BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Off to the doctor

The Beemer went off to Ted Porter's Beemer Shop this morning.  

I hate seeing the bike in the truck.  Boo.  But, with work and hockey the way they are lately -- not to mention three other motorcycles that need some sort of attention -- I just didn't have the time or inclination to dig apart the bike.

I'd heard good things about Ted Porter's from the internet (plus my ADVrider.com/F650.com friend Miriam stopped there on her cross-country trip a couple of years ago), so we made the 40-mile trek down to Scotts Valley to drop off the Beemer.

The shop guy agreed that the stalactites were "pretty nasty" and also that this wasn't condensation.  

His guess was the head gasket, especially after seeing this:

The mechanic is supposed to give me a call within the week, so I'll get the official diagnosis then.

In the meantime, Colleen came over today and we disassembled her KLR forks to clean them out, plus replaced the fork oil.  I also replaced the fuel petcock on Peter's DRZ, so I did get some mechanic work in to make me feel a little less lazy for bringing the Beemer into a shop.

My motorcycle looks like Carlsbad Caverns.

W. T. F.

The Beemer's been running fine for once, which always makes me nervous.

And for good reason! So today, the temperature light went on. "That's odd," thought I, since it was 40F out at the time. I rode the rest of the way to work.

On the way home, no idiot light on the whole commute...until I pulled into my driveway. And when I parked, the bike smelled sorta funny.

I figured I'd check the coolant level just to make sure I didn't have a pinhole leak somewhere or something.

And then, when I took the oil cap off to remove the lefthand fairing, I found THIS:

I admit to shrieking like a little schoolgirl. What in the hell is that? So against my better judgment, I looked at the hole where you pour the oil. ACK!

Carlsbad Caverns:



My motorcycle:

There are LAYERS of STALACTITES in my oil tank.

At this point I was yelling in my garage sounding like Ralphie's dad in A Christmas Story, FARKINGMUMBLE STUPID BEEMER GOTTA BE KIDDING ME FRICKING ZARKLE CRAPPIN

Here's what the oil sight glass looks like:

Now, to me, this looks like money. Expensive, time consuming, money.

My first thought is a blown head gasket, but the oil inside the tank isn't creamy looking. The bike does smell sweet though (er, not in a happy way) and, well, there's all that crap.

I'm simultaneously pissed off and grossed out....and now I'm off to plug the XT onto the battery tender since apparently I'll be riding that for the foreseeable future.

San Jose Burninators vs Houston Harpies: 1-0

We're the 2009 Las Vegas Women's Hockey Classic Wynn Division champions!!

Today's game was awesome. I think it was the best game I've ever played. I skated hard to the puck, fought hard in the corners, made smart passes, got some good pokes in. This game gave me a little glimpse of "what could be" if I keep working and practicing. Me like.

Overall, our team did awesome. Everyone had at least one great moment and the win reflected that. Their goalie was doing really well (in fact, she won the division all-tournament goalie award) so our low score wasn't from lack of effort by our forwards!

The Harpies were really a fun team to play -- aggressive without being rough, poised, and overall cheerful. I was talking to one of them after the game and she said their team is made up of skaters from all over the country: Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, etc. They gel together really well for only seeing each other at tournaments!

Many photos and some overall tournament commentary to come. :)

San Jose Burninators vs LA Hot Flashes: 5-0

This was the most fun game, IMO -- the other team was cheerful and friendly.

It was a bit of a bummer victory though, as the Hot Flashes' goalie was suffering from food poisoning and spent a bit of the 2nd period off the ice completely.

We were about to flag down Liz, the Black List goalie, when the Hot Flashes goalie returned to the game. We played the third period with running time at their request -- we felt so bad for her. I hope she's feeling better soon. :(

I personally had a pretty useless game -- I was trying some new things and generally failing. I had two very nice passes right to the other team, and one spectacular fall complete with throwing my stick. It was rated about a 7 overall by our fans in the bleachers -- the advice was to incorporate shrieking like a little girl if I want to raise my score to an 8. ;)

Our next -- and final -- game is the championship game tomorrow at 9:45am.

San Jose Burninators vs Phoenix WHOA Smokin' Aces: 3-2 OT

This morning's game was really cool for me as it was the first time I've played D against a team that really cycled. Fortunately we knew this ahead of time as we watched some of WHOA's game last night, so Viv was able to give me some tips before the game.

Andrea and I played a good D line again -- we were on the ice for the other goals but at least one of them was a great example of cycling. I know I did absolutely everything that I knew how to do and they just beat me. That's OK.

On the other hand, I had some good pokes and I kept the offensive to the corners a few times. I had one good one-timer shot from the point (for some reason their wings were leaving Andrea and I wide open -- we were always open at point) but it went right to the goalie. Doh!

We were 2-2 at the end of the 3rd, sending us into overtime. Viv had a fantastic breakaway less than a minute into OT and managed a gorgeous roofshot. Yay!

And so the Burninators remain undefeated. No game until tomorrow night at 7pm, so we're hanging out watching the Dolphins game and drinking free Vegas beer.

San Jose Burninators vs Houston Harpies: 2-1

The first game of the tournament and our first win!

Andrea and I played a good line together. We were on the ice for the opposing goal...which was a crazy weird deflection off of our own center's stick. Oops!

I had one good pass right up to Jodi's tape while she was skating up ice, and one good cross-ice pass to Viv. I had lots of almost good passes to Viv, but I need to angle the pass off the boards more (I'm left D and she's left wing). As it was, I was passing past her and icing it more often than not. But I think we'll get that down for the next game.

We're staying at the Staybridge Suites off the strip, and it rocks! The rooms (suites) are huge, with full kitchens, huge bathrooms, etc. I'll definitely be staying there on future motorcycle trips.

Viv, Jena, and I are now off to the store for beer and hot pockets. Livin' it up in Vegas!

Next game is tomorrow, 11:30am.

Why I changed those front forks out...

Here's Rashmi's story, in SuperBike magazine.  

Click here for an enlarged version.

This, boys and girls, is why I swapped out my forks.  

BMW claims that they've never heard of this before, but ADVrider.com came up with at least six different riders who've had the exact same failure, some of whom have never had prior crashes or any off-road "down time".  

Plus, BMW itself changed the fork design radically in 2003 at exactly this failure point.  There have been no reports of fork failures on the 2003+ fork model.

So, was swapping my forks for the 2003+ model the cheapest thing I've ever done? No, of course not, but it wasn't the spendiest, either.  And knowing that I've put my bike through everything Rashmi did (and maybe more, offroad) and she still had this happen to her while riding down a smooth paved road....that piece of mind has been worth every penny.

Though she DID look pretty punk-ass in that hot black forearm cast.... *giggles, ducks, and runs*

Weekend hockey update

Burninating the peasants.

Saturday afternoon found the Burninators and the Dolphins invading Ice Oasis for a pre-Vegas scrimmage.

It wasn't a very good game, scorewise -- well, not for us, anyway! The Dolphins dolphinated us 4-2.  But it was a lot of fun and I got to skate with people that I never have before.

I played D with Andrea and we did pretty well.  Only one goal happened during our shift and it was a pretty one by Tracy.  She did a nice wraparound and got it past both of us.  I should have taken an extra step to get farther between her and the goal -- lesson learned!

My very first Burninator showing:

Overall, I think a lot of people on the team were disappointed with the scrimmage, but I believe a lot of that had to do with it being essentially a brand new team. A lot of the "normal" Burninators are out of the Vegas tournament (hence my inclusion) and none of us newbies had played together before. 

Puck Ewes vs Puck Bunnies: 1-1

Last night, we had an NCWHL game against the Puck Bunnies, which we tied 1-1. 

I joked that at least I wasn't on the ice when the goal against was scored....but I wasn't on the ice because I was in the penalty box.  Oops. 

It was an overall fun game, though it felt really slow compared to the Burninator scrimmage.  Being at Belmont didn't help that feeling -- we've played at Fremont almost exclusively lately and Belmont felt like such a little pond rink!

Best kind of cross-country ride report

I found this on ADVrider.com and had to share it.

Phil's Journal: I've Seen Everything is the journal of Phil Gooding, a 20-year-old who rode his Indian Scout cross-country in 1924.  

Motored to the Pacific is the accompanying article about the ride, published in December 1924 by the Baltimore Trolley Tropics (the company newsletter for the Baltimore Transit Company, where Mr. Gooding worked).

Kevin Jolly, Mr Gooding's granddaughter's husband, put together this fantastic website to showcase the cross-country ride.  It's definitely worth a read.

First trip to Metcalf with the CRF

Our day trip to Metcalf wound up being a bit shorter than we'd expected after a dead battery in the DRZ took an hour to rectify.  Grrr. 

Even after our best efforts at resuscitation, the DRZ lived only briefly at the park before the battery puked out again, so Peter and I just took turns taking the CRF80F around Trail 1.

If there's something funnier than a 6'4" man on an 80cc dirtbike, I don't know what it is.

I, of course, look much more suave.

We used our new GoPro Motorsports Hero Wide camera to take some photos and video of Track 1.  

You can see the GoPro mounted to the numberplate of the CRF in the pictures above; I also took some shots with the camera mounted on top of my helmet.

The first hill of Trail 1:

Some parts of the trail were a little muddy from yesterday's rain.  This was MUCH more fun on an 80cc dirtbike weighing 160lbs than on my dualsports.  Who knew that sliding could be fun?

I liked the color and shadow in this picture.  You can see the GoPro mounted on top of my helmet in the shadow.

And finally, Peter welcomes me back to the pit. :)

The GoPro camera really looks like it's going to be fun.  It mounts quickly and easily and doesn't need an external camcorder (it stores pics and video on an SD card).  

We took over 100 videos and photos while we were at Metcalf and the batteries were still going.  We use rechargeables and just charge the batteries after every use of the camera.

Here's a movie of Trail 1.  Hopefully it works since I don't think I've tried adding a movie to this site before.  Eep, technology!