I drove Donna to her hair appointment on the Spyder yesterday. After I dropped her off, I rode over to Total Wine at the Tempe Marketplace. Total Wine is a big beer, wine and liquor store. They have outdone BevMo in my opinion – bigger selection, great prices and they have tastings as well. I found Blue Ice potato vodka there – it’s become my favorite for a martini. I also stopped at Cost Plus World Market there to pick up some Old South Tomolives – one of my favorite martini garnishes along with bleu cheese stuffed olives.

I had time to kill so I rode over to Old Town Scottsdale. I was looking for a particular jewelry shop. About 10 years ago, I sold my Rolex Daytona watch there. I have another watch I want to sell, but I couldn’t find the shop.

After an hour and half, I went back to the hair salon to pick Donna up. I was too early but I didn’t get the text she sent – I was already heading to the shop when she sent it. I waited in the reception area for about half an hour, then we were on our way.

After dropping Donna off at home, my next stop was the Mesa Elks Lodge. I decided to apply for membership there instead of the Tempe lodge. We usually stay in Mesa, so it’s more convenient. The reason for joining the Elks is because many of their lodges have RV hook-ups and low rates for members, but you need to be a member to stay there. That will come in handy when we’re traveling and need a friendly place to stay for a night or two.

Donna bought a whole chicken at Sprouts market. I seasoned it with Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’Mine and cooked it on the Traeger. The Sweet Rub O’Mine has become a favorite rub for chicken – it comes out so good on the Traeger. Donna served it with steamed asparagus and baked acorn squash with butter and brown sugar.

Traeger roasted chicken with asparagus and acorn squash

Asparagus is cheap right now. Donna found it for $0.98/lb!

This morning, I had a project. I strapped a new 225/50R15 tire on the back of the Spyder and rode it over to Mike Hall’s house. We set up the Spyder in his shop and jacked up the rear with a floor jack. Removing the rear wheel involves a number of steps and we took more time to get it off than I anticipated. We loaded the wheel and new tire in the back of his Jeep and drove to Discount Tire. The guy there said he couldn’t mount a tire on a Spyder wheel – something about too much risk of cracking the wheel with his machine.

I think the real deal is they don’t want to a mount a passenger car tire on a vehicle classified as a motorcycle. If the Can Am Spyder leaned through turns like a motorcycle, I would agree that it should have motorcycle tires. But it doesn’t. The rear tire tracks through a turn just like the rear tire on a rear-wheel drive car. Plenty of Spyder owners have replaced the original equipment Kenda tire with higher performance car tires. On the Spyder forums, everyone claims better performance and longer tire life. I believe it. There’s nothing special about the Kenda tire supplied by BRP. It’s a cheap Chinese tire that flexes too much and wears out quickly – and it’s priced higher than a good passenger car tire.

Next we stopped at a small neighborhood tire shop. They were willing, but couldn’t fit the Spyder wheel on their machine. So, we went to Steve’s Cycle Shop. They broke down the old tire and installed the new tire while we waited. They charged me $21 – I think it was a fair deal.

By now I had taken so much of Mike’s time, I wanted to get the wheel back on the Spyder and let him get on with his day.

New Kumho Ecsta 225/50R15 on the Spyder

I didn’t take time to get photos of the rear wheel removal and installation. We only took about 20 minutes to get the wheel remounted. Thanks for the help and use of your shop, Mike!

The temperature is expected to hit 88 degrees today. The forecast calls for the high 80s into next week. Tomorrow I’ll go to the NHRA drag racing qualifying sessions at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park – formerly Firebird Raceway. My friend Pat is picking me up at 8am. Then we’ll pick up our friend Leendert Hartoog and the three of us will spend the day at the races. Donna is planning to spend the morning at Singh Farms with two of her girlfriends.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!