WE’VE JUST started getting winter here in southern New England, after bug hatches in November, December, and yeah, January. Tete Jaune Cache, British Columbia, has winter, though. My friend Bob sent me this pic of his skidder on a 37-below-zero morn.
Rigging choker chains on the back of a skidder in sub-zero weather… I did a bit of it in my 20s, in Maine. Young man’s work, that. Have moved on now to old guy’s work: cancer.
I spoke too soon last time, when I said my bloodwork keeps coming back A+, full steam ahead. Last week, on the eve of round 4 of 6, the doc canceled chemo, said he was concerned about my ability to fight infection.
Instead, I worked on the motorcycle outdoors, temps in the teens, wind cranking with a fine winter whistle. No harm done. (That I’m aware of.)
This morning I saddled up the iron piggy and rode to Miriam Hospital for regular weekly labs. We awoke to 17 degrees, I waited until it warmed up to 26. It was icy getting out of the drive but the highway was fine.
No one’s called to say anything different, so I’m guessing today’s bloodwork looked good and we’re a go for the I.V. tomorrow and Thursday.
Here I am at the hospital, surveilling someone in their office. Give ’em something to talk about.
My screenplay rewrite is finished. Daughter #2 is working her Indie contacts, figuring out where we can get the tale read. It ain’t easy. Access is everything.
Here’s my world traveler in Utah recently. Last week she was in Belize and Honduras.
Here she is last spring in Patagonia, showing off with an overhead press of all creation. Even at my best, 20 years ago, I doubt I was ever fit enough to snatch the whole world up off the floor and press it.
An update on the Arctic piglet.
In recent days I hung the new rear shock and reinstalled the linkage and swingarm after cleaning and re-greasing the bearings.
Fork tubes are off. I’ll rebuild them with heavier straight-rate springs and a pair of drop-in damper cartridges from Cogent Dynamics.
This is cool, an image ol’ CCjon sent me from Houston. He snapped this pic two years ago somewhere in Nevada.
It might have been this day, when we were riding in the same general direction and independently keeping an eye out for Nestor, the Colombian iron man who’d gone missing. Mr. Strait-of-Magellan-to-Prudhoe-Bay, that Iron Man Nestor
We’d ridden together for a few days in Wyoming and Montana. I ran into the guys again a few weeks later on the Columbia River. Now the plan was to meet up in New Mexico at some point, but we all somehow ended up in the same town in Utah by day’s end. The serendipity of the road, never fails.
Gotta get back out there! Come March, when I’ve had my chemo ticket punched, it’ll be time to flow, Chauncy. Time to slip out through the wire. Go be a free man on the Earth.
Tony DePaul, January 21, 2020, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
So glad to see your blog, Tony. You’re looking great in that pix. Love that you rode the piggy to your appointment. You’re something else, Tony.
Glad the docs had the good sense to give you a break from that nasty crap for a bit until you recovered. Pretty typical Tony to spend more time talking about rear wheel alignment (now I gotta check mine) than how damned painful it is to have somebody poking your arm with a needle. You’re a helluva character Tony, don’t change.
Great to connect again. Following your blog in the past has let me see places I will never go. Looking forward to new adventures ahead.
You are amazing!
Yeah, I’m going to need a write up of your cold weather gear and how you can get it on and off so fast to make a short trip to the hospital fun.
Around here, it would take longer to get geared up/geared down than it would to make the trip… mid 30s today, getting close to riding weather.
Didn’t bother with cold weather gear, Steve, only going 20 miles out & back. I don’t bother with electrics until the temps are down in the teens.
Thanks for writing, all. I’m in the chair now. It took a while to get underway this morning. It took three nurses four tries to find a vein. I must be down a quart.
The main course is going in now, liquid WMD’s, nitrogen mustard, same stuff they gassed troops with in WWI.
CCjon, I see you noticed the bare wheel hanging on the swingarm! That’s the setup for an alignment issue I’ll need to deal with once I’ve got the front end back on the bike, also with a bare rim mounted. Suzuki doesn’t publish a spec on rear wheel offset, but a wheel builder in Oregon tells me to look for 0.730 from the outboard side of the rear brake rotor. I’m within 0.005 of that number but from the inboard side, the rotor-mounting surface on the hub.
Long story short, the rear wheel might be mis-laced to the tune of 0.176. If so, that’s a not-insignificant alignment issue. I’ll run straight edges from rim to rim and figure it out.
I don’t see any way to correct a misalignment other than biasing the spokes from one side of the rim to the other. Alignment’s a lot more straightforward on the iron piggy because the swingarm pivot bolt runs through the drivetrain, specifically, the transmission case, so you can tweak the position of the motor and the swingarm as a single unit.
Not so the piglet. The swingarm pivot bolt is where it is, runs from one side of the frame to the other. You can bias the rear axle a bit, but the swingarm and the drivetrain are where they are. Fixed points.
Say what you will about Harleys, the iron piggy alignment routine is a thing of beauty. The procedure is pages long in the service manual, and it requires patience to do it right; lots of minor tweaks with an inch-pound wrench. Which is probably why so many bikes of ’04 vintage aren’t properly aligned. Guys think they need the next generation touring frame, ’cause they scared themselves in a high-speed sweeper with a momentary sensation of rear-wheel steer. But it’s not a design flaw, it’s an alignment issue.
A sweet old gal on the hospital’s volunteer crew just brought me a cup of chicken soup. Over & out for now. Thank you all again.
Tony
Love your writing, Tony, and your adventurous spirit.
Utah is an unbelievably beautiful state. Driving between national parks was an unforgettable experience. Love the photo.
Best to you and your family.
Be well!
Your reflection off that window makes you look like the Delta Force about to storm in. Stay strong my friend!
Hi Tony
I think of you often. Keep fighting and be strong. You are a survivor.
Cheers Craig
PS
Keep the scribble coming. I enjoy every word.
Tone, that pic is you, Iron Piggy and the road facing an endless horizon. Don’t know if it was the famous loneliest highway in Nevada, but sure looks like it.
Have that same pic on my office wall. Every time I look at it, it speaks volumes about what we love to do… tugs on my ride strings.
By the way, while you were fooling around with Piglet’s front forks, someone stole the tire off your rear wheel…. just trying to be helpful….
You are an amazing person. Love j
I see facial hair — you’ve still got it!
Tony, I’ll echo Eric above with another “Stay Strong!” It is always great to hear from you and I look forward to seeing road trip posts next summer. As an aside, the cold weather you deal with looks absolutely insane to this southern boy. My blood is way too thin for that stuff. You earned my respect years ago and still have it. You have some great kids, too. Be proud and stay strong. Cheers, Brad
Love ya brother.
Jeff
Shaw. Just when I was thinking I might be a bad ass for a 60 mile ride in the am on my scoot in 34F. Oh well. And if I was going to work on my bike outside (it’s a Honda, I just add gas) it would be at least 60F. Cheers from Georgia Tony!
I think you could build a trailer for the Piglet, and tow it with the Piggy. When the going gets too sketchy for Piggy, hop on Piglet and keep on bikin’.
Stay strong, Tony! I’m enjoying every post and pulling for you.