I spent all of today and yesterday wrenching on Yoshiko. She now has new tires, a new chain, new spark plugs. Her timing, points, cam chain, valve tappets and brakes are freshly adjusted. She’s got new stock-sized jets so she can handle all that high-pressure sea-level air. I loaded her up this evening to see how packing would work, especially since I never found a luggage rack that worked:

I feel a bit like I’ve been run over by a truck since I’ve been crawling around on the concrete. But it feels good, and I’m confident that I’ve done everything I can do to make this trip go smoothly. Short of taking a 737, anyway.

I took a short test-ride, and everything felt great, especially the new tires and chain. It’s a lot more stable at speed now–not that I thought it felt bad, but there’s a noticeable improvement now that I didn’t know was needed or possible.

I’m cooking German food for Neal tomorrow evening, and I’m thinking I’ll leave Sunday, but probably not early. I wanted to spend the day with Jonah, but the extra day on the road is probably good insurance.