Guido's Motorcycle Blog

It's Raining Cats & Dogs ...

2012-03-27T20:53:00.002-07:00

... for quite a while now. Yeah, I know we need the water, we need the rain. But damn it, it's raining most of the time since I got the new bike. Getting really frustrated here.

At least I received a few goodies which I will install when I find a bit more time when it's not as cold in the garage as it is right now. Got a rear hugger (piece of sh..), front fender extender (not yet checked), Triumph gel seat (nice, but only tested around the block so far), rear paddock stand bobbins, Triumph radiator guard. Also still have to mount the heated grips and this seems to be a longer task, quite a few bits and pieces to be done for this.

Still on order: Tiger XC handle bar risers (+30mm), R&G bar end weights. The bars vibrate quite a bit at the moment but I guess that will settle down once the engine is properly adjusted. Will have to see when I find time to do this.

Other than that, the top case mounting plate from AltRider didn't fit, I've sent it back to AltRider, awaiting their re-designed one. Not sure when this will show up, but hopefully soon, so that I can use my top case again. I plan on getting a smaller top case, too, don't want to ride around with the large Givi V46 all the time when I mostly only need one third of the space.

Reviews for all those items coming, but I plain didn't have enough time even riding the bike plain as is - still only have 300 miles on it. Just too rainy at the moment.

Not Enough Photos ...

2012-03-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

Tiger 800 on Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA

Touratech Pricing Again

2012-03-19T21:35:00.001-07:00

By chance I stumbled over absolutely insane Touratech USA pricing again. Somehow they must be completely nuts. It's unbelievable.

For a Kahedo tankbag:

Touratech Germany (before tax): $198 (USD after conversion from EUR)
Touratech USA (before tax): $372.30 (USD)

This is ridiculous. I can only recommend to never ever buy anything from these guys. I will certainly not buy anything there again. It's plain too crazy.

The price in Germany is high, but it's not completely out of this world. The US pricing is a joke. And a bad one, too.

Private Blog Moved Here, Too

2012-03-17T11:25:00.001-07:00

After realizing that the last entry on our private blog was from about a year ago (vacation on Maui), I decided to just point www.event-s.net to here, too.

Makes no sense keeping a Mac Mini running at home all the time and having it just idle around for nothing. We'll likely replace it with a 3rd generation AppleTV sooner or later and keep it around as the "desktop" computer. Seems that the hard drive is also making trouble, the poor guy takes forever to boot and do anything with disk IO.

Therefore - don't be surprised when you get redirected here.

Tiger Farkeling

2012-03-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

I ordered quite a few things for my Tiger already and some of them arrived. So far I have been seriously underwhelmed.

For now, I'm not going to name the products I am disappointed in to give the manufacturers a fair chance to respond first, but to be clear: so far only the Triumph OEM accessories have fit properly. I have bought a few aftermarket parts and so far was not able to make one of them fit. And I don't mean "fit properly" I mean "fit at all".

To give the manufacturers and retailers a chance to respond I have written emails to all of them and will see what comes back there.

So far - very happy with the Tiger and the Triumph parts, very unhappy with all aftermarket parts I have bought.

Domain Switch Done

2012-03-07T11:27:00.002-08:00

This morning I switched over to the new sub domain. The best thing: it should all "just work". Even links into posts should continue to work.

Let me know if something broke for you.

Attention: Domain Will Change

2012-03-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

You, yes, you - if you link to this blog, be aware that the domain in the next few days, so links will likely be broken for a while.

What I will do:

use blog.event-s.net as the domain for this blog
redirect r1200gs.event-s.net to blog.event-s.net (to at least bring links to the right place, if not the right page)
redirect www.event-s.net, too

As you can see, it'll be more generic, I'll redirect existing domains here. Part of the effort is so that I can turn off that Mac Mini that hosts www.event-s.net currently and to have a more generic entry point.

Downsizing

2012-03-04T22:23:00.001-08:00

Maybe I shouldn't have done that test ride ...

2012 Triumph Tiger 800

In short, this is the most exciting motorcycle I ever had. It's incredibly easy to ride, an engine that is the best I have ever experienced in a bike, easy handling, unique sound.

Yesterday we rode up to Concord, CA, to trade in my R1200GS for this black 2012 Tiger. We rode back on small B roads along Mt. Diablo and through Morgan Territory - a nice ride and perfect for breaking in a new engine. And what an engine that is ... you could put in 4th or 5th gear and ride it all the way home if you really wanted to. Insane.

More to come ...

May have to change the blog address ...

2012-03-03T19:08:00.003-08:00

Black Tiger - Yes, They Exist

Tiger 800

2012-02-26T18:37:00.001-08:00

While looking for a more light weight bike, I wanted to compare four different bikes:

Ducati Multistrada 1200
KTM SMT 990
Triumph Tiger 800
Triumph Tiger 1050

To evaluate these bikes I headed North to Concorde to ACE Motorsports as this is a combined dealer for Ducati, KTM, and Triumph.

They didn't have an SMT on the floor, but as I knew this would be the least interesting for me, it wasn't a deal breaker.

Heading up on my BMW reminded me again what a wonderful touring bike the GS is - as long as it isn't windy. The buffeting from the windshield was again hitting me as soon as there was a slight side wind and I had a headache when I came home after two hours straight highway riding. It isn't too bad, and normally I can deal with it, especially as my normal touring consists of roads that are closer to 60km/h (40 mph) max than to the 105mk/h (65mph) I rode most of the time yesterday.

Nevertheless, the GS is just an effortless tourer, power en masse, comfortable riding position, nice big presence in traffic, good wind protection, noise not too bad.

At the dealer I was greeted right away by the sight of the three bikes I wanted to sit on again. The Multistrada was really just out of curiosity as I have ridden one and decided back then that this isn't the bike for me. It might shorten my life too drastically with it's super bike like power, 150HP in touring and sport mode, the hooligan inducing handling and so on. It's also right around 20k, so quite expensive.

The Tigers were right there, one next to the other, they had the 1050 in my favorite color, diablo red and I really, really like the looks. On the floor was also a custom painted matte black Tiger 800 which I really liked, and they had a white 800 Tiger Roadie for test rides.

After going back and forth between the Tigers and the Ducati a few things are clear:

The seating position for me on the Ducati is the best.
Tiger 1050 (2012 model with slightly lower handle bars) and Tiger 800 are about the same. They are close to perfect, a set of handle bar risers would make them perfect.
All three feel lighter when handling them while off the bike than my GS. This isn't all too surprising as the heaviest, the Tiger 1050, is still lighter than my GS and considerably smaller.
The Ducati and the Tiger 800 felt the lightest, with the Ducati having a slight edge due its perfect ergonomics for me.
The 800 feels quite a bit lighter than the 1050, which is probably because it is lower, has a narrower seat, is about 30kg lighter than the 1050 as it was on the floor.
The 800 doesn't look or feel smaller than the 1050. It just feels lighter.
When sitting on the 800 the tank seems to go on forever, but when riding it, it's not noticeable for me.

I took the 800 out for a spin and was reminded again how much I like that engine when I test rode it last year. It's insanely smooth and also quite torquey for such a "small" engine. I accidentally pulled away from a stop light in second gear and only noticed when glancing down after the first upshift, seeing that I was in third by now. Ooops. Didn't even notice. Speaks for an easy to control clutch and for a strong, smooth engine.

Riding it around, two things became immediately apparent: the steering stops kick in really early, the bike has a turning radius that feels like twice that of my GS. Not a huge problem but would definitely take some getting used to. The next thing was that insanely smooth engine. Pulling away from the dealer, it was such a weird feeling - no vibrations, an easy spinning engine, that typical Triumph Triple noise, I loved it as much as on my first test ride.

The bike I rode was a white 800 Roadie, I like it quite a bit, but still think that the black one looks slightly better, what do you guys think (click for larger images)?

Black Tiger 800

White Tiger 800

It's certainly a very nice bike and would fit the downsizing idea I was rolling around lately. But there is that red Tiger 1050 spooking around, too:

Red Tiger 1050

A really beautiful bike. Especially in person. Here it looks a bit darker than in reality, but it's a good looking red and I always liked the looks of the Tiger 1050. This one doesn't fit the downsizing as well the 800s, but it still feels lighter than my GS, though it's a fairly old model by now, probably in its last model year.

So, any decisions? No, not really. Just that the downsizing idea isn't a bad one - when I rode the 800 it felt about half a ton lighter than my GS and that was an interesting experience again. It doesn't have the power of my 1200 and is also not even close to the rush of the 1050 engine when pushed, but it revs very linearly, has enough power for everything and just feels so light and easy - possibly also because the engine, even when pushed hard, is so silky smooth. It has less vibrations than the 1050, shifts much nicer than either the big Tiger or my GS, which of course isn't even close to the smoothness of either Triumph.

Certainly interesting bikes and gives me something to think about.

Bye, Bye WR

2012-02-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

It's done. The WR is sold. It was picked up last week. It was a short, but very intense relationship.

Somehow I feel bad about this. I loved the bike. I loved riding it with the street setup. Didn't like the dirt setup all too much, though. Shouldn't have done that. Should have just kept it in street attire and have fun with it in the mountains here. Damn it.

Somehow it doesn't feel right anymore. After riding the WR, the GS feels just too big and heavy to really have fun with it. It's awesome for longer distances, even longer day trips. But riding in the Santa Cruz Mountains - the WR was way more fun. Argl.

It's what it is. I got a car in December, it was a sane move to sell one of my bikes, but somehow it doesn't feel right anymore. Don't know what to do.

So, currently my feelings are it was no mistake selling this bike:

Dirt Setup

But somehow it feels like it was a mistake selling this bike:

Street Setup

What will my motorcycle future hold? I don't know. I might keep the GS - it's an awesome bike. I might get totally frustrated and want something lighter. I really don't know. I'll find out over the next few months.

Get out ...

2012-01-26T08:57:00.000-08:00

Saw this on advrider.com and just have to share:

CHANCE ENCOUNTER from Josh Manning on Vimeo.

It reminds me of myself. Lots and lots of work, but I sooooo enjoy being on the bike, just having a great day somewhere in the area. Love the movie!

Gear - What Worked and What Didn't

2012-01-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

After my trip over Thanksgiving in 2011 I have a few updates on the things I bought for myself and the bike and what I think of them. This shouldn't be seen as a review of any kind, just my opinion on some things.

1. Hydration

From last years experience and from some other rides I did in the past, I knew I had to do something against the de-hydration problem I sometimes faced. I'm not someone who stops often for photos or for smoking (I don't smoke) and normally I see to it that my bikes have a decent fuel range. Which means, that I don't stop often enough to drink, too.

So, this time I thought I could do better by getting this:

CamelBak M.U.L.E

And guess what? It worked! It's one of the best additions I have ever made to my motorcycle gear. I will not go on longer trips without some kind of hydration system anymore and the CamelBak is one of the easiest overall and works fantastic!

Get one, you will see what I mean on your next long trip!

Summary: Works excellent!

2. Staying Warm

As my WR doesn't have heated grips and I know California weather (on my trip to Cal City I had everything from 0ºC to 24ºC - btw: If you read this on Windows, can you leave a comment on how it displays the degree symbol?) and I was not going to nearly freeze my fingers off again as I did the year before. I also planned on not getting as cold overall - and that without a fairing and basically the same clothes.

So, what did I add? First and foremost, proper gloves:

BMW Winter Gloves

These are BMW winter riding gloves and they are seriously warm! They are very comfortable but in order to keep a little warm air around your fingers you have to buy them fairly big and loose and you loose quite a bit of feel on the controls. Not a big as I didn't plan on any technical riding with them, just be aware. I was very happy that I had these and would not leave on a trip without them anymore if there is any chance of getting into some colder weather.

Summary: They work! [Side note: Next time I'll try heated gloves ...]

The other problem I had last year was that my riding gear is not really warm. The BMW Rallye II Jacket I have is not really windproof without the liner and even with the liner it seems the wind goes really through and through. Definitely not recommended for cold weather without other additions. I tried the inner liner last time, didn't work, this time I tried something different - an Aprilia rain jacket for $16 that I got when I bought the gloves mentioned above (Btw: I have to give some credit to the awesome folks at San Jose BMW here. They make great deals, are excellent to deal with and always have good ideas how to solve specific problems.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the rain jacket handy, will post one when I have it. Just think about a very thin rain jacket that fits in a bag the size of a 0.6L Sigg bottle. It could pack even smaller, but it has one more goodie: the front has chaps sewn in that are in a hidden pouch in the front, so if you only brought this thing and it starts raining, you can protect the front of your legs, too. Doesn't work too well at speed though as it starts flapping in the wind pretty badly. But together with my rain pants, this kept me fairly warm, though still not warm enough in weather around 5ºC at night riding at 65mph. Have to look into other things for the next November trip.

Summary for the rain jacket: it worked. Really good bang for the buck.

For boots and pants I'm still using the stuff I had used before. It works.

Fuel Range

I installed a Safari gas tank and have to say that it works just as advertised. It was easy to install and looks decent:

WR250X with Dirt Wheels and Safari Tank

The tank gave me a fuel range between 180 and 220 miles on my trip, depending on how hard I pushed the WR. I have seen up to 70mpg on backroad riding trips here, so the 3.7 gallon tank could be squeezed to about 250 miles or so. I would not buy it again but just extend the range by taking a Rotopax 1 gallon pack with me. Not as easy, but good enough for what I need I think. I definitely prefer bikes with at least 200 miles (320km) range though. My GS has this and I know that this is a range I can generally live with.

Summary: Works excellent, but is kind of pricy. Might not be as necessary as one might think.

Dirt Tires

I got the Dunlop D606 and have to say, they work in the dirt. But the front is absolutely terrible on the street. The traction in corners is scary, and braking is something you better avoid ... just don't get into a situation where you have to slam on the brakes, the knobbies plain won't hold you.

Summary: Worked excellent in the dirt, front not so much on the road, rear is probably fine

Luggage

I thought long and hard about what I wanted from luggage and how to achieve this. I ended up buying Wolfman racks and their Expedition series side bags.

On a dirt bike, I definitely wanted soft luggage and I also wanted something I can put on and take off easily. I should have gotten something else. The bags are okay sized for what they are (dirt bike luggage), the racks are nicely done and very solid, but the mounting is just really, really bad. It's fickly like nothing I have used before. There are about a gazillion straps you have first loosen, then get all in the right position and then tighten them up again.

The end result is actually fairly nice, but I don't like using them. It took me about 20 minutes each morning to get the already packed bags on the bike. That's about 15 minutes too long.

Wolfman Expedition Luggage

I bet they are watertight though and will work if you can put up with all the strapping and pulling and hassling, and so on. Just not for me. Next time I'll try either just my two Ortlieb bags (had one with me this time) or test out the Giant Loop Great Basin bag. Just throw it over, pull three straps, done. At least in theory. But as this is about seven (yes, 7) straps less than the Wolfman gear, I'm willing to give it a try.

Wolfman Summary: Didn't work for me. Will sell with the bike.

The Pelican case I mounted on the back was damn handy. I put a small padlock on and put everything that I wanted to be halfway safe in there. This worked out great, but it had one major downside: it pushed the pack roll I had for the camping gear too far forward and therefore I didn't have enough room to move anymore.

Next time I go on a trip with a setup like this (if ever), I'll take the case off and move the bag further back, have one easily detachable bag that I can carry into a restaurant with my valuables.

It works awesome on local rides though.

Pelican Summary: Great idea, unfortunately big downside on a bike that small

Protection

Only item I really used where the Zeta handguards and they were excellent. Protected the levers in my get-off very well. I bet I would have broken the clutch lever and then I would have been in some trouble in the middle of nowhere. Something I'd do to any bike that will see unpaved roads is adding metal backed hand protectors.

Summary: Excellent stuff, get some if you might drop your bike.

Camping

As a sleeping pad I used my trusty Therm-A-Rest mattress - I have an older one that packs quite large and is still only 3.5cm thick (roughly 1.5"). It's a bit thin, but when inflated properly just comfy enough to be okay for me.

If I have to replace it one day, I'll probably go the comfort route and get something like an Exped Downmat 7 or so. I'm getting older and like my creature comforts. And camping is fun overall as long as you sleep well.

Shortly before my trip I also got a new sleeping bag as my 15 year old one was wearing kind of thin and would definitely not be warm enough for desert nights (temperature just around freezing). I got a Marmot Helium down bag and believe it or not - it was exactly the right thing. I could use it in the motels opened all the way as a comforter and in the tent, completely crawl in and it was nice and toasty warm. Only bad thing: you have to get out of it for ... oh, wait, yeah, no restrooms either. You get the point though, I guess ...

For the tent I used our MSR Hubba Hubba and despite the ridiculous name it worked as expected. It's not the best tent for colder weather as the ventilation is just a little bit too good, but I knew that beforehand and can't complain. It worked, was very small and light (~ 2kg packed) and performed flawlessly. I wouldn't want to use it in strong wind though as it doesn't have enough tie down points (at least our older version doesn't) and guy lines. It's a nice weather tent and for that it's perfect.

MSR Hubba Hubba Tent

For some trail side cooking I used my good old MSR Dragonfly, a good gasoline based stove and I'm very happy with it. If I had to buy a new one, I'd get the XGK instead, but that's only for easier and more robust packing.

MSR Dragonfly Stove

Summary Camping Gear: Worked great.

There is definitely more and once I can think of it, I'll put it in more postings ...

WR250X – Trip to Southern California

2012-01-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

I know I have not posted enough in the last two months. Not nearly enough. It was a rough time with lots and lots of work.

Fortunately I also did have some time off and there are a few things to write about.

You might have seen my earlier posts about me preparing the WR for a longer trip. Making it dirt and travel worthy.

Here is the final result:

WR250X in Dirt Travel Outfit

The picture shows what I added to the bike:

Dirt wheels and tires
Skidplate
Handguards
3.7 gallon Safari tank
Wolfman racks and bags
Pelican rear case

There were some small things here and there but that's about it. The bike was ready to go to the California deserts. Unfortunately, the bike was but I wasn't - but that will come later.

My plan was to leave on the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov 19th) or so and head South. I wanted to go over Highway 1 along the coast and take some backroads here and there. So far the plan only worked out that I took Highway 1, but I was four days late, started on Tuesday, the 22nd.

Here are some impressions from along the trip, I didn't take many photos though, it was just too cumbersome to get off the bike, fish out the camera and take photos - I'm more a riding not a picture taking guy:

Coast Ridge Trail

Also Coast Ridge Trail

It took much longer than I thought over the partly fairly bumpy trail. It was mostly hard packed dirt, but in places it was wet, muddy, slippery, and sometimes very steep - which doesn't go so well with wet rocks.

Overall it wasn't a hard to ride trail though. I could have taken the GS there if it didn't have pure road tires on. And I could have taken a lighter bike with pure road tires there, too. Nevertheless, the 30 or 40 miles of dirt trail took me forever and it got dark on the way back down to Highway 1:

Los Burros Road - on the way down to Highway 1

I saw a fantastic sunset, likely on one of the nicest spots to actually see it. Overall it was a good start into the trip. The dirt riding there was fun and fairly easy on this incredibly easy to ride and capable bike.

Further down the road I met some people and they took a photo of me on the bike so that you can see it's not all faked ...

Los Burros Road at Sunset

I arrived at Highway 1 about 30 minutes later, it was fully dark and got really cold fast. That's the fun in California winter. You have sunshine over the day, 20º C, sun sets, temp drops to below 10º C within what feels like 20 minutes or so. So, I got into my rain jacket to fend of the wind and continued on, planning to find a motel along the route.

Found one in San Simeon, after I rode about another 30 miles in the dark and cold. Was pretty cold when I arrived in the motel, so first thing was a hot shower, second was a pizza ... I was hungry ...

The next I set off towards East. The plan was to get to California City that day. Didn't make it though. I was slow with the bike, nice and slow though. Back country roads, curvy, twisty, cold weather in the morning - it all slowed me down more than I thought.

But one thing I didn't consider first as a major slowdown were the tires. The Dunlop D606 are absolutely terrible on the road. They are rough and the grip on the front is scary bad. One time I hit the brakes and virtually nothing happened. Of course I slowed down, but compared to the street tires I was running before, this was scary. It feels like stopping distance from 60 to 0 doubled when installing this front tire. Absolutely horrible.

Another mistake I made was setting the GPS to avoid highways. But the thing doesn't differentiate between a nice and curvy highway through the mountains and a 8 lane city highway in LA. So, as I also had it set to not necessarily avoid unpaved roads I got stuck in Farmland somewhere between Barstow and Bakersfield. I got stuck in about 20cm deep clay like mud, dropped the bike a few times, couldn't get going at all for a longer distance, I was either too slower to build momentum to stabilize or too fast and it got into tank slappers. Man this was serious shit.

I fought my way through for about 5 miles (and 2 hours or so) and then gave up and took the next chance to get back on normal roads. Should have taken photos but I was too exhausted, too frustrated and too pissed off. So all I did was find a pressure washer to get the mud off me and the bike. What a shitty experience. I hate mud.

After all this I got only to Bakersfield that day. Was dead tired, hurting in many places, pulled something in my back in that mud adventure and was clearly unhappy with the tires on road travel.

Next morning I continued on towards Cal City and arrived about 1pm here:

Camp near Cal City

This is basically desert with absolutely nothing there but places where people set up their RVs and go desert riding on dirt bikes.

My home for the night was less fancy though:

The yellow tent is mine

We did some riding around in the desert that afternoon and now I was glad for the Dunlop tires. They performed pretty well.

As this was Thanksgiving Day, the day was fairly short and I got an invitation for dinner from Bob and his family - btw.: thanks for everything, Bob! It was great.

During the next day there was some exploring of the single trails around the camp and again, it went pretty well. Riding was fine and I might have gotten a bit too adventurous. In the afternoon I was following Bob over a fairly bumpy single trail, jumped a few times and then it happened. I came over a larger bump, had to head left right after which I did only see after I came in jumping - and there it was, I missed the trail, got into really deep sand, tank slapper started and I went down hard.

I took out one of the mirrors with my rib cage, got bruises all over my body, the bike partly fell on top of me. I dug out from under it, pulled it out of the sage brush there and checked for damage on the bike. Wasn't all too much fortunately. A few scratches here and there, nothing serious. Both mirrors were broken though.

What about me you might now ask? Yeah, first adrenalin rush drowned most of the pain I had but this subsided now and the pain started. Busted rib, huge (!!) bruise on the right calf where the bike dropped on top of me, other bruises everywhere, sore jaw as I hit the ground with a real "face-plant". My helmet and especially the visor were scratched badly, my jaw was hurting, but the worst really were the ribs.

Bob came back (he was in front of me) and helped me settle things, then we slowly headed back to the camp. I was done. The ribs were bad, but not bad enough to warrant a visit to a hospital, the bruise at my calf grew to about half egg size sticking out of my leg ... bummer.

So, the rest of the day, I stayed in the camp, horrified by the idea of a night in the cold on the hard Thermarest mattress, but so what? I wanted it, I got it.

Decided that night that I'll head back home Saturday morning - I had to, as my body got more and more stiff and hurting, so I saddled up, got on the bike and rode it home. Yes, I rode roughly 370 miles with a 250cc bike, on a seat as comfortable as a 4x2 piece of wood, with a busted rib and bruises all over the place. I couldn't stop halfway as I knew I would have no chance of finishing the ride the next day. So, home I went. Arrived around 7pm in Sunnyvale, got the bike in the garage, water in the tub, a long bath, and to bed. Again, I was done.

I couldn't ride or exercise for about a month, my ribs were hurting too badly, and by then I had made up my mind: this isn't my style for touring for now. I loved it while it lasted, but I wouldn't want to do it again for the time being.

There are several reasons for that:

I plain can't risk my health and, with that, my ability to do my job so lightly.
After a long day in the saddle, I really, really like a motel room.
I rather like to see places and "travel" - not do the off-road challenge I did in the desert.
My dirt riding skills are very poor and to improve them I'd have to take risks again.

So, all be damned (sorry the words here), I decided, I will not do something like this again. In addition to that, there was also one more thing to consider: Longterm I needed a car. We can do most of our stuff just having one car, but even then it is often very inconvenient. Taking the bike to the gym is something I really don't like as I take a shower in the gym afterwards and then getting on the bike right after a hot shower has given me a sore neck a few times already.

So we went out and bought a car (different post to follow) - and Andrea suggested that our vehicle park is getting a bit out of control, and I kind of agree. Therefore, the WR went up for sale again. It was fun while it lasted.

I have a buyer now, he will pick it up after I have fixed a few scratches (likely next week) and I hope he'll have more luck with it.

Here's the setup I really loved the WR for:

WR250X in street outfit

And because I really like it that way, the conclusion was fairly simple: I'm not a dirt rider. I'm okay on some dirt roads. I find my way even in some nastier stuff. But I enjoy riding on paved roads much more.

So, goal for this year is to get more realistic about expectations I have for bikes and my own riding style and the time I can spend riding. 99% is paved roads. I have a hard time riding a single bike enough, therefore, if I get the itch for a new bike, I'll replace the primary. Or so ... you'll never know but at least that sounds more realistic than me doing single track dirt riding in the middle of nowhere again.

Finally ...

2011-11-08T22:23:00.001-08:00

What we actually wanted to buy when we came to the US - but it wasn't available at the time.

2012 VW Golf TDI - stick shift of course

Spot Tracker or Personal Beacon?

2011-10-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

In my opinion an "adventure trip" on a motorcycle means going to remote places, riding lonely roads, often unpaved, sometimes trails. Going to places like the Death Valley or Mojave back country. Riding in places where you might not see another person for hours.

Yes, this kind of riding can be dangerous. Small things that on a normal paved road with traffic wouldn't be a problem can become a major issue in the back of beyond. A flat tire or broken down bike 50 miles or more away from the next water supply in 40C heat, an injury from a fall on the tough terrain - you name it and you can probably imagine what I'm talking about.

So, what are the typical pre-cautions? Of course, proper riding gear, boots, gloves, helmets, sometimes even dirt riding gear like pressure suits or similar. Having a basic repair kit. Tools for fixing a tire. Water. A first aid kit.

But what happens if you really need help?

How do you notify somebody if you have no cell phone coverage and there is nobody around that might be able to ride out and alert someone?

The tools for this are basically two different flavors of GPS enabled devices:

Tracking tools with two way communication like a SPOT tracker.
A Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) which you only activate when you need help.

There are some major differences between the two:

SPOT is more active. It sends your position to a Satellite system on a regular basis so that you can lay out a "breadcrumb" trail other people can follow, e.g. on a website. There is nothing like this with PLBs.
The SPOT backchannel (sending messages to the system) is supported by a commercial entity while PLBs use SARSAT, the federal Search And Rescue system.
When you hit the "help" button on a SPOT device, your call is routed to a "call center"-type support group which will then alert local authorities and communicate your GPS to those. When you activate a PLB, federal and local authorities are notified directly without a man in the middle.
The SPOT system communicates your GPS position to the SPOT communication center. You can only hope that this is precise and actually works. A PLB sends your GPS position and turns on an analog "beacon" radio signal that can be used by search and rescue teams for finding your position.
PLB signal strength for sending the help signal is many times stronger than the SPOT signal.
Even if your satellite signal is not making it, there is a chance that the analog radio emergency signal is caught by someone listening on the official emergency channel.
With SPOT you can send a "I'm okay" message. There isn't really something comparable with PLBs. With those "no news are good news".
SPOT has been known to work only in 98% of the cases at best. Many people had trouble with the actual devices, hardware and software glitches were very common for the first as well as the second generation.
There is no yearly fee for a PLB, SPOT service costs around $100 / year.

Now, you can probably already see where this is heading.

To make it short: if you want to signal "I'm okay", have someone follow your "trail" actively and maybe have a chance of calling for help when you're in trouble, SPOT is what you want.

Personally, I'll rather go the route of not sending my position all the time, having the nice tracking website that tells people that the house is empty and they can break in, but instead I want to have a device I can really rely on when I'm in trouble. Something I will only turn on when I need help. But then, when I need help - I want to be as certain as possible that someone actually receives that call.

Therefore, a Personal Locator Beacon is the tool for me. This is what I'll get for the adventures to come (motorcycle trips to California deserts and other trails, a planned hiking trip through the Grand Canyon, Andrea's climbing tours, etc):

ACR ResQLink

It's an ACR ResQLink Personal Beacon. When activated it locks on the GPS satellite system to get the current position, communicates this position to SARSAT, meaning to special authorities that actually know something about Search And Rescue, and then continues to send an analog signal that can be used for locating the device. It also has a bright LED strobe light at the front, adding a visual effect to the mix.

This is probably the only gear that I hope I will never ever use. But if I need to - I'll be glad to have it and I want the best chances that it actually works.

Sneaky Peek ...

2011-10-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

For a trip I plan to make in November, here are some parts I have received something today that'll give you an impression of the planned ride:

Dunlop D606 Rear Tire

It's a set of Dunlop D606 tires. I'll mount them on 21" front and 18" rear rims I have already received. These are for my WR250X of course.

Items I have ordered to convert the "X" into a little Adventure Tourer:

21" front rim, 18" rear rim
44T rear sprocket
All necessary bits and pieces to mount the tires myself to the rims and the wheels then to the bike
Wolfman side racks
Wolfman Expedition Dry Bags
OEM Spark Arrestor
R-Model side stand as the X side stand is too short for the bike when I remove the lowering links and install the much taller tires

A few missing pieces where I have to decide on the exact item to order:

Larger gas tank, likely a Safari 3.7 gallon tank (original is 1.9 gallon which is a bad joke) (Link to a blue one installed on a WR250R - I'd get it in white)
Hand guards, likely Barkbuster Storm as they have good weather protection and are reasonably priced
A skid plate - for this bike it makes actually sense, though I might not do it for this years trip, yet to decide on this

Fun Bike - Yamaha WR250X

2011-10-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I bought another motorcycle. Yes, I really did and I know it's crazy. It falls under MBS (Multiple Bikes Syndrom), a condition some people have that does not allow them to own just a single motorcycle.

Ah, enough about me, what about the bike? A photo first:

My new to me Yamaha WR250X

I was looking for a bike for dirt riding for quite a while. Didn't admit it early, but I really wanted one. But, I wanted one that is also street legal and a nice ride on back roads. Something versatile and fun, still capable to ride dirt roads, single tracks, trails, fire service roads and so on. It was all about the things I couldn't or wouldn't want to do with my BMW. So, it had to be light weight, not too expensive (when dropped), dirt oriented.

One of the bikes that came to mind was the Suzuki DR200SE Andrea had earlier. But it has two really big downsides: First, a carburetor which clogs up with the crappy ethanol contaminated gas we have here in California if you let the bike sit for a few weeks - which might happen. Second, it was a bit short on power with it's 20HP (at crank and on paper, big thumb calculation and seat-of-pants feeling says around 15HP at the rear wheel at max on good days). It was sometimes a bit scary on a highway as it would go over 60 mph but it certainly took it's time and it really didn't like it there all too much. All the same is true for the Yamaha XT250 or XT225.

Next a Kawasaki KLX250S came to mind. This also has a carburetor but it scores around 20 to 21 usable rear wheel HP, at least 25% more - getting close. Carburetor still was an issue for me.

I never considered the Suzuki DRZ400 as I wanted a smoother motorcycle, not a vibrator ... and I also never considered the 650cc class - these are too heavy for what I was looking for and the available models from the Japanese companies in the US are also technically very outdated, you could say "dinosaur like" outdated.

My criteria were:

around 130kg wet weight
around 30HP (crank, hopefully around 25 to 30 rear wheel)
fuel injection
not too bad with regard to vibrations
high quality suspension
good after market support

I immediately discounted all things KTM, Husqvarna, and whatnot as too esoteric.

Given all this, there was actually only a single bike on the market that might do it for me - the Yamaha WR250R (or X with a second set of wheels). Now, here we are getting close. I would have loved this bike in a 350cc or 400cc package but that's not available and so I was absolutely willing to get a 250.

The street legal Yamaha WR250 comes in two versions: a supermoto style WR250X with street wheels and tires, slightly tighter suspension setup, stronger front brake, and the dirt style WR250R. I was mostly looking for the R model but as the components are pretty much interchangeable I also included the X in my search. And lucky that I did as there were much more X models available. My most hated dealership around the corner here, the Honda dealer in Sunnyvale, had a 2009 WR250X in black, 5000 miles, $5000. But true to their normal style that was about $800 over Kelly Blue Book dealer retail price for a 2009 model with half the miles and better condition and I told them this. They wouldn't move so I told them to stick ... ah, lets not get into details. But all the better, I wouldn't have wanted to buy from these guys anyways - they always try to rip you off, and proved this all over again.

Kept an eye on Craigslist and suddenly, there it was: a white 2010 WR250X (yeah, not an R, but, so what), 790 miles, lowered with Yamalinks but original links included, stock plus a low seat, Renthal handlebar and softer grips, axle sliders front and rear, Graves free flow exhaust tip (Damn - is there someone out there who wants to sell me their OEM spark arrestor / exhaust tip?) custom decals. All together for less than the older model at the dealer that had 4000 miles more ...

Only downside: it was sold in Los Angeles. Hmmm, did I say downside? What's better then buying a bike and immediately going on a road trip? Even if it is a short one! So, talked to the seller, agreed on price and what was included, booked a flight to L.A., picked the bike up and rode it home via the beautiful California coast (Highway 1).

Somewhere along Highway 1 - Big Sur or so

Gave it a first service to make sure everything is nice and in order and now it sits here in the garage happily next to the two GSs. Ha!

Custom Decals

It really is a surprisingly capable bike. Today I put it through its paces - Black Road, Skyline Blvd, Alice's Restaurant for breakfast, down on Page Mill Road and back home. Chased a Honda 900RR something or other (looked like a very nicely stripped CBR900RR with super bike bars, Ducati hand guards with bar end mirrors, and so on) down Page Mill Road and didn't have all too much trouble keeping up. He wasn't a bad rider or a beginner or so, he rode very technical, shifting his weight for corners properly, but he couldn't use the abundance of four times the power compared to my little one.

What can I say? The WR250X is an insanely fun bike to ride. Surprisingly powerful and quick, light steering, good suspension (though it got wobbly in some spots on Page Mill, might have some setup to do), good road tires. The tires are now scrubbed in all the way around - not like they were when I picked it up: a one inch strip that was never used and still slippery.

Oh, and one of the best things: so far I'm averaging 3.7L/100km (64mpg). With a best of 3.3L/100km (70mpg) and never really bad. And that was all while not taking it slow.

There are a few things I want to do with the bike though:

Get a set of dirt wheels / tires. 21" front, 18" rear. Something not too knobby, but a 60:40 setup like the Heidenau K60 or Metzeler Enduro 3. Maybe even a Dunlop D606
Get a rack for soft luggage (very likely Wolfman).
Get a rear top rack (have one sitting here now, need to install it).
Install some strong hand guards and possibly heated grips.
Maybe make the seat more comfortable. Not sure how yet.
Install a larger fuel tank. What did they think installing a 7.4L (1.9 gallon) tank on that thing? That's ridiculous! 125 to 140 miles range is all.
Install a holder for my GPS.
Get either a Spot Tracker or a Personal Beacon.

Then I plan on some excursions into California's back roads and deserts. We'll see whether I can find some time for it.

In Memory of Steve

2011-10-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs – 1955 - 2011

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc.

Guess what?!

2011-09-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

WR250X somewhere close to Big Sur

Touratech must be completely nuts now ...

2011-08-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

When I look at this page I can't believe they really want to sell anything. A set of panniers that cost about 20% of a full bike (Tiger 800)? That is insane and I think they lost their mind completely now.

Especially when you can get a set of Micatechs for $970, a set of Jesse Panniers for $1250, or the same freaking set of Touratech panniers bought in Germany are just $1500 before tax. Sorry Touratech USA, but I hereby declare you officially as one beer short of a sixpack ...

Review - Sena SMH10 Bluetooth Intercom

2011-07-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

We had been planning the rafting trip for a bit and as we knew we would be on some longer rides to get there and back, we also thought about how to communicate. So far, we have been doing this with hand signals, stopping and shouting (we both wear ear plugs whenever we ride) or just not communicating at all.

This got a little bit annoying as we like to ride together but then it is more as we are both on our own. Therefore, we were thinking about a communication system for a while now.

These were the options we thought about:

Cardo Scala G4 - sophisticated, fancy, seems to work pretty well and does about everything
Sena SMH10 - does not as much as the Cardo, but with a two button user interface it's dead simple to use and really easy even with big gloves
Schuberth C3 helmets with SRC systems integrated (basically a G4 build into the C3)

The Schuberth system was very appealing but also very expensive as it comes with a $700 helmet ... not an option right now. The Cardo would have been great but I really wanted the simple use of the Sena.

So, just in time to get it for our weekend trip, I ordered a dual set of the Sena SMH10.

Installing them on our Shoei Multitec helmets was done in about 15 minutes per helmet and setting them up was about one more minute.

And what can I say - they work like a charm! We had them setup for voice activation which means you swear a little bit in the helmet and a few seconds later a channel is open to talk to each other. Or you blow into the microphone, or yell "heeeeeeellooooo". It always takes a while to react and then it takes some time to initiate the Bluetooth connection. I don't know what the norm is there, it felt a bit slow sometimes, nevertheless I think it's normal that it takes a bit to open a Bluetooth channel.

The other option of activating the connection is to press the big jog dial just once and again, a few seconds later a channel is open. Easy.

When activated by voice, the system takes a 20 second quiet time to go back to sleep, when activated with the button it stays open until one presses the button again. This worked really, really well. We left the communication open for most of the time last Sunday, which meant about seven hours moving time. Batteries held up well, but we don't know how much longer they would have worked. For really long trips it might be better to use the voice activation and have them off and go a bit on your own. Just remember that a yell "CAREFUL! Dirty Road" needs a few seconds activation time ... so when on really tough roads, just keep the channel open.

The voice and communication quality was absolutely stunning. We could talk and understand each other incredibly well, while riding, at a gas station, stopped for photos and so on. Incredibly good communication quality. And they work over quite a distance as long as you have visual contact - as soon as large chunks of rock get in the way (like for example in the Sierras on Highway 49), you hear some static when loosing sight of each other. We never lost contact though, even when Andrea was two or three corners back.

Usage was also incredibly simple - either activate by voice or press the big jog dial, channel comes up. Hold both buttons for a second, system turns on. Press both buttons for a short time, system turns off. The jog dial is also for volume adjustment and I have to say - this is how it should be. Great tactile feedback, easy to do even with the biggest winter gloves.

For example I have no idea how I am supposed to find and press the correct button on some other systems like the Schuberth SRC:

It'll work, but the big jog dial and the one button at the rear are just so much easier.

We have not tried the other features, like listening to music while riding or doing phone calls. I have absolutely no interest in either, therefore I really don't care. The main feature, talking to my riding partner while having helmets on, ear plugs in, and riding the bikes is working perfectly, that's all we need and want. It makes riding together an even more enjoyable experience and gives us more "time together" when on the bikes.

So, conclusion is a big thumbs up for Sena - this is how a communication system should work!

Another Rafting Trip - And a Bike Tour

2011-07-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

After we were rafting on the American River and having a really good time in Mai, we took the offer of another rafting trip shortly after. This time it was on the Merced River which wasn't as high last weekend (June 16th) as it had been two weeks before. Still it was a lot of fun in Class IV rapids and some calmer areas.

Again we were lucky, getting a really good guide with lots of experience who also did a lot of fun maneuvers like bumping against a rock, getting into a "hole" and just sitting there, skating over rocks and so on. In my opinion, this was our best rafting trip so far. It won't be our last one, though ...

But, back to the whole trip which started on Friday afternoon.

This time we travelled by bike - Friday afternoon / evening from Sunnyvale to Merced (click on the image for a larger version):

Sunnyvale to Merced

We decided to take the scenic route - over Mount Hamilton. It took quite a bit longer, but it was lots and lots of fun.

Joseph D. Grant County Park

A great bike for a great ride

We arrived in Merced around eight in the evening and were both happy to finally be in the Motel room. It was a day of work, then a 200km ride on partially very challenging and twisty roads. Mount Hamilton Road and from Mount Hamilton to Patterson is really, really curvy. The two GSs were awesome for this kind of terrain. Upright sitting position, great handling, light steering and very sure footed on the sometimes dirty and sandy road.

During the trip, Gina met a nice milestone:

4444 miles on Gina

Of course not all miles are added by Andrea - but we've been riding quite a bit in the last months.

After a not so good night due to lots and lots of noise, loud neighbors, a nearby train line, and other noise, we headed out for our rafting trip on Saturday morning. As we wanted to have a good breakfast and a not too long ride, we took the direct way to Midpines:

Morning Ride to Midpines

Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos from rafting this time.

Saturday evening we took the little bit longer, but definitely nicer way back to the Motel:

Evening Ride back to Merced

Back at the motel, we were pretty much done. About 170km on the motorcycles, a few hours rafting, it was a hot and long day. Went out to get some food but couldn't find anything in Merced that looked even halfway decent so we decided to get some snacks and a bottle of Corona at a "7 Eleven" and head back to the Motel. This night we definitely slept better ...

Sunday morning, after some planning, we had the route set: East to 49, North on 49, back west on 132, South to Patterson, Mt. Hamilton, Home. Long, but awesome.

Long Way Home

Awesome Views along the Way

Not Sitting on the Road this Time

Small bike? Nope ...

It definitely isn't small (and light) when you let it drop and have to get it back up and then fix some of the bent parts:

Taking the Valve Cover Guard off

What happened? We did a u-turn on the road and Andrea got stuck in a hollow, I stopped, put the bike on the side stand, ran 20m back, helped pulling Andrea's bike back, looked back to mine - and it was lying on its side. Damn. Should have thought about that down slope, right?

Overall damage assessment: a bent valve cover guard (which I'm taking off in the above photo), some scratches on windshield, handguards, cases, and that's about it. The big GS did well. Luckily.

Merced River - Further Downstream

Some more impressions from the trip:

Rural America ...

Sunflowers Everywhere

Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere

Don Pedro Lake

And of course, when we see donkeys we have to stop:

Scratching a Donkey's Ear

They like each other!

It was an awesome trip! Lots of fun, lots of beautiful roads to ride. Sunday was pretty long with about 370km but we made it. The way back over Mt. Hamilton was certainly tough and we were both happy when we were home!

Trip statistics: 750km (466 miles) of mostly fun backroads, roughly 18 hours travel time (including breaks) spread over three days, hundreds of curves, some really tight twisties, a day rafting on the Merced River, first drop of a motorcycle in 15 years (granted about 9 of them without riding at all), character added to the big GS, lots of seat time and practice for Andrea. Great fun!

Why Women Ride Motorcycles

2011-07-13T12:36:00.001-07:00

Read about it here.

Micatech V-Pilot Panniers Installed

2011-07-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I received one of the more important farkles for my GS. Panniers. After a lot of back and forth and thinking repeatedly (here, here, here, and here) about it, getting an aftermarket exhaust, I finally ordered and received a set of Micatech V-Pilot cases.

Installing them was not hard but it took quite some time. I took my time aligning everything properly, getting it all setup. To put it bluntly, the quality of all the bits and pieces is astounding. Every single part is high quality, well thought out and engineered and manufactured to perfection.

The case "racks" are basically just mounting rails that have "bullets" where the cases slide on, here is a photo of the rack installed on the bike:

Micatech Case Racks

The racks are very unobtrusive, barely visible when the cases are off. The cases are attached to the bullets with these parts:

"Bullet Holder"

Again, very high quality manufacturing. Three of these are attached to the back of each case. Two attach to the rails on the bike and one per case is for a cross bar in the back.

After installing the cases, the whole affair looks like this:

Rear view - click for larger image

Side Rear view - it's just 32.5 inches wide!

You can see how narrow they are.

Tiny, right? 37L per case. Lots of space.

On the bike, the cases look fairly small but when the bike sits in the garage with them, it's still quite something. Installed they are about 83cm (32.5 inches) wide. The GS handle bars are about 98cm (38.5 inches) wide, so the bars are 15cm wider than the cases which is awesome as I can be absolutely certain to not touch anything when I get through with the bars.

Still, the cases provide a lot of space. An overall volume of 74L in both cases, that makes it only 8L less than the GS Adventure panniers that are 99cm wide. I very much prefer the narrower profile. I can leave the cases on all the time if I wanted to, but I probably won't.

We will give the luggage a thorough test in two weeks on a weekend trip to Yosemite. I'll report back then.

When installing the cases I also installed a GS Adventure rear luggage rack which I bought used not too long ago. Haven't installed my Givi topcase to it yet, but will do that long term. For around time riding I will install a Pelican on the pillion seat with the quick release for the seat itself. This will take tools and rain gear and some everyday items. I'll post more pictures once this is done.