Am I a Wuss?

Or am I just being cautious?

I have the aforementioned British Columbia trip coming up in about a week and a half. My bike is running sweet. Yet I want to start making mods to it, which I know is a no-no this close to a big trip. This is what I have on tap yet for this year:

• Triumph Thunderbird Sport dual disc front wheel upgrade with new tire, new rotors and new pads
• Speedmaster drag-style handlebars with pullback risers (4″ up, 1.5″ back) with stepped riser bolts
• Kuryakyn Voltmeter
• Custom 5 3/4″ headlight with frenched trim ring (requires some rewiring)
• Reinstall my cheapo fog lights using my homemade lightbar
• Contruct a new luggage rack out of aluminum bits I picked up at the hardware store

And that’s just the list I expect to accomplish this year, not including several bits involved in my long awaited makeover:

• New paint on modified tin (tank still needs work)
• Kuryakyn retro bullet turn signals with brake module (rear signals act as brakelights)
• Veypor performance computer to replace stock speedometer (need wiring harness and billet cover with indicator lights)
• Black header wrap
• Fabricate mount for custom taillight and license plate mount

And those are just the parts I already have. There are many more bits I want to add for the makeover and a few I’d like to make. But those will have to wait until I settle up completely with the hospital from my little ordeal in April.

The point of all this is that I want to get on with it. I really want to make some progress on the bike this year. Granted, I have the rest of the summer after my trip and all of Fall to make these mods before putting her up for the winter. I just need to be patient I guess. But I can at least do the Kuryakyn Voltmeter and the fog lights before vacation. In fact with my recent electrical issues I’d say the former is key.

The Northrop Grumman Biker-wannabe Day Ride 2009

The Day Ride went off without a hitch. The weather was gorgeous and nobody had any mechanical problems. We had an excellent breakfast at the Avon Cafe. The only minor downside to the day was the monster headwind from Helena to Drummond. It cost me nearly an extra gallon of gas. Well, the headwind coupled with 85mph on I-90 between Garrison Junction and Drummond. We did the longer route, including Pipestone Pass and Whitehall. I made it back to Helena and the car show at Broadwater Park by 3pm.

The Pintler Scenic loop, as it climbs out of Philipsburg, isn’t super twisty. Neil lead the group from Helena to Drummond, and I took over until Whitehall, since I was the only one who had done the run before. I behaved myself until we got to Pipestone Pass, keeping the speed within 5mph of the speed limit. But Pipestone beckoned and I had to stretch her legs a bit and grind off some of the side tread of my tires. Periodically I slowed down to make sure there were still three bikes behind me, though they were back a ways. I only dragged my floorboards once, on the final tight curve coming down the east side of the pass. Fun fun fun…

Took only a few pictures but they’re up on Picasa now. And since I mentioned the car show, I have a few pictures of that too.

Ultimate British Columbia Loop

Someday…

View Larger Map

After this: Alaska.

B.C. 2009 Trip Planning, Part II

Okay, we don’t have a full week so I’m looking at shorter maps, with around 400mi per day max.

Map 1:
Jasper 1, 1305mi total

• Tuesday night, Lake Louise, 382mi
• Wednesday night, Kamloops, 417mi
• Thursday night, Nelson, 283mi
• We could stop somewhere before Kamloops to balance out the load between Wednesday and Thursday. There are tons if little towns north of Kamloops, just no major ones, so I’m unsure about available accommodations.

Map 2:
Jasper 2, 1401mi total

• Tuesday night, Banff, 410mi
• Wednesday night, Kamloops, 451mi
• Thursday night, Nelson, 311
• Again, stopping somewhere north of Kamloops to balance the mileage between days.
• Mostly this one just changes the first leg.

Map 3:
Abandon Jasper, 1326mi total

• Tuesday night, Banff, 410mi
• Wednesday night, Kamloops, 308mi
• Thursday night, Nelson, 380mi
• This route we could comfortably make it to Kamloops, definitely.
• Major drawback, lots of the Trans-Canada highway. I think we had enough of that in 2004.

Map 4:
Figure 8 with Gordy, 1363mi total

• Tuesday night, Vernon, 404mi
• Wednesday night, Surrey, 350mi
• Thursday night, Nelson, 394mi
• Threw in this one, in an effort to still include Gordy in Surrey, BC. We would want to make sure he can put on 400mi in a day.

Okay, that's enough for now.

British Columbia 2009 Trip Planning

The Triumph Kootenay RAT* Raid is scheduled for the weekend of July 17-19, 2009, in Nelson, BC (famous for BC Bud, Budgies and the filming location of the Steve Martin romcom “Roxanne”). This will be my fifth consecutive year attending and my sixth consecutive year touring through British Columbia, although we haven’t always gone on an extended trip to or from Nelson. In 2004 we passed through Nelson a month after the event.

By “we” I mean my buddy John from Thompson Falls, MT, who also rides a 2002 Triumph Bonneville America, although his looks significantly different. We took very different paths in customizing and accessorizing. There aren’t many Triumph Cruiser riders in Montana. When we didn’t kill each other on that first 2004 road trip, we decided to continue to keep traveling together at least to the Kootenay Raid. Last year we went out to Seattle the week before the event and extended the trip, virtually doubling the usual miles (from Helena, not from Thompson Falls). More details, including maps, can be found on my Wiki travel page.

This year we were going to do the same trip in reverse, but other commitments got in the way. Then we were going to do the same exact trip. But now we’re looking at one of the following routes. We still want to make it out to Surrey, BC, near Vancouver, to meetup with other Triumph riders and travel together to Nelson.

Map 1 – Up to Jasper, AB, down to Kamloops and over to Surrey through Whistler. About the same mileage as last year: 1754mi.

Map 2 – Up through Jasper, AB, to Prince George, BC, THEN down to Surrey through Whistler. A little longer at 1924 miles.

Map 3 – A modified redo of our 2004 trip. Probably not likely because we do need to meet friends in or near Surrey, and this is pretty short for a full week at 1073mi.

Keep in mind that all of these figures start and end in Thompson Falls. It’s another 215mi each way for me to get to and from Thompson Falls.

*RAT stands for Riders Association of Triumph and really doesn’t mean shit anymore. It was sponsored by Triumph but they dumped all these events on the dealers, who are actually doing a pretty good job picking up the pieces that Triumph dropped.

Sturgis 2002

Here are my photos from Sturgis 2002 on Picasa. For example…

Other highlights include Billy Idol at the Buffalo Chip and Iron Mountain Drive, aka, Pigtail Pass. Oh and all the high-dollar iron in the dirt parking lot? That was a restaurant in Broadus, MT, where Paul Yaffee and Arlen Ness and their collective entourage, the Hamster millionaire motorcycle club, were having lunch.

Shakedown Cruise

Crappy cell phone picture warning:

Actually it came out pretty good, like I hit it with some funky filters in Photoshop. I really have to start keeping my Canon digital camera with me.

Took a little shakedown run on my bike yesterday. I always like to do a little local riding, mixing up speeds, roads and terrain to make sure everything holds together. I was also fiddling with my Scottoiler. It works pretty good but I think I’ll need to switch to the blue fluid. The red just flows too much.

How a Nerd Plans a Day Ride

Northrop Grumman Biker-wannabe Day Ride 2009

I could probably put an X in each day that each person is available and figure out how to count the X’s in each column, but this was much faster. And what self-respecting nerd wouldn’t use Google maps: Proposed route, 214mi (and extended, 245mi)

Not really long day but we have a variety of different experience levels.

It is alive for ‘09

Finally got everything buttoned up yesterday and took her out for a brief shake-down around the neighborhood. Next up is installing the Scottoiler, then it’s finally time to install the dual disc front wheel (Triumph Thunderbird Sport) and caliper. I also have some basic maintenance to do like an oil and filter change and cleaning the K&N air filters.

P.S. I think my leg is healed enough to ride. It didn’t seem to bother me yesterday.

Lemons and Lemonade

I’ve been dealing with a serious infection in my right leg since the 9th of April. I was in the hospital for 12 days, starting out with a 104+ temperature. I’ve been out for a week but after seeing my doctor today I’m not exactly out of the woods yet.

So the weekend before that all went down I did manage to remove the belt drive belt and sprockets and reinstall my stock chain (with about 8k miles on it so plenty of life left). I also installed a new “cush drive” in the rear hub, a tighter model from the Triumph Thunderbird Sport. It was very snug but I managed to get it together and get the rear wheel reinstalled. Now I have to go back through and make sure everything is good-and-tight and install my Scottoiler and I’ll be back on the road (oh, and my leg has to finish healing, of course).

As time allows I’ll get the dual disc front wheel and associated parts installed and hopefully make some progress on the bobber conversion. These health issues have really thrown a wrench in my plans.