January 13, 2023 Icy early winter Torbay ATV rip. After yet another green Christmas, it's finally gotten cold over the last week and trail conditions certainly show it. Hopefully things continue and we get a decent winter!

With temperatures unfortunately back above freezing it was a great opportunity to get Project Foreman all cleaned up from the last couple rides. It's a lot nicer to store and work on when the bike is free of mud.

In mid January I decided it was finally time to replace the grips on my Head Demon heated grips kit originally installed 10 years ago.

These generation one grips work well but are not overly comfortable. Since purchasing these Heat Demon came out with revised grips that are much comfier and bolt on instead of glue on. I actually purchased the replacement updated grips a few years ago as I was having a lot of trouble with the gen 1 grips coming loose.

One set screw tightens each grip in place, and now they are removable/reusable if I have to replace other handlebar controls.

When I installed this kit, I put the connector inside the headlight pod. For this repair I snipped the wiring for the old grips then spliced/solder/heat shrunk connections to the new grips.

In April after a couple month riding break due to crazy snow conditions, I gave Project Foreman a once over in preparation for our next adventure to Central Newfoundland. Fluids were topped off, and all suspension parts & bearings were checked over when I found the rear brake sticking on.

I suspected that the rear brake handle cable was seized but the rear drum hasn't been apart in a few years so I disassembled it for inspection and maintenance.

I began siliconing the cover in place years ago, it seals much better than the OEM O-Ring and sure enough I found everything dry and corrosion free inside the brake housing. It does make it harder to take apart, but careful work with a slim pry tool and hammer will do the job without causing damage.

I polished the mating surfaces with a drill mounted wire wheel in preparation for reassembly later.

All the brake hardware was in great shape and not seized, however I completely disassembled, polished all moving parts, and reassembled with Permatex purple brake hardware lubricant for maximum durability.

A fresh bead of silver gasket maker, new grease on the axle splines & brake cover axle seal and this went back together easily. A new cable will be picked up and fished down through the bike after this weekend's trip to Central NL.

Project Foreman certainly got a work out this past weekend assisting French's Argo in hauling equipment and supplies into Terry's new backwoods camp. It was an awesome trip and the bike performed flawlessly making repeated trips on very tangly trails with a heavy load on and in tow!

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The trip out from camp was interesting as Spring Thaw is in full swing, this trip was no problem for Project Foreman.

In between trips to Terry's Cabin in Central NL, I picked up and installed a replacement rear brake cable as the old one seized over the winter. The replacement was a genuine Honda part.

It was pretty straight forward to fish it down from the handle bars, along the frame under the gas tank (made accessible by removing the gas tank plastics) then down to the rear axle. The new cable worked great, gave me a working park brake again, and brought Project Foreman back to 100% operation.

April 28, 2023 Back to Slaney's backwoods camp in Central NL. This time both French and I took bikes for the ride in as Slaney was in with his Argo taking care of heavy haul duties.

May 5, 2023 this time we arrived to Central NL cold dark skies. LED light bars and Hand Warmers were accessories highly appreciated on both our bikes this trip!

In June I headed out to Bay Roberts to Rescue Dad when he sunk his Side by Side.

Cheers, MIKE