Most of the rest of the day was spent working my way west on 16 towards the southern end of the Cassiar Hwy. Just as on my way down not much at all to photograph. The road just made its way through town after town with farm fields in between.
I also checked the rear brakes as they seem really "weak". It turns out that the grease the mechanic put into the hub when he mounted the new tire had worked its way out and had coated the disc. So maybe I'll drag the rear brake a little tomorrow to see if I can burn off some of the buildup. There are a couple of gravel sections coming up so rear brake could be useful to have. I also added about a cup of oil this evening to the engine. I have been tracking my mileage on Fuelly.com and except for Hell's Canyon, I've been getting 40-48 mpg. On Hell's Canyon day it dropped to 36 mpg probably due to more time in lower gears. BTW, a couple of days ago I mentioned the foot pegs lightly touching the ground but in reality it was the valve cover. Lots of fresh scrapes on the bottom. ChrisL at EverydayRiding sent me an email suggesting moving my upper body into the turn to lessen the bike lean so I have been practicing that technique whenever the opportunity rises. (not many opportunities today)
Posted with Blogsy
That pasta dinner sounds yummy. I am glad you have a nice campground to stay.
ReplyDeleteThe ride through Hells Canyon was my worst gas mileage as well. I too track it on fuelly. Best mileage was Baker City to Halfway over 70 mpg.
Won't be long before you get home.
The dinner was good and easy to make on a little camp stove. Single pot.
DeleteShould be home tomorrow (Saturday).
Nearing home - glad to see you've made some new friends along the way (ha ha)
ReplyDeleteThose guys don't move very fast. I had never even noticed the visitors center before let alone the statues. They were being abused by some uncontrolled kids throwing rocks at them. Their parents ignoring it...
DeleteRichard:
ReplyDeletecan't you get some degreaser and clean the disc ? I also got poor fuel mileage in Hell's Canyon. I check my oil every two days and so far it is still at the top mark
safe travels
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
My Flickr // My YouTube
I could but I am in the middle of nowhere and I don't use my rear brake for much except to hold me on hills or on soft stuff. And it works good enough for that. Today, the rear end broke loose a couple of times without even using the brake on sand and gravel. The Shinko just isn't designed for gravel roads...
DeleteSounds like a good day. I'd be geo-caching at all those places. Do any of your biker blogger friends geo-cache?
ReplyDeleteWife
I don't think that any of them geocache. Sandra and Geoff were intrigued as they had never hear of it either.
DeleteBTW, the app doesn't work in Canada unless you have wi-fi. International data is really expensive.
Good for you on practicing some good technique. It should help.
ReplyDeleteAnd I need the practice. We just don't have any twisty roads in Fairbanks...
DeleteHmmm, grease on the brake drum, not great .....
ReplyDeletedom
Redleg's Rides
Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner
On the older airheads the rear brake is a disc not a drum. Supposedly poorer performance but I prefer the disc. Easier to work on...
DeleteRichard - Thanks for posting Mr PG! I hope your grease issues resolve. When do you think you will be home?
ReplyDeleteApparently there was some big to-do about where to relocate Mr. PG since they closed the visitors center.
DeleteI should be home Saturday afternoon.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteYour posting has put the wandering spirit back in me. Though I can't get on board with your choice of dinner. That seems strange to me. The camping and the adventure are second to none, though. I want to know if you get any performance back out of that rear brake, too. I wonder if it won't glaze (or hasn't already). That's some hi-temp grease they use, but the brakes get pretty hot.
Brady
Behind Bars
They work better now or at least they work. I was concerned that I had reassembled it wrong when I pulled the caliper to get the rear wheel off. Only one pad is affected so the brake works. No concern now of it locking the rear wheel....
DeleteThe shop guys used to try and tell me it was time to grease my brakes...yeah right! :-O
ReplyDeleteHope that gets worked out for you.
My cruiser would drag (footboards) at the drop of a hat. I used to lean my upper body to keep the bike more upright in corners just to avoid that horrid sound. Unnecessary on the Ninja. I don't come anywhere close to metal parts dragging the ground. ( I consider this a good thing!)
Leaning into the turns make a huge difference. Much more than I expected. Before this trip, metal parts touching the ground never happened and I was shocked the first time it happened...
DeleteThanks for stopping by. I've been enjoying the bicycling posts.
Glad the brakes are behaving better. Yep, that is one dirty bike. Funny, the rain worked on keeping mine clean. Though my rain was more of the hurricane and flood variety. :)
ReplyDeleteHere the rain usually brought mud. Hurricane and floods! I can't wait for the ride report. The rear brake still isn't normal but worked much better after dragging the rear brakes lightly on a few downhill stretches. I just ordered new pads yesterday.
Delete