982 Yamaha IT-175J.
An off-road bike based on the 1982 YZ-100J motocross bike, and it was a whole lot of fun to ride.




Oh-oh.
Looks like ol' Peter Pinewood fell asleep on the couch, again.
He should have gone to bed before that happened.
Is that real leopard skin?



Usually, when I fall asleep on the couch, I conk-out for an hour or two or three, and when I finally wake up and stumble into bed, I can't get back to sleep right away.
This ruins what otherwise would have been a good sleep, turning it into an up-half-the-night insomnia-fest.



The reason I still sometime do this is because it's so easy to do - just plop your butt down on the couch after supper following a day's work, and before you know it, your eyelids are too heavy to hold up.
The key, then, is not to sit down on the couch to begin with. :)



What I think I need is more motorcycle projects to be involved with after jerk, like I often did when I was younger, meaning either riding them or wrenching on them.
Lots of times, I bought a piece of crap basket case to fix-up, and then have fun riding the finished project.
The top pic is one of these bikes.
Part of the problem with this is that there are no places to ride a dirt bike around my house in the immediate area anymore, unless you want a guaranteed fine for trespassing.
Back in the olden daze, I could hop on one of my bikes and be on a trail in literally 30 seconds.
I could also ride down the road two minutes and be at another spot, where the above pic was taken.
Aaahh, those were the days because there's nothing like a convenient spot to have fun on a motorcycle.

Off to jerk,
-John

196, And Workin' On My Sticks :)

Ever remove the front wheel from your dirt bike, before?
It's something that every rider should be doing from time-to-time.
Go do it.
Do it now!


I'm not exactly smacking my lips over the thought of changing a tire, but, I really dislike riding with one that's worn.
If you're a rider that pays attention to details (and not brain dead, too), you can feel the difference right away.


Dimwit No. 1:
Gee, Leroy.
What that thar thang be?

Dimwit No. 2:
I don't know, Billy-Bob.
I says O...W...N...E...R...S...S...E...R...
Them thar be some mighty fancy words an that there book.
At least I reckon it's a book...

When I started working in motorcycle shops, I was naive.
Naive because I incorrectly assumed that people were on the ball with how you do basic maintenance to your motorcycle.
I learned the hard way that most people not only don't know how to do that, but the vast majority could not care less about it.
I was constantly asked questions that were plainly written in the book shown in the above pic, but I was taught that most guys couldn't be bothered to read it and learn about their own equipment.
To me, this is a form of sacrilege, punishable by being beaten with a dented exhaust pipe from a 1978 YZ-250E. :)

I got my fork oil level lowered, as well as got my front tire change done.
I found out that the guy who set the oil level before I got the forks had them off from each other by 5mm, a noticeable amount as far as performance goes.
One leg was at 95mm from the top, and the other was 100mm from the top.
What I did was lower the oil level in each fork leg to 105mm from the top of the outer tube, so that means one leg was reduced 5mm and the other 10mm.

Now, to wait for the weekend and give this new setting, as well as my new front tire, a test.

Off to jerk,
-John

195 Ain't No Jive, Brudder :)

Here I sit, all broken hearted...

Ever hear that little rhyme before?
The bounds of good taste makes me hesitate from finishing it. :)

I went on over to the garage this morning, again, instead of posting a bloggy entry before I left for jerk.
So, I am sitting at work right now.
What I did in the garage was remove the front wheel in preparation of a front tire change that's coming up within the next day-or-so, and I also am lowering the fork oil level by 5 millimeters.
Why?
More fine-tuning of my Phase 4 forks.
I feel that they are a bit too hard to bottom while out on the trails I'm riding, so removing a tiny bit of fork oil - oops! I mean 215.VM2.K5 Vibration Cancellation Fluid!!! - will make them easier to reach full travel on the biggest bumps and whoops and jumps out there.
I feel they're a bit too firm toward the end of their stroke, and this is a trick to alleviate that.
I like the rate of the fork springs, so I'd rather not touch those.

Now, to sink my pearly-whites into my tasty Subway Footlong that's staring me in the handsome face. :)

-John

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
That's the old saying, anyway.
I can't vouch for the wealthy part, unless they mean wealthy in thing other than money.
I am healthy, and very much endowed with considerable wisdom, and I'm also incredibly good-looking, too.
So, in that way, I believe I'm very wealthy, as such things are actually priceless.
Priceless because they're hard to recreate artificially, if not impossible to do so.
That's another free piece of my infinite wisdom for you. :)

I'm sitting at jerk right now, and I didn't enter a post this morning because I had moseying on over to the garage on my mind.
I put my WR-250FY back together (it gets partially disassembled when I wash it), so that's one less thing to do before the next ride this weekend.
I should change at least the front tire, and maybe I'll do that tomorrow morning.

-John

193: More Riding for Me

This pic is from around 1989 or 1990.
The bike is a 1982 Yamaha IT-175J, a great little off-road bike.
Mucho fun to ride.
The place is a waste dump where the local paper recycling mill dumped the waste you get from recycling paper.
The waste dump is still there, but there are two big changes from then to now:
1) There are NO TRESPASSING signs all over the place.
2) The place is still used as a dump for the stinky, smelly waste, but it eventually gets covered up with top soil and grass.
What you can't see - or don't know - won't hurt you, as often said and used by elite people in high places, unless someone tries doing it to them, of course. :)


I went to bed very early last night, right after I added the edit to yesterday's post, in fact.
It was about 7:30pm, and I got out of bed this morning at about 3:45am.
Even though I got up very early, I still got plenty of sleep, something that's very important to preserve your health and good looks. :)

I'll be heading on out to the Pachaug rock n' roll pile in a couple of hours, so until I get back with today's edit, go eat some breakfast, would ya'?

Edit:
Today's rock pile ride was another good one.
I actually went with a guy who comes into our shop to buy stuff, and we had a good time.
No crashes or hairy moments (that I know of), and he seemed to like the loop we did as much as I did.
Our total mileage was 50.3 miles from start of the trail to finish of the trail.
I led the way since he didn't know the loop, and I took that neat-o pine-needled, whooped-out section that I like.

We saw a few other bikes out there, and one guy we met was having some kind of radiator problem (probably damaged it by running into something or crashing and falling on it in a big way).
The guy said he was all set because a buddy was going to retrieve him with a truck.
Tough luck.

Now, the Wr-250FY has been washed all squeaky-clean, I've eaten supper, and I'm ready for some shut eye.

-John

Message Boards and Forums Can Be Fun

That is, as long as you don't get your feathers rustled too easily.

This morning, I had a guy from some other country, who owns a 2007 WR-250FW (really the same specification bike as my WR-250FY with different stickers), reply to a question I'd asked pertaining to rejetting the bike's carburetor and removing the parts that are known as the Air Injection System (or AIS).

See, the WR-250FY is sold in an all-corked-up state in order to satisfy ridiculous EPA regulations that have been brought down as law regarding off-road motorcycles over the past 5-or-so years.
Yeah, this totally blatant lie about how mankind is killing the planet just by surviving has snowballed into the completely staged act of Yamaha Motor Co. having to stifle the performance of their top-of-the-line 250cc off-road bike by fitting parts to it that make it run very poorly as it sits on a dealer's showroom floor.
The completely asinine fact of life is that the bikes have their new owners remove every single one of those environmental retard parts so that the bike will run as it was meant to when being designed by the guys that built it.
This includes me, too.
Take that, Al Gore, you lying sack of shit.
Why don't YOU make a hefty donation to some fake save-the-goddamm-planet or feed-the-hungry foundation, huh?
Asshole. :)

Anyway, the AIS parts, as well as some others, need to be removed, the holes left from the AIS parts need to be properly blocked-off, and the carburetor properly modified with the correct parts (guys typically call this "rejetting" or "jetting" the carburetor, because there are important orifices in a carburetor called "jets" that can be swapped for different ones).
There is a little kit that supplied the parts and instructions to do all of this, and it is sold by Yamaha motorcycles dealers (and how ironic is that, huh? You can buy the kit that will allow your new WR-250FY to become a strong-running green planet killer at the same place that sells you the bike in it's eco-friendly and pitifully weak condition).
This kit is called the AIS removal kit.

A guy on a message board, an obvious newbie to dirt bikes, asked a basic question about making his WR-250FV (2006 model) run correctly.
He got a couple of decent and well-meaning replies, but, as is often the case, nobody really hit the nail on the head with their answers.
Instead, the guy got a little pieces of the whole story, and I wouldn't expect somebody not familiar with making dirt bikes effected by Al-Gore-The-Giant-Liar run correctly to get all he needed to know by these little snippets of info.

I came on and basically let the guy know exactly what I did to my WR-250FY in order to make it run like a top, and at the heart of that was this AIS removal kit sold through your local Yamaha dealer.
The guy from another country then responded, saying the AIS removal kit sucks, was a waste of time and money, and that the guy should instead buy a competing brand of jet kit (just the jet kit without any other parts needed to finish the job) and make his own parts to plug-up the holes left by removing the AIS parts from the bike.
Last I knew, this competing jet kit listed for $69 or $79.
The Yamaha AIS kit lists for $47.95 .

Can somebody do the math for me?

Edit:

I went for a Pachaug rock pile ride on the WR-250FY, today, and it was a good one.
I felt a bit down on energy as I drove out there, but while getting gas at the Ghandimart in front of our shop where I park, I decided to roll the dice and ate one of those silly energy bars.
This seemed to make me feel a bit better (or, maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe I'd have felt better anyway, regardless of eating the stupid thing), and once I got to the trails and started riding the whoops that are at the start (and finish, because you take the same trail back to end the loop), I had good energy.

I pulled-off some decent moves on the bike, the bike worked very well, as usual, and it was an enjoyable time, for sure.
Today's weather was a bit warmer than normal for November 13th, with temperature in the 60s, so there were plenty of nature lovers out along the dirt roads in the forest.

Tomorrow, I'm going for another ride, and I'm supposed to be meeting another guy to ride with.
I've never ridden with him before, but I know him as the father of a young fellow who races motocross locally.
These two come into our shop regularly, and he seems like a nice guy.
I'll report tomorrow on the results.

-John

191: Old Pics Are Fun

The time was the fall of 1983, and the bike is a 1981 Honda XR-250R.
It was my second motorcycle, and compared to my first one (a 1972 Yamaha AT-2), I had entered the modern, long-travel suspension space age.
It was a very good time. :)

The above pic is from the oldest in my collection of hundreds of photographs.
I was 17 at the time, and I'd just bought the above bike from my sister's boyfriend with money I'd earned by working as a carpenter's gopher with my grandfather (my dad's dad) for the summer.
I really didn't care for the job because I really didn't care for my grouchy son-of-a-bitch grandfather, but, that's another story. :)

Basically, I rode this bike every weekend with my buddies at a few local riding spots.
I didn't have a truck to carry it around, so that meant pushing and illegally riding the bike down the road to get there.
I was able to save some mileage by riding a few trails along the way (which are now long-gone and off limits), but, it was largely a bit of a trick to even get to the riding spot each weekend.
Once there in the morning, we'd literally ride until the sun set - that's how much we liked doing this stuff. :)

Good times.

Off to jerk,
-John

190: Another Old Pic I Did Findy

Stay Back is what that rear render sticker says.
If I recall, it was some kind of funny logo from a company that made plastic fenders for dirt bikes, but I can't remember the brand name at the moment.
This is my 1983 Yamaha YZ-125K, and the place is that big gravel bank called Coventry.
Year is 1984.

This pic shows Fox motocross gear from back then.
I wonder if it would be called retro these days.
Back then, it was simply more of the same stuff all the other guys wore.

Look at the gloves.
They're Fox Pawtectors, which were, at the time, their top-of-the-line glove.
The big deal is that they were made with leather on the palms, something that went out of vogue right about then.
Now, all motocross gloves from the big brands are not made with a speck of leather on them.
Basically, today's gloves (at least with the low-end models) are merely cloth, front and back.
Take it from me. :)

The boots were an oddity, even back then.
They're from a company called M. Robert, named after some famous European GP motocross rider from the 1970s, if I'm not mistaken.
They're made out of a sort of semi-flexable plastic, with a hinge at the ankle.
I'd have much rather bought leather motocross boots, but, since I was 18 and had just entered official adultdom, I was on a budget.
That's another way of saying that I was the only one financing my riding, and I felt genuinely fortunate to have a brand-new YZ and riding gear. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

189 and I'm Doin' Fine 'Cuz it's Repack Time

Not much time for typing this morning because I'm gonna' skeedaddle on over to the garage and repack my muffler on the firebreather WR-250FY.

Basically, the muffler uses the time-honoured technique of soft fiberglass wrapped around a perforated core to absorb sound as the exhaust pulses pass through it and exit the muffler.
Over time, the fiberglass must be replaced.
While I can't detect an increase in sound output yet, I want to do this before I do.

You do remember the definition of the word "maintenance", correct? :)

-John

Old Pic Time

These pics were taken with an old-fashioned (I feel that these days, it's on old-fashioned technique) film camera, a nice Canon 35mm camera, very much like one a news reporter or photojournalist would constantly have hanging around his neck.

It was the summer of 1984, and the bike is my then-new 1983 Yamaha YZ-125K.

Good times. :)

..............More goddam dots required...................

.....................................................................................

I was talking on the phone yesterday while at jerk to one of our customers, a shop that buys parts from us regularly.

We were on the subject of riding motocross bikes, and I mentioned that I have on old pic of mine taped to my work desk.

The person on the phone told me to put a copy up on the Internet so they could have a look, so, here are two of them.

I have literally hundreds of pictures taken back then, and I can only guess how many rolls of 35mm color film we used.

......................................................................

Considering I put these pics up here by merely snapping a couple of images with my Olympus digicam set on it's micro setting (for extreme close-ups), I think it didn't come out too badly.

What you think?

..............................................................

Off to jerk,

-John

What Do You Call This Stuff?

Bullshit is what I tend to call it. :)

November 8th seems about six weeks too early for snow to me.
Typically, we get the first snow somewhere around Christmas, or at least during the time period people have their Christmas trees up.
We haven't even got within two weeks from Thanksgiving yet, and here we are with a half-inch of slushy stuff on the ground.
Yeah, it's a bit of a fluke, but, it still looks crummy.
Thank God that it'll melt tomorrow when we (are supposed to) get normal weather in the 50s.

That's it for today's weather report.
Now, off to jerk.

-John

Set That Dadburn Clock Back

This silly shit figures into today's edit.

See below for the gory details.

.....................................................................

.......Yup. Time for more of these fuggin' dots to space my paragraphs apart.

.................................................................

Yeah, we're now over with daylight savings time, so that means the sun will set at 4:36pm, today.
For me, that means getting to the Pachaug rock pile an hour earlier so I can finish the ride with the same amount of daylight left.

My WR-250FY is ready to go, and all I gotta' do is push the fork bleeder buttons and check the tire pressure.
I expect there to be some water left out on the trails, but, nothing I haven't experienced a million times in the past.
I'll probably report back later.

....................................................................

Today's edit:

Today's rock pile ride out on the wonderfully rocky and wooded Pachaug motorcycle enduro loop
(as it's called on the state of Connecticut's own website, which has a bit too much of the color green on it for my liking and is obviously meant to thrill tree huggers and posy sniffers across the state) was a cautious one for me.

.................................................................

While I had a good ride and pulled some decent moves while on the bike, since the ground was still covered with plenty of wet leaves which reduce traction (often, it seems, exactly when you don't want it reduced), I backed the pace down a notch in a lot of sections.

So, while I rode a bit slower due to the conditions, I came back in one piece without any mishaps or close calls.

..........................................................

All-in-all, it was a good decision, and the slower pace was a worthwhile trade-off.

Today's mileage was 37.3 total miles as I opted to take my usual shorter loop, leaving out the neat pine-needle whoop trail this time.

Hopefully, next weekend will be dry with normal traction conditions. :)

..................................................................

The day's unusual surprise was in coming across one of those dog sled carts (like a dog sled with wheels) on one of the easy and smooth dirt roads in the part of the forest where people can drive their cars and SUVs out to the campsites or baseball/soccer/football/whatever-you-make-of-it field.

However, when I saw the two dogs, the cart, and the two ladies involved with this gig, one of the ladies was on the ground, holding her head.

.................................................................

I assumed there was some kind of a pile-up that just took place before I got there on my WR-250FY with the way the lady was laying flat on the ground and basically holding her head saying, "Oooww...".

I stopped and asked what was going on and was basically told they had a wreck, but help was already coming in the form of one of their pals being fetched to scoop them up in a van.

So, I merely said goodbye, kickstarted my bike, and rode out of there.

In fact, as I let the clutch lever out to get moving, I noticed the rescue van about to bump into my rear fender, so I got out of Dodge quickly. :)

................................................................

In a way, I did feel badly for the lady with the (assumed) lump on her head.

In another way, I had to chuckle to myself.

Why?

Because that dog sled on wheels thingy just seems so stupid to me.

Those two should have been on dirt bikes like me, goddammit, not on some silly little I-wanna-pretend-I'm-some-Eskimo-driving-his-dog-sled-up-in-the-friggin'-Arctic daydream.

See where it got them?

..........................................................

Now, I'm back home, WR-250FY already washed all squeaky-clean, and I'm about to sink my teeth into a couple of big kielbasa sandwiches.

All-in-all, not a bad day. :)

-John

A Bit Damp

It's 1:51pm on Saturday afternoon as I type these words, and I just came back from a bit of a nature boy walk along a section of trail from the Pachaug rock pile loop.
It was along the section of pine needled whoops that I like, and I decided to use the walk as a way to assess the ground conditions.

Since it rained a decent amount over the past two days, the ground is a bit soggy in a lot of places where water usually collects after a rain.
Throw in wet roots and wet leaves all over the ground, and things can get slippery enough to cause trouble if you read the terrain wrong or make some other kind of miscalculation while riding the bike.

If I'd a' gotten a full night's sleep last night, I'd probably go for a ride today, anyway (I've done it in similar conditions countless times).
But, seeing that I screwed myself out of a full eight hours worth of snoozing by falling asleep on the damn couch, getting up at midnight, and not being able to fall back to sleep once I slumped into bed, the results has me feeling tired and a bit slow.
Not a good combination for effective riding.

Since I feel tired and slow, I'll decide to skip riding today, get some good sleep tonight, and hit the rock pile tomorrow.
Hopefully, not with my head. :)

-John

Back Together, and I Have Only 184 Parts Left Over

Here's the point of entry when putting fresh grease onto those bearing of a dirt bike's rear suspension.
Basically, it's a metal cylinder passing through a needle bearing, with a seal keeping crap out and lube in.
Looks the same on the other side.


Here's a shot of the holy grail.
Those little things that look like lines are the little rollers of the bearing.
Those rollers, and the metal cylinder, are the parts that get the grease.
It's not rocket science, but extremely important.
Kinda' like breathing is important, or so I'm told. :)



Before I head off to jerk for the day, I have to say goodbye in the kindest way possible, lest my linkage not know that I appreciate all it does. :)

Well, I got the WR-250FY back together after jerk last night, so the only things left to do are service the air filter, lube clutch cable, bleed fork air pressure (which happens with the push of a button, now), and check tire pressure.
Of course, a polishing of the plastics are done, too.

Since we're basically past the peak selling season at work (save for the holiday burst still to come for Christmas), I'm able to leave for the day when i get my work for the day completed.
This time of year, that could be as late as 8:00pm, or as early as 4:00pm, depending on the size of the day's deliveries.
Usually, the size of the day's UPS and FedEx deliveries is the No. 1 factor that determines how much work I'll have on the day.
There are other factors, such as how many items are collecting in the pile of items that need to be returned to where they came from, whether or not I have a scheduled parts return to complete (Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki allow you to return X dollar amount of parts every so often), or how many items are still sitting on the customer special order shelf that still haven't been picked up from the deadbeats that ordered them, but, these are usually secondary.

Deadbeats.
When you're selling motorcycle parts, you'll be talking and dealing with lots of them.
Basically, the typical guy doesn't have his shit together, both with his financial budget or his knowledge of his machine.
Often, some guy will order this, that, and the other thing while trying to sound like your best friend, make it sound like you're the best parts guy in the world, promise that he really, really needs those parts to be ordered, but not come down to pick them up (and pay for them, too) once you give the loser a call to inform him that his shit has arrived.
That last point is a biggie, and I've worked in shops in the past where I wasn't even allowed to order parts for a guy without at least half of the money up front.
Some guys actually get insulted when you say you want half the money up front, but often, the more the guy complains about this, the bigger a loser he typically is.

That's just how retards think.
A loser knows deep down inside that his ability to keep a promise like that is shaky at best, but he gets bent out of shape when you basically remind him of that.
On the other hand, a decent guy with some kind of a brain in his head that's capable of calculating things like dollar figures can come into the shop with money to spend in his pocket and is just fine and dandy with plopping his money down on the counter to order parts he needs.

Well, I'm off to the garage to tinker with the WR-250FY.

-John

The Missing Link

The top pic is before the wrenches came out that morning.

The second pic is with the swingarm and linkage assemblies removed.

Nice, huh?

Swingarm and linkage assemblies up on the old (I estimate 45 years old) work bench, mingling with my dad's ancient (and now unused) red toolbox, extension cords, and the odd sneaker.

Good company for some precision parts. :)

..................................................................

..............................Time for some more friggin' dots because Bloggermania is trying to cram my shit together into one big mess............

.................................................................

The pics above show what your dirt bike should look like from time-to-time if you want to do your own (and very much required) chassis maintenance.

Basically, where the suspension arms and levers move and pivot, there are bearings, collars, oil seals, and bolts that need to be greased from time-to-time.

If not, the grease in there will eventually dry-up and loose it's ability to lubricate these parts.

When that happens, your bike looks and sounds and rides like your retarded cousin Lenny's old 1982 XR-200R.

You know, the one that smokes when it runs and makes as much noise from squeaky and rattling parts as it makes noise from the rotting muffler. :)

...................................................................

Taking the suspension parts off the bike to put grease on these parts on a regular basis is something that was actually known as having to be done when the bike was on the designers' drawing boards (or PCs, these days).

However, lots of folks will simply turn a blind eye to this stuff because it's some kind of mysterious black art, too difficult, or simply too much like work.

I'm not exactly grinning ear-to-ear, myself, when I do it, but, I'd feel much worse if I let the parts go to hell in a hand basket and then had to go in there not for routine maintenance, but having to replace all of those by-then ruined parts.

That would be easily twice as time consuming, not to mention expensive.

You see, all it costs me to do this maintenance is the time to do it - I already have the tools and grease in my possession.

So, I'm a'doin' it, Lenny.

You should, too.

..............................................................

I'm off to finish greasing the parts, and with any luck, I'll finish the job either after jerk tonight, or tomorrow morning before jerk.

...................................................

-John

Project Under Way

I'm posting this from jerk at 9:24am.
The reason I'm doing that here instead of at home while eating breakfast is because since my WR-250FY is getting it's every-three-months rear suspension lube, I'm using that time in the morning for doing that job.
I took a few pics of the process, which is about half-way done, and when I get it finished (probably Friday morning), I'll post them up for your viewing pleasure.
And, oh, what a pleasure viewing it shall be. :)

Not much else on my mind at the moment, so, ta-ta for now.

-John

Not as Cold This Morning

The date I put on this pic is March 15th of this year.


No frost out on the porch, thank God.
I know that it's inevitable, but I still don't enjoy seeing it. :)

The sprockets on the WR-250FY are now worn to the point where the teeth are starting to get thinner.
They're not quite to the point where they're in dire need of replacing, but, I have some sprockets and a new drive chain waiting in the wings when I decide to change them.
I'll keep the sprocket sizes (number of teeth) the same, just replace them with new parts.

Going by the dates on the pics I took and saved on my PC of when I first installed the current chain and sprockets, they've been on the bike since mid-March of this year.
If memory serves, I've missed three weekends of riding this year since then, due to either weather or me not feeling well.
Each ride out in the rock pile is usually anywhere from 38 to 60 miles, with the vast majority of the rides averaging 38 miles.
Some quick math shows at least 1,100 miles on the bike since the middle of March, which ain't bad mileage out of a set of chain and sprockets used off-road.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to finish-up the month with the current parts.
I'll be keeping an eye on them.
If I deem it necessary, I'll replace them in a heartbeat, that's for sure, as I don't believe in being a tightwad with my motorcycles.
Or lazy.
Those are the two biggies that will eventually cause you grief with dirt bike maintenance - being lazy or cheap, or both.
Ignorance is a big player, too.
I still remember some of the hard-earned lessons I've learned when I first started riding my old 1972 Yamaha AT-2, having to learn it on my own.

Off to jerk,
-John

180 and a Little Latey

The WR-250FY, AKA firebreather, in case you've forgotten what it looks like.

Doing this post while eating my lunch at jerk because I forgot to do it at home this morning.
Hmmmmm.
Maybe my memory is slipping.
Or, maybe it's because I didn't have anything important on my mind at the time.
Maybe the world shall never know, huh?

I didn't wash my WR-250FY firebreather after I got home from yesterday's ride as I usually do.
The reason being was I felt tired and, thus, less than enthusiastic about it.
Don't tell anybody, OK?
However, there's a good chance I'll be doing it once I get home from jerk today.

Back to my yummy sandwich that's staring at me.

Edit:
I washed the WR-250FY when I got home, and now, it's a clean and happy camper.
Sometime between now and this weekend's rock pile ride, I'm gonna' disassemble the rear suspension for a greasing of the critical parts that require it.
I do this every three months on the firebreather, and that three months is up now.

I just ate two kielbasa sandwiches and two peanut and jelly sandwiches.
Washing my bike makes me hungry. :)

-John