de tour 2006 ** day six**

[Richard Bassett]

Hi All. I've always used a D-I-Y "torque wrench" beacuse I don't trust the calibration of the"proper" ones, especially after they've been rattling around in my tool box/bag under a pile of other stuff for a while. Instead, I usually use a 1/2" zig-zag socket spanner bar: It has a 1/2" square plug at each end. The ends are parallel, with a 10"-long bar between them. If you apply your tightening torque at the end of the bar, you have 10" of leverage. The other half of the tool is my old 20lb spring balance (scales) - like you'd weigh fish, etc, with. It has a ring on one end and a hook on the other. I loop the ring over the spanner handle and pull on the hook, keeping the scales at an eyeballed 90 degrees to the 10" leverage bar. Torque is simply the force times the lever length. For example, say you want 10 ft-lbs. Calculate force F. F (lb) times 10/12 (ft) = 10 ft-lb ==> F = 10 times 12 /10 = 12 lb If I want more torque than 17 ft-Ib I rig up a longer lever. A pair of visegrips is very handy, as are an L-shaped socket handle and a lump of pipe big enough to go over it [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Jeffrey]

My medium range Harbor Freight torque wrench quit working accurately as soon as I used it near the top end of its range--around 90 ft/lbs My 1/4 inch Harbor Freight torque engine has worked great and has stayed accurate. I got a vintage pointer Craftsman which I love--to replace the medium range Harbor Freight torque wrench. Simpler--less things to go wrong and you don't have to squint and reset the clicker every time you use it. J#3

[Jeff Saline]

----- Forwarded Message ----- Listers, Vernal to Moab, Utah Travel time: 7 hrs 31 mins Distance: 231 miles This is the total travel time. The first part of this route was covered on Day Five. Steve and I wake with the sun and get packed. We take a good look at where the lights were and can't see where they were coming from. We're guessing we're camped about 50 miles north of I-70 and I wonder if we'll be able to get fuel there. Steve thinks we'll be able to make it to Moab on the fuel we have. We have a couple of breakfast bars and make some tea. It tastes good and then we're ready to go. The countershaft nut is holding and the JB Kwik looks to be intact. It should be an interesting day. One of the conversations we had last night is Steve asking me where I'd go if I needed water. Right off the bat I started to say I'd go to the road and was stopped with him saying that wasn't an option. I took a pretty good look at the country and I may have taken a quick look at Steve's water bag. Then I said I suppose I'd start walking a bit downhill towards the middle of the valley we were looking over. This was some really tough country and I'm glad I didn't have a water problem. We head off to the south and after maybe 15 or 20 miles find our next turn on the right. It looks pretty good and seems to go higher. We head off and enjoy some interesting ridge riding with lots of switchbacks and interesting views. I enjoy riding these kinds of roads and think how this is what the KLR is very good at. Long distance, adventure type riding on better than virgin terrain. I seem to enjoy the maintained county gravel roads for making some pretty good time without seeing many people. I like the decent two tracks for getting into some secluded areas and seeing what most folks will never see. And the KLR can do both types of travel in a very nice fashion. I remind myself if I'm ever limited to only one bike, the KLR will be my choice. I sure hope it never comes to that. After a bit we come to Hell's Canyon. This is where we begin heading south again. It's a nice small good condition dirt/gravel road with some fairly steep descents but nothing you couldn't take a two wheel drive car on in good weather conditions. The views are great and it seems like we're descending into the bowels of the canyon. And we are. Steve and I swap riding positions so we can take a picture or two of each other riding along. I think about how I've known for years I've wanted to do some traveling in areas like this when I was retired. And I also think how much I enjoy this on a bike as I can make better time on the rough stuff than a larger vehicle and still visit anywhere I want. Along near the bottom of the canyon we come to a few water crossings. Steve and I get kind of excited about this as although they aren't long or deep we may not get many water crossings in the coming days. We take turns going through a couple of crossings and take pictures of each other. Then we decide to just enjoy the crossings as it'll take all day if we keep stopping at every one. Steve shows great technique in his crossings as he scopes out the crossing to choose his line. Then he enters at a reasonable speed while standing on the pegs. Water never seems to splash over the height of his front fender and I was taught that means you nailed the speed for the depth of water. I think about how we're washing some of the dirt off the wheels and lower parts of the bike at each crossing and that's got to be a good thing. I make a mental note to lube the chains later in the day. The canyon ends and now we're starting to ride in rolling hills. We come to a ranch and a cattle guard has a 25mph speed limit sign and below that a yellow and black caution sign showing what might be understood to indicate a mean bull is on the other side of the fence. I stop for a picture and wonder if El Toro is in a nasty mood will I be able to turn around in time or accelerate past him. We head down the road and never see any cattle at all. Past a few more ranches and the rolling hills turn to rolling prairie. We finally get to a paved section and it's in great shape and has some nice gentle curves and up and down sections. I try to pick a good speed for this to get maximum enjoyment from it. As we approach a "T" intersection there are two fire fighting units on the side of the road. We check out our GPSs for where we want to go as we're off the planned route by a couple of miles. I talk with one of the drivers and ask about fuel possibilities near here without having to go onto I-70. His shotgun thinks there is fuel at an exit going west. That's kind of our way so I keep it in mind. They want to know the usual. Where'd ya come from? Where are ya heading to? That sounds like fun. I have a bike. Yada yada yada. It's nice talking with them and then they have to head off and so do we. I tell Steve I'd like to find some fuel and he tells me we have plenty to get to Moab. I think we'll be pushing it and I sure don't want to end up pushing a bike. We head off and end up getting south of I-70. We parallel the highway for a few miles and then go under it and over it and no fuel or exits are in sight. None on the GPS either. We are back on route now and it heads south. Off we go and the road quickly turns from gravel to dirt to two track to almost no track. As we come to the top of a rise it overlooks some pretty tough looking country and the road turns to broken rock on a significant down slope. It looks like we can get back up if we go down and I ask Steve if he's up for this. He asks if it's on the route. I say yes and he points down the slope. This is one of the sections where I really wish I'd taken some pictures. But this was an adventure at it's finest, I was excited to be part of it and I just started my bike and head down. The KLR really worked well on this section and with the GPS zoomed way in it showed we were right on track. This rough section continued for what seemed like quite a while. It finally turned to packed sand and two track and I felt like I wasn't the first person to ride this area. I know this is nothing on a dirt bike but a loaded KLR is another animal. I started to see some dirt bike tracks and finally we came to some railroad tracks. The route showed we'd cross the tracks and then follow them for a few miles. There was no crossing. Steve and I were pretty hot by now and we stopped maybe 3/8 of a mile from where I thought the crossing should be. Since this was a travel restricted area we had to stay on the establish roads. We took a break and I climbed the side of the railroad bed and took a look at the other side. It seemed like the road we wanted to be on was just on the other side of the tracks. Then Steve and I walked through a large culvert where we could tell dirt bikes had been using it as a crossing point. The side the bikes were on would be an easy entry but the exit side had a large hole. I think on a dirt bike I could have run the culvert at maybe 20 mph and jumped the hole. But with the KLR this wasn't going to happen. Steve said as much too. We walked ahead a few hundred yards to see where the road we were on was going. And we couldn't tell. I decided I'd ride back to where the crossing should be and see if I'd missed it on the way in. I didn't miss it and even crossing the tracks at that location wouldn't have been helpful to our situation. I returned and Steve and I decided to ride the road along the north side of the tracks and see what happened. I sure didn't want to get 20 miles further and then have to turn back. I was concerned that we had a wonderful opportunity approaching to test fuel economy and rationing skills. I lead and enjoyed the ride. This was a real adventure for me. I really felt like we were going into the unknown and for us that was true. The riding was challenging enough to be exciting and required care with skillful execution of off road riding skills. And it was easy enough I wasn't worried about breaking a leg or destroying the bike in a fall. We encountered ruts, loose sand, gravel, brush over the edges of the track and enough turns and elevation changes to make it a great section. After maybe two miles, or was it three, I get to a place with some really loose deep sand. I pick my line and begin to execute the crossing. Something goes horribly wrong and I lose my line, and I'm bouncing around pointing at one side and then pointing at the other side of the track. I really believe in the saying "when in doubt, throttle out". So I twist the throttle and somehow keep from crashing. I stop a bit past this section and wait to watch Steve go through it. He doesn't have any problems and asks me about the roost marks. I tell him yes I think that was me and he starts laughing. I'm not talking a little chuckle here, I'm talking gut wrenching snorting almost to the point of tears. Then he tells me those roost marks are all over the place pointing in a bunch of different directions. I find it kind of funny now too. We soon come to a railroad trestle and the track passes under it. We can turn left or right. I know we need to turn right but my GPS is saying the track is left. We head left and after 1/4 mile I realize I'd been playing with the cursor looking for a way out and needed to push the quit button to allow the GPS to navigate again. As soon as I do that the GPS shoots off flares, sirens scream and a sign pops up saying I'm an idiot and going the wrong way. Actually it just kind of points to the correct direction and allows me to make any navigational errors I want to make. Steve is kind enough to only nod when I say we need to go the other way. Off we go and the trail has a few small steep edged washes in it. We take them at reasonable speeds without any issues and come to a road crossing our track. The cattle guard on the right has a sign identifying it as private land. Our track runs along the fence right on course. We continue on the track for maybe a few hundred yards. We stop and I tell Steve I think that road would take us to Cisco which is where we are hoping to get to sometime this year. He says he thinks so too and lets take it. We turn around. I seem to be getting pretty good at turning around on a fully load KLR on a narrow rutted track. Steve doesn't like turning around and a few times we've talked about it. But we both get turned around without falling over and head back the way we came. At the road we turn right and it curves around and seems like it has the possibility of going where we'd like to go. It's in pretty good condition and I find it enjoyable, especially after the last bit of riding we've done. Eventually we come to a paved road and follow it to Cisco. One or two vehicles are on it and we pass a truck hauling a float boat. Must be a haul out near here. At Cisco it sure looks like there isn't any fuel and Steve leads as he's traveled here before. We've decided to forgo the planned route for a nice ride on Scenic Byway 128. This is suppose to be a very nice road with some great curves and scenery. And it is! As we turn onto 128 there's a cruiser style bike parked on the side of the road and the rider is giving his passenger a rubdown with some suntan lotion. Steve pulls up and then is off in about 3 seconds. I pull up and ask if this is where bikers get free shoulder massages. They laugh and say they're having a fine ride. I wish them well and head off to catch up with Steve. He suggests I lead so I can stop to take pictures whenever I want. Off we go and when we get to the Dewey Bridge over the Colorado river I pull into the parking area. We take a break for about 15 minutes and walk to the middle of the bridge and take a look at it's construction. It's a wooden suspension bridge built in the early 1900s. I think the date was 1916. And it was the only crossing point for quite a distance in either direction. We continue along 128 and enjoy the scenic landscape and end up riding along the Colorado river. I really enjoy this section and watch the rafters and folks enjoying the water. I stop a few times to take a picture of this or that and get one of probably 50 people getting ready to float the river in rafts. Then we see a couple in a raft floating down the river. I pull over about 1/2 mile downstream from them and wait to watch them in the rapids. We lose sight of them as the river bends and they are so near the bank we are almost on top of them. As they go by they wave and the guy pulls out a stuffed dog that's tied to the raft so it can enjoy the ride too. We laugh and head to Moab. Well, it's Sunday and Arrowhead Motorsports is closed. First stop is fuel and we haven't switched to reserve yet. Steve sure was right about us having enough fuel. My trip meter shows I've gone 233 smiles on this tank. I fill with 4.1 gallons so that means I got 56.8 mpg on that tank. We get some lunch and I update my track log. We fill water containers and we try to figure out where the best place to get some fuel for the camp stove will be. I also want to get some silicone grease for my air mattress cap as I've been losing air at night. We finish lunch and head up the street. The first place we pull into has a guy on an F650 who's doing the TransAm Trail, solo. He's from Tennessee and seems to be having some interesting times. Four days earlier he lost his GPS on the trail. I mean he lost the GPS and the mount. Everything! He said he knows where it is within about 4 miles. I told him the GPS had it pinpointed to within a few feet. That morning he was at about 11,000 feet and had to pull all his gear off the bike and carry it 100 yards as he couldn't get through the snow with the luggage on the bike. He takes off to try to find a place where he can load maps onto a new GPS if he buys one. I ask the girl behind the counter if they sell stove fuel by the stove full. She says yes so I go to unload the stove. Before I've got the saddlebag opened she's at the front door with a can of Coleman White Gas. I fill the stove with probably 1/2 cup of fuel. I tell her as soon as I get it packed I'll come in and settle up with her. She says don't bother, I didn't get enough to make it worth charging for. We ask where we might find a hardware store so I can buy some silicone grease for an o-ring. The other lady there asks how much I need. I tell her not much but I want to have it with me as the o-ring needs to be lubed from time to time. She thinks she has a large tube in the back. If I get a container from the store she'll give me a bit. So for 54 cents I get the fuel for the stove and a small container of silicone grease. Very nice people and Steve and I tell them thanks and get ready to head off. As we walk out of the store the guy on the F650 is back. He says the folks at Radio Shack will let him load the GPS using their computer. He's pretty excited. He's got a front tire hanging off the back of his bike and is wondering what to do for a rear tire. We talk for a few minutes and then he goes into the store to buy a new GPS. Steve and I head south. Moab, Utah to Flagstaff, AZ Travel time: 10 hrs 11 mins Distance: 396 miles This route will be finished at the end of Day Seven. We take 191 south and it's paved and in good shape. I have written in the log this is nothing special and a tough haul when it's hot. Temperature is indicating 100 degrees. We stop in Monticello and figure on getting a Subway for dinner. Rats! The subway is closed as they have a bread issue today. This Subway is part of a C store so we wander around the store a bit and I grab a lemonade and some Ramen noodles for dinner. Steve gets something to drink and goes out to the bikes. I'm enjoying the air conditioning. When I come out a few minutes later Steve's talking with a clean cut guy maybe 28 or 30 years old. They're discussing our trip and local options for camping and routing that is interesting. It's funny to me, we've been planning this trip for 8 months and I can't remember the actual route in this area. We look at a map with this guy and he suggests a road that will take us to some high country with good camping and cooler weather. He's just quit working for the government a few months earlier and has opened a gun shop and is a gunsmith. We talk a bit more and wish him luck with his store. He hopes we have a fine trip. We head South and just before reaching Blanding find the reservoir we were told to look for. Steve and I talk for a minute and decide to stay with our original route. We get to the edge of Blanding and I take over navigation and try to work our way through the residential streets to locate our route. Again I'm amazed at how easy navigation can be with a good GPS. We head out on a dirt road and after a mile or two a car comes bouncing out of the woods from our right. This car doesn't even slow down and it kind of shakes me up. If we had been just 5 seconds earlier one of us might have been hit. I wonder about the area and we continue on. This road is dirt and twisty and somewhat rough. We get to a high point and I stop to take a look at where I think we're going. I take a picture or two and off we go. After maybe 30 minutes of riding I'm getting pretty sleepy and think we ought to find a place to camp. I wait for Steve and he agrees. Maybe 5 miles later I see a two track to the right that looks promising. Steve gives it the nod and in we go. It's got a bit of a rough start and a steep ascent for maybe 50 yards. That seems good to me as I think nobody will probably come down here at night to go drinking. We go in for about a mile and are in an old burn area. It looks like it's not gonna get better and there's room for tents. Steve gives it the nod and we're home for the night. I set up my tent and then climb a rock on the side of a rise to get a better look around. I can see quite a distance but the view isn't anything special. I decide it's safe enough to light the stove so I can have a hot meal. I think Steve has a burrito that's been warming in his tankbag. He tells me he can eat them cold but the bag is black, and it is a hot and sunny day. I cook the Ramen noodles and we relax a bit. Steve calls home and then I talk with my sister to let her know I'm still with the living. We call our friend John Wood in Oklahoma and tell him a bit about the trip. He's posting tidbits of what we tell him to the Oklahoma Airhead list. It's nice to talk to friends and family. We are having a good time. It's still light so we take a walk down the road to see where it goes. We see lots of turkey tracks and some other unidentified tracks too. Steve knows a lot about wildlife and geology and science stuff. We have a pretty interesting conversation. We hang out in our Kermit chairs until it gets dark and then go to our tents. It's been a fun, interesting and tiring day. End of Day Six. Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT . . ____________________________________________________________ "African Fruit Burns Fat" Learn How This Strange 62-Cent Exotic Fruit Is Making Americans Skinny http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4f1ac11e68be5397c4st02vuc [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]