After surveying the damage, the wrecked Ninja I picked up was actually a little too nice to chop up and use for parts. I cut off the bent sections of front frame and added some cheap LED lights. Think I’ll use it as a cheap runabout/low risk track bike until I come up with something better to do.
I left Mammoth Lake early in the morning, and headed North toward Lee Vining and the Eastern entrance to Yosemite. From here I’d gain about 2000 feet in 10 miles hitting my highest elevation right at the entrance to the park. I hoped that the dense cold morning air would make the bike run a bit leaner and help with…
Originally, I’d planned to cross the valley at night and watch the sun rise from the Western side, but that seemed like a waste. Every other national park I’d been through had been impressive enough that it seemed a shame to mostly skip this one for fear of discomfort. I left Beatty around 6, just as the sun was…
I woke up early and headed out of the Kaibab forest, hoping to beat the inevitable desert heat as much as possible. Bike was still running rough at first, but it smoothed back out as soon as I got below 8000 feet elevation. I headed west on 59 which gave me one last morning look at Zion.
I started out day 5 just north of Kanab and blasted south toward the North Rim of the Grand Conyon. It was a relatively short ride down 89 and then 67 through the Kaibab National Forest. It was really neat, after days of riding though desert and desert like climates, to be back in a woodsy area. It was also cold. This…
I started off day 4 saying goodbye to the folks who had traveled down to Bonneville with me. From here they would travel back up to Portland, and I’d travel south. I wasn’t sure from here exactly where I wanted to go. I had a general idea of places I did not want to miss, but didn’t have my day to day planned. I’d…
Free motorbicycle parking at the airport!
We started out the day in Mountain Home and continued our trek eastward on I-84. We got to twin falls and headed south on our first stretch of two lane highway. My mood instantly improved, no other cars around, just a group of bikes in the middle of nowhere, what I had pictured for the trip from the beginning. The…
I barely slept the night before leaving. Between excitement for the trip and apprehension about taking a largely unknown bike to some really remote areas, I probably got about an hour or so of actual rest.
Before going in to a series of posts about my trip, I want to take a minute to talk about a scooter rally I went on the day after I got back. I kept hearing that this annual small displacement ride up in seattle was one of the biggest gatherings on the west coast, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it work with…
I’m hoping to do a separate write up for each day of the trip over the next week or so. Each day had it’s own personality and almost felt like a vacation in itself. But I really liked AMGtechs trip stats so I’m going to shamelessly rip it off.
I feel like I’m on another planet, hard packed salt in every direction for miles.
Apparently, I just obtained a Ninja 300. This one belonged to a friend for a while as their first bike until in ended up on it’s side in a ditch. From there, it sat in the back of a garage for a while waiting to get fixed. The owner ended up buying a Moto Guzzi earlier this year so I expect the Ninja dropped down into…
It’s just over two weeks now until my road trip through the Southwest. I’ve spent the last two weeks getting to know the VTX from a riding perspective, and getting it up to date on maintenance.
A local small displacement specialty shop was doing a dyno day Saturday, so I decided to bring the Grom.
A few friends and I decided earlier this year that it would be fun to do a motorcycle trip from Portland down to Bonneville to watch the top speed racing. We’re now within the 1 month mark so preparations have begun in earnest.
Made my Miata patriotic.
Decided it would be good for a laugh to send the oil from the $200 miata in for a blackstone analysis. Since I’ve been seeing slightly low oil pressure (and an issue where I had no oil pressure under breaking a for a while), I figured it would be a less than stellar report. Got it back today.
Finally had some time this weekend to finalize the installation of my lift. It’s been a few months process with the concrete work that was required and an issue I had with the first batch of epoxy anchors not setting up properly. But last night I finally got a car up in the air!
Picked up an old parts washer for the shop. Don’t know much about it besides that it seems to be from the mid 70s and the price was right (free)
