MT EVANS
I took a look on the internet for the weather this break, I call it that since I don't get weekends off. Sunday 70% chance of rain, Monday 30% chance, Tuesday 80% chance of rain. Well thats a no brainer go for a ride today or get wet. 30% chance of rain means that your going to get rained on but only for 30% of the day! I stood outside my shed and pondered which bike to take, the XR or the VFR? I wish I had taken the XR now since the VFR would get me a nice fat ticket going up Ute pass
Kootenay National Park Calagary Crew fall in behind me
It occurs to me I never posted the second half of my trip to Canada from 2008? Sheer tiredness prevented me from finishing it up last year, so many picture so many stories. Stories I can't remember anymore, but I still have the pictures, the wonderful ride pictures from that trip home. If you bear with me I will show you the best of the best pictures, and try to remember the good things that happened on the road.
It all was part of the Koo
First you begin by leaving the day before the Fourth of July weekend which in of itself is idiotic, then you forget to check the weather forecast (not that it mattered since It was raining everywhere) then you pick a place to camp that has the worst weather off all. Not a bad plan if your looking to make your riding adventure a joke. I did that and found I was scratching my head wondering "why in the world are all these RV's out and about" I had never seen so much traffic on hwy 50 going to Sali
This is my first real ride on the XR650r this season, having only ridden it to and from work a few times and once to the movies it has been languishing in the bike shed all winter. I had recently outfitted it with a Turbo City Sequoia Rack and some Tourmaster bags it was ready for some touring. I saw an opportunity to also attach a plate for my mini givi top bag and so I installed a plate last October. I had been having fits with it for the 3 years I have had her, always out of tune, broken subf
One year ago....one year and two months ago I picked up this sad looking VFR with the intention of doing something with it. What it would be I didn't know at the time but I had some spare cash to throw at it then. Somewhere along the way in this past year I sold the bike, got it back, went broke, got busy with work, busy with family, and certainly had to fit in several rides so this poor bike along with my front yard got neglected. Well, I finally took care of the yard and then got tired of l
I'm definitely not a father and I wanted to ride so I decided to celebrate Not A Father's Day. I had initially planned to do a three day run through the Ozarks but thanks to a knucklehead at the pharmacy I had to sort out some issues with my mom's scripts before I could leave. With Friday out I still figured two days would be good so off I went in search of a little curve therapy.
The temps were forcast to hit 91 for a high but I think that was a rather modest prediction. Passing bank sign
Time for another update! Granted, I haven't gotten much done since I last posted, or at least not a lot done on the bike. lol
When last we left, I was waiting for my buddy, and all around VFR guru, Tony to come by to help me with a valve check. I'm confident enough to do the valves, but have never dug into this generation VFR and I know Tony knows all the shortcuts. ...waiting for him proved to be well worth it.
Though I had remounted the forks to facilitate removing the rear, there was st
For those of you who saw my blog of going to pick up the '99 in West Orange, NJ you might recognize the old girl.
...she looks pretty good doesn't she?
Well, pictures lie my friends! ...they lie, and they'll break your heart if you let them! Not one to let a perfectly good bike die a horrible death, I felt it was my duty to rescue her from the clutches of the east coast, salt-air weather, and bring her back to life as she started, in sunny SoCal.
So, once I had her back here, it was ti
So when last I left you, I had just finished up the valves (with the help of my buddy Tony) and needed to get some additional wiring taken care or while waiting for my exhaust to get back from Jet-Hot. ...well, Father's Day weekend was as good a time as any to wrap up my project! :fing02:
It started Friday with a call from my girlfriend that I had "missed" a delivery from FedEx. "Crap! ...that's my exhaust!" After a couple calls to FedEx (the first being a very rude lady telling me I woul
Days 6 – 7
Where was I?
...oh yes, Spearfish, SD. After visiting the local brew house for a burger, fries and a much needed beer, I walked back to the hotel and began going over my route through Wyoming. There seemed to be no way around it, even if I stopped only briefly at Devil's Tower, I was still looking at a 12 hour day to get across that big-ass state! Lol
So I ditched my originally planned northern route to the tower, which would have been up 85 to 34 just before Belle Fourche, the
Days 4 – 5
Day 4 started off like any other, except that it was windy, and rainy, and the forecast was for severe thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes across the Midwestern region. ...oh joy!!!
Undaunted and equipped with my new FroggToggs rain suit:
frogg toggs® - Choose Product
…and a belly full of homemade biscuits & gravy, I hit the road around 10am (hey, I'm on vacation).
A short run up the Rock River towards Rockford found me on US 20 heading west. It was gloomy and had the oc
Days 1 - 3
I doubt everyone wants the gory details, but here's my (not so) brief account of my cross county adventure.
I should preface this report by stating that this whole thing came together in about 2 weeks time, and with much help from my awesome girlfriend, Karisha. On little more than a whim, I agreed to purchase my buddy Marc's VFR, and purchased a ticket to Newark airport, arriving Friday May 8th.
Of course, I threw my back out the Wednesday prior to leaving, and as of the day befo
After building my mini^3 amp, which I LOVE, I found I now needed a way to mount it. As I looked at my homebuild GPS/Camera mount, I discovered it would fit nicely in the space left between the mount and the support bar. I used some parts from my mad inventor kit (read pile of spare and odd parts) to make a dial I can twist to apply or release tension...a quick turn and the amp slides out to tuck away safely in my pocket or luggage. This also leaves the amp close to my Powerlet port or Tank Ba
Radar with his brand new VTEC Sun Honda in Thornton Colorado
Radar flew into Denver Monday Morning to pick up a Brand new wine colored VTEC he bought from Sun Honda in the Denver Area, he said coming here and buying his new bike saved him 3 Grand Canadian Dollars. He did the math and it was cheaper, much cheaper to guy in the USA. I PM'ed him and told him that I would make the trip up there to Denver to meet up with him and ride a bit the rest of the day. I rolled into the Dealership about 11
It all started like this... I PM Reddog..."any thoughs on a fathersday ride"? This ride is somthing that Bill and I have been doing for the past 4 years now and this year it was a bit of a Cluster *&&^ to get it going. He writes back that he has things to do and perhaps we can do it on such and such a date, and I write back "no how about such and such", and he writes back "nope cant do that". Then I write back "well what about this weekend?" and he says OK. The of course then I change it
After arriving in Nashville three days of over 500 miles each on the bike had played me out, worn out and sore, I couldnt even muster the energy to go for some Chow. Still stuffed from the pizza I ate 3 hours ago in Erin TN I just sat in Baileyrocks massaging chair. I told him I was having a strange vibration in the front tire when the speed hit 50 mph and so later that night we rolled my bike onto his bike lift and removed the front tire and spun it on a stand to see if it was out of balance. N
First real ride of the year. Every year I ride deeper into the winter and hibernate longer in the Spring. Gotta change that. Anyway, I was up and out of the house by 7AM. Not too bad since I was up late watching UFC despite already having seen all three fights. I had a nice route setup on my Garmin. Most of the roads were new to me that I had been eyeing on maps all winter. I was heading to the Delaware Water Gap National Park Area, then to High Point, and finally, I was going to work my way
For me the lure of riding often comes with months of anticipation, especially when it comes to TexasMac. I have made this trip twice before on my vfr, each time a slightly different route and each time an epic journey. I watched in earnest the weather reports along the Colorado Front range, one thing about Colorado the weather can get cold an nasty in an instant. I woke up at 4am, a habit I picked up working nights and well I just do, still dark out I walked my luggage up the stairs and into
A bit over a year ago, I decided that with ear plugs my in helmet speaks just weren't up to snuff...especially when i needed them most....that being in long boring rides at Freeway speeds (note that I didn't say ON FREEWAYS)....Anywho, I digress.
I started investigating my options. Naturally I could upgrade from my Elcheapo MP3 Player/FM Tuner....but then that would defeat the purpose of having an MPS player I don't particularily mind being dropped, dragged, stolen, stepped on, run over or oth
I had great aspirations for this weekend. Lots of time in the garage, time to catch up on all the mods and fixes and such that have been stacking up. The list I had compiled mid week was this:
Mow the jungle...errr...lawn
Finish catching up on VFRness and Speed Bleeder orders, since the Speed Bleeder bags had finally arrived
Remove forks and replace oil and seals and bushings....27K miles on the oil, and the left side is leaking pretty bad.
Install my Bike Bolts colored hardware,
Next up, we have the Scottoiler. This is the most commonly available oiler, the one that everyone else compares themselves to. It's the only oiler in my comparo, that is sold by multiple vendors here in the USA. I found it was available from a vendor I already know and think highly of, Adventure Motostuff in Carson City NV. Chad at Adventure Motostuff hooked me up when my V-Strom's chain went bad on a trip, a couple years ago. It's an awesome store, with things in stock that I would normall
In my last entry, I described the install of the Hawke Oiler. Next up is the Pro-Oiler.
The Pro-Oiler is made by a company in Belgium. But they delivered it to me in the USA without any trouble. The packaging was very good, with things in individual bubble wrap bags. There was a stack of instructions, about 50 sheets of paper. I was relieved to note they were stapled into three bundles, because I figured this would mean that two of them must be other languages and I could throw them out.
This Hawke Oiler has been sitting on my workbench for a couple of years. Last Saturday, I finally installed it on my 2003 Suzuki V-Strom, as part of a chain oiler comparison I have decided to do this summer.
Above is a picture of the contents of the kit, along with a few handwritten labels so that people looking at the picture can tell what the various items are, and a ruler to show the relative size of the items.
I don't think anything in this kit, was manufactured specifically for the Haw
