Sat, 08 Dec 07: Scared the hell out of myself yesterday. I'm so used to others trying to kill me when I'm on my bikes - hyped up soccer moms in minivans, legally blind whitehairs in big Crown Vic's, half drunk rednecks in clapped out pickup trucks, distracted suits in SUV's with cell phones lodged in their ears - so used to ignorant cagers trying to end my life under their bumpers that I forgot about one other hazard on the roads... myself. I took the Ural out for a quiet ride through the countryside yesterday, staying off the main roads as much as possible because they were all wet with slush. The back roads were mostly plowed but in some spots there were still underlying ice patches, so as this was my first winter ride in the country I kept a reasonably slow pace to familiarise myself once again with the handling characteristics on slippery surfaces. It was such a nice, mild, sunny day and there was no traffic, so I allowed myself to relax a bit and enjoy the scenery for once. I was doing fine until a railroad crossing came into view along one of the less traveled roads. I was only doing 60kmh, but figured I should slow down a bit just in case and rolled off the throttle to reduce speed. And that's when the f***ing crossing lights started flashing. A train was coming. No problem, I'll just gently brake and stop well before the gate. But, no, I was on a patch of sheer ice on a downhill slope and the slightest bit of brake caused the wheels to lock up and the rig to slew sideways. I tried every trick I knew to get the rig slowed down but nothing worked... it just kept sliding towards the crossing. By now the guard barriers were lowering and I knew I could not stop in time. I did a quick mental calculation and figured the rig would probably break through the wooden barrier and come to a halt right on the tracks if I kept on braking, so in desperation I gunned it and veered to the left to avoid it. This put me into the other lane and directly in front of the barrier on the opposite side. I instinctively ducked as I went underneath, clearing it with only a couple of feet to spare. The other side of the crossing was level and I came to a halt about 20' past the barrier. I shut the motor off and just sat there, stunned, listening to the train as it approached with its horn blaring. They have a standard warning blast that all trains use as they approach all crossings, I think it's universal - two long blasts, followed by one short blast and one long one. The first long blast had gone off just as I passed under the second barrier, so I knew the train was very close. The engineer sounded the rest of the warning signal and then made several short, angry blasts as the train went rumbling by behind me - clearly, he had seen what had happened and was not happy. I felt sick. 25 years of riding experience almost got smeared all over the front of the westbound VIA Rail passenger train. One small lapse in concentration and one simple error in judgment almost did me in... and there was nobody to blame but myself. I decided to head for home. Cursing myself the whole way, of course. About 5km before entering town, I came across another railway crossing. I kept a steady speed this time and f*ck me, didn't the lights start flashing as I approached. I got mad. I had lots of time to cross, but I still got mad. I gunned it and went flying over the tracks, mentally giving the finger to them as I passed. F*ck you, Death. Some other time.

Sat, 15 Dec 07: The Weather Network is calling for a wicked winter storm tomorrow, up to 30cm of snow with high winds and -20C windchill, so I figured I'd better go for a ride today because tomorrow there'd be another 6" of slush on the roads from all the salt they'll be throwing down tonight. Had to go to a brunch with my other riding club anyway, and as I had a reputation to uphold it wouldn't be apropos to show up on anything other than the Ural. So with the windchill at -18C but under sunny morning skies, I headed out on the 20km trip to the meeting place. Strangely enough, I was the only bike on the road today. Go figure. Got lots of amazed, puzzled, delighted and concerned stares from all the cagers, with a few thumbs up and hearty waves thrown in for good measure. And one finger pointing at the head, "you frickin' crazy arsehole" signal, too, from a passing redneck in his 4X4. Brunch was great, lots of laughs with old friends and some good eats, too. Decided to take the long way home afterwards and motored off with the electric vest set on "deep fry". Decided to go down the same road as last week where I almost had that nasty encounter with the train... and sure as sh*t, the f***ing crossing lights went off AGAIN as I approached. But I was ready this time and stopped well before the barriers, with a frosty plume of expletives wafting up and away from the raised faceshield of my helmet as the westbound freight train went clattering by. Stopped at the LCBO in the hamlet of Lansdowne for a big bottle of Stolichnaya Wodka and had a mini UDF session with an amazed electrician who pulled up as I was taking off my helmet. He had been out climbing poles all morning, restoring power to a neigbourhood that had been flicked off during the wee, cold hours of the night... he could not believe that I was out riding around in this cold weather! Turns out he also has an Australian Cattle Dog and had seen Hector in the sidecar a few times over the past year, his first question was to inquire as to The Wonder Dog's whereabouts today and he was happy to hear that Hector was curled up in front of the living room heat register, warm and safe. Got a laugh from the cashier when I wandered in and asked if I could sit inside the beer cooler for a few minutes to warm up, then paid for my vodka and headed for home. The odometer rolled past the 37,000km mark just before entering town, but my elation at passing another mileage milestone was canceled out by the discovery of an oil leak when I switched off the bike in the garage. This time the culprit appears to be from two sources; the underside of the left side cylinder head/barrel junction (which probably means another stripped cylinder head stud) and from the oil pump end cap on top of the motor. Looks like I have a busy day in the garage awaiting me when the weather warms up again.

Tues, 18 Dec 07: I was in the Guelph area for a job interview yesterday and stopped by Ken Beach's place for a visit afterwards. He took me out to lunch and then over to the oVc shop, where he showed me all the improvements he's made to the building since moving in there earlier this year. The place was absolutely packed with bikes; new Urals, used Dneprs and new scooters were all wedged tightly together like the proverbial sardines in a can. He had several of the new Duro tires in stock so I bought one just before leaving, as the pusher is due for replacement and I've been anxious to try out these new Ural approved tires anyway. I decided to install it this morning, so after brekkie I went out to the garage, got the propane heater fired up and launched into the task. I had it changed, balanced and installed well within an hour, so I decided to fix the leak at the oil pump cap while I was on a roll. This meant removing the alternator to gain access to it and since I wasn't keen on pulling the whole assembly out and having to muck around with the gear lash setting again afterwards, I figured I'd just separate the alternator from the coupling instead. To make THAT task easier, I decided to remove the gas tank. Besides, I had a new toy I wanted to check out - a fuel line pinch clamp I had bought from Princess Auto a few weeks ago. It's a bit bulky, but I figured if I was careful enough it wouldn't get caught up in anything as I pulled the gas tank clear of the frame. So I clamped the crossover line shut, removed one end from the spigot and jammed a short length of fuel line (plugged at one end) in its place. Then I removed the front mount bolts and tried to pull the tank clear. It wouldn't come off all the way, so I set it back down and checked underneath. Crap. Forgot to remove the vacuum and fuel lines from the petcock. Did that and pulled the tank up again, but it got caught once more. The fuel line pinch clamp was getting hung up in the wiring harness, so I repositioned it and tried once more. This time it came off, but I could hear a dribbling sound as I walked away from the rig. I looked back and saw the fuel crossover line, pinch clamp still in place, tangled in the wiring harness under the frame backbone. And I felt my right boot getting wet. Double crap. Fuel was spewing out of the one crossover spigot, so I hastily set the tank down on a stool specially prepared for that purpose and hauled arse back to the bike to grab the crossover line. Turned around just in time to watch the stool topple over and the gas tank fall flat onto its back, spigots up in the air. Triple crap. ...sigh... Well, at least it wasn't leaking in that position. Put the crossover line on, flipped the tank over and was dismayed to see a series of deep, parallel gashes in the paint on the top side, like some malevolent sabre-toothed tiger had taken a swipe at it. The plastic gas cap had shattered all over the floor, but at least the body of it was intact and kept the gas from gushing out the filler hole. I carried on and removed the oil pump cap, cleaned it, wrapped Teflon tape around the threads and reinstalled it tight as I could. Then I took a break and came into the house to warm up... and relate my tale of woe on the CURD forum. And to let the gas fumes in the garage dissipate a bit before going back in to finish the job. After warming up (and cooling off my attitude) it was back into the garage for Round 2. Fortunately everything went well this time and in short order I had the bike back together, with only an ounce or so of gas spilled onto the motor this time. Douk was fired up for a quick leak check, but as the roads were a slushy mess by now I decided to leave the test ride until tomorrow. I still have to investigate the cause of the oil leak under the left side cylinder head, but I'm scared to look for fear of finding more stripped cylinder head studs. More to follow on that when it happens. By the way, that new Duro looks "da bomb" and I'm curious to find out how it handles the deep snow (must remember to take the camera tomorrow). The Uralshina that was stripped from the rim had required 2 1/4oz of weights to balance, while this new Duro only needed a single 1/4oz weight.

Mon, 31 Dec 07: Loaded up HTWD and went out into the fresh 3cm of snow that had fallen overnight, searching for a spot to take a pic that would commemorate a special occasion - the last ride of the year. Found a good location at the start of Blue Mountain Road and made Hector wait while I mucked about setting up the camera on a sign post and setting the timer for the self portrait . As I was doing that, I could hear barking coming from up the road. By the time I had finished the photo shoot, stowed the camera and removed Hector's riding jacket, this little fella showed up to see what we were doing. He approached us cautiously, but with tail wagging and wandered right up to Hector so they could say hello. They got along famously, romping about together and peeing all over everything that wasn't nailed down. After about ten minutes of that, I loaded Hector back into the hack and put his jacket and Doggles on for the trip home. By now I could see the snow on the road beginning to melt, thanks to the overly generous dosage of salt pounded into it from the salt truck, and I wasn't too keen on hanging around until it had turned the surface into a soupy mess. I was just about to fire up the Ural when I noticed Hector's new buddy hanging around the sidecar, trying to get a look at Hector who was now lying down inside. He kept looking to me like he was waiting for permission to come aboard, so I told him it was okay... and he jumped up onto the step and stared at Hector with the most soulful expression I've seen on a mutt in awhile. Clearly, he was not happy about our imminent departure. I reluctantly shooed him away and headed for home. The odometer now reads 37,342km which puts total mileage for the year at 14,365km.

Tue, 01 Jan 08: Happy New Year! It had started to snow in the wee hours of the morning and by the time I headed out on my first ride of the year there was already 15cm on the ground. I knew that this early in the day most of the back roads would be mostly untouched by snowplows, so I decided to go play out in the (hopefully) desolate countryside. Hector was given the day off, as I knew it would be very uncomfortable for him in the sidecar on a day like today. Besides, his brother Jess was at our place, having spent the night with us while my parents were out of town, so Hector still had to play host. As I was warming up the rig outside the garage, my neighbours on both sides came over to tell me I was a "crazy bastard" for going riding on a day like today. But they had undertones of awe in their voices (I think that's what it was, anyway) and they all wished me a safe ride. I think they've finally come to grips with the fact that I'm just not going to get any smarter, so they might as well just humour me. After dropping off last night's rented DVD's at the store (and doing a few donuts in the empty parking lot, to the delight of some patrons at the nearby Tim Horton's), I headed for the Parkway with the intent of taking the back roads to the Rockport Lighthouse as my first stop. The road surface was soft and loose with snow and I was kept at a 60kmh cruising speed by the car in front. I was thinking about where to stop for a self-portrait when I saw the sign for Landon's Bay Lookout coming up, so I slowed down enough to make the turn and then bashed through the snowplow berm and on into the untouched parking lane. There was a stone cairn there with a flat top that would probably be the right height to act as a camera platform, so I pulled up in front of it and got the camera ready. I was just about to set the timer when I heard an approaching vehicle and looked up to see an older Kia Sportage bashing through the snow towards me. It pulled up between the bike and the cairn (ruining the whole photo setup by mucking up all the undisturbed snow) and the grinning driver rolled down the window to greet me with a hearty "You crazy Bastard!" Seems he'd been trying to catch up to me to get a closer look at the rig, so we spent a few minutes doing the usual UDF session. He, too, wished me a safe ride and then gunned it to carry on out the other end of the road. He made it about 10ft in front of the bike when the car suddenly veered to the left and came to a sudden stop - he was hung up on an iced up, snowed over snowplow berm and he wasn't going anywhere. Fortunately, his buddy just happened to be coming down the Parkway on his farm tractor, so he went over to flag him down for a push. He left the dog in the car and as he walked off, it jumped over into the driver's seat and sat there, looking for all the world like HE was the one who got the car stuck. I though it looked kind of funny, so I took a photo. I suited up and got ready to go, but couldn't make a u-turn without the rear wheel spinning and getting bogged down in the deep snow. So I had to put it in neutral and muscle the rig around to point back towards my tracks and the way out. By now the tractor was roaring towards me, so I had to wait for it to pass by before carrying on. Of course, he had to stop in front of me first and tell me, grinning all the while, that I was a "crazy bastard". Whatever, dude. The driver of the Kia wandered up and asked his buddy to move the tractor so I could leave, and once it was clear I slipped the clutch and promptly got stuck once again. The guy was nice enough to give me a push and, once in motion, I was able to motor out of there back onto the Parkway. I gave a toot on the horn and a wave in thanks as I rode off into the distance. After the hamlet of Ivy Lea, I turned off the Parkway and followed some of my fave back roads leading to the Rockport Lighthouse. There were only one or two vehicles that had passed down these roads so far today, so for the most part I was busy trying to keep the Ural aimed between the ruts so as not to get dragged down into them. Finally, the ruts ended and I had the road to myself. I rode a few km's in total solitude, stopping at one point to check the bike over just as a precaution. This is what it looked like. I brushed the snow off as best I could and took a photo of the undisturbed road ahead before continuing on. A little while later, it exited back on to the Parkway, just a few hundred meters from the home of a friend. Ed is one of the Line Mechanics at Trillium (the place that laid me off back in May 07) and he and his lovely wife run a book store out of their home in their spare time. I pulled in, parked, rang the doorbell and was greeted with a "You crazy bastard" as Ed opened the door. We chatted for a bit and I got him to take my picture as proof of today's ride. As we talked, the snow plow came roaring by and I knew that if I wanted to play on any more untouched roads I'd better get moving soon before they were cleared. I said goodbye to Ed and started the return loop of my ride, heading north on the back roads towards HWY 2. I found a couple that had only one set of ruts, almost snowed over by now, so I went bombing merrily along down them. The wind had picked up and there were several spots where drifts had obscured the edges of the road, so I reduced speed to around 40kmh and did the best I could to keep it out of the ditches. I noticed that the bike was starting to feel a bit sluggish and that the exhaust note had changed, clues that the carbs were starting to freeze up. By the time I made it to the HWY 2 intersection, the Ural was running pretty rough, so I shut it down and hopped off for a look. Yep, the carbs were in fact icing over from all the snow packed around them. I ambled over to a nearby bush and snapped off a long twig, then set about poking all the snow off of the motor, transmission, final drive, rear wheel, tail lights and everywhere else it wasn't supposed to be. I also took the opportunity to dig out a wrench and tighten the right side mirror stalk, which had come loose a few km's earlier from all the bouncing about on the hard packed surface underneath all the fresh snow. The highway was in rough shape, it had been recently plowed and salted but there was just too much snow coming down and the pavement was no longer visible. I decided it would be best to cut the trip short at this point, as the winds were getting stronger and visibility was not all that great. After much clutch feathering, body English and standing on the pegs, I was able to break through the snowplpw berm and onto the highway, then I headed for home. It was a bit of a hairy trip home, as most of the oncoming traffic seemed to have no idea where the centerline of the road was and many of them were actually driving right down the middle of the highway. Several times I had to put the sidecar wheel almost into the ditch to avoid getting clipped by a mouth-breathing cager who had no clue how to drive in severe weather conditions. I actually felt I was safer on the Ural than if I had been in my car, because I saw a couple of idiots refuse to move out of the way of an oncoming snowplow. I made it back to Gananoque without incident and pulled into the gas station to top up the tank. Just as I put the nozzle in the filler hole, a pickup truck pulled alongside and the driver rolled down the window. I braced myself for the usual "You crazy Bastard", but was pleasantly surprised when he asked if the bike had any problems handling the snow and then chatted with me for a bit before wishing me a safe ride - and a warning to be on the lookout for snowplows - before driving off. A few minutes later I pulled up in front of our garage door and my first ride of the year was history. The mighty Doukhbor had allowed me to earn my Polar Bear Ride patch once again, third year running.

Tue, 12 Feb 08: Not much to report because, well, I haven't been riding very much lately. Up until a few days ago it had been a very mild winter with lots of snow, which means that every time the white stuff fell all the snow plows would head out and pound the salt onto the roads. This had the undesirable effect of turning them into a soupy, slushy mess for days afterward and it did not make for good times, as I'd end up getting completely soaked and covered in salt after riding only a few blocks. But today was a crisp, cold -14C with fairly dry roads and I took advantage of the conditions to put another 40km on the odometer. Besides, it's my birthday today and I felt like doing something fun to celebrate. The Duro tire on the pusher performs well and so far I am quite happy with it. Seems to bite into the snow and stick to the ice just as well as the Uralshina did and it is supposed to last twice as long for only a few dollars more in cost, so I'm looking forward to seeing how well it holds up in the coming months and miles. Odometer is now at 37,653km.

Sat, 13 Sep 08: Hmmm... long time, no update, eh? My apologies, but life took a few interesting turns earlier this year and the dust is just now beginning to settle after all the recent changes. Douk now has 40,000km on the odometer and now resides in Durham, Ontario, where we have moved to be closer to my new job at the Chapman's Ice Cream factory in Markdale, Ontario. Angie and I were married on 10 Aug and are settling into our new home, a more palatial and majestic residence that will require months of renovations and improvements as we turn it into our dream home. Douk sees regular use almost every day as I commute to work, about a 60km round trip on some beautiful, traffic free, back country roads. Much has happened in the way of repairs and upgrades to my mighty Tourist, including the 8th new alternator coupling installed a few weeks ago. This continues to be the major Achille's Heel of the bike, but at least I have the repair down to a fine art and can change one in well under an hour.

24 Sep 08: I’ve been using the Ural a lot for work commutes since moving to the Grey County area earlier in the year.  I have three main routes to choose from, two fully paved and one consisting of both paved and gravel roads, but there are also several gravel cross-roads that allow me to select from about 8 different combinations in total. All the routes, including the one “adventure” type trail., take no more than 20-30 minutes time to navigate and all of them are pretty much traffic free at all times of the day and night. The only downsides to this are an increased wildlife presence at night and a reluctance to shut the bike off in the parking lot after a great ride to work. The wildlife, which has consisted of regular roadside appearances by raccoons, skunks, rabbits, porcupines, feral cats, deer, squirrels, bigass frogs, wild turkeys, pheasants, garter snakes and ducks, has been somewhat kept at bay with the addition of a set of “deer whistles” mounted on the nose of the sidecar. I have noticed that since installing these whistles that the wildlife seems more prone to run back into the ditch rather than try to cross in front of me now, especially at night. I used to think these whistles were a gimmick, but now I think they actually do serve a purpose. Douk is now whirring away with his 8th alternator coupling. The front brake is getting a little weak now because the rotor is heavily worn and it will be one of the parts slated for replacement during the winter season. Other than a slow signal light flasher that gets slower every day, there are no other issues that need to be addressed in the near future. It’s almost time for the regular 2,500km service, at which point I’ll take a more in-depth look at everything as part of the pre-Winter inspection. The Duro pusher tire still has lots of life left in it at the 7k mark, easily surpassing the longest time an Uralshina ever lasted in that spot (5k). Douk is getting a lot of attention whenever we’re out and about and I’m almost out of brochures and oVc business cards, what with all the UDF sessions I’ve had.

26 Sep 08: One of the few benefits of working the midnight shift is that I get Friday off, from 7am onwards. After a few hours of sleep this morning I decided to do something on this gorgeous, sunny, warm day that I haven’t done in awhile - load The Wonder Dog into the hack and go for a ride. I decided to take the back roads into the next town, Hanover, to visit the NAPA parts outlet and  score a new electronic flasher relay for Douk. We trundled off in the general direction of the town, with Hector’s ears all perky with the promise of a stop for a swim along the way. After an unsuccessful attempt to locate a promising looking spot along the river I’d found a few weeks ago when my son Eric and I were motoring about, I eventually pulled into a signed access point along the Saugeen River and let TWD out for a splash... http://www.curd-riders.ca/misc/forumblog/26sep08.jpg  We carried on into Hanover and pulled into the NAPA parking lot beside a neat old Honda CB750 that had WWID written all over it... http://www.curd-riders.ca/misc/forumblog/26sep08b.jpg  The rider, a grizzled old vet, spent about 20min chatting with me about his bike and took great pride in pointing out all the home-made mods he’d done to it over the years. His shifter peg, for example, consisted of a rubber chair leg tip glued onto a length of copper tubing that was bolted to the shift lever... http://www.curd-riders.ca/misc/forumblog/26sep08c.jpg   He’d had this bike since buying it new back in ‘82 and obviously knew every little nut and bolt on it. He was quite the character, too, and definitely a potential Ural owner. I continued on down the back roads towards home and somewhere along the way I saw two ATV’s pop onto the road about a kilometer ahead of me and then hang a right onto a road that I knew went into one of the Saugeen Managed Forests. I figured they must be going down a trail, so I headed after them to see if it was worthy of an adventure ride. Forgetting that they didn’t have mirrors, I roared down the narrow road until I caught up with the second ATV and then settled down to follow along sedately behind him. He was totally unaware of my existence until he happened to glance over his shoulder for a second look at something he had just passed. His double-take reaction when he saw me was totally priceless; clearly, the last thing on his mind today was to find himself being pursued by a bigass, grinning biker on a sidecar rig with a ferocious looking, Doggle wearing Wonder Dog co-pilot in the chair. He was so surprised that he forgot he was still in motion and the ATV drifted off to the side of the trail, almost headlong into a tree. He finally pulled over to let me pass, but I just waved and shouted at him to “carry on“, and that I was just following to see where the trail led to. Totally speechless, he just nodded and then turned to face the trail ahead and continued on. By now the first ATV rider realised his buddy wasn’t behind him and twisted around in his seat to take a look back. He was not prepared for the sight of his buddy being pursued by a Gestapo staff vehicle and he, too, froze in disbelief. He actually drifted right off the trail, but caught it just in time before piling into the bushes. He then pulled way off  trail to let me by, his face still registering a bemused disbelief at what he was seeing. His buddy tucked in behind him, so I pulled up and shut the rig off to have a chat. I told them I was just following to see if the trail got interesting anywhere ahead and, after a few moments of stunned silence, they finally found their voices. Turns out that the trail we were on skirted the edge of the forest and hooked up with another back road a few km’s ahead. They told me that none of the managed forests in the area allowed any motorised vehicles on them, so after a few minutes of chatting I wished them a good day and backed Douk into a tight 3-point turn, heading back to the road. Just as I rounded a corner I took a look in the mirror - they were just sitting there, still bemused, watching me ride away. I live for this shit! I took one last photo along the trail and then we turned back onto the road and headed for home... http://www.curd-riders.ca/misc/forumblog/26sep08d.jpg

27 Sep 08: I found out today that all Canadian Tire stores are authourised dealers for K&N filters. So, armed with the appropriate part number of the one that will fit an Ural (E-2470), I fired up Douk and motored over to the CT in Hanover. I had a long chat with the guy at the Automotive Parts counter and $38 later I now have one on special order. Should be here within 6-8 days. Thanks to Berger for his "Ural Parts List" posted on our message forum, it was there that I found the K&N number. FYI to anyone about to head to CT to order one; they're going to ask you what vehicle application an E-2470 fits on and you're going to have to tell them a 1956 Harley 1200cc. That will earn you a blank look and an apologetic "Sorry, sir, but we don't stock parts for vehicles that old", at which point you tell them to phone the main CT parts depot and quote the K&N part number. That's when they find out it can be special ordered from the USA and they will then ask you for the full payment up front before they go ahead and order it for you.

10 Oct 08: Took Douk to work yesterday and had a lovely ride home in the cold October rain. Was quite comfy in my rainsuit, camo jacket, electric vest and full face helmet as I motored sedately along the back roads. Somewhere along the way I picked up an escort from West Grey's finest (our township amalgamated a few years ago and the Durham Police Force was renamed to the West Grey Police Service) and he followed me the last 15km or so into the town. For some reason I just knew that he wasn't going to pull me over, I think it's because they all have to drive by our house to get to the back of the police building to park their cruisers at the end of the shift and they know all of my vehicles by now. It was nice to have him behind me, though, as it kept all the tailgating rednecks in pickup trucks and distracted soccer moms in their SUV's at a distance. The J&R air filter is probably due for a cleaning, as the bike felt a bit low on power yesterday and today. Although that might have something to do with the strong headwinds both days, but I have been doing a lot of marauding around on gravel roads lately. A couple of times at the end of a ride I've had to slap the dust from my pantlegs, so I'm guessing the filter must be getting clogged up by now. Haven't heard from Canadian Tire yet about my special order K&N air filter, so I'll have to ride over there tomorrow to see what's up. I'm off work until Monday evening, so I have lots of time for riding this weekend - and for once the weather forecast looks favourable. Had a nice surprise waiting for me after work today - my Angie was sitting on her Harley next to Douk in the parking lot! She had some excellent news, too - after being hit by the massive layoffs at Bell (the fallout from that Teacher's Pension takeover) two months ago, she just landed a great job at RIM (Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry) in Waterloo for $35k more. And she gets a free Blackberry, too.

11 Oct 08: Angie and I went to visit Ken at oVc today, but I opted to take the Harley again instead of the Ural. Had lunch with him and Malcolm at the Official oVc Restaurant and then went back to the shop. I wandered aimlessly about, taking pictures to update the oVc website with, while Angie discussed the layout of his new shop sign (he's commissioned her to paint a large sign to be hung outside above the garage door). While there were lots of bikes rumbling by the whole time we were there, very few took the time to stop in. None of them were CURDites. When we got home I decided to lube the throttle cable on Douk as I had noticed it becoming harder to twist lately. Good thing I did this, because I discovered the reason why it was harder to operate was the protective rubber sleeves had disintegrated on the splitter body and the cables from there to both carbs were rusted and about to seize up. Fortunately, I always carry a spare throttle (and clutch cable) and a few minutes later had the new one installed. Then I dusted off the Slack Tube Manometer and went about synching the carbs. With the freshly cleaned and oiled J&R air filter installed and the new cables, the bike should run better now. I think I'll take TWD out for a cruise tomorrow to make sure.

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