Ready For The Off: off-roading by bike and Jeep

A tread lightly off road system that would let us explore places off the beaten path:

Wrangler 4xe hybrid Jeep

This crazy thing gets almost 50mpg!  It also has good towing capacity and legendary off road ability.  We had one as a rental last year and they are versatile, overengineered and astonishing off road.

$58k

Tuff Stuff Alpha Roof Mounted Tent

Only take a couple of minutes to pop up, has cool things like integral LED lighting and folds into a solid roof mounted case that keeps it safe and aerodynamic on the move.

It only weighs 176lbs (so as much as a passenger), but makes you entirely capable of pulling up and stopping in a pretty spot and making it home.  In COVID world being able to stop in an empty bit of nature is the key to being to travel anywhere at all.

In something as versatile as the Wrangler there are few places you couldn't get to before making it home for the night.

$2500USD  ($3125CAD)

CRF250F Honda Off Road Specialist

Super light at 120kg (265lbs) the CRF250F is a light weight dirtbike that is so light that we could hang two off the back bumper and still come in under the dual carrier weight limit.

$5650 x 2

Two CRF250Fs weigh in at 530lbs fully fueled.  With no fuel in them they'd be a full hundred pounds under the 600lb weight limit on the Black Widow Aluminum Double Motorcycle Carrier, which means we'd just be a Jeep without a trailer.

$330USD ($415CAD)

But now I'm thinking the Wrangler doesn't have the tongue weight requirements to handle two bikes.

The Jeep Gladiator could do it, but it doesn't come with the 4xe option (yet!).  A top of the line Gladiator comes in just under sixty-grand.  While it doesn't offer 4xe yet, it would mean no trailer towing.  I wonder if a Gladiator would be more efficient than a Wrangler 4xe towing a trailer.  With bikes in the bed this'd do it without the extras.

$59,908

Stand-Up™ Dirt Bike Trailer, Sport Bike &
Scooter Trailer

If I have to trailer then this'd be the one to go with.  It folds up and stands up to take up less space when not in use, comes with all the holders you need and is a well built thing that would work as a bike hauler.  With this I'm back to the Wrangler 4xe to move the bikes around when needed.

$3,099.00USD  $3900CAD

Where am I at with a super fuel-efficient off road and bike logistics system?

Wrangler 4xe  $58,000

Trailer             $3900

CRF250F x2   $11300

Roof Tent        $3125

                        -----------

                        $76,325

... which is about the price of a mid-sized BMW SUV (X5)  Seems like a lot of bang for the buck when you look at it that way.  Uses way less gasoline too.

No more begging for time at the family cottage - we could just be out there, COVID or not.

Tiger Triage

I sometimes find myself embroiled in politics. I hate politics. It's one of those things that even when you do it really well the results are always a disappointment. Working with people is frustrating and exhausting. My wife suggested that if I wasn't enjoying it that I should stop and do something else, so I did.

Out in the garage I flipped on the tunes, got the Tiger up on a 2x4 on its centre stand so it's a bit higher up and put a car battery on the back so the front tire tipped up in the air well clear of the floor. The speedometer wasn't reading anything so I slipped the front wheel forward off the axle bolt and double checked everything.

The speedo mechanism (#15 in the pic) has that spacer (#14) facing in from the outside.  That diagram isn't great (the speedo unit is shown as backwards on there (the wider side goes in, not out as that picture suggests).

#14 spacer was in backwards but more importantly the speedometer unit wasn't mounted on the splines sticking out #7 in the diagram.  Those splines fit into gaps in the speedo housing and I'd missed them when I installed it.

With the speedometer unit lined up on the splines properly and the spacer in the right way around the whole thing went back together and I immediately had responsive speedometer again.

The engine light was still on so I threw the exhaust hose on (it's a bit of aluminum duct), plugged in the TuneBoy engine management system and ran the engine for a few minutes to see what codes it picked up.

TuneBoy is a plug in and see what's going on in your bike's computer tool that I've found very easy to use.  It comes with the adapter head that fits on to the output plug under the seat on the bike.  Plug that in and the other end into USB on a computer (I have one wall mounted in the garage) and then open up the software and you can see what your computer sees.  Lots of people get anxious about working with computerized bikes but TuneBoy makes it accessible.

The opening 'screen' is pretty disco (in a 1990s/early 2k kind of app design way).

The computer had collected a pile of errors.  These old Triumph computers will eventually dump the codes if they don't keep seeing an error, but it takes a while.

I took the gas tank off for the thousandth time (I'm WIlliams F1 Team pitstop fast at it now) and cleaned and checked all the connections.  I also pulled the air temperature sensor and cleaned it up in case it was clogged.

With all the connections cleaned the computer still had the errors in memory so I reset it (you can do that in the TuneBoy program) and then reset everything and fired it up again.

With the computer reset I let it idle for a few minutes and it threw no new errors up, and the engine light had gone off!  I took it out for another spin around the road in front of the house and it's now error free.  The engine light is off, the brakes have sharpened up and the speedometer works.  The Tiger is now five by five.  All the new parts are making it work better than it did and all the teething issues from the BIG COVID WINTER MAINTENANCE OF 20/21 are resolved.

It's a glorious thing!  Engine feels strong and certain with none of the stalling issues or hesitancy from last year.  All the cosmetic work makes the bike look much younger than its 18 years and over eight-thousand kilometers.

We're supposed to have a couple of sunny but cool days coming up.  I'm hoping I can get out and rediscover this wonderfully versatile and increasingly unique machine.

Tiger Testing After A Winter of Deep Maintenance

Road testing the Tiger on a cold (-3°C) day after a winter of deep maintenance.

The Good Stuff:

• the swingarm maintenance has transformed the rear suspension!  Unseized bearings mean the back end is supple and responsive now
• the front forks and steering feel brand new thanks to fork servicing and pulling the steering apart and re-greasing everything
• the new tires are spectacular! The old Michelins still looked ok but they were badly squared off and made the bike hesitant to turn - it drops into turns like a gymnast now!
• the deep cleaning on the fuel injection system has worked a charm.  It idles well and the fueling is excellent.
• the cosmetic touch-ups make the bike look much younger than it's 18 years and over 80k kms
• the new indicators suit the bike way better and work perfectly
• new horn is loud and works well

The Bad Stuff:

• I've bled the front brakes and they're tight now, but after repeatedly bleeding the rears they're still not what they were, though they do now produce some stopping power.  I need to check for any leaks and bleed again.
• The speedo doesn't show speed!  This has never been a problem before.  I'm going to check the connection to the gauge because I was knocking it around and might have knocked it loose
• speedo step two will be to raise the front end, remove the front tire and check how I installed the speedo unit - it only goes on one way so I'm not sure how that could be wrong but if the gauge check doesn't do anything that's the next step
• The engine light is on!  Though the engine feels fantastic, sounds great and the fuel injection which was problematic last year idles steady and fuels very smoothly.  The simple computer in the bike sometimes needs a few runnings to clear an error after a long time unpowered (like the 99 day Canadian winter break we had this long, cold, COVID-winter)
• engine light step two if it doesn't go off by itself is to connect the TuneBoy engine management system I've got and see what errors it's throwing up.

The bike goes and works better than it did in many regards before the winter-maintenance.  A couple of details and it seems ready to take on another short Canadian riding season.  I'm still hoping to hit 100k the year the bike turns 20 years old (2023).

Photos are all taken with a Ricoh ThetaV 360 camera wrapped around the wing mirror with a flexible tripod.  The camera is set to take a photo every four seconds then I just go for a ride and see what I caught when I get back.  Photos were edited in the Ricoh software and then touched up in Adobe Lightroom.

Like finally being able to take a breath after four months of holding it...

Last ride:  Nov 30th, 2020.  First ride:  March 9th, 2021.  That's 99 days off two-wheels!  This is the face you make when you're sidelined for that long over an interminable COVID-winter:

Took the Fireblade down the still partially frozen Grand River a ways.  It's as fiery and bladey as it was before it hibernated for the winter.

When I got back I was frozen solid but wanted to see if the Tiger was operational:

It started well and ran more smoothly than usual suggesting that my fuel injector deep cleaning has made things work better.  The brakes still need some TLC though  The fronts are coming on but the rears are completely flat, so some more bleeding is in my future.

Pre-Flight Tests: winter motorcycle maintenance

Ignore the giant pile of snow outside!  It's actually supposed to go above zero this week.  One way or another I'll be on two wheels in the next five days!  Next week there's 30cms of snow coming, but there is an opening in the never-ending Canadian winter of COVID and I intend to take it!

With everything back in place, the Tiger came off the bike stand for the first time since December and the wheels didn't fall off, so that's a win.  I'd hoped to start it and test how everything went back together but the new battery is taking a while to charge.

Last summer I purchased a new battery for the Tiger but it didn't come for the better part of 3 months and I didn't want to activate it when the bike was about to be parked for four months, so it's been sitting in the front hall in the box.  I put the acid in it today and got it charging.

The acid installation is pretty straightforward.  They give you the liquid in a series of attached sealed plastic tubes and you simply 'inject' them into the top of the battery and let them drain over 20 minutes.  You then use the provided caps to seal the battery.

Tomorrow will be motor tests on both bikes and then a short ride with each (I hope) to shake down any issues.  The Tiger was down to its nuts and bolts this winter so I want to make sure everything is tight and together before I put any serious mileage on it.

The Honda has been cleaned and covered since its last ride in November, so it should be ready to go.  The battery's been on the trickle charger inside all winter.  One way or another I'll be out on a bike this week.  It feels like finally being able to take a breath after four months of holding it.

TIGER WINTER MAINTENANCE:

• New indicators that suit the bike better (tougher metal construction too)
• Chassis taken down to nuts and bolts for a complete service
• New HEL brake lines
• Flushed brakes
• New Michelins installed (myself!)
• Fuel Injectors cleaned
• Fork oil changed
• Cosmetic repairs

FIREBLADE WINTER MAINTENANCE:

• oil change
• everything cleaned
• deep carb cleaning (with disassembly)
• battery tending inside over the winter
• throw a blanket on it