Back in the saddle

[Slickhorn]

After dozens of long trips, solo and two-up, a bit over 55k miles and some amazing scenery like this:



I waited and held out hope last fall for one more desert run before old man winter arrived and my busy work season started.  Well needless to say I blew it, got caught with my pants down and did a hasty trailer retreat to my storage unit at the beginning of what turned out to be a major winter storm.



As I was unloading her from the trailer, the snow and ice convinced her she would be better off laying down, I learned long ago not to fight 500 lbs when it decides to go a different direction than I'd prefer, and she came out with a broken nose, a black eye and some other mostly cosmetic damage.



So I winterized her and put her away to hibernate for the winter while I contemplated my next move.  I spent the winter looking for a bike being parted out to no avail and when I finally bit the bullet I found that finding a yellow cockpit new or otherwise was a bit of a challenge.  So while I was tearing her apart I took the opportunity to do some slightly neglected maintenance and upgrades.  For instance, to this point I had avoided the fuel connections leaking or had any problems with the breather hose/airbox etc.  Before tearing her down, I fired it up after the long winter to find it idling around 3000 rpms....damn air leak I figured...so long story short, pulled the tank, bit the bullet on a few things and replaced all the vacuum lines, synched the throttle bodies, did the valves, upgraded the fuel fittings, changed fuel filter, air filter, new plugs and wires, had the seat recovered, upgraded the headlights to something that actually casts light and added an antenna for my xm radio.  Oh I also got creative and put in a small breather filter to get rid of the chance of oil into the airbox:





So, it all came together last week and started to look something like this



the newly recovered seat, awesome job and fairly cheap by the Seat Cover Co in SLC, UT



And her official on/off road test has been completed to both our satisfaction



and all in perfect time for spring and perfect excuse for a road trip.  U-hauling my grandmothers stuff to her in WA next week and I decided to go exploring again rather than fly home.  I will be following a route that sort of follows this path:

The long way home

Side roads, detours and distractions are likely.  There will be some sort of ride report when I'm done and some sort of daily update or pics on my blog here:  Mountain Life

Hit the road one week from yesterday, a nice distraction before summer.

[chairhead]

Nice,

i think the black fairing looks sweet,a nice contrast and the bike its self looks to be in good condition too,credit to you!

[Sin_Tiger]

  looks right, nice job.

[Kiwitex]

Nice work there, well done.
I love the PCH, I never get over that feeling of always looking forward to the next curve while still laid into the last one!
I hope you will be posting a RR after the fact maybe some more great photo's to tease us with?

Good luck, ride well.