Arrived in Almora - Painting Bike

I arrived in Almora at night on July 3rd, around 9:30pm, and made it to Pushkar Guesthouse by 10. I have been relaxing and recovering, i feel quite productive up here and there is a lack of tourist which is quite a relief in it's self, as the locals are in a different mode in off-peak season. The rains have continued almost everyday, but only for a few hours generally in the evening, but some days the morning. flooding has continued to devastate Utterakhand, with many road closures in the mountains. The flooding 1month ago was so devastating that many towns were destroyed, and the Char dam yatra was canceled, after the complete destruction of Kedarnath, where only the main temple above the town was sparred by the avalanche/landslide when a boulder rolled down before it happened and stopped above the temple, protecting it from the massive torrent of rock and ice.

I have changed my oil, as it was more than 500km after my Piston/Cylinder/Head Kit was changed after blowing my piston up in Nepal. My bike is running like new, with way better compression and power then it ever had in my hands. I have fixed my rear brake light, in addition to installing the upgrade free-flow k&M air-filter that rohit gave me, and re-jetting to adapt for it. My mileage is excellent, getting 80+mpg, or 35+km/l unlike before at 50-60mpg, or under 24km/l. In Pokhara after seeing my massive ring gap it is amazing i had compression  at all, but changing my rings without dealing with my real problem at the time (needing a bigend overhaul, and having a 'soft-seized' piston/cylinder, showing scraping spots, which was already 0.040" oversize, max oversize for both piston and cylinder.having the compression boost from the rings in pokhara pushed it over the edge, as not 65 km out of pokhara i blow my piston in half, and have to get rucked 100+km to Butwal, where the very nice and competent mechanics at the Royal Workshop did my bigend and new headkit, in addition to a few other tweaks. Right before i left Pokhara i look down at my rear shock after packing, and see it is rubbing on my rack, after closer inspection i could see it was broken at the rod internally, forcing me to delay another few hours before leaving butwal, and costing me another 2500npr for a single used shock.

Have read a number of books over the past few weeks, starting with most of hunter s thompsons work (hell's angels, rum diary, f&l), then tropic of cancer by Henry miller, then the new translation of siddhartha we were given before we left. I have also been writing as much as possible, both in my journal and about open-hardware/education.

In the past few days i have transferred half of my 1tb hd to my 3tb backup, which is now possible because i found a 12v powersupply  and a fat barrel connector to power up my 3tb backup. I now can continue shooting photos at full speed. After the first day of transferring i came home to find my battery charger (for both cameras) was belly up and dead, but after opening and fixing a cold solder joint, it now works with 12v input at least, and the cap that is swelled up is probably the only thing keeping it from working on mains, which will be an easy fix once i find a replacement. I am really glad i bought a soldering iron in nepal, because i have needed it at least 6 times, and will let me rewire/cleanup the wiring on my bike reliably.

Next stop will be Manali, where i will then plan the Leh/Ladock trip. Myles just left for this tour, and it will take a month or so. This is supposed to be the most amazing bike tour in India, with much of it virtually offroading. If you look at a map the one road goes from Manali stright up to Leh, where there is an amazing lack of roads for hundreds of kilometers. This requires a bike in top running condition, and people on the tour who can assist in repairing. Like always I will have my tool kit, but will also invest in a tire pump, a set of tire irons, and an innertube and patchkit. This plus a set of all cables for the bike (brake, throttle, decompresion, clutch) will make the chance of surviving much higher.... Also mandatory is sleeping bag, tarp/shelter (ideally tent), warm clothes, smaller jets for carburetor for 18000ft pass (or you will run way rich).

BTW, please comment more if you read this, i dont get  much internet access so comment are a good way to talk.

Blew up my piston, back on road soon

Started my trip from Pokhara back to India 5 days ago, and made it maybe 60km before I heard a nasty sound and lost power/compression immeditely. I feared the worst, and was right. My engine catastrophically seized and my piston subsequently broke in half at the pin. Somehow I was able to get a truck to drive me and my bike 100+km to Butwal, which is the first (and last) major city I pass through to go to india. I was first planning to get my bike via truck all the way to india, but this is unrealistic considering the issue of walking my bike accross the border would be beyond a spectacle. Luckily I found an enfield repair shop in butwal, called the royal workshop, which agreed to fix my bike for between 32,000 npr, which is arround 330usd, a fair price in nepal for a full engine rebuild and new piston cylinder head kit, the cost in india would be 10000-12000 for an engine rebuild and 5000 for a new piston cylinder head kit, installed, which is around the same price. In pokhara I was quoted 45000 just for the engine rebuild, without a new piston or cylinder. My piston and cylinder were already bored out to the largest oversize 0.040", so now I won't need to change the cylinder for another 2-3 rebores... my cylinder was also destroyed upon impact from my piston breaking, so a new kit was needed. There is aguy doing 350cc to 450 cc conversions for the enfield in america, so there are other options.

Sunday I watched as they did my main bearings and most work, today in the mornig I went over and they completed the job and closed her up. I am into doing work, but after spending 8 hours with competent Mechanics and my bike, I realized I am glad I wasn't doing the work, as it is not as simple as it seems, and many tools and psrts are needed, which need to be collected.

Monsoon is here in full force in july, and it has been raining atleast once a day, generally in the evening. For this reason, It is a good idea to get as many hours on the road before rain starts, and start as early as possible.

I am now in the process or 'running-in' my engine as if it were new, which it effectively is. This requires me to run at 50km/hr for the first 500km, then an oil change to remove metal debris, then a careful ramping up of max speed over the next 500km as per nandens website. This will be tough as i have no speedometer, but i will use my gps for speed verification, the next 500km are on the mahindra highway, mostly a strait line to banbasa, the highest north crossing into india, utterkhand.

Utterkhand is in the midst of a natural disaster caused by the unprecedented rain, withthousands dead and tens of thousands trapped. The char dam yatra has been suspended, which is the pilgramage every year by millions of pilgrams to yamnotri, gangotri, badrinath, and kedernath. This was were myles was planning to be at just this time, luckily he was delyayed. Kedernath, which we got clowe to a few months ago, was destroyed by a large avalanche/landslide. This is a massive disaster that is getting very little news in the west.

My first stop in india will be almora, which was sparred from diaster, and is a good place to relax for a few weeks, then to rishikesh via the highway, avoiding the mountain roads. Then up towards manali in himachal pradesh, the next north state in india from utterkhand.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintance

I need to read the Pirsig classic, as the parallels of two characters, one with a new bike and no plan to learn about repair, and another with an older bike and a desire to learn how it works and how to service it, are surprisingly similar.

Downloaded the service manual for my enfield bullet motorcycle. It is a well written and detailed manual, and the bike is easy to work on and well designed. Both on my phone and tablet, but a printed copy would still be handy. Though nanden advises to take the info in the manual with a grain of salt, and use it forguidance more then reference.

Having fun adjusting the idle speed, brakes and clutch, which need a little tuning I feel. (This was written before i saw i had almost no compression due to my piston having 'soft-seized' in addition tomy piston rings had a huge gap from wear. This probably happened on the highway getting to pokhara, as it was the first time i opened her upto almost full speed, which in retrospect was a mistake, especially not knowing the topspeed we hit. According to nanden, even an engine broken in, but only city or mountain ridden less then 70km, will seize up if you just take it to topspeed and leave it, he claims you must slwoing wear the clearances for that working temputure, which is a perfectly logical approach. The enfield, when new has many parts not set at working fit, but interfereance fit, and only through careful wearing the parts in can you achieve perfect tollerences.

Currently I need to fix my rear brake light, which apparently was disabled after a mechanical fault (a screw attaching the brake switch to the bike is missing, causing the switch to rotate) by removing the spring and splitting the electrical connector to the switch, both are easy to fix. My turn signals also need to be fixed, one of the rear ones is falling off, and the front ones are removed entirely. They have also been electrically disconnected.i also want to fit larger jetsin thecarb and the k&m airfilter rohit gave me, plus change the tires formodern knobbies, and change the rear suspension or the spring/recharge or tunr the pressure, or find an oldschool oil dampened shock and tunr that instead.

Work done on my bike so far (as i remember)
-rear shock bushings
-front shock seals and oil
-rear brake pads changed from knockoff
-engine rebuild and new piston cylinder head kit after catastrophic seizure
-wheels bearings
-centrrstand needed weld tokeep bike upright, making it easiertoget offthe stand[needs tobe done again]
-oil pump rebiolt
-used pistons fitted, needto put new ones in india
-got a rack
-fixed/disabled rear brake light myself a few times [missing a bolt i cant find, gonna use wire as there is no stress]
-Got spokes fixed in rear wheel and wheel trued.