Teh Interwebs of Joe

Since getting my Motorcycle suspension has been an issue… I am a bigger man, and the bike needs to handle my weight and the weight of gear I haul in order to be safe.

About a year ago I had my Sprint in to a dealer to get the suspension tuned for a man of my mass  + gear.   They told me I didn’t need to worry about re valving, compression or rebound rates, etc…  In the end they did exactly what they told me I should have done, just the springs.

Fast forward to last summer and I felt the bike was good, but very nervous over certain bits of road especially when the bike was lightly loaded (with just me).  The bike became better once I threw 100lbs of gear on the back it seemed.   This was a bad sign.  An even worse sign was the instructor and suspension wiz at the Lee Parks class last summer used my bike to go over suspension setups.    In his instruction and demo he found my bike had terrible rebound dampening on front and rear, and sag was almost impossible to set with only me on it.

I’ve been doing reading the last few months and realize that I made a big mistake by not forcing the dealer to order revalving and proper setup of the bike.   So I reached out to the Triumph community and RaceTech to see what I can do.

A suspension expert on the Triumph community who works with RaceTech gave me a call and sounds like he is going to help me get stuff worked out.   He has a site here with some solid info on how the sprint suspension works, and its weaknesses.

http://www.hrsuspension.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=9 

I am now planning to remove the front forks, and the rear shock and mail both to him to have him re-valve, dyno, and rebuild all 3 shocks to my specs of weight, riding style, and cargo loads I plan to carry.     Then once they are back, roughly set the bike up myself and then take it to a local performance suspension shop to calibrate the Sag and settings based on different loads so I have a base line to work off of going forward.

I am quite excited by this work getting done as it will make the bike feel MUCH more stable under hard cornering under all conditions.   Also the valving being more on point will make the ride much more smooth and consistent.

Add this to the replacement handle bars I am looking to order and some adjustments to the rear sets, some rewiring I am doing while I have the bike torn down, and I am pretty sure this may be a bike I keep for a very long time.

I added an “About Joe” page that says who I am and what the hell I am doing on the internets.   I’ve had some people msg me in the past asking what the deal was… so enjoy.

http://www.jk720.net/AboutMe 

I also removed the link to the “Where is Joe” page for now, I’ll add it back up when I go on trips and such.   But in general its turned off.

Just wanted to mention to my CO friends and others around who often venture out into the unknown and want some piece of mind.  I just saw ACR electronics has released a newer/cheaper/smaller Personal Location Beacon.  I have a SARLink from ACR and carry it with me on the bike, and camping.   To me having something like this when you are hiking or away from the roads/cell towers/ or going out Solo in the backcountry while ski’n is a great idea.

On my motorcycle trip last fall, 1/2 of all my nights camping I had no cell reception at all, and looking at my Google Latitude maps that tracked my trip, I can see how major portions of my trip were entirely without coverage (5 hours out of 7 hours of riding one day as an example).    Yet these PLB’s are military grade, high power, multi band, highly accurate, location devices that can get you help if you need it in a hurry.  Not a bad insurance policy while out and about.

http://www.acrelectronics.com/products/catalog/personal-locator-beacons/resqlink-406-gps/ 

These are way more capable, and reliable than the SPOT or other consumer grade devices.   You can check in and give “I am OK” emails/messages to your family as well through your trip easily just with a button click. (note that the SAR link lets you do that for 400+ times, where the Resq only is 60 due to smaller battery).

(note this is not a paid advertisement, I really find having one of these to be a nice reassurance, and now that there is a cheaper and smaller option I thought I would mention it.)

To be socially conservative in your own life and practice is acceptable and admirable to stand by your devotions and not allow others to influence your personal life. On the other hand, to be socially conservative and force* those views be applied to all around you is among one of the most direct anti-American moves a US citizen can do.  It is directly in the face of freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and most all basic American freedoms.

When people of a more liberal view, or a contrary view to a social conservative, reject having hypocritical pseudo morals pushed on them, the social conservative decry that as being an affront to their own free speech.  When in reality, that is the opposition just protecting their rights as Americans.

No one is telling social conservatives to smoke weed, have gay sex,  have an abortion, watch Ellen, consume birth control devices, approve of all those who do what they don’t like, etc…   Social conservatives and the vocal religious are saying their views are more justified and valid than others. By forcing their views and in doing so destroy the basic rights that this country was founded under.  There is nothing more dictator like, or fascist in nature than quashing freedom to live under ones own ideals and principles in exchange for an attempted singular entity to dictate what is right and what is wrong.

*- By “Force” I mean by attempting to pass laws, or other government level rules, penalties, or declarations based on a very narrow social/religious belief with out any regard to what the people as a whole want or believe.

Been pondering a new helmet for this year on the bike.   Something that has better ventalation, less noisy, and in general is a bit more comfortable in very hot weather.   I thought my choice was going to be easy - a Schuberth C3.   But now it seems all kinds of new goodness is coming around.

• The Shoei NeoTec (I have a Shoei Multitec) - a vastly improved version of the helmet I have. 
• Nolan N104 - the evolution of the standard helmet for the touring crowd.   Trying to get more info on it, as it may be an option.
• And the well reviewed Schuberth C3.  Which I’ve already tried on a few times, comes in the color I want (Hi-Vis), and is supposed to be quieter than most of the others.   But is more expensive by $100 than the others.

All are close to the same price (the Schuberth is a bit more expensive).  But I think I need to test out the goods before I make a decision.

But nice that there is a few more high end modular options out there.

This was a heli lift that was happening outside our window Sunday morning for the building a block away.

The first lift, the guys on the roof almost had a real problem as the massive metal box that was being lowered started spinning.  One guy tried to grab it and got thrown almost off the edge of the building.   They learned in later lifts to use guide ropes ;)

Not that shocking or amazing, but still pretty cool to see a helicopter hovering 150 yds from your window.

Last weekend I spent a little bit browsing at Foothills BMW/Triumph.  That place is like Willy Wonka’s factory to me.   So much I must own :)  From the BMW K1600GTL that costs more than many sedans (but looks more comfortable than any car I’ve seen!), to the Triumph Tiger 800 XC.

I sat on a few bikes, and really liked the feel of a Tiger 800 (not the XC as I felt it was a bit too tall for my short build.)  I may take one out on a test ride coming up just to see what I am missing out on. 

But in the end I know I am just going to keep my Sprint ST for a while longer.   Because of that I have a laundry list of fun projects coming up for it.

1. Replace anything worn or broken from the last couple years  (all those parts are already on their way from England)
2. Oil changes, fluid checks, etc… (new Motul 300V and WIX filters in hand)
3. Replace the rear brake pads with sintered HH pads ( to match the front)
4. Order an LSL handle bar conversion kit to make the ride a little more comfortable for long trips.
5. Re-valve, rebuild and oil the front forks. (Via RaceTech valves)
6. Potentially ship out the rear shock to get the preload spacer tweaked.
7. New tires  (Pilot Road 3’s)

And besides that I am looking at getting a new Schuberth C3 helmet, and some heated riding gear.

Going to be an expensive spring for my bike, but I plan for that to be about the extent of the purchases for the bike this year.  Since my game plan is to use the bike for probably 2 to 3 week long trips this year, and many day/weekend trips, I might as well make sure it will get me there.

MuteMath drummer being moved by the crowd to a drum setup in the middle of the audience during the show at the Gothic Theater in Denver.

MuteMath is the second concert in a row that blew me away.   Where Puscifer is incredibly cerebral, and detailed,  Mute Math is a sensory overload.  Full of energy and drive.   The stage show is very well produced, the band seemed like they had a absolute blast.  The lead of the band spent the concert jumping off stuff, running around, and in general doing some crazy shit.

He at one point slipped on a dive from the keyboard and almost cut his head open, but took it in stride.

The band took turns playing in the audience, or on items on stage, etc…    Excellent concert and I highly recommend it!   I have some video I shot of the drummer being moved by the crowd out to the center of the main floor and starting to rock from there.

In the same way people are proud to be an American because of the people who fought and died in its creation - should I also feel the same for my iPhone?  Who knows how many people died in building it?!  I feel honored people put their life on the line for me to be able to view LoL cats anywhere I go.

Listening to this stuff today.   Pretty Lights is a local CO artist (out of Ft Collins, went to scool at UC Boulder).  Brings lots of funk and style into what has become known at Dub Step kinda stuff.   Really dig this song, its so complex and detailed.    Got me really jamming while typing docs for work. 

Cleaned the bike today over lunch in the garage, after leaving it uncovered accidentally for a month it was a nice grey color.   Now its looking good.   Checked the oil, and let it warm up nicely and rode it around a couple laps of the basement (to heat the brakes up after getting them wet to dry out).

Definitely going to need to ride some more this winter as weather allows (which out here seems to be every day except for the few minutes it snows in Denver.)

My office this afternoon.  Conference calls, presentations, even a system demo, and wrenching on cars inbetween.  Turns out LTE access points are pretty fast! 

I was doing some Geotagging of ~20K  GoPro photos today and while I was running through them I found some stills that I thought were either nice looking or fun.

The first one is after finding the only place open to get some lunch in Norwood, CO on Labor Day.  The Happy Belly Deli - which was fantastic, a real treat.  In the pic you can see the storm clouds growing behind me… there was some nice down pours a few minutes later.

Some of the others are bits like riding through Telluride during the film festival being in full swing,  the hazy mountains near Lizard Head Pass just outside Telluride, Beautiful canyon roads near Gateway, and some of the views from CO National Monument National Park.  

As I browse through the GoPro stills I’ll probably post a few more here and there.

After spending a bit of time looking at my vacation time I have to burn this year, and the extra week+ I get toward the end of the year… I figure I have 3-4 weeks of vacation I can use this year and still carry over a couple.

So because of that I think I am going to try and use the motorcycle quite a bit for a handful of adventures this spring/summer/fall.    Probably not more than one that is on the scale of what I did last year (7 days), but lots of mid week camping and exploring trips around the state and surrounding states.

In prep I know I need new tires for the bike (rear is badly squared and over 3 years old), an oil change, and quite a few other things that will come closer to summer.   But to get some important things out of the way I ordered a new clutch cable, new rear brake pads (Sintered HH EBC pads - to match the front that I put on last spring), replacement for the busted foot peg on the right side, and some replacement rubber parts under the bodywork that were a tad dry rotted (Triumph rubber FTL).

I am also exploring getting the bike better setup for me  and getting the forks re-tuned, and the rear strut re-tuned or replaced with something more tweak-able.

I figure the bike will be paid off soon enough here, there is little interest in buying a new bike right now so I am going to make this thing do what I want for the long term.