Gray Man, Inc.

[DRIVEN]

I started crossing off items on my pre-ORBDR punchlist.

RaceTech emulators installed up front.






Replaced the stock rear shock and HD spring with a Bradley HD Touring unit.


While the rear wheel was off, I replaced the wasted sprocket, tossed on a new tire, and fresh brake shoes.







I've still got more to do, but it's a lot closer.

[DRIVEN]

There's a couple of old Dorsetts on Ebay right now that are trying to motivate me. I'll try to clear the deck for next winter's project.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235531997058?i ... R9a0_-vxYw




https://www.ebay.com/itm/235537834079?i ... R9L2jezxYw



I'll see if I can recruit my dad to pitch in. He's always looking for a project.

[wayno]

I thought you already bought one of them, I do not have room for new projects that take up room.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, that's what a nice one is supposed to look like. Mine is definitely not nice.

[Taterhead]

If I’ve learned anything about you it will eventually be a nice one.

[DRIVEN]

Haha, thanks. I think I should probably start by seeing if it'll run or float first.

[wayno]

It seems like that having a boat is something one would use when it warms up, a family thing, go skiing, have a picnic, make some family memories.

I had a very small sailboat 20 years ago, I used it once and the other sailboat people looked at me like I was crazy, I did not have any mishaps at all, but I was on the Columbia River in a 10' foam sailboat, it had everything, the stabilizer, rudder, sail that easily moved to any position, I did not even come close to tipping it over and I held my own against the current, I did not get washed/pushed down river.

[Taterhead]

I would love to get a good tri-hull with the walk through windshield one day down the road. I currently have a small personal boat. And I use it quite often during the summer months.

[DRIVEN]

^^^ I like that. Anything that gets you on the water.

I grew up with boats and really miss it. In a parallel universe, I probably would have been a sailor.

[DRIVEN]

Had an interesting conversation with my dad today. He's been working on this C10 that belongs to an acquaintance.




He's gone as far as he wants to with it and it's being towed home. We talked about a couple perspective projects he's been considering (there may or may not be an odd LS swap in the pipeline). Then he mentioned boats...
I'm going to see if the engine on my Dorsett is healthy by next weekend, then we'll discuss future plans.

[DRIVEN]

I started to play with the Dorsett project yesterday. I was able to block up a storage tote to submerge the impeller. Apparently this engine can't accommodate muffs and a garden hose.
I unbolted the control set and switch panel. It cranks over just fine but doesn't send power to any of the places that matter. No spark. I have a Seloc manual but the wiring diagram sucks. When I get more time, I'll try to hotwire it. Also, I'll need to replace all of the fuel lines. There's so many kinks, I can't believe it ever ran.





There's a donor engine on CL in Portland right now. I'm tempted to grab it just for parts. It's a longshaft, but otherwise the same as this one. Maybe on my next work trip down there.

[Taterhead]

I’m sure you’ll have it going in no time. So as far as the parts motor goes, everything could interchange except for shaft parts? Probably worth grabbing if it’s cheap enough.

[DRIVEN]

[DRIVEN]

Chain and filter serviced, oil topped off. Gave it a once-over to check for loose hardware and got all loaded up for a week on the trail. I added some preload to the Bradley HD shock, then hit as many bumps and drops as I could find around my place for a few minutes. I guess I'm as ready as I can be.

[DRIVEN]

Absolutely beautiful morning here today. Motored the tractor over to my dad's place. I'm running out of covered storage here.


Got a panic call from my daughter this morning that her car was barely running and she almost didn't make it home. While she does have a flair for the dramatic, this time she wasn't exaggerating. No CEL and no pending codes. Found a kamikaze mosquito across the resistors in her MAF.



I ordered a transmission for the Supervenza on Friday and it had to be shipped in. I picked it up this afternoon. Aside from some crusty brackets, it looks okay.


I'm taking off for my 1st ride in the morning and planning to swap it out July 4/5. Its major surgery but hopefully this is the last thing I need to do to this car for awhile. I'm leaving for my 2nd big ride on the 6th, then I'm sure I'll have a ridiculous backlog of work to dig out from.

[BLUE]

Post more….

[DRIVEN]

Filling in the missing updates...

I did the old Oregon BDR Route 5 with a couple TW buddies the week before the 4th. It didn't end as planned.

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We started at the California/Oregon border, then rode into the outback.

We camped by an unnamed creek for the night, then rode into Lakeview for fuel and water the next morning.



At some point in the morning hours, rider 1 tipped over while crossing a dry rut. Everything seemed fine and we kept moving. We headed north to Paisley and ate at the Pioneer Saloon, the oldest bar in Oregon.

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Northward into the hills to overlook Summer Lake.

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Our 2nd night was spent on the dry bank of Thompson Reservoir.

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When I got up in the morning I found out that rider 1 had suffered some serious concussion symptoms; diziness,, convulsions, and vomiting. It was pretty concerning so we cautiously proceeded to Christmas Valley. It's not nearly as festive as the name might imply. We fueled up and grabbed supplies before heading through the most remote part of the trip. About 100 miles of forsaken desert. We sidestepped to the east 17 miles off the route to Riley for fuel and supplies. Then back west to the route and north to Elk camp. I got the trip's only flat about 5 miles from camp.



In the morning we got separated for a couple hours but met up at Delintment Lake. I waited there almost 2 hours.

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Once reunited, we rode up to Frazier lookout. It's decommissioned, but intact.

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Our goal was Seneca for more fuel and food.


More to follow as I get time...

[DRIVEN]

Heading east out of Seneca are 2 crossings of the Malhuer River. No stalls, no drama.

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We pushed on, over Elk Flat, a burnt peak of about 7000'. Our end point was the bank of the Burnt River. It was a 13hr day, totaling almost 220 miles.

This is John, he's 70 and just started riding in 2020. It was his first ride like this and even after a couple crashes, he was still having a great time.

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The next day was another hard run throught a rocky OHV section and over to Sumpter.

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We ate lunch and fueled up. On the way out of town, snapped a couple pics at the dredge (look it up).

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We stopped at the power station outside Olive Lake. It's 100 years old and used gravity and reduced pipe size to reach 500psi, which spun the turbines. It powered local mines and settlements until 1967.

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We camped at Olive Lake and got rained on over night. The next morning, snapped a pic at the ramp and ran North.

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[DRIVEN]

We pushed north and side stepped to Ukiah for burgers and more fuel. Then kept charging ahead. There were several blow-downs that had us overlanding into the brush to get around.

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Night 5 found us at Indian Lake. It had been a pretty short day, mileage wise and we were fortunate enough to get there early and dry out our gear.

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The next morning we were all eager to reach the end. We went over Summit Rd. which traverses the top of the Blue Mountains just north of I-84. The vistas to the east and west went for miles and the wild flowers were impressive.

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We were 30-40 miles from the end when I biffed. I was riding sweep and we had been averaging 30mph. I don't remember going down, but came to my senses as I was getting up on my hands and knees. It took 3 or 4 tries to get the bike upright. Then I had to figure our which direction I came from and which way I was headed. Took me 15-20 minutes to catchup with the other guys. I was hurtin' for certain.

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We finished up at the Walla Walla airport and loaded up to transport home. I popped a couple premptive muscle relaxers and don't remember much of the ride home. The other guys had to unload my bike for me because the right side of my body was pretty useless.
Total miles, 981.

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I slept like shit that night but was fortunate to get a chiropractor appointment the next morning. Final tally was 5 separated ribs, tweaked neck, 2 partially dislocated shoulders, and torn muscles below my rotator cuff. All on the right side. He pushed everything back into place as well as possible. I had 2 more weekly visits to fine-tune the adjustment, adding a misaligned hip to the list. As of this posting, I'm over 2 months out and the ribs are about 95% healed. Everything else was fine within a few days. Ribs just take time.

Bruised but not broken. Still not dead yet.


Epilogue: The week following our ride, the Falls fire took off NW of Burns. It took out almost 20 miles of the route we covered between Delintment Lake and Frasier lookout, totalling over 150,000 acres before it was contained. We were fortunate that we went when we did, because it won't ever look the same in our lifetimes.

[wayno]

I hope you get well soon.

The trick for me was to find a position that does not hurt to sleep when I fell off that roof and broke them ribs.