Sunday Hike

It was super windy last night and this morning.  That made the weather a little cold.  This afternoon it warmed up above 70 so we decided to go on a family hike.  Karli and Danika hiked to the meadow and I continued to the top (a little past where the gps stopped).  I must have pushed a button to pause the tracking because it didn't record all the way to the turn around or the decent.

View Sunday Hike - 05/05/2013 4:26pm in a larger map

'06 crf450r Top End

So after getting more involved in motorcycles I quickly learned a few things.  Number one, they are lots of fun; Number two, that fun comes at a cost(literally).  I have enjoyed saving money by working on my bikes myself.  I quickly found out that the bike I had purchased required regular maintenance.  Oil, air filter, rear tire changes and valve adjustments are quite frequent.  I learned how to shim my valves and did that twice last summer.  I thought I had 1 more adjustment left this spring before I would need new valves.  But during my spring adjustment I realized I that my minimum thickness shim was still not thin enough.  So after much research I decided to purchase a whole new head that has stainless steel valves and supposedly will not need any adjustment after the initial adjustment.  There were many different options I could have chosen but this seemed to suit me best.  I also opted for an upgraded '08 head which has smaller exhaust ports and a different intake tract.  Last night I wrenched into the depths of my motor I hadn't before.  All the forums make these 4 stroke motors out to be a nightmare of complicated(compared to two strokes).  But I quickly realized this is much easier than working on a car.  One cylinder equals way less components and that what I am used to which means less parts to keep track of and less time to disassemble   Overall my motor was in way better shape than I expected   I have been very displeased with the external components of my bike.  Most bolts are mostly stripped out(common ones like oil drain).  But apparently previous owners have not been brave enough to venture to the internals much to my gratitude.  So the new head is in the mail.  I need to order with it a gasket kit and possibly a piston kit.  The cylinder is in mint condition.  Also part of this re-build I will be adding a hour meter so I can keep better track of maintenance.

I decided to designate a shelf in my shed so I didn't loos any parts.

The intake valve on the bottom is the one that is failed.  It is hard to see in a photo but visually it can be seen that the valve is deeper into it's seat than the other valves.

The Big One

Sunday Jan 20, 2013

It's been a while now since but we got dumped on.  I think it was on Thursday Jan 10. It was predicted in the news.  It started to snow and I had to run some errands to SLCC.  So I figured I better get it done fast.  I headed out, but I didn't leave soon enough.  I got caught in the traffic headed home around 5:00.  Several people had left work early and the roads were very slick.  So it was a parking lot for about half of my drive. I tried to avoid the traffic by taking Redwood up to 500 S. but that just made it worse.  It snowed and snowed for a day or two.  In total we received just short of 2'.  I piled up the snow in a large mound in the back with the intent to make a snow fort.  Since it has snowed about 10 days ago it has been pretty cold so I don't think it has melted much.  But the snow mound and all the snow in our yard has shrunk.  I think this is due to the fact that our snow was pure powder so it has comacted.  Regardless my snow fort mound has lost several feet in height.

Oh and the storm did clean out the smog... But now it's back.

And I am still not sold on the energy efficient bulbs... This one started flickering and acting up.