We all know how 2020 went. The pandemic laid waste to lives and plans across the world. We stayed safe. IT was still a hard year.
I started of the year changing oil and filter. Swapped out the bad rear brake master cylinder and bled all the brakes. The bad master in the photo below with my fingernail lifting the failed sight glass.
The master cylinder was fitted and fresh fluid bled through the system.
Next, I got out my Rabaconda and went to work removing the Pirelli Scorpion to convert the rear wheel to tubeless.
I used some 3M skylight tape to seal the rim at the spoke nipples, after cleaning well with denatured alcohol and letting it all dry overnight. Then applying the narrow 1-1/2″ tape around the rim at the nipples and carefully pressing it into place, I re-installed the OEM rubber rim strip, the tire and inflated to 60 psi to sit over night.
I installed the old TKC80’s I had as they were also tubeless, the plan being to go get some desert practice in over the winter, but Covid-19 closed everything.
The conversion worked well. No leaks. Easier tire swaps as I have swapped back to the Pirelli Scorpions for an upcoming trip as I’m typing this in 2021. I have only put around 800 miles on the conversion with the one tire change so not bad I expect. I used the narrow tape in the photo below.
This is the valve stem I used. It is CRES with the seal at the inside. The pictured valve stem has an additional curved washer to match the outside curve of the front rim. The 1X90 tubeless front rims have a flat profile at the center.
As long as I had the wheels off the bike, I cleaned up the spokes again. Though I didn’t spend a lot of time at it. They look better than they did, but the spokes are in pretty bad shape. I’m going to get a set of wheels form Woody next year.
Next task was renewing the heat shielding.
The above sequence is for the left side cover. The same process was repeated at the right side then the tank lower right area where the shield was missing completely and appeared to have never been there. Where I had to remove the decomposed shield I peeled what I could off by hand, then scrapped and wiped the area clean with alcohol. Let it dry then apply the new shield.
The rest of my motorcycle work in 2020 consisted of cleaning and adjusting things by bits here and there. I messed with the suspension when I had to ride to a doctors or dentist appointments.
I got a tubeless repair tool from a member of Advrider.com. It is a nice tool. I hope I never need to use it.
Then stowed under the seat it takes up little room. A very nice piece of kit.
I cleaned and sort of detailed the bike over the year. I would see something while looking for something else and pretty soon, I’d be sitting on the ground under the bike with a rag and cleaners and polish. The tire in this photo is the TKC80 I used in 2018 for nearly a month of riding.
At one point, I did have to add some energy to the battery after too much messing and no riding.
The garage and workbench got rearranged as well more than a few times. The final arrangement was to accommodate my smart cycling trainer. I would ride in place from June 2020 to March 2021. Learned a lot and got stronger. Win/win.
And who doesn’t need espresso in the shop? The machine is a Starbuck’s brand so uses their pods only. Which is annoying, but the machine was free.
The TV screen is not perfect in this position, but with the old first generation AppleTV I can stream MotoGP or bicycle races as well as the smart cycling trainer video from my computer or phone. I downsized my compressor to a small quite model which led to more shelves and rearrangements at the tool chests.
At one point the top bay of my tool chest was cleaned and organized. As drawers and boxes were emptied that cavity filled to overflowing again. A left to do task I’ll get to at some point.
2020 ended with no riding of the motorcycle other than errands. Vaccines were on the horizon for us, family and friends and the world. Even though this photo is from April 2020 it is about where the odometer was at the end of the year.
And with that I’m caught up to the present time. From here I’ll keep the log as a draft to the end of each year. Between those will be posts of rides. Speaking of which with being nearly half way through 2021 as I type this, there is a ride happening. Something that as usual just popped up and grew a bit. More about that in a separate post.
As a teaser, the Scorpion MT 90 A/T tires are back on the bike because we figure mostly freeway and paved back roads this trip. Then maybe some back road riding across the middle of America will happen. I’ll decide as I go. That is one of the beauties of being retired is not having to schedule things too tightly.
Along The Way 