Day #2 of Chuck's Motorcycle Shed

Sunday afternoon a few of us got together again and helped Chuck finish putting up the walls on his motorcycle shed.  It was a little tricky, but we managed to get all the walls up and they came out square and pretty level.  Less wind today and temps in the mid 30's so it went pretty smoothly.

Tom and Chuck putting the final touches on the door header.   The door is only 6' wide... but the header was just over 12'. (Click on photo to see full photo).

Working on Chuck's New Motorcycle Shed

After the Big Sioux Rider breakfast Saturday, a few of us went over to help Chuck put up the walls for his new motorcycle shed.  The building was a little bigger then I had visualized, something like 34" x 40" with 11" ceilings.  There were wind warnings, so it took some time.  We are returning  today to hopefully get the rest of the walls up.  One way or another we all owe Chuck for a favor or insight and its kind of of fun building something.

Steve, Al, Chuck, Loyd and Stan.. Chuck Father Tom showed up later to help.

What a great weekend

Weather has been great.  My co-workers and friends threw me a surprise Birthday Party Friday evening.  I was caught completely off guard.  I'm not much of a birthday person, but this party was about perfect for me and I really enjoyed it.


Saturday after breakfast Randy and I decided to meet at Loyd's place about 1 PM for some big dual sport riding.  When I got there Loyd was in the garage sitting on a 5 gallon bucket writing notes in some kind of Woodbury County Conservation Hunter's booklet with rough black and white maps.  


We took off about 1:20 and we had a great ride.  I don't know how many miles of gravel and dirt roads we road, but there was plenty and we had a great time.  I didn't have to stray to far from town in case I got a work page.  We visited Loyds parents for coffee and then stopped in Smithland at Runts.  The route took us all over the place so I'm not even sure where I was most of the time but we saw some great dirt and gravel roads.  The low and no maintenance Loess Hills back roads are unbelievably fun on a GS.

Loyd and Randy taking a break at the Anderson farm.

Checking out the new culverts and tiles at Anderson farm.

Randy followed Loyd down his dirt bike trail.

Tire Mounting

At breakfast last Saturday morning (October 29th) I volunteered to help Randy mount new tires on his R1200GS.  He had bought a set of Hendenau K60 Scout's.  Unlike many other German tire brands, these tires are still manufactured Germany.  What a beefy dual sport tire with beefy tread and sidewalls.  The cool weather didn't make our task easy, turned out to be a 3 hour job and I felt pretty sore afterwards.

The rear tire went on easy enough, sort of like the Marathon 880's did on my GSA last July - a little more difficult then a radial 170 or 180, but having helpers this time was, well sort of helpful.  Randy had some of those dynabeads for dynamic balancing.   They little beads wouldn't fit down his valve stems, so we had to re-brake the bead and then pull out the tire enough for Randy to pour the beads in.   It was an easy enough process on the rear.


The 19" front tire was another story.   It was not easy spooning it on, but we managed it and got it sealed without problem.  After re-braking the bead on one side of the tire in preparation of adding the dynabeads, the tire bead broke free on both sides.  After spending about 2 hours trying to get the tire inflated using about every trick in the book to get the tire sealed to the rim, we finally gave up and pulled the tire back off, cleaned everything, and got rid of the dynabeads.  I think dynabeads were getting tire bead area, that combined with the stiff, cold tire sidewalls was the recipe for tire mounting failure.  The second time around the tire went on easier (but with spoons again) and we got it to seal on the rim without problem.  The tire was nearly in static balance on only required one 7g weight.

I also got L's VFR torn down Saturday morning and we replaced the front tire with a Michelin PR2.  I also got the oil changed.  The Conti Road Attack which had been on the front had worn weirdly uneven.  I was planning on putting the half worn RA on the K1200RS, but the tire just didn't look right after it came off.  Some of the VFR forums have mentioned problems with that specific tire on that specific bike.  We are not going to put that brand back on the VFR.   Haven't gotten the VFR tupperware back together yet, but I'm thinking about doing a couple more maintenance before buttoning it up.