MWGL Motorcycle Discussion 2018
- Thread starter Lerxst
- Start date
rickenvox
Animal Psychic
I left my rural home one Saturday morning on a bike that looked like the top pic.
My bike returned home as seen in the bottom pic while I changed my mailing address to the local ICU.
forward mounted shocks right? The big innovation before monoshock. I used to race a Yamaha YZ 125 with forward mounted shocks (custom done) when I was 15.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
In that case you must have had a ‘74
Iirc they only made a twin shock 125 in 74 before the mono in 75. Brock Glover was one of my favorite riders growing up
OGG
Master of the Meh
The bike is/was a stock '79. Suzuki introduced their version of Yamaha's "MonoShock" with "Free Floater" single shock/swingarm assembly in 1981.
The forward mounted dual shock rear suspension went from '75-'80.
My Bike was heavily modified by the time I pretzeled it. My late sister's husband owned Coast Racing Products, was a hardcore speedfreak (no, not meth dammit!), and his buddy was Brock Glover's lead racing tech.
He would randomly stop by the house, put my bike in his truck, and bring it back a few days later somehow lighter and faster. It got to the point where Carlsbad Raceway banned me from the 125 class and made me race open class against all the big 4-stroke thumpers.
That was their mistake, since that track had very few straight sections where the Thumpers could blow my doors off. That track was ALL about getting OUT of each corner as quick as possible, which my bike being a super torquey two-stroke with a crazy racing clutch, port polish, heavily modded Mikuni, and some serious weight relief, did like a freaking rocket!
It was terrifyingly quick out of a turn, and while the big 4-stroke bikes were boooooging up to speed, I was long long gone and into the next turn.
I was universally hated there.
Pretty sure the regulars threw a party upon the news of my demise.
The forward mounted dual shock rear suspension went from '75-'80.
My Bike was heavily modified by the time I pretzeled it. My late sister's husband owned Coast Racing Products, was a hardcore speedfreak (no, not meth dammit!), and his buddy was Brock Glover's lead racing tech.
He would randomly stop by the house, put my bike in his truck, and bring it back a few days later somehow lighter and faster. It got to the point where Carlsbad Raceway banned me from the 125 class and made me race open class against all the big 4-stroke thumpers.
That was their mistake, since that track had very few straight sections where the Thumpers could blow my doors off. That track was ALL about getting OUT of each corner as quick as possible, which my bike being a super torquey two-stroke with a crazy racing clutch, port polish, heavily modded Mikuni, and some serious weight relief, did like a freaking rocket!
It was terrifyingly quick out of a turn, and while the big 4-stroke bikes were boooooging up to speed, I was long long gone and into the next turn.
I was universally hated there.
Pretty sure the regulars threw a party upon the news of my demise.
MonkeyZero
Mexican Mayonnaise Weiner Sandwich
I sold both of my bikes to pay off some bills and now I want a new one. My wife is gonna kill me.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
Been experimenting with using an old smartphone (Galaxy S3) as an offline GPS on the bike with the OsmAnd app and downloaded maps.
Figured I'd use the S3 so if it were to fall out of my squeeze mount, no big loss. I lashed the case to the bike with some kevlar line that has 305LB weight limit.
Overall the performance of the app and the phone seem to a totally suitable replacement for a dedicated GPS. No real time traffic but that's to be expected. On the downside, the screen just isn't bright enough or glare resistant enough to be viewed in direct sunlight. It did work good enough that I'm considering picking up a RAM mount that I could use to position the phone directly over the handlebars, between the risers. I like the idea of it being below my gauge cluster and it'll be a little less susceptible to glare.
Figured I'd use the S3 so if it were to fall out of my squeeze mount, no big loss. I lashed the case to the bike with some kevlar line that has 305LB weight limit.
Overall the performance of the app and the phone seem to a totally suitable replacement for a dedicated GPS. No real time traffic but that's to be expected. On the downside, the screen just isn't bright enough or glare resistant enough to be viewed in direct sunlight. It did work good enough that I'm considering picking up a RAM mount that I could use to position the phone directly over the handlebars, between the risers. I like the idea of it being below my gauge cluster and it'll be a little less susceptible to glare.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
Summer trip is in the books and now I'm back to work....BOO.
Originally planned to roll through Washington, BC, Yukon territory and into Alaska and back over two weeks. One of the riders turned out to be really unprepared for the trip on the first day of highway mileage. It soon became apparent that we needed to completely reboot the nature of the trip and circle things back to homebase as safely and slowly as possible. We went over to Vancouver Island to do the Pacific Rim Trial then down to the Olympic Peninsula and Oregon coast to return. After that two of us went back out on the road for a few days of Washington Backcountry Discovery Route riding, some trail work and a couple days of scenic PNW touring.
One of my favorite moments of the trip was hauling ass up to Triangulation Point in the Tillamook State Forest right before the fire season riding restrictions were in place:
Camped out in some really spectacular spots
Got to cruise along on a couple ferrys
Generated tons of dust
Originally planned to roll through Washington, BC, Yukon territory and into Alaska and back over two weeks. One of the riders turned out to be really unprepared for the trip on the first day of highway mileage. It soon became apparent that we needed to completely reboot the nature of the trip and circle things back to homebase as safely and slowly as possible. We went over to Vancouver Island to do the Pacific Rim Trial then down to the Olympic Peninsula and Oregon coast to return. After that two of us went back out on the road for a few days of Washington Backcountry Discovery Route riding, some trail work and a couple days of scenic PNW touring.
One of my favorite moments of the trip was hauling ass up to Triangulation Point in the Tillamook State Forest right before the fire season riding restrictions were in place:
Camped out in some really spectacular spots
Got to cruise along on a couple ferrys
Generated tons of dust
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
I really learned at TON about doing a big trip with other riders and especially what I would do differently. Some of it seems like common sense but until you do it, you don't foresee some of the issues
You really need to ride a short overnight trip with everyone participating and make sure they have the knowledge, skills, endurance & gear to safely go and come back in one piece. Communicating expectations and ground rules is critically important. Making sure that all riders can speak up when they are in the weeds is the only way everyone will stay safe.
Everyone should have the basic required gear to be fully self sufficient for navigation, tools, spares and any activity (like camping) that will be needed. Sharing gear really doesn't work on the road like you expect. In a pinch it's fine but every day, all the time it's a drag on the group and timing.
Knowing approximately how many miles your group is capable of is the only way to really schedule and anticipate where you're going to need accommodations. The lowest capable rider in the group is going to define how far you can get each day.
Flexibility is key and if you haven't per-arranged accommodations, expect to kill a chunk of time finding a place to stop/camp/stay every day, especially in peak tourism seasons.
So many more lessons learned on this trip. TBC
You really need to ride a short overnight trip with everyone participating and make sure they have the knowledge, skills, endurance & gear to safely go and come back in one piece. Communicating expectations and ground rules is critically important. Making sure that all riders can speak up when they are in the weeds is the only way everyone will stay safe.
Everyone should have the basic required gear to be fully self sufficient for navigation, tools, spares and any activity (like camping) that will be needed. Sharing gear really doesn't work on the road like you expect. In a pinch it's fine but every day, all the time it's a drag on the group and timing.
Knowing approximately how many miles your group is capable of is the only way to really schedule and anticipate where you're going to need accommodations. The lowest capable rider in the group is going to define how far you can get each day.
Flexibility is key and if you haven't per-arranged accommodations, expect to kill a chunk of time finding a place to stop/camp/stay every day, especially in peak tourism seasons.
So many more lessons learned on this trip. TBC
Can't see your pics.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
smorgdonkey
Kick Henry Jackassowski
I don't have much use for a tourer but a little city bike is appealing to me. I was looking at Suzuki's TU 250 but my plan never really came together.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
Got a chance last week to also check out the Zero electric line of motorcycles. Super cool concept but due to be low volume they are pretty spendy for what you get and lack the name brand top notch components like brembos or WP suspension that other volume manufactures add. The accessories/upgrade are also not cheap but damn if they are not a total hoot to ride and cheap to operate. No heat coming off the motor, instant torque, no shifting and really quiet. Range and lack of standard L2 charging are a drag. You can add L2 charging w/ factory upgrade for $2300 or much less if you hack it together yourself. I would dig having one as a commuter/run about.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
continued
The old S3 wasn't really up to the offline GPS task and I wound up switching over to my Pixel 2, which worked fine. The RAM mount made for bicycles is actually a great way to mount the phone on the handle bars, low and between the risers. https://www.rammount.com/part/RAP-274-1-UN7U $29 bucks from GPS city and it comes with the silicone safety net. TBH, there were times I forgot to use the net and it didn't budge at all, even with some hard hits to the front end. Being able to quickly disconnect the phone & X Grip, then take it with you when you get off the bike is nice. The S3 was just too dang slow to acquire GPS signals and calculate complicated routes.
OsmAnd was very handy, especially for street nav in areas with out signal. Being able to load the GPX files for the Washington Backcountry Disc. Route was handy. Offroad or on primitive/unmaintained forest roads it was a bit tricky. Having offline maps in Google Maps was a good cross reference/sanity check. Getting familiar with the features and settings of OsmAnd prior to setting off was essential as it's not the most intuitive interface & thre's a small learning curve.
With space at a minimum and so many different riding & general weather conditions , switching out any bulky gear for more space efficient gear was key to getting better clothing options in the bags. Lightweight, small and efficient are generally more expensive options but well worth it. Example, originally brought a nested camping cookset, MSR Whisperlite and fuel bottle....but all we really wound up doing was heating water for food rehydration and coffee. During the reboot, I found a Jetboil Zip on sale and swapped it out for less bulk, less weight and a more efficient system.
Off bike days every so often are a much needed reset. Those biodegradable camping personal cleaning wipes are really nice when you don't have access to showers or water warm enough to wash off in for a few days.
One change I'm making right off is carrying a more complete tool kit/spares in a tail bag that will live on the bike, full time. That'll include tire plugs and a compact 12v compressor so I can repair punctures in my tubeless tires on the go. We lost nearly an entire day and had to cut our offroad trip short due to a punctured tube.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
You can see the mount in the pic above. I like how it keeps the screen below the instruments. I really like to just glance at the GPS for intersections and route confirmation so it doesn't really need to be in the direct line of sight. The only other place that would be possibly better for that is above the cluster, behind the windscreen but that would take a much more expensive mounting solution.
Thanks for sharing the info and pics. I hope to do some many day adventures on my bike some day.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
I can't wait to do another multi-day trip. Definitely want to get a sheepskin pad before I set out again...little more comfort and air circulation downtown.
I've got an airhawk which helps a bunch. I'm looking to put a sheepskin on top of it.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
On the lookout for some new boots.
My Icon Treadwells have taken a beating and I want something for a little more all terrain sole for that times you have to get off the bike and push or horse it around in the dirt. Not sure if I need to bother with waterproof but I definitely want something breathable.
My Icon Treadwells have taken a beating and I want something for a little more all terrain sole for that times you have to get off the bike and push or horse it around in the dirt. Not sure if I need to bother with waterproof but I definitely want something breathable.