They Really Are in Texas

The first photographic evidence emerged that Krystal and Eric really are in Texas. We have been waiting 2 weeks for some kind of photo. We were happy to see this one at little brother Sam's concert.

We finally went to see Captain America last night. It was OK if not a little contrived. How did the villain know that Ironman would even show up in Siberia? His whole multi-year plan was predicated on him showing up to watch the video of his parents murder. Oh well. Don't overthink and just enjoy, right?

Randall and Julianne were married yesterday. Sorry we couldn't be there. Haley had to work and didn't make it either.

Apparently Alison and John went to Houston for few days and John learned to captain a floatation device..

I spent Friday replacing the steering stem bearings in my motorcycle. I test rode two BMW's when I was looking, a 650GS and this 800GS, and both had notchy steering. I thought it was a BMW design feature so you would know what angle you were pointing to. Now I know they just have poor initial bearings that get notched easily.

Here is what a notched bearing race like (picture is rotated wrong but you get the idea).

I had to jack up the front of the bike to remove the steering stem.

Then drive the old bearings off with a punch.

Getting the new ones on involved heating the new ones ( in an oven or with a heat gun (what I did) and putting them on with gloves to keep from burning hands. I was only able to get the lower bearing on part way and tried to beat it on the rest of the way. I could not get it seated the last 1/8" so I decided to put it together and try to seat it by riding.

About 5 miles into the rocks on the backside of Mt Lemmon, the steering started rattling like it was loose. I got out the tools to remove the handlebars and tighten the bearing adjustment to remove the play.

Selfie time....

Here is the first area I stopped at to tighten bearings.

I went another 10 miles and hat to stop again. This time I was in the shade.

It was then that I noticed my license plate was nearly falling off because one of the bolts had come out. I had heard rattling and had stopped to look but couldn't see the source. There was a piece of rubber hose laying in the dirt at this camping spot so I squeezed it and pushed it into the license holder hole. The steering and the plate held together the rest of the way home.

Rubber hose holding plate made it home