Cleaning :P

So I cleaned my bike yet again today. I'm still trying to get all the dirt from my last trip off of it. I have again failed at my task. My response yet again was "Well, its better". My dad always raved about S100 for easy cleaning. Its a spray on, spray off type of cleaner so I thought it would work great in all the little hard to reach areas. Unfortunately I was wrong. I was actually not very impressed with it at all. It seems that every time I clean the silly thing, more dirt leached out of places I have overlooked before. I was however really impressed with a cleaner that my mom brought over called Purple Slice. I had tried to clean my wheels a couple times already and could NOT get all the grime and bugs off of them. This stuff however did an awesome job. I guess there's nothing for it. I am just going to have to spend a good few hours going over every inch of the silly bike to get it really clean.

P.S. Does anyone know of a good paint cleaner/polish that will fix a hazy finish?

California 1999

So I kept a journal of my trip down to California in 1999. I had only been riding since the fall of the previous year, and I had only had my class 6 for about a month. I've decided to create a seperate blog and post my journal there. If you are at all interested in this blog, you might find my california trip an interesting read. Check it out at http://1000virago.blogspot.com/

Thursday, July 24, 2008

So today was test day. I went and picked up Phil at 12:30 and we headed down to ICBC. It was very hot and I was melting by the time he finished. He did awesome, he only put his foot down once in the u-turn, but he nailed it the second time round. So he can ride on his own now, and I don't have to feel guilty if I can't go for a ride with him. I'm sure he's very happy about that.

So because he can legally go about 60 km/h, we decided to go for a little ride. We headed out to Vanderhoof for a celebratory piece of pie.


Homemade rubarb pie and homemade strawberry pie = YUMMMMMM!!!!!! It was very good, but kind of expensive: 16 bucks for 2 pieces of pie and 2 cans of pop. Its o.k. it was a special occasion. I couldn't finish all of mine so Phil had to help.

I'm sure he was completely heart broken that he had to eat more pie. ;) I think he'll get over it.

So again I didn't wear my jacket, and again I got burnt. At least its in different spots, cause I was in different shirts. I'm going to have all sorts of funky tan lines by the end of the summer.

Start: 39,229 km - End: 39,451 km - Total Distance: 222 km

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

So today I took Phil out to practice for hopefully the last time. His test is tomorrow and I'm sure he will do just fine. I did wash my bike again, this time by hand, but I had limited time to do it so its still not very clean. It is better though. We'll see how many more times I have to wash it before I get all the Yellowknife dirt off of it.

Phil and I went for a little bit of a ride after we were done practicing. We went up and around the airport and then across town to university way. It was a nice little ride. I paid for not wearing my jacket today though. My shoulders are pretty burnt again. You'd think I'd learn. I should at least use sun screen when I don't wear my jacket. Also, you'd think I'd remember that its bloody cold down foothills and up university way without a jacket, but I always forget that too. It was refreshing though, so I won't complain too much. ;)

Start: 39,156 km - End: 39,229 km - Total Distance: 73 km

Monday, July 21, 2008

So nothing too exciting for today. After picking up my bike from my mom's, I took Phil out again for a little practice. Once I dropped him off I did attempt to wash my bike. That was a waste of time and money. I took it to a car wash and sprayed it off. It did get SOME dirt off, but it's going to take some major TLC to get it clean.

Start: 39,124 km - End: 39,156 km - Total Distance: 32 km

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Now that I'm back at home, things are back to some sort of normalcy. Phil's MST is on Thursday, so I'll be doing a lot of "teaching" in the next couple of days. I was supposed to clean my bike today to get all the road grime off, but it didn't happen. I did notice when I was getting ready to go and pick Phil up though that there was some cosmetic damage from my trip. I must have gotten a big rock in one of my lower windshield pieces, cause there's a big crack in it. :P


What is kind of hard to see in this picture is that there is a HUGE chip at the bottom edge of the crack as well.

When I was bringing Phil home we got caught in a rain storm so I rode to my mom's and she brought me home. So the bike is up at my mom's and I'll have to go and get it tomorrow.

Start: 39,092 km - End: 39,124 km - Total Distance: 32 km

Trip Statistics and Final Comments

So I really liked looking at some details of my trip last time, so I thought I would do it again for this trip. So here they are:

Length of Trip: 8 Days
Distance Travelled: 3502 km
Average Distance Travelled per Riding Day: 568 km
Average Fuel Consumption: 16.05 km/L or 37.74 miles/gallon
Average Price for Fuel: $1.46/L

I thought I would add some final thoughts about the trip before I put it to rest. I had a really great time seeing places I'd never been before. Yellowknife is DEFIANTLY the farthest north I have ever been. Dan and I seemed to travel pretty well together, although we NEVER seemed to be able to leave on time. Both bikes made the trip mostly intact. Dan does need a new chain, but I think that was coming regardless of this trip. My back brake seems to be sticking, but that might be dirt, its not consistent enough to tell at this point. The weather was pretty average. I've had better, but I've also had MUCH worse. All-in-all it was a great adventure and I hope Dan and I will be able to do it again soon. (A bike trip that is, not necessarily back to Yellowknife)