Day 70 - Salt Lake City, UT

Yesterday evening, Ry author of the Two Wheels to There blog, met Dom and I for dinner and ride up a canyon in search of cooler weather. He brought his very nice Moto Guzzi with the chrome tank that could be a real fingerprint magnet. We had dinner at a small Vietnamese place before heading up Cottonwood Canyon towards the ski resorts. It was a very refreshing 61°F at the pass.

Dom had spotted a promising sunset location just about a quarter mile from the summit. We stopped and waited for sunset. Please see Dom's post  for the real sunset photos as opposed to the iPhone version shown here. After sunset, we headed back down the mountain and got back to the campground after 10pm. It was still over 90°F at that time. Thank you Ry for taking the time to meet up and ride up into the mountains.

This morning, I went back to the fairgrounds for the BMWMOA rally. The Airhead tent was a good spot to re-hydrate and talk to like minded individuals. I talked to a number of Ural riders including one of the seminar speakers talking about off road touring with a sidecar and found it to be quite a mixed bag as far as knowledge and experience. I checked out the demo ride area again and not a sign of the new 310cc BMW anywhere. But all in all, the rally was a great experience.  

Day 69 - BMW MOA Rally, SLC, UT

This was one of the "destinations" of our road trip. The BMW MOA annual rally. I believe that this is the fourth one that I've attended and all of them have been very hot. This one is no exception except I will say that it isn't anywhere near as miserable as Bloomsburg, PA. That was humid and hot.

Like every other rally, a lot of interesting bikes or in the case of he Isetta, not a bike but still very interesting. There are a lot of sidecars here as well. Maybe an sign that the BMW owner population is aging. This was very evident at the Airhead tent. Lots of grey hair around there.

The Alaska Air Marshal had sent the Alaska flag down to Helena for Kevin to bring to the rally. Supposedly, they are supposed to show which states are in attendance. This rally doesn't seem as organized as some of the other rallies that I've attended but there seems to be a lot of vendor representation. I was originally hoping that they would have some of the 310cc models available but not this year I guess.

I did get a chance to have lunch with Edward Kilner from https://triumphantsblog.blogspot.com  and, like every other blogger meetup, it was a very enjoyable time. I did run into some others that I've "met" on FB who I knew were coming to the rally. The feed was kind of interesting seeing all of these people travelling and converging on SLC.

I'm not sure what the overall attendance is but it looks like more people are not choosing to camp out. But then again, this is just the first day. I am planning on attending tomorrow as well before we start heading northwest on Saturday.

BBBC 2017 #26 and BMW Leaving

This post is part of ToadMama's Brave, Bold, Blogger Challenge (BBBC) 2017 which is an attempt to make February go by a little more quickly. There are 28 topics, one for each day. 

Three songs you love to sing along with

Too easy! There really are no songs that I love to sing along with! If there is a group singing then I will usually join in but not just with music on a radio, CD, (record, cassette, 8 track, reel to reel). I listen to music but it isn't a really important part of my life. In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've turned on the radio in the truck and the Sena has been used for music fewer times than that.

Bye-Bye BMW

A good friend just picked up the BMW this afternoon. Bridget had a hard time understanding why I wasn't upset about selling it. I guess I don't really develop emotional attachments to inanimate objects. Maybe that's why I never felt inclined to give vehicles and bikes names. It was always just "the BMW" or "the motorcycle". Maybe I'll have to surrender my Airhead belt buckle now and stop attending the airhead get togethers and tech days...

BobC, the Alaska airmarshall, said that a Ural was close enough. I do like the simplicity of the older BMWs. Electronics is limited to the ignition and if you like to tinker, you can probably fix whatever breaks. The Ural is kind of the same only more likely to break. I can see another bike in my future but it won't be something for long road trips. More likely something much smaller and lighter.

BBBC 2017 #18 and the RT

This post is part of ToadMama's Brave, Bold, Blogger Challenge (BBBC) 2017 which is an attempt to make February go by a little more quickly. There are 28 topics, one for each day. 

Church

I don't talk about "church" much on this blog since it is one of those topics that could spark conflict. Not my intent. But "church" is not-insignificant part of my life and not something I'm embarrassed about. I just don't talk about it on the blog. Since I've retired, I've been able to contribute more time doing things such as A/V, preparing food for events, committees and even driving the van to pick up students from the university. Time is something that used to be a scarce commodity (believe it or not). You will see this building in a number of my PBC videos since it is only about ⅓ mile away from our home. I used to walk there all of the time but the motorcycle has made it too easy to just ride there. Now if the topic was "religion" this post would be drastically different. For me, they are not interchangeable terms.

And Some Moto Content

In an earlier post, I mentioned the PDM60 as a way to clean up all of the battery connections. This is the BMW which does not have a PDM60. Five positive wires on the battery post each with an inline fuse. My fingers are really sore for getting all of those connectors back onto the Odyssey battery under the seat. The Cozy sidecar is removed so I'm back to the stock battery. Even after being disconnected for over a year, it still had 12.4 volts and would still crank the engine. Pretty good performance. It's on the smart battery charger right now.

See, no more sidecar mounts. I also removed all of the sidecar wiring and I think the only thing left is putting a bulb back into the right rear turn signal. I removed it to avoid confusion when the sidecar was attached. A former colleague wants the BMW and will be picking it up in a little over a week. It needs to be cleaned up a bit. Okay, a lot but it's mostly just dirt. There is oil dripping from the pushrod tubes seals which are fairly new. I think it's the 5w30 oil from last winters riding. Maybe I'll switch it out for 20w50 and clean up the oil. 

Ice On the River

Still no snow in the long term forecast (not that I'm complaining!). This is the Chena River that flows through downtown Fairbanks and ice is starting to form. Since I was working on the Ural a few days ago, the BMW was easier to get out of the garage. There was a lot of wind today and you can really feel it when coming from the sidecar side. Occasional gusts would want to push you to the left and you can feel the sidecar occasionally get a little light. As in the wheel not being firmly planted on the road.

When going down the highway, I would shift towards the sidecar with more weight on the right peg. The 30-40mph wind combined with 18°F (-8°C) ambient temperatures reminded me that the BMW still needed to have the handlebar end covers installed. And, it feels like the left heated glove isn't working again. Sigh...

Later in the day - As expected, another broken wire in the left glove. Fixed. The next pair of heated gloves will be battery powered...

Tuesday Morning -  And again! This time the right glove decided that it wanted some attention. The break seems to frequently occur right at the end of the strain relief. The problem isn't the strain relief but they use plastic insulated wires that get brittle when cold. Not the best design for something that will be used in the cold. So I carefully cut off enough of the strain relief on the connector and the remaining wire to solder. Then slip some heat shrink tubing over the splice and tape it all up.

I was thinking of looking for some springs at the hardware store that can be slipped over the remaining strain relief and the first couple of inches of wire. Both repairs could use some additional mechanical support to prevent the wire from flexing.

1st Last Ride

Today was the "real" solstice for this area. Equal day and night according to Weather Underground. So it seemed like a good day for the BMW riding group here in Fairbanks to schedule a "1st last ride of the year". There have been some years when they've made it to the 5th last ride but somehow we don't expect that to be the case this year. Note, I thought about taking the BMW but the Ural was the easier option.

We left College Coffeehouse heading out the Parks Highway towards Nenana. The goal was the Monderosa Bar & Grill just this side of Nenana. Once you climbed into the hills, the temperature warmed up to about 45°F (7°C) but once we dropped down towards Nenana, the temperature dropped to 34°F (1°C). These temperatures are according to my OAT installed in the windshield. This is the view from the Parks Highway Monument looking south towards the Tanana River and the Alaska Range.

Originally, I was just planning to stop and take a photo but the group decided to stop and try and troubleshoot an electrical problem on a R100GS/PD. The fuse for the tail lights/dash lights keeps blowing while riding. I suspect multiple broken wires in the bundle from the headlight to the handlebars. I offered to take the troublesome bike off his hands for $20 but he didn't take me up on it. BTW, the bike with the electrical problem is the red/white one in the foreground not the other red/white R100GS/PD that most seem to be looking at. 

Misc. Fall Tasks

Not very much exciting going on this past week. After my knee started feeling better, I started working it a bit harder. I used to get a lot of miles in every day walking but lately, even 4-5 miles is unusual. I may start riding the bicycle some even if I have to haul it somewhere to start riding.

I did get some work done on the truck this week. Changed the engine oil. The oil, air and fuel filters are well under the change interval. I installed this trailer connector inside the bed using a premade harness that splices into the existing trailer connector wiring. I still need to make a wooden frame to hold about ten bags of gravel at the rear of the bed. This would be 600 pounds, the recommended counterweight to offset the weight of the plow hanging off of the front.

I also installed a shoe kit on the snow plow which helps to keep the edges of the plow from digging into the ground. The pile of washers allow you to adjust the height. This also seemed to be an opportune time to move the snowplow out of the garage.

September 15th is the first day when you are allowed to run with studded tires. Since I had never swapped tires on the BMW, this was an opportunity to take it out on the road. After sitting since the end of March, I just charged up the battery and the engine fired up on the first compression. I only drove it around 20 miles or so. The riding experience is so different from the Ural. A lot of clutch slipping is needed to get moving, the throttle requires a lot more effort, shifting is so light and easy, and before I knew it I was past the speed limit. The first curve reminded me how heavy the steering is.

The other Fall task was clearing up some of the fallen leaves. Bridget had me pick up a leaf blower and I must admit that it did speed up the chore. Especially where the leaves were mixed with gravel. The electric leaf blower also had a vacuum/mulch feature that worked really well. What would've been about four large bags of leaves fit into one.

Another Bike at College Coffeehouse

For the first time in a long time, I wasn't the only bike at the coffee shop this morning.  That's Brett, the owner, with George Rahn looking at the rig. It's an R69S with a leading link front end which two settings. One setting moves the front wheel forward about an inch to reduce the trail for use with a sidecar. The bike comes with sidecar mounts from the factory. The sidecar is a Jawa but he has the body off and a flatbed installed. Yesterday, he used it to haul an engine stand and now it's setup to haul sheets of plywood.

This is the same R69S that I had seen last October at the auto parts store. He has been riding on/off all winter but with barely enough alternator capacity to run the headlight, heated gear is out of the question. So even today in the mid-20s was a cold ride. Since this is the high horsepower "S" model, it was rated at 42 hp compared to the 35 hp of the non-"S" model.

Most of the dirt and caked on grease on the frame has been cleaned off. Still not spotless but a lot better than it was. I was thinking about removing the sidecar tomorrow thinking that it might make it easier to install the engine. The bike has the final drive removed so it isn't going anywhere but I did leave a little room next to the sidecar. I think that it should be pretty straight forward.

I ended up removing the heads again today as I found two locating pins in the bin with all of the old parts. I was wondering why the locating pin wasn't on the new cylinder or the old ones. It turned out that they just popped out. Anyway, removed the heads, installed the pins, retorqued the heads to 28 ft-lbs and adjusted the valve clearance to 0.003". It's so easy with the engine sitting on the workbench. Installed the transmission after greasing the input spline with a mixture of Union 76 arctic grease mixed with Honda Moly 60.

Tomorrow, Thursday, I'm judging science fair projects. But on Friday, Jed is coming by to help muscle the engine/transmission into the frame. The Ural may be on the road this week!

Ural Engine Assembly - 6

We are well on the way for this to be a ten part series. Van Le, the author of the YouTube videos aka Gobium on SovietSteeds, a Ural forum, suggested that I check axial runout at the edge of the flywheel. I mounted the clutch tool to the engine case then clamped my caliper to it. Using the depth gauge, I can measure the distance to the flywheel at various points around a complete revolution. This is one way to see if the crankshaft is true after installation in the engine case. Obviously if all of the readings are the same then the crankshaft is true. I was originally thinking that I would needed a dial indicator on the front of the crankshaft. This method isn't perfect as it assumes that the flywheel is perfect. I don't know what the range of acceptable runout is but I measured 0.3mm runout. In his video, he measured 0.004". In another video, the runout on a new install was 0.28 mm.

With this latest concern addressed, I went ahead and installed the cylinders, heads, pushrods and rocker arms. Torqued the heads initially to 28 ft-lbs until I do a little research and find a better number, did an initial valve adjustment to 0.003 on all valves and threw on the valve covers just to keep things clean. I had initially torqued the flywheel bolt to 140 ft-lbs as this was the limit of my torque wrench. To get just a little bit more, I tied the engine down to the work bench and with the help of my son, I managed to get another 5° of movement with a 18" long breaker bar. I figure that it's close enough to 170 ft-lbs. There is a washer on the bolt that is bent up against one of the flats to keep it from loosening up.

The next step was the clutch and thanks to Bruce from Ketchikan, it was a straightforward job to install the clutch plates and friction disks. New screws were supplied in the clutch kit. Blue threadlock was applied and the screws were torqued to 15 ft-lbs (no specs are mentioned in the repair manual) as a reasonable guess. The picture shows the clutch alignment tool. It is also a crank that can also be used to rotate the engine.

The next step is to change the clutch rod and the throwout bearing. Since the clutch was replaced, those parts should be replaced at the same time.

This afternoon, there was an Airhead tech session at Bob's garage where work continues on the '78 R80. The cylinders, pistons and heads have come back from Porter's Beemershop, the same place that I had my heads reworked. The parts look like new. The owner is still waiting to get his transmission back. While the pistons were being installed in the cylinders, a quick check of the lifters revealed one bad lifter with some pits in the lifter surface. This would start to wear the cam if left so yet another part needs to be ordered. This bike has been on the lift for quite a while with parts just dribbling in from a variety of sources.

Anyway, this is how Saturday went. Not a bad day...

Not Quite Spring

Even though our mid-afternoon temperatures have been venturing into the non-freezing range, that was just temporary. We still have winter-ish temperatures with ice and hard packed snow on many roads. Looking at the picture below of the rear tire on the BMW, you can see that I procrastinated a little too long removing the non-carbide screw in studs. In the photo you can see the carbide tipped GripStuds as well as the ones that look like short wood screws with ¼" hex heads. The GripStuds are worn but not worn out. The heads of the screw in studs are a softer metal and simply wear down from contact with the asphalt.

I'm planning to go to Dave's shop tomorrow which is at the end of a steep road with a steep driveway. We are meeting to do a tune-up on a '94 R100RT including balancing the carbs. The GripStuds work well on ice and the screws work well in packed snow so I like the combination of the two. The screws usually only last a couple of hundred miles and I think I have about double that on the old ones. I guess I may be able to grab the heads with some vice-grip pliers. Maybe later when I remove all of them from these tires.

According to Mickey, the Ural Dealer in Delta Junction, all of my parts were shipped on Monday and should be here tomorrow or the early part of next week. I'm looking forward to start assembling the engine.

BBBC #21

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

21. Best book ever (or at least a really good one!)

I don't know about being the best book ever but it definitely is the best book I've read in the last couple of years. While the movie is also good (assuming you watch it in 4K!) the book goes into much more detail and explains a lot of things in the movie. For example, the movie just shows the Chinese space agency cooperation but the book goes into detail on why it was such a huge sacrifice on their part. I also like that Andy Weir put in quite a bit of effort to try and get the science right. Examples being oxygen generation, water recovery and the ion propulsion of the spacecraft.

Sometimes things get a bit repetitive in the book as in problem after problem after problem but that may be the way it would be if you are the only resource around. It doesn't matter what planet you're on...

And no Ural update for a while until I get some parts. I'll just be cleaning things up such as the engine block, transmission and final drive. Probably even the frame. Today, I am in the process of changing out the front brake lines on the BMW. Stainless replacements have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. So far the two lines to the calipers are done.

Later - I just replaced the one from the master cylinder to the splitter and bled the front brakes. I've had this hand vacuum pump for over thirty years and it still works! Everytime I use it I end up shortening the plastic lines so it'll make a tight seal. After bleeding both calipers, I buttoned up the fairing and hope that these lines last for another thirty years.

BBBC #13

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

13. Share a photo of your motorcycle (or car) taken on the same day you write your post.

Given the current state of the Ural (in pieces), the spare bike is what I'm using these days. The picture was taken at the Large Animal Research Station aka LARS, located on Yankovich Rd north of the university. I was just wandering around enjoying the beautiful, sunny day and remembered that I needed to take a picture of the bike somewhere. LARS happened to be just ahead. No muskox were hanging around along the fence to be included in the picture.

This is the current state of the "other bike" and you may notice that one critical component seems to be missing. This may be a good time to actually clean the bike. I hope it doesn't fall apart when the additional structural integrity provided by hardened mud is removed. It's also a good time to finally get some things actually working like the horn. I installed the air horn before I left for my long trip and couldn't get it to work reliably. I figured that I'd just mess with it later. Maybe now qualifies as "later".

Here is the next PBC video. After this, only two more to go...

PBC #58

First Last Ride of the Season

Today was the "First Last Ride of the Season" for our local BMW group. Not a real large turnout due to the snow falling yesterday and continuing this morning. Just Steve's R100GS/PD, BobC's R100RT and me. The announced destination was Chena Hot Springs but a couple of us decided that it may be bit too foolish given that the temperature was right around freezing.

You may notice that I am riding the Beemer and not the Ural. This morning, the Ural started right up, and while idling, it backfired a couple of times and shut off. It won't start up again. I suspect that it is something with the ignition system as there is no spark from the plugs. It could be a variety of things possibly the interrupter for the hall sensor.

When I started the Beemer, it ran great then started to run on only one cylinder. Hmm, curious. After a few moments, I noticed that the petcocks were still closed. The Ural has an automatic, vacuum operated petcock so I'm no longer in the habit of turning them on (and off!).

We ended up just riding to a fellow airhead members home (BobK) and sat around his immaculate garage talking and enjoying his coffee.

This picture is from a several days ago. Dave, on the right, rode his Goldwing trike up from Tennessee and had just returned from the Arctic Circle. He was looking for car wash suggestions. He's had a few issues with the trike conversion but the most serious was the driveshaft separated at the spline between Watson Lake and Whitehorse. It required a very expensive tow into Whitehorse. Talking with him is George Rahn and David Rohwer.

Monthly Airhead Meetup

Today was the first Monday of the month which meant that it was time for the monthly meetup of our local Airhead group. Over twenty people showed up with the majority riding. Not everyone who shows up rides an airhead, i.e. BMW motorcycles with the model 247 air-cooled engine, but most have a preference for these machines. On Saturday, I actually got the Beemer out on the road after changing out the studded tires, changing the engine oil and airing up the tires. Even though it hadn't been ridden since January, it started right up and idled smoothly. On the road it was much harder to steer but easier to cruised down the road due to the additional 20 hp.

More air box testing today. I read an article online on how to tune the Keihin CV carburetor. The engine would idle very smoothly when the idle screw was turned all the way in. It was at ¾ turn out. This suggested a change in the pilot jet to one step leaner so I changed both pilot jets from a 42 to a 40 and turned the idle screws out 1½ turns as a starting point. This turned out to be a good guess as it idled very smoothly at this setting and rougher when turned in or out an additional turn. I then used the TwinMax to balance the carbs again at both idle (1050 rpm) and at 2500 rpm. Only very small adjustments were needed. The test ride indicated smoother starts and the engine pulled well in all gears when warmed up. I think I'm done messing with this mod.

"First Ride of the Season"

Today was the "official" first ride of the year for those on the Fairbanks BMW Google group. I usually forget to send out an announcement but this year I actually remembered. It is a very informal group but mostly made up of BMW owners or riders. This year, the other brands were represented by George on his V-Rod and my Ural. George suggested that I may need a 30 minute head start for the 40 mile ride. Temperatures were around 55°F and pretty sunny though it looked like it may rain later this evening. As is the "tradition", we rode out to the Monderosa Bar & Grill just north of the village/town of Nenana.

I'm not sure of the exact number but I'm guessing that we had at least a dozen bikes ranging from an R60 through a brand new R1200RT with only a few hundred miles. Of course, the Ural was at the back of the group as it took nearly full throttle to maintain 55 mph for most of the trip. Maybe the 122 main jet is a bit on the small side plus the CHT were 400°F and higher while climbing the hills. A too high for comfort.

GeneK sent this picture that he took this afternoon before heading back to town. The other gentleman is JedR, another future Ural owner. His 2015 Patrol is supposed to hit town around the end of this week after being shipped from New England. Can't wait to see it in person. Video below...

Three More PBC Videos

The first was on Super Bowl Sunday. One of the local BMW riders invited folks out to his shop to watch the game. Seems like a good reason for a ride. When I stopped to get gas on the way out, I noticed that the odometer hadn't changed since I started. It turns out that sometime in the last day the speedometer cable came off the back of the speedometer. I just never noticed. Five minutes later I was back on the road. I stayed for only the first quarter then felt a need to head out while it was still daylight as my tail lights had gone out again. It wasn't a fuse this time. Just opening up the seat and poking at the wiring caused it to start working again...

Intermittent electrical issues are the hardest but I probably just need to clean the connectors and put on some dielectric grease.

The second video was recorded during my lunch break in a day full of meetings. Just a short ride out through Goldstream Valley and back to work on Ballaine Rd.

The first Monday of the month the Airheads (aficionados of the BMW 247 aircooled engine) meet at the Silver Gulch for dinner. After riding out there, I noticed that it was -18°F plus I was 45 min early so I headed home. The trip home will be tomorrows video. The BMW is still a bit finicky at colder temperatures so I opted not to leave it out. BruceW, the Ural rider from Ketchikan, had offered a ride out to the Silver Gulch so I took him up on that.

Only a few more weeks of these PBC videos...

Cold Ride

The forecast all week was for warmer temperatures within a couple of days but it still hasn't happened. In fact, this morning, the weather guesser types were saying that it should be up into the negative teens by noon. We'll see how it is on Sunday when one of the local BMW riders invited a bunch to his shop for the afternoon. Something about a football game...

On Thursday, I did get the Beemer out on the road just to say that I've ridden at -40°. When I cruised by the university time/temp sign it claimed that it was -48°F. I glanced over at the GoPro and it had already shut down. It seems to have a really short battery life in the cold. But once I bring it inside to charge up the battery, it's fully charged within 15 minutes. Oh well, first world problem...

I was thinking that I had found the lower limit of all of the heated gear as I was feeling kind of cold when pulling back into the garage. Then I looked down and sometime near the end of the ride, the cord from the Gerbing controller had gotten disconnected from the bike. Probably when I stopped to chip the ice from the helmet vents. It is starting to warm up a bit  outside so probably no -50°F video this year...

A Ural update. Ural will be sending a lifter and a push rod sometime, hopefully soon. Mickey said that he has the parts on hand and had just been waiting to get verbal approval from Jason at the mother ship in Redmond. Anxious to get it back on the road.

Here is the next PBC video.

Saturday evening - It really warmed up overnight. It was -14°F this afternoon and it felt downright balmy. Plus it was bright and sunny. I was pretty busy all day but managed to sneak a ride in around the middle of the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, possibly even above 0°F. Pretty quick change.

Hey, I'm famous...

Winter is still here with beautiful, clear skies which generally bring cooler temperatures. I had decided to not try and commute with the BMW until the temperatures warm up a bit. It was hard to start and there were some flaky electrical issues yesterday while riding around at -38°F. I figured that since today was colder, I wouldn't tempt fate. The electrical problems were things like a blown tail light fuse but couldn't identify why, the headlight not turning on when I headed home yesterday, and it would take numerous attempts to get the bike to turn on with the key. I'll chalk all that up to the cold and a 33 year old bike.

At least in this little world called Fairbanks, I made the front page (below the fold). On Monday afternoon while test riding the BMW/Cozy sidecar rig, a local newpaper photographer caught up with me while I was hauling trash. He asked me a few questions and took a photo after I had emptied the trash barrel. He had a hard time believing that I was out riding just to haul trash.

Here is the link to the pdf of the front page of that issue of the local paper. I'm not sure how long they keep these online.

And here is the PBC video that I had taken during the same ride. Of course, the camera battery had long since died as well as the remote by the time I got to the photographer. Something else that wasn't designed for our climate. I'm not sure how they can market it as an adventure camera. Maybe it needs to be behind a windshield. The GoPro is mounted to the sidecar windshield frame (no windshield) and you can tell that the sidecar bounces a lot compared to the Ural. This video has a lot of snow and frost covered trees and snowy roads ala Doctor Zhivago. I should have looked for some royalty free Rachmaninoff...

You Ever Have One of Those Days (Weeks?)

No, I did not ride to work today. That would be silly, crazy. Though I still may take the rig out later today for a test ride just not shutting it off or venturing too far from home.

Worked on the Beemer a bit more today. This the the crankcase vent fitting and normally the two small hoses are connected into the "Tee" feeding the moist crankcase air into the two air horns. I just disconnected the two small hoses so any water will just go into the air box and not directly into the carbs. 5w30 oil is now in the engine and I had to fix the wiring for the heated gear. It was sharing the ground connection with the GPS wiring that I moved to the Ural.

I had thought that I was done with the screws in addition to the studs. The BMW just doesn't have as good of traction with just the pusher as the Ural and with our snowy conditions, the screws are needed in addition to the carbide GripStuds.

And the most important thing, I have the GoPro mount on the sidecar windshield support so the camera is about at "eye level" if you were sitting in the sidecar.

Something that I didn't expect to happen was being left stranded by the truck. I guess there is still some remnant of the gelled fuel left in the fuel system as it died as soon as I got to town this afternoon. It would restart but as soon as you try and go beyond an idle, it would shut down. We have real winter weather now with still air temperatures in the -24°F range. I had it towed to the Diesel Doctor, a reputable non-dealer.

The first video is very short PBC ride. Just the regular commute home along the shortest path. This was when there was a loose valve noise so I just headed straight home. I believe it was 7km.

The second PBC video is the test ride on Saturday morning after adjusting the valves. After only ten short miles, the same exhaust valve was rattling again.

A Bad Sign

The BMW is next to the garage door, battery is being charged, studded tires are being installed, winter oil is going in and the crankcase vent tube is being removed from the air horns within the air cleaner housing. What can this mean...

I think the Ural is having an engine problem. As part of the 22,500 km service, I had adjusted the valves. On the way home from the university on Friday, I noticed that there was valve noise from the left head. On Friday night, I readjusted the exhaust valve as it was really loose. On Saturday morning it started up easily and it ran great. I rode about 10 miles and the exhaust valve was loose again. Plus one of the cylinders was popping like it was running lean.

George Rahn suggested that I check the compression since it may be a result of a stuck valve. Compression was 135 psi on both cylinders. Which is good. When I restarted the engine, I could hear a random "clanking" sound coming from the engine when the rpm is raised a little past idle. Not good.

So the Ural is parked until I can get it to the dealer in Anchorage. What I need to find out is if he needs the whole bike or just the engine. I suspect the whole bike...

Putting on the Heidenau K60 tires in a warm shop is hard enough. When things are near freezing, I'm just glad that my son was here to help. It took most of the evening to just change the tires. BTW, the oil mess on the floor in the picture is from the Ural weeping oil out of just about every engine gasket when the temperature is around or below 0°F.

I still have three more PBC videos in the queue. Here is #28 that I just uploaded today.