Nails, screws and other debris settle between lanes. Seeing as how I’ll ride around 20-30 miles between lanes on any given day, it’s natural that I’d pick one up at some point. It’s like riding a a bike between the right lane and the curb. Always have to look out for sharp stuff.
My initial plan was to ride up to the museum on the “bread loaf” seat and ride home on the seat Id be trading for. But had to take the car to bring the Beemer’s back wheel to the boss to swap tires.
Mounting tires is where I drew the line on maintenance. When we get a shop, and I get a tire changing machine I’ll be glad to do it!
(08-02-2026, 09:57 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: [ -> ]... Mounting tires is where I drew the line on maintenance. When we get a shop, and I get a tire changing machine I’ll be glad to do it!
Since I'm mainly on forest service roads and trails with my DR650 and the KLX300, every time I have to change worn tires--or if the flat becomes noticeable in the garage--I use only my trail tools to make the change so that I don't forget how. And then when it does happen "out there", I can feel better about getting back to civilization. Sometimes you get out there and realize there's no cell service and no one is likely to be coming by anytime soon. From removing the wheel, breaking the bead with tire irons, remove tire, new nube, tire back on the rim and then installed I'm at about 1.5 to 2 hours which is acceptable. Would like to get that down to 1 hour. But with the CB1100 that Rabaconda I have sure is the bees-knees.
I can change tires and have. But, My already packed garage is starting to gather more and more work bike parts. If I agreed to do tires, I'd need to find a place to stack tires too, and pull my changing tools and balancer out of the cabinet and keep them handy. It's funny... Mrs. G is taking on new administrative responsibilities at the same time I'm taking on more at this job. We're both finding the lines we don't want to cross. I won't do tires. She was asked to dismiss a nurse at one of the hospitals she was going to visit to handle other tasks. She replied that no, they have an HR department, and that just because it was handy to have her at that location, it wasn't her job.
Good on Mrs. G...that would be un unpleasant task.
Yeah, and I'm not doing it either, until my salary catches up with my title as Chief Rider. One of our early hires just wasn't getting the hang of the job. It was clear that the bike was a bit too big for him to handle, and he couldn't follow directions to the point of passing the hospital that the navigation system took him to. I coached him all I could but the boss had to have the unpleasant talk with him.
Also realized why I can't change tires... I gave my compressor to a friend who was in dire need about a year ago. I was reminded of that today when the new tire the boss just mounted, and I put back on the bike, started dropping pressure. Had to air it up to get home again, and it turned out to be the valve core. Chalk this up to "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but the boss replaced the valve core for good measure when he swapped tires. I pulled it and put another one in, so I got my upper body workout hand-pumping the tire from flat back to 42lb.
Did have some fun this afternoon. Had one last seat to recover and I wanted to try out the new seat I just put on the Enfield. I zipped over to A-1 Foam and Fabric in Santa Ana and picked out another black marine vinyl remnant. This place has been around forever. When I was about nine, my parents bought (more likely were given) an old 1969-vintage tent trailer with rotted canvas sides. I remember visiting A-1 for the first time, and the folks picked out a shade of light green canvas to replace it.
I like the new Enfield seat! It's a tad shorter than the narrow "Loaf of Bread" so I'm not as hunched over, and the slightly wider width means that both cheeks can enjoy comfort at the same time, rather than having to take turns.
It is very important that both cheeks are taken care of.
I didn't have any delivery runs yesterday and no pressing maintenance issues, so I ran around on the Interceptor to get a bunch of errands done.
The shoe repair guy who's had my right Tourmaster boot for the past two months texted me to say it was ready, so I swung by. He's a one-man shop, highly recommended, and he did warn me at the start that he provides good quality work but that I'd be looking at a long wait time. In the meantime, I bought my two pairs of Indie Ridge boots, so I wasn't in a hurry.
He did a great job replacing the zipper on my boot, and we chatted for a bit. He said "hope you've got a loud exhaust, I hear those loud bikes on the freeway and they really get my attention!" I told him I don't really think that a loud bike is necessarily safer and that other mantra besides "loud pipes save lives" is "ride like you're invisible". He found that thought provoking and wished me happy riding. Very nice guy.
I didn't realize that our conversation would turn out to be a little prophetic. Ran a few more errands, and ended up at my friend's house for dinner. On the way home, going about 70 on the 405, I noticed that the bike was a little louder than normal. Hmm... not too safe to pull over on the freeway at night, so I kept riding till I got to my exit. I mulled over why it was louder. My suspicion was confirmed when I pulled over and saw that my left muffler had spit out its baffle. Ugh.
I ditched the heavy, large OEM mufflers last year, for a pair of "AEW TE102" cans. These are from India, cost $300 for the pair and are beautifully made. I grabbed them when news of pending tariffs were coming as part of my eBay parts spree to stock up. They sound great and have removable baffle tubes secured with an M6 grub screw. I took them out for a day to see what I thought. A bit louder, but meh, they sounded fine with them in, so I put them back. It was sort of late at night, so I brapped my way into the garage without using too much throttle, and asked Mrs. G if she thought the bike sounded any louder than normal when I came up the street. She hadn't paid much attention.
This morning I thought for moment about the quest to find replacement baffles. Looking at repairs to the work BMWs, I have done extensive research through forums and other resources, only to have the boss ask ChatGPT to find a solution, and get the same results and even more info within seconds. His Chat is named Lilly, by the way. I have not personalized mine to the same degree.
I had a recent contentious exchange with Chat over its ideas about writing a rider's manual. I had one idea, Chat had another, and in the end, we both "agreed to disagree" and I had Claude edit my manual to my extreme satisfaction. I figured this was a good opportunity for Chat and I to kiss and make up. I told Chat I'd lost one of my baffles and needed a replacement. The first thing Chat admonished me for was not putting Loctite on the grub screws, and that it was common for them to work loose without it. Fine, point taken. It then told me I could buy cheap generic replacements from Amazon, but that people were reporting mixed reviews, and that genuine AEW replacements were a more secure decision.
Found a replacement AEW pair on eBay India for forty bucks. Not sure what the import tariffs will be these days, but I can't imagine it will be tragic. Might try a pair from Amazon as well for twenty, just to compare. In the meantime, a little brappier than normal won't be too bad.
And BTW yes, duh, I think the kindly old cobbler is some kind of wizard. I mean, the guy warns me that I need loud pipes, and my muffler baffle falls out the same day, making my bike louder?
I hope there's somebody somewhere turning the baffle over and over and wondering what on earth they're going to do with it.