12 days out!

[400brian]

Fresh snow today in south central Wisconsin, I headed out to the garage looking for some motivation.

I still hadn't resolved a fuel issue on the 74 X8 from a year ago, mainly because I hadn't done anything about it. When I rebuilt the engine last February, I had put a kit in the Walbro because it had not been touched since 2007, which was 2000 miles ago. The last time I had used a SPI kit, but ever since I have been using Windrosa kits. The carb was clean, so I replaced a broken leaf valve and put the kit in. I didn't mess with the metering lever, because it was working. Ran great in the garage, but fell on its face heading out to the trailer to load up for the trip to the Ride with the Champs. I could have fixed it at our friend's house in Manitowish Waters, but the garage wasn't heated, the lighting was poor, and I was coming down with the killer virus. So here I am still messing with it.

I was pretty sure all I needed to do was raise the metering lever a bit. I have had pretty good success at setting them just a hair above the carb body. However, this one wasn't co-operating. Today was the second attempt at an adjustment. The first one seemed to help, but not resolve the problem. Cruising across the field at around 40 mph, I stuck a finger across the carb below the choke butterfly. This made things worse, but when I removed the finger the engine spooled up and pulled hard. So I took that to mean I still needed more fuel. I had raised the lever up to right around what the book calls for and re-installed the carb. On first start up, the carb didn't overflow, so it was time to test on it.

Took it out today and it pulled hard every time I gave it the onions! So I am going to declare victory on this until further notice.

Time to get the plastic and windshield back on!

[Norton]

Hello Brian, Don, and the other Ride with the Champs goers,

After a few discussions, we have decided not to attend the RWTC this year. We called the Whitetail and rolled our rooms reservations over to 2022. Donation will be mailed to the HOF as we really enjoy meeting up with everyone and value the service they provide and want to see that continue! Hopefully by this summer we can get back to some kind of normal.
Have a great time and remember Elk River MN in 2022 will be something also to look forward to, for us Deere guys. (-:

keith

[BU1]

I'm out. Did an incredibly stupid stunt on a home improvement project on Wednesday and now get to have surgery on my throttle hand to remove a glass shard.

Hope you have a good trip Brian. Try to keep Rainville on the right trail!!

[400brian]

Wow, Scott what were ya thinking?

Keith, Scott, Guys, I get it. It is a bad set of choices. The Wife and I are going up, they are reporting 9 1/2 inches of fresh snow at Stillwaters, so the low snow situation has eased a bit. As I write this, Rainville is already in Minnesota heading for St Germain, and Jason Peterson says he is coming.

Temps are going to be the coldest we have had for an extended period this whole winter, maybe 10 days worth. We have ridden in cold temps before, if I were home I wouldn't do it, but this is what we go to do. I think this year we will explore the local area a bit, perhaps walk through the museum in Sayner, we will figure something out. Bought a couple of bags of chemical handwarmers to keep the fingers happy, and no doubt there will be a garage session or two.

The his and hers are just about ready to go on the trailer.

[nick80lf]

I don't have plans on making the trip this year but I was curious how this was going to work with "the covid" so I was reading the hall's website. I noticed a comment about the Polaris app and that they were using the group feature. I haven't kept up-to-date on this sort of stuff. Have they used the "group" feature before? I'd be interested to hear how this worked out to keep everyone together if / when someone gets separated from the pack.

[400brian]

To make the trail app work, first you have to learn how to get your phone set up, then learn how to use the features of the app. I tried it a few years back and spent most of my time swearing at the phone. Obviously a guy would have to practice with it and get it figured out. The other thing is loss of signal, and if the phone is on full time the battery goes pretty fast.

I just study the trail map, try to remember the trail numbers we are running on, and hope that it is marked reasonably well. I don't know the trails well, but I know the general layout of the towns in Vilas county. If you add to that the location of a few key watering holes, you navigate from bar to bar. My theory is you just ride till you get there, it has worked fairly well so far.

Bob Anderson has his phone clamped to the bars of his sled. But I doubt everyone in the group is running the app. In a large group, I think it would work if one guy in in every 5 - 10 had the app so as to keep everyone together. Back in 09 on the first Vintage Challenge, I was truly lost, and I didn't like the feeling. It was dark, I didn't know the trail at all, I had no map, and didn't know the area. Myself and another guy were down to following 2/3 cleated track marks in the snow. But it worked out OK.

[nick80lf]

I played with the app in 2013 but it didn't have the group function back then. I had simalar concerns about battery usage and signal issues so I didn't really use it. I have always kept a small handheld Garmin GPS (that runs on AA batteries) in my pocket. It leaves a bread crumb trail of where I've been and I only use it to find my way back if needed.

Your comment about only having a few people in the group was another thing I was wondering about. The years I've been there I inevitably find my way into a group that ends up getting separated from the pack and makes a wrong turn. Seems like 50 dots moving in different directions wouldn't be much help.

[400brian]

On the 2020 ride over to Little Bohemia, Bob actually lost a couple of guys and burned 20 minutes getting them rounded up. He didn't have that large of a group, and I really have no idea what happened there.

What I have learned is that there are different attitudes among the riders. Some guys don't care if they are guided or not. Give them a map and tell them to meet at lunch, and they would take off without a second thought. Others want to see a guy with a red bib in front of then at all times. So it can be a challenge to make everyone happy.

My wife is still bitching because on the Bogie Bash pre-run in 2020 she feels I ditched her. When we left Lake Tomahawk I had told her to stay on my tail, as this has happened before. She says NO, I will go to the back so as not to slow the other guys down. I told her not to do that, because she would get left in the dust and not know where to go.

Well, just before we came back into St Germain we had some good running under a powerline, and a couple the guys passed her, thus shuffling her towards the back. Half the group got held up crossing the highway coming into downtown St Germain. I didn't stop and wait for them...because we were in St Germain. We were just running west along the HWY back to the SHOF, you couldn't get lost. Wade Bennett was with her and he knows the way, but she is still pissed a year later.

An extreme example, but there ya go.