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.

Pics from the little ride today around the foothills.  I was amazed at the fact so many lakes are frozen over just as you start to get into the hills.   Lots of snow as well.

Took a nice ride up Lookout Mountain, and then back down through Hwy 74 to cover some highway I skipped on my way home on the ride this summer.   Went through Evergreen, and a few other small towns.  Beautiful area out there!

View above is from near the top of lookout mountain looking at Golden (the Coors Brewery is seen to the left) and you can see Down Town Denver to the right at the top.

Only a week till I head off on my trip.  I took a spin on the bike around town to test out various mounting locations for the GoPro on the bike.   I am going to take another run mid week to test out some other places and try to resolve some vibration I see in a couple.  

The suction cup mount lower on the fairing was the most stable, and had a pretty fun front wheel shot (never noticed how much suspension travel happens during normal riding).

So far it looks like this will be a fun camera to have around  :)

Yesterday I went to a friends house to finish doing some wiring and getting all the electrical bits sorted out on the bike for the ride.  I took this chance to load up the bike with all the luggage and an approximate amount of hardware I will be carrying. 

This was important because I havent ridden the bike fully loaded on the new suspension that was installed last October so I wanted to be sure the bike rode well. Turns out it does, I just need to remember how to handle a top heavy bike. 

I need to go over everything to see how I can move weight around to make the bike a bit less top heavy, by putting all the heavy stuff in the side bags, and leaving the motofizz and the givi for bulky lighter items.

As for the electrical work, The GoPro hard wire setup is fully done, there is a hidden USB jack under the front cowling that the GoPro can be plugged into and I can start and stop the recording from a button on the handle bars.   Also there is now a time/temp/battery voltage meter now on the handlebars as well.  

The battery meter is a good and bad thing, I think it would be easy for me to become a battery hypochondriac and think something is wrong anytime the battery numbers drop at all (which is normal with charging cycles, RPM changes, etc…).   I did get to see just how hot it is in Denver stop and go traffic though.  The weather channel said it was 85F yesterday, but on I25 going stop/go, the temp read out showed 99F, it was a hot one!.

Route Planning:

After some help finding a place to camp around Salida by my friend Dusten, I think I have all the camping spots planned out now (or camping areas at least).    There is a small chance that night I may skip camping and crash at the Mt Princeton hot springs. Who knows, that’s something I’ll figure out the night of, it will be a very long/challenging ride that day (Gunnison - Aspen - Salida) so I may feel more like a relaxing hot pool and a shower than camping.

Total mileage is ~ 1500mi, but its the riding time per day that is unexpectedly high for each leg for the mileage covered.  Below is the mileage and expected time.  Add about an hour or two onto each of those for stopping, fuel, food, etc…   The low riding time and distance on Day 4 and 5 are important as those areas are places I want to explore more (around Durango and Gunnison) and also a mid trip break isnt bad.

 Day 1 206 mi 4:18:58 
 Day 2 271 mi 5:30:01  
 Day 3 248 mi 5:28:55 
 Day 4 182 mi 3:28:30  
 Day 5 126 mi 2:56:50 
 Day 6 229 mi 5:25:09 
 Day 7 245 mi 6:44:46 

Also I’ve found the Garmin software to be horribly off on some roads for the expected speeds. Up Col de Turini in France the GPS expected us to keep an average speed of 65Mph up the mountain. When the real speed limit was 40, and our speed was below that due to the foggy conditions. So I am curious how realistic these numbers are.

Gear:

I pulled the trigger on a rear “trunk” for the motorcycle, to hold the tent and other odds and ends I want to keep dry.  I picked up a  Givi E370NT Monolock case that will go right behind the MotoFizz bag. 

I am also picking up a cheap heated “Bib” for the ride.   Since some of the morning departures in the mountains could be in the 20 - 30F weather range I will want something to keep me a bit warm in the morning.  Aerostich has a $67 electric bib that keeps the important bits warm.

Keeping comfortable in these mountains could be interesting given the wide swings of temperature and altitude.

Other Prep:

I need to do a good bit of wiring work on the motorcycle, and get the GoPro hardwire and remote trigger stuff soldered up. I should have this stuff ready to by end of next week I hope.

Other than that, I am getting more and more excited!

The route so far.   I’ve chosen to not just short cut to Salida from Gunnison, but head up through independence pass.   I’ve been though there before, but would love to take it on a bike!  Also I know I can stop for some good eats in Aspen on the way ;)

Total distance for the trip in this configuration 1498 miles, and should cross the continential divide 4 times.

It’s focusing on the details that changes a trip from “successful” (or failure…) to “fun”… and I am an Eagle Scout… so this is just how it goes.  Its the whole “Be Prepared” thing.  The black art is doing all this on a motorcycle in equal to the space that most people have just for their cooler of beer when they go camping.

Planning:

Just about 30 days out from the trip, and far ahead of where I would need to be to ensure all the bases are covered.   This gives me a chance to shake down the setup on the bike a bit before the actual trip.

Since originally posting the map, some changes have happened.  I am now camping at CO National Monument park outside of Grand Junction on the 2nd day.   I may be making some other changes.

This takes the campsite count to 3 national parks (all of them after Labor day), and 3 federal/BLM land campsites (alternating).   Camping in a national park has some serious perks for a motorcycle rider… such as facilities like showers, water is normally somewhere to be found, and toilets.   All good things as hauling water sucks and takes up a good bit of room.  And being after Labor day should make these much less packed. (Looking at the reservation sites, few sites are reserved at all that week compared to the week before.)

I also changed from going direct from the Black Canyon to Salida, to going the long way up and through Aspen then back down.  Increasing the mileage to ~ 1500mi

Video Fun:

I figure I should catalog this trip and record bits of it for posterity and also for fun.  To do this I picked up a GoPro Motorsports Hero 1080P camera, and the assorted mounting bits.   I plan on taking 3 or 4 32GB SD cards with to record most of the trip (the riding bits).     I have 3 mounts setup for this so far:

1. Under the nose of the bike - out front: I have a quick connect mount so I can get a POV of the front of the bike. 
2. Helmet: Not sure how or where to mount this yet, as I have a modular helmet and the whole front flips up… makes it a little interesting to fin a place to put the camera that wont be distracting.
3. Side or rear of the bike:  Via the big bad suction cup mount I can position the camera variousplaces around the bike easily.

Stuff to do:

• I picked up a Battery BacPac for the GoPro which I am hacking into a hard wire setup so I can power the camera off the bike.  (battery is limited to 2 -3 hrs in the camera)  I still need to hack the case and the BacPac but I have everything ready for that.
• Install a second USB power feed (12v to 5v).  I have the box already, just need to spice it in.
• Go to a fishing shop and pick up some steel leaders to use as a safety strap on the GoPro incase a mount or something breaks or falls off.

Camping Gear:

I have just about everything accounted for.  I ordered the Primus Micro Lantern today, and the only bit of kit I may need at this point is a general purpose stove burner…  

I also have my Kermit camping chair in, and I have to say this is the sweetest camping chair I have ever seen.  So over engineered and stable.  I just question where it will go on the bike as weight distribution is starting to be a key factor I need to keep an eye on.

One key item/issue so far is that the average temperature for many of the campsites I will be at for a low over night will be in the 20 - 30’s.  My sleeping bag for moto camping is a 40+ bag.  So I picked up a thin fleece liner that is supposed to add up to 25F of additional insulation…  I’ll sleep dressed in layers too.

Stuff to do:

• Pick up some IsoPropane canisters for the lantern and jet boil.
• pick up some additional compression sacks
• if I want to fish on the trip I’ll need something to do it with… but depending on space limits I may have to ditch that plan and focus on picking something up on the way to cook at camp.

Motorcycle Prep:

After taking the Lee Parks Total Control class, I learned the rear sag is a bit high on my bike currently.  I am talking to RaceTech to see if I can get the rear spring spacer updated… not sure yet though.

I have mounted a SW-Motec adapter plate (meant for top cases) behind the grab bar to give stability for the tent which will be mounted behind the MotoFizz cargo bag and also act as an extended mounting point for the motofizz.

Adding on a Clock, Temp Gauge, and Battery monitor unit under the wind screen to give me easy access to 3 important numbers to watch.  Why is temp important?  Because you could easily ride yourself into Hypothermia without knowing it soon enough if its rainy and cold.    I waterproofed the device this week and just need to wire it in and find a way to mount it.

I picked up some additional maintenance tools such as a better tire puncture repair kit, and CO2 inflator for the tires.   Cheap insurance to keep me on the road in the event of something trying to take me out.

I also picked up a BagsConnection map holder for on top of the tank bag.  While a GPS is great for showing you a route and where you are, its terrible for seeing the big picture… which is important for changing where you want to go on a whim.

Stuff to do:

• Pretty much all the wiring above.  I need to pull the plastic off the bike and do a once over of the entire system and check the oil, etc…
• Possibly ship the rear shock to RaceTech.

Other Gear:

• I received the ACRElectronics SARLINK PLB and have it registered with NOAA.  This is a fun device I hope to never need to use.  But it is nice having it on hand even when Kate and I take car trips. 

Overall I can see this is overkill and I could go just as is and probably do fine… but the planning can be as fun as actually going on the trip.  And we all know once you leave your driveway the plan changes, and you adapt.  Which is why focusing on the details before hand comes in such handy, it makes you less dependent on a specific plan and makes you aware of what scenarios you prepared for.