Dave & Teds Most Excellent Adventures 2013

[CyncySpyder]

It hit 80F degrees for the 1st time this year & we just HAD to RYDE !!!

So much yet to do, yet I couldn't help myself, we needed Spyder Therapy & we got some :2thumbs:

I was surprised to find Teddy running down the steps as soon as I walked in the front door yesterday from work. He's been either too scared or just having me baby him since his heart stopping tumble down, and I've been having to carry him down every day since. Seems, when he gets excited, the fear takes a back seat, and he flies right down them without issue. I tell ya, this pup knows how to play me & I'm just a sucker for it :roflblack::roflblack:

But yeah, I normally go thru our regular routine when I come home, but not yesterday, we BOTH knew, IT WAS TIME TO RYDE!!! :clap::clap: & Ryde we did. I geared up Tedster & myself & since it was sunny & 80 I even popped his sun-canopy back on top and filled his water jug and away we went. I still don't have all the electronics mounted back on yet, so still no GPS or Teddy-Cam, & to be honest, that was a bit frustrating. Kind of like getting used to having full use & mobility of both hands all your life, and then all of a sudden, NOT being able to use your dominant hand without pain. Hmmmmmm.............. sounds familiar doesn't it. Well, just like with that, you get used to it and go on, and on, and on .......... OMG the twisties were so much FUN :clap::clap::clap:

Got lost a couple of times, and usually I like getting lost cause we find so many new roads that we've never been on, and some great hidden gems, but with having the GPS we can always find our way around. Well, without it, I found myself having to stop & check the navigation app on our smartphone, thankfully. :bowdown:

Well, having Teds Sled back on the road & Teddy in the command seat, you know he ALWAYS garners attention no matter where we go. I think that's another reason I like the backroads and twisties so much, as it gets us away from all the attention that comes with cruising around town. After 3 hours of ryding thru the twisties and back country roads, we headed to Gold Star's (Local Chilli Parlor) drive-thru to get some coneys & 3 ways to take home for dinner. Well, we're regulars at their drive-thru & Teddy usually poses for pics & gives HI5s & in trade, they GIVE the pup his very own HotDog :clap: (Hey, what about me, I've gotta pay for mine:banghead:roflblack: I'm not hate'n tho, the lil guy works for his, so its ALL good :2thumbs:

Funny thing is, we pull up to the order menu & I shut off the Sled so we can hear the order taker better. We're at the drive-thru at the rear of the store & the Closterman (local Bakery) man is there delivering buns & I see him eye'n us like most folks do. As we order, he proceeds to walk over to us and begins chatting, tho I was shocked at what he said. It went a little like this & from a total stranger I had never met nor seen before.

Him:"This must be the Famous Teddy, little black dog with a red mowhawk & tail, that wears doggles & rydes on his very own Can-Am Spyder MotorCycle, right?"

ME: "Ummmm, yeah, right you are. Ummmm, do we know you?"

HIM: laughing "No, you don't know me, but my wife told me all about Teddy there."

ME: "Oh really, and do we know your wife?"
(I'll be honest here, I was a little worried where this was leadingpps

HIM: laughing again "Yeah, she's the one that gave you the money to buy that there bike."

ME: totally confused and lost "Huh, ummmmmm...... what do you mean?"

HIM: laughing again. "My wife is Sharon, the loan officer at Sharefax (Credit Union), she's the one that gave you the loan for the byke, and for a month straight, she wouldn't stop talking about your cute lil dog that you brought in with you when you did your loan paperwork, and she said you showed her tons of pics of the lil guy on the bike from all over the country like Florida & Missouri & New York even. Man, she wouldn't stop talking about you guys." still laughing the entire time he was telling this.

ME: (Feeling relieved that this wasn't some past indescretion cathing up with me)
"Oh, right, Sharon, yeah she really liked Teddy alot. Said I wasn't welcome back unless I brought Teddy with me." laughing.

Him: "Sure is an Awesome Looking dog, I understand now why she was so taken. Nice ryde too."

ME: "Thanks, and tell Sharon we said hi. Gotta get up to the window so Teddy can get his treat."

I tell ya, we can't go anywhere & be a stranger ................... GOOD TIMES !!! :yes::yes::yes:

 

[NancysToy]

Dave, I think it is a wise man that knows his own limitations. I applaud you for your common sense, in staying away from critical systems. In time you will likely attempt to do more with them. If you can look over someone's should a few more times, I suspect you will be ready to do so very soon. You are doing the right thing...if it worries you, maybe you shouldn't mess with it.

 

[CyncySpyder]

WoW, I'm embarrassed I found this little factoid out

Seems I can be a little long winded at times. errrrrr.......... ummmm........... Well, I'm not sure what you'd call it when referring to writing .................... maybe long worded or something, I don't know:dontknow:

pps:But did you know, that the SpyderLovers Forum has a 5000 letter limit on sending PMs :lecturef_smilie:

pps:I just found out, cause I had to edit out 395 characters before it would allow me to send the response pps:

 

[CyncySpyder]

Dave, I think it is a wise man that knows his own limitations. I applaud you for your common sense, in staying away from critical systems. In time you will likely attempt to do more with them. If you can look over someone's should a few more times, I suspect you will be ready to do so very soon. You are doing the right thing...if it worries you, maybe you shouldn't mess with it.

I stopped by my brothers house last night, and shared my squealing pig problem with him, and he replied, "Yup, I could here you braking from a mile away, just didn't know that was you squealing til you pulled in the drive and squealed right there." as he laughed at my red face pps:

Oh the humility :roflblack: After he got done rib'n me, and playing with Teddy, he came outside to check out the newly completed mods on Teds Sled, and surprisingly (he's usually hard to please) he liked what we've done thus far. Was impressed with using the bedliner to blackout the foot peg castings & agreed that they should hold up to the test of time. He hadn't used the plasti-dip himself, so wasn't all that familiar with it besides using it on all his tool handles and such, but again, was impressed with how well and smooth that it covered the handlebars, and agreed that the blacked out look really suited the Red Sled :thumbup:

Not surprising however, as he's not much of a flashy type of guy, but he didn't care for the color changing rims on the front of the sled, & to be honest, I'm not sold on them myself. I'm telling myself to wait and see how it looks once I get all the rest of the body panels back on, then I can give it a proper assesement & decide from there. But just in the off chance, I went ahead and ordered 2 cans of the red & 2 cans of the black plasti-dip, cause I really liked how the rims looked being blacked out, but wanted to try the color changing, just to see. If I did all this right, it should be no big deal to just peel it off if I choose to go a different color. I'm really wanting to see what the front rims would look like in a matching gloss Red, outlined with the black of the tires, I'm thinking that would really pop. But again, I'll wait and see.

He did give me tips for cleaning the brakes and rotors, no need to actually remove them, just use the brakecleen and then sand paper the rotors and he's thinking that should take care of most of the squealing issues. If not, he said he could give me a helping hand, if I actually need to remove them and try other remidies, and I know he knows what he's doing. He just retired April 1st from being the Public Works Director from the City where we grew up in, and he was very hands on.

Its raining here today, suppose to have that storm coming thru that dumped all the snow in CO. Hopefully we don't get anything bad like that, but at least it'll give me time to work in the garage, cause I'm finding it very difficult once again when its nice & sunny to NOT be out ryding. Priorities Priorities Priorities..................... :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

 

[kawakii]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the advice. We will for sure take it slow, give lots of pets and treats and hopefully the noise is something we can overcome. HE is SUPER food driven, will do almost anything for food so I'm hoping that'll help get him focused on something other then the noise.

We are still waiting for some decent weather, more snow tomorrow so we have lots of time to practice off the bike and with the bike parked and running. We also are doing training class again to get him some refreshers and some confidence. Since losing his sister in October he has been a little timid so it seems to be helping.

We will keep you updated and I'm sure I'll have more questions throughout the process ! I'm just glad we know someone who does this with his dog and can offer advice.

So if I havent said it enough already Thank you, Thank you.

That very well may be an issue for you going forward. You already know that dogs have Very Sensitive Hearing, especially compared to us non-canines. Remembering that your doing this on an RS gave me reservations for just this reason, tho I know of many that have done it, but just like us humans, every dog is different.

On the RT, being built for touring, we have a different OEM muffler than our RS brethren. Comparing the two is like comparing a sewing machine to a wood splitter (IMHO) & personally, I couldn't stand that dang sewing machine sound, but I dealt with it (until recently) because of the very fact that Teddy can't stand loud pipes, even when we're ryding with our RS buddies, you can see he doesn't like their louder pipes, less alone throw a TB pipe in the works, and he really gets upset.

With help and suggestions from this site, we were able to remove our stock airbox and replaced it with the KewlMetal Intake, and now we're both happy campers. The exhaust note got lower, no more sewing machine, but its not louder at all when at speed, just a throaty growl under hard accel :clap:

As for a remedy for you, my best suggestion is Positive Reinforcement and patience. I'd try starting the byke and letting it sit, like in the driveway (not inside a garage as the sound of the exhaust would be louder) and just ignore the byke altogether, and start playing with Cooper with one of his favorite toys, there in the yard or driveway getting closer and closer to the byke. Obviously, you don't want to leave your byke just sitting and running for long periods of time, and a dogs attention level is usually pretty short, so I'd only recommend doing this in 15 minute intervals, but maybe 2-3 times a day and the more he gets desensitized to the sound, the more times you can do it. Remember, treats and rewards for doing the action that you want him to do. So if he starts getting a little closer, give him a reward etc.......

I know this sounds like a lot, but the key is to desensitize him from the fear of the loud sounding pipe being a bad thing & that takes time. If you push too much too soon, you could find yourself fighting a loosing battle, and he could become very scared & never want to be near loud sounds at all.

I found this out the hard way with Teddy. We live on the river diagonally across from the Cincinnati Bengals & Reds stadiums, and when Teddy was a pup, we walked down to the riverbank to watch the FireWorks Show that they shoot off after the games on Friday nights. Not thinking (at the time) just how sensitive dogs hearing is, Teddy majorly FREAKED OUT!!! I mean, where we are, you not only SEE the FireWorks, you FEEL them as well, and it was just too much too soon. Now, everytime fireworks go off, or any really loud sound like a Harley backfiring, and the poor pup just about goes outta his skin. So much so, we were riding on RiverBoat Row one day last summer, directly across from the Reds BallPark when they hit a HomeRun & with every home run, they shoot off FireWorks. Even with him tethered to his carrier behind me, he freaked out so badly, that he somehow managed to get in my arms, shaking like a leaf, poor lil guy.

Moral of the story, take your time, have patience & give lots of positive reinforcement. Also, & Teddy won't use them himself, but they do actually make doggy ear muffs. I forget what their name brand is, but someone once suggested them to me for Teddy. They make them for dogs that fly in airplanes to help with the noise and ear popping & once a dog tries them (IN A PLANE) they won't want to be without them ever again, which I can totally understand. But here on the ground, its not THAT bad as compared to being in a plane, & I know Teddy wouldn't even give them a chance. We do well enough to keep his Doggles on while ryding, but he doesn't like anything actually over his head, no hats or helmets & no ear mufs for him. But you can probably google them, and if their not that expensive, couldn't hurt to try with Cooper.

Good luck & sorry to be so long winded. As I grow older (& hopefully a bit wiser) I'm starting to realize more and more, their just isn't any replacement for actual experience.

 

[CyncySpyder]

WOO HOO!!! SpyderFest is a GO!!!

Turned in my request form for the unpaid time off for SpyderFest (Out of town wedding) & my boss signed- it. Now just need the SuperIntendent & Labor Relations & its a done deal :clap:

 

[lookerjdc]

:clap::clap::clap::yes::yes::yes::clap::clap:

 

[CyncySpyder]

I didn't even realize

After I left my bosses office this morning, securing his approval and signiture (along with "I'll take care of the rest of it for you") for my requested unpaid time off to be able to attend 'The Wedding' (& SpyderFest) you woulda thought someone took the 100 pound monkey off my back & set him free:yes::bowdown::clap::joke:

I mean, the feeling was as if it had been raining for months straight, and the clouds finally parted and I could once again feel the warmth of the sun on my face again. I hadn't even realized how much apprehension and negative energy I must had been holding inside, fearing all this time, that something would come up & I wouldn't be allowed to have the time off, requiring us to stay & miss all the Festivities.

I realize alot has to do with adjusting to living with pain, and the frustration that comes with it because of my hand/finger issue, but when I left his office this morning, it was the first time in a long time I can remember walking down the aisle with a smile on my face:2thumbs: The only other time lately that I can remember smiling, is either playing with Teddy or while we're out for a ryde. Otherwise, just been kinda grumpy & grouchy, & I just attributed it to dealing with the pain. I mean, who's walking around happy & with a smile on their faces when their in pain? :dontknow:

Well, I'm still in pain, but I tell ya, I DO HAVE A SMILE UPON MY FACE & it feels good

Man O Man, are we looking forward to this 'New Adventure'
Just the very nature of the roadtrip itself - The Ryde -
Seeing new places and new things
Seeing old friends once again
Meeting new friends & seeing them interact & finally get to meet Teddy in person

Sounds like the second opinion the doc said I needed is just this,
Its Just What The Doctor Ordered:clap:

 

[Jharpo]

See you there

Awesome Dave! Can't wait to finally meet you and Teddy. See you in Ozark.:bowdown::yes::yes::bowdown:

 

[lookerjdc]

thats great Dave

yeah, I have gotten into the habit of carrying a collapsable cane with me... on my ryde, I feel fine, but sometimes when I get off (even with my pain meds), I need a little 'assistance' in moving around

and I am still trying to find a fabricator to make a 'pet seat' for my partner [ I spoke to Parker Brothers and they are willing to do it, but they are so busy taping their new season of Dream Machine they havent had the time to work me in, but I keep stopping by their shop.....

 

[SpyderRocks]

Hey Dave! When do you expect to arrive in Springfield? Can't wait to see you guys!:yes::clap::yes:

Janet & Pete

 

[CyncySpyder]

OK, now that I know we can go, I can actually start formulating plans

Hey Dave! When do you expect to arrive in Springfield? Can't wait to see you guys!:yes::clap::yes:Janet & Pete

So, as of right now, we're planning on me working a half day on Tuesday, so that means I'll get out of here around 10am and head home to finish packing up Teddy & the camper & then start on our journey west. I usually don't make strict in-stone plans, cause with the Spyder, Camper and Teddy, well its kinda like 'OHHHHH look, the Circus is in town!' and well, timelines go out the window, cause as most of you know that have Spyders, ppl come out of the woodwork at every stop to inquire about them, and that just gets multiplied silly with Teddy & the Camper, & I try my best to be polite without blowing ppl off, cause with a lil black dog with a red mowhawk, I realize I'm kinda ask'n for it pps:

With all that said, we've learned from past road-trips that its usually best for us to travel alone, so we don't slow down any others that we may be ryding with, cause when ppl aren't used to all the EXTRA attention we garner, it may be frustrating for them to have to wait around for us. We've even been left a time or two when on group rydes, cause it can be very difficult to keep the public under control, ask ArntUFun, he can attest to this fact at a particular gas station in UpState NY where we were trying to leave, being in the lead, and a fotog just wouldn't stop, and I literally had to just leave her standing there snapping away with her camera. Some ppl just don't get it.

But anyways, my plans were to just leave after work on Tuesday & head out on our own, ryde til I got tired & just pull over at a rest area & Teddy & I would hop in our camper & take a lil nap til we were refreshed to take the road again. But .................. Yesterday when we returned from a nice 3 hour test ryde, we had another local Spyder ryder waiting for us at the gate to our condo. And try as I might, he basically included himself and a friend into our pack and insisted on caravanning down with us. I explained how I usually do things, and there's no room for anyone else in our lil camper & he insisted that he'd find a local hotel where ever I wanted to stop. Said he'd be at our place at 11am on Tuesday ready to go. So.......................

We should be there sometime early on Wednesday, is my best guess as of right now.

 

[SpyderRocks]

Great! :clap::clap::clap: I'd be concerned about trying to find you among the multitudes, but we'll just head for the big group of people with silly grins on their faces :yes::yes::yes: ... UhOh! That will be EVERYONE! :yikes:

 

[currin20fan]

Dave & Teddy

You explained your special situation so ryde on my friend. Your new friends will adapt. With everything going on with you & the Red Sled, I was beginning to wonder if spyderfest was in your future. Glad you and Teddy are going to make it.

 

[shrubs]

"multiplied silly"

I like this phrase!

 

[CyncySpyder]

Aint that the truth *** JUST A HEADS UP FOR ALL OF TEDDY's FANS @ SPYDERFEST***

Boy oh boy, I'm starting to realize why so many famous ppl become recluses :sour::roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

One thing I'd like to say, before the event is here upon us, is PLEASE forgive us ray: :bowdown:

You see, when we stop (almost anywhere), we are usually mobbed & I totally understand & get that and in the past, I'd try my best to be accomodating to as many ppl as possible, but more often than not, there's invariably just not enough time to satisfy everyones curiousity before its time to pick up and leave.

When we first stop, Teddy needs to be allowed time to get untethered, de-Doggled (if he hasn't already done it himself) and then allowed enough time to go run around for a few minutes and 'do his business' and then we can get back to his sled so he can get a nice cool drink of water, then he's more than happy to pose for pics and schmooze, as long as I've got treats for him :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

I know at the Group Ryde out of Lamonts last year, with the Police escort, when we arrived with just 3 minutes to spare, we were mobbed as soon as we stopped & I let Teddy off to go 'do his business' and many of you were trying to get pics, but then it was time to leave & the Police Escort wasn't waiting, so I'm sorry if we missed you. This year, all I'm asking is to give us a few minutes to 'take care of business' as soon as we stop, then its game on:yes: and picture time for everyone :yes::clap::joke::doorag::yes:

 

[CyncySpyder]

Finally caught that sqealing pig for dinner, tho now we're having indigestion........

So I took part of Ron's advice & all of my brothers, stopped by the local Auto Zone & made sure I had enough cans of Brake Cleaner along with the sand paper & lint free shop towels my bro gave me, and Teddy & I set out to hunt down that sqealing pig once and for all & have that sucker for dinner.

This happened on Friday evening after I got home from work. Broke the lug nuts loose on both front tires, jacked the front up & removed both front wheels and then went to work cleaning the rotors, sanding them and cleaning them once again.

Let me admit here, Patience is a virtue I can't wait to aquire.
Seeing as we had the wheels off again, and I knew I wasn't completely happy with the color-changing rims being in the Galaxy Blue, but that I did like the blacked out look, I went ahead and changed them back to ALL Black.

If any of you were curious about being able to paint over the Plasti-Dip and still have it easy to remove..... short answer is NO!!! As I said, thru my research on-line, others stated if your doing such, you need to add some type of flexible additive to the paint to keep it from solidifying over top the plasti-dip. Once it hardens on top, then it will no longer simply peel off like normal, but you have to take something that won't scratch the substrate, like a plastic razor and scrape it all off by hand. I did this for about 10 minutes and said heck with this, lesson learned, and I just put 4 more coats of the black Plasti-Dip over top the Galaxy-Blue color changing paint and now there's no telling it was ever on there. Covered up just fine and now both front rims are sport'n the blacked out look and I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Doesn't mean I'm still not going to possibly try the red once they come in, as no one locally stocks Plasti-Dip in spray cans in red, and we had to order them. Not sure yet, may try or not, but I'm definitely going to do Teddy's camper in Black Plasti-dip on the bottom half and then red Plasti-dip on the top half of both sides, to make it match his Red & Black Spyder, while still leaving the top white to help reflect the heat of the summer sun, tho we do have our own shade umbrella, but better to be safe than sorry, no>???

TBC........ work work work

 

[CyncySpyder]

Finally caught that sqealing pig for dinner, tho now we're having indigestion*Part2

Ok, so enough about my impatience and back to our dinner of squealing pig. Now I didn't go as far as Ron had advised, and actually take off the pads and put the brake-quiet on the back of them, just cause of the fact I hadn't yet felt comfortable with tearing into something that if I messed it up, it could potentially kill us :lecturef_smilie: If one is dead, I don't think you can count that as learning the hard way, right? I mean you'd be dead, so you didn't get a chance to learn, just die, right??? ANYWAYS......................

Back to our little pork dinner. I have to admit, after we got them finished, I left them be for the evening, more so for the rims to completely dry before reinstalling them than for any other reason. So, Saturday morning comes, and I get the newly stealthily BLACKED OUT Rims remounted to Teds Red Sled and I gear up the Tedster and toss the pup on the back, and off we set for a nice little test ryde.

Pull out of the garage and come to a stop to watch the garage door close behind us, and "OOOhhhhhh, what's that???????" I didn't hear any little piggies squealing like I usually would, just nice silence from the brakes, along with the low growl coming from Teds Red SLed with the New Kewl Metal Air Intake (Man I love that mod, no muffler change needed, but we got rid of that DAMN sewing machine sound :clap Hmmmm, this sounds promissing so far. Pig for breakfast, so we were eat'n some bacon, and damn, did that silence from the bacon sound good. Pull out of the drive down the hill to the stop sign, and still, smooth stopping and golden silence. MMMMMMM MMMMMMMM, I mean, who doesn't love some good bacon for breakfast. Ok, so lets see if this holds true or is maybe just a fluke-instance. So we went for a nice cruise thru the city with stop signs and lights at every corner, all done in complete silence from the brakes :clap: Man O Man, let me tell you, I was actually embarrassed to ryde in the city, with nothing but stop and go, and those pigs sqealing so loud, they could be heard from blocks away, so even tho we COULD ryde, I was too embarrassed to ryde...... such a shame.

But anyways, we hit all of our regular stops, and all with golden silence. Joy had returned to Mudville :bowdown::clap:

So we did about a total of 150 miles on Saturday and even tho I know we need to get busy putting the sled back together, Sunday was an even better day for ryding with Temps in the 70s, so we decided to hit the country side and the twisties and just enjoy a day of pure ryding. After about another 100 miles of mostly twisties and country roads, we both started to get INDIGESTION!!! OMG, are you serious, is that what I think it is??? Yup, at every stop or tap of the brakes, we start to once again, he a little squeel here, a little sqeel there, more and more, tho nowhere near as loud as it was before, but sadly, that damn pigs cousin came to take revenge on us and it would seem, he's here to stay :banghead:

We got a call from one of our fellow SpyderLovers buddies that lives in Indy and he wanted to talk about his solution to his squeeling brake problem. Basically taking and doing ALL of Ron's advice, removing the pads and sanding them themselves, along with the rotors and using copius amounts of the Brake Clean spray and then adding some of the Brake Quiet to the back of the pads. Said he did all that, and it cured his issue, tho it had only been done the day before. I asked him to give me an update in a few more days to see if his squeeler actually stays gone, or if the lil SOB comes back for revenge like ours did. I'm thinking we may just need to spray them every couple of days with that Brake Clean, and that may just do the trick. But if the above doesn't fix them for good, I'm thinking we're gonna order some of the OEM pads & see how they fare, considering we never had a squealing issue until using the After-Market pads. Maybe Teds Red Sled is just partial to OEMs only :lecturef_smilie: I don't have the answer yet, so I guess this one WILL BE CONTINUED :bbq:

 

[CyncySpyder]

Have to admit, I'm really dig'n this BLACKED OUT look with the rims & castings


:yes:It just gives Teds Red Sled a bit more :doorag: Attitude :doorag: & I'm loving it!!!

 

[Netminder]

Looking good Dave! Hope you get the noisy brake issue solved. If there is one thing I really can't stand is any vehicle with noisy brakes. Definitely may take trying a different set of pads!