February

Well I would love to say I have been riding a lot of miles but it has not happened.  I have been spending a lot of time completing projects for my wife and daughter.  I just completed a bathroom remodel and I'm currently building a cabinet for towels and such for my wife.  We pulled out the sinks, tub, shower and tolet and upgraded everything.  While the room was empty my painted and we replaced the tiles.  All I have left is the cabinet and a make-up counter with drawers.  Should be done in the next month.

I'm also installing wood floors in my youngest daughters house.  They pulled up all their carpet and tile and I'm helping them install the wood.  They just replaced their kitchen cabinets so now we can complete that room and I'm done.

Okay enough of my excuses for not riding. 

A friend came in from Oregon this month and we snuck out for a short ride by our standard 150 miles for lunch.  It was good to see him, he'll be in town for a couple more months before heading back to Oregon.  Outside of that ride I really haven't put many miles on the motorcycle.  

I'm still trying to plan a trip to Deadhorse next year and possible a ride to the start of the IBR for this year.  I was planning to go to Ireland in May but that fell apart (family not ready to go) so I have some vacation time to burn.

Well until next time 

Ride safe

January

Man here we are it's 2013.  Well 2012 wasn't my best year for riding.  I ended up riding about 9000 miles for the year.  That's the lowest total of miles in a year since 2004.  I just didn't make the time to get out and ride last year and this year doesn't look much better. 

This year we are doing almost a three week family trip to Ireland/Scotland in May.  We are going to visit friends and play a little golf (okay a lot of golf).  I promised my wife everyother day no golf so I should get at least 9 rounds in.  Then in June my son and I will be going on a 10 day backpacking trip at Philmont (Boyscout trip).  If all goes well, I'll still squeeze a couple of short rides in after the Philmont trip.  We are currently doing a lot of hiking getting in shape for the trip.

I started 2013 kind of flat, did my new year's oil change and have put a few miles on riding locally.  Weather has been about as cold as I've seen around here in a while. We had a couple weeks where the nights were single digits and the days in the teens. I will usually ride everyday as lond as it is not snowing when I open my garage door, that's my go-no go point.

I also broke the V-Strom this month, I sheared off two bolts.  After a short ride, I pulled into the garage and a bolt head fell on the floor.  Picked it up and I could tell it had been sheared off.  Decided to take the bike into the shop and see if the bolt was covered under my shop warranty.  While it was in decided to have the shop also check out my turn signal it hasn't been cancelling every time.  Well 10 days later the turn signal was replaced no charge and the bolt ended up being two missing one had to be drilled out and the second they were able to remove.  Guys in the shop said first time they had seen that and was surprised the vibration didn't shake me off the road.  Fun part was I never really had a vibration the one bolt was still in place and kept everything aligned.  That was probably the only saving grace.  They ended up charging me for the bolt replacement but I didn't really care the turn signal switch was free.

Well the V-Strom is back on the road but it was a little dicey when I was driving my truck.  Not sure why everyone was laughing when they saw me.  Check out the picture my wife took as I was pulling out of the driveway with the truck.  Never could understand why she came running out of the house with the camera?