2011 ColoRally

[psycoreefer]

I had a total of 1928 miles for the trip, using 53.48 gal of fuel which means 36.05 MPG. Not too bad for the speeds I maintained for the better part of the trip.

got you beat by 90 miles... I just totaled up our run out and back and its 2080, including our detour to the four corners on the way home.

I'll post the pics we took later...

[3Phase]

Okay, Roo and I made it to Pendleton, Wa. then went for separate destinations. I'm in Vancouver, Wa. for now and I'll be heading back home in a few days; might stay for the weekend but I don't know.

I had to put a new front tire on the bike yesterday, a ME880 Marathon, because the Lasertech was down to the wear bars and I still have almost another thousand miles left to get home. The surface on Highway 84 is more like a cheese grater than a road and that didn't help at all....

Today I'll change the oil again. Even though I just changed it down in Durango I've put on close to another 2,000 miles since then and I found some even better, less expensive oil than 20W-50 Supertech for $2.23/quart at Wally-world. The local Fred Meyer has Kroger 20W-50 MotoTech for $2.19/quart. It seems to be the same stuff as SuperTech; bottled by Warren Performance Products.

Roo and I made most of the run up from Durango at 75 MPH and, unlike the Redline 10W-40 that Columbo absolutely loved to gulp by the quart, barely used any oil at all so 20W-50 it is.


On the way from Pendleton to Vancouver I spent about an hour with a lady riding a very cool but very broken Stallion trike. She did a good job saving the trike from flipping over because the right rear axle brace had broken off the clevis that held it to the frame and the trike was crabbing sideways down the shoulder of the freeway. I helped the flatbed driver from AAA load it onto the truck while Jewel (the owner) watched anxiously and after a few minor technicalities it was job done so they left for the nearest Ford dealer to see if it could be repaired while I rode on to Vancouver.

So far it's been a good run! I'll check the mileage later but it's well over 3,000.

[psycoreefer]

ok, so now I'm at work I've got a little longer to post,
I've uploaded the photos we took along the way and at the rally to my webshots account.

Here is a link to the slide show
Clicking on a picture during the slide show will bring you to the album where you can view it larger (on the right side of the screen view full size).

We had a great time and a big thanks to everyone who put in time to organize and plan this. We covered just over 2000 miles and we only had 3 problems, a loose license plate bolt, a lost sync port cap, and a dead battery. We detoured through the 4 corners on the way home and man was it hot going through the desert on the way out of there!

[psycoreefer]

This is Tara... (I swear this is the first and last time I will use his account...just wanted to see if any pics were posted)

DiverRay, we didn't make it back to the campground before heading out that morning, but I would love a CD/DVD of all the pics you took as well if you don't mind sending one out.

It was a blast guys, minus the pelting rain for a few miles. Next time the centerstand will be off though...those corners looked fun and would have been taken faster given the chance. My bike ran like a champ with a few minor problems and surprisingly I got better mileage than psyco at about 38.5 even with it going through so much oil.

Big thanks to those who organized this rally and can't wait to do it again!

[Special Ed]

Sorry I missed U

Wow, it sounds like a really great rally, and I'm sorry I couldn't make it. Maybe next year!
Special Ed

[motoman]

Glad to hear you all had fun!.........Yes, the horse-shoes on RedMountain are WAY fun on my ST1100........during the middle of the week with little traffic!

[DiverRay]

Tara,
Send me a pm with your address, and I'll get one off to you from here in Texas. I don't know the exact miles I've covered so far, but I'll have over 4K miles once I make it back home late next week! It's an "iron butt" from here to my friends house in Tucson, so I MUST. I do know I'll be looking into another seat for the BMW, as after about 600 miles it starts to get bad!
I hope I'll have one of the XS11's in shape to ride out next year. I know I'm getting to old to man up like Roo, so it will have to be the Midnight, as it at least has a small shield on it!

[Bonz]

Hey DiverRay,

The Plexifairing 3 that I have on my 80 SG and jwhughes3 has on his bike is a darn good shield. Don't know what you have on the MNS currently, but you won't want for more protection with the Plexi 3, it's really good. I particularly like the lower extensions that do a great job keeping any weather, bugs, rocks off my legs. When I passed you guys heading to Wolf Creek pass, it looked like you just missed the rain, and I hit it full force for about 1 1/2 hours. Yeah, the Plexi 3 is pretty good! As well, 1,025 bug free miles for the rally ride on my helmet visor and sunglasses are the proof!

Even with the visor full up, I get a nice breeze but the bugs don't make it past the 'screen. Plus it hardly weighs anything at all for how well it protects, and you can really fine tune the angle, height, etc for what gives you the best airflow and least helmet buffetting, wind noise, et al.

Enjoyed meeting you and thanks for the work putting together the DVD of the rally. CaptonZap is coming down tomorrow with my copy of the DVD and we're going to check the valve clearances on my old girl. No issues or odd sounds, but it's time for them to be checked in the proper scheme of things.

[3Phase]

Back!

I left Vancouver, WA yesterday at 6:00 AM and made it home at about 8:00 AM this morning. I got to meet Cy yesterday and I stopped by Lodi to see LateXS again before heading south for home

The rally was a blast; trip afterward was just as good. I'll check the mileage later but nothing broke -- whew!

[Bonz]

Had California Pete (AKA Cap'n Morgan, but isn't on the forum... Yet...) come by the house yesterday to do an oil change on his 80SG as he is still hanging around Colorado visiting friends, and CaptonZap was down overseeing and assisting with the first known valve check/adjustment performed on my 80SG.

All the exhaust valves were on the low side of spec, but still room to go, so left them where they were (.0095 for 3 of them, .0085 for the 4th, as .0008-.00010 is spec).

3 of the 4 intakes were .0035, out of spec on the tight end, and the 4th was .0045, just above spec (.0004-.0006 spec). Went down one shim size all around on the 3 tight ones, opened up to .0055, left the 4th where it was. Was able to swap all but one shim between the different valves to get what I needed, and only had to swap one shim with the dealer to get the job done.


Thanks again Zap and good having Cap'n Morgan join us.

[3Phase]

I'll check the mileage later ....

3,816 miles and for some reason I'm a little tired this afternoon.

Hbonser, say hello to the Cap'n!

[cywelchjr]

3,816 miles and for some reason I'm a little tired this afternoon.

Hbonser, say hello to the Cap'n!

Don't see why. You had been on the road for what? Like 10 hours when you got to my place yesterday? And then like 40 minutes or so to Lodi, plus the rest of the trip, and you were on the road like what? 26 hours out of 24? And with no vents in your windshield your not getting as much fresh air behind that fairing as you could.

At least Columbo didn't say "just one more thing" on this trip.

[3Phase]

Cy, it was good to meet you and now I want more garlic fries! Oh, and a custom sprayer for my gas grill, too.

You're right about the windshield vents but it only seems to happen when I have the duffle bag on the seat behind me so I think it's luggage configuration problem. It took a while to figure out what was happening during this trip (Why am I so sleepy after only riding 15 or 20 miles!? ) but I am definitely going to have to do something about it. The CO poisoning made several parts of the trip and especially the night ride home last night/this morning a total nightmare.

Google Maps says it's 977 miles from Vancouver to Simi. I'm pretty sure I did over 1,000 after a few back tracks for looking at touristy-stuff but I can't find the stupid gas receipt I wrote the mileage on when I filled up before leaving Vancouver. I think the receipt must have fallen out of the fairing tonneau cover during a pitstop. Oh well.

[Jerry]

Glad you made it home OK. 3,800 miles...beats my 2,900 for going to the Cali Rally. Of course, I've been to California rallies 4 times now...

For those who would like to see some rally photos ar full screen size, I've added a gallery of photos at:
http://gallery.me.com/jerryfields#10...lack&view=grid

Captions appear at the top of your screen. Try the Mosaic option after running through the slide show.

[Bonz]

Nice photo's Jerry, thanks for posting that up.