HWY 221 ZRXOA Fall Rally Eureka Springs (09/24/10)

Following Neal back to Eureka Springs from Brushy's Corner after Roland's off.

Push Mountain Rd. ZRXOA Fall Rally Eureka Springs (09/23/10)

Push Mountain Rod. from HWY14 heading north, running it to just over the crest of the hill.

SUFJAN STEVENS

If you see one show this year, I can almost bet it will NOT be this one. You'll be missing something though. I had a coworker ask me to go to this so I checked his older stuff out on the net. Had plenty of banjo in it, so I thought, "What the heck for $35." All his stuff last night was new - and in Sufjan's words and my opinion - experimental. I knew almost nothing that was played. However, I can say that this was probably the best live show I have ever attended in my life. I had made this decision about three songs into the evening. There just seemed to be a tremendous energy in the music. At times, I would think, why do I like this so much? What are they doing up there that I dig so dang much? And it wasn't the banjo, because he put that down after this first song and never touched it again the rest of the night. What a fantastic show. Just amazing.

New Radiator Installed Successfully.

I received the new radiator in the mail Monday. Installed it Wednesday with no real problems. I put straight water in there, though Jody very wisely told me that I should be careful just not to tell anyone that. Thanks for the tip, Jody. Anywho, I rode the bike to work Friday and maybe put a total of 35 to 40 miles on the bike like that.
So today I took the time to flush the system and put the proper coolant and water mix in there. Figured I would share the process. I was able to pull the tank BACK about 6 to 10 inches and didn't even need to pull it completely off the bike....that way I was able to use the fuel source as a fuel source without rigging something up. No one has ever mentioned this, but it works fine as long as you take the fuel drain line off the back of the tank. That's all you need to disconnect. And with the bike on the rear stand, you can turn the handle bars to the left, and you have plenty of room to pour from a gallon jug into a funnel in the filler neck.
PROCESS. I removed the rad cap, started the bike, and then removed the drain plug at the bottom. Back to the top and I started pouring water in as water drained from the bottom. Turned the bike off when the gallon jug got low. Rushed down and replaced the plug. Topped the rad back off with more water. Started the bike again. Ran the bike until water in filler neck got hot. Then pulled the plug again. Filled from filler neck as water drained from the bottom. (I was careful to never let the water drain out completely, which prevented me from having to bleed from the water pump each and every time.) I did several slightly different variations of this and used a total of maybe 6 or 7 gallons of water until the water ran good and clean with minimal particulates left over from the Alumaseal that I put in there at the rally. It was interesting how when I would pull the plug, hot water would be draining at first but by the time I was near the bottom of the jug, cold water would be coming out at the bottom. Anyway..... I did have the fleeting thought....I hope these temp changes in water don't crack my head in like 12 different places. I'm not really smart enough to know if that could happen, but it just flashed in my head as an epic thread on the OA.
When I finally put the coolant mix in there, I let about 6 to 8 cups drain straight through in hopes that that would displace any straight water that might have been left in there. I did clean and refill the reservoir bottle as well. And of course I bled air from the water pump and thermostat housings. And I plan to check my ratio mix for freeze level with a tester later in the week. I'll be road testing the bike this week to make sure all is fine. But it seems to be a good fix thus far.

Look What Daddy Got....

It's one thing when you get a plain brown package on your door step and you think....."Oh, sweet, my radiator came."

And then it's a whole other thing when you carefully cut that boring brown box open and you realize....I just entered the world of aftermarket parts, aka the mod world. That red box is downright impressive.

I pulled the rad out completely and it looks real good. Appears to be straight; I did the Jody-laying-it-on-a-flat-surface test.

Pics of the replacement to follow, as well as other updates.