Bonzi Results

I'll post more information later, but this is a quick overview. I somehow won third place in my division ("Experianced") at the Bonzai. I was the last one out of the barn (I need more practice at planning routes and town identification), had a 1000 point time penalty (for arriving at 7:01 PM at the end), and made more then one mistake, but had one heck of ride. I spent all day riding and hunting bonuses, but only road about 402 miles according to my GPSl. I only took one break which was in Lansing at about 4PM to drink, nibble and do some last minute routing changes and checks. During the day I saw some of the best roads I have ever seen and which I'm hoping to rediscover with some of the neat places next weekend at the Hiawatha Rally in Money Creek.

One of my biggest rally mistakes was going for the "Fire Tower" combo. To get that combo you had to get information of the base plates of two different fire towers, one near Elba, Minnesota and the other was the Yellow River tower south of Lansing, Iowa. The combo was worth 850 points, the fire tower in Elba was worth 650 points (plus an extra 100 points to climb the actual tower and get a photo), and the fire tower near Lansing was worth 500 points or so. What I didn't realize was the there was 636 steps to climb on foot just to get to the tower at Elba and that the fire tower road near Lansing was dangerous even on "Pig" (would have been easier on Strom). I passed a guy on the Gold Wing going up the hill and another on a cruiser going down. The steps at Elba were physically demanding. I think I spent about 45 minutes on that bonus all told. I also did some bonuses near Lanesboro, Peterson and Houston which I should have passed by to get bigger bonuses down south of Lansing.


Dave W. and I had to get up at 4 AM and leave the campground in Caledonia by 4:30 to make it on time. Here I am checking in on Sunday at 5:45 AM with Brant "DaJuice" giving him my odometer reading. Packets were handed out at 6 AM. The earliest allowed departure time from Rally HQ was 7 PM. I took a 30 minute rest bonus at 7 AM to continue planning. I had problems with my GPS flash card and had to load my maps manually on to the GPS using my laptop (which is a pain with my RAM mount). I didn't hit the road until nearly 8:30. I think Phil Becker the overall winner left just a few minutes before me. It really does pay to plan well.


Here I am with Rally Master Brian Johnson. This was Brian's first year as rally master. He did an awesome job.

I'll get some more info and photos loaded later.

Strange Days

This week I have been working on getting my GS Adventure bike ready for the Bonzai Road Rally on Memorial Day weekend. Nothing seems to be going on time. I also had a couple home repair issues which have taken some my attention away and other activity.

Started Sunday (after helping Al wire his Sat Radio), and did my first oil change on "Pig" which I completed Monday evening. Oil changes are pretty simple on this bike, but I needed to work through it and learn it the first time. I had to purchase the $40 oil filter wrench (old wrench doesn't fit new new hex heads), and the $19 filter for the dealer (Bak BMW). Not that I'm complaining about the cost (yeah right), but I better buy a 6-pack of filters online before the next change.

Tuesday Leta and I rode 2-up down to the BSR meeting in Salix. Afterwards I took off my rear wheel and hauled it over to Big Johnson's garage to try the new No-Mar wheel mounting contraption. Jim (Big Bird) and Stan (Little Bird) walked me through the process. It seems like there are a lot more steps then my old system, but I didn't put any new scratches in the rim so that's cool. I went with another Metzler Tourance tire. I also have a used one at home for the front to put on after this coming weekend. If these tires don't last, I'm going to be paying the $80 additional expense and put on the Marathon 880s full bias tires. Folks on the LDR list and older rally sites say no problem, they run just fine in gravel and dry dirt.

I hung around Big Bird's garage after the tire was mounted. The Bird Crew was trying to get the farkle wiring into Big Birds new K1300GT. I tried to help out, but its really kind of a two bird deal I guess. I asked a few questions about why they were using this or that and why. I'm always looking for ways to improve my farkling skills. Big Bird had a nice fuse box which I really liked. I may have to give that a try on the GSA. As usual, Little Bird seemed very concerned about the appearance if his wiring job. I'm guess I'm more of a function over form type. I get concerned about wire gauges, tie-downs, water, corrosion , and rubbing. The appearance of things which is not visible externally is my last concern.

The Japanese seem to be the kings of motorcycle layout and getting everything in the perfect and most accessible places. It has always seemed to me that they must spend an inordinate amount of time and resources on design, while the Germans apparently seem to focus on the mechanical aspects and tweaking stuff to make it last forever. The layout inside the new K1300GT with the skins off however looks better then anything I have seen on a BMW motorcycle before (in my limited experiance). The K1300GT seems to Japanese quality layout and design with a high-tech German engine, electrical, and suspension system. Very nice.

I took my wheel balancer home Tuesday about 11:30 PM and found the hub adapter which Terry W. had loaned to me (I got to return it soon). I tried to put my axle into the adapter, but the axle was too big!! So the next morning I ordered my own hub with the axle ($50 total including shipping) from Marc Parnes website. Jim had ordered the cones a day or two ago, but I sticking with what I know. My balancer is very accurate, I am familiar with it, and the concept of trying to get the cones in just right and then balancing on saw horses just seems a bit off to me. I put the wheel on unbalanced for now. If I have time today (Friday) I may go try to use those cones.

Wednesday I was too tired to do anything. I fell a sleep in my comfy chair with the TV on. Leta woke me up after a few hours to tell me the shower faucet was leaking water and it was dripping in the basement. We did a quickie fix to get the water to drip into the tub. Leta had to call a plumber Thursday morning.

Thursday I started taking panels off the GS Adv. Ended at the tank with even the nose pulled off. I spent 4 hours on it. I got my $5 switch from BMW which I paid $102 for into the switch housing and got the cable for it routed. Next I cut the expensive, but unneeded can-bus connector end of the switch off. I tested it and then spiced it in near the ballast for the HID high beams. I found a place to mount the relay and sodded a heavier gauge wire to the other 22 ga. wire from the switch. That wire will go the the relay. I used some new insulation black liquid stuff which Adv Auto recommended to make connections water-tight. After that I wrapped the connection in water tight tape which bonds to itself just to be sure.

Thursday night I found out one of Steve M's friends and co-workers at Tyson was one of the two people killed on I-29 earlier this week in a crash which ended up shutting down I-29 for hours (http://tinyurl.com/omdy2q). Strangely I took a picture of Steve and his friend at Bronson last Thursday. It may be the last photo taken of him. Steve asked for a copy of it, so I got some printed at Walgreens.

Friday afternoon at home we had a power outage. Our old PC serving as an IP Cop/Router died and never came back. Replacing the power supply did not resurrect it, it must be the board or peripherals. I put the wireless router which was connected to it in to replace it temporarily. Leta was happy.

After that I got working on "Pig" again. I had to wire up the power leads from the lights to the battery and then hook them up to the relay. I had hoped to be packing and practicing maps and routing Friday. Instead I was up until 4 PM getting "Pigs" wiring in. The pieces which I purchased with the light bar to relocate the flood lights did not fit with the Checkers HID lights on the light bar. I had to the zip tie down the connectors for now. I'm hoping I can get Paul to fabricate me something to get these on later.

I got up at 7:30 Saturday morning and went to breakfast. Randy and Chuck were there. We talked about lights and bikes. Afterward I showed my new light setup to them. Randy is thinking about a pair now.

After breakfast, I went home and packed. I was on the road to the Bonzai at about noon on Saturday. I got to the campground at Caladona, MN about 5:30. More about that in my next post.

Penny's Diner in Missouri Valley

At breakfast Saturday morning Al, Chuck, Randy and I decided to ride down to Missouri Valley the back way though the Loess Hills, to try out the Penny's Dinner for a shake. We met up at the HyVee on Gordon Drive in Sioux City about 10:30.

I lead the way down to Pisgah where we took a short break at the Lounge/Deli. From Pisgah, Chuck lead us a different way to Missouri Valley via Modamin and Modale with a really cool local loop with lots of hills and curves around Missouri Valley (I think its Epperson Hollow Road and Longview Road in Google Maps). Our route in google maps. All of the roads ridden down were paved.

We passed a cool little hole-in-the wall place in Modale which looked really busy, I want to try it sometime too. It was called Sour Mash Inc.

The food at Peggy's was good. The malt was made in a old-style metal malt machines just like the ones we used at the Dairy Dandy in Sheldon, where I worked in Jr. and Sr. High (a long time ago). The difference was that Peggy's used real hard ice cream. I also had a Buffalo BBQ sandwich which as quite tasty.

After lunch Chuck, Randy and I road some of the back gravel and dirt roads back around Pisgah. My bike "Pig" road like a champ in this. Chuck switched off for hard surface near Moorehead, and Randy and I wormed our way around to the Larpenteur Road and then followed the west side of the Loess Bluffs up to Turin. From Turin we took a short gravel road along the east side of the bluffs up to near Castana. I also got to show Randy D-54 north of Smithland.