Fixed fuel leaking issue, cleaned carbs again 51600 mi
51600 miles.
Spent today rebuilding the carbs again. 12:30pm – 7:20pm which included full clean up and re-assembly of donor carb banks too. Not bad, and the fix worked!
I got a 4 pack of float bowl gaskets after I had cleaned out the carbs two and half years ago. I got them because I developed fuel leaks on two carbs after re-installing the old ‘flatted’ gaskets.
Unfortunately I could only access 2 of the 4 bowls with the carbs mounted on the bike and only did those. After FINALLY getting Green Magic to both start and run well I did not want to go through pulling off the tank, airbox, and carbs again if there was any way at all to avoid it.
So in those 2.5 years what happened? Well the other two un-replaced older gaskets would dry out and in shrink a bit in cold weather and four times I was greeted with horrible fuel leaks about 4 times at least on a morning start up if the bike sat 2-4 weeks.
Had a job on Sunday to get to, but the volume of fuel pouring out grounded me and the bike. A fix was a requirement at this point.
I knew this mechanical harbinger of death was stalking my motor because of this very issue (so to speak).
I had also thought I had a sticking float needle or float needle seat issue as well, and leaking fuel into the motor and the oil. However, the oil has always looked fine, doesnt smell of gas, my fuel level doesnt really go down and my oil level doesnt ever change. Still I had been worried, because I think on occasion Green Magic suffers from hydro locking and doesn’t want to start.
Other mechanical observations:
I took out spark plug #2 and #1. Their appearance after nearly 10,000 miles was excellent. Just what it should be and not wet with fuel etc…
I also hit the starter button briefly with each plug out to see if fuel would shoot out of the open cylinder hole. None did. Phew!! Here’s spark plug #1 and #2 below as noted with fingers, and their condition after 8000ish miles.
I taped up a few nicks in the upper airbox hose with duct tape.
The pilot jets were clear and clean. The main jets were clear as well, as were the emulsion tubes and the float needles and seats. The float bowls were quite clean as well, I was very surprised about that. I was very happy with the condition of the carbs after this amount of time. Also, none of the float needles were stuck or sticking in the seats, they all moved easily and freely.
I soaked the main jets, the pilot, the emulsion tubes anyway for 45 + minutes in the Evinrude marine tuner product (hardcore carb cleaner).
Sprayed them all out with brake cleaner too.
I sprayed out the pilot air jets passageways several times with cleaner and brake cleaner (which weren’t clogged this time around), the main jet air jet holes, and the mixture screw passageways too.
I did notice that what seems to be the air tubes for the choke – the smallest brass holes on the pilot air jet side were all gummed / plugged up. EDIT: Upon reflection and some research these are in fact the ‘starter jet’ or really the choke ‘enricher’ circuit tube. This tube sips up extra fuel and adds it to the mixture for cold starts when the choke slides are pulled and more fuel can pass through the end of these into the Venturis. Their output is the small hole off center just below the butterflies.
I inserted carefully a twistie tie into these ‘starter jet’ holes and wriggled them around to clean them and shot the carb cleaner and brake cleaner in those holes too. I had not done that before I don’t think as I wasn’t aware it was an narrow opened tube. Hoping that this will make starting easier! GM has been getting a little fussier starting gradually over the past 2.5 years.
Posted in Uncategorized by green
Mt. Hamilton summit. 4200 ft. 152 mile trip with friends
Beautiful January day! late start, actually a bit my fault as I had many issues getting my GoPro mounted.
The ride up there was great. Redwood to Palomares Canyon to Niles Canyon to Calaveras Rd all the way to 680 S near Milpitas. Then short 680 trip and Capitol Xprwy to Quimby and Mt Hamilton and the wild looking observatory. Heard snippets of tour and the whole interior and scope dates to 1887 or so!
Slipped once on Palomares which was on GoPro, but it doesn’t look too dramatic. Patchy dappled sun / shade and didn’t see the sand in the road and slid the front and rear a little. Was a little spooky.
The ride up the mountain was great, the pavement great, fantastic weather, just a lot of fun out on the road.
Stops: Railroad Cafe in Sunol for lunch, Fuel stop shortly after, and just a few very short stops besides the actual summit.
Niles Canyon – one of my favorite cruising spots. A beautiful canyon drive.
Lunch stop RR Cafe, Sunol.
Calavares Road. Pretty epic turns, farmland, canyon carving. Must do this one again!
Calavares.
Calavares quick stop.
Leaving San Jose up Quimby. Very pretty views backwards.
The T at Quimby at rt 130.
Mt Hamilton in the background.
creepy trees encroach me on the right. GoPro grab.
Outer Spacey on the gas.
Here’s a few pics at the summit of Mt Hamilton with the fantastic observatory. Beautiful views. Stunning roads. Did you check out those turns?
Loosing light fast. Damn were these roads a blast! I can’t wait to go again with more time for some extra laps. I’m surprised we pushed to the summit. The CB400A rider doesn’t like highways or the dark, both of which we resolved we would be riding in if we went for the summit. We left Oakland close to 11:30am I think (late) and didn’t leave lunch until about 1:30p so we were pushing a 86 mile one way to the summit at that point. But it really wasn’t that cold at all, in fact I was hot from Milpitas until the sun dropped. We rode out the way we came in (Quimby) until that T at rt 130. We passed some nice farms taking 130 to Alum Rock Road, 680 North to surface street Mission Blvd the whole way to 580. 580 pounded my bike and back as always – I Hate that damn road (Hayward to Oakland 580 sucks) – to 13 north. I think we got back about 7pm. A fantastic journey and brand new roads for me starting at Calavares!
(Note: I forgot to shut off my fuel petcock the day before – something I never forget now b/c of what happens next… – get up in the a.m. to fuel puddle next to bike, and stink of fuel. Gas soaking carb #2 intake boot from carbs to the motor. It’s either the float gasket that’s flat there leaking, OR my float needles sticking in the seat, and I have fuel leaking through my carbs – and probably into the motor dammit. Oil did not smell of fuel thankfully. I shut off gas for an hour, then went WOT for 3 minutes to try to clear out fuel [motor off]. The bike jammed on the starter – hydro locked up no doubt. I only got it to start by rocking it back and forth in gear many times, and finally got it running, almost bailed on the trip altogether. was concerned I have fuel in oil, but I guess I really wanted to go on this group ride! No leaks all day, and bike ran strong.)
Posted in Touring and tagged California, Mt. Hamilton, south bay, Touring, Zx6e, zzr600 by green
Start ’15 miles 50505. Reflections on commute week.
Commuted for four days this past week.
On Friday, traffic was strangely very light, with often a lane completely open with no cars far ahead. I hit 112 on the San Mateo bridge. That’s actually the fastest I’ve ever been on Green Magic and she was nice and stable.
What’s the deal with some of these idiot commuters?
And you know the worst of them that refuse to budge an inch if you are trying to lane split and they hog up the whole lane and make it impossible to pass?
– the damn white colored commercial trucks – anything with ladders on it and white and you know they are gonna be stubborn asses. And bus drivers are mostly in that lot too, although some are courteous.
It’s “cold” here but highs of 61-62 degrees every day, that’s nothing compared to the east coast which was in the teens!
Posted in Uncategorized by green
Rt 1 south after work. Davenport
Fun trip south on the 1. Drove into Half Moon Bay since was in the Peninsula anyway. Love the HMb area. Kept driving south past Pigeon Pt lighthouse and got to cute little Davenport.
Was a getting dark / cold / facing rush hr type of ride back east but it was worth it!
Posted in Uncategorized by green
New Clutch in! Stator cover fixed, new paint 49,469 miles
Finished the bike re-build yesterday in a few hours! Was pretty easy, everything went smooth.
I had to wait until now, a day later, to test fire it.
A few spots of Permatex RTV at critical gasket areas, and it need 24 hrs for full cure. This time I want no mistakes… no leaks.
So… on to that test… was quite nervous I might have botched something somewhere or clutch wouldn’t work.
But I got it running and it sounds quieter at all revs, noticed it right away when it fired at 3500 rpms. It idles smoother. I know I must be crazy but I know Green Magic pretty well at this point too, so it seems very true.
Might be due to switching to 5W-40 Shell Rotella T6 synthetic oil. Only been running dino before. New better filer installed too, a Purolator Pure One 14610 unit that is better filtering than most of what’s out there.
Clutch IS working. And I have full cable adjustability back. In fact, near too much the other way, lol. Love it.
Warmed up bike on center stand for 10 minutes only so far to ‘set’ that RTV sealant, and check for any leaks and clutch operation.
Even though it wasn’t a huge repair, I was still nervous hitting that starter button. Going for ride later today after a little fairing clean up and reinstall of left mid and lowers.
Before:
After:
Posted in repair and tagged New clutch, repair, Stator cover by green
Stator Cover rebuild, JB Weld crack
Just started (finally) the stator cover project. Bike had been downed, lowsided on the left from previous owner when I bought the bike 2 years ago. The light oil leak has been just annoying. No noticeable drop in oil levels between changes, but a mess maker.
Here’s the original shape. I thought there was only a tiny tiny crack in the bottom, but when I finally pulled the cover I saw from the inside there was a long 2.5″ crack where the two planes meet at the bottom. Much larger than I thought. Cue the JB Weld. I used the original steel reinforced resin formula, not the quick dry stuff.
I first sanded a little inside and outside to rough up the surface and then cleaned / degreased with brake cleaner.
JB welded inside cover and let it sit overnight, and then JB Welded the outside of the cover next. I globbed a lot on, really the leftovers from the mixing process to fill in some of the ugly surface scratches. Yeah you could bondo it, but this is high temp and oil safe, had some left, and figured why not? It’s sandable right?
Sanded down the JB Weld. Cleaned again with brake cleaner.
Sprayed about 5 light layers of Dodge grabber green rattle can paint over it.
It’s a HUGE improvement for the looks of the bike, it was so ugly before and befouling the middle and rear of the bike with oil and then that attracted and locked in dirt and grime. Gross. And sprayed on my left boot too, and that was annoying. Hopefully I cleaned oil off my boots for the last time!
Painted dodge grabber green:
Installed!
Posted in repair by green
New look to old bar ends!
My bar ends were looking a little standard, boring, but mostly sad on the left grip due to that p.o. low side.
I actually learned this last night from a “Delboy’s Garage” youtube video. He said, more or less, “Why spend so and so quid on new bar ends when you can polish down to stainless steel your own ends”
Before: yuck
Here’s how to do it:
– phillips screwdriver
– drill
– vise
– sandpaper. I used 100 grit and 400 grit. Worked nice.
Easy steps:
remove bar ends with captain Phillips.
Pass a bolt through it and a nut or two to make a ‘jig’ for your drill.
Mount drill upside down in your vise.
Mount bolt nut into drill.
Then use gloves and wrap 100 grit sand paper around the spinning bar end and grind off the old paint, rust, and keep going to grind out the little divots too!
Then finish with 400 grit (I used it dry) and reinstall.
AFTER:
Posted in Uncategorized by green
How to replace Clutch on your ZX6E Ninja. Easy, step by step how to DIY
In my opinion, this is a very easy job and not much harder than changing oil or spark plugs.
Easier Tips: An easier way to is drain your oil. You can gangster lean the bike a lot towards the kickstand side of bike. I’ve read pushing bike onto 2x4s and using sidestand should make it not leak much when you pull the clutch cover, but I was near my oil change interval anyway, and figured I’d rather have more secure stable bike to work on, on the centerstand.
I also pulled my clutch lever in, then held the lower clutch lever down below on right side in place with a short 2×4, and disconnected the cable at the handlebar. I then rotated the lower clutch release rod, it’s attached to the hinged lever down on the lower right bottom of the clutch housing where the clutch cable hooks into. The rod is inserted up inside the clutch housing. Rotate the rod gently to free it, and then slide the rod out the bottom of the housing.
1) Drain oil (or not – see above)
2) Unbolt the clutch cover.
It’s the lower right large cover on side of bike, where your fill up your oil. There are about ten 8mm sized bolts you need to remove here. With the old gasket installed, it may be a little stuck on there, I gently, and I mean gently, gave it some taps with a 2×4 scrap to help free it.
3) Remove the cover.
Voila! you’re looking at your clutch assembly. Yes, it’s this easy.
4) Remove the five allen bolts that hold the clutch springs in.
They are long bolts and unscrew slowly, so don’t worry the springs aren’t going to shoot out at you or anything. You now will see your clutch metal plates and friction plates all stacked in on the clutch basket.
5) Remove metal plates and friction plates.
Just pull them out with your hands. Keep track of the order of them as you remove them and stack them. Basically, they alternate a friction plate, a metal plate. 7 friction plates in total. These are what you will want to replace with your new clutch kit (along with springs most likely). My inner most one was worn to 2mm, way too worn. They need to be at least 3mm, and a mm here or there spread out over so many plates adds up! (That’s what caused my clutch release rod to slip out, not enough thickness overall to the clutch plates due to wear. And picky shifting needed with the clutch this worn. I had lengthened my clutch cable {loosened} it to the maximum length and had nothing left.)
Look at your metal plates too. If you cannot see the little ‘dimples’ in the plates, they are almost certainly too worn down. 
The divots just give the oil a place to hang out, and help keep the plates lubricated and freer. Check for excessive wear, and warpage. Easy way is place the metal plates flat on a piece of glass and try to slide some thin gauge feelers under them at numerous spots. Anything over .05mmm means they are warped. You should consider replacing warped or very worn metal plates. Otherwise, most people sandpaper the surfaces a little to scuff them up and reuse them.
Here, I scuffed the metal plates up with Emery cloth ‘fine’ sand paper:
6) Soak your new clutch friction plates in your motor oil for at least 30 minutes if not longer before installing, this helps avoid excessive wear on the dry plates on the first startup.
7) Remove all the old gasket material on the cover and the motor side.(I carefully used a razor blade).
8) Reinstall your new friction plates and metal plates alternating. The final outside plate does NOT go in the same deep slot grove in the clutch basket like the others do, rather it gets rotated slightly and fits in it’s own separate tab. 
You can see that outer shallow tab opening in the above clutch housing photo above. See where the red line is pointing to at the top (not where the white text bubble has a small pointer). This is important to get this correct to avoid clutch slippage later.
Replace your new springs unless you decide to use your old ones.
9) Fit your new gasket (or something like Permatex gasket maker), and mount the cover and rebolt it in. I make my own from FelPro gasket paper.
Here are my new friction plates installed. Notice the outside friction plate is aligned in separate cutout tab in the clutch basket.
New springs and cover installed:
Reinstall your clutch cover and tighten according to the torque specs, which are 8.8 Nm or 78 in-lbs. They are not super tight. Push back in your clutch rod if you removed it, make sure to gently insert it and rotate it so it catches on the clutch release pin under the cover. Also, hook back up your clutch cable if you released it.
If you drained oil, add new oil. Make sure to not sure regular 10W40 auto oil, it has friction modifiers which can make the clutch slip.
Now make sure to adjust your clutch cable as it will be different from a worn out clutch. Adjust at both the handlebar and by the clutch housing the cable adjusters.
You can find special motorcycle Valvoline 1040 wet clutch safe oil, for example. I’ve used that the past two oil changes but I decided to switch to pure synthetic oil this time around doing my clutch to Shell Rotella T6 5w40 diesel oil. I’ll post on this blog how I like it, I’m hoping to have cleaner, smoother shifts!
UPDATE: I love the new clutch and I’ve ridden several thousand miles on it with the new Rotella T6 synthetic oil. I have much much smoother shifts with the new clutch.
Posted in DIY, repair and tagged clutch, clutch plates, DIY, friction plates, how to, Kawasaki, Replace, replacement, yourself, Zx6e, zzr600 by green
Replacing clutch, stator cover crack fix, synthetic oil
My clutch slipped when I got the bike at 43K. I adjusted the cable all the way OUT, and that finally made the clutch slipping over 6K revs stop.
However, if you checked out my Yosemite report, you know the clutch release rod fell out close to home on my return after 530 miles on the road. This I verified today was from the clutch being worn beyond service limits. The friction plates must be about 3mm thick and my last inner plate was down to 2mm. With 7 friction plates and 6 steel plates, a little here and there makes a huge difference.
In fact, clutching has always been, well, a drag on this bike. And got worse. It takes lever finesse to launch the bike and especially at higher revs, it’s very easy to botch a shift. Takes a lot of focus.
I am in great hopes the new clutch solves this issue, I know it will fix the rod slipping out.
Had originally planned to just do the clutch and tip the bike hard on the left, but eventually decided to deal with stator too, and the oil and filter were changed not 2000 but 2500 miles ago and I drove through 8 miles of fine dusty dirt so might as well drain it all and switch over to synthetic Shell Rotella T6 5w-40 diesel oil now with a better filter than I’ve been using, a Purolator Pure One PL14610. Have to go get those parts too. This will make doing the clutch neater, since the oil won’t gush out of the cover too.
Getting a number of my to do things done! Especially the cracked stator cover. Was cracked ever so slightly as purchased, and has leaked a little bit of oil continuously for two years. Very aggravating, especially on my new Sidi boots! Makes a mess on trips over 30 miles. Also helps the rear end of my bike look awful, oils it up and grabs all the dirt it can on the road.
Unfortunately, I have to wait for parts from cross country, so in the meantime I decided to dig into my stator crack issue, and my CLUNK on startup creepy issue. The CLUNK no start has become more frequent. And some screws in the washing machine noise behind the stator cover too a couple times while trying to start.
I expected to find broken starter gear teeth under my cover, but the large started gear, the idle gear, the starter small spline gear, and the other gear all look fine. Don’t look excessively worn, and no broken teeth to be seen.
It’s often the case the starter one way clutch is bad, but it seems ok, in that the starter will only spin one way and lock up right away from spinning back as it should.
So am scratching my head here as to what the super CLUNK cause is.
The hardest part of the clutch job and the stator cover removal is simply removing the old gasket material with a razor blade. Quite time consuming. Just the clutch replacement on its own is a simple breeze of a job, could be done quite quickly in a couple of hours.
Posted in repair by green
Adventure Touring Series: Wild West Yosemite trip
Just did an epic two day 559 mile trip to Yosemite.
Travel via 132 to Coulterville, the famous 49 highway (of “49′er” fame) to Mariposa and beyond to Oakhurst. Then the unknown and into the original entrance to Yosemite: the stagecoach mountain dirt road and 9 miles of it.
Planned this route the week before but due to extreme hot temps, a high of 90-95 degrees in Yosemite and over 100 on the way there, and smoke choked Yosemite Valley due to two massive forest fires I postponed until today. And even then, suddenly rain was expected some or all morning in the Bay Area and that’s not a fun start. Don’t have everything waterproof, so waited out some of the rain… and went for it!
Rainy view from window greets me at 9am from Berkeley Hills. Not encouraging. But I’m determined to go. 
At least I started the day out properly. (note coffee mug) lol.
Departed at 10am. First stop Oakland hills to borrow a replacement Canon camera. Short stop with some excited chatting with my typical riding buddy. But this was to be a solo trip – no one could go and I planned midweek to avoid crazy weekend crowds.
First stop in the Oakland Hills on the road on Redwood to pee and stopped at side of road what do you think I spy with my little eye? 
A discarded Pittsburg tools motorcycle tire balance tool. Sweet! Chuck it deeper into woods to retrieve later. That will get good use.
Side highway to Pleasanton and then get on the ole’ slab. 580 to 132 East, which turned out to be a great guess on my part. Quick stop at Altamount Pass to figure where my exit is.
Excellent 132 road after Modesto, just gorgeous scenery, fast sweepers, excellent pavement and no one, NO cars! Score. This area was just like a western movie, so beautiful. Wish I had stopped at a key spot for more pics but kept going.
Stopped at Turlock State Park for lunch (Only meal I brought with me), and find this interesting bridge overpass I just rode over. Only had to share the space with a nice older timer and his old dog and we chatted for a bit. He’s lived nearby for 60 years and did not know where to head for Coulterville – 30 miles away! Had some nice tips on other places to see on another ride.
La Grange:
Old mining town with some preserved ruins including an old jail. Charming.
132 after this was fantastic. I can’t wait to ride it again. The foothills:
132 all the way until it Ts in Coulterville, another historic mining town. It used to have 25 saloons in it’s heyday, but you can still get a coldee at the Hotel Jeffries with it’s original 3 foot thick adobe walls. I didn’t stay long it was quite hot here. Found this cool looking original Chinese grocery out of town center and stopped for some pics. 
Then you head south of here on route 49 and start the “Little Dragon” which lasts until the summit pass or Bear Valley. Great, beautiful and empty road. Very few cars, a touring bike, a harley and otherwise just breathtaking scenery. The road is “… a chance to see what the country looked like when the miners worked it – tough, demanding, beautiful.” Many mines line this road and it’s part of the “Mother Lode” general area. There was some loose gravel in several turns, but it was loaded with turns and fun fun!
Look at these turns!
The peak viewpoint is the high point of the Little Dragon. Gorgeous. And I didnt know it until looking at pics later but this in fact is the very spot Dave1 and Bobl stop to take pictures on in Dave1’s ride report and noted the bridge in background. (I had better weather for pics than they did!)
Descend down summit. Had done a litle research and knew upcoming Bear Valley and Mt Bullion were semi-ghost towns with ruins from the Gold Rush days. Didn’t find any ruins at Mt Bullion but Bear Valley was great!
I love this: Highway Patrol sign and the Jolly Roger! I wish…
Mt. Bullion, only thing worth photo. LOL! love this sign, anyone watch “Black Adder?” Awesome British Comedy with Rowan Atkinson. “Privet” is slang for ‘loo’ or toilet. He regularly calls Baldrick ‘Privit breath’ in the series… too funny.
Continued on to Mariposa which is cute but touristy so only stopped for 2 pics there and kept moving to Oakhurst.
On 49, I passed the turn off for Chowchilla Mountain Road here to drive around the other side another 30 miles or so of pavement to cut in half the distance of the upcoming dirt mountain road and instead meet up with it through another dirt road out of Fish Camp.
At 5pm I stopped for dinner (early) due to the unknown next part coming up: the trip into the mountains on a long barely used dirt road / track over a small pass, I knew I’d need as much light as possible and have to take it very slow to not dump the bike.
“El Cid” mexican restaurant was decent at about mile 220 into the trip in northern part of Oakhurst.
Dinner:
Short ride north on route 41 and into Fish Camp. Nothing there, but a sudden road sign signified this is where I get off.
Travelled this historic stage coach road through Chowchilla Mountain through the back door gate into Yosemite. This is where all the wagon trains used to go in and out to Yosemite.
Had to drive 9 miles on dirt back woods mountain pass road. Drove about 5.6 miles off of Route 41 on dirt roads that were so narrow a car couldn’t possibly pass and it would be impossible for a car to turn around in, it was that narrow, no million point turns would do it.
The end of the road.
Gah! Where the F am I?? No cell service, no GPS satellite, no roads marked! Shit!
Road narrowing, is this spooky or cool…?
I’m a dirty birdie. I felt bad for Green Magic and the dust.
Huge (??) crossing of Chowchilla Mountain Road with “Forest” – (Garmin) but really I guess it’s Summit Road.
2nd turn option, you go this way young man, East! (Towards Yosemite woods gate).
At last: The Gate – and it’s open and passable!
oh, yeah! If the gate is closed a moto can easily sneak around it.
I backed into this ditch to pitch camp. It looks worse than it was, I powered right out of it without a wheelspin!
Ok, spot my camp!
Had to squeeze bike into this thicket and camo it a little with branch and cover reflective plate. “Dispersed” camping is allowed in the Stanislaus forest but not too sure about it all… And I find out later I was in a different national forest altogether just before the National Park Boundary.
At camp spot the night terrors begin…
Dark at 8pm and nothing to do so tried to sleep – I was really exhausted anyway.
Lots of strange noises. They start at 9pm and get crazy by 10:30pm really hit a high at 2:30am when a jeep roared by, stopped right by my tent for several minutes, continued, turned at gate and raced back uphill.
Insane sounds, like a dragon “sneeze/roar” kind of like a “TCH-ROAR!” sound was all i could think of. Super loud and very close by, about 100 feet up the road where I saw an old gated overgrown path that hadn’t been used in years. That was obviously the animal super highway. Swell. (At least I didn’t camp ON that overgrown path – the only damn flat spot in this whole wooded ‘road’). Scariest night camping ever, worrying about bears too all alone miles into woods. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a bear, though not all the other noises I heard. Whatever the hell this thing was it was pissed off, and very active.
I’ve camped all over – a lot when younger too, let’s see: NH, VT, ME, MA, UT, CA, NV, France, Spain, Norway, and I ain’t NEVER heard anything so f*&ed up as this. Wait, I did hear this in Norway… I recall this almost instantly. Scared the living hell out of my girlfriend and I at the time. We both imagined it was a roaring dragon doing flybys on our tent in the middle of nowhere. Nerve wracking. Don’t believe me: well take a listen here then. I searched online when back home and found the exact noise. Now crank it up to an ’11’ outside your tent alone.
CLICK here – I found this same sound I heard all night on the internet: Awful night terror noise
Mp3 version here
I woke up to a a cawing crow at 6:30am and thought “Sweet!” I slept later than I thought I could. Packed up my dusty bike with all my gear, set up the GoPro and had to stash the tank bag to do that.
Drove through the gate and entered Yosemite National Park for the very first time.
This is also an unmanned gate – there’s no one else anywhere nearby – and a ‘free’ ‘backdoor’ entrance to Yosemite if you want to roll that way.
Followed dirt track / road for about 3.3 miles and came in the sneaky way right through the Wawona Golf Course!
First stop: Wawona General store for some breakfast: Black Cherry Almond Clif bar, banana and some trail mix for later.
Then zipped off to Glacier Point and found the most stunning view 3000 feet above the below valley. It’s so high up, you look over the edge and your stomach goes into your throat reflexively. Just gorgeous.
This was 3000 feet above the valley floor view:
And the drive up there is loaded with fast sweeping in superb shape except for one short length about 2/3 of the way up the 17 mile road.
First lookout I drove into with GoPro there was a deer in the parking lot and not too many people as it was still quite early, happily.
After returning down Glacier Point Road I back tracked to Wawona General Store and got a tuna sandwich as I was pretty damn hungry at 11:30am. Then off south on 41 to Mariposa Grove and some of the oldest larger giant sequoia trees.
They have one the “Grizzly Giant” tree that is estimated 2000 years old! It’s a beautiful wide and crazy looking tree. Circumference at the base is 94 feet, diameter 30 feet, 210 feet tall.
Also saw the “Tunnel Tree” and hiked about 2.6 miles there.
Put back on all the gear and then headed to the actual Yosemite Valley itself. Back same route 41 North. Then I was man behaving badly. I was breaking speed limits with abandon, (uh, several DY lines for cages), and looped that particular route 41 hairpin turn about 7 times at high revving speeds. I find out later that Park rangers are everywhere ticket everyone left and right for 4-5 mph over the 35mph park limit. Dodged that bullet. Have to be calmer next time I guess.
Finally approaching the world famous valley, it’s about 3pm. A newer forest fire caused a lot of smoky haze in the valley unfortunately. The famous “Tunnel View” vista point was a little underwhelming due to this smoky haze. 
And indeed coming over the pass into the area you could smell remnants of burnt things.
I had hit a wall on this 2nd day at 2pm and felt over the whole trip, just thoroughly exhausted. My left arm was very sore. But the ride into the Valley Floor and especially the “Mist Trail” to Vernal Falls really perked me up. Very steep hike especially that last bit to get to the very top of Vernal Falls. Bathed in sweat and heart pumping big time up that face. The final ascent has a crazy iron fenced staircase that looks straigh out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Crazy final staircase.
I had the top of the falls all to myself at 5pm. Hike back down to the Valley and walk to bike and gear up and head out. I installed my tank bag back (had been cramming it in my saddle bags to use the gas tank GoPro mount in the park, and this turned out to be a mistake. The ride out was incredibly epic, much better than the way in, and the view simply jaw dropping.
A nice German guy insisted taking my photo with my bike here!
Indeed, past El Portal and out of the park the gorgeousness just wouldn’t stop: route 140 follows this continuing canyon for miles and miles and the pretty Merced river right next to the road for 30 miles! Did a little hand held GoPro here.
I stopped just before the El Portal gate at 7pm and unfortunately the Rangers were still installed at the gate booth and stopping all traffic. Not good, my back door mountain entrance meant I had no pass. I stretched out, did a little dirt rermoval off chain, wasted more time, and finally 7:15 figured I need to get the F outta here, I have a 4 hour ride ahead and I am beat tired. I hit the gate and with a big grin the Ranger waves me through and says “Have a great evening!” Wow, I say the same back and head down this wonderous road grinning. I lost the light shortly after and I am very eager to go back this way some morning soon in broad daylight and soak it all in. And pay for a proper pass in, I find out later motorcycles are half price $10 fee (!)
The bike broke down in livermore / pleasanton border final night at 11:30pm, about 35 miles from home.
The clutch broke. Taking exit for final rest and stretch, the clutch lever fell right into the handlebar and no clutch. I had to jam shift transmission into 3rd gear, slow down and stop.
I thought my clutch cable snapped. But something else is wrong in clutch itself. The lever arm tube fell out the bottom of the bike and was hanging. I twiddled it around a lot, got it slotted and jammed it up into clutch by hand. I figured I had a clutch pull or two before it was done.
Went in 3rd gear back to highway, pulled in clutch – it worked – and shifter from 3rd to 6th and drove 32 highway miles that way to oakland. Pulled in clutch once more at exit stop sign to go straight to 2nd gear at red light. Then 3rd clutch pull to start and slowly cruised to her apartment and stored bike. Will have to get going on it to fix it. My girlfriend had to pick me up there last night so we could go to Berkeley.
This was my first trip with a GPS running and it was great and very handy.
Yosemite was amazing. The whole trip was. Epic pics. Including spot where presidents stand 3000 feet above valley floor looking down on half dome.
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Summary:
I drove about 237 miles or so the first day to my camping stop off Chowchilla Mtn Road in the woods.
Second day between all the park driving and driving back to Oakland I drove about 322 miles, a new day record with Green Magic.
5 mile climb to top of Vernal Falls and back, 2 miles hike in Mariposa Grove.
Terrors in the night:
The next morning safe and secure in Berkeley I finally discovered what that roaring was, the night terrors that plagued me in Yosemite and also in the summer of 1996 in Norway camping. We were scared shitless then and I was uber creeped out alone. The power of the internet… I figured I would look it up and was trying to figure out which animals Yosemite and rural Norway have in common. Some crazy sort of elk cry??
Nope, it’s the “Vixen – Cry” and / or “alarm” cry from none other than the little cuddly (horny or pissed off) red fox. Aww, wish I had known and coulda slept. You would never in a million years think a small animal like that, and even a fox could possibly make such a noise. I’ve heard coyotes howling lots and lots, and know their excited hunting noises, calls, and alarm noises. But this is completely on a different level altogether.
Posted in Touring and tagged sport touring, yosemite, Zx6e, zzr600 by green