Getting More Stuff Done

I realize my latest “getting stuff done” series isn’t the most captivating adventure I’ve written about. But it’s what I’m doing right now, so that’s what you get.

Saturday was oil change day. While my last van would fit inside the barn with no problem, the Transit is just a bit too tall to fit through the door. I could still stick the nose inside, though, so I could work on a concrete floor instead of painful gravel. This was the Transit’s first oil change. It has a built-in oil life meter that tells you when it needs it, rather than going by arbitrary mileage. But at over 8,000 miles and with 24% oil life remaining, I decided to do it anyway. I’m not sure if this engine came with synthetic oil or not, but I took the opportunity to make the change. It’s more expensive, but it’s better for the engine, and I want it to last for a long time, especially because the towing I do makes it work a bit harder. Because the van is still under warranty, I noted the date, mileage, and oil life percent on the receipt and stashed it with my other van paperwork.

The motorcycle was due, too. I leave the odometer display showing the trip odometer so I can better gauge how soon I’ll need gas (it has a gas gauge but it’s only five LCD bars and shows a full tank for the first 3/4 tank), so I’d missed that I’ve passed 14,000 miles on the bike. That’s just about double the mileage the bike had when I got it last November. I guess I ride a lot. I wasn’t overdue for an oil change, but it was time.

Backing up a bit, Friday afternoon I took a half-day bike ride out to the Oregon coast. I’d taken the V-Strom from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and I wanted to finish by taking it back to the Pacific again. It’s also a bit of a milestone for me, as well, marking the official completion of my trip across the US to the west coast.

With no motorcycle shops in Cottage Grove and no Suzuki dealers in Eugene, I ended up punting back to Cycle Gear in Springfield, where I had a terrible experience getting a tire last year. It was worth it. There was an entirely different group of people working there. The store was in much better condition. I got the oil and filter I needed. In fact, they even had a deal going where if you buy four quarts of K&N oil, the filter was free. My bike only takes three quarts, but it never hurts to have some extra kicking around. The best part is that the extra quart of oil actually cost less than the filter, so I saved money and got more! Anyway, the Springfield, Oregon Cycle Gear is now off my blacklist. I’ve always had great experiences at other stores, and I had that same experience at this one this time. The entire oil change fits in one saddlebag with room to spare.

This time, I removed my engine guard to do the oil change. I left it on last time, and although there’s an access hole for the drain plug, oil is guaranteed to never actually drain through it. It was a little extra work, but made the job so much easier, and cleaner.

I also got a good look at the underside of the engine guard while it was off. I’m not doing any serious off-road riding, yet it has still collected a lot of scratches, scrapes, and dings. It’s worth every penny I spent on it to protect my engine from everything that’s bounced off this.

Meanwhile, Lister was curious about a flock of wild turkeys that passed through. Amazingly, none of them were aggressive toward each other. The turkeys are bigger than Lister, which probably deterred him, and since he wasn’t a threat the birds didn’t bother him, either.

Then I had to test my oil change by taking a ride, just to make sure it worked. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I found a nice loop through Umpqua National Forest that would take me down to Route 138 and back to Cottage Grove, but the ride got cut short when I found a rock slide completely blocking the road. There’s no way I was getting around that. After taking this picture I started pondering if there might be a way through, but then a small rock came tumbling down the cliff. It was nowhere near me, but it told me that this was an active slide zone and I needed to get out, now! So I went back the way I came. Google Maps was useless for this course change outside of cell service, but Sygic worked perfectly now that I’d downloaded Oregon maps onto my new phone (which is also working perfectly).

The rest of the weekend consisted of relaxing, not getting as much accomplished as I’d intended, and visiting Kristi on Saturday night when her original plans fell through. I first met her two years ago in Quartzsite at the Lit Cactus, but she’s settled down in Eugene these days to give her kids some stability. It’s been great having her show me around the city, as well as hanging out with a fellow nomad.