Woo Hoo! A nice ride

What a weird winter, we had snow, then it got warm, then it got wicked cold and we got snow again, tonight its supposed to rain...
We had stuff to do today but I found a little time to sneak out and run the big Ski-Doo. Alan had told me about a new trail out to the Winchendon water tower. I'd ridden over to Randy's on Friday and then up to New Hampshire and back but didn't see the trail. Most of the way I was the first sled through which isn't so surprising on a weekday.

So today I found the little cut over. I didn't realize before but the railroad bed I'd been riding parallels a road that isn't plowed in the winter, the cut over trail is a goat road but its short so I had no problem muscling the big Ski-Doo through it. The summer road had been driven by a truck with is a pain in the ass because you bounce from rut to rut but again that part is pretty short. After that it was a short ride through a clear cut and then another good trail. I didn't go to the water tower because it was getting dark and I didn't want Angie to worry. I ran up to New Hampshire on that good trail (which I think is also a rail bed), turned around and headed home.

The speedometer has quit on the Ski-Doo, I think the drive had water in it from sitting, I'll need to pull it apart to be sure. So I don't know how far I went, I was gone for maybe half an hour so I'm gonna guess 5 or 6 miles, its only 3 miles to New Hampshire and back on the direct path and I don't think I did all that much more. So not a terribly significant ride but a good one none-the-less and it did a lot to restore my confidence in the big Ski-Doo which hadn't seen any miles at all in 2 years.

On another note when I ran over to Randy's the other day I found the big Ski-Doo very hard to turn. Turns out when we replaced the front suspension 3 years ago we forgot to put in grease fittings so the spindles were all dried out. I shot some PB blaster in there to drive out the ice, got a couple grease fittings at Randy's and pumped in some grease. Its better now but needs more grease, the steering is still pretty stiff. I also need to pull the throttle cable and lube it some more. This sled has always had a wicked heavy throttle which is weird because its a Ski-Doo 2 stage throttle which is supposed to be lighter. I was going to replace the cable last year but Chuck talked me out of it, he said the new manufacture cables are junk and I'd be better lubing my really good. I've found guys online saying you can soak the whole thing in a can of oil to lube it. I think I'll just hang it and run cable lube down into it until it runs out the bottom, then do it again for the bottom half.