Quick Video - Almost Wrecked

I went riding last Saturday as some of you may have read in a earlier post.  Out of all the footage I shot here is all I got that was worth viewing, and even then I don't think it is that great.  It is me almost clobbering a tree stump, and then a short wheelie.  Hope you like it.


Apparently the storm that we had dumped a bit more south of where we ride.  The local ski resort reported 48" of fresh snow that day.  Here is video to prove it. I hate when there is better snow somewhere else that I don't know about. Oh Well.  Hopefully the next storm will dump on us.



Thanks for reading,
DPS

Author Invitation

As you have read in my post about doing good business, I recommended using KaN Power Sports.  I think they are great at what they do.  Their prices are fair, and they have a lot of experience. 

Well, I have now taken that one step further.  I have invited them to be authors here on this blog.  If they accept I expect they will be writing about their experiences working on the stuff that breaks on our toys.  They will also be available for advice and questions.  They are a wealth of knowledge.  Hopefully it brings a wrenching dynamic to this blog, and hopefully it encourages you, the readers, to use him as your mechanic.

Thanks for reading,
DPS

Get out there and Ride

Sometimes you need to just get out there and ride.  I have been itching to get out and snowmobile after our first ride on October 26th.  As you may have already read, our October 26th ride was awesome.  Tons of snow, and beautiful weather.  Couldn't have asked for a better first ride.

Well I have been biting at the bit to get out on the snowmobile since then.  So when I found out that it was going to storm all weekend, I started salivating.  Now I had to figure out how much snow was actually going to fall.  The weather reports said anywhere from 15 to 20".  I thought to myself; "that could be enough."

Worn out parts

I hate when things wear out.  Every mechanical thing that moves will wear out eventually.  For me, this week, it is my constant velocity (cv) joints on my car.  It is making a horrendous popping noise when I turn.  So now I have to spend the $100 to buy the parts, and a Saturday replacing them. 

For most vehicles or power sports there are things that just don't last.  Given, with synthetic materials, and tighter manufacturing tolerances things are lasting a lot longer.  But even with the best material and tightest tolerance, the item will eventually give up the ghost.

For a snowmobile you can buy carbon fiber drive belts now.  They last a long time, and are probably lighter than the stock rubber.  They cost a pretty penny too.  But even they ware out eventually. 

So what can be done?  Not much outside of regular maintenance.  For my CV axles I am sure that the rubber boots failed long before the CV axle failed.  When the boot fails dirt, grim, and water gets in there and destroys it. So if I was on top of things I would have changed the boots for $8 instead of having to change the axle for $100.  But honestly who is under their car looking at things like this enough to catch the problem?  If you are I commend your effort. 

For power sports such as snowmobiling there are things to check every year.  There are items that need to be lubed and greased.  Stay on top of these things and your machine will last a lot longer.  When I bought my snowmobile it only had 730 miles on it.  I checked the chain case oil and it was dirty and low.  Imagine if I had run it while being low.  I could have burned up my chain and ended up needing to dump a bunch of money into the sled for repairs. 

Bottom line is this... DON'T GET LAZY ABOUT UPKEEP OR YOU WILL PAY FOR IT IN THE LONG RUN.

This isn't my cv joint, but it illustrates the bad rubber boot.

Thanks for reading,
DPS

Cheap DIY Tunnel Bag Solution

Some of you may have read one of my blogs about how tunnel bags are so unjustifiably expensive, if not you can read it here.  I feel this way because they are either a water resistant book bag, or some other form of bag that looks more like a thermal bag for your lunch than a snowmobile tunnel bag.  If you were to say it was for putting your lunch in, then there is no way they could charge $80- $150. Well PinNgiggle and I have come up with a cheap solution that I think you will like.  It requires some button snaps and a book bag of your choice.  We have put together a video tutorial of what we did, so that you can try it yourself.

The video I promised of the first ride

Ok, here is the video I put together of our first ride this year.  I didn't put any music to it, so maybe that cuts down on the entertainment factor a bit, but you understand.  It was filmed October 26, 2012.  Like I said in earlier posts, it never snows this early in the year.  As a matter of fact it is only one week later and the snow report says that there is down to 11" up there now.  So it went from 30" to 11" in a little over a week.  Too bad, but it was just a teaser storm anyways. 

I hope you enjoy the video, I didn't ad music yet.  I plan to later... (maybe :-)



Thanks for reading,
Please subscribe and share with your friends,
DPS

Dashware.net video editing software review

    Let me start off my saying that I believe DashWare is great software.  I have used it on a limited basis so far but it did exactly what I was looking for.  Let me describe the problem I had, and how I came across the solution.