Relaxing at Grand Junction 3.-11.9.2014

We relaxed heavily at Uli! Skippy made great food and I took care of some bike maintenance.

New and old front tire - Heidenau K60 Scout

The local BMW/KTM/Harley dealer had it in stock and I got a good price. Mounting the tire would have been 90USD(!!!) so I went to some other place which did it for about 30USD including tax and “small parts”.

Don't mess with the cook!

That was delicious - raw organic banana "ice cream" with organic raspberries :)

Wolfi with Ludi - the manly dog ;)

Ordering a new back tire was another small drama. First of all, the online shop did not accept Paypal from accounts outside the US! Secondly my experience with ordering by credit card was that I need to add 2-3 days to the delivery time due to delays in clarifying that my credit card was in fact MY credit card and not stolen. So I called. My first call to the company ended with the result that they did not sell me a tire because I said it is for a motorbike with sidecar and their policy stated that they do not sell tires for motorbikes. I called again, had a different sales agent on the line and did not mention motorbike this time (I am a fast learner)! The credit card issue still remained an issue and it took one extra day to clarify the details and get the shipment going.

Another rear tire for the sidecar (I hoped for better grip on gravel) - Pirelli Snowcontrol

My seat cover got totally broken - time for a new one ...

Got me "marine-graded"(very important!!!) material and put it on myself - worked out well :)

The rear brake disc and pads of the Suzi needed changing. I did not know how fast it would wear out and since the original plan was to cross Africa and then South America, I bought a disc in Europe and had it in my spare part compartment. Now when it was time to change I realized it was a wrong one – I could seriously hit my head against the brick wall. According to the catalog this disc was for the V-Strom, but it had 5 mounting holes whereas Skippy´s bike had four holes. Figure that!

I needed to get now one locally. The original Suzi disc costs a fortune and would take about 10 days to come – not a good option. The other supplier had it in the backlog with expected delivery date of October (4-6 weeks from when I asked). A third supplier had it in stock but it was again the case that a search in internet delivered two different discs with the same number (the one with four the other with five holes) – Porkkana!

I was so pissed!

And we bought plenty of organic produce from the local Sprout shop, what an enjoyment!

And off we went for our Colorado - Utah - Colorado round-trip.

Skippy made another travelogue.

Click here if you have trouble to watch the video in Youtube.

~ Wolfi