A different way to get dirty

On Saturday I rode over to the old's place to finish up a job on the V-Strom that we started a while ago.

Prior to tackling the 42nd traverse Dad helped me to change the front sprocket (embarrassingly worn out).  We fitted a smaller one to lower the gearing for the expected "slower" riding on the ride.  As you can see it was a pretty mucky experience.

While we were under there we discovered that the dust seal on the clutch slave cylinder was broken so I ordered one of these along with a new chain and rear sprocket the following week and Saturday was the day to fit these and finish the job off.

After lunch I rode over to Feilding only to find nobody home so after sending a fruitless text I got on the bike and went for a wee pootle around Feilding and then took a short ride around the outskirts of the town to burn up some time.

View Driving directions to State Highway 54 in a larger map

On the way back towards Feilding I tried to find a spot on the road where I could see the old's house and maybe get a picture of it.  I failed miserably but checked out a new subdivision and got the below pic showing Feilding in the upper left hand side of the picture and Palmy off in the distance to the right.  Also, some weather on it's way...

While parked I got a text to say that Ma and Pa were home so I made my way back to their place and rode straight into the shed so we could get to work.

We got the chain on (a bit trickier than it should have been - no clip, we had to press it on) and fitted the new dust seal but the bike shop had given me the wrong rear sprocket (wrong pitch and number of teeth!) so that didn't end up getting done.  Luckily the rear sprocket is still in pretty good shape so it'll have to hang in there for a bit longer.

While we were doing these jobs that weather caught up with us and we had a good thunder & lightning show along with some very generous lashings of rain - it wasn't looking very nice for my wee trip home.  Luckily there was a bit of a lull in the storm just as we finished up so I skedaddled while the skedaddling was good and raced home on wet roads.  Later on the storm hit pretty full force with some serious cloud moisture coming down and the wind trying to blow away anything not nailed down.  Never mind the fire was soon on and it was cosier inside.

Hoping for some decent weather this weekend...