{"id":9043,"date":"2026-01-26T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/?p=9043"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:11:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:11:45","slug":"high-40s-in-january-isnt-so-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/high-40s-in-january-isnt-so-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"High 40s in January isn&#8217;t so bad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Gas 3.712 gal E10\/87 @ $3.169\/gal. Sheetz. $11.76.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>End @ 64,596 (66 miles)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forgot to check the oil, but I did air up the tires to 36\/40. Well, 36\/38, because the pump\u2019s battery died. I meant to go to 40 PSI on the rear. Added 2 oz of my fuel treatment blend to the fresh tank of gas when I got home. Put the standard plate on the bike. Looks cool and now I&#8217;m fully legal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The forecast said the high at about 2 PM would be 50\u00b0. I guess it got there, but I rode from 1130 til 1345 with no sun, all in the 40s, but it felt coooooold. I\u2019ve definitely been spoilt by heated grips and windshields!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wore my green Indian-branded jacket with a fleece vest and thick flannel shirt underneath and my insulated Firstgear D3O gloves. My torso was fine, but at one point I had to stop and put on my glove liners. That helped a little with my freezing fingers, but my hands were still cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I decided against venturing across Henrico County or to King William to get non-ethanol gas. I\u2019m not sure of the bike\u2019s range and I was already over 100 miles on the first fill-up. I didn\u2019t want to risk running dry, so I just got regular 87 octane at Sheetz. I rode aimlessly for about an hour, then headed across town to meet my wife and some friends for lunch. Brunch, actually, but at 1330. Had a great breakfast plate with eggs, potatoes, bacon and cheesy grits. It was fantastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9047 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9047 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_parkinglot-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><I>Parked outside the brunch spot. Not an official parking space, but the lot was full!<\/I><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The bike is running well, I\u2019m pleased with that too. There are a few small things, though. The right side mirror worked itself loose again in the handlebar mount. I have to be careful how tight I get it unless I trim the grip material to make sure it doesn\u2019t rub on the mirror stalk. I tightened it when I got home and it seems to be holding fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idle wants to stay high\u20142,000 RPM or more\u2014once the engine is fully warmed up. I can get it to drop back to normal (about 1,100 RPM) by letting out the clutch a little while I hold onto the front brake. The bike doesn\u2019t move, but the idle drops. It\u2019s probably not related to the choke , but I suppose that\u2019s possible. There are other things it\u2019s more likely to be; maybe one of the throttle cables has a kink, is worn, needs lubricated or is too short with the handlebars turned one way or the other. The carbs could need adjusted. It could be something to do with the ignition or timing, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(FOOTNOTE: What most riders refer to as \u201cthe choke\u201d is actually a fuel enrichener. A choke restricts airflow, which alters the fuel-air ratio to favor the fuel at the expense of the air. What the Airhead has\u2014and indeed, most motorcycles have\u2014is a plunger or stopper or valve moved by a knob or lever. The plunger changes the air pressure inside the carburetor, which causes fuel to be sucked into the enrichening passage(s) in addition to where it normally goes. This similarly alters the fuel-air ratio in favor of the fuel, having the same effect as a choke, but it operates by adding fuel, not taking away air like a choke does.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to make one stop quicker than I expected. The brakes work OK. Not great. Also not terrible. Just OK. I would have to say they functioned as I expected them to for 50-year-old technology. The front brake is still pulsating a bit on gradual stops. I\u2019ve put a lot of money and effort into rehabbing the front brake, so I have to think it\u2019s functioning as well as it can. The rear drum brake is a bit squishy\/soft, it may need adjusted to tighten up its response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I left off my vest for the ride home from the restaurant. That was a mistake, I should have kept it on! The sun finally came out, but the low angle didn\u2019t do much for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m hoping to ride again tomorrow, maybe 60 or 80 miles, then fill up with E0 gas. Tuesday is supposed to be nice as well. Weatherbug says the highs this week will be 49 (tomorrow), 51 (Tuesday) and 58 on Wednesday! I better get out that day for sure; my wife&#8217;s foot surgery is on Thursday so it will be my last riding day for at least a few weeks, through February most likely. In the following week, we\u2019re looking at highs in the low 60s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m having second thoughts (again) about riding 1,500 miles each way to Austin for the Handbuilt show at the end of March. Not sure what I\u2019m going to do about it\u2014I\u2019m going, that\u2019s decided, but I might drive instead of ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I keep hitting that false neutral between third and fourth gears. I\u2019m a little concerned about it, not knowing enough or having enough experience with Airheads to know if it\u2019s a quirk or if it\u2019s an indicator I\u2019m looking at rebuilding the transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(FOOTNOTE: <strong>TMDT: That Model Does That.<\/strong> It\u2019s a favorite saying of George\u2019s which I\u2019ve adopted across a number of mediums, especially computers and guitars. It\u2019s hard sometimes to convince somebody that something is operating properly despite an apparent glitch, but if the glitch isn\u2019t truly affecting the thing\u2019s operation in a negative way, it has to become something you accept as being how it is. The false neutral is indeed just a TMDT issue. Firmer shifting technique is the easiest way to deal with it. From what I understand, the problem can be mitigated with an expensive part installed during a full transmission rebuild.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Beeline Moto II is working well. I dig that thing! It only shows the speed limit when a route is active though, and it also shows my speed in relation to the speed limit with a clever red-and-white combination circle. The bike\u2019s speedometer is accurate up to about \u2026 oh, who am I kidding? The speedo is accurate at 30 MPH and that\u2019s about it. Below that, the needle bounces wildly and above that, it gets further and further off the faster I go. An indicated 40 MPH is really about 35, but an indicated 60 MPH is almost 50. No idea if a rebuild will improve this, but for now I\u2019ll have to deal with it, as a rebuild would likely mean having it off the bike for weeks, if not months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9046 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9046 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_beeline-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><I>The Beeline Moto II is my satnav unit of choice, though what you see here is just the display unit. It works via Bluetooth off an app on your smartphone; the mapping is an overlay using Google Maps, so while you occasionally have to update the app and the head unit, you never have to worry about your maps being outdated.<\/I><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High 40s aren&#8217;t so bad when you organize a brunch stop along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-riding-without-cruise-control"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}