Lotsa Gas

The painter got the tank finished up yesterday. He attempted to stripe the tank but wasn't up to the task. Paint looks good and has 5 coats of clear over the black paint. It looks too shiny but I'll surely scratch and mark it up before too long. Then it will match the rest of the bike. I spent the morning getting the tank mounted and everything hooked up. We couldn't salvage the original tank knee pads as they were cracked, crispy and looked like crap. Stopped at the gas station and put in $20.00 worth for about 1/2 a tank full. Who would have ever thought it would take over $40.00 to fill up a motorcycle! Darian wasn't into a longer ride so I dropped her at home, (a serious golf tourney was on TV) and took off for a ride.

I ran about 40 miles north towards Butte on the frontage road. Lots of farm, grass lands and the irrigation was in full swing. Also lots of fisherman out today as it was a nice sunny day. Gophers were all over the road and I nearly got a couple of the little fellers. Saw a number of them that met their maker today. Their buddies would run out into the road to pay their last respects (or get a bite to eat) and were getting smacked by the traffic. messy business. The bike ran fine and along the way I messed with a wireless electronic speedometer I had mounted but have never got to function properly. It will run up to about 16-18 mph then goes back to zero. It is a neat little unit with an odometer, speedometer, elapsed time indicator, clock and about ten other functions. I mounted it everyway possible and still no go. Made some aluminum brackets to position it perfectly and same old shit. Must be bad or the radio signal is getting screwed up from the bike? Who knows. I'll mount it to my bicycle ans see if it works there. The bikes final drive seemed to be running pretty hot. Could hold my hand on it but not for very long. I guess I never checked the old one that often so don't know if the new one is running abnormally hot. The front tire is looking a bit thin so I've ordered another Dunlop to replace it.It should show up during the week. If we run to Bobs' Motorwerks Solstice Party next weekend I'll need to swap out the tire at some point. Well another work week is upon me so I'll be running the gauntlet again all week. Working with the bureaucratic federal government is a pain in the ass. Unbelievable minutia and bullshit paper trails. Spent over 1/2 a day putting together submittals for frickin traffic cones. 8 pages of bullshit for justification for brand new cones. Give me a break! No wonder our taxes are so high. On and on it goes......