Tire Changes Are Getting Easier!

All through the winter, I have been watching this ice feature growing. It is a roof drain at the corner gas station/convenience store. Maybe this is a good indicator of our "Winter" as with every warm spell, we get a bit more liquid water showing up when it shouldn't be there.

Last night, I pulled the tube from the sidecar tire and found a tiny set of holes where it had been rubbing against a rusty spot inside the rim. I patched the hole and sanded down the rusty spot. After mounting the tire and putting it on the balancing jig, I was able to remove eight of the ¼ oz weights from the rim. You may remember that to balance the sidecar rim last summer, I had to put on twenty of the ¼ oz weights. So this is a significant improvement. Total time for the repair, under 30 minutes! I'm improving...

Based on George Rahn's suggestion yesterday, I put some closed cell foam around the carbs to try and capture and retain some heat from the cylinders. This was my 5 minute fix using an old foam pad from my backpacking days and a couple of zip ties. We'll see if it makes any difference. I have also removed the plumbing putty from the vent/overflow openings on the bottom of the carb bowls. Just for the record, last night both bowls had a couple of drops of water in them. Not enough to cause any rough running.

The only other bike-related activity is that I moved the Gerbing controller to the small carabiner attached to the upper left pocket. To move it here, I needed a couple of 12" extensions and a longer cable for the attachment to the bike. The short extensions could now be left threaded through the suit when the controller is no longer needed. Much simpler long term solution. In this position, I can still see the LED lights on the controller (barely) but the control knobs are easier to reach and use.

The coiled extension cable came with a panel mount so I will be using one more of my relays to have the heated gear connection on switched power and mounted into the fairing. Better than the dangling connector next to the stock battery.

Tuesday Evening - I had in interesting conversation with someone outside of the optomotrist office this afternoon. She liked seeing a sidecar attached to a BMW. Her and her husband had recently sold their motorcycles since the riding season in Alaska seemed so short. They did ask the local dealer about putting a sidecar on one of them, and the salesman told them that there was no way to attach one to their way-too-modern R1200GS. I pointed her to the hack area of ADVrider and to the DMC website to see many examples of sidecars attached to a GS.