First day back riding. 180 mile joyride in the Sierra Mountains! GM Rides Again!!

Since I met the kraken…

After working on the bike over four days, on the 4th day the bike rose from the ashes.
180 miles of giddy bliss riding.
I was excited for days to get back on the bike and ride (if I could get it working).

Route:
Mormon Pass, Immigrant Pass, Highway 88, Carson Pass, Lake Tahoe, Highway 50 back.

I was on a bit of a deadline here, but had to test run it and see if it was ok.
A beautiful ride in the mountains. I was hoping I could make this loop without the bike failing on me. It ran great. The motor sounded great and pulled with power and I still have that gorgeous sounding burbling loud de-baffled exhaust that I love.
The mountains were for the most part hazy – there were active major forest fires in California nearby. So that was a little bit of a bummer. But the roads were great.



Immigrant Pass almost immediately right out of Pollock Pines by the beautiful Jenkinson Lake I’d kayaked on w Jay.
Immigrant Pass is closed in the winter and I’d never ridden it. Glad I did.
At the end of the pass just before 88 I stopped by an abandoned ski area – in fact the TOP of the ski area. That was kind of strange. A few old buildings with damage and graffiti and old chair lift tower and the ends of two that used to drop off skiers. I had to look it up later, but it was “Iron Mountain Ski Area” and it closed for good in 1993. I’m pretty sure there were a few vagrants squatting in one of the building and outside nearby.

Highway 88 to Kirkwood had fresh pavement that’s perfect with big sweeper turns up to the highest parts of the ride.
I passed by Kirkwood Ski area and stopped for pics again like I had done years ago. Carson Pass is really pretty breathtaking winter or summer – it just opens up in front of you after you hit the highest point in the pass over 10,000 feet elevation.

I’ve always loved the meadows coming off Carson Pass and taking the left up small winding Highway 89 to Lake Tahoe.
I was blissed out on this ride. There were very few cars out on the road, it was like having most of it all to myself.


I got back to my friends mtn A frame and loaded everything up and rode back to the Bay.
Rode straight outta Pollock Pines to Sacramento, and had a late burrito dinner stop at dusk.
Got back to Oakland and #vanlife at 11pm.

While out west on this trip I am mostly sleeping in my converted cargo Ford E250 van nicknamed ‘Evan’.
I shower and exercise at the awesome gym at the huge Silicon Valley tech co everyone knows their name.


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Salvaged from the wreckage… Green Magic rides again.

Couldn’t believe it. With some planning, parts getting, and repairs and on the spot fabricating I finally got Green Magic back running.
The part I could not believe: after it sat for over a year (wrecked) with the battery hooked up, I put the key in the ignition and a dash light came on weakly. (no horn but who cares?) The battery at rest (not under load) read 12.75 VDC after sitting a year wrecked.
Now, mind you, this was after the bike was moved into a storage facility near El Cerrito, then another different one and stored, then hauled up to outside Lake Tahoe to my friend’s summer place. There it sat all winter outside under a lean-to he built off the big garage.
I finally got back to the bike July 25, 2018.
It took a lot of time to find all my riding gear, it was scattered in storage all over the place.
The major thing was the stator cover was completely destroyed in the wreck. Shredded and shattered. All the oil had long since leaked out on my friend’s pickup truck. I knew the rear blinker was destroyed, a brake lever, a mirror, significant fairing destruction etc…
What I also didn’t know was the shifter lever had snapped right off. So there was no spot to shift gear with your boot / toe.
I had a bunch of drama but was finally able to modify a commonplace Honda front brake lever to make it cleverly work in Green Magic. I could get the pivot bolt to mount up with the Honda lever but had to file off metal as it was far too much material to fit.
This caused some trouble at first, as the front brake completely locked up. So back uphill I went to my friends garage and out came the angle grinder again to custom chop off more material off the back of the lever where it meets the reservoir piston. Finally got it to work well.
The shift lever? Well, that I got fairly medieval on. My initial idea up in South Lake Tahoe was to simply use some metal conduit and bend it a a 90 degree and simply screw it into the severed stump of what remained of the shifter mechanism. My friend thought that was too ghetto after he came back after work and very nicely and with some masterful crafting cut two 45 degree angles on conduit ends and then welded the cheap metal together at a perfect 90 degrees. we then drove two sheet metal self taping screws in the conduit that we hammered onto the shifter stump. You know what? It worked!

I wound up firing up Green Magic the next day after charging the 5 year old AGM battery near instantly!!!!
I could NOT believe. My friend looked nonchalant and unimpressed. I tried to explain “You Don’t Understand!! This bike never ‘just starts’ after sitting for a month or more!!” etc… But it did.
Took it out on the first test ride and locked up the front brake, but it was running!!

July 26th – extracted bike out of lean to area into main garage. Assessed damage. charged battery overnight

July 27th – battery took charge to 12.87 VDC. Engine turned over!
oil and filter in, but I forgot to drain oil from plug! over filled, oil still in there.

July 28th – fired GM up!! 7pm. repaired fairing bolts & reinstalled all fairings. Jay welded the custom EMT shifter lever late after work

July 30th – Painted tank dent damage 3x primer and 2 main coats of white I brought up.
Finally found my Shoei helmet in all the chaos. Huge mess, massive cleaning on helmet. Repaired broken shield attahchment areas. Most of the bad scratches were left on shield on not in central vision 🙂 Sierra Mountains test run to Tahoe and then rode back home to Bay Area!


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