2025.09.27
Portland, Oregon to Jerome, Idaho
It's Saturday now and I took Monday off working thinking it might take me three days to get home to Loveland, Colorado depending on how the weather goes at the Continental Divide, but I'm aiming for two days of riding.
I-84 along the Columbia River was beautiful, I wish I found a good scenic overlook to pull off at, but I did stop in Hood River which had a decent view of it from a park.
There were signs on the road for construction and rough bridge, but it was fine and hadn't been torn up yet. Signs for wind gusts and blowing dust, those checked out! I passed a group of at least six women bikers headed the same direction as me, just slower. A few of them were riding two-up and when I waved at them I got very energetic waves back.
Stopped in Pendleton, Oregon to grab lunch. There was a funny juxtaposition at the coffee shop I stopped at of a woman carrying a Louis Vuitton purse, but wearing Crocs. As I went about the ritual of wiping the final drive oil off the wheel and tire, I noticed that the larger of the two springs on my Hepco & Becker center stand broke and the stand was dropping. Bummer. I've only used that stand maybe twice so far as I'm not able to put the bike up on it on my own.
The bike was running different than before I dropped it off for service, so I unpacked my UpMap device, pulled the seat, and reflashed it as I think the ECU had been updated and lost the tune. I also noticed that even with the sidestand up and clutch lever pulled in, the bike will only start in Neutral and I can't remember if that was the case before or not, as most modern bikes I've ridden will start in gear so long as those two conditions are met.
Eastern Oregon
I got a laugh out of the bathroom tiles at a Jimmy Johns
I thought it was much darker out than it actually was and at a gas stop in Twin Falls, Idaho I realized it was just my visor coated in bugs. I called it a night nearby in Jerome, Idaho and asked at the front desk where would be a good place to park my motorcycle, ended up with prime sidewalk parking! It's always good to ask.
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