Went on really great ride over the 24th weekend, state holiday. My son in law & a co-worker have been thinking on this for a month.
The last ride shown left out the headgasket blowing near the end of the ride on the kx250. It was bought for like $350 & superglued back together to nurse along till cash was available for the rebuild. The guy who owned it before stripped near everything he touched & I knew the head stud thread was loose but Cody , no hands co-worker , said "I wanna ride". Needless to say a full rebuild is underway. Problem though, the cylinder wouldn't be back from the plater till the day we wanted to leave.
Enter Black Betty. I've had an AF cr500 , 2003 cr250r chassis, I've been puttering with for the last 2 years with the intention of selling when finished to help fund other projects. Didnt really want to sell , hence the 2 years. So Cody needs a ride "here take the rmx250, I can finish the AF in a weekend"
Weekend comes , goes, not running yet.
Wednesday
12 hour days wear on a guy ,but ,I got it Thursday night before we plan to leave Friday. 30 minute test ride , were good to go
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Friday morning, pre-leave bike inspection. Oh yeah I did put the RMX away with a flat front tire. No problem got a new front tube laying around. Get it changed, just as I finish tightening the axle nut , thud, off the stand up shoots the front brake lever. No spare... Do have a couple different master cylinders though. Ok now that's fixed
In the mean time my son in law , Indi, goes to tighten loose voltage regulator bolts on his klr 650. Pop, broken bolt in the frame. Not my day already as I'm in charge of repairs. One more fix done 2 1/2 hrs behind schedule on a 200+ mile day , with newb rider son in law. We will get there.
Back story on the son in laws bike. His Dad's buddy gave it to him, a klr650 with less than 6000 miles. It was a mess, the air box was removed & a metal battery box was welded in eliminating the place for the factory air filter. Not a problem though cause they put a 2-stroke mikuni in there so they couldn't run it. While the welder was attaching the airbox , you'd think they had the welder handy , they could have fixed the cracked sub-frame. Any we got the bike to a running state a little over a month ago. I "volunteered" to test run it & see that it was okay for him to ride. Between the test run & the previous run I was building our loop, richfield to bullfrog lake powell, bullfrog back up over hells back bone through antimony back to richfield. The pics I have are from the previous ride & test ride of the klr650, with the AF build & the morning repairs I spaced the camera.
Friday morning during repairs, gotta get my grandson hooked young.
The plan is just head east, all of it previously scouted with ease for distance travel in mind. Last look back toward home, up near lost creek reservoir.
It always amazes me the diversity of flowers, if you tried to grow all these in one grouping...
This shot here I have in duplicate from other trips, just a really breath taking spot in person
We part the the two mountains above & drop down into this which way do we go quagmire
Beavers apparently like to d**n up the pond & flood trails around here too. 100 yards of wet bowling balls
The beaver ponds are quite nice, in the early fall there is a bunch of pink lily type flowers in bloom all across it. This be the lunch spot
Lunch over quickly, no time to dink around as we're behind schedule. On to more water crossing. This is 2 crossings on one stream the first one is 6-8 inches ,cake, the second not so much.
On the recognizance run, I sucked water , the klr650 with no fender throws water into the airbox. Stalled here, least it wasn't midstream.
I had to push the fat pig up this to roll start it & get it running again.
Pic from the last of the fishlake range looking over cathedral valley out to the Henry mountains
Dropping from the 10,500 ft forest into 4000 ft desert just really feels like home for me.
I waste so much time pulling the map for crap like this that isn't on my delorme map. Right left no right wait left yeah left
Cathedral is sweet
On the way out you take the now entering pic right? Drove really nice through the park & was chomping at the bit. From here I left the guys the behind for bit. The sandy fire roads on the 500 were awesome, that section made it for me. Nearing the highway I wait & wait for them to catch up. At this point it's time for fuel check on the 250. 2 & 1/2 gallons . The 500 7 & 1/2, not to mention tires. About 10 total to bullfrog for the 500, thanks for carrying my fuel guys. Could have burnt more though. The klr 3.5 to bullfrog, surprised me the 250 driven nice could stay close in mpg.
I didn't give my cohorts this pleasure, but coming out of the mountains into the desert it was HOT
Hit a down grade on the notem road, hiccup 4 cycling 2-stroke. Wringgggnnnch. Down shift, okay still running. What was that. Get on it a mile or 2 later after my sphincter unknots, wringggch. Ok I got a problem. I jetted it rich for the new motor & first real ride. It didn't even start to run till cathedral , piston still moving check. My guess is the rod that seemed tight & good wasn't. Don't know , ain't gonna tear it down & fix it yet as It prevents me from selling it. Did manage to nurse it to bullfrog on an idle all the way though. The wife was there waiting to camp for a 2 nights with all our camping gear, looks like she'll haul me home.
Proof I made it right?
Indi & Cody did turn around after the previous day's ride of 10 1/2 hours, for a return trip up the burr trail, over hells backbone across the Escalante range & the rest of the previous scouting trip. So back up the notom rd
Up this sweet piece of twisty
Through a winding canyon that reminds me of Zions without all the tourists then into Boulder
Out of Boulder up over hells backbone, huge , pics don't even touch it. I was sketchy riding after seeing it with my fear of heights & all. Really though the highway from Boulder to Escalante is a funner ride, twisty ridge lines & elevation changes... Not for dirt bikes though
