Cooney Reservoir

May 11, 2025

We have some weather headed our way this afternoon so after an outing with the dog and a few other things I figured I had enough time to get a short ride in.  I’d looked at a map and noticed COoney Reservoir.  I’d been there once, a short visit probably 25 years ago and at 50 miles from home looked about perfect.

I snaked my way to Laurel on the back roads, stopped at Riverside Park for the facilities, and then rode son to Boyd and the turn off for COoney.  It’s about 9-10 miles and very curved.  A nice ride.  As I neared the lake, up a ahead I could see that the rode made a hard turn to the left and coming the other way was a kid in a pickup who didn’t slow down and came over on my side of the road as he tried to correct himself.  20 second later that could have been dangerous for me.

The pavement ends at the bridge where the water flows out of the lake so I took a couple pictures, turned around, and headed back.

A mile or two on the way back I found another spot for a photo.

When I got back to Hwy 212 the pavement was wet.  I guess I’d just missed the rain.  I found it a bit out of Rockvale but it wasn’t much.  The rest of the ride back to Billings was just about getting back before the rain showed up there.

A 98 mile day.

A Red Lodge shake down ride

May 4, 2025

With all the maintenance caught up and great weather today, it was time for a ride to Red Lodge and back.  Nothing special, just cruised there with little traffic.  I did stop at Fox, Montana on the way.  It was a railroad stop for the grain elevator.  The rails are long gone and there isn’t much left.

In Red Lodge I stopped for a drink of water and a photo.

It was an uneventful ride back for about 120 miles.

Catching up on stuff

May 4, 2025

It’s a been a few weeks of catching up on some maintenance, getting ready for this riding season.  The first job was to get new tires mounted.  I went with the Michelin Road 6 GT again.  I had around 11,000 miles on the previous set and there were lots of riding left but I like new tires for the start of the season rather than dealing with getting them changed when riding is more important.  I’m not a tire snob nor expert but these tires really did handle well, particularly in the rain and I had lots of that last season.  I also bought steel valve stems with a right-angle fill, to replace the straight rubber ones.

While the wheels were off I replaced the brake pads.  The rears were down to the wear marks and I went ahead and order pads from the front all well.  Dummy me, I thought since there were 2 for the back and the front has 2 calipers, I’d need 4 for the front but it takes 4 on each side so I was short 4 when I did the job.  That’s OK, I just ordered another set and put them on later.

Above, the rear pads, the new ones on the left and the old ones on the right.

The old front pads with plenty of life left but I’m replacing them anyway.

A few days later, with the wheels back on, It was time for a hydraulic fuel flush.  I have a vacuum pump but chose to do it the old-fashioned way since both the bleed screw and the brake and clutch levers are within reach.  The clutch was pretty straight forward.  The fluid didn’t look too bad after 4 years and 40,000 miles.  The brake fluid didn’t look too bad either as shown below.

The trick with this bike is that it has ABS so just flushing the fluid the standard way doesn’t get all the old stuff out.  It’s necessary do the initial flush activate the ABS pump, and then flush the system again.  Yamaha used to sell a special tool that will put the bike in a test mode but it is no longer available.  That’s OK be those helpful people online show had to do the same thing with a single alligator clip.

The first step is is to make sure that the side stand safety switch is working.  This is the switch that prevents the bike from starting or running when the bike is in gear and the side stand is down.  Done.  

Next, I removed the battery cover.  Under there is a connector that has a dummy plug in it.  I pulled the plug and used the alligator clip to jumper two pins.

Now I turn on the ignition, wait until the instrument panel is booted up, and then hold down the start button for 4 seconds.  Now the bike is in test mode.  Next, I pull the front brake lever and push on the rear brake pedal, both at the same time.  I get a pulsing in the front lever, followed by one on the rear pedal, and then the front again.  The ABS pump has now brought in new fluid and pushed out the old.  Now I flush the front and read as I did before.

The next job, done some days later, is a coolant flush.  This is done by the book rather than what some YouTubers suggest like flushing with distilled water and then compressed air.  I suppose if the bike had 100K miles on it and had never been flushed, maybe, but that’s not the situation here.  Yes, I am over due but the bike was new and I haven’t been riding it hard.

The challenge is that to get to the radiator cap, I have to remove most of the front plastic pieces.  I followed an excellent guide online and it went well, although it took about 90 minutes.  Once all the plastic was about of the way, I loosened that radiator cap, pulled up a bucket, and removed the coolant drain bolt.

The coolant came out looking blue and crystal clear.  I removed the expansion tank, emptied it, and then pulled the lower radiator hoses annd drained them.  I reattached the hoses and the drain bolt and added the new coolant.  I poured VERY slowly to make sure I didn’t bring much air into the system.  After replacing the cap, I ran the engine up to operating temperature followed by long break where I left it cool down.  I removed the radiator cap and topped up the coolant.  In all I used about 2-1/2 quarts of Yamaha coolant.

Putting all the plastic pieces back on waited until the next day and took about 90 minutes.  The next day I fiddled around with a few more items on my check list.  I removed the side heat deflector panel to double-check that I’d tightened up the bolt underneath, which I hadn’t.  I also lubed what I could of the latches on the side cases and while they were opened, check that locks were tight.  I also checked the tire pressures.

Later that day, Friday, May 2, I took it out for a test ride.  I rode out to Shepard, cruised some back roads, and road back.

It ran great and I believe it’s ready for another long season of riding.

First Ride of 2025

March 2, 2025

It’s been relatively warm in the 50s for a few days so much of the snow has melted.  There was a lot of it, something like 18” on the ground around the house.  The key is that the streets are snow and ice free and when I saw that it was going to hit 61°F I knew I had to get the bike out.

It was mid afternoon and we’d returned from a 3-mile walk/hike with the dog at Riverfront Park.  It felt pretty good out so I grabbed by jacket, helmet, and gloves and rolled the bike out of its slumber.  When I hit the start button it fired right up as if it had just been parked the day before rather than the 2-months it was stashed.  I checked the tire pressures and both were at 38 PSI so I gave them each 4 pounds and got going.  The starting mileage is shown here.

I just wanted a short one to get the feeling back and it didn’t that long.  I rode out west on Rimrock Road and worked my way to the Canyon Creek Battlefield Memorial.  The roads are great but there is quite a bit of loose gravel in the intersections so one has to be wary.

I stopped at the memorial for the first photo on the season.

While I was there I noticed lots of spend brass on the ground.  I’d seen litter like this before and  I like to pick it all up with the thought that it might be added to an art project at some point.

I cruised back home on a zigzag pattern, logging about 35 miles for the day.

The last ride again

December 28, 2024

Is it really the end of December in Montana?  It sure doesn’t feel like winter but looking ahead on the weather app it appears things might be changing.  I’ve put the bike away twice for winter and taken it back out to enjoy another ride and today it was the same.  The last time I put it away, a week or so ago, I didn’t put it in it’s usual slumber location all the way back in the garage and needed to move it a bit to fit the ‘83 Volvo 240 in there with it.  With the temperature at 50 degrees and the roads clear, why not a short ride.

I didn’t have but a few hours and I thought about a longer one but once I got up on the highway above the rimrocks, I noticed a pretty strong wind that certainly takes the fine out of it.  So, I rode the new Skyline Drive to Akali Creek Road and took that to the base of Airport Road and back to Zimmerman.  It felt great.

And parked…

The final reading of the year.

Last Ride of the Year?

December 19, 2024

I’d put the bike away for the winter twice but winter seems to be arriving late so out it came again today.  It was 59 degrees so off I went to Lavinia, then to Roundup, then back home.  128 miles.

Rapelje roads

October 26, 2024

With my recent flat tire patched and pretty nice weather, it was a good day to get out and log some miles.  My friend, Keith, and I met up at 10am with a briskness in the air: 46°F.  We rode west, taking to new roundabout at 62nd and Rimrock and then south to Grand.  It was then then usual west board escape route from Billings to Laurel, then to Park City and Columbus.  We turned north on Hwy 306, Rapelje Road, to the village of Rapelje.

That road is pretty nice for the first part with sweeping curves through some hills and then it tops out on the prairie and runs pretty straight the rest of the way.  There was a pretty strong crosswind out of the west but nothing too much to deal with.

I didn’t take many photos of the ride today but the ones I shot previously, last March, are here. 

I did bring one of my film cam areas and did some shots but those will have to wait until I get into my darkroom to develop them a bit later.  Here are the few I did shoot with my phone.

After I was done shooting film, we did a quick tour of the town, population about 90, and then headed back the way we came.  We did made a quick stop to admire the scenery and the electrical substation.

We went back to Columbus and grabbed Hwy 421 to Joliet.  I’ve ridden this many times, as recently as last December, and there are some photos of that ride here.

As we rode back the temperature went up to about 68°F and I was thinking to shedding a layer but we continued on to Laurel where we made our final plan.  Keith wanted to hit a gas station on the way back and I decided to wait on that since I wanted to run more of the regular gas out before filling up with the winter, non-alcohol blend so we separated at Shilo and Grand and I headed for home.

An interesting thing occurred with the bike today.  When I left on my big trip last May, I zeroed out both of the trip counters.  The upper one I’d reset every day and I let the lower one just add up the days.  I never reset it and today it got to 10,000 miles and it reset to zero.

It was great ride today and I look forward to a few more before winter arrives and I have to put it away.