I Hate My Back.

Remember the 'sciatica' I mentioned recently? Well, it's due to my slipping my lowest disc. Ouch, fuck and dammit. Been going through physical therapy and wearing a lift as I've found out that one leg is an inch shorter than the other. Must be from putting the hammer down too hard.

Fortunately, it doesn't bug me much when I sit down, so my job and riding career are safe.

STn National 2009, Part Two

Our Official STn Dinner was held at the Pallisades restaurant. My dumb ass left my camera back at the hotel. But I met a host of fun folks--Basco, Leanintree and Mrs. Leanintree, Hickey, and more than I can list here. Bunbun and Dove made it in from Texas, and announced their engagement. Here's to 'em!

After the first night, most folks took off for rides around the area. I decided to be a wuss, relax and stay in town. Coffee and breakfast were found at a cute little coffee joint called Mochas!, just across form the Pallisades.

The next step was to find a souvenir or two for Ferretwench. A strange little shop called Trader's Rendezvous provided a T-shirt and stuffed critter, as well as a cute little dog called Piper, and endless photo ops of dead critters. On the way, I was passed by an old- school, build-it-out-of-anything T-Bucket. Too cool!

Back at the Gunnison Inn, I caught a brief snap of the illustrious VIVID1 and the bundle of energy that is Mostrogirl before they headed out on yet another ride. If you're surrounded by women who are tougher than you are...you might be an STn'er.

On the advice of my navigator, I headed to the liquor store to pick up some beverages for the evening. I found one that seemed to fit the occasion perfectly.

About 1700 local, Vivid and Mostrogirl pulled in, and Vivid found why you don't fill up a hot bike to the brim and then park it. "Oh, dude!" she wailed. "That's like a dollar in gas!" I thought only Harleys marked their spot?

Colorado is beautiful. That's both good and bad, as mxvet found out. He spaced on the scenery and lowsided his FJR. Still rideable, and he's OK. Gotta watch those roads, or they'll bite ya. After we were all mostly accounted for, we headed across the street for beer and BBQ.

Another night of booze and bullshit commenced, and Chili got into some chili beer that blackbuell and his lady love brought. Chaos ensued, the details of which are omitted to protect the guilty.

In the morning, I awakened to a present--the last of the Rolling Rock. These are my peeps, y'all!! I grabbed some coffee, suited up, and headed out to go home. Just south of Montrose, I ended up waiting about half an hour just to drive through half a mile of dead fresh chipseal. I think my AirHawk is still sucked into my ass somewhere.

Finally, we got rolling, and I stopped in Ouray, CO to snap this cool-ass little scooter-hack and clean my visor. It's a beautiful town, but the road south is--well, scary. Very twisty, no guardrail, and it's a LONG way down. If I rode it on a regular basis, it'd be fun, but it was quite the pucker moment for me.

Then the real mountains began. I actually got hit by a couple of snowflakes on Red Mountain Pass. The Molos Pass is truly picturesque, and reminds you of one of those Austrian hamlets up in the Alps. Finally, I got through Durango(with more road construction--naturally), jumped out of Aztec NM, through Farmington into Shiprock. 93 miles later, I found myself making my last fuel stop in Gallup. Headed down the I40 into Holbrook AZ, turned southwest to Heber, and made it home before sunset.

Absolutely a fantastic time. Maybe I'll make the West Coast Regional Meet next year!

I'm Back.

And man, my ass is sore. But I had a fantastic time.

More tomorrow.

STn National 2009, Part One

OK, either Blogger or my laptop or my broadband connection or my Photobucket account is getting all weird on me, so I'm gonna link to my pics instead. Click on the funky-colored text.

Tuesday morning, I bid my love farewell, fired up my other love, and headed off through the mountains. Destination: Gunnison, CO. Mission: To ride strange new roads, to seek out new bikers and new adult beverages...to drink like no one has drunk before!

The morning was a little chillier than I expected, so I stopped at the top of the Mogollon Rim to put on my neckwarmer and some heavier gloves. It was at this point that I realized I'd forgotten to bring a warm hat, and a cane. (I've developed a lovely case of sciatica lately, and I figured it would help a bit.) Never fails...no matter how well I plan, I always leave out at least one thing.

I figured, for shits and grins, that I'd take the 191 north from I40 and meet up with 160. There's a gas station/restaurant/motel at that exit, so that was to be my first gas stop. Not happening. The c-store is closed and the computers are down. Hmmph. OK, run six miles down the highway into Sanders. And all they have is regular. No midgrade, no premium. And this turned out to be a good thing.

I filled up with 87 octane, hoping for the best...and discovered that Diana actually accepts it! I don't know if I originally got a bad tank of regular, or whether almost 40,000 miles with me has led her to be ready for anything, but I no longer have to worry about buying pricey gas. Which is good, because we're gonna be seeing post-apocalyptic prices on the stuff before too long--you heard it here first.

So on I went north, into the Navajo Nation reservation. As always, I have mixed feelings every time I pass through. The countryside is absolutely incredible, but the grinding poverty of the Rez really gets to me. The US continues to screw over the Red man every chance they get, and I'm tickled that the Navajo now have a casino going. Hope it makes them a bunch of money...they need it.

And I most certainly did not do 150mph on those deserted roads, and you can't prove I did.

Finally, I pass the Four Corners monument, and find myself in Colorado at last! I took a quick side trip just to grab another state.

And then, of course, construction zone after construction zone. Never fails. Finally, I get out of the mess and pass through Cortez, stopping in Dolores for fuel.

Now, I'm a C.W. McCall fan. I think all truckers have to be--it's like a DOT regulation or something. So it was a wonderful surprise to the the heralded Galloping Goose on display in town. They really did make 'em out of cars back then!

The road out of Dolores parallels the river--long, winding and green-bordered. Other than watching out for cops and wildlife, I had a lot of fun on it. I stopped in Rico to immortalize the first snow-capped peak I saw, and to take a rest since I was really starting to ache.

By the time I hit Placerville, I was cursing myself for setting out on a 600-mile ride after not being in the saddle for eight months. My sciatica didn't hurt, but everything else did--a lot. By this point, I just wanted something to eat and to get off the damn bike. I pulled over in Montrose for some Taco Bell(they had chilitos--yay!), and after a brief rest I was able to hammer out the last 60 miles to Gunnison.

Unfortunately, I left the camera up in the room for most of the night, but I did get one picture of our mascot, Chili, doing what he does best--namely drink even more than me.

More details and pics tomorrow--or the next day, depending when I get back and how tired I am.

Tick....tock...

The countdown continues.

Tomorrow, Ferretwench (my betrothed) is taking me to a chili cookoff at the local casino. (She has no sense of smell, which is the reason she can feel comfortable doing this.)

Monday, preparations commence, and I'll be leaving for Gunnison first light Tuesday. I'll be bringing my laptop, camera and a powerful thirst. This will be the first in-progress, gonzo-journalism, from-the-road bike trip blog I've ever posted, complete with beer tasting and snarky humor.

This is gonna be good.

We Ain't Done Yet.

So now we get to put on the new Super-G windscreen. I didn't get pics of the install, but it's fairly easy. Note that you will have to drill the windscreen to fit, and therefore, the bottom four holes will be installed differently--you will put the little rubber plugs through the trim panel, but not the screen itself.

Now that's some wind protection! I should have done this in the first place, but then I'd have just had to buy another one when she fell over.

Now I had to install the new can. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not completely stupid--I knew better than to mount it anywhere near the engine again. The MurphsKits vacuum can just fits behind the right side fairing panel.


A sticky patch, a couple of rerouted lines, and we're rockin'. While I was on the MurphsKits site, I also decided to get one of those cool-ass little brackets for the control panel. It's now beside the left switchgear.


And we're done. The lady still needs to run for awhile to blow out the cobwebs, but the speedo works, the cruise works, and I got my vacation approved for the 2009 ST.n National in Gunnison. Drink--I mean, ride report to follow.

Replan, Rethink, Redo.

OK, dear readers...if you've been following along this far, well...you have no life. You're also aware of my hassles with the fairing and the vacuum can for my cruise control. Also, my battery died. The motorcycle gods need to give me a good smack for letting her sit this long.

So, the first thing to do was to repair the hashed speedo collar. I took off the brake rotor without realizing I didn't have to(dumbass!). The collar is held in place by a snap ring, and amazingly enough, I actually have a pair of snap ring pliers. What are the odds of that?

So now the new collar is on.


The next step was to install the brand-new nose fairing($$$--OUCH), which is lovely, unfaded, unscratched, pristine and makes the side cowls look like shit now. A few bugs and rock chips should take care of that.

Folks have commented that I never posted how to remove the damn thing, so just do this stuff in reverse order.


The first thing to do is attach the ram-air ducts. They're held to the bottom of the fairing by two screws.




Next, we attach the headlight assembly. This is held on by four bolts that are held to the fairing by clips. Don't lose those.


While putting the fairing back on, be sure your wiring and cabling for the cruise control, heated grips, turn signals, squid neon, cappuccino machine and all the rest is where it ought to be. It's a complete pain in the ass to have to take the whole assembly apart again because of a renegade wire or cable.


Now that everything's more or less in place, put the mirrors back on, and that'll make everything sturdy again.


There she is...looking good so far. Next post, we figure out WTF to do with the vacuum can and windscreen.