For those of you who follow Moto GP closely this may not be news but since I don't follow is at all beyond Ray's awesome viewing events (thanks again Ray), I found this interesting.
I am not a good (or even marginal) dirt rider. The ADV bikes appeal to me for the ergos rather their dirty nature.
My personal favorite is the DR650 (Post '96 version. Preferably post '04). If I were to ride to Alaska to Mexico and points south I'd use the DR.
I've had;
Kawi KLR650. Decent bike. Very tall (not a problem for me but it is for shorter people). Too fussy Shim adjustable 4 valve heads on a 39 HP thumper? give me a break. Chain tensioner on counter balancer needs an aftermarket fix. Why not do it right in the first place? Water cooled. Something else that can fail. Pretty bullet proof if properly maintained. Large stock gas tank. Good range. A ton of aftermarket accessories available.
BMW 1150GS ADV. Too heavy (don't drop it fully loaded) A decent street bike. Lots of accessories available Can carry a lot of stuff
BMW F800GS. (still own) Lighter and cheaper than a 1200 GS Tall for some people Still pretty heavy for narly dirt but lots of people do it. See you tube. Lots of accessories. Very comfortable if you replace the stock seat.
Suzuki DR650 (still own) Lighter and shorter than KLR650 Simple as dirt air/oil cooled gear driven counter balancer (zero maintenance) Threaded locknut adjusted 2 valve head Lots of accessories available. Stock tank too small, Need one of the many aftermarket large tanks No stock rear rack. Stock seat sucks rocks
Suzuki DRZ400 (haven't owned one but have ridden one a fair bit Light and good handler. A blast on the street. water cooled not as common as the DR650
A state patrol officer I knew told me that the accident report forms they fill out was mostly check boxes with space to write out things that didn't have a box. Usually they just checked the box that was closest to that particular situation to save on writing. The reports are later entered into their database. I suspect that they have a lot of predefined fields in the database. The reports that Paul posts look like the output of a database query.
One thing that the officer told me was that there was one box missing from the report form that he thought he would be able to use in about 80% of the accident reports; HUA (Head Up Ass).
I remember reading an article in one of the moto magazines about five years ago either written by, or referencing, James Ouellet who was one of the authors of the original Hurt report and is now the president of Motorcycle Accident Analysis Inc. He said that the five year life of a helmet is not necessarily true. He said that if the shell is intact (hasn't been dropped and has no visible cracks) and the chin strap is still properly attached and not weakened, the helmet still has plenty of life left in it. He ran some DOT impact certification tests on some 10+ year old helmets and they passed tests to the standards they were built to with no problem.
Sorry but I can't produce the actual article.
I still replace my helmets about every five years anyhow as the chin strap is usually pretty frayed and even if I haven't dropped the helmet it's still been banged around enough that I figure that I need to get a new one.
I've used my Roadcrafter down to the low 40's with an electric liner, electric gloves, long underwear, and chemical toe warmers. The main problem with the Roadcrafter is that if it fits properly for above 60 temperatures there isn't enough room for the additional layers when it gets cold unless you use electric clothing. If your electrics fail you're screwed.
Years ago I discovered quite by accident that my Darien jacket is much better in the cold. It's the best cold weather jacket I've ever had. It has a lot more room for additional layers and you can go quite cold (like into the low 30's) with no electric heat if you layer properly. The Darien pants have no insulation value but long underwear and fleece lined pants under the darien pants works well. The single most important thing is to seal the sleeve, waist, and neck openings as well as covering your neck all the way up to your chin. I used this setup when I drove a photographer shuttle motorcycle for the Twin Cities Marathon last fall. It was 28 Deg when I rode to the starting line. I rode back and forth on the freeway all morning between Minneapolis and St Paul and was toasty warm. The poor photographer who was my passenger froze his ass off though.
US12 from Lolo MT to Kooskia ID. Old picture form several trips ago. Usually I'm by myself when I'm there and there's no one to operate the camera. When you get to this sign traveling from Lolo MT you've already been riding for about 30 miles on nice twisty roads.
There are a lot more roads that I really like but the Lolo pass road is my favorite.
I bought a FG TPG Teton (the waist length version of the Ranier) two years ago. I also have a 10 year old Roadcrafter. I still wear them both and like them both for different reasons. The Teton has better fit and finish than the stich. It also has lots of pockets (I like lots of pockets), adequate but not great ventilation for hot days, and the rain proof zippers are pretty nice.
The only real down side to the TPG is that the material probably does not have the abrasion protection that the heavier stich material provides. The TPG armour doesn't seem as good as the stich but it is CE certified so it may be fine. I have not crash tested either of these so these are just my guesses.
I think that I read that Aerostich is making changes to the roadcrafter including rain proof zippers.
The Tire Retread and Repair Information Bureau said that its industry saves U.S. truckers about $3 billion annually in tire purchasing costs.
The bureau's managing director, David Stevens, said last fall that numerous government studies have determined that tire debris can be blamed no more on retreaded tires than on new ones.
This implies that new regular tires come apart just as often as retreads. Is this true? The only new tires I've ever heard of that delaminated were the Firestone(?) tires on the Ford Explorer about 10 years ago. I've always assumed that the tire treads I see on the road are from retreads.
If you sell anything, a house, a car, a company, you always appreciate a good bidding war. Rivals Audi and Daimler could be in such a bidding war, if Italy’s Corriere della Sera is correctly informed. They are feuding over a troubled maker of motor cycles, Ducati.
Any interest here in short DS rides in the North Metro?
That would depend on the degree of difficulty and how much advance notice. I'm a decent road rider but for off road I'm about one step above "totally sucks." My DS bike is a DR650 which is somewhat marginal in the tough stuff when ridden by someone who knows what they're doing -- that is to say, not me. Also, I hate sand.
I would like to ask peeps about why they have umbrella, and how much that costs. (I don't have it myself and am not really educated as to how I would use it).
I had a $1M umbrella policy until it was canceled because I wouldn't insure my motorcycles with the same company (American Family). I wouldn't insure my bikes with them because they wanted about three times what Dairyland is charging me. Never got a decent explanation as to why they wanted to link the bikes and the umbrella.
Anyhow, I had the umbrella policy because I'm the principal race officer (PRO) for the Calhoun Yacht Club. The PRO runs the races. I also occasionally do PRO work for other yacht club regattas and/or other race committee work for regional regattas. I also sometimes do other volunteer work. The Umbrella policy is just added protection above my home owners insurance.
When I first got an umbrella policy about 15 years ago it cost ~$100 a year. Last year it was $320.
I bought one of these after reading about it in MCN, mostly because it was cheap. I only use a throttle lock so that I can have a few seconds relief to stretch out the finger ligaments and muscles. After I've done the stretching, I turn off the throttle lock.
What I found is that it doesn't reliably stay in position. It comes with that black plastic thingy and a wide rubber band . The instructions say install it just like on the vid at the web site that Vince pointed to. It installed in about 5 seconds. I found that it would slip and the bike would decelerate fairly quickly. Then I took it off and installed the rubber band on the grip and then the throttle lock over the rubber band. There was a bit more friction but still not enough to reliably hold the throttle in position. Sometimes I could fiddle with it and get it to stay put long enough to stretch my fingers but the whole procedure was very distracting.
Maybe my bike's throttle return spring is too strong but it seems about average to me. If there was some way to increase the friction a bit it would be a decent solution for temporary relief but as it stands, at least on my bike, it doesn't work. A Vista Cruise or Throttle Meister work better but are a LOT more expensive.
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