Taking advantage of all this nice weather up here. It snowed early in the week, but most of it blew away and the rest melted. Drove up to Kim's place, about 13 miles out of town, and we went for an afternoon ride up to the top of Aspen mountain and then down its spine. Weather was around 50 degrees and partly cloudy. We encountered a bit of snow, ice, mud and water while riding up a northern slope trail through some aspen trees, but that was the only spot with that much wintery terrain. We slithered through it pretty well and continued to the peak, then headed east, down the spine of the mountain.
When we reached the valley floor again, we prepared to circle back to the ranch via two track and some cross country, but my TE 501 had other ideas and stopped running rather abruptly. It did sound like anything mechanical, and the dash didn't throw any codes, so I was initially stumped. Kim offered to shortcut back to the ranch and get her truck, and it seemed like the best plan...so off she went. Having nothing to do while I was waiting, I opened up my waist pack to see what tools I might tinker with on the bike, thus killing some time and maybe fixing the problem. I spied a little plastic container with 3 tiny fuel filters nestled inside and the lightbulb lit up in my head. My cell phone rang right then. It was Kim and she was ready to head out with the truck. I told her that I was going to try swapping out the old fuel filter for a fresh one and see what that might do. She said okay, if I got the bike running, just ride it back up the trail to Sweeny Canyon road and she would meet me there. I said okie dokie, and proceeded to change out the filter, Sure enough, the machine roared to life the instant I hit the starter button. I wasted no time donning my gear and heading back to the road.
I had totally forgotten about the fuel filter problem and that I had been carrying the filters for just such an occasion. I always change the filter out every time I do a valve adjust, but I may have forgotten to on the last service. It isn't the same living up here in an apartment with my bikes locked up in a shed a few miles away. I always did maintenance pretty much right on time back in the good old days of having a garage attached to a house....sigh.....
Yeah, the ride was cut short, but all's well that ends well. Hoping for more good weather coming up this month, and very excited for the summer months when I can once again head up into the green Uinta mountains.
When we reached the valley floor again, we prepared to circle back to the ranch via two track and some cross country, but my TE 501 had other ideas and stopped running rather abruptly. It did sound like anything mechanical, and the dash didn't throw any codes, so I was initially stumped. Kim offered to shortcut back to the ranch and get her truck, and it seemed like the best plan...so off she went. Having nothing to do while I was waiting, I opened up my waist pack to see what tools I might tinker with on the bike, thus killing some time and maybe fixing the problem. I spied a little plastic container with 3 tiny fuel filters nestled inside and the lightbulb lit up in my head. My cell phone rang right then. It was Kim and she was ready to head out with the truck. I told her that I was going to try swapping out the old fuel filter for a fresh one and see what that might do. She said okay, if I got the bike running, just ride it back up the trail to Sweeny Canyon road and she would meet me there. I said okie dokie, and proceeded to change out the filter, Sure enough, the machine roared to life the instant I hit the starter button. I wasted no time donning my gear and heading back to the road.
I had totally forgotten about the fuel filter problem and that I had been carrying the filters for just such an occasion. I always change the filter out every time I do a valve adjust, but I may have forgotten to on the last service. It isn't the same living up here in an apartment with my bikes locked up in a shed a few miles away. I always did maintenance pretty much right on time back in the good old days of having a garage attached to a house....sigh.....
Yeah, the ride was cut short, but all's well that ends well. Hoping for more good weather coming up this month, and very excited for the summer months when I can once again head up into the green Uinta mountains.