I'm a stickler for details and got lost this morning before work (I like to get up about 5am and write until 7:30) in Michelin Maps of 1930s France. A closer look at these incredible pieces of cartographic history shows you an astonishing piece of hand-drawn art:
Thursday 28 January 2021
Lost In Time: Hand Drawn Maps of Pre-War France
Wednesday 27 January 2021
Trials And Tribulations: trying to find a trials bike in Ontario
One just came up on Kijiji for under two-grand. It needs clutch work. I'm not sure what GasGases are like in terms of finding parts, especially for one that old (it's almost 30!). GP Bikes in Whitby is a GasGas dealer, so there's at least one dealer in the province.
That'd be get fun to get muddy and sweaty on come spring, but it doesn't work and repairs are uncertain... and he still wants nearly two grand for it! I've half talked myself into going for it. The Tiger's almost done its winter maintenance and the 'Blade is ready to rock, so I even have the bike stand free to work on it.
Some GASGAS Research:
Tuesday 26 January 2021
How Many Motorbikes is Enough?
motorcycles is right? Egan's list follows his own interests in the sport. His suggestions are:
- a sportsbike for short, focused rides that are all about dynamics
- a sport touring bike for spirited long distance riding
- an off road bike (though this could be a bigger dual sport or adventure bike, not just a dirt bike)
- a Harley for long distance 'Merican Dream type rides
- an old nostalgia machine that takes you back to a bike you couldn't afford when you wanted it
- Athletic Distance Machine: (Kawi Concours14)
- Dynamic Rider: (Fireblade, Z1000, or another light weight sport or naked machine)
- Adventure Bike for Canadian Exploration (roads suck here, even if they're paved, and they often are suddenly not. An ADV bike will cover the rough over long distances)
- Dirt/Trials Bike (a pedigree machine for intentional deep woods trail riding)
- Revolving Door Bike (project, by and sell, experience something new bike - sometimes even a Harley!)
Sunday 24 January 2021
Motorcycling Book Review: Peter Egan's Leanings
The book starts with longer stories ranging from Egan's first travel piece that got him a job at Cycle World to increasingly exotic trips to Japan for new Yamaha introductions or rides down the Baja Peninsula. What makes it work is Egan is always Egan and he brings his small town Wisconsin thrift, good humour and love of bikes with him where ever he goes.
As a writer about motorcycles, reading Egan's book offers some useful insights. One of my takeaways is: don't dumb down your writing. Say what you mean as well as you can possibly say it. Egan's not the only writer like this. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is more a philosophical post-graduate treatise than it is a book about bikes, yet many people who ride get into it. When I finally read it I was stunned that so many others think it such a fine thing - it took my entire degree just to make sense of it!
There's a folksiness to Egan's writing that reminds me of Neil Graham, the former editor of Cycle Canada. They both have a kind of relentless honesty to their writing and are willing to embrace their eccentricities. That's all good writing advice whether you're doing bikes or something else.
The long writing pieces are great but so are the shorter articles at the back where Egan takes on everything from mortality and aging to family tradition and engineering, though he tends to shy away from anything technical, which is odd because he was a mechanic for many years.
Because the pieces are chronological, you end up follow Peter through his life from poor, struggling student to established writer. The original pieces weren't designed with that narrative in mind but the layout of the book causes this trajectory to emerge, which is a nice thing to see as you're finishing the book, though it also reminds you that Peter's riding years may soon be behind him as he's in his seventies now.
I'm just finishing up the book now and I'm going to miss diving into it and listening to such a natural storyteller bringing bikes alive, though I can always get Leanings 2 (or 3!) and keep going. Unfortunately, 2 doesn't seem very available and is quite expensive on Amazon.
Sunday 17 January 2021
2003 Triumph Tiger 955i Winter Maintenance Continued
Winter Maintenance List: https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2020/11/tiger-winter-maintenance-list.html
Front end chassis maintenance: https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2020/12/triumph-tiger-955i-fork-reassembly-and.html
Rear end chassis maintenance: https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2021/01/triumph-tiger-955i-swingarm-installation.html
Got the backend back together yesterday:
The fuel rail is held in by clips and two bolts holding it in place relative to the throttle body. |
The whole thing just pops out when you've undone the two bolts. |
With the fuel injectors so easy to remove, I'll be quicker at cleaning them in the future. |
Ultrasonic cleaners aren't expensive and do a great job on fuel injectors. |
Cleaning doesn't take long if you remove the rail and injectors. |
Ultrasonic cleaning gets into the small places. |
The injectors press fit back into the throttle body with a beefy o-ring to seal them. |