Biker blog 23 stump jumpin' and other trips

Biker blog ~23 Stump jumpin’ and other trips
9-8-98

Today I rode dh's virago up on top to Peola, up on the prairie where there are lots of wide open spaces and farmers fields, and out to the park Chief Timothy to charge up the battery. I also did some errands on it while I was out and about, went to the bank, paid a principle only to decrease payment, we are getting close to getting the house paid off can’t wait for that! Then dropped off our film from vacation, went to the two antique shops on main street, and then yarn craft shop. Go some new colors of yard to work up! =D They are neat. I found a rectangular crocheted piece at one of the antique shops to.

I went to the motor cycle shops too, the bike a nomad I want to try next was still there water cooled has a bigger fuel tank. I love the green one! Don’t like hard saddle bags however. I got oil and filters, and they had a speedo cable in stock so I got that too for dh’s bike. He had 15,555.5 miles on his bike that trip I rode 37 miles just bombing around town it was a blast.

I had to come home and get the car for the food no room left the saddle bags ha! Our pictures from the trip turned out great! I also got a new journal and a set of colored pens treated myself or my birthday I’d been wanting them. I got a blue willow tea pot three piece place setting to go with my tea pot too! =D It reminded me of my grandma who thinks we are pedal biking! I gotta send her a photo!

My favorite motor cycle funny story is one that I call stump jumper. It’s one dh tells about when he was in high school with his buddies on trail 90 and 110 dirt bikes riding the trails. One of his buddies breaks down so they are towing him on it with a rope. It’s after dark and the moon is out, they are tooling along and going a good clip then the stop, but the tow-ee does not get stopped in time to see what’s happening. A big stump is in the trial and he hits is and goes ass over tea kettle, endo over end and he and the bike being towed both land in the brush.

One of my most fond motor cycle memories is when we were dating in high school and would ride on his 175 Honda four stoke Scrambler. We would go on picnics up in the woods and see deer and it was fun. We visited his uncle & aunt one time doing that.

My favorite lesson on motor cycle is when my bike brakes down I do the same thing my spouse does, I take it to the nearest shop to be fixed.

My favorite bike is the one I’m riding now my 1,100 Yamaha Virago I’m wishing it had a bigger fuel tank. That was my best Christmas when we were up in the mountains and got it, hauled it home in the pick up between Christmas and New Year’s.

When we got dh’s first virago 1,000 we got it from a friend in Spokane, it was rainy October weekend and he had to use the rain gear driving it home. It's a three hour trip by car, it was our first experience in a K.O.A. camping cabin that weekend those were very nice! The only draw back is the middle of the night trips to the bathrooms. Br-r those can be cold!

I was very surprised when a year and a half later I spotted a 1,100 Yamaha Virago at the shop for sale when I was down getting oil and couldn’t wait for dh to get home to tell him about it! He went down and checked it out, brought it home, I want to crawl on it for a ride and to passenger foot peg on one side was missing, so I skipped the passenger part and took it for a test drive. I found a couple of minor things that needed attention he had not noticed. He traded in his 1,000 for that one. That was a fun day. Now we have matching bikes!

We took the Virago’s on a Virago campout tenting it last fall and did not realize how spoiled I had been with the trailer until we went without it on a trip to a local camp ground!

Last fall was interesting first the clutch cable broke and then the new service repair man glued it, and didn’t order a new one and didn’t check and the bracket was broke too! It was down for nearly 3 weeks in awesome fall weather. (I rode dh’s.) Then the battery died on it, I got one only the new parts gal (the bosses wife) sold me one too big, it ended up fitting the Voyager, we just swapped the battery out of his virago for a while. Then the starter went out, this went on from Sept. until Jan. But the good new is it ran like a dream on our big trip and all the problems were not in summer and very close to home and people we know to work on it!

I’m averaging 5,000 mi. a year on my bike now. It had 13,500 mo. on it when we got it in 1994 and has 27,500 on in it now in 1996 we went to glacier Montana. With two bikes and a trailer with ice chest approximately 1,000 mile trip.

In 1997 we went to Yellowstone 1,476 miles with two bikes and a trailer and again to Glacier and Western Montana in 1998. 1,479 miles two times no trailer this time. After trading up from my 750 Virago, I love the larger fuel tank and only three pounds difference in dry weight ( with out fuel in it), and the read mono shock on the 1,100.

I’ve went to a women on wheels meeting they have a death wish speed freaks screaming on two lane roads. I don’t need tickets so I was in the rear. When I go my chaps when we first started they were too long so the leather we cut off of them dh glued on fasteners and the were my fork seal protector covers.

One of our favorite days was when we brought the Voyager 1200 c.c. dh & I took his bike in for a new tire on his 1986 Venture and come out with a new bike! We had been kicking the idea around for a couple of weeks.

Some of the other favorite funny stores are when we were sitting down by the camp fire relaxing in our new lawn chairs, and dh was leaning back tipping of if the front legs, the next thing I know the whole thing collapses. It is absolutely hilarious to see time sprawled and spread eagled out on the ground flopping like a fish out of water I could not stop laughing. Needless to say was he not so enamored with the whole situation. So we are in the market for some studier lawn chairs.

Another time we popped the air bed in the tent {read between the lines here wink}: anyway the next morning we woke up to a flat air mattress on the floor of the tent. We love Montana because of the open roads, trees and wildlife.