motorcycle – Page 30 – Mechanical Sympathy

Roads to Ride: Arizona

We just left Sedona and headed south to Phoenix. The Sedona area is astonishingly beautiful, and there isn’t anything like a South West Ontario dull road to be seen. The interstates have more twists and turns than the most interesting roads where I live. Coming back here on two wheels is a must do. Not only are the roads fantastic, but the scenery is otherworldly.

We stayed at the Arroyo Roble Best Western on the north edge of town and it made for a excellent base for exploring the area. The on site hot tubs, sauna and steam room would also ease sore muscles after a long day of leaning into corners on the byzantine surrounding roads.

Here are some of the highlights from Sedona:

The view just south of Sedona

Looking down into the Oak Creek Canyon…

Local micro breweries abound, America is no longer the land of Bud Light.
The Black Ridge Brewery in Kingman make a lovely IPA, while the Oak Creek Brewery
in Sedona make a fantastic Nut Brown Ale.

Any direction you look, Sedona is magical.

Top of Cathedral Rock Trail – it was worth a sweaty climb

Boynton Canyon, a lovely drive in, then a secluded canyon spoiled by constantly running machinery from the golf course
stuffed up the middle of it. There was an Apache ceremony at the vista coming in – flute sounds over a quiet desert
was much preferred to heavy equipment thumping away around the corner. Still petty though.

Bikers & Motorcyclists

Bikers

The other week I posted a discussion on the Concours Owners Group asking how to pass a large group of bikers on the road. That discussion sparked an angry rebuttal condemning me for mocking the happy pirate look that a large portion of the (especially) North American motorcycle community identifies with. Personally, I’d say people can dress however they want and ride whatever they want, but I get the sense that the pirate types don’t feel that way. On COG I was trying to be funny, but with an edge. On the Georgian Bay circumnavigation I ran into some corporately attired Harley riders who wanted to point out how much unlike them I looked. It felt like hazing with the intent of getting me to look like a proper biker. Nothing will get my back up faster than someone telling me I have conform to their standard, especially when it’s a stupid standard. The irony wasn’t lost on me that these rebels without a clue whose look is predicated on nonconformity were uncomfortable with a motorcyclist not in proper uniform.

One of the reasons I make a point of reading British biking magazines is because they are free of (and willing to make fun of) this dominant North American biking culture. They don’t worship Harley Davidson as the one and only motor company, and they try to look at the breadth of motorbiking rather than forcing a single version of it down everyone’s throats. Had I the boat load of money that they cost I would happily buy an HD V-Rod (not considered a ‘real’ Harley by purists because it’s liquid cooled). It’s a fine machine and I’d get one for that reason, but I don’t think I’d ever buy a motorcycle because of the manufacturer alone, I’m not that politically driven.

When I first started riding I was shiny and new about it and told one of my colleagues who rode that I was just starting out. He asked me what I got and when I told him a Ninja he put his nose in the air and said, “hmm, isn’t that like riding tupperware?” Just recently I told him I was thinking about getting a dual sport. He said, “why would you want that? It’d be like riding a toolbox!” In the biker ethos there is only one kind of bike with a single aesthetic. If you don’t conform expect criticism.

In talking to other motorcyclists I’ve noticed a consensus that the cruiser crowd tends to be holier-than-thou, not returning a wave or giving you the gears at a stop for not conforming to the dress code. Motorcyclists tend to be iconoclasts. They have to be or they’d be doing what everyone else does – riding around in the biggest cage they could afford. Yet the act of riding isn’t enough for some. There are also social expectations that these rebellious non-conformists expect all riders to conform to.

At the end of the day I’m a fan of two wheeling. I’d call myself a motorcyclist. I get as excited about looking at historical Harleys as I do at racing tupperware or riding toolboxes. I only wish more bikers would be less critical of anything other than their singular view of the sport. I refuse to conform to their nonconformity.

Motorbike Dreams

The first motorcycle dream I had was barely remembered, but I woke up pulling hard on the brake with my hand instead of using my foot. I’ve had driving dreams for years, but I can clearly remember that first time I woke up aware of operating a bike in my dreams. I can’t remember the context, but it was nice to know my subconscious was working over the details of riding as much as my conscious mind was.

The other day while home from work sick with the flu I woke up from a much more complex dream. In it I was trapped in a parking lot after trying all sorts of vehicular attempts to drive past customs in order to leave (I’d just been to The States, so perhaps that’s why I had borders on my mind).

I found the Concours sitting on some shipping containers at the back of the lot and suddenly I’m riding it like a trials bike, jumping down from one container to the next until I get down and am able to escape from the parking lot. Cars couldn’t get me out of there but my bike could!

Strangely, I can’t recall dreaming about the Ninja, though I spent a lot of time turning it blue again. Maybe the soul of the machine isn’t in the finish. I’ve spent a lot more time deep inside the Connie getting it road worthy, perhaps that time has endeared it to me. In any case, I feel a kinship to the Connie that I haven’t with the Ninja, which makes me look forward to the end of the cold even more.

I was originally thinking about where to get Kawasaki stickers once I’ve got it refinished, but now I’m thinking of finding some Corellian Engineering Corporation stickers and doing the Concours up in full Millennium Falcon style.

From the documentary: Why We Ride

We Live in the Future! Motorcycle Gadgetry

This nice bit of graphic design caught my eye. The Tomtom GPS system is uniquely suited to motorcycling. It’s waterproof, bar mounted and offers some smart software that is motorbiking specific – like find the windiest route between here and there.

A weatherproof GPS that could be easily accessed with a gloved hand while on the bike is a prudent safety decision. Instead of trying to look at maps on the tankbag I could be using the corner of my eye to follow a route. I’m a fan!

As if the Tomtom wasn’t enough, I then came across the 360Fly. I’ve been GoPro fixated since they first came out, and tried other action cameras, but this is something else.

The 360Fly isn’t just an action camera, it’s an immersive video recorder, making 360° video that you can pan through as you watch it. There is no cropping with this camera, it’s like you can turn your head within the recording! The video becomes a complete record of what happens instead of just what the camera is pointed at.

I can’t wait to try this on a motorcycle!

Autumn Colours Motorcycle Photography

On bike photos courtesy of a Ricoh Theta V on a flexible tripod attached to the rear view mirror of my trusty Triumph Tiger 955i. The route was from my home in Elora up through Beaver Valley to the shores of Georgian Bay before coming back through Duntroon and up the Noisy River out of Creemore before heading back down the Grand River home. The interesting bits were tracing the Niagara Escarpment, the only vaguely interesting roads anywhere near me.

If you want a primer on how to take on-bike photos like this, you can find it here. It has also been published on Adventure Motorcycle Rider here.

That time I got stuck behind a blockade of Polaris Slingshots on the Noisy River Road…

Google Photos Album here.

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Thanksgiving Moments

Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada is early (winter is coming), but this one was pretty rideable. The Honda is calling from a mechanical perspective, but that can wait until the Canadian motorcyclist’s hibernation.

In the meantime, I’m getting the rides in where I can find them…

Some digital art…

… and some on-bike 360 photos…

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Motorcycle Lift Table Instructions

A friend and colleague retired but kindly left his DIY motorcycle stand with me when he moved to the West Coast. Here’s the construction of it back in 2016:

HERE are the plans he worked from in PDF format. Now that I’ve got the plans I can find a properly spec’d lift to use on it. My old lift is leaky and over two decades old, so the replacement will work the motorcycle lift as well as the odd car tire change.

Currently it’s home to the Honda Fireblade project:

The garage is a nice place to work (though small) for 10 months of the year, but during Ontario’s deep freeze in January/February, as outdoor temperatures often dip to -30°C and beyond, the cold emanating, even through the rubber lined floor, makes it torturous. Even with a propane heater running, working on the floor isn’t any fun for my fifty year old bones. The stand, even when lowered, has been nice to work on. Now that I’ve got access to the specs, I can source the right kind of hydraulic lift and have everything at an even more ergonomic height.

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Mid-November Last Gasps

The Tiger’s still purring to the
edge of winter!

Mid November and I’m still commuting in to work! It was -2°C while riding past frost covered grass on the way in, but a comfortable 12°C and sunny on the way home.

I should be able to two wheel it in and back for the rest of the week, but come the weekend things take a turn for the worse. If there’s salt down and icy roads this may finally be the end. Still, riding from the end of March (it would have been sooner but for a carb-dead Concours) until Mid-November is no bad thing.

In a perfect world I’ll be back in the saddle in March some time, and might even steal a ride or two in between,weather permitting. That’s four months of waiting… unless I can convince my lovely wife to let me get… THE VAN (it’s still for sale). If that happened there’s no telling where we might get to over the cold months.

That don’t look good, but it was inevitable.

In the meantime, there was a super moon!

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Demo Daze

Kawasaki Canada’s Demo-Day, if there is one in
your neighborhood, I highly recommend heading
out for a day of diverse riding experience.

There aren’t many opportunities to ride motorcycles when you first start out. If you’re a new rider buying even a second hand bike generally happens without a test ride. Based on very loose ideas of what fits and the advice of others, you wind up on a machine with little or no idea of how it might work with you. I purchased my Ninja 650 without test riding it and I often wonder if I would have had I a chance to ride other bikes.

This past Saturday I spent most of the day at Two Wheel Motorsport in Guelph riding a variety of bikes from Kawasaki Canada. Kawasaki’s demo-days lets you sign up to ride your choice of pretty much their full range of bikes, and it only costs you a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society.

The demo-day setup is a well oiled machine with a Kawasaki trailer set up along with tents to cover the bikes. After a briefing on what to do if separated and the expected ‘don’t ride like a fool’ safety talk, you’re ready to go. The ride is 20-30 minutes and took us through country roads, small towns and offered some twisty bits as well as opportunities to open up the bikes. One of the safety tips before we began was to not grab a handful of brakes if you’re coming off an older bike. The more athletic machines have such good brakes that you might launch yourself if you grab them too hard.

After the ride you get a debrief and chat with the Kawasaki people there who are very responsive to rider feedback, often taking notes on what people are saying. Apart from the opportunity to ride all of these new machines, it’s also nice to see a company so interested in getting ground-level rider feedback.

The people at the demo-rides ranged from early twenties to seniors and on some of the rides there were as many female riders as male. Some people went out on the same kind of bike that they rode in on, others were obviously looking to try something specific, and then there were the few ding-dongs like me who just wanted to try as many different bikes as they could.

I ended up riding everything from a Z1000 naked sport bike to the all rounder Versys and even a little Ninja 300. I’ll go into details on subsequent posts, but I’ll end this one saying, if there is a demo-day going on in your area, head out for a couple of three hours of riding that will expand your appreciation of just how different motorbikes can be. If they’re all run as well as Kawasaki’s was, I’ll be heading out to others at earliest opportunity!

A sea of green… a chance to ride everything from a KLR650 to a ZX-14r or a Vulcan!

A Year of Living Dangerously

Work’s been heavy as of late, and I’ve got the middle-aged itch to do something profound before I’m too old to do anything interesting. As usual, money and responsibility tie me to the earth, but in my more imaginative moments I wonder what I’d do with a year off and the money to do things that one day I’ll be too old and creaky to manage.

If I finished work at the end of June this year and had a year off I’d be back at work the following September. That would give me the better part of fifteen months to explore three of my favorite aspects of motorcycling: road racing, endurance riding and long distance adventure riding. In chronological order, here’s my year of living dangerously:

It’s seat forward, middle & back,
in ergocycle but it looks like I *really*
like that Daytona.

1… Road Racing: This spring get my race license, get a bike sorted and complete in the SOAR schedule over the summer.

A 12+ year old Triumph Daytona 600 would be a nice machine that fits into specific age (lost era) and displacement categories and wouldn’t be what everyone else is sitting on. I also fit on it quite well (see the suggestive gif on the right).

Road racing would sharpen my riding skills and let me wrap my head around some of the more extreme dynamics of motorcycle riding in a controlled environment.

Familiarity with high speed on a bike wouldn’t hurt for what I’m planning to do next, and racing over the summer would also focus my fitness training which would be helpful in building up to #2.

Costing a road racing season: ~$20,000 (including race prepping a bike and racing in a local series)

Less than 50% usually finish, it’s
difficult, astonishing and viciously
exhausting, but finishing puts you in
a very small and exceptional group.

2… Race the Dakar: Happening over New Years and into early 2017, finishing the Dakar would be the kind of thing that not many people manage. Dreamracer puts into perspective just how difficult this can be.

Leaving work at the end of June I’d be full-on training and preparing for the race. There are a number of Baja and other sand/desert focused races that would get me ready for the big one. There are also a lot of off road training courses available well into the fall. My goal would be to get licensed, certified and experienced in as many aspects of motorcycle racing as possible in the six months leading up to the Dakar.

Doing a Dakar would also be a fantastic fitness focus. With a clear goal in mind, it would be a lot easier to schedule and organize my fitness. A personal trainer and a clear targets would have me ready to take my best run at a Dakar, one of the toughest tests of mind and body ever devised. It would do a fantastic job of scratching that middle-aged urge to do something exceptional.

Costing of a Dakar: ~$98,000 Cdn

3… Ride Home: The Dakar raps up mid-January, the perfect time to begin a ride back to Canada! After resting up from the race I’d head south to Ushuaia at the beginning of February (summer time there) before riding back up the west coast through Chile.

A stop in Peru at Machu Picchu and then up the coast through Ecuador and into Columbia before loading on the Ferry in Cartegena to Panama around the one roadless bit in the Americas.

Once landed in Panama I make my way through Central America before pushing all the way up North America’s West Coast to the Arctic ocean in mid-summer (lots of sunlight!). The last leg has me finally heading south again and east across Canada and back home.

The new Tiger would do a sterling
job of taking me the thirty three
thousand kilometres home.

All told it would be just over thirty three thousand kilometres. Leaving Buenos Aires at the beginning of Februrary, and averaging 500kms a day (less on bad roads, more on good roads), I’d be looking at 68 days on the road straight. Fortunately, if I wrap up the trip at the end of July I’d have more like 180 days to do it, leaving lots of time to enjoy the magic I’d find along the way.

Cost of a trip like this? A week on the road is cheaper in South and Central America than North America. If this is a 160 day trip (with 20 days for potential slowdowns to stay within the 180 day/6 month goal), then the money can be roughly estimated using these approximations:

$150/day (gas, food, lodging, expenses) in South & Central America
$250 a day in North America

The raw numbers break down like this:

14,500kms in South America (43% of the trip) – 69 days = $10,350
5600kms in Central America (17% of the trip) – 27 days = $4050
13560kms in North America (40% of the trip) – 64 days = $16,000

For a total of $30,400 for the trip + $15,000+shipping to Argentina for a new Tiger

For the low, low price of about $150,000, I’d have a year of unique challenges, once in a lifetime experiences and get a chance to do three things that will only become more and more impossible as I get older. Some people like the idea of a holiday where they can do nothing, but that isn’t for me. I’ll take the challenge any day, if only I had the money and the time money gives.

The goal once I was home and back to daily life would be to collate the notes and media from this year of living dangerously into written and visual mediums. Being able to produce a video and book(s) out of this experience would be the cherry on top.

Besides a fantastic set of memories, some new skills and the material needed to write an epic tale, I’d also have a race bike ready to compete on again the next summer. That year of living dangerously might persist.