What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

I rode my H-D Fat Boy on Sunday on our regular group ride and then again on Monday since I had the day off for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday observance.

On Sunday, eight of us rode up to Mammoth for a Mexican lunch at Mi Pueblito. That route is about 95 miles or so. I've only a couple of photos to show for our days adventure, this first one of a gorgeous 1956 Corvette. Our group was at the gas station chatting as we waited for a couple more friends to arrive. I was in the middle of a sentence when I saw this car pull in. I stopped mid-sentence to gawk as the guy drove past us and pulled up to a pump. SQUIRREL!

And the other photo was requested by a riding buddy who hasn't been on our rides since before I bought my Low Rider S! I told him he was absent for so long that he missed a whole bike.


On Monday I called my buddy, Russell, and asked him, "Can you come out to play?" That's our code for "Wanna ride?" With Russell, the answer is nearly always yes. He absolutely loves to ride and he's fully retired as well. I also told Russell that this would be the ride to put my Fat Boy over 500 miles and make it "officially" broken in. He was more than happy to help me achieve my goal. Mr. Sandi opted to lay low for the day to relax and play his guitar. Again, no great photos to share but I know the forum deal. "Without photos....."

We rode up to the Oracle Patio Cafe which is a common destination for us on our Sunday group rides. We added the Webb Road loop which makes the whole route about 90 miles. When I called the Oracle Patio Cafe from the gas station to see whether they were open on the holiday, the nice young woman on the phone told me that market part of the cafe was open but not the restaurant. She said we could get coffee, however, and sit out on the bench in front of the building which is just what we did In the lovely sun and brisk (for southern Arizona) temperatures. It was a lovely and relaxing ride and chat over coffee.

 

Ah yes, now that I look back at the photo, I see that there's a person in it.

 

@Sandi T it's nice to see you enjoying your new bike so much (and I love the film Up!). And as for that weather......envy strikes again .

 

Congratulation

 

Took a run up to Aberfeldy today and had a coffee in the watermill, i usually take turn about with my bikes but the Rocket has the rear break fault and is waiting on the dealer to collect it, it's due a service too so I'll get that done at the same time. As it's a fault they will deliver it back to my house, saving me going up to Aberdeen and hanging about

 

What a beautiful building, Dougie. We don't have too many "coffeehouses" around the southern Arizona desert that look like that! Hope you get that Rocket back soon and in tip top shape again.

 

Just finished a full maintenance on an old Honda dual sport I bought last year shortly after I got the Triumph. Don't even know if it'll run but I'll find out next week when the weather is better.

 

Inspired by the conversation in @Fork Lock's "Any Debadging Tips?" thread, I removed two of the four reflectors from my new Fat Boy this afternoon. I'll finish off the other two tomorrow.

The offending reflectors I removed today were the two on my forks. I assembled my supplies as you will see in the photos though I didn't take a pic of the fishing line that Mr. Sandi "donated" to me.

Fork as is (now was). These were a bit different than others I've removed in that the reflector itself was set into another plastic piece that was the same color as the fork. It didn't make it any more difficult to remove the reflector, however.


My heat source--an aged pink Revlon hair dryer. I think this is the only thing I own that's pink. I also had fishing line cut and doubled up and at the ready as I blasted the hot air at the reflector.


This was all the adhesive that was left after I got the the reflector off. There was even less on the right fork. To get the reflector off, I started at the top and loosened that area up quite a bit then continued to apply heat and fishing line. When I could get my thumb under the top part, I was able to slowly pull back on the reflector and remove it through steady and somewhat gentle pulling applying more heat as needed.


Then I used a small amount of lighter fluid on a clean rag, rubbed off the remaining adhesive, then thoroughly cleaned the area. As I mentioned in the conversation about debadging a tank, the Service Manager at my local Triumph dealership is the one who told me about using lighter fluid. It works like a charm.


Hurray! Nice, simple, tidy, clean forks.


Next up are the reflectors on my fender struts. These two reflectors are a little bit recessed into the strut so I'm not sure whether or not their removal will be more difficult. I'm thinking probably not. I'm definitely thinking hopefully not.

 

That will look nice @Sandi T - I did similar to mine with dental floss and a hairdryer! I hope the remaining two reflectors come off as smoothly.

 

I've been going on about lighter fluid on here for years but nobody heeds me Great for cleaning chain lube off rims too!

 

Thanks, Andy! Hadn't thought about chain lube off rims. That'll be helpful for my Speed Triple.

 

Always liked the Whyte bikes stuff…


Today I caught up with a little maintenance and a 70% wash.
(Good over all wash and general wax… but not as far as using Pledge to get the tar spots off the mufflers or wire wooling the headers. I have notice a few bits of topcoat coming off places like the horn and radiator end caps… might be time soon for a refresh.

 

Five of us met up for our Sunday ride today at 11:00am. We've been doing a lunch ride for the past several weeks in order to let the temperatures rise a bit prior to getting out on the road. It's also nice to sleep in once in awhile this time of the year when possible. When summer rolls back around we have to be out the door very early in order to beat the heat.

We'd made plans to ride over Gates Pass to one of our staple restaurants, Coyote Pause. When we arrived, the parking lot was totally empty and there was a CLOSED sign posted along with another smaller sign that said "Closed Due to Staff Shortage". We figured that meant Covid had struck and, sure enough, a woman out for a walk saw us and said, "Most of the folks that work there are out sick with Covid". Ok, it was Plan B for us.


Plan B, as it was decided, was a terrific little Mexican restaurant that Mr. Sandi discovered recently. He and I work at a school in South Tucson. South Tucson is about 70% Hispanic and there are fantastic mom & pop Mexican restaurants everywhere. So Mr. Sandi has been "sampling" the many restaurants during his lunch breaks. Today we opted to go to one of his favorites, Taqueria La Esquina, which has a lovely open air seating area. We're willing to go out to eat but always choose places with outdoor patios (no) thanks to Covid. La Esquina means The Corner in English. To the far right in the photo below you can see their taco truck, too.




I had eaten here once before with Mr. Sandi and another school psychologist who works in the district where we're employed. La Esquina is only about half a mile from the school where I work--now that I know about this place that could be dangerous! It's clean and bright, the staff are friendly and professional, and the food is terrific.


You can just see three of the five bikes out today--these were Mr. Sandi's Street Glide, my Fat Boy, and Todd's 1250GS.




The food here is delicious. It's very fresh, simple, and authentic. Today I chose two tacos--one shredded pork and one achiote pollo--both on corn tortillas and a side of whole beans with cotija cheese. Here ya go, @Ducatitotriumph, TACOS! I washed it all down with a draft Barrio Blonde, from local brewery Barrio Brewing Co.


There's lots of interesting and colorful art throughout the place. This is just the little alcove for the bathrooms!




It had threatened rain today but it turned out to be a gorgeous day with blue skies, puffy white clouds, and lovely temps. It's so funny how things can work themselves out. After being disappointed by Coyote Pause being closed and scrambling a bit to figure out where to ride from that location, we realized that it's good to adapt and to change things up now and again. And I think we just added another Sunday ride destination to the rotation!

 

I meant to share this photo, too. As you can see, I haven't gotten those fender strut reflectors removed yet.

 

Your Mexican lunch makes our all day English Breakfasts look decidedly unappetising…..and I’m not going to mention the weather…..Nice day out Sandi. My Speed Triple is sitting under a dust sheet . The dust sheet is covered in……dust… from all of our project building works. I know that I’ve got a big job now cleaning the bike store before I clean the bikes…in 3 degrees…

 

A beautiful day/description deserves a beautifully made taco to go with it and yes, you didn’t disappoint!
Thanks for the pic of the sun! Nice to see its still there.....!!

 

Àh, so that's where our Sun has gone to after last week's warm spell.
You make us so jealous Sandi, great weather, great bikes, great food and great riding roads too.
Love your write ups and pics.
Thanx

 

Here it is after a short frigid ride. 1973 Trail 90. Started on first kick after who knows how many years sitting. Rides like new even with 50 year old tires. Only 1000 miles on them.

 

Went for a little spin on the ditchpump because, well, just because and as I’m heading down the M18 in lane 3 (of 3) I get overtaken by a black Audi S7, no not on the inside but on the outside. Don’t know how the c@nt got through without taking me out. YY69 FFO, your card is marked my son, your card is fuckin marked.

 

That must have been frightening and maddening at the same time, @Yorkshireman. Glad to know you came out unscathed. If I lived in your neck of the woods I'd definitely be on the lookout for YY69 FFO.