I had some scrap steel and time so I decided to try my hand at building a side stand support plate for my 2015 BMW F800 GS Adventure. The ones I have seen for sale are pretty simple. Usually just two or three pieces, one having a spot to center the plate on the side stand, either machined or welded in. I wasn’t sure how big it should be but I didn’t want it to get in the way while riding.
I started with some graph paper to sketch out the small plate on the stock side stand and added a the size of the plate. I was going to use 3 pieces. One for the bottom, one to fit around the bottom of the side stand and the third to act as a top clamp, holding it all together. The center piece had the opening cut to match the stand. The top one was just cut big enough to fit around the side stand at clear the welds of the stock plate. I didn’t want to have to take apart the side stand, so the top piece is notched. Below are three pictures of the finished product installed. I painted the top and bottom plates black, and the middle one red, to match the bike. The hardware is #10 stainless flat socket head screws and nyloc nuts.
It is a little heavy but hasn’t caused any problems yet. I have some 1/8 aluminum and may try and make another one.
The best part was not having to finish school that year. I was in Mrs Littlefield’s 2nd grade class. She was a great teacher and I had a good year, just cool some how, not having to finish the year and not have to make it up. Had to go back to get my book fair books though, they came in after the 18th.
I think we had attended 8 o’clock mass, would have been near the end of communion at 8:36. We were home and probably already had breakfast. My neighbor and best friend Lorence was over; he, David and I were playing outside, Sibel’s house was just a whole in the ground and a dirt pile, we were playing in the dirt pile. Then the clouds started rolling in, it made the lake look dark an sinister, so we went down to play by the lake, creature from the black lagoon if I remember correctly. At some point, Ella called and Lorence had to go home because the Mountain had erupted and they didn’t know what was going to be in the ash clouds. Stephen was at a boy scout camp, up past Yakima I think and Christopher was down the street at some friends. As the darkness set in, there was a sliver of light, 360 degrees around the horizon. We settled in to cleaning storage closets. We didn’t have cable and I think mom and dad just wanted to keep our minds of what was going on.
I remember not being able to drive anyplace. The Entz’s took the neighborhood into town in their boat. Little red wagons in hand, the mom’s walked to Butrey’s to pick through what ever the store had available. Christopher and Stephen “got” to help clear off the roof, there were fears of collapse after it started raining. Dad has pictures of the mud flows off the shop roof.
Christopher worked at Spedburg pool and had to go in over the next several days. The pool had been filled, and they would have had the boilers on getting the pool ready for the season. The ash had sunk all the blankets. Using scuba gear, they had to clean the bottom and recover the blankets.
To this day, if you dig down in the field, you can find the layer of ash that has settled.
After a brief explanation of our visit I signaled to mom, David and Farron it was ok for us to look around. When they came down I introduced them to Duane, the resident employee of the Cattle Ranch and a genuine, honest to goodness cowboy. You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer person up here in the mountains.
Picture by BrandonPicture by BrandonPicture by BrandonMom and Anita – 1950’s
We were so excited. Duane invited us inside the cabin for a look around. He explained to us that he was trying to bring the cabin back as close to original as possible. He added a few modern conveniences like caulk between the logs on the inside and some insulation to fill the gaps in the roof. He also showed us where he had found some names written and scratched on the walls.
Picture by Mom
We told him about the copy of Grandma’s old map. He sounded very interested. We looked over it together and he told us about some of the areas he ranged the cattle. He also told us about an old sheep pen with loading stocks. We decided we would try and find it if we had time.
Too quickly it was getting dark. We mentioned we had better get going if we hoped to make it to a camping spot or the campground that was another 20 miles down the road. Duane offered for us to camp right there at sheep camp. He irrigates out of the spring so there were a few nice semi green spots. We quickly accepted. He had to get up early the next morning to meet the rest of the crew and would stop by if we were still around in the afternoon. We headed over toward the new building to find a good place to set up the tent and all our other camping accessories. We decided to camp further away from the cabin so we would not disturb Duane.
Picture by Mom
Once again we were pushing darkness to get the camp setup. While David and I set up tents mom and Farron explored around the area a little and started getting the dinner together. We still had firewood left over from Farewell Bend so we decided to finish of the hot dogs and have a few marshmallows. As the moon rose in the east, we finished the out house then settled down to a nice evening around the camp fire.
Thenand Now
Everyone pitched in for a hearty breakfast of Pancakes and bacon. Coffee by David, pancakes by Brandon and mom cleans up. After Breakfast we all took a walk around looking at the old buildings, the spring and the horse corrals. Duane has several horses with him here at the camp. He said that he uses them all for different jobs as well as trains young horses from time to time.
Picture by David
After a morning of exploring around camp we decided to have lunch before heading up to the sheep pen and Boni Table. Just a short drive from camp we found the road Duane had told us to take. It is hard to miss with it’s crooked fence post.
From here on it was four-wheel-drive. The trail was rough with native surface and washouts. Not only were we looking for the old sheep pen but another trail that would take us up on top of Boni Table. Duane wasn’t sure if we would be able to make it up but we figured we would give it a try.
Picture by BrandonPicture by David
After returning from our four hour drive we were ready for dinner. We invited Duane to join us but he had already eaten supper and had another early morning. He gave us some information about Jordan Valley and offered to let us stay at his place in town if we didn’t find a camp site.
After dinner we finished off our firewood and enjoyed the last of the marshmallows under another full moon
