Saturday 3 November 2018
West Coast Siren Call
To set up San Francisco bike storage I'd need to get an Ontario bike down there and parked up in the storage facility. The idea is to have a ready to go bike that I can fly to with minimal luggage. I'd eventually be able to fly in to San Francisco with only a carry on bag, take a cab to the storage unit and be on two wheels in one of the best motorcycling locations in the world within a few hours of flying out of the snowbelt. For the setup I'd take known, works-for-me gear for the ride and then hang it up in the storage unit along with the bike. Flights back at the moment are one stop, seven hours and about $700 Canadian.
The weather is already closing in here. We've had dustings of snow multiple times. This would be one of my last chances to make the ride out west before the white wall of winter descends on us. In trying to make good time to SanFran, I'd also aim to get a motorcycling bucket list item done: an Iron Butt thousand miles in twenty-four hours:
Day 1: Elora to Hampton Inn Portage IL. Just under 500 miles over the border and to the edge of Chicago. Make sure everything is ready for the big push on Day 2 (the Iron Butt 1000 miles in 24 hours). Make sure everything is good to go on the bike, get in early, eat and rest up for an early departure.
Day 2: Portage IL to Denver, CO. Be on the road by 5am for the big push west. Cross Chicago before rush hour picks up and then thump across the plains. 1027 miles in 24 hours. Get in to Denver overnight and then 2 days at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Denver Stapleton.
Day 3: Rest day in Denver.
Day 4: Denver to Grand Junction. Into the Rockies, 333 miles to the Hampton Inn Grand Junction. A lower mileage day means this should be as much about enjoying the mountains as it is about making time.
Day 5: Grand Junction to Ely. 429 mountain miles to Ely and the Ramada by Wyndam Ely passing through 3 national parks, so it should be a pretty ride.
Day 6: Ely NV to San Francisco. 554 mile day to wrap up the trip. Get into San Francisco late, park up the bike and put everything into hibernation mode. Load up a carry-on bag with the essentials and take a cab to the airport. Retrace the four thousand plus miles back in five hours.
I should be able to take the bike out, park it up and be back home within a week, then I'll have a bike on-call on the West Coast.
For this trip I need something that can cover big miles effectively but is still a useful tool on twisty roads. The big Triumph Tiger 1200XRx is a long distance capable bike that fits a big guy like me. It's also easy to maintain (shaft drive, fuel injection) and comes with many long distance handy abilities like long suspension to soak up bad roads and luggage for the long trip.
A big Tiger in this format costs just over $24k Canadian. It's a pretty thing, I saw the new ones in the flesh at the Triumph Tiger ATLAK meet up last summer. Many magazines describe the bike as very large, but I didn't find it overwhelmingly so. In fact, I was surprised at how svelte it was for a 1200cc adventure bike.
But there are some things about the big Tiger that I'm not a fan of. I've never gotten excited about the big aluminum panniers thing on adventure bikes, or any bike for that matter. I like the colour matched lucifer orange ones on my old Tiger. I think the aluminum ones look half assed and unfinished, and I get to pay hundreds more for the privilege of having them because others think they're a fashion item.
The other issue is a recent BIKE Magazine review in which their Tiger developed a number of electrical issues. Whatever is waiting for me on the West Coast would need to work when I opened that storage unit roller door. The Tiger is also a reasonably sensible choice, but it'd be nice to have something a bit more come-hither waiting for me in San-Fran.
For surprisingly similar money there is something that I'd describe as more of a dream bike: the Kawasaki H2 supercharged demon bike in sport touring form. The H2 SX is an efficient, powerful, supercharger-chirping-as-it-breaks-the-sound-barrier thing of beauty. It weighs about as much as the big Tiger but produces prodigiously more power and looks like a Japanese super model.
On top of that it has beautifully designed and colour matched panniers that practically disappear into the stunning looks of the bike, rather than looking like tacked on, low-rent metal boxes.
Having the SX sitting in a storage unit in San Francisco would be a constant West Coast siren call. If I wanted to go far, it could handle it, if I wanted to canyon carve in and around San-Fran, it'd do that to.
As much as I love adventure bikes for how well they fit me, I think I'd have the Kawasaki super model waiting for me on the west coast. It'd be a blast to ride on the trip out there and would fit in with Californian bike culture much better.
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Unscripted Moments
I was sitting in the garage last night working on the Concours when my wife stuck her head in the door and asked how I was doing. "I'm in my happy place," I replied.
What made it happy was that I was fixing a problem that had no instruction manual. Success wasn't guaranteed and I had to approach it from several different angles before I could finally come up with a solution. Real satisfaction followed a resolution to a situation that could easily have ended in failure. It was an entirely unscripted situation, the kind I long for after your typically scripted day in the life of a 21st Century human.
So much of our lives are scripted nowadays, from phones telling us when to be where to GPS units telling us how to get there. Brakes script themselves for us because we can't be bothered to learn how to use them effectively, traction control leaps in at a moment's notice to script your acceleration, vehicles will park themselves, warn you when something is behind you because you couldn't be bothered to turn your head, and even avoid obstacles you couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. I used to enjoy driving, now, at its best, it feels more like sitting on a roller coaster.
All this scripting is a result of software. It may sound funny coming from a computer technology teacher, but that software kills it for me. If I wanted to watch machines race I wouldn't put people in the cars at all, it's safer that way. It's been a long time since a driver could take a car by the scruff of its neck and drag it around a circuit. We do all this in the name of safety, but ultimately I think it's lowest common denominator thinking; software engineers design life for the least capable people, they can sell more of it that way.
There are places in mechanics where it just makes sense to incorporate computer control, especially when it amplifies an operator's nuanced control of a vehicle rather than overwriting it. Thank goodness for fuel injection. It allows us to create responsive, linear fuelling and use less of a diminishing resource, it's all good, as are disc brakes and other technological advances that improve rider feel. I'm certainly not anti-technology, I make my living teaching it, but I am anti-technology when it takes over human inputs instead of improving them. That kind of thinking breeds sheeple.
Traction control (many settings!), antilock brakes (many settings!), hill start control and more electronics than a moon shot - perhaps bikes aren't the last bastion after all. |
Except they increasingly are. After I started riding last year I was astonished that this is legal. In a granny state-world where safety is all that matters, where SUVs are considered better because they're bigger and collision avoidance systems are desirable because you shouldn't have to pay attention while operating a vehicle, motorcycles too are succumbing to our vapid, software scripted lives.
Monday 22 August 2016
Whimsical Tigers
On our recent cross-Ontario ride we were stopped a number of times by people who were curious about the Tiger. This is an eye catching, obviously modern looking bike with a Triumph logo, it prompted questions. If they see a new 'classic' Triumph, most of the general public think it's actually a classic. They wouldn't recognize the difference between fuel injection and carburetors even if it's advertised on the bike, they just see an old machine.
Colourful Triumphs of yore. The Naughties were neon! |
When we went to get the Tiger, 11 year old Max's eyes bulged out of his head and I knew we had a winner. Who makes a Lucifer orange tiger with stripes? Triumph in 2003, that's who. When they weren't churning out violently orange Tigers, they were putting out a wild assortment of colours. Of course, this was before Ewan & Charlie jumped on their austere Bayerische Motoren Werkes R1200s and reset the aesthetic paradigm for adventure motorcycles.
Why so serious? That muted blue is as close as you get to colour on a new Tiger. Other choices include military green or grey. A purposeful look is what sells adventure bikes nowadays... and don't forget to dress like a starship trooper! |
Besides paint options there is also the issue of styling. I find the compound curves and organic look of our 955i Tiger very engaging. Whomever was designing Triumphs in the early Naughties did it pretty much exactly the same way I would have. Since then Triumph, along with most other brands, have been chasing a more chiselled, hard edged look. Lamborghini did a stealth fighter aesthetic after the Diablo with crisp, folded edges and it seems to have spread. Between the muted colours, sharp edged styling and attitude driven rider styles, it's little wonder that our whimsical Tiger had people approaching us.
I realize manufacturers have got to build to the tastes of the day, but I'm hoping there are a group of motorcyclists out there who aren't so serious and miss those fantastic styles and colours. If there are, there is hope that my whimsical Tiger won't be so exceptional in the future.
LINKS
Even when they're blue, they're
mostly black.
https://rideapart.com/articles/what-the-color-of-your-motorcycle-says-about-youmostly black.
Black motorcycles are dead sexy. No, really. Researchers at the University of Kentucky (March, 2011) found that in 36% of crashes involving a driver’s failure to observe a motorcycle and then turning into its path involved black motorcycles.
Army green, ready to attack those adventures! |
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/2013/june/jun0413-triumph-releases-new-colours-and-a-sprint-gt-special-edition/
As the years go by, the colours get more and more muted.
I like my Tigers Tigger-like... |
Saturday 28 November 2015
IIHTM: The Digital Workshop
I'm a computer tech teacher by day, and the 3d printer revolution is astonishing to behold. The dream workshop would have the usual suspects (awesome tools etc), but it would also have some truly alien looking tech.
Ever seen a resin based 3d printer? It's like something out of Terminator:
3d printing is about to get even wilder, with larger scale prints becoming an option. Imagine a 3d printer that could handle motorcycle fairings... except you could do anything you want. Want a fairing made out of dragon scales? No problem! Want customized etching across the entire fairing? No problem! Want to design a radical fairing using the stock mounting points?
Some time in Blender and you'll be ready to print radically customized fairings and other parts.
The BigRep1 goes for almost $40,000, but imagine what you could print in over a cubic meter of build space - motorcycle fairings would be not problem. I think I'd rent one first to see what I could get away with before buying.
Using resin based printing instead of additive 3d printing means you can produce parts that have the same structural nature as cast pieces (they aren't made of bonded parts). These pieces would be incredibly strong - they could also be made much more quickly. Instead of hours long build times, we'd be looking at minutes...
If you're looking for futuristic workshop inspiration the Big Hero 6 garage would be a good place to start - in there he's 3d printing carbon fibre! The holographic display is pretty dope too...
Iron Man is another film that gives you a good idea of what a 21st Century garage might look like. Tony Stark's workshop is a holographic wonderland with built-in fabrication capabilities.
It was once thought that with fuel injection, onboard computers and digitization we would be losing the ability to modify and customize our motorbikes. It turns out that digitization is actually handing the ability to manufacture back to individuals from the factories that took it from them. Industrialization meant standardization and centralization in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In the 21st Century manufacturing will return to the craftsmen it started with; localized micro-manufacturing is going to be the way of things to come.
If you're making shop space for yourself, having a computer in it gives you access to a world of information (I frequently use my to watch how-to videos and view schematics), but that workshop based computer is soon going to be providing a lot more than just information. Do yourself a favour, get a handle on 3d modelling, it'll come in handy in the near future.
Ways to get started:
- Get handy with Blender - it's free, and it's powerful! There are also a lot of tutorials available for it online
- Structure Sensor: a 3d scanner that snaps onto your ipad. It makes making 3d copies a breeze!
- Basic 3d printers start at about $1000.
- If you want to give printing a try, many people in the maker movement offer 3d print services. It's a nice way to see what a 3d printer can do for you without the overhead... 3D Hubs is one such option, and they'll introduce you to makerspaces in your area.
- Sketchfab is handy for sharing and doing light editing on 3d models.
Sunday 10 April 2016
on the Verge of the Future
Sunday morning with a 3d printer - I get a kick out of making things work. |
Nowadays it's all about how digital tools are making micro/bespoke manufacturing more possible. Where once you needed an engineer, some machinists and a couple of hundred thousand dollars to build complex components, now you need twenty grand and a willingness to pick up some very easy to manage software. The entry into machining your own, custom components has become much easier.
Not only are digital tools handing back basic production to individuals, they are also allowing companies to explore levels of precision in manufacturing that seem almost science fictional:
I suspect the wedding-cake style melting-plastic-through-an-extruder 3d printer is an evolutionary dead end (there is only so much you can do to speed up a printing process that works around cooling plastic). Fortunately, the next step has already happened:
Another building tool I'd like to try is a digital laser cutter. Like other manufacturing tools, digital laser cutters have been tumbling in price. Coming out this year is a desktop laser cutter called the Glowforge that'll introduce laser cutting, etching and fabrication to many more people. At only about $4000, this undercuts previous industrial units by tens of thousands of dollars.
With this kind of technology available to many more people, I get the sense that the garage of the future will allow us to build things that only get churned out by factories at the moment. When I'm at the point that I can custom manufacture and laser etch bespoke motorcycle hard parts and print my own fairings, I'll feel like my garage can keep up with my imagination.
A good guess might be the garage scene from Big Hero 6:
Recent advances in processing power and optics mean VR is finally (after decades of promise) arriving at a consumer level. |
From a motorcycling perspective, an immersive simulation of the MotoGP circuit on Valentino's bike would offer fans a new level of appreciation for the sport. Preparing for an overseas ride by tasting the trip virtually first offer opportunities for safety preparation that simply don't exist right now, especially if you're trying to wrap you head around new signs and riding on the wrong side of the road.
We're on the verge of the future, and I get another taste next week, I can't wait!
3D printing
motorcycle 3d printing: http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/08/03/motorcycle-3d-printing-picking-speed/
https://3dprint.com/65937/3d-printed-motorcycle/
http://www.stratasys.com/resources/case-studies/automotive/klock-werks
https://all3dp.com/3d-printed-motorcycles-know/
https://grabcad.com/library/128705
Virtual Reality
https://youtu.be/-Sd3wXNjLtk
http://motorbikewriter.com/victory-motorcycle-virtual-reality/
http://www.lifebuzz.com/virtual-motorcycle/
http://mashable.com/2015/03/13/oculus-victory-motorcycles-sturgis/
http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/skully-opens-pre-orders-for-high-tech-helmet/
Tuesday 22 December 2020
Triumph Tiger 955i Steering Column/Triple Tree Maintenance
With the top clamp rotating (if it has been sitting in your Tiger for a while don't expect it to be loose), I was eventually able to persuade it upwards off the centre spindle with a rubber mallet. The top clamp came off and the two nuts that hold the centre rod in place were accessible (they're visible but inaccessible under the handlebars usually). For a 17 year old bike with over 80k kms on it nothing about these difficulties came as a surprise.
Those locking nuts are big'uns, 38mm! The long centre post they're on means you're going to have a tricky time getting a ratchet on them (38mm long socket?). They aren't tight though and I was able to loosen them with an adjustable wrench.
I supported the triple tree (the bottom half of the steering structure) with one hand while undoing the nuts but the bottom end didn't fall out - it's a snug enough fit and what grease was left in there was holding everything together. A gentle tap on the centre spindle and it all came out the bottom smoothly though. I don't know the last time anyone was in there, but I've had the Tiger for almost 4 years and thirty thousand kilometres so it was high time I got in there myself. Judging by the stingy amount of grease in there I'd guess no one has done the steering on the Tiger before (factories are famous for being stingy on grease when manufacturing bikes).
The bearings still had some grease on them (the brown/grey stuff is grease), but not much. No one's been in there recently:
... once I cleaned it up the bearings were in good shape and turned freely:
... even the tube that holds the steering column is nice and rust free. After a good cleanup I reassembled everything with a liberal greasing using the Mobil HP222 stuff Triumph suggests.
That Mobil XHP 222 grease is what Triumph recommends. I found it on Amazon. |
Here are some torque settings for a 955i Triumph Tiger's steering system:
Triumph Tiger 955i Steering Torque Settings:
- Steering Stem Nut: 65Nm (50 ft/lbs)
- Fork clamp bolts (top yoke): 20Nm (14.75 ft/lbs)
- Handlebar clamp bolts: 26Nm (19.2 ft/lbs)
Next steps will be to reinstall a shock to line up the triple tree with the top clamp and then do the fork oil. Once the shocks are serviced, I'll put the whole shebang back together again and turn to the back end where I've got to work my way through a swingarm removal and rear suspension service before putting that all back together. I hope that goes as well as this with all the parts still being serviceable. Trying to get parts in during COVID19 isn't always a sure thing.
Triumph's 'thin wrench' is a basic thing that seems astonishingly expensive for what it is. DIY is a possible alternative. |
- A narrow angle adjustable wrench: CT has one that goes up to 3 inches (76mm, so it'll handle the 38mm locking nut). I'm hoping my narrow angle vice grip will hold the bottom nut while I tighten the top one.You'd need the Triumph special thin spanner tool T3880140 for adjusting it with the handlebars installed, but I'm hoping I can sort it out while I'm in there and not need it. Paying $60 odd dollars for a bit of machined steel is a bit rich. I suspect I could get our metal-shop teacher at work to fabricate me a couple of them for nothing (I fix his computers for him so it's a barter exchange).
- big enough electrical heat-shrink to cover the clutch cable rub through. I think I have it and I don't want to use tape as it looks half assed.
Wednesday 30 December 2015
The Perils of Riding Someone Else's Bike
It was a cold and windy ride through the Superstition Mountains yesterday. The route we took after taking Gaylen's advice at azride.com gets you out of the city and into the desert quickly and lets you bypass most of the urban sprawl east of Phoenix.
Our trusty mount was a Kawasaki Concours 14. I thought it would be interesting to compare my 20 year old Concours to a younger one.
After I got myself turned around and rode ten minutes the wrong way into Phoenix, we got moving in the right direction and soon found ourselves on the Bush Highway, a twisty, bumpy highway that doesn't go anywhere - I guess that's why they named it that.
It took me some time to get used to this unfamiliar bike. The gear shift was very close to and felt lower than the foot peg which made for awkward shifts, and the brakes felt very (dare I say over?) assisted unlike the old-school hydraulic brakes on my classic Concours. When you applied the front brake you stopped in a hurry causing my pillion to plough into the back of me a number of times until I got really ginger with brake application. The other off-putting part was that each time I used the front brake it was accompanied by a loud electrical whining noise like a cicada chirping. Sometimes it would stop when I let go of the brake, sometimes it would keep whining afterwards.
I was unsure if this was a Concours 14 thing (doubtful) or an azride.com maintenance thing. CoG didn't suggest any known brake electrical noise problems so I suspect this is a maintenance issue. The azride.com website didn't mention what year the Concours was (unlike other rental sites which tell you it's a 2015 but show you a five year old bike), but based on the body the bike we had was a pre-2011 model. Maybe it's starting to get cranky in its old age.
Taking a water break on the Bush Highway. It was about 15°C, comfortable riding weather. Up in the mountains it was 5°C when we stopped for lunch. |
With that big wobbly wind screen up high you're in a big air bubble, but it looks ungainly. Fortunately you can lower the screen in town to restore a sportier look. |
On mountain roads this newer Concours felt smaller than my bike though they weigh the same. The newer bike is much narrower and quite wasp wasted compared to the chunky older model. That monumental engine that produces sixty more horsepower than my bike probably helps with that feeling of lightness too.
Wind-wise, I was able to ride in jeans all day into single digit Celsius temperatures without a problem. The heat that pours off my Concours was absent on this one, though it was a cold day so it wasn't something I'd notice anyway.
The windscreen is electrically adjustable and at the top it stopped all but the top of my head getting hit by wind (I'm 6'3" and I had given up on windshields doing anything for me). My bike gets me squarely in the shoulders and up all the time. I didn't like how much the windscreen wobbled at speed, it looked flimsy, not to mention goofy in its highest position. Once I was back in town I lowered it back to a less Jurassic Park look. Goofy or not though, it made a cold ride through the mountains much more bearable. A transformable windshield is a piece of magic, though a more solid feeling one with manual adjustment would do the job better. I'd rather not have the added weight and complexity of the electrical one.
You can see just how ridiculously high the risers are in this view of the Concours back in the lot. The big googly-eyed headlights don't do much for me either. |
I've got a 32" leg and find my bike a bit cramped. The ZG1400 was a bit more relaxed in the legs. After a couple of hours in the saddle I had no problems.
The ergonomic problems began where azride.com made changes. The huge risers they installed on this Concours looked like comedy units off a 1970s banana seat bike - huge bull horn things that put the grips right under my nipples, or so it felt. They pushed me so far back that I was riding more on my tailbone - cruiser style - than I otherwise would have. The narrow Concours 14 seat wasn't build for this contortion and it became quite uncomfortable. It makes me wonder how the stock handle bars would have worked. I have low risers on my old Concours and have a slight forward lean, which I prefer to a bolt upright or reclined stance.
No fancy paint, electrical wind screens or whining electronics, but it's a solid old thing that does the business with gusto. I'm still wishing for the bike bag to magically whisk my bike along. |
That whacky old-guy handle bar riser (and accompanying sore ass) conspired to make me long for my own bike. It might not have the heat management, or easier reach to the ground (which I don't need anyway), or fancy moving windshield, but my old Concours feels solid, is usually the fastest thing on the road when you twist the throttle and offers a satisfying mechanical simplicity that I missed on this electronically whinny newer machine.