Wider Is Better

Wider is Better.... Nothing sticks with you like an 1980's Pontiac Slogan... and has never been more appropriate.  

 

 

So, I took the Monster out for a ride with Troubadour out to the Fall Creek Trail head.  It is about a 900 ft climb over 3.8 miles.  Really it is about a 600 ft climb over 1.6 miles and then just climbs gradually.  We eventually made the summit and paused for a bit to catch our breath before beginning the descent down the Highballer.

Thanks to Troubadour for the action shots..

 I look like the Pillsbury Doughboy riding a frickin toothpick...

 

 

One thing became clearly obvious.  The 110mm stem and the 660mm bar did not offer the right amount of leverage to control the 4 in wide tires at speed in the twisty bits...  and then I remembered...  Wider is Better....

And the search was on.. Search all of the local sources, but nobody had the parts I wanted in stock.. Off to the interwebs.. A search on Ebay and I found a good deal on a matched stem and bar.. Dropped the stem length down to 45mm w/ 10*rise and a 780mm bar with 35mm rise.  Both are RaceFace Respond components...

 

Parts arrived in a week... I was like a kid at Christmas...

Wider is Better!!!!

Ready for test ride..

After test riding.. I found that I was able to move the seat up another 22mm and was sitting much more upright than hunched over.  The amount of control I now had was unbelievable.  It completely transformed the way the bike rode and steered.  I love riding this bike.. I know, it is so typically American.. We have always got to have the biggest baddest stuff.  I feel the way I did when I rode bikes as an adolescent. Pure joy and freedom.  It has the same effect on people as a Ural.. They aren't quite sure what to make of it, but think it is really cool.. More later.. busy riding....

 

Andy.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Fat Bike Foolery

So,   I did it...  I waffled back and forth on this for a while..  Couldn't really justify the purchase.. But Dammit, when I rode that Trek Farley,  it was damn fun..  The kind of youthful hooligan kind of fun. You know.. hopping curbs, and goofing off in general.

$500.  Delivered.  What was I really buying and what was I giving up...  I scrutinized every aspect of it.  I checked all of the frame geometry against the  Trek Farley 6.  Nearly identical.. the chainstays are 20mm longer.. I can live with that. CrMo front fork versus alloy.. okay. Tapered head stem would have been nice, but not a deal breaker..  Tektro cable disc brakes.. I can live with that, from what I have put together, it is simpler, more reliable, cheaper and easier to repair.  Note, I did not say they were better than hydraulic brakes..  I can live with that as well.  The Trek was at just over $1000 more than this.. Did I mention the tires.. Glorious 4 inch wide tires.. rolling on 50mm rims vs 80mm on the Trek. 


Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.. I can hear everybody saying that it is going to be awful for riding in the snow.   .........I don't snow much down here,  but we have some amazing trails, rock gardens, and sand.. lots of sand....  and mud.....lots, and lots of mud.

So,  I logged into Bikes Direct, added it to my cart. Checked out, and waited.  And waited.  I am not the most patient person, so it seemed like forever, and then there was the whole US Ports being shutdown.. F'ng unions.. that is whole other rant...

It arrived... A huge brown box, with all kinds of warning labels on it,  of which we used to poke fun at one of my more gravity challenged friends.







 Everything was tucked neatly inside.  The rear wheel was already installed,  just had to install the seat, head stem, bars, front wheel, and pedals.  Made a few adjustments to the brake cables and it was all said and done in less than an hour so.

It was off for a quick ride in the dark to shake it down.. Everything seems to be set about right. Just needs a little bit of fine tuning.  Then it started raining... and raining...  I was only able to get in a few short runs after work and general  messing about and terrorizing the neighborhood.  Still fun and was only running about 9 psi.
 
Suddenly, the sun shone down upon me on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.. Time to see what kind of trouble we can get into.  I increased the tire psi to about 13psi which corrected the self-steering issue that happens with these.. On the pavement, this is just a standard old mountain bike.  Old School, no suspension, no frills mountain bike.  Take it off the pavement though, and it really shines.  It rolls over gravel roads and trails with ease.  May as well be paved, it is that easy.  The giant balloon tyres provide enough cushion to roll over lager rocks, holes and obstacles that are normally avoided on newer bikes.  I did notice an odd side effect of the large wheels and tires.. If I got them rolling fast enough, there was enough flywheel effect to help them maintain without much extra effort.   I am  loving riding Fat...

Can I just say that again.. This is so much fun.  I know its heavy and slow.  I bought it for fun and fitness.. If you can pedal around a 30+ lbs bike for miles and miles... It has got to do something for the fitness.

If you are ever only as old as you feel, this is the fountain of youth.


I love riding this bike...

Andy.

Trials and Tribulations.....Maybe It's Just More Trials..

Lots has happened around here as of late.  The family and I spent the holidays with my parents down south.  My son has never spent Christmas with them, so I figured it was about time.

July of 2014, my amazing SWM TL320 was stolen from my yard my some thieving S.O.B. who likely had no idea what it was..

Likely the last pictures of this SWM that I will ever take.

Long story short, I ended up buying another vintage trials bike. This time a 1984 Fantic 300 Professional.  Another amazing trials bike,  motor would climb anything as long as Troubadour wasn't around..

Again, another bike with a no start problem.. 30 min worth of tinkering and a bit of new fuel and it just hums along.  The differences between the two,  the Fantic was a little bit heavier on the nose in terms of balance, making it steer a little better.  I still preferred the predictability of the Rotax motor in the SWM.  The Fantic tended to have a little bit more peaky rev range.  What I have really wanted since taking the SWM to my first trials event, has been a newer like 1999 or newer trials bike by a company that is still in business and can source parts somewhat readily. 

After doing our taxes this year, I found that I had some money left over, and it was burning a hole in my pocket like a California wildfire.  I was searching Craigslist, and found a deal on a 2002 GasGas TXT280.  The guys was a significantly overpriced and by the time he got back to me, he suckered somebody into paying what he asked.  Back to Craigslist.... Might as well call it Cracklist, since it is cheap, highly addictive and will leave you broke.  Ought to have a Surgeon Generals warning on it.

    I had found it. A 2007 Beta Rev3 250, and wait for it, with a factory made long ride seat.  Bam.. fired off an email, made an offer that I thought was fair, and waited.  The waiting is the worst part.  Makes you feel like the nerd asking the popular girl to the prom.  The chance is there if you take it,  doesn't make you less nervous knowing you might get punched in the gut instead. 

     Meanwhile, waiting on a response, I decide to sell off my 1987 CR250, as I seldom ride it anymore, and can stand to let motorcycles sit.  I consider it cruel and unusual punishment for them, they are high performance machines that deserve to run free..  Oh man... I asked $800 for fully functional CR250, which, I thought was a reasonably price for what it was.  I had Craiglist flakes for breakfast lunch and dinner.  One person asked if I would take $400 for it. I was insulted. One person asked what my best cash offer was, I said $700.  They then had the stones to offer me $500.. Dude.....Clean out your ears... I ain't giving it away.  But, I sold it eventually to a person that showed up with 700 dollars...
    I may be slow, but I learned my lesson. So, when I listed the Fantic, I put a number out there that was big enough to keep the riff raff from calling on it.  It wasn't 2 or 3 days, and a guy from 400 miles away said he would buy it, sight unseen.  Trials people must be crazy.  As it was, after selling both of those, that I would load up the family and drive over 500 miles to buy this Beta.  Who does that?

Once home, I immediately set out to mixing some fuel, calls for 1.5% ratio of oil to fuel. Filled the tank, and headed for the local OHV area, as the weather this spring has been phenomenal.  I managed to flip it over backwards once, and laid it up on its side once, both times, on some gnarly black diamond trails, and smiling the whole damn time..  Nothing will show how pitiful the skills you thought you had were, like modern technology.  It was a little spooky riding a wheelie up a steep hill praying not to go over and while trying not to back off the throttle.  That is the balance point though, and I have to learn to get used to it. 

  The last couple of weeks, have been trying to get used to how it likes to move, and to dial the suspension to my preferences. Today was some full lock static balance practice.  Tire obstacles, figure eights, small wheelies and trying to hold pressure. finally I stacked up some pallets to climb up and over.



It's a lot harder than it looks, that is roughly 22 inches high. I did traverse it both ways,  then increased the difficulty by adding a cable spool and slight left turn, and down a 12 inch wide ramp.  It started to get kind of sketchy and decided to quit so I can still ride an event this coming weekend. 

Keep on keeping on.. whether that is riding through the sun or trying to dig out of the Northeast's icy death grip..

Andy.

Happy Festivus

Happy Holidays and Safe Travels

From Andy and Bud E

The Goldilocks Realization....

The Goldilocks Realization....

I recently had one of those Ah-Hah! moments.  A friend of mine is selling his newish Tiger 800XC on C-List....
2012 tiger xc

Somebody came and looked at it and had some questions about the way that it rode and brake concern...  The way the prospective buyer commented kind of irked him and made him question whether or not there was really a problem..  Reality is, with our personal machines we forget that someone else may not know the little nuances that we compensate for without thinking about them.

He asked if I would take it for a ride and verify whether or not there were actually any problems.  I have wanted to test ride a new Tiger 800 since they debuted.  I have resisted the urge to do so for fear of "licking the cookie" and "wanting to eat it", as some like to say...  You know who you are...  We swapped bikes at his house and took them down a twisty little road that I take all of the time.  We stopped at the end,  he said, "This 955i Tiger is so smooth. It turns in so nice and rides almost like a touring bike."

I did find one thing wrong with his 800xc Tiger... It needed front and rear brakes.  Aside from that, it turned in quickly, but I felt it lacked front end feel. The motor pulled in every gear, from any RPM.  Troubadour was right.. just needs three gears, first, third, and fifth.  I did find the throttle was a bit digital.. on or off.. there was analog deceleration.  All inherent characteristics of the bike I am sure.. All the same...It was not my 955 Tiger..

I have taken it places I ought not have gone.. and done things with it that ought not have been done, (see also... Tigers with Shinko tire don't like snow or mud.)  Together we have pushed our limits and learned what we can safely or should not do.  It will tear up 1000 mile days.. It will traverse bad tarmac with ease.  It will even allow me to probe  ...carefully... down a rode less travelled, and it is often the road I choose.. It isn't the prettiest of bikes, but I am a function over form person anyway.  It is neither too big to be unwieldy, nor too small to be insufficient for long distance travel.

 It is just right..... 


It belongs to me, and I it..

The Goldilocks Realization..

Square Your Shoulders To The World... Trials Technique... or ...Life Lesson??

Having purchased the SWM, and it being a trials motorcycle, and the wife and kids conveniently being out of town.  I decided to try my hand at a trials event.  I looked online and at various YouTube videos to try and gauge what I had roped myself into.  I looked at some of the AHRMA trials videos. 



Ohhhh.. this should be fun.. Not too terribly difficult..


I wrangle up my camping gear as this is a two day event.  Got it all sorted out and packed up for a Friday departure as the event was in Connell Washington, which is over 340 miles away.


Yes, that is frost covering everything... It's still March after all

 

 



Scout not too sure about this travelling thing.. last time in the car he went to the vet...

Drove all day and finally reached our destination.. set up the tent, (which has not seen the light of day in 7 or 8 years), in about 20 minutes.  I then set up the remainder of camp and unloaded the SWM and did a little bit of last minute prep.  I then lit my Portable Propane campfire and just chilled out for a while.  The nice thing about it is that there is no smoke blowing in your eyes and you don't smell like campfire for 3 days after.

 

As the night settled in, I snapped these pics of the firelight bouncing off of the SWM.  It reminded me of something primal.  The melding of fire and metal, a tribute to Vulcan, or Hephaestus.

 

  

The night was cold, temps dropped to the mid 20's. I definitely brought the wrong sleeping bag for that.  The next morning, I awoke, cooked some eggs and bacon for breakfast and tried to stretch out these old bones.. It sounded more like I was having cereal for breakfast, with Snap, Crackle, and Pop.. Finished making coffee, cleaned up breakfast, and got signed in.

With Trials events, the sections are laid out so that multiple skill levels can use different lines within the same section.  You have to follow whatever skill level your line is.  As this was my first event, I signed in as a Novice.  This turned out to be a very good thing as I could have signed up for Vintage.  However, Vintage had to ride the Intermediate lines.  Oh yes, and there is a time limit to complete it.. 3 loops, 10 sections each loop, 3 hrs to complete it.

I get my little scorecard and head to the first section. Sitting there waiting, and watching and trying to figure out the which side of the little 6x6  gate indicator cards I am supposed to be on..

My turn.  This is nothing like the video I watched.. Oh crap... drop off the edge of the bank, hard off camber left, up and over the rock, hard right down 4 ft down the rest of the bank, off camber right back up the bank, cut through the v channel in the rock, and make the immediate 90* left through the out gate...

Oh yeah,  we done screwed that one all up... I didn't feel too bad though, a lot of people carried to much speed in the last bit and couldn't make the 90*.. I you don't get the front axle out the exit gate, you get a failure for a 5 score. Did I mention that this was only section one...and it got harder as it went.

Section 3...I struggled and wriggled and screwed it all up as well.  However, the observer also taught trials riding and passed on some advise.
"Square your shoulders to the world and look where you want to go.  Let the bike do what it wants, but stay centered over it."  So, I tried doing that the rest of the day. 

I get back to the scoring booth and turn in my card for the first loop... mostly 5's with an odd 3 in there.  "You have 1 1/2 hours to complete 2 more loops." says the lady at the scoring table.. I was already worn out, frustrated and ready to pack it all in right there. 

Screw it.... I came here to do this... It's go time..
Back to section 1.. I got out of my head, knew the line, and just went for it.. Loop 2 ended with mostly 3's and 2 fives.. there were 2 sections that were way beyond my current skill level and I got more tips from the observer at 3.. "You have got to commit.. Let go, don't pull the clutch in, ride over the obstacle."  I pulled into the Scoring table with 45 min left.. Last Loop... Strung my card and kicked the starter...
 
Loop 3.. I dropped into my sections with more confidence each time... and my score reflected it.. one 2, six 3's, and the two 5's... pulled into the scoring table with 3 minutes to spare..

I went back and ate some lunch and reflected some on the day.. Then my muscles all started to knot up and I realized it was time to pack up camp and go home tonight. There was no way my body was going to make it through three more loops tomorrow and pack camp and drive 340 miles home, and still function on Monday.. It's about knowing your limits, right?

As I packed up camp, I could watch the Advanced riders climb section one which was directly across from me.  It was a goat path up these gnarly rocks and I can only imagine what it looked like from the top.  One guy broke off his shift lever.. Trials Masters are evil that way... They like to see case covers split open on rocks when you get it wrong..

Here is a couple of pics from the Advanced section one and a couple of videos.



Did I absolutely suck at it... You bet.. Would I do it again.. I can't wait..
Now I know what to practice for the next one.. and that one will show me what to practice for the next one.. A steady series of progression is all I can hope for.. Besides, riding trials may be the very cheapest form of competition, as well as having the toughest competitors, namely myself...


I almost forgot.. Somehow out on loop 2 between section 7 and 8, just bopping along the trail when next thing I know, I am laying in the weeds in heap.. just crashed for no apparent reason... I thought it was just the Tiger that needed a nap...

Square your shoulders to the world and keep pressing on...

What's Black And Blue And Goes 100mph?

What's Black And Blue And Goes 100mph?



This guy's helmet.

      So I finally pulled the trigger on a helmet communicator.  There are now just too many reasons not to have one.  For instance,  being able to check in on my son while riding in the woods. Or to give instructions to him.  Also for keeping tabs with my woods buddies... In case one of them "Has fallen and can't get up."  Then of course there is the ability to converse back and forth with my wife without using gestures of a sometimes questionable nature.  That way I don't freak out when she starts pounding on my back because a bee just flew in her helmet...  Or, something like that.  Took just about half an hour to get the wire routing sorted and all the components secured in there locations.  Sitting here listening to Alice In Chains "Man In A Box" through the headset.  Holy Cow that can go loud.  Might even be enough to drown out the Potato Wobblers..

   Stay tuned for further reviews of the Sena SMH10R..
We'll see what kind of mischief we can engage in with it.
  Apparently, they now also make an attachment for the new GoPro Hero 3 that allows you to narrate over the top of the footage.

Track just switched to Heart... That sounds pretty good in here..

Until next time.. Polarbear and Bud E. will be rocking out.

For Sale:

                                              For Sale:


A million smiles and a life long obsession for all things moto..   

So sad to see it go.  Its time here was through.  Bud E's home for wayward motorcycles found a loving home for the Suzuki Jr50.





It has been crashed into a tree. It has been crashed into a fence, ...more than once. It has slid out from underneath on a high speed turn on loose rock.  It's beaten and scarred. I wouldn't have it any other way.

It has brought tons of smiles and with a simple twist of the wrist.  It has brought good times and memories spent with family.   You can see his smile even in the helmet..

But its found a new home.  A new five year old boy whose birthday is today.  Too start him down the motorcycle way.





Sold...

and there it goes.. the cycle of life continues...

 ..