Spring cleaning

I finished up the 7000 mile service on the F650GS today (all that was left was to wash the bike, lube the stands, and clean the chain). It makes me very happy when I button up a bike back together and it starts right up on the first go.

While I was outside on this gorgeous almost-spring day, I thought I’d clean up my half of the garage a bit. Out went the broken radiator for a bike I no longer own. Out went the old sprockets for bikes I no longer own (much to Peter’s dismay; apparently he was saving one for “maybe doing something artisitc”…I assured him that with five bikes, we have no shortage of sprockets.). Out went empty bottles of cleanser, rags that were covered in epoxy, broken parts that wouldn’t get anything on Ebay.

The sad thing is that, looking at the garage, you can’t even tell I did anything. 🙂

I also did my biannual Nikwax treatment on my gloves and boots as I noticed on our Mexico trip that my left boot was leaking a bit by my little toe. Not bad, though, for 5.5 year old boots with 70k miles on them!

For those that care or are curious, I’ve been using Nikwax Footwear Cleaning Gel and then the black Aqueous Wax on my boots. A++ stuff.

For the gloves, I use warm water to clean them, then Nikwax Glove Proof for waterproofing. It works well for both my leather Helimot 365 gloves and my textile Frank Thomas Aqua winter/rain gloves.

Now I just need to find time to put new tires on the XT and the F650GS and they’ll both be ready for the start of a new riding season. 🙂