Day 6 11/1/2021
No riding today (2018 Miles Total)
Austin, TX
Woke up before the sunrise today thanks to being an hour behind Eastern Standard Time. I got right in the garage and started wrenching on my bike. First thing was a shock brace i needed to support the rear shock because BMW kinda sucks. Without it doing some heavy off roading the upper shock bolt will bend and actually bend the frame totaling the bike in some cases if it isnt caught early enough. I was on my way there as the bolt was bent but just barely. Close call
I ended up using Veronicas bike (which ill be buying when i get home from this trip) to run a bunch of errands today and im pretty bummed i cant get my hands on one to do this trip with.
After a bunch of errands i started working on the wheels. Miguel and I took my old street tires off and were changing them with a new set of offroad tires since there will be A TON of off roading on the trip. Theyre supposed to last 15K miles so we will see about that.
During that process i started working on changing the front brake pads. A little pin holding the brake pads were seized up from all the snow and salt in the northeast. After i picked up veronicas mom who flew in from NY at 4PM Miguel got his hands on a torch, and along with some PB blaster and about 5 hours of work we got the pin out thanks to some elbow grease from Miguel and a hammer!
Tomorrow ill finish putting the tire on the rear rim, change the oil, finish the front pads. Thursday im having some parts come in from Oregon and i can’t leave without them so i hope they come in on Thursday!
Heres some pictures from the guys being messy mechanics and some homemade wine from Miguel!
Also a picture of my GPS tracks since Wednesday!