Curiousity go he better of me so after running around this morning, I drained the crankcase vapor canister I installed last Tuesday. This is how much water came out after only about 120 miles or so. It's not a lot but pretty compareable to the amount of water in the Beemer carbs. I'm pretty confident that this may really be the solution.
No heated gear for the next couple of weeks as I decided to send back the liner and gloves back to Gerbings to be repaired. One of the glove connectors is broken as well as the liner connector. I can find the jacket connectors at Radio Shack (power connector "N") but not the mating connector such as would be used on the gloves. Additionally, the resistance of the two gloves are different suggesting that there may be a broken wire within one glove. I'm thinking that the Gerbings gear was never designed for near daily use.
On Saturday afternoon, a half dozen of us went to Nenana to visit KIAM radio. It was started in 1983 as an offshoot of Arctic Missions and I had visited the station with a friend back in the summer of 1983. At the time I didn't know that the station was just started. Their current director is a retired IT manager from a university in OR that I had met a while back. We got a fairly in depth tour of the station as well as an overview of their translators around the state and stations in Bethel and Houston, AK. It is only a 250W FM station but a 10KW AM station. A very small, mostly volunteer staff so they don't produce much local content.
While we were there, they were broadcasting one of the novel things permitted in Alaska. Up here, stations are allowed to broadcast personal messages. The intent is one way communication for those within range of their signal. For example "To George Smith on SuchAndSuch Lake, we are flying out to see you tomorrow with Joe. We have the xyz widget that you asked for". I thought that these programs were kind of novel when I first moved up here as just about all of the stations had similar programming. Some even have online classifieds. I probably could have ridden out to Nenana but thought I should be a little sociable and ride with the others.
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Richard is that water from condensation, from the gas, or a combination? 120 miles is just under a fuel run for me, so that looks like quite a bit of water to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's just from the crankcase vent which normally vents into the air cleaner housing. I suspect the moisture could just from the air brought into the crankcase. The relative humidity has been high but not raining. On the Beemer, there was never any condensation in the gas tank everytime I checked but there would be water in the carb bowls almost every day during colder temperatures.
DeleteWow that's a lot of water condensate! I believe you've found the cause. Since I don't ride my R80 in the conditions you do, I never encountered it, good to know. Will also be the first thing I check with the '14 URAL when winter gets here though again, I won't be leaving her parked outside while at work anymore.
ReplyDeleteYeah, who would've thought that there would be that much. Not me. It's getting to be that time of year when I should start carrying around a small tarp just to keep from having to clean snow off every afternoon.
DeleteRadio story reminds me of Northern Exposure. Very charming. And essential. Online classifieds are still fairly common south of here in the Midwest. Maybe even in many small rural (ish) towns all over.
ReplyDeleteBut now that you bring it up, when I travel I just let my radio spin on scan so I can get a taste of the communities as I drive thru. I have to say I haven't heard much of the old classifieds for a long time. Corporate gobbling has probably killed that off, too.
I think they did have that as a regular feature on the Northern Exposure radio show. I didn't know that it was an Alaska-only thing permitted by the FCC until talking to the station manager.
DeletePretty cool that the radio stations can broadcast those messages. One of the only ways to communicate in remote areas I guess.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I heard, it was something that a lot of people looked forward to every day. Just in case a message is for them. Now, much of the need has gone away with things like satellite Internet.
DeleteA very interesting piece of radio broadcast history ... I am glad that it keeps going.
ReplyDeleteJust like anything else these days, organizations need to adapt to the needs of their client base. I'm not really sure what the future of radio is but until the Internet becomes truely ubiquitous, there is still a need for broadcast services. I think that most of their listeners and supporters are not the 20-something year olds that they need to stay viable.
DeleteUS 1 Radio in Big Pine broadcasts the Bizarre Bazaar every weekday morning in the Keys a craigslist of stuff on the air. Not being a shopper I'd rather have Chris in the Morning reading the Bhagavad Gita or Whitman or Howl and getting in hot water for his perversions.
ReplyDeleteChris in the Morning on KBHR would be preferable. I enjoyed that show...
DeleteI hope your gear gets returned to you soon all ready for winter riding. As Martha said, I pictured Northern Exposure with Chris in the morning. I think it's cool that there are stations like this still running.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect it back for a couple of weeks but it isn't cold enough for it to be really needed yet. Nice maybe but necessary, no.
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