Wake-up Call

If you haven't read my last post stop and read it here.

I've thought about Joe's experience a lot in the last few days. I admit it was a little like a cold shower in the middle of a hot date.

However, it hasn't dampened my enthusiasm. I'll go over some of the points that I think are relevant. Comments about Joe's riding are meant to be critical examination and not at all derogatory.

1. He missed the high line which looks as if it would have put him on solid rock. I am guessing that his rear tire caught that fracture line and threw off his balance. The fact that his buddy rode through without incident indicates that the area was passable.
   Some days you're the tree, some days you're the bear.
2. He didn't have the brake and clutch covered. This is mentioned by others in the comments. This might have meant locking the front wheel and dumping the bike rather going off the edge. 
3. No steering dampener. This might have helped hold the front end in place.
   Perhaps the biggest advantage is that it prevents a lot of fatigue on the trail. Coupled with his recent sickness this could have made a huge difference in being able to pick and hold lines in tough terrain.

So what does this mean for me?

When I went across country last time, and especially when I did the off road riding on the White Rim Trail, my attitude was that it was going to be a long trip and to just relax and take it easy. This is going to be an even longer and harder trip so the advice is even more important.

To that end:

1. I'm going over all my plans in greater detail. What is my Plan B? and C?
2. I tend to be happy-go-lucky but when I'll be a long way from help and riding solo I'll need to be a little more careful. If I took the same spill Joe did, and wasn't able to crawl back up to the trail, who would ever find me?
3. Physical training - I've been working out but I've upped my goals quite a bit. This might be the single most important component for success!
4. A lighter, simpler bike. I'll be taking everything off my bike that I can. Less is definitely more. And the more firmly it's clamped to the bike the better.
   One of the problems with the last two trips is that I had the de rigueur metal panniers. In really rough stuff they tended to sway a bit. Like an out of synch pendulum they would be zigging when the rest of the bike was zagging which made for some very stressful riding. To get up Murphy's Hogback I had to take them off an carry them to the top.
5. DBAJ (dee-badge) - Don't Be A Jerk! This is my usual mantra when out on a solo adventure ride. Now more than ever!

Thanks Joe for the wake-up call. I'll buy you a beer in San Francisco when I get there.

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Make my day, tell a friend about this blog!

When the TAT bites back!

This is a video of a very hard crash on the TAT.



This is a link to all the rider's comments after the event. Read them all, there is much to learn.

It wasn't a Disney ending but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

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Make my day, tell a friend about this blog!

TAT - The Bike

The bike for the trip will be a 2002 ATK 605 DSES

This is it coming out of winter hibernation.

In case you're wondering what an ATK is I refer you to Greg Cifu's excellent history of the ATK brand and a picture of his bike that is inspiring me.

The bike is based on a Rotax 600cc air cooled 4-stroke engine. If you look closely you will notice that it has a most unusual asymmetrical frame. I'll have more pictures as I assemble the new bits to be added. Keith at American Dirt Bike is sending me new parts to make the bike even more robust and reliable.

These pictures show that it plays well in the dirt and can hold it's own on single track trails. It's big but all that torque is great when the going gets tough.

More to come as progress is made.

Honda CL72 Scrambler For Sale $25

The title and the pictures say it all. This is going to the metal recycle bin in a couple of days but I thought I'd give it one last chance to survive if somebody wanted to rescue it for parts.

• VIN: CL72-317153
• Engine: CL72E-317176
• The engine is stuck
• The tires are rotted
• The chrome is bad
• There is no paperwork other than a receipt for your $25
• No, I will not break it down for you and send you bits or pieces. It's all or nothing.
• I will hold it for a couple of weeks if you pay for it NOW. If you don't pick it up I'll keep the money and take it to the metal bin anyway.

CL72E-317176

CL72-317153

Why does NYC hate its cops?

When I first came to NYC in the '60's I was just like Stevie Wonder, “New York City. Just like I pictured it.”* It didn't take long for the picture to change.

I was walking through the Bronx with a friend and as we stopped for a light I said “Hi” to a cop standing there and remarked that the weather looked like spring was finally here. As my friend and I walked away he asked “What the hell was I doing talking to a cop? You don't ever talk to a cop!”

In the '70's I remember NYC as a place where law and order had broken down. In the subway you put your back to the wall and scanned left and right, left and right. Once on the train you were regularly treated to gangs coming through, doing whatever they wanted. In many neighborhoods you walked fast and didn't look back.

Last week a motorcycle rider was killed in the Bronx when he ran into a police cruiser while trying to outrun the cops. Tragic but who was really to fault? Online, many exclaimed that the police deliberately ran him down. It had to be the hated police, it couldn't be the rider's fault.

I read the same news accounts and came away with a different view. Think of speeding toward a rail crossing. The lights are flashing, the train is blowing its horn, but the cops are on your tail and if you make it you'll be free. In the movies the outlaw hero makes it and the evil cops are stuck in frustration.

In the real world it's very different. The cop probably was trying to use his cruiser to block the getaway path and the rider took the chance that he could beat it. Since it wasn't the movies the end wasn't so happy. I wasn't there, I don't know the true facts. Neither were the cop bashers. I have to wonder why so many were so quick to jump to the defense of a person exhibiting criminal behavior in one of the most dangerous and crime ridden neighborhoods of NYC and so quick to condemn the cop trying to control the situation.

My guess is that a lot of the people weren't around in the '70's. My guess is that they don't live in the Bronx. My guess is that they know few, if any, cops personally. I'll also guess that if they were robbed, or burgled, or had their own motorcycle stolen they would call the police and not their friends. Very likely they would be online complaining about why the cops weren't doing more to make the neighborhoods safe and capturing the people responsible for such crimes.

Cops are real people trying to do a miserable job. There are good ones and bad ones. Some days they can do no wrong, on other days they make mistakes. They aren't helped by people who view them as an occupying force.

When was the last time you were on a street corner and said “Hi” to a cop?

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* "Living for the City" is a 1973 hit single by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label, from his Innervisions album.

Getting ready for the TransAmerica Trail (TAT)

This summer I'm going to do another of those things I've wanted to do. I'm going to ride the TransAmerica Trail from end to end. And I'm going to do it solo. On a weird bike.

The TAT is the brilliant work of Sam Correro. It runs from Tellico Plains, TN to the Pacific Ocean at Port Orford, OR. Roughly 4000 miles. If you go to the TAT website and look at the pictures you'll see just how rough it can be. However, I think it should be 6 weeks of pure bliss.

This will be one of a series of cross country trips starting back in the '70's when I rode a Honda CB77 Super Hawk from Boston to San Francisco. The bike had clip-ons and a racing seat. I wore jeans, an old Army field jacket and a Bell helmet. I was as cool as Steve McQueen when I wasn't frozen like a Popsicle.

White Rim Trail, Moab UT

In 2007 I rode my Transalp on the old US-50 from Ocean City MD to San Francisco with time out to ride the White Rim Trail in Moab UT and the Sierra Nevada in Calif. I left my trusty bike with a friend and flew home.

Somewhere in Baja California Sur, Mexico

The following year I flew back and Marty and I spend 3 weeks wandering around in Baja looking for Fortune and Glory.

You go that way as fast as you want to!

2010 was the year to set a land speed record at Bonneville. We didn't make it but came damn close.

3 feet deep and running fast.

In 2011 I attempted to ride my CB1100F across country on US-6 but a major storm Irene flooded out the Susquehanna River to the point where the water was deep and fast. I was stranded for two days and then turned back. The wheel bearings were shot from repeatedly being submerged in the muddy water.

2012 was going to be another attempt to ride US-6. I was going to take the CB1100F and Beth was going to ride the CB900F. Unfortunately it never got past the planning stages because they kept extending my contract at work. I either have lots of money or lots of time but never both at once.

So, this is the year for the TAT. Come hell or high water. I'm getting the bits together and will chronicle the preparations as they come along. Then I'll post along the trail with shots of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Cheers.

Common Sense vs The Nannies

Hugh Pickens writes in about the detrimental effects of mandatory helmet laws (at least as applied to adults): "Elisabeth Rosenthal writes that in the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God's truth but many European health experts have taken a very different view. 'Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury,' writes Rosenthal. 'But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.' On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles causing more health problems like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Bicycling advocates say that the problem with pushing helmets isn't practicality but that helmets make a basically safe activity seem really dangerous, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network like the one in New York City, where a bike-sharing program is to open next year. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule. 'Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn't justified — in fact, cycling has many health benefits,' says Piet de Jong. 'Statistically, if we wear helmets for cycling, maybe we should wear helmets when we climb ladders or get into a bath, because there are lots more injuries during those activities.'"

Bikers at the movies

High Tech 3 Stooges

We the people ...

The Downside of Liberty

For hippies and bohemians as for businesspeople and investors, the extreme individualism of the ’60s has been triumphant. Selfishness won.

A must read article from the New York Times is here. The all-about-me generations shouldn't complain when it's not all about them. It's really all the same.

How to rebuild a British engine

Biker arrested for (what)?

The story from the Dallas news station is here.

You're not special

Somebody with common sense and straight talk.

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MotoCrossing a GP Bike!

I like to get air on my dirt bike but this is a little insane.



Thanks to Hermann for this.

Caine's Arcade

Next time you're feeling like what you're doing just isn't working out and you're thinking of quitting come back and watch this video again. We all get by with patience and a little help from our friends.



Thanks to Mary for bringing this to me.

Buenos Ares to Santiago

El Paso de Agua Negra in the Andes between Argentina and Chile is supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world. These short videos make me want to go there soon.

Flying is still fun!

FinnAir seems to get it that flying doesn't have to be a drag.

Surprise Dance on Finnair Flight to celebrate India's Republic Day


Finnair A340 Angry Birds flight to Singapore


A group of Flight Attendants do a surprise dance for their colleagues.


Can you imagine any of the US airlines having this much imagination with the exception of SouthWest?
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Wiring Diagram - 70's style

Siberia cross-country

Makes my problems with the flooding in Pennsylvania last fall look very small indeed.

Thanks Herman.

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The adventure continues ...

My friend Marty was in town so we decided to go dirt bike riding. Unfortunately the forecast of Sunny 45F turned into rain and sleet. For lack of anything better to do we decided to go buy a motorcycle. A CB900F to match my CB1100F.

After lunch we connected with the seller in NH and arranged a meeting. The bike was close to what I expected and a price was agreed upon. We loaded the bike into the back of my pickup and were back on the road. So far, so good.

I dropped Marty off in Boston and headed back to CT on the Mass Turnpike. It was late and I was tired but the rain had quit so I was looking forward to an easy ride home.

I usually stop in Sturbridge to get gas because it is usually ~20¢ cheaper than in CT. Because I was tired and was listening to the Willie Mays' biography audiobook I drifted past the exit. $6 down the drain I thought. I also noticed the truck pulling slightly to the left. Something to check into in the morning.

At the Rt 32 exit it all came apart. The left front tire went flat and I limped into the Park & Ride lot across from the exit. The spare tire wouldn't release from the hanger but that turned out to be moot because it was flat anyway.

I was stranded. Or was I? I had a motorcycle on the back of the truck and it had turned surprisingly warm (40F). The small matter of no helmet or license plate were only technicalities that probably wouldn't interest anyone at 11:00 at night.

Getting a 530 pound bike off a listing pickup in the semi-darkness was certainly an experiment in terror. Slowly, carefully, itsy bitsy tiny moves and it was down. And just then a State Trooper pulled into the parking lot. Hmmm. Those technicalities were suddenly a little more prominent than I expected. I figured that I would just wait it out until he/she came over to ask what I was up to. Turns out they didn't care. They were "cooping", which is to say sleeping for an hour.

After they took off I zipped up my jacket, put on my work gloves, and took off for home. This was pretty uneventful. I didn't freeze but I was definitely shivering along the way. 22 miles of mostly clear roads that I took at a moderate 45mph for fear of a spot of ice. The hardest part was arriving home and tippy-toeing down the snowy driveway. I parked it and ran in to turn the electric blanket to HIGH.

The next morning I looked out on my new purchase and decided that all was well with the world. I would just go back to the pickup, take off the tire, get a new one mounted, and bring the pickup home.

Of course this was but a dream. First the jack handle broke. A nice man offered the jack from his Prius but that proved to be futile. So off to Harbor freight 12 miles away to buy a jack.

Back with the jack the truck went up into the air with ease but now the wheel wouldn't release from the hub! I tried kicking it. I tried moving the steering wheel back and forth. I tried driving around the parking lot with no lug nuts. Nothing.

So time for a call to AAA. The guy came out with a BIG hammer and he couldn't get it loose. Up on the back of his truck it went and down to the Goodyear dealer who called and told me that it would be $400. WTF!! I was waiting for him to tell me that the headlamps needed a quart of light juice while it was in the shop.

When I balked he said that it was a mistake, "Sorry, I was looking at the wrong screen. It's only $268 for two tires." Much better. I'm supposed to pick it up in an hour. I wonder what the final charge will be.

Epilog:
$142 for the new tire, mounting, and tax. Reasonable. Add in the $6 I lost by not getting my gas in Sturbridge and the $150 savings I negotiated from the CB900's asking price shrinks to only $2. Oh well, that's life!
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