416 Rocky Trails

This past Sunday's Pachaug rock pile ride was decent up until the last 1.5 miles of it, when I fell and landed on my left shoulder.
Ouch.
That's not me in the above pic.


Sunday's ride was shaping-up to be half-way decent.
Although the temps were seemingly not too shabby for December 23, once out on the trails I saw that there was, in fact, some thin ice to be wary of on the numerous standing water puddles left by Friday's rain.
So, I just took it slow and easy around those parts and carried on with an air of caution in my mind.
The bike felt pretty good, as I did, and other than the standing water with thin ice over parts of it, the trail conditions and weather were decent.

One of the hazards of the ol' Pachaug enduro loop is that 4x4 trucks and Jeeps and all sorts of ATVs will go out on parts of it because these guys are looking to have some off-road fun, too.
These are two problems with that, though:

1) They're not legally allowed out there to begin with.
2) They tend to kick rocks that are either on the side of the trail into the middle of it, or stand up rocks that used to be laying flat, and this makes for a more risky ride when it's at it's worst.

While riding back toward the official start/finish gravel lot of the Pachaug loop, there is a neat little natural terrain jump where the trail (more like a rough and rocky gravel road wide enough for a 4x4 truck) suddenly drops down.
At the top of this drop, there is a conveniently-placed rock sticking up out of the ground a couple of inches, and if you hit this fast enough it is perfect for catching some air, jumping off the ground for a distance, and landing toward the bottom of this drop-off.
I do exactly this every time I ride past there, and over the course of over three years of steady Pachaug loop riding, that's a whole lot of jumps.

This time, I got bit by one of those rocks that used to be pushed off to the side of the trail but found it's way back into the line used by dirt bike riders like me.
These rocks blend-in with the terrain, too.
When I landed from the jump, I got on the front brake to slow for the next puddle of water spanning the width of the trail, and a split second after hitting the brake is when I plowed right into the rock with my front wheel without even realizing it was there.
This is probably my most-feared kind of crash on a dirt bike and one I'm always on the look-out for - hitting something with my front wheel that I didn't see coming and losing the front end and going down.
That's what happened, as the front end suddenly darted to the right and I suddenly fell onto the ground with my left shoulder leading the way.

I got up, inspected myself and the WR-250FP, and thank God there was no serious damage to either.
In fact, all the bike got out of it were some scratches in the plastic bodywork and a bent chain guide cover (that I can repair and continue to use).
The handlebars don't even appear to be bent and the grip on the left side is OK, so, the bike came out of it pretty well, all-in-all.

For me, my shoulder, which took the fall for the most part, was functioning fine for the next couple of hours after the crash (I washed my bike without trouble immediately after the ride was done, as usual) without pain or lack of range of motion or anything abnormal.
After home and relaxing, as expected, it tightened-up and became sore.
The next morning, I couldn't raise my arm very high or hold it out level with the ground.
It's now Wednesday morning (merry post Christmas!), and, thank God, I can see and feel the improvements each morning in reduced pain and more range of motion coming back with the passing of 2-and-a-half days time.

With any luck, I'll be OK in another week or so.
If I had to guess at mid-week, I'll probably pass on riding this coming weekend, unless some kind of minor miracle happens before then.
I really don't want to go back out too soon, so giving it time is the smart money, I think.

-John

415 Cavities in Your Teeth

Sounds like you need to brush more.

What made me think of a dentist is some stupid news story I saw posted on a message board.
Some 50-something male dentist had to fire his supposedly "too hard to resist" 32-or-so years old "blonde hottie" of an assistant of 10 years because the dentist's wife, who also works in the same dental office, caught-on to their secret text messages and wanted to nip any kind of blossoming affair in the bud.
So, the wife demanded he fire this "too hot" assistant, and now, after some legal battle, some Iowa court ruled that the dentist was within the law in doing so.

This seems, to me, like some kind of National Enquirer- type of story that is along the lines of a soap opera on printed paper.
Personally, I could see this happening at any time, in any country, at any point in history you care to point-out.
Just what is so new and news-worthy about some 50-year-old of an aging man getting a stiffie at work every day when he sees his "irresistible" assistant bending over to pick up some dropped files or leaning over a patient with one-too-many buttons undone, and then having the "real boss" wife get in the way and kick the younger girl out?
Huh?
That's news?
Some younger girl wearing tight clothes at the work place so a man can check-out her body is something new?
I can see that at the two local Post Offices around here or at a couple of local supermarkets, people.
Free of charge.

And, the old wife says something about it only 10 years after the younger girl came along?

Dang.
So, that's why the express checkout lane at the supermarket has so many middle-aged guys in it buying more small items than they really need.  ;)

No, what would be the proper thing to do would be to print the WHOLE story about how the old hag wife was tired of the threesomes they would frequently have after hours and she demanded her dental husband get rid of the same-ol', same-'ol and get some new thighs-and-blood into the office and break her in right.
Think it can't happen?
Boy, have you been living under an Ohbummerscare rock, Bucky Beaver.
I think you need to go to the dentist for a tooth polishing.

Today is Sunday, and it's time to head-out for another Pachaug enduro loop ride on the ol' WR-250FP.
The weather is actually better than forecast because it didn't dip below freezing last night as predicted, and the high temp for today is supposedly to reach 41 degrees.
I expect more standing water than usual due to heavy rain we had on Friday, but I can live with that easier than an icy patch covered with leaves.
My rear tire is still the same ol' worn one, but, I'm on a pay cut budget.
This is the longest I've run the same rear tire since my teenager days.

I'm off,
-John

414 Funny Words

I went on yet another Pachaug rock n' roll pile ride yesterday (Sunday), and was actually able to sneak it in before it started to rain, for the most part, anyway.
It did drizzle a bit for a few minutes at about the 3/4 mark, but that was doable.
The ride was surprisingly good, actually, and I put that down to feeling good, having the suspension balance set-up as well as I can make it, and just getting with the program, twisting the throttle, and not worrying so much about the front fork's shortcomings out on the trail.

As you have read with the WR-250FP, it's a great bike for the Pachaug loop, the only fly in the ointment is that the fork performance is not good over those sharp, square-edged bumps that litter the trails around here.
Now, with the thin, custom-blended 2.7 wt fork oil, it has zoomed all the way up to acceptable in that dept., so, for now, that's not a big issue for me.
Hence, that's why I can finally get on with enjoying the bike like I'm supposed to be able to.

There were some frozen-and-in-the-process-of-thawing-out sections that I was cautious over, and I suppose they got that way after some rain earlier last week and then froze over a couple of below-freezing nights.
Seems the rain resulted in a few runoff sections that froze and were still a nuisance out there.
No crashing, luckily, although the leaves covering the ground did camouflage them well.
My rear tire is growing more and more worn with each ride, so it's certainly not getting better.
Being on a budget sucks as far as that goes.

On another funny note, I just read a post on a message board where a guy is looking for some kind of advice or guidance over his recently-acquired new-to-him dirt bike.
The guy has little dirt bike experience, is 35 years old, is 6' 1", and 200 pounds.
His wife bought him (as a present) a 2006 KTM-250SXF, the KTM version of a Yamaha YZ-250F motocross bike.
The guy is complaining about how tall and big the bike seems for him, and that having to kickstart it is a tiring drag-and-a-half.
No kidding.

My feelings are that if this guy is being serious, he needs a shorter bike with electric start like a Yamaha TT-R230 or Honda CRF-230F.
They won't have the outright performance of his KTM-250SXF, but, at least he'll more than likely be able to ride it and start it.
I also feel that, if he really want to learn how to ride and give himself a much-needed wake-up call, he should go riding with a 16-year-old kid (a girl would be best) who knows what they're doing and see with his own eyes how much of a wimp he sounds like.
Goddammit, son, you're over 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, and you feel that bike of yours is too big?
Comical, really, as I wonder what he thinks a dirt bike should be built like.
I really wonder if the guy actually WANTS to learn how to ride and if he should even be on a dirt bike to start with.

-John

413: How Things Really Work, You Jerk

It's Saturday evening, and the weather forecast for a Pachaug enduro loop ride tomorrow looks iffy at best.
I'll have to make final judgement when I awake tomorrow at the crack of dawn.
Actually, before dawn since this time of year sunrise is at about 7:05 am.
God, why so late?

Well, Bucky Beaver, you buck-toothed imbecile, allow some knowledge of the hard facts of:
How Things Really Work, You Jerk to permeate that thick skull of yours, would you?

The reason the sun rises so late and sets so early in December has to do with the 23.4 degree tilt of the Earth's axis, and that tilt plays a part on when the sun rises and sets - and where on the horizon it does this and the position of the arc it traces across the sky - as the Earth makes a trip around the sun over the course of a year.
Yeah, a year, the thing they call a 365-day time span.
Remember?

The tilt of the Earth also has everything to do with one of the great scams put across to people on the very same planet Earth:
The supposed depletion of the ozone layer and how man is making the "ozone hole" bigger and bigger, eventually to lead to destruction of the planet unless we all come together and fight this threat.
Remember that one?
Back in the 1980s, you'd swear we wouldn't see the end of the decade and all of the neon-colored disco clothing that came with it, eh?
Remember MC Hammer and his parachute pants?
Can't touch this!
Good thing, as I'd rather not.

That's right, Bucky, it's another scam dreamt-up by men that believe they are so much better than and brighter than and craftier than and slipperier than you, men who believe they can bullshit you into believing you're wrecking the fragile planet, and it's up to them and their like-minded groups of other slippery and crafty men with the initials U.N. to come up with the "solution" that will make this non-existent problem all better.
Just like when mommy used to put hydrogen peroxide on your scraped knee, blow in it so it wouldn't burn so much, and then put a band aid over it as she patted you on the head.
She should have kicked you in the balls while she was at it, too, and here's why, dipshit:

The ozone way up there in the stratosphere is not what protects the Earth and all of us from the sun's radiation, such as the ultraviolet rays (UV).
That's right.
All of the bullshit we have been told was a big fatty.
It is actually the Earth's oxygen up there that does this protecting, not the ozone, and the supposed ozone layer and this supposed growing ozone hole bullshit scam does not protect us, unless you like getting high off sniffing ozone.

When UV rays from the sun come careening into the Earth's atmosphere, they strike molecules of the oxygen we breathe.
These molecules are composed of 2 atoms of oxygen stuck together because they like being together.
However, when struck with the intense radiation of the sun, the 2 oxygen atoms get broken apart, making them two individual atoms.
These individual atoms are called ions, and they would rather not be all by themselves for very long.
So, they simply become attached to the other oxygen molecules near by, and since those oxygen molecules were already composed of 2 oxygen atoms, this attachment of the third now makes the molecule the stuff called ozone.
Ozone = 3 oxygen atoms stuck together.

It is this reaction - the UV rays breaking apart the 2 oxygen atoms - that protects us, as the energy of the UV rays needed to cause this reaction is used to heat the atmosphere by making all of those molecules move real fast instead of reaching us and frying your ugly face.
Wait, that might be an improvement.
Heating of the atmosphere, in other words, because if you remember your 3rd grade science books, you dropout, heat is defined by how fast molecular motion is - the faster the motion, the hotter something becomes.

The terrible ozone holes only occur at the poles.
Right?
Why the hell is that, if we're all doing our best to destroy it at parts of the world other than the poles?  
Who lives at the poles?
Well, Bucky, if you recall the 23.4 degree tilt of the Earth's axis, you might be able to strain your brain and picture it in your little mind.
When the Earth's north pole is tilted away from the sun in winter, the sun's UV rays strike at such an angle, you won't get the chemical reaction required to break apart the 2 oxygen atoms and make ozone.
Simple as that.

Now, how do you feel?

-John

412 at 6:21

Today's Sunday Pachaug enduro loop ride was OK.
Not great or fantastic or excellent, but a solid OK.
It could have been excellent, but the ground conditions were not good enough for that as things were still damp from yesterday's rain and 8,000,000,000% humidity overnight.
All of those leaves covering the rocks and the tree roots don't dry-up too quickly when the weather is like that, you know.

Although I took it cautiously since things were still damp and potentially slick (especially with a well-worn rear tire and semi-worn front), I still had a decent ride considering that was on my mind the whole time.
The freshly-serviced rear shock worked noticeably more plushly and cushy with the proper KYB K2C fluid in there, and the front fork was still absorbing the sharp, pesky hits from those rocks and roots all over the place with the custom-blended 2.5 wt fluid in there.
Actually, after doing some 3rd grade math (or, in order to keep up with the times with today's education, 7th grade math), I now know it's more like a 2.75 wt.

I felt pretty good on the bike and pulled-off some decent maneuvers, not least of which was getting past a convoy of (illegal, of course) ATVs and side-by-sides riding the trail early in the ride.
What's a side-by-side?
A P.O.S. that costs much more than it's worth and has seating for a driver and passenger, and it looks like a miniature pickup truck.
Pretty dumb, in other words.
Other than that, they're fine.  ;)

I really should buy a new rear tire and mount it before the next ride as it is worn to the point that the quality of the feel of the bike is suffering.
I'd get a new front tire as well if I had the moolah.
Being the off-season at jerk, I am on a budget, so I'll have to print a few more George Washingtons.  ;)

411 Drops of Fork Fluid

This past Sunday's Pachaug rock pile ride with the custom-blended thinner fork oil went pretty well.
This is because, for the first time since I started riding the WR-250FP on the first weekend of this past August, the front fork finally shows a willingness to move enough when hitting all those sharp and pesky bumps out on the trail.
The thin fluid in the forks is now about a 2.5 wt instead of the original 5 wt, and thin fluid means the hydraulic damping on compression will be reduced.
It was quite a difference and a welcomed improvement.
Even with a well-worn rear tire, I was regaining some of my lost confidence through the rocky sections where the stock fork did not work to my satisfaction, and that was a good feeling.
With two new tires, things would feel even better, and for the time being, at least, I will run the fork with this fluid inside of it.

This is not a perfect and final solution, however, as I believe only internal revalving mods will be a final solution.
The reason is that thin fluid also reduces hydraulic damping in the other direction:
Rebound damping.
Where the reduced compression feels like it's just what the doctor ordered, rebound damping now feels a bit too light, meaning the fork bounces back a little too easily.
Thank God it is at least acceptable due to the average speeds on the Pachaug enduro loop being less than quasar (to cop a term from Jody Weisel from Motocross Action Magazine).
If the trails were more like my favorite whoops-through-the-pine-needled-woods section, the faster rebound would be more of a problem.
But, then again, the stock fork performance on that section was just fine and dandy.
So, at least for now, I'm sticking with this latest compromise - it is an improvement in overall action and satisfaction.

As of right now, the rear shock is at Nasin Machine for another routine fluid change, something that suspension guys recommend you do after so many hours of use.
To be honest, the main reason I chose to get that done this week is not because I've logged so many hours since it was initially serviced (this past August), but because I have the feeling the Honda HP 5 wt fluid I chose (because I had some left over from the Honda CRF-450X9 handy at home) is a little bit too heavy with the cooler weather we get this time of year.
The feeling on the bike is as if the oil seems thicker in cooler weather, and this jives with what I read on suspension fluid viscosity comparison charts.
So, I'm having Tom at Nasin Machine put some of the recommended fluid in there:
Kayaba K2C shock fluid, which is a bit thinner at cooler temperatures.
Funny, how a Kayaba shock will be getting Kayaba shock fluid, eh?
I probably should have done that from the start.
Now I know.
Actually, I knew that decades ago, but, I guess I had a moment.  :)

The shit weather forecast for the weekend looks like an on-and-off rainy one.
I'm hoping that they are as wrong about that as they were as wrong about yesterday's forecast, where it was supposed to be sunny and it rained and drizzled all day.

-John

410: That's a Big Ten-Four, Good Buddy

 

It's time for another oil change with the WR-250FP.

It still makes me laugh how lots of guys make doing this once a month sound like it's worse than listening to Culture Club and dressing up like the singer.

I remember when saying ten-four was popular with people during the CB radio fad of the late 1970s.
Makes you wonder how anyone got by without a cell phone and PC.
Don'nit?
God.
How did I do that?

Although this is a week late, I'll write about last weekend's riding, which actually started on Thursday, Thanksgiving day.

Hmmmm.
I'm trying to think, here.
Well, I honestly can't recall any details about Thursday's Pachaug ride, so it must have been an average-for-this-time-of-year ride.
That probably means it was decent - possibly even quite good - although nothing was a stand-out or most excellent.
That's acceptable.
I want to say it was on the chilly side, but I can't remember for sure.
Well, I actually just PCed my ass over to weather.com and looked-up the monthly weather records for Thanksgiving day, and that says it started in the 30s for a low and reached a high of the low 50s.
Hey, Thanksgiving day's weather was pretty good, ya' know.
You can bet your ass I was wearing my blaze orange don't-shoot-because-I'm-a-human-not-an-animal vest, too.
God, I just hope these guys aren't shooting toward and/or across the public trail, goddammit.
It would be a shame if they shot holes in their SUV windshield, wouldn't it?

Friday's day at jerk was a sllloooooooww one since UPS wasn't delivering any UPS Ground packages, and that is what makes-up about 90% of our daily deliveries.
You know - we need that service in order to make a buck and pass around the goods that are imported from China and Taiwan and Vietnam.
That line above reminds me of what is probably the singe most interesting thing I've ever read on the Adventure Rider forums:
A guy from Cambodia posted about modifying his seat of the 2012 or 2013 KTM 500EXC dual-purpose bike he rides over in rice patty and sweat shop land.
He posted pics and words describing how he had a local seat upholsterer dude (local to him, not me over here in the USA, land of the free and 911 was caused by airplanes hijacked by towel heads with beards) modify his seat to his bum-bum's liking for $15.
This $15 covered three hours of labor, the materials needed to do the job, and a tip for the upholsterer dude.

Think about that for the rest of the day, would you?

Getting back to Friday, I went into jerk for an hour or so, then left, intending to come back in the afternoon around 3:00 pm when FedEx Ground came with a couple of packages.
So, I had about 4 hours to get my keister home and try yet ANOTHER front fork experiment with the ol' WR-250FP:
Changing to a different fork oil in hopes of relieving the high-speed compression damping spikes from all of those pesky sharp impacts out on the Pachaug rock-and-roll-pile loop.
I bought some Ohlins RT43 fork oil we had at jerk without even knowing it's true viscosity weight, but gave it a go, anyway.
The idea was to use a thinner oil - excuse me. Fork fluid - in the forks and get a reduction in compression damping.
Rebound damping would likewise be reduced, but, it was an experimant, after all.
I hoped for the best.
Oil level to be used was the same 145mm.

Well, I did the job, went back to jerk, came home and ate and slept, and got up Saturday morning for the experimental Pachaug Ohlins RT43 fork fluid ride.
As it turned out, Ohlins RT43 is actually a bit THICKER (7.5 wt, so I later read on a forum) than the Honda HP fork fluid's 5 wt I had in it, so it actually was a step in the wrong direction and I could feel it while on the bike.
The ride wasn't a disaster, but the fork did behave as it I'd stiffened the compression and rebound damping to the maximum with the adjustment clickers.
That means I backed the pace down in the sharp-and-pesky-bump-strewn spots on the trail, AKA about 50% of it.  :)
At least nothing bad happened and I did learn what the true weight of Ohlins RT43 fork fluid is.

After I got home Saturday afternoon, I immediately started work to change the fork oil back to a known 5 wt. fluid as I had, before leaving from the ride parking spot, gone upstairs to the Parts Dept. at jerk and purchased three pints (hic!) of Honda SS7 fluid, a good choice since it says 5 wt right on the label.
I went with the same 145mm oil level, too.
Changing the fork fluid is a pretty easy job, really, with the biggest hassle being installing the front wheel since about 50% of the time, the front axle won't slide home easily.
This is probably due to tight clearances requiring having the fork legs and wheel perfectly aligned, and sometime if the world's axis is off a half-degree, it's a toughie.

Sunday's ride was better as the fork was back to normal and working much better, at least as well as it is going to work without more internal valving modifications, something the fork obviously needs for riding Pachaug's terrain.
I remember the weather being on the chilly side since washing the bike wasn't quite 100% comfortable.
It got done, regardless.

So, here it is Sunday morning of the following weekend.
Since hunting season in CT. is now in the firearms season, I'm really gonn'a stick to the no-Saturday riding plan until that's done in January.
Since there was no riding yesterday, I decided to use the time to change the fork fluid AGAIN to something that's quaranteed to be thinner than the usual 5 wt.:
A 2-to-1 mixture of 1.6 wt fluid called Redline Like Water Suspension Fluid (that's the real name, competing neck-and-neck with Smart Performances' 215.VM2.K5 fork fluid for long names) and good ol' Kayaba 01M fork fluid (which is reportedly a 5 wt.), the actual recommended fluid for my WR-250FP fork.

Mixing these two fluids in this ratio gives about a 2.5 weight fluid, and I can easily tell the difference in the reduced damping just pumping the front fork up and down while sitting on the seat.
I'm hoping for the best with today's experimental ride.

-John