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After sleeping together for almost four months, the girls decided it was time to go back to their own beds.
Abigail discovered that Lauren has her mother’s ability to stay up late, get up early, and power all day like she’s had the average required level of sleep that most of us need.
Lauren and her mother are sleep(less) freaks.
– b
Took my bike and the girls bike to the KTM shop for their winter check-up.
My bike needs a new rear tire and I broke a bolt in a threaded fastener on the sub-frame. Hopefully they can get it out for cheaper than a used sub-frame.
The girls bike needs some fork work. Pretty sure it’s just seals, but if it’s anything beyond that, the KTM shop is top notch for suspension. Not that their bike needs top-notch work, but around here it’s either top-notch or total crap. Of the two, I’ll take top-notch. At first they weren’t sure if they’d work on the Honda considering it’s pretty much a KTM only shop, but a quick call to the owner proved positive.
Should be a few weeks, but hopefully winter finally sets in and they won’t be missed. At least the girls can go back to sharing the other if we happen to have a ridiculously warm day to ride.
– b
Had to be in Boston all week this week.
Left Sunday night. Come home Friday night.
While there, it was decided I needed to go to Detroit on Thursday.
Leave Boston for Detroit Wednesday night.
Meet with customer in Detroit on Thursday.
Fly back to Boston Thursday night.
Fly home Friday night.
…
Yeah. I’m tired.
– b
Went to Florida again for Jen’s birthday.
It was nice and warm.
We decided to take the kids with us next year.
– b
After a few days of rain, the weather was supposed to be warmish on Saturday, so we loaded up the rides and headed to the mud.
Though the Honda needs some tweaks, I decided to ride it as is for possibly a better assessment of what it might need.
Already I know it needs a fork rebuild and the rear tire won’t hold air, but those weren’t things that would prevent us from trying it. The muffler guard has a broken bolt, which allows it to annoyingly rattle against the muffler. Luckily I already found and procured an OEM replacement on ebay, since the bolt is broken in a way that would require extraction and tapping of threads.
I also ordered the throttle limiter screw which was missing. Turns out that was absolutely necessary.
After Abigail’s first run she came back all wide eyed saying it was just too fast. Pop in the screw, set it to a point that was more comfortable for her and they were good.
Otherwise the Honda was awesome. With the throttle screw in the right spot it has the perfect amount of power. Not too much, not too little. The Suzuki on the other hand is now severely under powered in comparison.
It has a restrictor plate (i.e. narrow holed washer) in the exhaust port where the gasses leave the cylinder and enter the exhaust system that restricts it’s flow and therefor slows down the power. I ordered a handful of these plates to incrementally drill out the restriction and gradually increase the power for them. I’ll get them all drilled out and we’ll see about trail side swaps to get it just right. Though I suppose that’s something we can do in the driveway as well.
That’s definitely a smile on her face. The Honda had enough power to get out into the bumps, which she liked. She liked it so much she even started working on standing up.
We also worked on turns. Both of them struggle with the right amount of speed for a turn, where to look and how to keep it on track. I kept running between the cones as each one came to turn to have them first look at me (the proper direction), then down to the next cone to keep them on track. It’s an uneasy feeling on a motorcycle to look so far away, but it’s absolutely necessary. Most of the time we want to look right in front of us to ensure we don’t hit anything, but on a motorcycle to ensure you don’t hit what you don’t want or go in the direction you want you have to look further out into the distance. Let the suspension do the work if there happens to be something in your way. There were a couple of times that both of them got it perfectly. Their turns were smooth and uncomplicated, but it’s obviously something we’ll have to continue working on. Hell. I have to continually work on it as I try to take turns faster and faster.
Another funny observation, like Abigail’s smiles, Lauren sings to herself as she’s riding. I guess it’s kind of like Craig laughing to himself. Not sure what she sings about yet, but most of her songs are happy songs anyway.
Another key to all this is PEZ. Somehow I started the habit of having PEZ when they go dirt biking. Whatever. I guess it works. Sort of.
Parting shot. It was going home when we decided we needed to find whip cream. Just thought it was kind of cool shot with the fog and muddy tires.
Hopefully it gets cold soon and winter actually hits, then I’ll drop the Honda off at the shop for the fork rebuild and we should be good to go for the spring.
– b
Have you heard of this game?
Got it for Christmas. Finally got around to trying it. Went on a whip cream hunt yesterday afternoon. Not an easy task since they closed our grocery store down over a year ago (we weren’t near town and didn’t want to go to town when we decided we needed whip cream).
Pretty simple game if you play by the rules. Simpler if you don’t, so we didn’t.
Now we’ll have to keep a stock of whip cream.
– b
One night before going away on my various travels I found and picked this up.
The girls were obviously ecstatic.
It’s a 2005 Honda CRF50. It needs a few things, but it’s a Honda. It should be awesome.
It’s also a four stroke. It should operate a little differently than the JR50. It’s also nearly 40lbs heavier than the JR50 and easily more than twice the weight of either girl.
Tomorrow it should make it’s debut. The weather is supposed to be nice, so we’re taking both to the local spot for some mud fun.
Now with two it should be much easier and more practical to take both girls riding into the woods to setup a fire and roast hot dogs. They’re definitely excited for that.
It’s starting to look like quite the mini-bike collection. I better quit before it becomes a problem.
– b
My toenail lasted the trip in the ADK. I had a band-aid and lots of duct tape wrapped around it.
Once home and everything was removed after a shower, it finally came off.
yay
– b
Mostly vacation, but work is ramping up as well.
Hope to post some pictures soon.
– b
