Radiator Flaps

When I came here last fall, I attended a Goldwing Road Riders Chapter meeting for breakfast..  At that meeting, there was a fellow that presented his air dam flaps for the side of goldwing motorcycles..

A little info here to help in understanding the problem...  Goldwings are water cooled, and have six cylinder engines about the same size as a Toyota Corolla car...  1.8 Liters..  They have radiators on each side of the front cowlings...  The air comes into the front behind the front tire and flows over the top of the engine compartment and then out thru these radiators...

The width of the cowling is supposed to keep the boiling hot air off of the rider.....   But, in the summer time you can't stand this air if it is 85 or more outside...

Various aftermarket suppliers have made plexiglass flaps to deflect this heat... I have never liked the looks of these flaps, and have resisted putting them on the bike....  But I have also boiled in city traffic...  If you sit still for more than a minute, the internal fan comes on and cools the radiators with the resulting adverse effect on you as a rider..

Club member Rik is in the advertising specialty business and had the idea to make thicker and heavier flaps... Using Baker Built hardware kits that were available in the aftermarket, he has this alternative that he sells from his home...

I ran onto Rik in the Valle Del Oro Country Store last week....  We went to his home on Monday to select the correct parts and pieces from his inventory and assembled and installed them over the last two days...

There are wings on each side, but they are identical with exception of a right and left side...  They still look like something added that doesn't belong... but perhaps those radiators won't cook me so bad..

They kind of look worse to the rider, as all the brackets and hardware are on the inside... but at least they are chrome..   It requires drilling 4, 5/8 ths inch holes in the plastic trim...  So taking them  back off would leave large unsightly damage, which makes them on there to stay...

This project has been off and on for the last several days...  Otherwise, we have just been hanging out and enjoying our warmer than the rest of the country's weather..

We barbecued some pork steaks and fried hash browns with cheese on the Webber grill Tuesday evening...  Since some folks don't care for food pictures when they can't pull up a chair and share, I'll leave it to your imagination..

Rick, we have a little webber Spirit 210 two burner house model here in Mesa... Its bigger than a Q but not by much in grilling surface...



Retired Rod

Cool in Kansas

I just looked and its 9 degrees in Kansas City at our South side Johnson County airport...  That's not far from my house.... Ewww, sure glad we are here in the warm state of Arizona...

But we did have Iowa on our mind..... or perhaps our plate....  As we got fired up this afternoon and went over to the Iowa Cafe..  This is one of the few places where you can get a good breaded tenderloin around here...

Iowa is noted for breaded tenderloins that are BIIIIIIG!  And I knew to only order the Junior size..  And it was three times the size of the bun it came served on...  I trimmed around the bun and ate the extra pieces first... with a fork...

Then the sandwich itself...  Licking the mustard from my fingers and eating a bag of traditional Lay's potato chips..  They brought about three diet sodas to go along with all of this...

My Hawkeye tire cover on the back of the Jeep looked quite at home outside in the parking lot... LOL

I spent the morning as Mr domestic cleaning up from the weekend...  We had a bunch of snacks in the TV room during that time, and Biscuit sheds long white hair as well...  If left without some attention, it would look like vagabonds lived here...

We then attacked the back patio area of the house with the pressure washer..  Its been three months since this was last done, and we have had a lot of winter and rainy dusty down pours since then...  It never rains for more than a couple of minutes, but it seems to rain mud during that time.... Just part of the desert...

I also power washed the gas grill inside and out...  It was never cleaned since last spring when we left...  It was more than nasty with desert dust and dirt...

It is now beginning to get into the mid to upper 70s during the afternoons, so outside grilling and even taking your breakfast outside in the morning to sit in the sun is now possible...  So we are cleaned up and ready for spring backyard activities...

February is usually very delightful here, much like late October and mid November...  Once it gets to March, it becomes air conditioner season when things get up into the upper 80s and beyond...

So all of that to explain that I am not missing the very cool conditions of Kansas...

Retired Rod

Boy's day out!

My friend Roger from Des Moines, not to be confused with Rich from Des Moines, called sometime last week saying that his wife had a girls day out planned and he was to be stranded....

Some background... Roger came out here by himself back in November, and stayed with me here for a few days...  He was looking at Real Estate down by Tucson...  And they came back at the first of the year renting a place from his wife's girl friend that now lives over in California... They never did purchase anything...

Since Tucson is more of a drive from out here in East Mesa, I only see him once in a while here in Arizona....  But..... this girls day out, was to be in Chandler...  So Rich and I went to get Roger at about 9 AM...

We had a boy's day out planned.....  The girls didn't seem to care...  Yeah I know...  none of my concern..

We started by going to North Scottsdale and a big Motorcycle dealership, that has all the brands in four different showrooms... Actual buildings with different addresses... but a common parking lot.  He told us they had everything except Yamaha...  I guess they didn't like the concept..  And Harley had to have a couple of businesses in between them and the rice burners..  And their salesmen had to have different colors on their shirts...

But we walked from Honda Goldwings to BMW touring bikes in a matter of moments..  The Harley's seem to be much more old school (dated) in their designs...  And so did the Goldwing for that matter..  We looked at Triumphs and Ducati and many others...

Next it was over to Dillon  reloading supplies for accessories for our ammunition reloading presses..  And then on to Twin Peaks Restaurant...... Uh, how do I tactfully describe that experience.   Let's see, short shorts and tank tops on waitresses.......  Yeah you get the picture.... I counted 40 big screen TV's in there as well...

I had a big burger with two patties and two cheeses and bacon and bar be que sauce.. Steak fries and a diet coke...  It was much better food than the Hooters fare that this place is in competition with...

From there we went back to our house out here in the East end of the valley and let Biscuit out for her duties...  We sat in the shade of the back patio and told lies for quite a while...

But then we went on to the Mesa Swap Meet with its many booths selling everything imaginable.  I think we were running out of gas by that time, and had to return Roger to Chandler...

Yep, a boy's day out....!

Retired Rod

Five guys and finding a friend at a swap meet...

Tow bars and the safety cables are usually quite safe....  But the coiled airplane style safety cables hook into the eyelets that are on the hitch and tow plate of the car and do assume that these items will not come off of their respective vehicles...

The hitch on the motor home is welded onto the frame of that vehicle....  These welds could crack, but having all of them crack enough to entirely drop the hitch seems beyond rare....  Now on the base plate end connected to the car, a set of cables is supplied on each side to further make sure that the base plate doesn't completely disconnect the towed car...

If all of the connecting bolts came completely loose, the base plate would come away from the frame, but the safety cables over the frame would limit the plate from falling off, more than a few inches..  In other words you still wouldn't have a complete disconnect...

The actual tow bar arms are reinforced with cables between the coach and the car's base plate... Having all of this fail all at once allowing the toad to go free seems almost impossible...  Of course you can never say never...

Rich and I have been rather lazy here, since his arrival... He has an hour's time zone change which messes up his internal clock..  So he is early to bed and earlier to rise than I am....  And we have enjoyed a leisurely breakfast...  Yesterday we were out to 5 guys for burgers and peanuts at lunch..

Then a trip to Ikea yielded us a new foot stool for a Po ang chair, that I already had... We went in the out doors to access the stock area bypassing all that long walk thru the warehouse areas...  We had an awful time assembling this stool once we arrived home...

Seems the hole drilled for one of the little fasteners was tilted and sticking the 4 inch long bolt into the wooden holes was so misaligned that the threads wouldn't start...  It took quite a bit of drill bit carving to get things to match up...  If it wasn't so far back over to Ikea, I would have taken the piece back...

This morning I went on the motor cycle over to Valle del Oro RV park and attended their Thursday Country Store Swap meet...   The place was swamped...  Not a parking spot anywhere... Hundreds of cars... I finally angled the motor cycle in between two parked cars...

I found my Bamboo socks lady right off, and purchased some new pairs...  Then just wandering, I found a fellow member of the Goldwing Club selling magnifier paper weights..  On the corner of his table was one of his air wings that go onto the motorcycles... I kind of wondered if he thought some of the RVers would know what they were...

I had to look at this fellow a moment to make sure he was the right guy, but it didn't take long to confirm we knew each other..  So rather than just purchase socks, I now have a set of these wings on order...

Let me explain a bit....  The Honda Goldwing is water cooled and has two radiators on each side of the cowling in front of your knees...  In the summer, overwhelmingly excessive heat pours out of these vents..  These new plastic deflectors channel the heat away from you as the rider...

I was really hot last summer when getting slowed down in nasty traffic... These come highly recommended...  They are much thicker in their plastic material and have very sturdy mounts...  I have my fingers crossed...

Retired Rod

Tow Bar and Lighting

There it is, a finished product....  Not much to see, but the tow bar is under the bumper and the lighting socket is in the middle...  I would go take a picture of the tail lights, but there is nothing to see back there other than the original factory lights...

The bulbs are inside of the the factory lights and all of the wiring is inside of the metal body..  The rest of the wires are under the bottom of the car...  At some point I will need to move the brake box break away switch...  This is on the front of the CRV back in Kansas...

Some states require this break away lanyard...  If all of the safety cables and the tow bar failed, the last thing that would happen would be this switch would be pulled out as the vehicle pulled away from the coach...

In theory, the brake box would slam on the car brakes...  Now no one would be steering at this point, so where would the car go....Even with its brakes on, the likely hood of something orderly and good happening, would be slim to none...  Most likely the vehicle would go off of the road and tip over..... or worse.....

So while I might transfer the box once I am back to the midwest, it would be about worthless...  I checked on ordering a new one, and it is $80 and shipping.....  Nope... I'll wait..

Installing the light socket was more about finding longer bolts and spacers to set it out away from the bar farther...  Checking the wiring harness with a multi meter found that my wiring on the motorhome and the CRV was all standard...  So wiring the Jeep in the same fashion solved my troubles instantly...

This morning my friend Rich arrived from Des Moines at Sky Harbor..  As usual, they wouldn't let me wait more than a couple of minutes outside the door while he collected his bags...  I had to drive around to the other side of the terminal when the cops moved me along...

That kept him guessing where I was outside and which door to find me beyond...  Kind of like a shell game...  Thank goodness for cell phones.....

Retired Rod

Wiring extra bulbs in the Jeep's Tail Lights..

Just as I was complaining that UPS didn't deliver my Amazon package, but rather sent it to the Post Office.... And the package had disappeared with no tracking info available.....

With a reticent attitude, I went to the mail box on Saturday afternoon, and there was the package...  The post office added only one extra day....  So... I ordered on Tuesday and it was here on Saturday...  A total of 4 days from Texas...  This was the free shipping as I am not a Premium member.  That's really a good deal..  I did have to pay sales tax however... My complaining wasn't warranted..!



I wanted to do this wiring project myself, because when I have hired it done in the past, they poke the wires along the frame next to the exhaust pipes...  The heat tends to melt the wire insulation... But that doesn't happen right away, but rather a couple of years later... After you can't go back and complain.. Sometimes they wrap the wires around the gas line like they did in the Honda CRV.. Electric wires around the gas pipe.......? What could possibly go wrong with that...

So I spent this afternoon engineering how I was going to install these light bulbs...  You have to take the tail lights out of the vehicle and drill a 1" hole in the side of the plastic light housing on each side...  I had seen on the internet how this was to be done, and drilling the hole wasn't too bad using a spade bit and running it backwards in the drill...  I can't remember who taught me that, but essentially you rub your way thru the plastic and it doesn't break...

The longer project is running the wire away from the exhaust... I decided to run it down the center of the Jeeps frame..  So with the various holes drilled along the frame and a coat hanger as a fish tape, I pulled the wire all the way to the front...

A larger project was to run the tail light wire from the passenger side across under the carpet to the drivers side of the Jeep... Its always such a puzzle to get things apart.  Of course I solder and tape all the connections rather than using the crimp splices that they provide....  All of this takes time.... but then I have a lot of that.....

I still have to put the connector on the front of the tow bar, and go over to the motorhome and figure out how it is wired...  For some reason, the round 7 connector on the back of the rig isn't wired like a standard connector...

Other than going to church this morning, that was my entire day....

Retired Rod

Paying for that overnight shipment last week....

OK, I thought the little light wires I had ordered would be here today... Wrong...

They shipped them by the post office.....  But the tracking number didn't work in the post office tracking system...  It was a number that started with 1Z which sounds like a UPS number, so for grins I copied it over to UPS tracking and it came up as coming from Texas...  And going to Mesa, Az...  Well that had to be right..

And it arrived in Mesa yesterday, so I assumed that it would be delivered today....  That's the wrong part.... When I looked the package had been transferred to the post office... So essentially it was mailed locally...  Of course that could take days....

My friend Rich from Des Moines arrives on Tuesday, so that means that Q is now out of the picture...

Maybe I could drive down and do the big tent thing on Sunday or something, but that makes a huge day out of a couple of hours at the tent....   But I've been every year......  See the argument I'm having with myself here...

Base plates and visits....

The base plate is on the Jeep...  And all I had to do was sit in a comfy wooden arm chair and read my tablet computer...  While I was waiting......

The place of all this fun was Bishop's Trailer Sales on the East end of Apache Junction....  They have acres of trailers...  Utility style and working folks trailers... And horse or stock trailers...  They install trailer hitches and work on all the trailers....

The service manager has been out looking at new Jeeps, and fairly jumped at the chance to work on my new Jeep....  Did I mention his enthusiasm.... I arrived at 9:30 and he was on it immediately... We went thru the kit looking at all the pieces and the instructions...  He understood the job and took it from there... Really, I didn't even go out and pester him once.....

He charged me for two hours of his labor, which is about how long he worked, and the bill came in at under $200...   I was happy, and he was still busy showing me his good work, as I was leaving...  He had to see the window sticker for the little truck that I had in the glove compartment, and I really didn't think he was going to let me leave...  Its just a matter of time, he's Jeep hooked....

I also ordered a tail light kit for the Jeep, but unlike the base plate, they mailed it, and they estimate it will be here on the 25th of the month....  Well that's way too late to get to Q...  So perhaps the idea to tow the Jeep anywhere will have to come sometime in February...  I've been to Q several years running, and never buy anything that amounts to much so saving the money for base plate installations, works for me..

Today we warmed up to 75 or more today before 2 in the afternoon....  I rode the Goldwing over to Sam's Club to check on battery availability if I should need to change the coach engine batteries...  They are just three years old now, which is about when they poop out...  For some reason, this Sam's has the commercial truck group 31s that semi trucks and my motorhome require...  $112.50  and they had several...  I ate a big piece of Sam's pizza and rode on....

Since I was so far South by this time, I rode out to the very Southeast end of the valley....  This is where Gordon and Juanita Pierce are in a nice small RV park... Skyline named after the road it is located on...

I hadn't made any plans with them, but just happened by at 4 PM, official RVers happy hour...  They did happen to be home, and before long we had several of their neighbors out in front of their home as well, we were discussing broken gray water tanks, and other things of extreme interest... You know how this goes in almost every RV park...

This park is a nice place way out in the country...  Once you pass the park, the road only goes about a mile or so farther and turns to gravel..  The neighbors places that far out are acreages with horses and such...  Much like John and Brenda Brown's neighborhood in Maricopa..

Not wanting to overstay an unplanned visit, I excused myself at about 5 PM as not long after that the sun will disappear...  Its still January...  We agreed that when Sandie and Jim get back from their winter shenanigans in Q, that we will get together for another Burger at Fudd's...   Perhaps we can get Ray and Cindy to come too, if they are back over in this area by then....

Another fine day in the Desert of Arizona...

Retired Rod

Jeep needs towed....

I ordered a base plate for the front of the Jeep Wrangler...  The part you connect your tow bar too to tow it down the highway with the motorhome...  I looked at the difficulty of installing it and it was rated a 2 out of five...  Drill 4 half inch holes... Didn't seem too bad..  Price was cheaper off of Amazon....

I opted for the 5-8 day shipping that would be free...  That was last Thursday...  About midnight Thursday night, I was emailed that it was shipped... Humm, same day...  But then I noticed it would be there on the 10th... which was tomorrow...  What the heck...?

And about 7 PM on Friday the door bell rang and it was the UPS driver with the big 42 pound box....  Shaking my head, I checked the tracking..  and it came from ........... Phoenix..  The return label said Kentucky, but that obviously didn't mean anything...

The shipping was free, but I was charged tax since it didn't leave the state...

But...... reading the instructions I learned the front bumper of the Jeep has to be removed before you drill those 4 holes...  I'd bet it weighs 100 pounds... Wouldn't be a big deal back in Kansas, as I would put the floor jack under it and lower it to the deck...

Of course out here, I would have to go buy another floor jack..  And it was a stretch to drill the holes, because I would have needed to go get a half inch drill at Harbor Freight...  I do think there is an electric 3/8ths in the motorhome bins but that would need a step up drill bit...  So what the heck..

I went over to the Trailer place that fixed the axle on the utility trailer and have an appointment to get them to deal with the big bumper.  I probably saved enough getting the plate off of the internet to pay for the installation.... but time will tell...

I also have a Patriot Brake Box and it was dead all summer if it wasn't plugged into the car.. Its internal battery was deader than a door nail...  I couldn't get the case apart because it had really deeply set phillips screws... I could get four of them out with the longest driver I had, but not the fifth...

So I made a point to look all over the Home Depot for a driver that would work...  And sure enough, they had a Kline 7 inch #2..  That opened the thing right up..  Of course because it was a Kline, it was a $10 screw driver...

The battery is a little lead acid cell, that was sourced from batteries plus for $25...   The guy went right over to the shelf and picked out a replacement without even looking the numbers up.....  So that's back together and more importantly back alive...

I have been riding the motorcycle in the afternoon for the last two days... its been in the high 60s both of the afternoons, and perfect for bike rides...

Retired Rod

Its still nice out here.....

With it being so cold back in the Midwest, I haven't wanted to say much about our weather out here...  My son made the comment that I was rubbing it in when I told him the temperature out here...  But he asked....

I did go out on a 2 hour motorcycle ride on Monday, as it was 68 on the bike dashboard....  That was about the time that the temps were so bad back home...   The problem is that I don't have any bike friends out here, so I ride alone...  Its much more fun when a couple of you go off to a luncheon that is in a distant city or town.  And then hang out together at that restaurant...

We tend to take over almost every place we go for an hour or so...  But we show up at 11 or before, so usually we're gone before the regular lunch crowd... Anyway, it isn't the same stopping by a distant Wendy's....  LOL

I thought my cold or what ever it is was getting much better, but then today I woke up right back where I started last Saturday with my chest burning and coughing....  I can hope for it to go away, but perhaps the doctor will be the alternative of choice....

It kind of frightens me to be all alone and sick....  Its amazing how you take care of each other... Wouldn't worry about it except diabetes can make you go wacko when your blood sugar is too far out of line....

Biscuit doesn't know how to call the people that can help....

Retired Rod

Good Bye winter cold...

OK....... Now that's more like it!!!!!

After Christmas I had began making piles of stuff that needed to go back to the desert...  On Thursday, I loaded all that stuff out into the garage... It was below freezing out there, so I put it into one of the cars...

Friday morning I loaded the final stuff and the stuff in the garage into the Wrangler and locked the place up for the rest of the winter...  It was 11 AM before I was on the road, but the sun was shining and it warmed up quickly as I headed West from KC..

It was 54 degrees when I crossed into Oklahoma South of Liberal, Ks....  But the wind was blowing over 30 mph...   The little Jeep was all over the road... As the sun went down, the wind subsided and I pressed on to Tucumcari...

We spent the night at our usual Rodeway Inn...  This turned out to be a bad deal, as somehow I contacted a bunch of germs and awoke with a runny nose and a sore throat.... I found 2 zinc tabs in my medicine bag.

Since you gain an hour, I was up with the sun but the clock had an earlier time on it...  I was on the road by 7:45..  Stopping only for gas and bathrooms, we were in Gallup around 1:30..  I went to the Wal Mart there for more zinc..

So by 6 PM, we arrived here in Mesa, and began the unload process....   So much work when you are by yourself...  I had driven thru a car wash up in Payson, to remove layers of road salt and grime from the Jeep..  But as I look at the vehicle this morning, it isn't anywhere near clean...  At least I didn't get filthy as I loaded stuff out of it...

So I will miss the terrible cold covering the midwest and northeast... That's OK by me and Biscuit is much happier going outside to do her duty as well...

Retired Rod

I gota get outa here!

Look at this weather forecast....!

It was so cold last night that the heat ran all night....  I'm not sure it ever turned off....  And that wasn't good because.....

When I got home last night, I could smell natural gas out in front of our house...  Right in front of the garage...  I've thought I smelled it before but only whiffs.. But last night it was almost overwhelming...

I walked all over inside the house and didn't smell it, so I decided it was outside and the wind was blowing...  And since it was late, we'll deal with it tomorrow...

So I called the gas company this morning and declared an emergency...  It took about two and a half hours for them to come over on that emergency...  !  Evidently lots of other folks smell gas all over the place when everyone is heating and it just takes that long for them to look in on it all....

The guy with the white pickup arrived and I was out shoveling that snow from last night....  He pulled up along my driveway and asked if I was the guy with the leak....   And then in the next breath before I could answer, he says "I can smell it from here."  Must have a trained nose...

He grabs and ordinary plant sprayer and walks to my gas meter and begins to soak everything with soap suds...  Two of the joints begin to bubble instantly... Going back to the truck, he gets out a really big pipe wrench..  What some folks would call a monkey wrench...

He tells me these unions in the line always leak when its cold and then gives it a mighty heave..   It turns about half way around like it was really loose...  Then he tightened the top of the meter as well....   Finally he douses the entire pipe with suds again finding no more bubbles...

Walking back to the truck, he thanks me and starts talking on his cell phone to the dispatcher...  His time must have been really valuable on such a cold day...

Again tonight we are to have one degree outside before morning, and a friend up in Iowa just told me he had minus three already...  Burrrrr....

At least I'm not smelling gas any more.....

Retired Rod

Romeos and Losing the Bowl Game

I was up this morning at 7 AM and left the house before 9....   It was over to Al's house to collect him for another Romeo New Years morning luncheon....  We drove about 60 miles to Vasar, Kansas...

Notice I said DROVE..... as in inside the Jeep!!  It was about 18 degrees when we left his house and 23 when we arrived at the restaurant..  Some hearty fellows had ridden their Goldwings out there, but they all had electric heated riding gear...

But even with that kind of gear, its awfully cold inside that helmet...  No heat in there, other than your breath...  I didn't ask Al if he wanted to take the truck, I told him I was taking the truck and he could ride his bike in front of me if he wanted....  Or he could ride in the nice warm passenger seat beside me...  His choice...  He chose the seat inside...

We were back here in KC by 2 PM, when I dropped Al off back at his home...

For the rest of the day we spent it with both son's and the grand kids...  Watching the Hawkeyes struggle with LSU, and loosing our first string quarter back...  That cooked our goose for any chance at winning...

Now tonight, it has begun to snow, and I had to use 4 wheel drive to return back to the house...  They said we should have 4 to 6 inches before morning, but it is about 3 inches now and falling steadily.....

I hope tomorrow it will get this out of its system, but we will still be shoveling in the morning....

Retired Rod

I made it until midnight...

As I type this, some of my neighbors are out blowing off all kinds of Fireworks and it is officially 2014......

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Younger folks are having a party on the TV singing about the world and their girl friends....  They still do that show in the name of Dick Clark, but I wonder if they even know who he was....  He passed in April of 2012..

Since it is midnight here in the Central time zone, they just showed the time square area, and not a soul is left.... Only the tons of confetti on the street...

But the party goes on.....  But for me, I am heading off to bed as we have a big day planned for tomorrow.....  or today now...


Happy New Year....

Retired Rod