roger and sharon's Blogs

Ok.. I used to be a cell phone junkie.. had a cell phone since it was brick sized and it cost a dollar a minute to talk. Way back in 94 even had a bag phone that was permanently mounted in the truck that tied into a security system that would dial me if the alarm went off (btw.. I still have that special permanent mount cable setup if anyone would need it.. no.. I am not a hoarder.. just save cool stuff) .. could call the truck and lock it.. roll down the windows.. start or stop it.. and listen to what was said in the cab.

Years back when I was using over 3k minutes a month.. that cell phone rang one too many times when I was driving down the road. I rolled down the window.. threw the 600 dollar motorola startac out the window and watched it explode on the pavement. I rolled up the window.. turned the radio up and had peace in my vehicle again.

Since then we have lived without a cellular leash. When we make a long trip and absolutely needed a phone.. tracphone.. 20 bucks and it comes with a half hour of talk time... throw it out when we are done with the trip.

Tomorrow arriving via UPS will be a new android phone... but why oh why would this terrible devil of a device be welcomed into our household?

Cost justification.. we are going to drop our home phone and go strictly cellular.. it will come with a new number and only folks we know will get it (bite that bill collectors).. and it has all the things we need for our road trips on the bike.

GPS.. built into the cell phone.. very handy on long trips to unfamiliar territory and helping to find places to stay along the route.. bonus.. MP3 player built into it.. bonus.. can hook it up to the bike speakers and have the tunes we like blaring to annoy those around us.. Emergency services.. no longer need to get the stupid tracphone activated and working before each trip.. and able to call numbers from canada this year.. bonus for the folks we know that will be at sturgis from the great white north. Web browsing.. we can view and update web sites like Bikers Credo from the phone.. last year we could not post any updates until after sturgis was done.. and we were dang tired by then.. a lot more fun to do a drunk update after a good party... SD ram slot.. we can take pics with our camera and send them or post them right from the phone.. it can browse the web on mobile internet or via regular internet.. it even will work in the chat room.. already tested one to check it out.

So technology wins.. Roger is a techofreak.. Sharon is a technophobe.. gonna take a while to teach her how to answer the phone and to place a phone call.. but she will eventually learn it...

Already mounted a power plug on the bike.. going to mount amplifier and speakers on the bike this week to play some tunes.. Should be trying it out this weekend on some rides.

So a bittersweet sad/happy time at our household.. cool new stuff.. but connected more than we would prefer.. Tuesday is the ushering in of a brave new age..

Remember when none of this technology was there or considered necessary or useful? When the useful knowledge was how to fold the map back up the way it came and when a phone call cost a dime at a payphone? BTW.. it is a buck now in most places and if you use a card to pay for it can cost over 5 bucks for a 3 minute call..

The good part of it is that most of the time on the bike.. the thing will be in play music mode.. don't really give a damn if someone wants to call us.. things can wait.. but now we will be plugged in and might even use the where am I type apps on it for folks to follow along on longer adventures.

Welcome to the brave new world.

Picked these up today for Sharon.. What a wicked awesome gals boot! She is even tall with these on.. gonna look good on the bike this summer.



Craigslist is our friend!

Well Jeramie had a run to Kennewick and got stuck there for the weekend... had to work most of the weekend but we were able to head down that way to meet with him on Sunday.

Weather was beautiful! Now the problem is.. he has no transport so if we ride down.. no way for us to all go anywhere.. if we take the pathfinder it would use boatloads of gas.. the metro is a 2 seater...hmmmm

So looked up the seat belt laws.. it says adults have to be in a belt unless all the factory belts are in use already.... hmmmm... problem solved.. Sharon gets to sit in the back seat.. even if there is no back seat... couple of pillows.. seats pushed forward and the top down on the car.



So Sharon and I head on down in the little yellow banana car.. and find the hotel he is holed up in pretty easily. Decide to do some lunch because we got there about 10:30is or so biker time.. so it might have been 11 or so.. We hit the road in the car and headed one direction. None of us know the area but figured we could find food.

We passed by the harley shop and found no nice greasy spoons.. only fast food.. so turned around at the edge of town and decided to hit up the harley stealership. Rattlesnake harley has a nice shop and they seem to be pretty good folks. Really wanted to find brackets to keep my leather bags out of the rear tire so I could mount up some nice old bags I have. But they had nothing that would work.. they did suggest a little spot down the road that might have what I need though. Jeramie found a couple cool shirts at half price and I got out of the stealership without spending a penny! Sweet!

So we got back in the little sardine can and headed a mile or two down the road to full throttle cycle.. little independent parts and service shop.. wonderful stuff in there.. they had the brackets for my bike and a great little chrome handlebar mount cigarette lighter.. been trying to figure out a good place to get a power outlet on the bike and this would be perfect. But I was so good.. spent under $60 and got the braces so now I can mount the saddlebags on the bike!



So we finally get to the food part.. across the parking lot is a little dive looking bar and grill.. so we pull over there ready for some good greasy food.. have a smoke break and head inside. Chuckling at the sign outside.. happy hour.. 10am till noon and something like 3-7 in the afternoon. Plop on down at a table.. and find out that the bar and grill.. has no food.. some kind of licensing issue.. so we ask them for a suggestion of a place to eat.. the gal could not remember the names or directions to any place.. after hollaring across the bar to her mom... who was on the phone.. she tried to remember one spot.. but gave up.. suggested a little spot a few blocks down.. so we thanked her and headed out.

Found the spot.. looks to be an old dennys.. full parking lot though.. so we head on in.. decent looking inside and great menu choices.. had a great lunch.. and then BOTH Jermaie and Sharon started to tempt me with that chrome cigarette lighter for the bike. Jeramie picked up the tab.. we were going to treat him.. Thanks Jeramie.

Since they twisted my arm.. and Jeramie picked up lunch..we head back and get the lighter.. how handy it will be to charge a phone or hook up a gps on the road.



So now we know where very little is and decide to head out and find something.. whatever.. headed towards the river.. know roughly where there is a park along the river is.. so head that direction.. Only hit one dead end road and flipped one u turn to get back on track.. We found the river and the park.. and Sharon found some treasures.. aka.. mud and clam shells to bring home.



Decided next that we could find the confluence of the snake and columbia river... cause we knew about what direction it was in.. We actually found it pretty easily.. only one little wrong turn and detour to avoid the popo cause of that back seat rider and possible seat belt issue.

So.. yea.. in WA you need to have a permit to visit the state parks.. have never bought one in the past and not planning on buying one today.. plan is to head on around anyone at the gate and just pretend we are supposed to be there. Almost to the park and notice a dang park police car ahead.. ok.. plan is to play dumb and flip a u turn when they hit us up for a permit.. but the best news was.. it appears it was a decoy/deterrent car of some sort.. nobody near it and does not look like anyone near it for days... so we head on into the park.

Nobody in the park to speak of so we parked and wandered down to the water.. really fast moving water in the area and pretty. Sharons favorite part were the baby geese.







So we hang out for a bit till the real park popo roll into the park.. I already had several excuses ready for not having the permit for the park but did not have to use them.

Rolled back into Kennewick and dropped Jeramie back at his hotel.. Said our goodbyes and we headed on home... As soon as we got home we mounted up the bags on the bike and started mounting the cigarette lighter.. till darkness fell.. all mounted.. but not wired up yet...

Thanks for spending a day with us Jeramie.

So we got the bike out of the bedroom for the winter and ready to hit the road!! Headed to the tri cities to meet some friends.. party and do a benefit ride for a little gal that has cancer. Going rain or shine and going to enjoy the trip finally some wind in what is left of my hair this year.

Plan was to meet some new friends in Washtucna WA at noonish ride some of the back roads down to the tri cities and check out some possible camping/party places for this summer along the way and enjoy the ride.

So I told Sharon we had to leave (told her that we would need to leave an hour before we really did need to leave.. I know how she is ) Worked pretty well.. we hit the road about 50 minutes after the time I told her! Think I am getting this timing thing down.

Hit Ritzville got some gas.. a couple of McDonalds dollar menu items and back on the back roads to Washtucna. The bike had a small oil leak.. knew it was there.. from the inside line on the oil tank but just a few drops here and there so no worries.. plenty of time to tear it apart and fix it later this summer.

Got to Washtucna a little bit early so checked out some yard sales.. thank god we were on the bike.. can not carry much back! More good planning on my part.

Our friends showed up and we headed out to check out the sights. Heading down towards lyons ferry the bike started every once and a while cutting out.. just for a second or so.. normally when I would let up on the throttle.. if I hit the throttle it would pick right back up and accelerate great.. So a little concern.. maybe some bad gas left in it from the winter burning through.

Headed up towards the Palouse Falls... and all of a sudden it kicked off.. felt like one cylinder was dead.. pulled it on over and checked it out.. seemed like a wiring issue.. cause it came and went so fast. Tore the seat off and made sure all the connections were tight under it.. Seemed to be firing alright now.. put the seat back on.. sharon hops on and we go to take off.. sputter, sputter, miss miss.. back off to the side.. Sharon got back off.. I hopped off.. it revs up just fine now.. hmmm..

Had Sharon hop on one of the other bikes and I scooted forward on the tank.. maybe the seat was pinching a wire somewhere.. It ran pretty well for a few miles.. then took the turn to head down to the palouse falls.. hit a bump and dead... no fire in the hole.

So now I tear the seat back off.. check all the plugs.. take a shock from each of the spark plug wires to make sure I had power.. cranks and has spark but no fire. So we found an ink pen.. cut the ends off it and I sucked up a little gas from the tank.. btw.. it still tastes nasty.. and blew it into the air intake. Boom.. fired then died.

So now we start pulling the tank off.. to see what is under it.. loosened the fuel line off the tank and when the ignition was on.. it spewed gas everywhere.. so fuel pump is good.. hmmm

Under the tank.. found the injector wires.. they were both clipped on good.. traced them back to the main plug by the computer.. all looked good.

Battery is about dead by now.. started being worried about how far it was to walk back so I would not have to ride bitch and have the bike towed.. was gonna walk the 40 miles first..

Decided to make it run in as simple of setup as possible.. disconnected the system commander and plugged the wiring harness back into the computer directly... Boom.. fired right up.. so now we have a running bike again.

Bypassed the falls and headed on down the road.. running pretty well now... no missing.. a little exhaust popping on deceleration.. but not terrible and power is good..

So then we get to the tri cities.. wind around the mazes of roads and to the bar that is sponsoring the benefit ride.. head on in and get signed up for the ride. Ready to have some fun now!

Head out to the parking lot.. and my harley decided it wanted to mark its spot big time.. about half quart of oil under the bike.. and dripping fast.. coming from the itty bitty leak on the inside oil line.. the bastard..

Still in the usable range on the dip stick by about 1/3 quart so we booked on over to our friends place.. dumped the oil and took a look at it.

Definitely the inside oil line.. about a 3 inch long elbow of a rubber line coming off the back of the oil tank and down to the drain. Harley stealership was closed for the day so decided to pull the line and head to the auto parts store.

After much swearing.. a hand burned from the exhaust and a lot of oil going everywhere finally was able to get the line off. I swear to god a condom is made of thicker rubber than this line was. It had been manhandled a little too much during the starter change and ended up ripped.. the rip spread really fast and was all torn up.

Off to O'reilleys auto parts.. 3 new quarts of mobile 1, 1 can of engine degreaser and a can of brake cleaner, plus they had a fuel line piece that was the perfect size with a formed 90 degree elbow in it.. Exactly what I needed. Bought new hose clamps and headed back to the bike.

We got it all back together in just a few minutes.. filled her back up with oil and started the degreasing.. Got most the grease off the bike but quite a bit on the paved driveway.. oops..

Next day.. weather was great.. Tons of folks showed up.. we were guessing 2-3 hundred bikes.



They had a great ride planned.. but our poker hands sucked and we won nothing! Headed out shortly after the ride for home cause some winds and clouds were starting to show their ugly heads.

Since Sharon had missed seeing the falls on the way down we went back and hit the falls.. beautiful this time of year.



Rode on home getting home just as the sun was starting to get really low in the sky..

Now to troubleshoot that dang system commander.. But maybe we have our breakdowns out of the way for the year.

Oh.. yea.. and any of you assholes that rode on by a bike with the seat torn off and did not look twice.. good luck when you have an issue. What happened to old school?