purplebeast

Yup....over an hour north of Toronto. And you are correct....at least this year, sure doesn't feel like Spring yet. Long, hard winter this year.

What did I do to my GG today? Topped up the tank, dressed up and rode it in ice and snow in the county forest! It was just too nice out. So I rode it out to 2nd line and back, following the dirt road in the Drury 1 county forest trackt, and the groomed 2-track snowmobile trails. Slippery as ****! But never dumped it. Put a foot down more times than I can count, but man, that's a good way to learn to "feel" your bike, when you have no front or rear wheel traction on ice and slushy snow! I headcam'ed the whole trip....not sure I'll post it though..... Still and all...it was a great to be on two wheels! Maybe Spring is finally springing in my neck of the woods.....

My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, 'Do you want to have Sex?' 'No,' she answered. I then said, 'Is that your final answer?' ... She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, 'Yes..' So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend." And that's when the fight started... ________________________________ I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. "I'll have the rump steak, rare, please." He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah, she can order for herself." And that's when the fight started..... _____________________________ My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table. I asked her, "Do you know him?" "Yes", she sighed, "He's my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn't been sober since." "My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" And then the fight started... ________________________________ When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer.. Always something more important to me. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway." The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp. _____________________________ My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, "What's on TV?" I said, "Dust." And then the fight started... ________________________________ Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back; now with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible." My loving wife of 5 years replied, "And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?" And that's how the fight started... _______________________________ My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds." I bought her a bathroom scale. And then the fight started...... ______________________________ After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later. The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too.' And then the fight started... ________________________________ My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to me, "I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' I replied, "Your eyesight's damn near perfect." And then the fight started........ ________________________________ I rear-ended a car this morning...the start of a REALLY bad day! The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!! He looked up at me and said 'I am NOT Happy!' So I said, 'Well, which one ARE you then?' That's how the fight started. ________________________________ One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift... The next year, I didn't buy her a gift. When she asked me why, I replied, "Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you last year!" And that's how the fight started.

I figure I don't ride a chainsaw (sounds painful!), so I'm not gonna put chainsaw oil on my GG or YZ. I use Belray Chain stuff on my bike(s).....made for dirt bikes, not chainsaws or lawn equipment. I also figure that crap grease is just that....crap. My bike are worth a lot of bucks and I want to keep 'em running well, so they only get the best! I tend to use good oils/greases on them. For the amount I go through, it's cheap at the price and I have the peace of mind that the bikes will last. For example, in my premix I only use full synthetic Belray H1R.....figure the extra slipperiness doesn't hurt and may extend engine life. Cheaper than a new bike. I also use full synth in my truck too for the same reason. Kind of like using 10w30 in the bedroom instead of KY. Might not lighten the wallet as much, but if you wanna ride a lot, the few extra pennies may pay dividends! LOL

Replaced the normal push button kill switch with a magnetic lanyard based on on my '02 TXT Pro. So she should be feeling good with the extra bit of attention! I've been ignorring the trials bike for too many weeks, and instead riding the enduro bike....gotta fix that this weekend. Also picked up some 5.5' diameter tractor tires to replace the smaller ones I have in my obstacle course. That's gonna take some serious digging, 'cause their going in endurocross-style...vertical! Also need to arrange for 10 cubic yards of dirt to fill and finish the splatter training wall too.

Went out for some fun on mine yesterday late afternoon, before heading to see the new Star Trek movie. Now I want warp drive on my GG! Tried out the big log on my obstacle course, now that I've removed the smaller kicker logs. No problem...no noticeable difference! Also played on my new log pyramid, which is 3 high. Built that a few days ago, since I had to take out a large ailing pine tree on the property. Then headed over to the county forest to inspect the damage inflicted on our single track trails by the loggers. Pretty bad.....they trashed the first portion of the trail badly. But I've found out that cut log piles make fun trials obstacles to ride over! One of the only good points of loggers! Ugh!

Rode mine the other day to check out the damage caused by loggers on some of the local single track. Most of our trails are still rideable....for now!

Once I got my enduro bike back together (YZ250...been wrenching on it since last Friday), the GasGas 280 TXT Pro was looking might jealous, so I installed some Vmar bar risers, with a 10mm extra rise. Looking forward to trying that out, once this damned snow melts and Spring really starts. The new risers are red anodized and look sharp on the bike. So the GG ain't jealous any more....

Moved mine over a bit so that I would have room to work on my and my buddy's enduro bikes. But before I did, I managed to finally get an ownership on it, and a green plate (offroad plate)....so now I can ride it legally on county trails this season! Yay!

Did a bit of static balancing on the 280 yesterday.....then relaxed with a beer watching Vol 4 of Shane Watts' DirtWise Advance Riding techniques, before leaving the garage to make a big bowl of popcorn to go with a few more beers while watching the Indy Supercross. I thought about swapping the winter air in the tires (or tyres as you Pommies would say) for summer air, but given that it's supposed to snow every day this coming week, and it sounded like too much work, I left it be.

After working out, I did some static balancing yesterday. Squeezed the clutch and brake levers a few times, and stomped on the rear brake for good measure. Quite satisfying....I hope all that squeezin' doesn't make me go blind! Hoping for an early spring thaw...

Since I live in Ontario, Canada and am in Rhode Island, USA till late next week, I just fantasized about squeezing my clutch lever.

Had someone coming to look at purchasing my nephew's CR85R that he outgrew a few years ago (he's on a KX125 these days)....so I took the time to drain some carb float bowls, since it's been -20C or colder overnight the past few nights and I have a few feet of snow down. Can't ride....might as well wrench and hibernate the bikes till the spring thaw. So the 280 TXT Pro's float bowl is dry now. Once I finished that, I did some static balancing on it. Well....I tried to static balance...didn't do so good. Haven't been on it since well before Xmas, so need to practice up more. Oh....and gave both the clutch and brake levers a few squeezes. That felt good! Time for a Guinness and a few episodes of Sons of Anarchy, Season 2 on the tube!

I find it amusing all the theorizing that folks like to throw out on oil ratios and the like. I just leave it to the experts, and pretty much run what the manufacturer recommends. 80-1 in my '02 GG TXT Pro and 40-1 in my YZ250. I'm an average rider, and always use high quality synthetic, so figure that the recommendations will work fine for me and using high quality oil buys me a bit of extra "insurance". So far they have. Like many hear have noted, jetting properly seems to have more impact on spooge out the back and/or crud build up on the piston than overall mix ratio.

Rolled my GG back a foot, so I could wheel out the Road King for a prospective buyer to see. Then rolled it back. Didn't even unlock the cables that go to shackles in the floor. I did, however, ride yesterday. Few hours on the ATV with the blade plowing snow. Ugh! Though XC skiing after in the county forest was nice. Maybe next week I'll pull the forks and change the seals and fluid out. Or maybe I'll just sit in my easy chair with a glass of single malt and watch the snowflakes come down.