1979 Honda XL500s – Page 3 – Not Your Average Engineer

January 20, 2012

Flooding Along the Marys River

Today I went out on the Gangly Giraffe to look at the flooding caused by the Marys River between Philomath and Corvallis. The video above has highlights of the whole trip including fording the various flooded roads. Below are photos of those roads.

At 53rd south of the bridge over the Marys River. The water had gone down significantly since yesterday.

I walked out a ways to see if I could ride through the water. I thought I could but then changed my mind halfway across when it suddenly got much deeper and more swift.

On Belfountain Highway.

Lots of cars going very slow through here. This was flooded out yesterday to the point no one could get through.

Cars taking it slow.

The field turned into a river.

At Llewellyn Road. The water was too deep and swift for even big trucks to get through.

Yesterday the road was overtopped the whole way along.

At 15th and Chapel Drive in Philomath. Yesterday my bike would have been underwater.

No one will be going through here for a few days.

Pretty deep. I decided to go around the water.

Out on Airport Road.

Underneath my summer mesh riding gear I had a full wetsuit to keep warm in the water. I also was wearing heavy rubber diving boots. It worked well to keep me warm even going through deep water. Before my next sojourn through flooded roads, I need to reconfigure the air intake on my bike so that it is not at as much risk of sucking water into the engine. The spray from the front tire above about 7 mph directly hits the air intake area.

November 20, 2011January 3, 2012

Things to Repair on the Gangly Giraffe

Riding the Gangly Giraffe in the snow yesterday, I came up with the following list of things that I would like to fix/repair on the bike before I undertake any major rides. These are rank ordered by priority. The top four or five are high priority while the rest are of decreasing importance. I need to bring the Gangly Giraffe into my apartment soon so that I can disassemble it and start figuring out exactly what parts I will need to buy. UPDATE: I have fixed all high priority items. Pretty much everything else is cosmetic or for my curiosity only.

Replace right shock upper bolt and washer that were lost on the snow ride. Check to make sure all the rubber pieces are there. I found a rubber collar on the ground by the bike that is now sitting next to my desk. – FIXED
Fix rear tire shimmy. Probably something to do with the axle/bearing. Could also be the chain catching. Need to drop out the rear wheel and inspect everything. – FIXED
Replace tail light bulb. The running light is out. – FIXED
Lube the decompression cable and check the whole decompression system. – FIXED
Replace all top-end seals. Looks like several seals are leaking oil. – UPDATE: a very small seep is coming from the head cover and head gaskets. There is also a small seep from the decompression valve shaft. Nothing is bad enough to warrant repairs. As long as I keep an eye on the oil level, it shouldn’t matter.
Repair exhaust leak on muffler.
Hunt down electrical problems that sometimes cause the fuse to blow out. – FIXED
Lube all control cables. – FIXED
Check all bolts to make sure that they are tightened properly. – FIXED
Clean oil screen in crank case.
Rebuild front shocks.
Take care of rust issues on fuel tank.
Take care of rust issues on wheels and spokes.
Recover seat and replace foam.
Procure extra tire tubes, tire patches, tire spoons, small air pump, slime, etc… to patch tires as needed on the road.
Get extra fuses to keep on the bike.
Build up a toolkit for the bike.

November 19, 2011

Dual Sporting in the Snow on Marys Peak

Today Drew and I went on a little adventure up on Marys Peak.

We took our dual sports out in search of snow.

We found quite a bit of it. It got thicker the higher we went.

Just after the pull-out where everyone goes shooting on Marys Peak, I lost a bolt that holds the right shock in place on my Gangly Giraffe. Without the bolt, the shock popped off the bike. I hiked up and down the road a few times but couldn’t find where the thing had gone.

In order to stay upright in the snow, we used our feet like outrigger skis. It actually worked surprisingly well. Drew only spilled once when going over a small tree and did zero damage to himself and his bike. I didn’t spill at all but did nearly lose it many times.

So I improvised with some zip ties that Drew had in his rear box.

Yes, the shock is held in place with zip ties. Yes, it held all the way back to Corvallis. Some people in huge, jacked-up pickups stopped and lent me a flat blade screwdriver so I could remove the side cover and make this improvised repair. Thanks pickup truck guys!

Rather than take our chances going up to the top of Marys Peak, we turned off on Forest Road 30 that runs down the south and west flanks of Marys Peak to Harlan. Shortly after this picture, a jacked up pickup passed us. The kids driving it said “y’all are CRAZY!” We said “YES WE ARE!”

The face of epic adventure.

Camera man.

Lots of snow everywhere. We ended up getting back into town MUCH later than expected. The lost bolt and low-level snow slowed us down significantly. After I repair the Gangly Giraffe, I think that I might try to take it all the way to the top of Marys Peak in the snow. It’s definitely doable. It is just a matter of taking it slow and using my feet like skis. I have to say that this was one of the more epic things I’ve done on a motorcycle.