Sheldon's Ural Deco Diary

Sheldon's 1998 Ural Deco - Week Six

"Winter Meeting" will they ever end, "winter" and "meetings"?

Day 27, Sunday February 21, 1999... Worked on web sites all morning. The roads are now very sloppy. The temperatures are up around 40 and everything is melting. If this keeps up for another day the roads should be in pretty good shape and I will be able to start riding. My granddaughter and her mother are coming over for dinner this afternoon so I know there will be no riding today, and I have to have a site done for Minnesota Power by Monday.

I will call Marlow on Monday and see where we stand with the windshield and speedometer for the Deco and the alternator for the Sportsman. Hopefully I will have them both here next week.

5:30 p.m. What can I say? I am incorrigible... Granddaughter and her Mom came over for dinner. Cooked up a batch of spaghetti and we had a very nice visit. They left about 5:00. As I walked them to the car I noticed that I had left the garage door open. And the poor Deco was sitting there screaming at me, "Let's go, let's go for a ride, com'on... Paleeease...???"

What could I do. The moment they pulled out of the driveway the bike was outside warming up, while I ran into the house to put on a coat. The temperature was about 20 f. (-6 C.) with no wind. The driveway was covered with snow but the sun during the day had dried out the streets. It felt so good to be on the bike that the cold temperature did nothing to make it any less fun. Went for about a twenty minute ride around the local streets and highway. Stayed off the freeway as the bike isn't broken in yet and with the speed limit being 70, it is a bit dangerous to be putting alone at less than 50. Everyone on the roads, in their yards, or even snowmobiling next to the road waved. By the time I returned home I was a bit cold but happy. I did get a ride in today. To you that live in warm climates, riding this time of year might not seem like much, but here in Northern Minnesota the only people on the road this time of year, on motorcycles, are certifiable crazy people. And there are some people that might suggest that I fit in that group. But I a riding and they are not...

Day 28, Monday February 22, 1999... -2 f. this morning so I guess I will leave the bike at home again today...

Had a Board of Directors meeting for Lake Superior Writers tonight that lasted until after 10:00 p.m. so it was another very long day today. Didn't get to bed until 12:30 a.m and the phone rang at 3:00 a.m. because an alarm went off at the office. Being a keyholder they called me... Didn't have to go down there but wasn't able to get back to sleep until after 4:00 a.m.

Day 29, Tuesday February 23, 1999... Alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. and I know one guy that had a hard time rolling himself out of the bed. Shaving was a real adventure. My eyes didn't seem to want to focus, let alone even open. This whole story could have ended right there, but I made it through. I am dragging today but there is one thing that has me excited. I am heading out of work a bit early so I can run to Carlton MN, to Silverbrook Embroidery, to pick up a new batch of T-shirts for NARMA. We even had him do up a cap, a few long sleeve shirts and two sweatshirts just to see how they look. Hopefully I will have them up on the products page in the next day or so. It looks like we will be marketing more after-market parts from Russia also. Our contact in Russia is going to be supplying exhaust cooling fins and air cleaner systems. We will be marketing them in North America through NARMA. Prices are not yet firm although it looks like the cooling fins will be at $29.95 a set delivered and the air cleaner systems will be at $59.95 delivered. But it somewhat depends on the shipping costs from Russia. We never had any intention of getting into the marketing of products but the NARMA site is such a good place to display them that maybe we can bring a few dollars into the coffers by doing it, and we are now finding it kind of exciting.

Oh, and my license plate arrived for the Deco yesterday. Since the temporary permit expired a week ago I will now be much more comfortable taking it on public roads.

Day 30, 31, 32, Weds, Thurs, Fri Feb 24, 25, 26... It has been difficult getting on-line the last few days. Seems like I have been in a continuous series of meetings. Not much going on with the Deco, although, the windshield arrived yesterday. I unpacked it this morning before heading off to the office. It is exactly the same as the one I have on the Sportsman. When I mount it will not use all the standard mounting brackets that come with it. They are a bit too short and cause the windshield to ride in front of the headlight just a bit. At night the windshield acts as a fibre optic pickup and it actually glows around the edges. Some people might think this is kind of cool, but I find it very distracting. The local Fleet & Farm store has a whole section devoted to door hinges and brackets of all kinds, and they have a wonderful, very sturdy bracket that is an perfect replacement. I will have to widen one whole with a drill to accommodate the left turn signal but that is no problem.

Talked to Marlow today (Friday) and he is expecting the 14 amp alternator for the Sportsman to arrive today. He says I will have it back some time next week. The speedometer for the Deco should arrive at my house today. I am sure it can't be too difficult to put on. The odometer and tripmeter still work perfectly and just the needle is bouncing. I only wish the roads would clear up. As soon as they start to dry out we get a bit more snow, and the salting trucks are out right away. I am just not prepared to ride the Deco in that kind of soup. Should only be a couple more weeks of snow on the ground, then we still get snow storms but they have a tendency to melt within a few days. We sometimes have snow on the ground into May but the way things are shaping up all the snow could be gone by the end of March.

Hopefully I will get to ride this weekend.

Day 33, Saturday February 27... Today turned out to be another work day. Worked for a publishing company, Benline Press, in the morning, a motivational speaker, Dave Allison, in the afternoon, then went home and the phone started ringing with others needing computer advise. Didn't get to relax, play with the bike, or do much else than work. I'm hoping I get to work on the bike tomorrow, and maybe relax a bit.

Next week

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