For the last few weeks is has rained more or less 24/7, at least it seams that way. If the sun did shine I was either at work from sun-up to sun-down or I had family obligations. That is until yesterday, I had a brief window of opportunity from 10am to 3:30pm. What follows is short snippet of my journey.
The rain had stopped, the Sun was shining and I had the day off from work and family affairs. I went for 150 mile lunch ride via a couple of creeks. Give me a few days and I will post a longer version with a few more highlights.
See you on the road.
GAW
Note: Sorry, YouTube just doesn't have a embedded size that fits my layout, so the video is best viewed on YouTube, the mgt
Showing posts with label motorcycles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motorcycles. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Short-cut...
My career path has led me to sit in a dark room, stare at a computer monitor and listen to a hypnotic droning sound, for 5 - 7 minutes at a time. When the noise stops I often find that I have been day dreaming. Recently those daydreams have been about past motorcycle adventures...
July 15th, 2001 I found myself in Maybell, CO eating a cheese burger for a late lunch with a critical decision to make. Take the short cut or take the long way? I was on my way to the BMW MOA rally in Redmond, OR, earlier that day I started from Fort Collins, CO and had passed through Rocky Mountain National Park. My goal for the day was Rock Springs, WY. The long way was very simple, continue west on U.S. 40 to Vernal, UT then north on U.S. 191 to Rock Springs, WY (It might have been a really nice ride, I may never know). The short cut would take me northwest on CO 318 to the very northeast corner of Utah and what looked to be about 20 miles of gravel road before hitting Wyoming and a few miles of paved road to U.S. 191. The short cut (see image above, then click on the title link to see what it really looks like.) would knock off 60+ miles, making Rock Springs only 143 miles away. Of course I took the short cut, but not why you think, it had been tickling my brain for weeks. Ever since I first laid eyes on the map and this lonely little road I knew I had to take the short cut. I left Maybell with a full tank and stomach. 318 was a fine road, I know because I don't remember one iota about it. There was a sign when the pavement ended, it said only 40 more miles to U.S. 191, halfway there. I immediately found myself on a washboard surface that literally blurred my vision and banged my teeth together (see below). No matter what speed I drove there was no relief. Occasionally the road
looked to smooth out, but when the tire would hit it I found myself in 3-4 inches of powder, not fun. It seemed like I had been riding in this stuff for hours. I soon saw another sign that said only 35 more miles to U.S. 191. I stopped to think about my SHORT CUT, There was just no way I could turn back at that point, it would have added several hundred miles to the day or left me with out a roof for the night. The key to the road was to ride it like I was on a dirt bike, so up on the pegs I went. I was able to cruise about 35-40 mph with out having my teeth fallout, I would find missing bolts and screws for days and weeks afterword's. I guess my brain had softened some and that is why I didn't stop and snap a photo of the next sign I saw. It read something like this: "Caution Narrow Winding Road Ahead. 14% Grade. Trucks should use tire chains." The road went from washboard gravel to a relative smooth crushed red rock, but the pot wholes were of historic proportions. The road was not much bigger than two tire tracks and the thought of meeting one of those trucks needing tire chains was a little unnerving
. The other side of the pass was of a much gentler grade down into a large valley. I did scare up a group of 15 -20 prong horn antelope, it was quite a sight to see them running at speed off to my right. It wasn't long before I came to beautiful paved road (I must have made it to Wyoming). When I reached U.S. 191 the sun was getting low in the sky. A few miles up the road the setting sun was putting on a show and forced me to stop for a few photos. After taking the photo above I realized all of the gear strapped to the pillion had worked loose on the gravel roads and was in danger of leaving me on the road ahead. By the time I finished repacking the sun had long since set. The last 40 or so miles into Rock Springs were surreal as I followed glowing white and yellow ribbons. If only I had had a video camera
.
I went on to have a great trip I saw Crater Lake national park, had a great rally and did a SS1000 on the way home. I actually rode 1900 miles in 38 hours including a 5hr motel room stay but only documented the first 1100 miles for the Iron Butt Association. But out of it all, the thing that comes to my daydreams is the short cut.
GAW
July 15th, 2001 I found myself in Maybell, CO eating a cheese burger for a late lunch with a critical decision to make. Take the short cut or take the long way? I was on my way to the BMW MOA rally in Redmond, OR, earlier that day I started from Fort Collins, CO and had passed through Rocky Mountain National Park. My goal for the day was Rock Springs, WY. The long way was very simple, continue west on U.S. 40 to Vernal, UT then north on U.S. 191 to Rock Springs, WY (It might have been a really nice ride, I may never know). The short cut would take me northwest on CO 318 to the very northeast corner of Utah and what looked to be about 20 miles of gravel road before hitting Wyoming and a few miles of paved road to U.S. 191. The short cut (see image above, then click on the title link to see what it really looks like.) would knock off 60+ miles, making Rock Springs only 143 miles away. Of course I took the short cut, but not why you think, it had been tickling my brain for weeks. Ever since I first laid eyes on the map and this lonely little road I knew I had to take the short cut. I left Maybell with a full tank and stomach. 318 was a fine road, I know because I don't remember one iota about it. There was a sign when the pavement ended, it said only 40 more miles to U.S. 191, halfway there. I immediately found myself on a washboard surface that literally blurred my vision and banged my teeth together (see below). No matter what speed I drove there was no relief. Occasionally the road
looked to smooth out, but when the tire would hit it I found myself in 3-4 inches of powder, not fun. It seemed like I had been riding in this stuff for hours. I soon saw another sign that said only 35 more miles to U.S. 191. I stopped to think about my SHORT CUT, There was just no way I could turn back at that point, it would have added several hundred miles to the day or left me with out a roof for the night. The key to the road was to ride it like I was on a dirt bike, so up on the pegs I went. I was able to cruise about 35-40 mph with out having my teeth fallout, I would find missing bolts and screws for days and weeks afterword's. I guess my brain had softened some and that is why I didn't stop and snap a photo of the next sign I saw. It read something like this: "Caution Narrow Winding Road Ahead. 14% Grade. Trucks should use tire chains." The road went from washboard gravel to a relative smooth crushed red rock, but the pot wholes were of historic proportions. The road was not much bigger than two tire tracks and the thought of meeting one of those trucks needing tire chains was a little unnerving
. The other side of the pass was of a much gentler grade down into a large valley. I did scare up a group of 15 -20 prong horn antelope, it was quite a sight to see them running at speed off to my right. It wasn't long before I came to beautiful paved road (I must have made it to Wyoming). When I reached U.S. 191 the sun was getting low in the sky. A few miles up the road the setting sun was putting on a show and forced me to stop for a few photos. After taking the photo above I realized all of the gear strapped to the pillion had worked loose on the gravel roads and was in danger of leaving me on the road ahead. By the time I finished repacking the sun had long since set. The last 40 or so miles into Rock Springs were surreal as I followed glowing white and yellow ribbons. If only I had had a video camera
.I went on to have a great trip I saw Crater Lake national park, had a great rally and did a SS1000 on the way home. I actually rode 1900 miles in 38 hours including a 5hr motel room stay but only documented the first 1100 miles for the Iron Butt Association. But out of it all, the thing that comes to my daydreams is the short cut.
GAW
Monday, March 16, 2009
Red Light Changer. 0 for 1...
Have you ever sat at a traffic light on your bike waiting for your turn, and it never comes? Well it happens to me every time I pull up to the traffic light leading into my neighborhood. My neighbor hood has only one road leading into it so I do have two ways of getting home, I can approach from the west and make a Right turn which is my normal method (I will often go several miles out of my way in order to do this), or I can approach from the east and take my chances that a car is already sitting in the left turn lane at the light. The Left turn light will only activate if it senses a vehicle in the turn lane. If I get there first and a car comes up behind me the light still will not change as the sensors are rather short. I have no doubt that at some point in the future that the local Law enforcement will be present when I do my red light run. So what's a lazy guy to do? I really don't want to spend the Time, Energy or Money to prove my case to the Law enforcement officer or the traffic court Judge.
This Lazy guy purchased the Red Light Changer for $20. It comes in a small plastic box with a colorful cardboard inner box, just like every other item from china. First thing you will notice if there is more than one box on display is that they are lightly stuck together. If you pry one apart and take a moment to read the labeling you will find it's not safe to handle if you have a pacemaker (you have been forewarned). When you get the plastic open you will find a small metal can, open the can and there is a instruction sheet and 2 alcohol prep-pads. Remove a piece of Styrofoam and there sits a small brown unassuming lump. It turns out that the lump is quite comfortable in it's can and doesn't really want to come out. The forty pounds of magnetic 
pull quickly grabs on to the side of the can when you try to remove it. The instruction state that you should not remove the magnet from its home until you are ready to install it, but I'm sure most everybody will want to play just a little. Do be careful as it is strong enough that it could negatively effect electronics, credit cards etc.The instructions tell you that the magnet should be installed on the bottom of the motorcycle, towards the front, facing down and stuck to a ferromagnetic part of the frame or cross brace. It should NOT be installed on or to close to the engine, exhaust or electronics. If the magnet is exposed to temperatures greater than 175 degrees it will start to loos
e it's magnetic strength. This is a problem for me as the bottom of my motorcycle is all engine and exhaust. The only bits of frame on my bike are on top of the engine where the electronic brain is, and no where near the road. I thought the center stand would be the best location. After closer inspection I have to find a different location as my center stand is surrounded by the exhaust when in the up position and it actually touches it slightly on the left side. In the end I placed it on the torque arm, it is ferromagnetic, not to close to the hot parts and somewhat close to the ground. Only time will tell if that was the correct location.Just so you know it doesn't Really change the light from red to green, instead it lets the traffic light know that you are there and that you would appreciate a green light in the near future. Unfortunately for me the magnet did not do it's job in the one and only occasion I have found myself at the traffic light.
0 for 1
Judgment is reserved pending more testing.
See you on the road.
GAW
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
To Scoot or not to Scoot? Part 1 the big boys.
One of the reasons I started this Blog/site was to chronicle my experience buying a scooter. As I stated in the one and only previous post I have been riding motorcycles for quite a few years, but in that time I have never really been a motorcycle commuter, that is until last year. I'll admit it, I'm lazy, and commuting by motorcycle takes a lot more work(ATGATT or all the gear all the time) than does dumping your stuff in the car and leaving. So with the skyrocketing price of gas last year I came up with a system to ride to work with out getting up much earlier than if I drove the car, and it worked pretty good. The only thing that was disappointing was that I never got better than 52mpg on the bike, and that was with the bike freshly tuned (air, fuel, oil filters, plugs, oil change, adn TB sync) with the average about 47-49mpg. This was still way better than the 30 mpg I could get in the car, but I had hoped to see mpg closer to 60.The Spark. At some point last summer I saw a Piaggio MP3 500 traveling down the road and I immediately thought that's the ticket, a Scooter! And so it started, probably my favorite hobby, Research. My situation is this; I have a 50 mile roundtrip commute, each leg starts and ends with stop and go traffic up to about 50mph. In the middle of each leg is the Interstate, in the morning 5 miles adn in the evening 10-12 miles. The speed limit on the Interstate is 60 mph but the traffic tends to run 70+ mph. So I figure I need a will cruise atleast 65 mph to survive the daily Interstate run.
The MP3 500 being what got me thinking I started with it, and it didn't take long to realize it was not a good canidate for me. Money Money Money. At almost 10k to ride off into the sunset, it would be difficult to justify. Even used ones are going for way more than I would be willing to spend.
So who else made a 500cc scooter, well Piaggio did, besides the MP3 they had the X9 500 (discontinued) and the BV 500. While both would do what I wanted, they left me uninspired. Again who makes a 500cc scooter? Yamaha has started to import the Tmax, but it is quite pricy, and it being new to the states it will be a while before any good used deals show up. Next is the Kymco Xciting 500Ri, and it looks like a winner, triple disk brakes (ABS opt), fuel injection, DOHC, 15" front / 14" rear tires and even a 12v outlet under the seat. The price is looking better also, around $7K out the door with ABS. I almost forgot it comes with a 2 year warranty. Could it be I found what I was looking for? Well it turns out no. All of the big boys those mentioned above and the Honda Silverwing and the Suzuki Burgman 650 get about the same milage as my motorcycle. Even the 400cc scooters such as the Piaggio MP3 400, Yamaha Majesty, and the Suzuki Burgman 400 only get milage in the mid 50's.
1/4 liter, is it enough? Stay tuned for the next post.
GAW
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