Mexico Bound

So I'm leaving to Mexico on Thursday. Riding through Arizona to Copper Canyon, over to the ferry from Los Mochis to La Paz and then criss-crossing up through the Baja California.

Three Women, three motorcycles, three weeks, 4000 miles.

I'm taking a KTM950 Adventure that I bought a couple months ago. Or so I hope.

It blew the water pump on me for the second time. After investigation of why that actually happened again, I found out that the cases are misaligned, which potentially could have damaged the crank, which would make the engine blow up eventually. Now that would be fun. I got all the right parts to fix it for now, but am running out of time to give it a good shakedown run.

I'm nervous about the reliability now. I might take my traveling buddy's brother's KLR instead. I have one day to decide on that. I need to think fast. I know the KLR will make it there and back without a hick-up. The KTM on the other hand is a little more comfortable and just nicer, but I'm not sure if I can trust it yet.

Anyway, I will keep a separate blog for this journey where you can find updates during my travels. You can find it here:

http://motorcyclefraulein.blogspot.com/

The shop will be closed over Christmas, so no new tech blogs, but I will be keeping a journal, and posting to that blog while traveling , internet access permitting...

Keep posted!

Yuk!

What's this greyish-brown stuff coming out of the cooling system? This kind of Yuk! happens when water and oil mix.

Usually when you see an emulsion like this in the engine. Which then means either the water pump seals are bad and/or the head gasket is blown, and water got into the engine.

Here, it came out of the cooling system. There was a ton of oil in the system. It was like mud paste. Never seen anything like it. Seemed like more oil than water.

So we took the water pump apart, did a leak down on the engine to determine if the head gasket was blown, and that checked out all ok, and then realized that the oil cooler had internally fried o-rings, let the oil leak into the cooling system, and needed a rebuild.

That probably happened when the thermostat got stuck, and there was no cooling the oil and the oil cooler, and the o-rings burned. Or, the o-rings burned, let the water and the oil mix, and then the emulsion made the thermostat stick, but the first scenario is a lot more likely. Or the bike is just really old and the o-rings reached the end of their life.

So if your radiator stays cool, and the temperature is up, check your thermostat. Needless to say, this is not too good for the engine. In this case the engine seems to be fine, and although it is a lot of work to rebuild, and clean the cooling system, it'll be ok in the end. Phew!

And I am really glad that we wear gloves here at the shop. Wouldn't want that slimy mess on my girly skin...

Spooning with your bike

So here is an interesting take on spooning...how to protect your heel from exhaust heat. It almost looks stock from 5 feet away, but if you look close, it's actually a giant spoon hose-clamped to the exhaust...innovative. Road side engineering, the good kind.

Speaking of spooning: I just bought a KTM950 Adventure. I almost wheeled it into my bedroom yesterday so I could spoon with it and look at it when I wake up in the morning...

I'm taking it to Mexico to get married to it. OK, kidding. I'm going to Copper Canyon for Christmas, and I have been trying on bikes to see which one is the one that will give me maximum riding pleasure. The Adventure seems to be purpose-built, just the right bike for touring and mild off-roading/riding on Mexican roads...

This turned out to be an all-girl trip, so the KTM will my ersatz boyfriend...

I'll make sure to write postcards and document the trip on this blog. Cheers!

This is a drain plug with a very mangled sealing washer. You cannot see it in this picture, but it is very thin, much thinner that it should be, and, as you can see in this picture, a lot bigger then when it was new.

How do drain plug washers grow that much bigger you ask?

Well, for example, if somebody cranks the drain plug tight like they took a double portion of steroids that morning with no regards to the gentle needs of an innocent oil drain plug.

Commonly you would think that changing the oil is something that the aspiring hobby mechanic should have no problem doing.

Not so.

I have seen anything from filling the engine to the top of the filler plug, which would result major drag and no power or non start of the engine, to tightening the drain plug until the lead washer squeezes out on the side, which is the picture you can admire here.

I put a fresh washer next to it to demonstrate just how much this drain plug was tightened. I know, the fear of loosing your oil plug and subsequently the oil over your rear tire with resulting self made oil slick and/or engine damage from oil pressure loss, is grand.

But really people. If the drain washer starts oozing out of the sides of the drain plug like a toothpaste out of the tube, wouldn't you care to think that something is actually WRONG?

The owner of the motorcycle that was accompanied by this squeezy here was lucky, since nothing more happened.

But I have seen it that the engine cases were cracked from asserting too much pressure on the little threads. In which case: you need to take the oil pan off and weld it.

Expensive and a lot of work.

Or: You don't have an oil pan, which older bikes or singles don't typically have, and then you are kinda SOL and either need to live with a leaky pan or do some labor intensive JB weld job every time you change the oil.

So if you are an aspiring mechanic: In your own interest. Do yourself a favor and buy a torque wrench.

Hopefully this doesn't remind you of your refrigerator after coming back from a 4 week vacation and having forgotten to throw away that food, but if it does, there are similarities.

It's organic matter from a tire emergency fix, called Slime, molded after sitting in the tire for 2 years.

This picture was taken with my cell phone since the battery was dead on my good camera, so it's a little fuzzy, but *I swear* the color was just like that.

Slime is always a pain for the mechanic, since it is, as the name implies, slimy, and has to be removed before a new tire can be mounted.

This bike came in the morning, before I had coffee, and the mechanic wasn't very happy about this either needless to say...

So if there are no plugs handy, and you have to use Slime, would you pretty please come in soon after that and have you tire changed, please, before it molds? It is a temporary fix after all, and not recommended for highway use. Also, once there is Slime in the tire, or Fix-a-Flat for that matter, it can't be safely plugged anymore, and you need a new tire for sure.

It also might be cheaper to have the bike towed to the shop than having to pay the mechanic to clean it up.

But hey, I guess stuff like this comes with the territory. Good thing it wasn't Monday morning though...

Don't mess with this man

I encountered this man east of Reno, just before the sun was down, on a recent road trip that I took on my recently purchased "couch", an 04 FZ1.

Despite the stern look on his face though, he was very nice and posed for the camera...

Ok, so he is not some red neck yahoo trying to chase me off his property, although that almost did happen to us a couple weeks ago on another trip.

It's Joe at the Supermoto races that were held at Reno Fernley this weekend, and the reason he is holding that gun is because he just got done starting off the 1 hour Supermoto team endurance race.

The start was done LeMans style which was refreshingly old school (is that an oxymoron?) and very exciting to watch. Here is a video of it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2I6NBVNx9YM

Make sure you turn up the volume. Sounds like a stampede when everybody running toward their bikes that are leaned against the wall, then jumping on them, kick starting the bike and then taking off like bats out of hell. Fun!

Brave Travelers

You all have read these great travel stories by brave people that we admire for doing it, and you dream about doing it yourselves, but never do.

See, there is always an excuse: no time, can't get off work, don't have the right bike, since what you *really* need is a BMW R100GS, KLR650, Harley, Goldwing, Big Tourer of any make or an Enduros bike, right?

But not Michael Lohr, seen in this picture: he has a 2006 Suzuki GZ250, and he just drove it up from San Diego past San Francisco and is now on the way back. He says he needs to take a break every 50 miles, but hey, he's on vacation, so no rush, and he is definitely having fun, so that's what's it all about!

So whatever you have, don't let yourself prevent from a road trip. Everything is possible, you just need the right mind set.

And there is a good amount of people doing it, seems like it's getting more and more, and some come by here, for an oil change, new tire or repair to keep going, and it's always fun to talk to travelers.

I have a soft spot for traveling. After all, that's what I was doing when I fell in love with San Francisco, and got "stuck" here, meeting a good man and opening my own business.

That's what I love about traveling. You just never know what's going to happen. Finding the sweet spot. The Serendipity Factor. I love the serendipity factor.

My next adventure: Mexico over Christmas. 4 weeks of going where the weather suits me. Too cold? Drive closer to the coast. Too warm? Let's go to the mountains.

I'll be sure to make lots of pictures to share with you. And if you know of a great hidden away place to go in Mexico, let me know? Thanks!