Tue 19 Aug 2008
center: offensive bolt
All day Saturday was spent trying to get ONE (1), bolt loose. I wanted to change out the front and rear sprockets and replace the chain before we hit the road. Should be a few hours at most. The bolt picured holds the front sprocket on. Its the first thing you take off to get started – and it would not come loose. I’ll spare you the details, but if you’re interested, heres my cry for help on KLR world. Its amazing to me that I can be having a problem, post it to a message board and in and hour I have 4 responses from people all over the country. There’s a “Crisis Room” on the board for people having trouble on the road. Knowing that’s available and that people are so responsive gives me a little more confidence on the road.
And speaking of confidence on the road, our SPOT GPS tracking got here last night. I’m setting it up and testing it out. Not only will this allow you to see where we are each day via google maps (I’ll have a link posted when I get everything set up), it will activate emergency services and and notify Team America when we’re in deep dooky. It also offers private search and rescue services up to $100,000. With the cost of fuel as high as it is, that should about cover a helicopter ride or a fleet of binocular laiden balloonists. But more is better – right?
Projects completed this past weekend:
- New front and rear sprockets
- New Chain
- New front and rear brake pads
- Tool tube upsized from 3 inch PVC to 4 inch
- All screws on the handle bars upgraded to stainless socket heads
- Spare parts box nearly completed (I’ll dedicate a page to this when I get it road ready)