Motorcycling – Page 6

March 17, 2009

FJR Crash Bars a good investment.

So I’m just riding to work minding my own business. I’m about a mile away, three turns left to negotiate.

A left, a right, then a left into the parking lot. I go through this intersection every day and yes it always looks like hell.

But this time it has an extra special coating of something oil like which I don’t see until after I try to stand up and just about bust my a$$.

I was going maybe 15-20, the road leading to it is 45MPH and I didn’t have to wait for the light and there was no one in front of me.

I go to turn left and *bam*

Next thing I know I’m sliding across the pavement, uttering a few obscenities.

Luckily there was an ambulance sitting at the light. They guys jumped out helped me pick up the bike. They offered to call it in, but I declined. Nobody hurt but my FJR and my pride.

All I recall is hitting my head, it happened that fast. Helmet’s good, jacket is good, gloves (check). I was wearing jeans, and if I hadn’t had the benefit of what ever was lubricating the street, I’d be rashed a bit. There’s no real rash, it’s more like a rug burn.

The turn:

From FJR Crashbar Test

(notice the scrape marks from my bike)

From FJR Crashbar Test

Now for the Feej, Standard left side low-side damage:

From FJR Crashbar Test

I only had the fronts installed, the rears are too fugly for me, and the ones I have don’t have peg mounts for the passenger pegs.

Though my left side is starting to get a little sore.

The mirror took a hit but is still intact. I already have a replacement though 🙂

I’ll just need a bag… and a new left side crashbar, some new gear and I’ll be ready to go.

Clearly the crashbar saved my stator cover (already dinged up from a parking lot drop) and my left side fairing. That more than covers the cost of the bars.

Higher res images are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdisher/FJRCrashbarTest#

January 25, 2009January 25, 2009

FJR Crash Bar Group Buy Details

If you’re looking for the FJR Crash Bars Group Buy Details, you need to go here:

FJR Crash Bar Group Buy Details

July 27, 2008

2008 Trip recap and highlights

So it’s over, our summer 2008 motorcycle trip. We traveled approximately 4600 miles in about 12 and a half days. No, not much per IronButt standards but we actually stopped, and saw stuff.

We touched, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and of course Kansas.

Highlights:

The ride on Route 20 from Sioux City to O’Neill Nebraska We were in riding right between two fronts for a while, there was an awesome lighting show off to the left, with beautiful blue sky’s off to the right.
The Badlands, SD: Wow, that place is simply amazing.

From 2008 Trip
Custer SD, Mount Rushmore, and the Black Hills area. Simply spectacular views, and outstanding roads. Custer is a great little town to visit.

From 2008 Trip
The Winchester restaurant in Buffalo, Wyoming. Simply awesome steaks.
Bighorn National Forest, Beartooth Pass, and the Shoshone National Forest. Simply amazing views, great altitude, and great roads.

From 2008 Trip
Cody, Wy. Another cool town, and the Rodeo was fun
Yellowstone National Park, Absolutely beautiful.

From 2008 Trip
Jackson Hole, Wy I could see why you’d want to live here, a tad too touristy though. This is where the white water rafting on the snake river didn’t happen.
Mount Evans, Co. A fabulous ride up to the top of the highest paved road in America.

From 2008 Trip
Steamboat Springs, Co. Another very cool ski town and where we met Harley-Mike. The Accommodations at the Bristol Inn downtown were fantastic, I’d highly recommend staying there.

From 2008 Trip
Cripple Creek, Co. A former mining town, now a Casino heaven.

From 2008 Trip
Manitou Springs, Garden of the Gods, and Pikes Peak. All well worth it. We had an outstanding meal at the Stagecoach in Manitou Springs.

From 2008 Trip
Golden, Co. Seeing a few fellow FJR Riders and their machines in Golden at NAFO, even though I didn’t stay…

From 2008 Trip

Low Lights:

Sioux City, Iowa… What was that smell… Sewer City may be a better name.
Having the XM radio on the Zumo crap out two days into the trip, then having a button fall off the dang thing. It quit completely after the mount sat out in the rain for a day but at least the GPS functions came back and I had the ability to play the 389 mp3’s I had loaded. Without that I would have gone crazy.
The Golden Hotel in O’Neill Nebraska… At least the room I stayed in, everyone else was happy with the accommodations. I would stay there again, just not in that room.

The Chinese restaurant next door to the Golden Hotel… Not good.
Kyle Sr’s Crash, but he’s fine and bikes can be replaced.

From 2008 Trip
Mount Rushmore, Charging $10 per vehicle to simply park and to visit the ‘Visitor Center’ and I’m sure spend $4 on a drink. No-Thanks.
BMW MOA Rally in Gillette, Wy. I was personally disappointed with the vendor attendance. I know it was out in the middle of nowhere and you can’t please everyone. Since we only stayed one day it wasn’t that bad. Had we been there for more than one day it would have been wasteful.
Route 789 from Wyoming to Colorado… A barren waste land and no fun at all in 95+ degree heat.

From 2008 Trip
The Flat Tire I got on the way to Mount Evans. Though plugging it was easy enough with the right tools.
Kansas, All of it. HOT, flat, boring as hell.

All in all this was a trip of a lifetime. Getting to do it with my dad was special too. We laughed a lot and learned a lot. I wish we would have had more time. The overall cost of the trip was well under budget. I didn’t spend any real money at the rally because the vendors I wanted to see weren’t there. We lucked out with hotel accommodations just about everywhere. In most cases we were under $120 for a room with 3 beds. Split 3 ways that’s less than $40 a night. You can hardly camp for that and have a good place to sleep, and a warm shower.

We lucked out with the weather for the most part. We didn’t ride more than 300 miles of the 4600 in the rain. We got wet now and then but it was usually welcome from the heat.

This was the perfect time of year to visit all of these places (except the parts getting to and from the west. They pretty much sucked).

I’d do this again in a heart beat if I could.

July 26, 2008

The whole story

So on day 3 I posted about Kyle Sr. hitting a rock and breaking his bike.

While that is factual, it’s not the whole story. We knew that my wife and my mom were following the blog. They were already concerned about our safety and we didn’t want them to worry so details were withheld.

The full disclosure:

On our 3rd day (Kyle Sr’s 2nd day), about 30 miles from the hotel, we had our “YouTube Moment”, or at least Kyle Sr. did.

In the Custer National Forest (just east of the Black Hills), Kyle Sr. blew a corner. A fundamental, motorcycling 101 breakdown.

He missed on a right handed decreasing radius corner, crossing the center line. Instead of asking more of the bike (Given his speed we’re all pretty sure it had more to give), he stood it up, when across the road (just missing a head on with a pickup) and over an embankment.

(hitting a big rock and breaking his forks so that part was factual).

The bike down in the ditch. The photo doesn’t really show it, but that was about 8-10 feet off the roadway. We had already moved the bike to make sure it would still run, and see if we could get it out and continue on.

The skid marks from the truck that almost hit him… He was coming around this corner. The ditch is to the right.

Kyle Sr. getting checked out.

At least he kept his sense of humor.

He was not ticketed, it was just dumb rider error. Nothing more nothing less.

In all seriousness, this could have been tragic. Kyle Sr. was bruised up a bit, but he was wearing gear, and a helmet and he walked away. Plastic and metal can be replaced (though Insurance is usually a good thing).

Now, that being said, the same thing can happen in a car, and actually did happen to a motor home the very next day on a straight piece of road even.

Our trip was still great but we would have loved for Kyle Sr. to have been able to finish it with us.

So there ya have it. The rest of the story about lucking into finding someone to bring the bike home is true.

July 26, 2008July 26, 2008

Days 11, 12, 13

Thursday, our final real day on the trip before we start heading back is supposed to be light.

We started out the in the morning by visiting the Garden of the Gods, a really cool place. If I were 20 years younger I’d be climbing all over those rocks.

From 2008 Trip

(more photos in the gallery)

After spending a little time there we grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds, then called Pike’s Peak to see if we could get up. It was a go.

It costs $10 for the privilege of riding up the mountain. The road wasn’t nearly as treacherous as I’d heard, and the views were spectacular.

From 2008 Trip

We spend about an hour up top taking in the view, taking photos and what not. Then we headed down, and it’s good we left when we did. The mountain got pounded with rain shortly after our departure. The unpaved areas are not good for bikes when wet.

From there we beat feet to Golden, where the first ever National FJR Rally was being held. It was this weekend and I was on the fence about staying any more days. Two weeks is plenty.

We slummed around the hotel for a while and I finally decided I’d see these folks again at other get together’s and it was time to head for Cincy. Or at least put an effort towards getting home.

We tried to beat the weather but it was brutal. Literally raining sideways in two different directions. I didn’t have time to stop and take any photos but clearly a tornado was in the works. We got a good distance past the storm and stopped for dinner in Limon, Co. While eating the storm caught us and there was no way we could ride any further. So we grabbed a room at the nearby Best Western. We slept from 8pm until 1am. Riding at night across Kansas turned out to be the way to go. It was much cooler. We put down about 600 miles before it again became unbearably hot (and boring). It also looked like we were going to hit St. Louis at rush hour. Not a good thing when your tired and it’s 95+. Again we decided a hotel with a pool was in order. Same plan, we slept from approx 8:30pm to midnight then got up and beat feet for home.

This was a trip of a lifetime. It was special to be able to do this with my dad, and a great friend. It’s unfortunate that his dad couldn’t continue. (more on that later).

I am looking forward to taking the family out west in the future.

There’s still more to write about, more thoughts, more details. I’ll add a couple more posts about the trip after I catch up on some sleep.