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COG Wrench and Ride – Coon Valley
Ken McClurg hosted a group of us at his home and garage this weekend. John Sperger and I met in Portage early in the cool morning to ride together on county highways from Mauston to Coon Valley. The curvy, well-paved roads were entertaining as we passed greening fields coming alive and local Amish driving horse-drawn buggies.
John and I arrived around 1030am to find Cary and Phil already there. Phil had been riding in the area since Wednesday as he prepares himself for a longer multi-day trip through Canada this summer. Cary is working over two C-10’s into a suitable ride for himself so he was there on four wheels this time.
We enjoyed great weather in the 80’s during the day as we performed various tasks on our bikes. Phil had the most involved project to replace his kickstand with a shortened one. He had changed his C-10 to use 17” wheels so he looking to improve the leverage points with an altered kickstand. Ken brought out his MIG welder for Phil to use outside the garage. Some grinding was need as Phil ‘adjusted’ for his welding skills.
I appreciated Cary and Ken’s help to bleed my brakes and change clutch fluid on my own C-10. Ken’s bleeder hose came in handy as he built up the pressure for me to loosen the valve to release the fluid as needed. Most of the fluid came out clean since I had not ridden much earlier this season after getting the bike ready to ride in April. Cary told me how much he likes his speed bleeders he installed on his first C-10. Might be a winter project for me?
I also tweaked the variable resistor modification I made in the fuel sending cable. The apparatus was working but was reading too little resistance before going to ‘E’. I gave the pot another full turn to see how that would work on the ride home. I was most pleased when I got to my driveway and saw that my fuel gauge read on the line to Empty after 221 miles without having to use Reserve. That adjustment worked well!
Ken is a great host. He always checks in with attendees to see what work they’d like to get done that day on their bike. He likes the chance to work in his shop with the variety of work people bring in. He has a great bike lift he built into the floor of the garage too. We used it to get Phil’s bike into the air to install his modified centerstand.
Before we did that, Ken had laid on lunch for everyone. His table was set with Sloppy Joe, chips, potato salad, macaroni salad and baked beans. Everything was great tasting and plentiful.
Back outside afterward, we got Phil’s bike up on the lift. Phil and Ken and Cary were working on the centerstand installation. Phil already does a lot of work on his own collection of bikes. You can tell there was a lot of interest in this effort with all of the attention the bike was getting.
Guys were also sharing riding stores of place they have been and where they want to go this season. Buzz had been in the Carolinas I believe and he and Jerry were talking about Florida riding as well.
We had the pleasure of seeing Dave McClurg stop out as well. Dave is a known for leading rides of COGgers and non-COGgers, especially the 'Hunt for Red October' ride in the fall. Dave came out on his Triumph and used the visit to change spark plugs and talk bikes with all of us.
Later in the afternoon, most of us were planning to ride out instead of staying over. However, two latecomers, Joe and Dave from Rochester rode in to visit the group. Joe had bought his 2001 C-10 from his father and fixed it up nicely. Dave was on an H-D but he was made welcome no matter what anyone rides to such an event.
On a side note, earlier in the day, a cyclist was on the local Sparta-Elroy bike trail nearby and spotted our rogue’s gallery of C-10’s parked outside Ken’s garage. He stopped over to chat since he just sold his FJR. He straddled a few bikes and asked a lot of questions about them. Nice thing about having such an event at a COG AAD’s house is that Ken fixed him up with a couple of back issues Concourier’s and a membership form. How many times has your group gotten a walk-up visitor that turned into a full member? Maybe we shall see Tyler at another event as a member.
The end of the day came for me too soon. I had a four-hour ride back to Greenfield, and John needed to get back in three hours to Ripon. We rode back to Mauston via Highways 33, 131, 71, and 82 in reverse of our jaunty ride into Coon Valley. He needed gas there.
We then split up a bit farther east at I-39. I went south toward Madison with a detour into Portage for a fish sandwich at Culvers'. Weekend traffic was relatively good so I made it home in fine time. My wife thought I had a good adventure because of the smile on my face once I arrived home. She wasn’t wrong on that count.
Cast of Characters:
Jerry - Eau Claire
Buzz - Madison
Cary - Green Bay
John - Ripon
Matt - Greenfield
Phil - Hortonville
Dave- Viroqua
Joe and Dave - Rochester, MN
Tyler - Madison
Ken - Coon Valley
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Sounds like a good time was had by all.
