Oklahoma City....Colorado Road Trip Planning

We had a quick road trip (in the car, darn it!) to Tulsa OK. last weekend. Darians' Mom was there visiting so a fast 900 mile run was in order. We were pleasantly surprised to find that eastern OK. was a heavily wooded area. I expected to see more of the wide open Texas Panhandle type country. Our visit was nice, although short. Heading back Sunday we felt in necessary to visit the OK. City Memorial.........no need for a narrative here...............

Looks like I'll possibly be getting a few extra days off next week. I'm already pouring over the maps to figure out a road trip "loose" agenda. We never travel with any real itinerary, but rather just go.... This will be the 2nd. time in 30 years that I've had any time off in the summer months. I'd planned on another New Mexico run over the 4th of July but with the extra few days off we'll likely explore some areas of Colorado which we have never seen. I painted out a rough route in yellow with red as an alternate route. We'll be in a camping mode most nights as weather permits. We have a friend who summers in Delores Co. so maybe we'll see if he's around........Would like to see Mesa Verde again too. Having 6-8 days will allow us to really slow down and take in some sights. I have a bit of bike maintenance to do in advance so hope to get things ready to leave for next Saturday. I picked up a pair of new 150 & 140 main jets for the Bing Carbs so should be ready for any elevation sickness issues. Need to do an engine oil/filter change and might change the gear lube on the newly installed 37:11 final drive. The oil in it when I received it looked pretty bad...I've run it 700 miles so any crud should be flushed out. I had some weepage from the drain plug (needs a new crush washer, which I don't have) so I'll give it a bit of Teflon Tape to seal the threads. I'm overdue for a wheel bearing service on the bike....I have never performed that task myself. The bearings are running cool but they are due for service. I think I can easily get one more trip out of them. (famous last words) Service to be done: Change oil & filter, change final drive gear lube, adjust valves? (I usually do that on the road in the morning before riding as it takes only a few minutes to do), check / change air filter, Remove the crappy spot light I installed. ; the light was the cause of my charging system malfunction.....it must have an internal short. As soon as I removed the spot light fuse my charging system went back to normal.

Breezy Afternoon in Texas.............

The area of Texas we are in is prone to some pretty nasty storms. most residents have storm shelters in their back yards and a lot of homes are constructed of brick. Late today we had quire an ugly looking thunderstorm heading our way. I went out to photograph the on-coming storm.
There were some big lightning hits fairly close so I didn't wander far. I could see the clouds moving fast and all of a sudden a ferocious blast of wind hit. I heard a terrible metal to metal sound but couldn't figure out what it was. I looked over towards my neighbors R.V. and saw that his portable shelter, which he uses as a motorcycle garage was in pieces. I ran into our motor home as the wind and noise were not normal. I thought for a moment that a tornado was about to nail us.

The storm blew very hard for a half hour or so with heavy rain and limited visibility. No hail this time. Luckily we had other R.V.'s acting as a wind break next to us. After the storm passed a co-worker called and said to walk over a few feet and look at the storage building right next to her R.V

WOW, this explained the strange metallic noises I was hearing. The pile in the fore ground is a huge tangled section of the buildings roof. Another 100' and it would have been in the R.V. Park.

A lot of busted up vehicles in there. Looks like we dodged another bullet.

Tucumcari to Texas......Day 3

Sunday morning came on clear and hot. Had 90 degrees by 9:00AM. We hit the local Tucumcari McDonalds for a (Ha) nutritious breakfast and a tank of fuel next door. I swapped the main jets back to the #160's before firing up. We're still at 4000 foot elevation but don't want to chance running the bike too lean. We watched the local weather and it appeared that the currant storms were to the north of us. With that in mind we figured a longer route to the south and then back up to Amarillo.

Leaving Tucumcari we were surprised to see some nice scenery for the first hour or so. A lot of red rock areas and the ever present red dirt. We could see some threatening clouds in the distance but nothing too serious.

Darian caught a glimpse of an old ornate brick arch ruin along the road. We saw a lot of old adobe buildings today. Couldn't get photos of everything. Following route 209 we headed for the Texas border.

Miles and miles of straight roads through farm and ranch lands. We saw a solitary Doe Mule Deer sitting in the ditch. She looked out of place and lonely. Dozens of old abandoned farm houses. We saw many old ruins over the weekend. Just can't stop to photo everything....I always tell Darian to try to catch the old stuff passing by. I picture a time back when someones dream home / farm was in operation. Quite a solitary existence out here now....much less 60 - 80 years ago.

We passed through Canyon Texas, where we had been a few weeks ago. Again had threatening skis and the clouds spit a few raindrops over a 50 mile stretch. Not enough to even make the road wet. We could see heavy rains off in the distance in a few areas. Our timing was great. Normally the wind issues are a crap shoot with a sidehack. Wind has a lot more impact on three wheels than on two . All weekend I either had a tail wind, or a right side wind. These directions are the preferable angles when on three wheels. I've been worn down on trips where we fight head winds and left side winds for days. Sometimes we're lucky, sometimes we're not. This trip we missed all bad weather and mother nature was on our side.

The main part I like about arriving home after a trip is that now I can start planning the next

one!
A few random photos from the trip................

another farm / business ruin
Bikers in Taos N.M.
Old cemetary
old cemetary

stuff

Taos, New Mexico Day 2, Long Day, Long Post.

Up nice and early Sat. A.M. Pulled the spark plugs and they were carbon fouled as I figured they would be. Cleaned them up and pulled the float bowels. Decided to install the 135 main jets. I'm running 160 main jets now so that is quite a jump down.....had my doubts.

On the road by 9:00AM and the bike was running fine. No power loss or "pinging" on the hills. Leaving Cimarron N.M. we headed west on Hiway 64. Wonderful canyons and views. Almost too much to take in. Great ride through miles and miles of canyon roads with little traffic.

This is Cimarron Canyon which had lots of different rock formations. The roads were all in great condition.

After leaving the canyon area we topped a small pass and this lake came into view. The road has been recently resurfaced and was as smooth as glass, just like the lake.

This town was called Eagle Nest, situated right on the lake. Here we had to decide on going directly towards Taos or making a northward loop and adding miles....easy decision , north and more miles....

Leaving Eagles Nest the road was a bit rough and then we climbed up a lot. Finally hit "bobcat Pass @ 9820 feet.

Over this pass we ran for a few miles and dropped down into "Red River" N. M. Looks like a ski town and tourist town. Lots of bikes running around.

Originally was a mining town , now turned tourist town.

We stopped for Breakfast here and took a little break. Prices were reasonable and the food good. We were the only ones in the place when we walked in.

A bike joint rents these little cruiser bikes. Looks like fun...until you have to go uphill....The main street is on quite a grade. They were moving pretty fast right down the middle of the street.

Just outside town we passed this huge mining operation. They were still in operation.


We made the big road loop and passed through Taos, N.M. Was surprised to see nothing much to note. The ski areas were some miles up a canyon and we never saw the turn. Most of the town is artist stores etc. We passed directly through and kept on going. Took a back road, Hiway 518 towards Las Vegas N.M.

518 ended up being a great route. Lots of scenic views, canyons and valleys.

No real large towns anywhere out here. A lot of real small run down towns with many run down abandoned buildings. We ran through Las Vegas N.M. long enough for me to get all turned around and lost. We came upon a cute little Pomeranian dog in a pink sweater that had just gotton run over by a car or something. Poor little pup. Darian got me aimed the right direction and we found the road towards Tucumcari N.M. which was our goal for the day.

Great ride towards the east.
Great looking G.S. road across the canyon.

Very steep grade going down.

I couldn't help myself, needed a front row view...Darian was yelling at me.

Dropping down we ended up on the typical flat area towards Tucumcari. The temperature reached 104 degrees for a while. Covered a lot of miles and a lot of country today...

Altitude Sickness, Taos New Mexico, Day I

Friday was a little bit shorter work day than usual. Since I just finished installing three new tires on the BMW / Sidecar we decided that we should get busy and begin wearing them out. The Texas Panhandle has some what limited exciting looking ride areas so looking West we see New Mexico. What the hell, only a couple hundred miles to some mountains. Let's go! Darian is a pro at getting ready at short notice, she was packed up and ready within an hour. I loaded the bike and checked things over. We decided to forgo camping this time so left all the camping gear behind. I rolled the bike back to leave and realize that the sidehack tire is way low. Bummer. Figured I must have pinched a tube when installing it last night. Pulled the hack wheel off, and found the valve core was not overly tight. The core looked kind of crooked so I swapped it out. Still had a tiny bit of leakage out of the stem. Damned inner tube stem has a bad sealing surface. Installed an o-ring sealed cap and all leaks ceased. Off we go.

Leaving our area we crossed the Sanford Dam which is where we are presently working.......I marked out the area of our job site.

The day was mostly clear and about 90 degrees. Northwest Texas is as flat as Northeast Texas.....................

Finally New Mexico....The mostly featureless Texas terrain gave up to some more interesting New Mexico terrain. The New Mexico sharp shooters are just like the MT. sharp shooters. Can't stand to see a road sign without bullet holes.

New Mexico Rest Area Warning Sign.......we watched but never saw any.

We headed Northwest towards Raton New Mexico. Some very nice country in this area. We decided our final goal would be Taos, New Mexico due to the fact we had never been there. The BMW started running real ratty as the afternoon wore on. Altitude sickness, I figured.
We worked our way over towards Cimarron New Mexico. It looked like a good end goal for the day. Raton has lots of motels but Cimarron looked like a sizable town on the map. We were climbing higher and higher and the bike was running badder and badder....We arrived at Cimarron around 6:30 Mt. Time. Ends up that there are only two motels in town and a big Boy Scout thing and wedding going on. I knew I should have brought the damn camping gear! No room at the inns. We sat around outside the motel discussing our next move for a little while.....either 40 miles back to Raton or keep going west. The Motel manager came out and offered us her daughters' (who was gone for the night) room. Darian went in and looked...dirty underwear, clothes all over, the room looked like a disaster area. We'll pass....I'd about had enough for one day....finally the motel girl came out and lo and behold they had a double reservation for one guy. We had a room after all. Good. There was a decent cafe next door. Unfortunately all the Boy Scouts were eating there too. I talked to one of the Scout Masters and was pleased to hear that Scouting is still popular. Scouting does add some ethics and discipline to kids...lots of kids these days are missing that. Seems like a lot of parents have never heard of morals, ethics, discipline, etc.
Gravel parking lot at the motel and a punk employee kept driving back and forth in his Mustang stirring up clouds of dust...... I dug into my on-board spare parts bin and found I had a pair of R75/5 135 main jets and a pair of smaller needle jets. Hopefully I can come up with a workable higher altitude jetting combination in the morning. We will be going up in altitude a lot more tomorrow! Great ride...Great day!

Supporting the tire industry, BMW Final Drive Swap.....in the rough

Every time I turn around it seems that new tires are in need. When I tell my wife I've ordered new rubber she, without fail, says " But gee you just bought new tires....." the miles go by and the tires wear out. And I'm finding that time does go by a little faster as we age.
I've been a Dunlop Tire fan for years. They are a reasonably priced tire and are sticky, not like some of the rock hard real cheap tires. The super cheapo's wear forever but I felt like I was riding on marbles all the time. I haven't bought a super cheapo for 20 years. Damn Dunlop Tires have increased in price about 40% since I bought one last summer. Since I'm now a three - wheel rider the tire "stickiness" is not as big an issue. I found Bridgestone tires for about 40% cheaper than the Dunlops. I have been dealing with an Internet wholesale joint called "Tires Unlimited". So far they have been great and send the tires to where ever I may be. My tires , two of them anyway, arrived in a week. They shorted me one tire. I called the sales guy and he said the warehouse guys can only count to "two". My third tire is on the way.....Upon receiving the Bridgestones I think they are pretty comparable to the Dunlops.
Tonight was a rare, wind free night, so I decided to mount the new rear tire and throw on a higher geared final drive. I have been running a 32:9 final drive (thanks Stoner) for the past year. Have found that it is just too low. I ran a 32:10 with the 750cc engine, but when I upped it to 900cc I went to the 32:9. The 32:10 was too high for the under powered 750cc. I found an E-Bay 37:11 final drive a few weeks ago. Splines look like new. The nice seller even shipped it full of oil. What a frikkin mess! oil soaked box, packing and brake shoes. I can't believe the post office even accepted it. My over - sized P.O.Box smelled like a Master Lube. Of course I'm in Texas where everything smells like oil, so no one noticed. In any event I mounted the new tire & tube tonight and installed the 37:11 Final Drive. One of the damn mounting studs was bent somehow so had to rob a stud from my old one. How someone could bend one of them is beyond me. The wind never blew until the "Red BMW" grease for the drive splines came out. Lots of nice red dust around here. Had to hurry up and stick the wheel on......The gearing feels dead on now. Gained about 10 mph at 4000 rpm. A tad bit high geared for starting out but not too bad. The 900cc torque is substantially better than the 750cc.



Being homeless / shop less, I spend a lot of time working in the dirt. Luckily I have grass here. That way, when you drop a nut or washer, you get a nice break while you crawl around with your nose in the grass searching. It's funny how something can drop straight down and it ends up 2 feet away.....My wife always looks at my "working on the bike ,on my knee" posture and comments " How can you sit like that? That's not normal!" Well I never claimed to be normal. If I was normal, I wouldn't be performing delicate mechanical tasks in the dirt.

The previous owner of this final drive slobbered about half a tube of silicon when he installed the gasket. Took about 30 minutes to clean all the weird looking gray crap off the studs / ends. Final drive went on.....fresh BMW gear lube went in......and off for a test ride......stop and adjust brake.......Gearing is just what I hoped for!

Elapsed time: 30 minutes to change out tire; 30 minutes to scrape off the weird grey ancient silicon; 30 minutes searching for things I couldn't find, but I knew I had; a couple of minutes attempting to install the final drive with the bent stud; a few minutes to realize the stud was bent and change it; a few minutes with my nose in the grass, looking for the washer I dropped; a few more minutes to remove the gear lube soaked brake shoes and replace with my old, better ones.

This is the removed 32:9 final drive from Stoner. I racked about 7000 (over loaded) sidecar miles on it and it shows no wear to speak of.

Some former owner spent a whole bunch of time polishing the 32:9 final drive case. I would never spend my time doing that when I could be crawling around on my knees, searching for the lost items in the grass.

BMW /6 Police Tank...Solo Seat...Rust

Finally finished messing around with this fuel tank. Had the new knee pads laying around for 4 months and got them stuck on. I used some 3M adhesive which I'm not sure how well it will work...we'll see. I replaced the fuel cap gasket. Had to drill out the old rivet to install the new gasket. It came with a new rivet.

The tank looks pretty good although I see some blemishes on it and it hasn't even been on a bike yet. Storage is tough on things. It will eventually live on the R100S bike. The tank is not perfect by any means. I can see a few imperfections in it now that the paint is new.
I have another 6.2 gallon tank in the paint shop right now. It will likely become E-Bay fodder. Was going to buy new knee pads , BMW roundels, fuel cap etc. but the price will grow to more than it is worth.



The old spare QSL 1000 Mile Solo Seat is sporting new clothes now. It was white with tape and a lot of holes in it. I found a local (very grumpy, almost nasty) older fellow with a lifetime of upholstery work under his belt. He did a very nice job, covered the bottom of the seat with a carpet type matting and even painted the seat mounting frame. $100.00 total. He replaced the old foam as it was rotten from exposure.

The R100s cylinders have been soaking in Marvel oil for the past 10 days in an attempt to free up the pistons. The right side was on top dead center so the valves were closed. No problem holding oil there. The left side had an open valve so I found some sealable caps to close off the ports to retain the oil. Pulled the plugs and filled her to the top. So far the rust is winning. Don't know if Marvel oil is the answer or not. I'll give it a bit more time then may have to go to a special rust eater of some sort. Don't want to ruin the pistons...if they're salvageable.(?) I have a spare complete R90 motor (needing top end work too) but was hoping to bring the 1000cc guy back to life. Time will tell.......Who was it that said (either Neil Young? , Stephan Stills? or Graham Nash?) "Rust never sleeps".