Blair's Blog

Forgetmenot Pond is at the far end of highway 66 into the Elbow River valley past Bragg Creek and today was a fine fall day – warm and sunny. Brenda’s motorbike had been in need of some serious care and attention this summer. Although I had it running in the Spring, it didn’t see any use until after our vacation to Europe. The battery died first and it took a while trying to get it to take a charge, and failing, before getting a replacement. Then it wouldn’t run properly, idle was all wrong and it would stall at the slightest provocation. I figured it was a fueling problem, so I siphoned out the old gas and coaxed it to the gas station for a tank of premium.

25 km of laps about the neighbourhood later, it was really no better. Must be gummed up carburetors. Unless it is a fouled plug or other ignition problem – best to check that first… Must be gummed up carburetors.

Messing around with carbs – particularly when there are two and they will need to be synchronized if I touch them – is a bit daunting. And, which carb is the problem one? The bike does run, although poorly. After some procrastination I finally raised the fuel tank and took off the airbox to have a look. So, which one is the culprit? I don’t want to mess up the one carb that is working. So, I start the bike and seal off the throat of the front carb with my hand. The engine slows a fraction but keeps turning over. When I seal off the rear carb throat the engine stalls immediately. Definitely the front carb is just not working.

Fortunately, at that moment two things happen to save me from what was sure to be hours of work and heartache disassembling the carb. First, I found a very old can of STP Carb and Choke cleaner and second, Brenda calls out to me in the garage to say that lunch is on the table. So, I figure, “what could go wrong?” and spray a quarter of the can of carb cleaner into the front carb, in all the openings and nooks and crannies. Then I head into the house, wash up and enjoy lunch with Brenda.

Once lunch is over it is time to face the music – back to the garage. But, before I grab any tools, I start the motorbike, without much hope. But, a miracle has occurred thanks to the magical powers of acetone and xylene. The engine starts and idles normally! Except for the cloud of smoke from the exhaust. Sealing off the front carb with my hand, the engine goes back to the same lumpy idle as before – and the same thing happens when I seal off the back carb. Woohoo!

I gave the bike a good run that day and all seemed well, but there is nothing like a ride to somewhere with no cell coverage to really see if things are ok. So today it was off to Forgetmenot Pond – about 165km for the trip and the motorbike worked perfectly.

Tags: Motorcycle

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I discovered this stuff a bit by accident a couple of years ago when I needed to make a quick, inexpensive repair to some scrapes in the paint on one of the vans that we had. I paid about $20 for “QUIXX repair system” at Ukrainian Tire and was pretty impressed with how well it worked. It’s a German product so it likely has a bucketful of engineering effort in its creation – it even comes with some 3000-grit wet&dry sandpaper for use with touch-up paint.

I’ve used it a few times since – before we sold the BBB and the A4, I went over each of them and dealt with all the little rubs and scrapes. The product is basically a 2-part system with a light compound and a polish that are applied by hand with a reasonably high amount of force. For scratches that are only in the clearcoat the repairs are pretty much impossible to see afterwards.  Deeper scratches into the paint layer don’t fully disappear, but 5 or 10 minutes to compound, polish then a light coat of wax on top and the results are pretty good – really hard to distinguish from an arm’s length away, unless the light is just right. Of course, anything that goes through to primer isn’t going to go away without paint – but even those look a lot better after treatment with QUIXX.

Sometime last winter someone/something dragged across the front bumper of the new Lexus and left a flurry of scratches in the paint.  About half of them through to the paint.  It really didn’t look very good and I finally got after attempting the fix yesterday.  The set of pictures shows the results from about 6-inches away in bright sunlight – the scratches are still evident in the final picture, but standing a foot or two in front of the car only the large, deep scratch still shows.

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Of course, I am referring to the Koln Dom – and the 533 steps up the tower to the viewing area.  After eight days in the Netherlands, we headed into Germany, to Cologne (Koln, in Deutsch – sorry, but I can’t figure out umlauts on my phone). This was basically a transit day with the aim of getting us back to France for our last few days of vacation in Paris.
It was also a bit rainy and grey, so a good day to make some distance. That said,  we did want to spend some time in Cologne, and see a few things.  We started out by taking the ‘seilbahn’ gondola from the north side of the Rhine to the south then walking about a large Park along the river. After the return gondola ride we drove to the center of the city.
We parked near the cathedral and walked a few blocks to the square. It was jammed with people – after touring a number of churches, we’ve seen some crowds, but nothing like Cologne.
We toured the inside first, then headed for the tower. 8€ for the family, and up we went. 533 steps for a 97m gain from the base of the tower. It’s quite the climb, with only 2 places where it is really possible to stop for a breather.
At the top, the view is fantastic, although constrained by safety fencing.

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We were at a nice little cottage last night just over the the German border into Belgium.  Unlike Holland, where it doesn’t matter what your destination is because you are practically there, in the Ardennes it’s a long way to your destination no matter how short the distance.

The other thing we have noticed is that Europeans rarely have any useable counter space in their bathrooms. It seems you are constantly juggling toothpaste and razor and soap and comb and anything else you need. The other odd thing was a lack of a mirror in some bathrooms.

And then there is the autobahn, what can you say? Even in a wacky French mini-minivan:

And, that wasn’t even the best road. That honour goes to this bit of highway:

This is a road near Monshau in Germany, near the Belgian border. It was fantastic, both going uphill and then back down. It would have been outstanding on the motorbike.

Tags: Travel

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