A Small Trip Down Memory Lane

As I was scrolling through the few files saved from my hard drive...the one with seven years worth of pictures that are now all gone...I came across this picture of me on my 1st bike. Ah, the old FZR. The frustrating times we had. I do, however, fondly remember learning to ride. Zipping through my yard, dust flying. Occasionally taking a grassy turn a tad to fast and skidding through the dust and grass on my back (sometime stomach) shortly followed by my bike, dust and grass also flying. *sigh* Those were the days...before power outages while traveling on the interstate and lights constantly drooping to the ground underneath the bike. That reserve tank was pretty handy, too.

Throwback Thursday...two days late. WeverTF Throwback Thursday is...

Blueberry finally got an oil change! As I lay on the ground one foot clenched to the seat the other pushing against the rear tire while I tried prying off the baked on oil filter I realized that consistency isn't one of my mechanical strong points. Either I'm getting weaker or my bike is getting stronger.  After much pleading, begging, apologizing, and a few explicit terms, the oil filter was finally in my oily hands. When it comes to mechanical and painting hobbies, I've learned that oil and paint are magnetically drawn to me. There is no staying clean. It goes against gravity. Nice to know the universe thought of me while planning out universal laws. Somewhere in between the begging and pleading, probably during the sobbing, I noticed just how much TLC Blue needs. After a couple of rides throughout the week, Blue has been retired to the garage until things get done. *blubbering* On the bright side, I now have an excuse to buy a couple of tools I've been wanting for a while.

So after the five stages of grieving were done, Blueberry and I went to check out an old cemetery on the other side of the Wichita Mountains. I think only a few people know my fascination with old country cemeteries. Well, until now. So anywho, there I was cruising down a dirt road with bumps (those were consistent) the size of surfable waves going somewhere under 10 mph being passed by ratty old farm trucks. Okay, so it was only one ratty old farm truck, but one was enough. I probably could have pushed Blueberry faster. Hm, there's that hindsight again. I was surprised by the cobblestone gate some community members had taken the time to construct. Wind chimes were hanging in the cemetery. Next to the cemetery in Cement which houses a car cemetery right next door, this was the best country cemetery. How nice to have a resting place in such a peaceful setting with such an amazing view of the Wichitas. Speaking of cemeteries, there's one in OK somewhere that states the woman was killed by werewolves or something creepy like that. I think that one and the grave of the horse which played Mister Ed are going to be worth the trip. Moving on to less creepy things...

Lately my rides have been limited to the Wichita Mountains and to school. I'm at the point, schedule wise, that 50 miles is 50 mile no matter if there's a pesky class in between. But, when you're riding around at 10 PM and you tend to freeze to death when temps drop below 65 degrees, 50 miles feels like 50 miles. You don't realize just how airy summer gloves are until you're wearing summer gloves at 10 PM in 30 something degrees because you couldn't find your winter ones. At that point, 50 miles sure does seem like 50 miles. Thankful all my fingers and toes are still functioning. It did make me wonder just how I survived without proper riding gear all those years. Mind over matter, I'm assuming.

In other nonrelated news, I've been working on my other blog Beauty in Oklahoma. If you're interested in local type stuff and all that jazz, check that out. I'll probably be focusing on it a little more while Blueberry is grounded. You'll probably read about my DIY mechanical adventures. Not sure I'm ready for those. Wish me luck and no extra parts.
Fasching is here once again! It's already been another year! I've been offered another short belly dancing spot in the Fasching schedule. Super excited to be part of the 2nd annual Fasching event hosted at Mutti's German Restaurant. Well, I probably ought to go practice my routine considering the Fasching party is tonight.

Until next time,  keep calm and ride on!


WGR


This blog is brought to you by the lovely (biased opinion, we know) Stone Turtle – Lodging, a small family owned and operated hotel / lodging business near Lawton, Oklahoma, Fort Sill,  the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Meers and Medicine Park. Yeah, that’s right we’re a small lodging business close to all the awesomeness Oklahoma has to offer!!

 

Have a great weekend, y'all! Blueberry and I have a riding date! And, an oil change date.

Another wonderful weekend gone by

Ah, April is passing me by way too fast. In between colds, paper stress, and odd weather, April hasn't seen a lot of riding. The weather gods were on my side a couple of weekends ago as I was able to ride over to Lake Lugert...or Lake Altus as I tend to call it. Yes, I will rename things, places, and people. I was also able to bless the Wichita Mountains with my presence. If that's not the recipe for an awesome weekend, then I don't know what is. 

On Saturday, a rider from OKC was planning on coming down to ride through the Wichita Mountains before heading to the Quartz Mountains. Perfect opportunity, I thought, to get my newbie rider, who bought the Harley a little while ago, an opportunity to feel what it really means to ride. This ties in with my strong belief that anything under 50 miles is not a ride. Granted, lately my rides are in the 50-70 mile range. Somewhat depressing, I agree. The meetup time was flexible and the location was set for Mt. Scott. My friend got off to a little later start in OKC. I found it a little tricky trying to figure out when to leave or tell the Lawton rider to meet-up since I didn't really know a time. When in doubt, just bombard; I played massive text message notification specialist keeping the Lawton rider up to date. After which I was told I did a better job on status update than Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Not sure if that was a compliment... When in doubt, always accept such comments as compliments. 

The weather report stated something about temperatures in the upper 70s and lower 80s. I don't know why I'm still persuaded by such lies; nevertheless, I wore light layers and my summer Icon jacket with the lining. I did regret this choice once I realized that even lower 70s was not going to happen. I left a little earlier so I could continue my boycott of a specific gas station. Lawton rider pulled in to the parking lot shortly after I did. Sometimes life just works out that way when one doesn't stress over things. As we chatted and got ready to leave, the OKC Buell cruises by us. Perfect, I'm not going to be late for one. I figured we'd meet in the parking lot on Mount Scott, which is why I was surprised to find OKC digging through his millions of saddlebags right at the base and in a turn. After the surprise diminished and bugged-out eye to brake-hand reaction was implemented, full brakes were applied...and all went well. I do have a way with brakes.

To make the weather situation a tad bit worse, the wind picked up. I don't know what happened to my layering skills, but they seem to have done gone and left. OKC had his breakfast sitting on top of Mount Scott in good company might I add. I thought of doing the same; however, that seemed like a lot of unnecessary extra work. Laziness, eh? From Mount Scott we made out way to Roosevelt, OK (see Cold Springs...sort of). We took a short break to fuel up and have some coffee. Meanwhile the battery of the Buell was being sucked dry, lawnmowers were driven to the gas station to be fueled, and an Indian (the country) bus with tourists pulled in. All in a short  of time in a small Oklahoma town. I never expect small towns with nothing (no Main Street, or town square) to be so full of interesting things.Who would have thunk that one could hear four languages (German, Indian, English, and Oklahoman) in such a God forsaken town? Ah, to be proven wrong on a frequent basis...

Yup, all the juice was gone. There was none left to be had. How a battery can be so sick of life (or us), I do not know. How to rectify the situation? Brainstorming time. The guys thought while I watched. My forecast for thinking was mostly cloudy with 5% of brainstorming success, so I let it be. Two solutions presented themselves. We could try push starting the Buell or we could jump-start the Buell. I certainly didn't have any cables, and OKC with all his saddlebags, backpacks, and tank-packs didn't have any either. I guess he's not Mary Poppins after all. That was quite a shock to find out; I might need therapy. 

Push starting it was! Lawton and I watched once as OKC tried it himself. Maybe that was a little cruel (there's that hindsight again), but it was worth the amusement. We then decided to help. I didn't bother taking off any gear because I thought the benefit of the doubt might play in my favor. In all my blueness (blue helmet, blue jacket, blue jeans) and pink laces, OKC and I pushed and chased after the Buell in the gas station parking lot. We ran from one end to the other with little success and an out-of-breath blogger. As I was gasping for air, we opted to try once more. We pulled the Buell back to the other end of the parking lot for another try. OKC sitting on his dead steed, and Lawton and I fully clad in armor began the journey to the other end. Lawton has way longer legs than I do, and it was like an ant trying to keep up with a giant while trying to hold on to the Buell to avoid a face-pavement boxing match. My dragging along behind the machine probably didn't help. Then again, my deadweight dragging along couldn't have been worse than the saddlebags...the saddlebags! We should have unloaded the pack mule! I would have been a good sport and offered to try once more (that must be the stubbornness people keep referring to...), but the others saw no use. 

Plan B. It's always good to have back-up plans. Since none of us actually had jumper cables, we began asking everyone who came to the gas station for a set. It's either very shocking how no one carries a set of jumper cables (in a farm town, really?) or how unwilling small town folks are to help. Which was it? I don't know. It looked like more brainstorming was needed. I sat this one out, too. Turns out physical exertion decreases brainstorming success, so I stuck to watching all the pretty cars drive by. The guys went into the gas station and asked the clerk if she happened to have any jumper cables. They were back out so fast that I didn't need to ask what happened. She did, however, mention that we could buy a set. After 10 minutes of contemplating and not wanting to buy, our German Lawton rider disappeared back into the gas station. Five minutes later, the clerk came out of the glassy doors where she probably amusingly watched us desperately run from one end of the parking lot to the other closely followed by a grinning German. I don't know how he did it nor do I think I want to know (ignorance is bliss), but he managed to charm the clerk to check in her car to see if she did have her set of jumper cables with her. Something she hadn't been willing to do 5 minutes earlier... How d...Nope, don't wanna know. I have no idea how he did it, but can I get me some of that? As our luck would have it, she didn't have any jumper cables. Charmer that he is, he bought the jumper cables, we jumped the Buell off of Blueberry, and then he returned the cables. Those Germans do have some skills and Roosevelt was left with another unique impression (German charm) for the books.

We cruised through Blair on our way to the Quartz Mountains which is where we went our separate ways. Lawton and I checked out the beach and the resort. I was ecstatic to find a marble in the sand among the millions of rocks, bottle caps, and weird things close to the water. Since water levels have receded so much and with the thought 'who plays marbles these days?,' I've convinced myself that the marble dates back to the range of 1900s-1950s. The fact that the marble also looks much like the marbles we found on the farm dating from that time, only seals the deal. What does it mean when you find your marbles instead of losing them?

Click here for the WGR Facebook album.

Belated 3 Year Anniversary Ride

So the idea that women never forget anniversaries is not applicable to me. I'm sorry, Blueberry! I couldn't imagine owning another bike. At least not at this point in time. Still a little curious about cruisers, but not curious enough to where I'd want to trade in Blue. To another year of awesome rides!

Another hike and ride

2 rattlesnakes, one buffalo, a couple bad-ass rock "cavern" systems, millions of daddy long-legs, and a nest of bats. Yup, I'd say it was a pretty good walk in the refuge. Not to mention the awesome ride. Blueberry is nice and clean (or was) because I finally got around to cleaning it. Love my life.

Found the bat cave... First hike on the refuge where I've run into bats. They were adorable.

Excuse my dirty helmet. Had a passenger on the ride home! Luck be a lady...

More pictures can be found on WGR's Facebook page!

What I love about Oklahoma

 

Is that Oklahoma offers amazing riding weather almost 365 days a year!

Route 66...well sort of

A title of Pop's Diner would be more appropriate. So we had a meet and greet for the Riders in OK group; only 11 riders made the effort of meeting up at Pops. The 6 of us who rode out from Lawton logged about 280 miles. That's what I call a decent ride!  Had to take I-35 to help cut down on time (it was already a 2 hour ride one-way).

 

So we took the back roads up to I-35.

 

Pop's was CRAZY busy. And, since we couldn't agree on what to do, we waited forever on a table. Next time I will remember to back a granola bar. Yeah... my priorities before leaving the house were 1) coffee, 2) workout, and 3) check tire inflation (yes, I learned my lesson).

 

These two Lawton riders' bikes almost make me want to buy a chopper...I think I'd look like a dope on one, though. The bike on the right has some pretty bad-ass detail (see album).

 So after we ate, OKC and Lawton riders went separate ways. We caught I-40 (never been on this hwy) and rode out to Hinton. Finally got to see the other half of Hinton. I liked the first half better. With some more time, we could have taken the back roads to Hinton, too. But, time was fleeting. Had some riders who hadn't been out this way before so I had to take them down into Red Rock Canyon State Park. From I-40 and the hwy going through Hinton, you'd never guess such cool landscape existed.

Even got to ride through Apache's Rattlesnake Festival. I need to mount a camera holder on Blueberry somehow so I can take pictures while I ride (sounds safe, doesn't it?). We rode through Binger, Fort Cobb, and some other places where I usually would have wanted to stop, but, yeah...

More pictures are on Facebook!

No more sloppy corners!

Not gonna lie, I kind of miss my blue sprockets...

 

Holy Cripes! My rims are dirrrrty.

Happy to have my Blueberry back and running like a champ (well, except for all those other parts I ought to replace...the benefits of owning a bike, eh?)!

Another Day Another Ride

Yup. I found myself (once yet again) in Cooperton.

Blueberry!

I don’t know what it is with me and this town. I always ride there and have the same damn picture. Note to self: Next time move Blueberry 4 feet to the right…
Welcome to Cooperton!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday! ~ D & Blueberry

The Longest Tune-Up Ever

That's what Blueberry's tune-up has become. I've been tinkering around here and there. Okay, I've also been putting it off since I've never changed the spark plugs on a newer bike before. So I pried off the lower, middle, and upper fairings on both sides. A note on the upper fairings: they suck. Not really, but watch out for those annoying "clips" There are 4 under the nose that need to be removed before it can pop off. It's extremely sad that something so simple can make me feel so stupid. (In the mean time, I have mastered those simple clips. Yay for Blondie!) After reading on some forums (mainly this Godsend), I determined that I ought to be fine with the tools I have. I drained the coolant (for the flush I plan on doing) and lowered the radiator in order to get to the spark plugs a little better. I've learned a couple of things:
1. It's a good idea to take off the radiator.
2. Ignition coils annoy me.
It's a tight fit. It took me a while to determine the proper combination of extensions as well as convince the ignition coils they were going to behave. Since all the fairings are off, I think I'll go ahead give 'em a good wash and wax.

I haven't terrorized the streets in forever! Hoping to get the flush and plugs done before the weekend is over. Looking for some good riding locations. Suggestions???

So...

It helps if one takes the silencer out. Good to know.

Leo Vince Exhaust

Stock Exhaust

It's been forever since I've posted. Hell, it's been forever since I've left my house. My battery totally died last Sunday (RIP you crappy battery), and I went a little crazy shopping for parts.
Let's see. Blueberry's 2 year anniversary tune-up will include:

• A new battery (Yay for power!)
• A coolant flush (Did you know that flies love Engine Ice?)
• NGK spark plugs
• Chain tightening
• A new pulse generator (Only because the current one's leak is starting to gush rather than trickle)
• And a Leo Vince slip-on exhaust. 

 The exhaust was here before my pulse generator and battery made it, so I put it on right away. No amusing anecdotes from that adventure. However, it wasn't until I was totally psyched and tried pushing the start button, that I realized no battery = no power.

So, I impatiently waited on my battery...

Blueberry Anniversary is Drawing Nigh

We've been inseparable for almost 2 years. Miles logged thus far: 27,517.

Showing some German pride

July 1st is when I bought Blueberry(...I think). Any bets on Blueberry mileage by July 1st, 2011?

Blueberry Apparel

I received the coolest gift today! I wasn't lied to when told that it "screams Dani," because who else could where this sweatshirt but me?

Blueberry's 1st Mod

Yes, Blueberry finally got it's first modification: a driven 520 conversion kit. -1+2. And, it's blue. And, there's no more weird noise (a major perk).

So maybe changing the chain and sprockets the day before a major ride wasn't the greatest idea in the world. There's that hindsight thing again. But, it's not every day where a mechanically inclined friend is around to help you change your chain and sprockets. At least not every day in my world which is surrounded by cats. Just call me Little Edie. And, not the Drew Barrymore version of Little Edie. If you're gonna watch Grey Gardens, watch it right.

So it wasn't the most opportune time, but it was a time, nonetheless. We pulled off my old chain with a little drill-bit blade. Pulled off both sprockets. Put the new sprockets on and everything around it back on only to have to take it all back off. It wasn't until we were ready to put the chain on when I realized that I needed a chain-riveting tool. Yup. There I was with no back tire on my bike. And even if I had the back tire on, I wouldn't be able to go anywhere without a chain. So I did some major texting to try to track down a rider with this tool. I even found one who would loan it to me. Turns out that just because it looks like a great fit, don't cut the chain until absolutely certain. And, even IF you are certain, don't do it! It ended up being a few tiny millimeters too short. No pulling, stretching, dragging, squeezing, or praying could change that. Figures that all this would happen on a Sunday. A day where no local bike shop is open. A day where nothing wanted to go right. That's the kind of day it was.

Time to brainstorm...once again. It dawned on me that Cyclegear may sell master-links. I called the OKC branch and asked them to hold two master-links for me. So we had an unexpected 150 mile total road trip to take. For a couple of master links. Driving to OKC just for 8 oz of metal really is not my style. But, I wasn't about to let the possibility of a Talimena road trip slip through my fingers. While at Cyclegear, I also got oil and an oil filter for my next oil change. At least I didn't drive up for just 8 oz of metal. Back at the house, we put the chain and wheel back on Blueberry. So what if my chain now has two master-links instead of one. It's a frickin' blue chain! Looking back it probably also wasn't the brightest idea to test out a new chain so far away from home. Good thing these things never cross my mind when they ought to.

Lessons I've learned from this modification:
◦You need a chain rivet tool
◦Just because it looks like you can take one more link out, DON'T!
◦Buy an extra master link...or two.
◦When tightening the master link with the rivet tool, loosen the tool periodically and make sure the link's not on too tight.