Chillis rolls out of Vegas

will the tacky stuff cook in the rings? Especially the oil scraper.

It won’t hurt anything.

Once it is all together I'll spin the crank over a bunch to prime everything and spread the assembly lube around, hopefully thin it some before light off.

Nah the fuel from the huge injector will wash it down and throw it out the pipe she might smoke for a bit but will clear out in a couple minutes.

I miss my little helpers!
My grandson took too tools real quick, keep telling daughter to feed that mechanical thinking.
Not going too be a lot of mechanical thinkers 20 years from now, they will be all techies.
Mike

Ha ha, huge PCX 150 injector!



For anybody that doesn't know what a PCX is:



Edit: this is some mental punishment at its finest. The rest of the work being the easy stuff and having to wait on parts.

Most important parts to finish being the clutch pieces, I ordered some other goodies like a forged spring lifter plate for said clutch, upgraded battery, Zeta sprocket cover, and the rear sprocket bringing me back to stock final gearing ratio since the bike will have much more power.

The big bore makers suggest going up a tooth on the front and dropping a couple on the rear but that will not be a good scenario for off road.

Plus speedo accuracy, can't have that be off.

When the Monkey is finished and running properly I'll be loading up my daughter's little Stacyc bike and the mine and head to a dry lake and teach her to ride more as well.

Keep working on her to be very well rounded.

Had her turning wrenches two nights ago.

Good for you..she'll appreciate it for a lifetime. I made my daughter do regular maintenance on her car.. also made her play golf. While a small golf scholarship helped with school, the plan backfired.. whether we're playing 9 or 18 she can lay out the smack down on the old man now!

This morning I was supposed to be waking up from a night of moto camping. It would be the second time I'd ever camped, the first time vowing never to participate again.

Got everything ready and the morning of departure my buddies met me at the house and we headed for the dirt. Just so happened to notice the Old Spanish Trail marker where we'd stopped.





The last time we'd be clean. Aired down and ready to raise a dusty hell. The 701 Enduro is an animal of a dual sport. On the open road I like to cruise at 70 mph max but I've had the bike pinging off of the top speed limit of 119 mph. She rolls hard.

On the dirt road I had to remind myself not to ride too fast so I kept it at 70 mph there too. The bike is itching to run harder though.

Rode into Sandy Valley and off to some points I've been minding on my map. Map check and more BS'ing and off into the desert we go.



Pick our way through the route looking for a cache of vehicles in a wash and an old abandoned building and as we get close there is a Private Property sign so we take the adjacent trail and keep rolling back into the canyon.



We made it to an old mine site but my buddies had already been there. Consulted the map and it turns out we could not access the original intended search location. Rallied and raced out of the desert, through Sandy Valley then to the Mojave Preserve.

Once rolling into the Preserve we followed some trails to some places I'd scoped on the map and talk about hitting paydirt for the exploring type!







Before the pictures of the truck we'd found a great cabin that was occupied. Spoke to the residents and they were leaving in a couple of hours so we asked them to leave the flag up for us. Then we continued on to other buildings.



These cabins in the area are undergoing renovation to by volunteers to be used for public consumption.





What was nice about the day is that weather was very pleasant and we had the area to ourselves.

Once we'd scoped out all the nearby buildings(much of which I did not get pictures) we headed back to the cabin we would stay at for the evening to lay claim.

Even though we were staying at a cabin(wasn't originally planned) my buddies proceeded to assemble their sleeping quarters outside.

They were both sleeping in their tents and I'd brought a hammock and sleeping bag. There wasn't a good place for the hammock to be strung up so I didn't do any setting up. I'd use the sleeping bag in the cabin.

Once done with their setting up we continued to explore the trails and waste rock piles of the area.

Our cabin for the night and view:



A nearby trail brought us to the top of a hillside with waste rock piles and this gravesite:



Across from our nightly accommodations was this vertical shaft and waste rock pile with a nice view back to the cabin.





I climbed around the hill we were on checking for any portals or adits to go underground but they were all gated. So I continued on up the trail and had the guys meet me at the end.



The reward for following this trail to its finality was an amazing view across an open valley and a strip mine.

We'd still had one more branch of the trail to explore before going back to camp and we're glad we didn't miss it.





The colors of fading sun never fail to fire up a hill side of the desert.



Seeing as there was this pump contraption we started climbing around to see what they were using it for. Came across this little water collection area:



After that find we scaled the hillside to examine adits but all were backfilled or gated:



Saw this strange marking that looked man-made but also like dead lichen:



At least the view was nice:

Then it was time to get back to camp and warm up with food and fire.

Got the fire pit roaring, layered up in warm clothes, and ate freeze dried food. First time I'd sampled this stuff short of ice cream sandwiches. No pictures but it was actually pretty tasty.



Of all things we didn't have for modern comforts, we did have cell service.



Somewhere here there is a two wheeler.



It wasn't warm out here at elevation in the desert heading into our cold season. I kept checking the cabin to see how warm it was and it was good inside. These guys in their tents were in for a cold one though.

Once we let the fire die down I went into the cabin to get my sleeping bag set up. Before I'd went inside I saw a mouse diving through the rocks near the door. A precursor for what was to come.

It was 12:30am and I was checking out the wooden platform for sleeping bags and the tin roof was alive with mice and rat dance steps. Remember, I'm not a camping pro and this irritated the hell out of me.

Then I went back to the kitchen area of the cabin and still hearing the nighttime roofing crew I saw one of them climb down the window. Then another ran into the kitchen and was behind the small woodpile by the stove.

At this point I know I'm not going to be able to sleep with these little bastards having their night time house raid. I pack up my gear and load some of it into my buddy's truck and then send them a message that I'm heading home.

Push my bike out to the trail, turn on the light and coast down hill for a bit before light off and ride back home taking mostly dirt on trails so heavily beaten up by SXS abuse that I'm lucky to have teeth left in my head.

Arrived home at 3:30am.

Lesson learned: don't camp in a cabin in the desert. Mice and pack rats will be camping with you too.

Hell No!

That's a good way to pick up some rodent borne diseases like Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) from breathing in dust that's contaminated with rodent urine/crap or direct contact with said rodent and their urine/crap...

You made the right call to get outta there...

The place is actually very clean and well kept but seeing them inside, wasn't going to happen!

I see why the tent is the way to go. Or hammock if you can hang it.

I camp in the desert many nights every year. Just spent the weekend bouncing around the desert near Kelso. I have a shell on my truck and snooze in my sleeping bags on a nice pad. With nice pillows. Everyone I was with froze their asses off in their tents.

I don’t care if it’s windy or cold. I’m snug and critter-free.

I would also be worried about the Hantavirus if I was sleeping in one of those cabins.
It’s no joke.

And you are right about the SxS crowd beating the shit out of the desert. I’m expecting more areas of the desert to be closing to motorized use thanks to those things.

I'm sorry this was the ending, but I was pretty sure it'd go this way when you first posted about sleeping there. Too bad you weren't snug in a tent, far from the mouse magnet.

When I lived in Vegas we'd go out riding in the desert around Kelso Dunes and just put up our backpacking tents in BFE... we'd hear burros all night that sounded right outside the tent but were quite a ways off. Great place for some very remote camping.

Rather than ride home in the middle of the night I'd probably throw my bag in the back of one of those trucks