Saturday 13 February 2021

Mississippi South Appalachians North: Riding Through The Heart of America

I'm reading Peter Egan's Leanings (highly recommended).  He just did a ride down the Mississippi in the late 70s and it has me thinking about how to make that happen from Ontario (post pandemic, of course).

The first step would be to get over to the river.  But we'd happen to trip over Duluth on the way there from where we live, and Duluth has something I've always wanted to see:  Aerostich!  The moto-gear company has been in Duluth since the early 80s and makes bullet proof riding suits, including one piece coverall type suits that long distance riders swear by.  They are weather proof, tough, protective and built to size, which is good when you have a weirdly long body on relatively short legs.  I'd kick off our ride down the Mississippi by dressing like matching Ghostbusters!

Map 1:  Home to the head of the Mississippi is about 1850kms.  I've been that way before and have always wanted to show my wife the strange world of the Michigan Peninsula.  Our first day would only be about 420kms over the border to the Bay Valley Resort then a bizarre evening in fading 1970's decadence.  Day 2 would be 540kms along the tunnel of trees and over the incredible Mackinac Bridge and into Northern Michigan.  Day 3 would be 470kms over to Duluth along the south shore of Lake Superior.  Day 4 would be a loop from Duluth to Palisade where we'd finally pick up the Mississippi and follow it down to Minneapolis.

From here on south we'd be sticking to the Great River Road as much as possible.  The site suggests 4-10 days to make that ride, so I'd aim for 10, or more.

This is the kind of trip you could rush through if you were young and impatient, but I'm neither thing these days.  In a post-retirement world this would be a good thing to kick off in the fall (October) and take extended breaks on the trip, getting into New Orleans just before Christmas and then staying around there until Mardi Gras in February.  Doing it that way could allow for a winter in the south before working our way back up the Appalachians in the spring and home again.

The whole route is about six and half thousand kilometres.  A three hundred kilometre a day average (some days off, other days over) means a 22 day trip.  Cut that to a 200km/day average with more days off factored in and it's a 33 day trip, which isn't too heavy.

20 days down, an extended stay in the south in various places and then 20 days back in the spring would make for a thoughtful perambulation of the Mississippi watershed and the Appalachians back north.  It would also let me avoid the part of Canadian winter that is most painful (the part we're in right now), where from the end of January to March it's so bone achingly cold, grey and miserable that it feels more like Ragnarok than one of the four seasons.  Canadian winter has a depth to it that tears the soul.  A thoughtful ride down through the complicated American history around the Mississippi would be a good way to escape it.

I'm still looking at a two-up option and the C-14 Concours is still on my short list.  It has one of the highest load carrying capacities of any motorcycle (Goldwings and the like included), has a a low maintenance shaft drive and can still show surprising athleticism and agility when the roads get interesting.

This one is 9 years old, only has 36k kilometres on it, which for a Kawasaki means it's just broken in.  This lovely thing wouldn't just handle the long distance, but would make the twisty bits down the river and back up the Appalachians not feel like we're trying to fit an elephant in a tutu.



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Tiger 955i Front End Maintenance

This one's out of order, I should have posted it in November but it got swallowed by the cruelty of my work place.

Work's heavy and I'm finding it a bit overwhelming to get into the winter maintenance I'd planned, so today I started by cleaning up the garage and moving the batteries and paint out of the ever-colder unheated space.  After the cleanup I went after the front end.  I've done the forks on the Tiger before (3 years ago!), so that was a pretty straightforward first step.

I pulled the forks and cleaned them up but haven't done the fork oil yet (I like 15 weight rather than 10 because I'm bigger than the average bear).  

Triumph FORK SEAL Part # T2040283

Triumph DUST SEAL Part # T2040284

Triumph SEALING WASHER Part # T2045045

Triumph GAITOR,FORK Part # T2040288






This all got done months ago... you can pick up the story here:  http://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2020/12/triumph-tiger-955i-fork-reassembly-and.html

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Saturday 30 January 2021

Triumph Tiger 955i Old Rubbers

 Perished rubbers on old bikes can be a headache.  If you've got an old 955i Tiger and are looking for rubber bits, here are the Triumph part numbers you need.  I'm going through Inglis Cycle in Ontario.  They've got their act together during the pandemic and their prices are pretty much the same as the volume 'discount' online stores without the border crossing extra cost, wait and headaches.  The red is Canadian prices confirmed and available (I'm still building the order):
Another way to tackle this with older parts starting to become discontinued is the 3d printing route.  Here's a link to others doing just that: parts: https://www.triumphrat.net/threads/3d-printed-rubber-parts.566657/
People have been busy:
(I'm actually missing one of those)
Rubber cap for rear brake wiring cap: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:820532

The rubber hoses on the vacuum idle system can get hard in the heat too.  Here are those part numbers:




Evap Control Hoses (vacuum idle control on the throttle bodies)
T1242502 | Tube x1
T1242501 | Tube x2
T1242015 | Hose kit (includes all 3?)





The parts diagram isn't very accurate with what those hoses look like, which is like this:


I ended up modifying some fuel lines when I had doubts about those old vacuum hoses leaking, which look like this:
It worked ok last summer and helped solve my failure to idle/stalling situation, but if I can get new stock items I'll switch back.
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Thursday 28 January 2021

Lost In Time: Hand Drawn Maps of Pre-War France

I'm at about 130,000 words on my ode to my Grandfather's experiences on the continent during the invasion of France in 1940 (think Dunkirk mixed with the motorcycle chase from The Great Escape).  There is only about a week left before they escape occupied France just in time to return home to face the Battle of Britain (Dunkirk already happened 2 weeks ago).  I think it'll will end up at about 150,000 words but a harsh first edit should get it back down to around 120,000.  Even with hundreds of hours of research into it, I can only guess at how he must have felt over that year.  He finished 1940 by being sent to the Ivory Coast via ship and then driving across the Sahara Desert (in 1940 vehicles during a war) to fight Rommel in the desert.  It's all quite impossible.

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:


Consider the layers on there: place names, roads, railroads, forests, rivers, regional boundaries and names, it's a complex piece of visual information, and if you look at the writing closely, it's hand drawn!  This is a 1939 revision of an existing map.  It's pre computers and digital imaging.  To put this together they would have had to collect existing maps, surveyor documentation and historical documents and then combine it all together, and all while keeping on top of changes.

You'd be travelling across a world that feels empty by modern standards.  There 75% LESS people on the planet in 1939 than there are in 2021.  You couldn't read the map on the move, you'd have to stop, and the vehicle you were riding would demand it in any case.  No rushing, no 'efficiency' demanded by an over crowded world overheating from overuse.  No traffic jams because motorized vehicles were still relatively new.  The roads you're on are newly minted.

Today we sit in our air conditioned boxes that require no effort to run (even as they burn a hole in the world), and drive to get everywhere as quickly as possible.  The serendipity of looking at a map and noticing something not on your route and going to discover it is gone in the focused and linear directions being fed to you by a remorseless voice in your ear.  Our overpopulated modern world demands nothing less than absolute efficiency and constant surveillance.

Imagine it's the spring of 1939.  There are rumblings of a dark future, but that is still just conjecture.  You pick up your new Triumph Tiger 100, so named because it'll do 100mph, and sort it out for a ride across France.  Riding out of my home county of Norfolk in the east of England and south to the ferry and the continent isn't a slog through endless traffic on soulless, paved multi-lane roads.  There are only a quarter as many people (2 billion to our almost 8) in the world in 1939, and they aren't relentlessly mobile like today's population; many work where they live.  You pick your way along simple two lane roads through a Constable landscape painting interrupted by Norfolk villages that haven't changed in millenia.

You're not thumping down a highway with a computerized voice barking step by step directions and then frantic corrections if you miss a turn. No one is tracking your every move, you're free in the world on two wheels.

You stop frequently but this doesn't make you crazy with impatience, it's an opportunity to lay your eyes on that beautiful map designed by people for human eyes and admire the futuristic yet still hand-made engineering that moves you.


You stop for the night at a pub on the south coast and look over your new Michelin map while enjoying the last proper English ale you'll taste for several weeks.  The hand written names nestled together in the brightly coloured map sound strange and new as you sound them out, but the continent beckons, and your fantastic new motorbike will take you there.
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Wednesday 27 January 2021

Trials And Tribulations: trying to find a trials bike in Ontario

I was just thinking this morning that our backyard is basically designed to be a trials bike playground (it's all hills, stairs and rocks), and after giving them a go last summer at SMART I'm still interested in developing those skills - it'd also turn my backyard into a gym!

One of the Bike Magazine writers set up a trials track in his tiny, British backyard to stave off the COVID madness.  I've got more yard than he does that's better suited to trials... so why not get one?


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:

Links on where to find GasGas service and parts
GasGas parts!  
Another GasGas parts source
Trials Bike Buyers Guide
Canadian source for trials bike tires
Revco does Trials tires, it's about $400 for a new set of rubber.  I know I can install them myself now.

"the main nut that holds the clutch on the shaft let go, and trying to find that nut was a thorough nightmare. It's some bizarre thread that I could only find from a vespa shop in Italy."

That's worrying in a nearly 30 year old bike that I'd need to source parts for.

Good online chat there about old trials bikes.  1990s era bikes are $1k up to $1500US for a later 90s bike, and the ones they talk about work.  The 93 GasGas was a big step forward technically, so that '92 for sale on Kijiji is asking premium for a bike that doesn't work that isn't particularly desirable.

https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1992-gas_gas-contact_gt25  valued at $1600US ($2000CAD) in excellent condition.  Fair condition is $700US ($900CAD).  The one on Kijiji don't work right and needs major repairs.

An exciting thread from 11 years ago when he was selling his partially rebuilt but otherwise complete '92 gt25 for £500 ($870CAD).  At under $900 for a complete bike partially rebuilt I'd have already picked up that bike from Georgetown.  As it stands, I think I've talked myself out of it with a bit of research.

In the world of unlimited funds a fully electric trials bike would be an awesome thing to have, but the ones I'm seeing are north of ten grand, which seems like a lot to pay for a toy.  It'd be a lot even if I was competing on it.

Electric trials bike research:
... maybe one day.


I should watch this again, then I'd be going down to Georgetown to pick up that GasGas (I'd also be able to show up at SMART Adventures next year and wow Clinton Smout with my mad skillz!

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