Sept 9, 2005 - Friday
Hinton, AB to Grand Prarie, AB
Not too many miles today -
it was a
drizzly, cold overcast day. No plans to tent camp either.
The heated Warm-n-safe jacket liner ROCKS!! I could
not
keep it at full blast as it would roast me. Having it turned up though
helped to keep my hands warm (at least I'd like to think so).
The
VistaCruise throttle lock also rocks. Setting the throttle
allowed me to relax the right hand to help blood flow / warm
fingers. The ride was about 1.5 hours to Grand Cache and about
2
hrs to Grand Prarie. Long stretches on trees, trees, trees -
fantastic. A nice chat with a gent at Grand
Cache was a welcome break in the rainy day.
Even with overcast skies I had to take a few pictures.
Gritty, muddy...
Awww crud - it's back. Water pump drips.
I replaced the gasket before I left - it started to drip on a trip last
year but hadn't dripped since. The pump bearings felt great
when
I did the gasket. Today was a bit of 5K - 5200 rpm running
which
is not where the bike often runs at (5500 has a bit of vibration) so
I'm wondering if running lower rpms (shifting into 6th) will prove to
be better for the pump. Last time I had no issues with
loosing
much coolant, nor with issues of coolant coating the rear tire.
I'll pick up some coolant tomorrow and monitor the issue.