Bike repairs and laundry day.

July 12^th, 2026

Fairbanks, Alaska

Woke today at 8am, and immediately went back to sleep.  I was just not feeling it.

Woke later around 10am and decided I had better get up as I did have things to do today.

Showered and took care of the morning stuff, and then put on the riding pants and the new shirt I had bought the other day.

Grabbed the chain guard, tools, and new bolts and went outside to fix this issue.

I first made sure the bolts would go into the holes, but the back bolt (the one that fell out) would not thread.

Guessed it was full of grime, so used a bit of steel wool from my tool kit and clean out the threads, and now it works.

Got both in and was about to tighten them when I realized I had forgotten the Loctite!

Pulled them out and then applied Loctite to the first one and had it mostly in when I noticed another issue.

The hex head of the bolt was barely larger than the hole in the guard, so as I tightened it, it would just push into the hole a bit and after enough vibration would likely just let the guard fall off.  The head of the old bolt was twice as large.

I dug out the spare bolt kit I had brought and found two washers that were the right size for the bolt, and much larger diameter.

I had already pulled the bolt back out, so pulled off the rubber O-rings and put on the washers, then replaced the rings, and then applied Loctite to each as I installed them.

Made sure it was all aligned correctly and tightened the bolts really good using the socket.  So much easier than the Philips screwdriver the old bolt used.

I then oiled the chain as it was dried out from time, dust, and the washing yesterday.

Next, I pulled the shock socks off to inspect the fork seals, they looked good, but decided to clean them one more time.

Pulled up the dust caps and ran the cleaner around the seal, got a small bit of grime on one side, but other was still clean.

Put it all back, and decided to leave the socks off until we reach a good dusty road or some bad weather.  I had read you should not run them all the time, only when conditions required.

Put the chain adjustment guide on and the chain is just slightly loose, but not enough I am going to mess with it today, will see how bad it is after the next big dirt road we will start later this week.

Put everything away, and went inside the room to store it and clean up.

Next was laundry.

Gathered up all the dirty stuff I wanted to wash, only things I would not get clean was the socks and underwear I had on, will sink wash them later today and hope they dry in time.

I wore just my light shoes, no reason to take the boots for the short trip. (I wanted to let them dry a bit, had cleaned them earlier with the brush and it was still wet from its own cleaning, so boots were bit wet on outside).

Loaded up the bike and then grabbed helmet and gloves and riding jacket and left the hotel.

We went back to the same laundry place across town.  Its really expensive, but very nice place with lots of nice decent machines. (unlike the run-down dump on the side of town closer to me I had tried last time I stayed here).

I arrived at the place and took everything inside.

I still had my card from last time with the 20 cents still on it, so figured I would buy just enough to use that 20 cents and zero out the card.

Found the smallest machines and checked the price for a wash ($8).  Would need to do this twice.  One time for all the clothes, then I would change into my normal pants so I could wash the riding gear at that time.

Dryers were $6 still for the middle sized units.  They only have 2 smaller dryers, so of course they were always full since they were only $4. 

I then checked and laundry soap (stuff I brought was gone) was $2.50 a piece, and would need 2 of them.

Added it up and went over to add the money to my card.

Well, guess what, they do not let you add less than $1 increments.  Nice little profit setup they have for people not familiar with the process.  Many of the wash cycles are not whole dollar amounts, so even locals will eventually have left over funds on the card that cannot be used.  While they might use them in time, for all the people like myself (probably half the customer base), many will leave with something less than a dollar on the card.  After a bit of time, I guess those amounts will get forfeited if you never use them.

So, I will lose that 20 cents.

I went over and bought the soap, or so I thought, when I got to machine, I realized it was just stain remover!  Oh well, not going to spend more money, so just used it, should still clean some.

Ran the first wash cycle, and then noticed my balance seemed off.  Ran the numbers and realized I had added $2 more than I needed.  Now I am going to lose that too??

I checked the vending machines and they had cans of soda for $2, so just bought one of them.  Did not really need it, but at least got something for my money, and that price is actually not bad for this area, many charge even more.

I then bought the 2^nd soap, making sure it was correct stuff this time.

Once load was done, I put them in dryer and ran that cycle.

Wash and dryer cycles run about 25 minutes each.

When dryer was done, I pulled out the clothes, sorted and folded everything. 

First thing I noticed was my winter gloves did not dry well.  The inserts of course were all messed up, so going to have fun getting the fingers lined up again.  One of the gloves had the small tab on end of drawstring pop off, though I found both pieces and it was not broken, so was able to put it back, mostly, still not like the other glove.

That glove was still soaking wet inside.  Somehow it had run the entire dryer cycle without drying at all.

I put it aside so I could go change.  Took the pants into the restroom and got out of the riding pants.

Put the riding gear into washer and started it.

Then worked on the glove.

First, I pulled then liners inside out and out of the glove, that way they would dry better than all crumpled up.

For the soaking wet one, I wrung it out over the trash, then grabbed several paper towels and pressed the glove between those layers.  Then set them on edge of table to let dry.

Once washer was done, I pulled out the gear and checked it over.  The pants are still stained pretty bad; this road grime is brutal up here.

Gear cannot be run in dryer, so will have to let them air dry in the hotel, so the fun part will be getting the wet gear back.

I cannot wear it since still very damp, and cool enough outside already.

I will take a back road home to avoid the higher speeds since I will not have any gear but the helmet and gloves on.

I was able to arrange the bag straps in such a way to hold jacket and pants on the back of the bike (rest of stuff goes in the panniers).

Rode back to hotel without issue and hung the gear up in the closet area.

Put the rest of the clothes away where they get stored except the stuff I needed for tomorrow.  I did change into clean underwear, will just use them in the morning.  They joy of long-distance bike travel, cannot be too picky about how clean things are.

Took the other pair and the socks I had on into the bathroom and washed them in the sink and hung them over shower rod to hopefully dry overnight.  Will see if that happens.

Took the wet gloves and put them in the window on the narrow sill and hopefully the sun which will shine in that window for next several hours will help dry them.

I then washed the helmet off as it was still dirty and put a few things on chargers to get them back up to full.

I then rode over to Taco Bell to have a late lunch/early dinner.  Ordered a larger meal than normal to account for it being the only meal I will have today.

Stopped next door at the grocer to pick up a candy bar for a snack later and some more tea to drink tonight.

Back at the room I secured and covered the bike and sat down to work on the computer.

The first task was to get my financials done. 

I balance my accounts, verify all the credit card charges are accurate, make sure hotel security deposits are returned (more on this later), and update my tracking for cashflow and spending. 

Tonight I found that the hotel in Soldotna I left on the 3^rd still had not returned the $200 deposit they took.  Called them up and the lady checked and found that no, they had not processed that return yet.  She promised me she would notify the manager right away and notate it in the books.  She saw the note it was to be returned as no damage was found, but for some reason it was never processed.  Hopefully the manager will take care of it in the morning.

I matched up my receipts and emails to the credit card history online and it all matched up.

Then updated the cashflow and spending records.

Next, I updated the daily spending on Food, Fuel and Lodging I am creating, and another master list with all spending on it.  This record should allow me to show a final cost for the trip and break it out into several categories.

I then paid off the credit card.  (Low limit card, so I need to keep it paid to keep using it.)

Then I was able to toss all the receipts and make my wallet much thinner!

Then we worked on a few images I needed, and uploaded all 4 blog entries that I wrote while out of internet range.

Now just need to finish this one and post it.

Rest of the night I will work on getting video footage converted.  Always need to go through the 360 footage and pick the framing I want to use and export that so it can be edited into the final work.

Tomorrow I will be back on the road, already made my hotel reservation for my destination.  I was thinking of camping (10 times cheaper), but next week may be nothing but camping, so figured one more hotel night would be helpful to finish any charging, online work, and get a good sleep and shower before I end up in campground that may not allow any of that.

Catch ya down the road.