Wednesday 4 July 2018
It's Inbetween Them
The BMW F800GS I rode later in the day tips the scales at just over twice the weight of the Yamaha. At just over 500lbs, it is a road ready adventure bike that you don't need to trailer to a trail, but it's a heavy thing, so you're never going to even think about taking it where the Yamaha went. For fire roads and simple trails, the BMW is fine, but all that weight also means lots of pieces to break off.
After riding both bikes, I really enjoyed the athletic nature and singular intent of the Yamaha, but I also enjoyed the road ready nature of the BMW. What I'd really like is something in between them. Fortunately, Yamaha has something in mind.
A few years ago they came out with the T7 concept bike - a lightweight, off road ready, dual sport machine that can make use of the roads and still handle off road in more than a gravel track way that you see all the adventure bikes doing in photoshoots. The T7 has since morphed into the Ténéré 700 World Raid Prototype. It's taken years to get to this point, but I hope that's because Yamaha aren't just rolling out another porky, 'lightweight' (but not really) adventure bike. What I'm looking for is something in between the trail bike and an adventure bike. Something that I don't need to trailer to trails and can keep up with traffic on the road, but also something that can let me exercise some of my new off road skills without worrying about pieces falling off or getting stuck in the woods.
For the Ténéré 700 to hit the mark, I need it to roll in fully fueled and ready to go at less than 400lbs/180kgs. A Dakar Rally bike (which the Ténéré 700 is obviously designed from) with the big navigation tower and over engineered for strength and endurance comes in at 320lbs/145kgs - so a 180 kilo weight goal isn't out to lunch.
I also need it to be robust, with lights that won't snap off the first time it's laid down and plastic bits built to flex, not snap. An exhaust that up high and not likely to take a hit when it's laid down is also an obvious ask. That sticky outy Akrapovic in the photo is making me think they've lost the plot. I want it tucked up close to the seat and protected.
I'm willing to give up some of the BMW's road bike plushness for a lightweight, modern, dual sport bike that is truly capable of off roading. I hope that T7/Ténéré 700 is that bike.
Thursday 6 September 2018
Escape
The west coast as autumn falls would be glorious. As the snows start to fly in Canada, I'd be into Mexico and Central America. An unrushed few weeks working my down through the many border crossings would be much less stressful if I didn't have to be somewhere somewhen. Crossing the Darien Gap from Panama to Columbia is five days on a boat and a chance to take a break from the saddle.
The boat lands in Columbia. Once in South America I'd find somewhere to bed down over the holidays in Colombia or Ecuador before rolling south into the South American summer. Spending Christmas on an empty Andean shoreline facing the never ending Pacific would be glorious.
I'd push south and see Machu Picchu after the holidays and then try and catch at least one stage of the Dakar Rally as it thunders around Peru in January. A Peruvian desert stage would be awesome.
As summer wore on in the southern hemisphere, I'd continue south to Ushuaia on the southern end of Argentina. After going from arctic to antarctic, I'd work my way back up to Buenos Aires and start the process of packing up the bike for a trans-Atlantic crossing to Cape Town.
https://adventuremotorcycletravel.com/listing/darien-gap/
http://wildcardsailing.com/motorcycle-shipping-to-colombia/
https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2017/04/todd-blubaughs-too-far-gone.html
...for what it feels like to peer over the edge into a never ending ride.
Thursday 14 January 2016
Very Superstitious: Riding The Superstition Mountains of Arizona
Arizona roads are magical. |
Soon enough we're out of the urban sprawl of Phoenix and feeling the cool desert breeze as we head north on Highway 87 through scattered saguaro cactus. I have that realization I often get when I haven't been in the saddle in a while: wow, do I love riding a motorbike! The vulnerability, the sensory overload and the speed conspire to make a rush of adrenaline that opens you up to this overwhelming experience even more. I've tried many things, some of them not particularly good for me, but nothing, and I mean nothing, feels better than disappearing down the road on two wheels.
Once clear of traffic lights I immediately get lost in the winding corners and elevation changes of the Bush Highway. The bike is leaning left and right, feeling weightless under me and eager to spring forward at the twist of the throttle. My twenty year old Concours at home under a blanket in the garage does a good job with a thousand ccs, this newer fourteen-hundred cc machine is a revelation, even two up.
The Ride: 350+kms through the Superstition Mountains |
A couple of weeks after our ride our route was buried in a foot of snow. |
The Bush Highway turns back toward the sprawl, so after crossing Usurer's Pass we drop down to Highway 60 in Apache Junction having bypassed miles of Mesan strip malls. Highway 60 is empty and arrow straight. What would you do on a 160 horsepower bike you've never ridden before? I do it. In what feels like moments we're leaving the desert floor behind us and climbing into the Superstition Mountains. I feel like I'm sitting on a Saturn V in a full stage one burn.
The ride into the Superstition Mountains is elevating. |
I've wanted to ride this road to Globe since driving it in a miserly Nissan rental car years before. It's twenty five miles of being on the side of your tires. You're only upright as you're switching sides. The temperature drops and snow begins to appear in shady patches on the side of the road. We surge ever upward in a cocoon of still air. The Concours' fairing is keeping the worst of it at bay while that mighty engine makes short work of any moving chicanes in front of us. Would I like to ride this road on a sport bike? Sure, but the big Kawi makes it easy to enjoy two up with luggage.
As is the way with winding roads I get to the end of them in a trance, and always earlier than I think I should. By this point we're both cold regardless of what we're wearing and fairings. The outside temperature in Globe is 4°C. We jump off the bike at the Copper Bistro and stamp some feeling back into our legs. Walking into the restaurant we're met with the incredulous stares of the locals.
"Kinda cold to be out on a bike, ain't it?"
"We're Canadian."
"Ahh..."
The old timer at the bar gives us a look like he understands why we're out but still pities us for doing it. We can't help being what we are.
Do not mess with the Globe popo. |
Warmed up, we're back on the bike and filling up before ducking out of Globe on the 188 into the Tonto Basin, a two thousand foot drop down from where we had lunch. In warmer weather the 188 is busy with boat haulers heading to the lake behind the Roosevelt dam, but today the road is ours.
Roosevelt Dam, a nice stop and the beginning of the rather bananas Apache Trail - an astonishing road but not the sort of thing you'd want to two up on a Concours. |
We pull into Roosevelt Dam for a stretch and a drink of water before following 188 to its end at Highway 87. Our animal sighting luck kicks in at this point. As we're kitting up to leave the dam a bald eagle flies over it and down the Salt River looking a scene out of a movie.
By this point it's mid-afternoon and we're both wind blown, dehydrated and a bit achy from the swings in temperature, and I've got the trickiest part of the ride coming up. I've driven the 87 in a car and know what's coming. We pull up to make sure our ATGATT is airtight and for me to get my head on straight for a high speed decent on a fast two lane highway down the side of a mountain range.
Have a stretch and get your head on straight for the ride back to Phoenix. The locals don't take this road slowly. |
The Concours surges down the highway and I drop into the flow of traffic. Leaning into corners for up to thirty seconds at a time has me concentrating on perfect arcs and not being happy with the results. How often do you get to describe high speed arcs for an hour at a time? I'm feeling rusty, frustrated and want to find a way to smooth out my mid-corner corrections. Fortunately I'd been reading Total Control by Lee Parks on Kindle and found his advice about one handed steering to be the solution to my broken corners.
Total Control by Lee Parks - it's exhaustive in its description of motorcycle physics. I wouldn't call it light reading, but that one bit on steering input made me a better rider instantly. |
The Concours is back in the lot next to this ridiculous thing. I'd take two wheels over anything else any day. |
The rush hour drive home in the rental SUV is tedious and slow, but that blast in the mountains cleared out the cobwebs. The ZG1400 made an interesting comparison with my ZG1000. I found the newer bike a comfortable and agile machine, but the whining of electronics didn't thrill me, and the tightness of the foot controls were awkward. Because this is someone else's bike they made choices (like ridiculously high risers) that I wouldn't have. None of these things spoiled the ride, and the biblical power of the ZG1400 motor is something that needs to be felt to be believed. This taste of ZG1400 makes me wonder how I'd fettle my own. Thoughts of a ZG1400 swirl in my mind as I roll along with the commuters into the setting sun.
ZG1400s for sale (they aren't $800 like my old ZG1000 was)...
2008 with 100k on it: $8600 (really?)
2008 with 63k on it: $7850
2008 with 13k on it: $8900
2009 with 72k on it: $7000
2013 with 8k on it: $13,000
2015 with <1k on it: $13,500
new 2016: $18,000
Photos from the helmet cam. It was supposed to be video but I didn't set it up right. I guess I'll have to go back and do it again. I'm most sorry you can't hear the sound of a ZG1400 engine singing in the tunnel...
The Bush Highway |
The tunnel out of Superior - the Concours' engine was a spine tingling howl! |
The road to Globe |
The never straight 87 back to Scottsdale - 3300 feet down to the desert floor, none of it straight... at 80mph. |
Dropping down into the Tonto Basin |
188 into the Roosevelt Dam |
The Apache Trail a couple of days later in the rental car... |
Back of the Roosevelt Dam before tackling the Apache Trail. |
Roosevelt Dam |
Sunset on the Apache Trail |
Ride Maps
The actual trip:
The original plan:
A bit less: the Superstition loop with a jaunt up to the interesting bit of Hwy 60 - though mileage wise this is pretty close to the full monty below. it doesn't include AZride's Bushy bypass...
Getting to the twisty bits (hitting the interesting bit of 60 before coming back):
The full monty: what I would have aimed for solo
Friday 2 April 2021
Finding Meaning on Two Wheels: a philosophy of motorcycling
My professional life is kicking the shit out of me this year, so when the never ending winter of COVID finally ended and the roads cleared so that I could ride again it felt like coming up for air after a winter underwater. It isn't too far a reach to say that riding feels like breathing to me.
I'm in the process of buying another bike, one big enough for my son and I to go on rides again with, and the current owner said he'd never ride again. I can't imagine a situation where I'd ever say that. You sometimes hear stories of elderly senior citizens who still ride. That'll be me, or I won't be a senior citizen.
In the professional reflections blog I've been thinking about full commitment and how a job that encourages it can make you your best self. It's a lasting sadness that so many people see work as purgatory rather than an opportunity to find their better selves.
The Japanese are much better at this than westerners are. They don't wish each other good luck when doing something difficult, they simply say, "gambate!" or 'do your best!' And that effort is what is respected regardless of outcome. They make effort a socially appreciated thing where western cultures tend to fixate on winning. There is a great scene in the Tokyo Ghoul anime where the bad guy is dying after a vicious fight. He's an evil, cannibal ghoul so there aren't many redeeming features there, but everyone stops to listen respectfully to his last words because he put up such an epic fight. We're all too busy trying to win to care about anything like that. We'd vilify and belittle him rather than respect the effort. This makes us remarkably unhappy because the problem with competition is that there is always a loser.
When you're approaching an activity that makes full use of your facilities you get lost in it. It doesn't limit you, it expands you, makes you better. Motorcycling is a technically complex, physically and mentally demanding activity that asks a lot of you, but the rewards are worth the risks.If you're Simon Pavey or Guy Martin or Valentino Rossi, you race because that's where you have to get to in order to find the edge of your skills and give you that sense of complete immersion. The leading edge of my own motorcycling has also moved on. Where I'd once be happy with commuting on a small bike, I'm now working my way through ownership of different kinds of bikes and wish to expand further. The limits I'm seeking in motorcycling aren't just in riding, but also in mechanics. It's for that reason that I find events like the Dakar, especially when someone like Lyndon Poskitt does it in the malle moto class, so fascinating. They're combining that technical skill with riding ability in a way that most racers can't or won't.
My work is usually able to give me enough latitude to fully immerse myself, but this year COVID has made it a broken thing unable to do anything well. It has changed from an opportunity to seek excellence to never ending triage in mediocrity. This has me asking hard questions about what I'd do if I didn't need the money it provides. These are questions you should ask yourself before retirement, but they're also questions you should ask yourself when you're in danger of getting mired in work that doesn't let you find your best self.
Watching Ride With Norman Reedus last week, he was on the South Island of New Zealand where he had a chat with a young man from Canada who had opened up a business there. One of his reasons for living where he does was that there had to be good riding roads easily accessible nearby. This means he can explore riding in challenging circumstances, which seems like enlightenment to me.
In my final years of teaching I hope I can rediscover that sense of energizing peak performance that improves rather than limits me, and if not there then in another job that gives me the latitude I need to chase excellence while supporting my family. Should I ever get to the point where I don't need to spend my days working for someone else, then it'll be time to move to a place where I can explore riding more fully.
That somewhere would have easy to access track days that let me explore riding dynamics at the edge of road riding, complex local roads that make me a better rider and off road opportunities that let me explore riding in a variety of unpaved situations. Where I am now offers none of these things. I'd also have the means to develop my mechanical skills to the limit. I'm fortunate in that I have such a rich hobby and sport to explore. I feel sorry for those that don't.
Tuesday 28 July 2015
The Baffling Dual Sport Helmet Part 2
"All the street comfort in the world won't please you when you get to a dusty trail, you're hot, and your lid is a cramped, dust-filled mess and you're breathing hard and hot into your chin bar."
Ventilation seems to be at the heart of the big-chin bar in dual sport helmets, but you pay a price in aerodynamics. The chin-bar I get, but I'm still baffled by the visor.
Arai recently came out with a new version of their street helmet and they go to great pains explaining how a smoother shell is less likely to catch on obstructions if you come off at speed. Of course, there are a hell of a lot more obstructions if you come off at speed off road, but that doesn't seem to factor into dual sport helmet thinking.
What do massive visors do? They create a huge projection aimed in the direction you're going that begs to pull your head off in a crash at anything over walking speeds.
Back in the day when goggles didn't have the benefit of modern reactive lenses and toughness perhaps a giant bill was all you had to keep the sun out of your eyes, but this was, at best, a partial measure. It resulted in you experiencing huge swings in brightness from sun in your eyes to shade over and over again.
We're well into the 21st Century now and lens technology has come a long way. You hardly need a giant beak to keep the sun from blinding you any more, and a reactive lens offers you the benefit of less eye strain between shadows and blinding sunlight.
I got a free pair of cool looking steam-punk goggles with a helmet this year and was virtually blind in them when trying to ride in the sun, they were a disaster. A careful shopping trip later I had a pair of goggles that allow me to ride in direct sunlight with zero distortion, no squint and excellent viewing in the shade as well, they even work well at night. When wearing these goggles a bill is only a dangerous projection, it serves no function.
I was watching the Dakar Rally this year when this happened:
You have to wonder what it felt like when his face bounced off the road and tore that visor half off. Arai's logic with their new R75 makes a lot of sense after seeing that, yet everyone on a dual sport or adventure bike wants to look like Charlie & Ewan, and so big billed dual sport helmets keep happening.
I'd love to see a leading helmet company like Arai offer the same kind of minimal projection/safety and aerodynamic benefit they talk about in the R75 in a well ventilated, dual sport ready lid, but form seems to come before function in the image conscious world of adventure motorcycling.
Duckbills everywhere... |
Sunday 5 December 2021
Motorcycling For Sport On a Budget
LOGISTICS
The trickiest part about trying to arrange your motorcycling to provide you with a sporting outlet are the logistics. You can't ride a track/trials/dirt bike to where you're going to ride it in a sporting fashion, so you need transportation options that'll get you and your gear to where you intend to use it.
The obvious choice (if you're looking for a budget choice) is to look at cargo vans - or so I thought. Thanks to COVID, the market for these (like many other things) has gone bonkers as every unemployed rocket scientist in the world rushes out to grab a used van to deliver for Amazon.
Here are some current online choices:
My favourite is the fuggly Transit Connect that isn't even big enough to hold a single bike and is almost a decade old with over two-hundred thousand kilometres on it forSPORTS RIDING OPTIONS: Trials
The Amateur Trials Riding Association of Ontario offers regular weekend events throughout the summer and fall and would make for a great target to aim for. I'd be a rookie, but I'm not in it to win it, I'm in it to improve my moto-craft and trials offer a unique focus on balance and control in that regard.