de tour 2006 ** day nine**

[Jeff Saline]

----- Forwarded Message ----- Listers, Chino Valley, AZ Steve is up with the crack of dawn. Maybe when dawn cracks the noise wakes him. I don't know, but man can he get up early. I get up and find him in the barn looking at his bike and we talk about what we're doing today. He's already got a cup of coffee and I get a cup of tea. We're heading to Prescott with his brother in law, John. Steve wants to look at the dealer to see if any KLRs are for sale. I want to buy a new tube to carry as a spare. I also want to get something to patch my air mattress. Since this is a ranch we get a huge ranch breakfast. Wow, this is a real treat for me and I'm just like family here. I love it! We get in the car and John drives us towards Prescott. We have some manly banter in the car and stop at a hardware store. They have a vinyl waterbed repair kit. It looks like it'll work on my air mattress so I grab it. Duct tape is suggested a few times as are some other products that would probably work. I also find some GOOP and buy a tube. I'm thinking GOOP first and vinyl repair on top of the GOOP. I make the purchase and we go to the dealer. I'm barely out of the car and see Steve's new bike. We walk over to it and it's a 2006 with just over 1,500 miles on it. Steve looks at it and John and I hang back and make unhelpful comments. A sales guy walks up and Steve asks him a question or two. The guy that owned it traded it for a generator and an ATV. Steve takes it for a ride in the parking lot. Then asks me to ride it. It has something vibrating and it's not the tank shrouds. But it feels like a new bike. Steve and John and I discuss what to do for a deal. John's pretty good at this kind of thing and suggests paying the asking price and getting them to put on new tires. That would be fair and the sales guy won't go for it. Says he can't do that. But he can knock $300 off the price. Go figure. Put on $150 worth of tires or knock off $300. Yeah, Steve's doing ok on this. They make a deal and we head off to rob a bank. The oil looks like it needs changing and the service manager agrees they missed that so will change the oil for free. Steve asks them to wait and he'll bring them an oil drain plug crush washer (the NAPA soft washer we both use) and also oil. We're both using Rotella 15W/40 and like it. We head off to find the crush washer and they have one 100 yards away at the NAPA store. Finding Rotella in quarts requires that we stop at every auto parts store in three counties. We finally get dropped off at Walmart and Steve buys three quarts there. I do a bit of shopping very quickly while there and get some more breakfast bars, rice dinners, distilled water and a small spray bottle. We meet in front of the store and find our taxi. The oil gets dropped off with the service guys. The drain plug is already installed so Steve holds onto the soft washer so he'll have it for next time. We go back to Chino Valley and have a bit of lunch and talk about swapping stuff from the 1997 to the 2006. The dealer's left a message that they've found a rear tire that will fit the bike. We have some real concerns that the worn stock skin won't work very well on our trip. The dealer didn't have anything even close to a 50/50 tire and Steve has been liking the Dunlop D606. Another brother in law shows up and John, Dave, Steve and I head back to the dealer to pay for and pick up the bike. We take a look at the tire the service department found and it's a street tire. They just don't get it about riding a KLR in the dirt. Steve tells them thanks for looking but he'll pass on this tire. The paperwork goes smoothly and while Steve and John are in the office the salesman and Dave and I have a good chat about bikes and racing and other stuff. The salesman offers to show me the brochure for the 2007 KLRs as he's just received it. Next year the bikes will be offered in Ebony and Aztec Red. The Ebony looks pretty good to me. He says he ordered 20 KLRs last year and sold them all in the fall. This year he plans on ordering 35 KLRs. Dual sport popularity is on a rise. I take a picture of the brochure. Steve asks me to pick up some waterproof grease for the rear suspension linkage and he heads home on his new bike. We grab some grease and head back to the ranch. I put some GOOP on the air mattress tear and hope it'll seal without gluing the wrong parts together. It's almost suppertime, or is that dinnertime? Well, it's about time to eat, we have a wonderful meal and time visiting with family. Steve's wife's folks stop by and it's a mini family gathering. I was lucky enough to meet everyone on last year's trip and this great for me. Lots of laughing and good conversation, and the meal is great too. In the morning we'll be mechanics. That's about it for day nine. End of Day Nine. Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT . . ____________________________________________________________ Mortgage Rates Hit 2.50% Use This Free Tool To Find a Lender Who Can Help You Take Advantage Of Today's Low Rates! (3.1 APR) http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4f1ec3c195b7e32ad9est05vuc [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]