October (11 months to go)

October is starting out to be very hectic, It is balloon fiesta time here in New Mexico and we have a house full of guests. I'm getting the bike ready for the NM LOE which starts October 4th it is a 24 hour rally with a minimum mileage of 1K and points (unsure what that number is yet)to be considered a finisher.

The FJR is as ready as it is going to be, after this rally I'll be done for the year so I'll have time to complete the other modifications. My goal for October is to put 2200 miles on the FJR, I should get about 1200-1400 of those miles in this weekends rally.

Well October has continued to be interesting. We just completed the NM LOE and I'm sadden to report I was a DNF (did not finish). About 500 miles into the ride, my FJR started having surging problems and I thought I had a plugged fuel filter or possibly picked up some bad fuel. I completed about 600 miles when I decided I would abandon the rally and limp the bike home. This was very disappointing because this was the first time I have not completd an IBA ride or rally.

I did get the bike home having completed 850 miles, after resting for a few hours I drove down to the finish line and watched my friends finish. Afterwards I found out from a couple of other riders that there was a recall on my FJR for surging at altitude. So when I went to my dealer, I did find out that my bike has a recall on it for the ECU and this might have been the cause of my DNF in the NM LOE, so the part has been ordered and should be in next week.

Since I'm done rallying for the rest of the year, I'm starting to work on the modification I have been putting off. I just completed installing my aux-lighting and completed a re-wiring for my GPS and XM-Radio. I'm now starting to mock up a mounting system for my auxiliary fuel cell.

Nothing but short rides happening right now. Just did some mountain riding trying to clean off the chicken strips with some friends. I have been doing a little re-wiring as I get ready for the tank to go off to the shop to get drilled and tapped for the new fuel line. I have started mocking up the mount for the aux-tank, it's starting to look like something. I was able to get the bike in and the dealer did the re-call on my ECU, so I'm off this week to do 200-300 mile ride in the mountains, still waiting on the top box mount (back ordered).