Asphalt Corner

K1200R is sold

2007-11-29T22:14:00.000-08:00

I sold my BMW K1200R last week. It was a nice bike, but I never had time to ride it. I think the new owner is going to be much happier with it than I was.

San Simeon Riding Videos

2007-04-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

Videos I shot:

bluepoof and Nny on PCH

bluepoof and Nny on PCH again

cal_tony

bluepoof

Nny

bluepoof again

cal_tony and bluepoof

San Simeon Ride - Day 3

2007-04-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Day 3

Pacific Ocean

Ocean, mountains, and fog on top of the mountains

GS along the coast

Looking back South

The ocean was dark blue

GS

A poor attempt at a self-portrait

Bixby bridge again

PCH

San Simeon Ride - Day 2

2007-04-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Day 2

Sunny morning in San Simeon

bluepoof

Nny

GS

cal_tony

Some tree

A break

Parking where it says not to

Parking where it says not to

Lake above the dam

The SUV's keep getting bigger every year

A break along the dirt road

The last 2 miles of the dirt road

San Simeon Ride - Day 1

2007-04-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Day 1 of the San Simeon ride:

Day 1

Twisties all the way down the coast

Bixby bridge?

Just because the puddle was there

Some other bridge

Somewhere along the coast

The next Bay Area phototag picture :p

A straight section of PCH

Pacific Ocean

Going to San Simeon tomorrow

2007-04-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

I'm taking tomorrow (Friday) off and going riding for the weekend. Staying in San Simeon at Motel 6 on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday I'll make my way down there, Saturday I'll be riding in that area. Sunday I'll make my way back. I'll see if I can get an extra battery and an extra memory stick for my camera tomorrow morning, just in case.

Pictures of the Tacoma truck I got

2007-03-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the Toyota Tacoma that I traded the Jeep for:

This rear door is awesome!

Yes, it's a manual.

Car pictures

2007-03-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

It just occurred to me that I had never posted pictures of the car I got in January. So here they are:

The rest of them are here.

jeep--, tacoma++

2007-03-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Jeep is gone, traded in to Carmax. It has been replaced by a much more off-road-worthy vehicle - a Toyota Tacoma with a TRD off-road package. 4.0L V6 and a 6-speed manual. No pics yet, I'll take some later.

Dell packaging warning

2007-02-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

I just got a new Dell laptop, and this is the warning sign that's on their packaging. The best one I've seen, much better than spelling the warning out.

Long overdue update

2007-02-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, I've not had the time. Lots of things have happened since then, but mostly work still consumes most of my time. I finally got my car that I ordered in October. I also got another bike that was on a year-end sale. I'm moving some of my furniture around to make an actual living room, and not just an office with lots of storage. That is all for now, gotta go to work. Some pics below.

New car:

New bike:

ST.N still dead

2006-11-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

ST.N is still dead, but we renamed the replacement forum. It's now http://www.farkledup.com/

ST.N is dead

2006-11-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

It looks like ST.N (sport-touring.net) is offline until further notice. We have set up a temporary replacement here:

http://www.wcrst.net/

Sold my FJR

2006-08-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

I wasn't really planning on selling my Yamaha FJR until March, but somebody at work offered to buy it, so I said sure! Sold it with all the farkles on it - now will put that money in savings. And I'm down to 3 bikes - VFR, SV650 and my GS.

Track bike ready

2006-08-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

Finally finished prepping my track bike - got a new set of Metzeler Sportec M1's on it, put the wheels back, the brake pads look good, removed the mirrors. Will just need to tape the lights and wheel weights at the track. Maybe I should tape the wheel weights now actually.

ST.N National - Day 4

2006-06-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

I traveled a little bit less miles today, but it took just as long if not longer. Average speeds have dropped after crossing the Mississippi river, and I was stopping to look at things more often.

Startpoint: Davenport, IA
Endpoint: Cambridge, OH
Miles traveled: 560
Mishaps: 0
Tickets: 0
Gallons of gas used: 12.035

It was still flat for a while after crossing the river, but all green and with trees.

Rest stop in Illinois

Same rest stop

Covered bridge

View from observation tower

Observation tower

Steps to the observation tower

Indiana rest stop

I stopped in Indianapolis on the way so I could take a picture next to the Speedway:

It started getting hilly in the middle of Ohio, as I got closer to the Appallachian mountains.

First rest stop in Ohio:

Sunset in Ohio

The rear tire is starting to get a flat spot now, after riding on mostly straight roads all the way to here. I think I've identified the problem with the radar detector - the power connector for it keeps moving because of vibration, causing intermittent breaks in the circuit. I'm using the cigarette lighter plug that came with the detector, and those are not designed for this kind of environment. I need to find a rubber band or something to secure it for now, and I'll hardwire some plugs for it when I return.

ST.N National - Day 3

2006-06-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Day 3 took me across and around Iowa and up into Minnesota and back.

Startpoint: Lincoln, NE
Endpoint: Davenport, IA
Miles traveled: 600
Mishaps: 0
Tickets: 0
Gallons of gas used: 14.204

I like Iowa. It's pretty flat, but at least it's green and has trees. Maybe I just miss the greenery and the trees.

FJR at rest stop in Iowa

My radar detector is acting up. I don't think it's the detector actually, I think it's my wiring. It keeps resetting itself, pretty often. Sometimes when I go over bumps, sometimes not. I've tried to duplicate that behaviour with the bike parked by moving around the wires and bumping the connections, but couldn't get it to reset. I guess I'll live with it for now, maybe take a closer look at it when I get to D.C.

Filling up somewhere in Iowa

I went up to Minnesota just so I can take a picture next to a sign that says Minnesota on it :)

And a picture next to a sign that says Iowa:

I should've taken pictures like that in other states, but didn't think of it.

Random rest stop in Iowa

Random rest stop in Iowa

I'm now in Davenport, right by the Mississippi river - I can see Illinois on the other side.

FJR next to the Mississippi river

This is the view from my hotel window. You can see my FJR all the way on the right, next to the BMW 318:

Bridge to Illinois

ST.N National - Day 2

2006-06-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Day 2 was even more boring than day 1. Basically, day 1 minus the friendly officer encounter.

Startpoint: Evanston, WY
Endpoint: Lincoln, NE
Miles traveled: 800
Mishaps: 0
Tickets: 0
Gallons of gas used: 19.646

But first I would like to mention that Valentine 1 rocks - I love those directional arrows and the threat counter!! Now I want even more - it should have an LCD screen showing me all the threats and their location relative to me. Maybe it can integrate with the GPS and put markers where all the threats are? I can dream, right?

Fillup in Evanston, WY in the morning

Coming across Wyoming after the Rockies reminded me of crossing Eastern Montana back when I bought that KLR from DantesDameX. Very very windy - so much so that I saw a semi being blown a couple of feet to the side (into my lane, but I was pretty far back) while going down I-80. Coming into Nebraska, the wind wasn't as harsh, but still bad.

Nebraska is boring. This is what it looks like:

FJR at rest stop in Nebraska

ALL of it looks like that. Well, ok, it got greener as I moved East and even had some lakes (ponds? puddles?) near I-80. But still flat and boring with nothing to see. I stopped in Lincoln, NE for the night and went to a local place called Runza - had a great philly cheesesteak with onion rings there. For a change, I got to Lincoln while it was still light out, unlike the previous night where the last 100 miles or so were in the dark.

I should also mention, that while my ER-6 earphones are great, the left one was hurting my ear a little on Day 1. By the middle of this day (Day 2), I had to take them out and just use earplugs, because the left one was hurting too much. Of course, this means that I have no sound from the radar detector, so I kept my speed down and only used the visual indicators.

One more thing - talking to people at gas stations, a lot of them are starting to say things like "holy crap, you rode that all the way from California?!" :)

ST.N National - Day 1

2006-06-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of my trip to the National in WV sees me ride I-80 in 4 different states for 860 miles. Except for one "incident", it was pretty uneventful and boring.

Startpoint: Mountain View, CA
Endpoint: Evanston, WY
Miles traveled: 860
Mishaps: 0
Tickets: 0
Gallons of gas used: 20.728

I started out early in the morning, my bike already loaded and set up from the night before. Took the interstates up through California and into Nevada.

Filling up not far from Donner Pass, CA

View(tm) from gas station near Donner Pass, CA

FJR at same gas station

Filling up in Winnemucca, NV

Bugs I collected (Winnemucca, NV)

This was across from gas station in Winnemucca, NV

Lunch (gas station food) in Winnemucca, NV

It was pretty hot in Nevada, even with the Aerostich vents open. Moving at a decent clip was giving me enough wind to not get too hot. Speaking of moving at a decent clip... I got pulled over in Nevada a little past Elko (on I-80). Officer Friendly told me I was going 86 in 75 - but he wasn't going to give me a ticket or a warning. He just wanted to check out my bike and how it's set up. We talked about riding, about my bike (he wants to get an FJR), IBA and other stuff. Then I left, but cut my speed down. This conversation with the officer was perhaps the coolest thing that happened to me all day :) .

This is what most of I-80 looks like in Nevada:

FJR at rest stop in Nevada

Anyway, the rest is boring.

Fill up at the last town in Nevada, Wendover

View from gas station in Wendover, NV

I went through Utah, it was getting dark as I reached Salt Lake City. My destination for the day was Evanston, WY, so I continued up the mountains in the dark and cold. Evanston is at 6700 feet or so, it was chilly.

FJR at the hotel in Evanston, WY

ST.N National - Day 0

2006-06-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

So today was supposed to be the first day of travel. I left at 1pm and was hoping to ride about 350 miles and stop for the night. That didn't work out so well.

I rode 100 miles to Lodi, CA where I stopped for gas.

I really didn't like the way the GS handled with all that weight up high. It was wobbly (even though I increased the preload) and just didn't feel right. The final straw was when I realized that if I sit on it while it's on the centerstand and lean back a little, the front wheel comes up from the ground. That's it, I turned around and went back home. I'll take my FJR instead.

I thought it was going to be a quick thing to move everything to the FJR and ride off. I forgot that I hardwired my Valentine 1 to the GS. Since I had to do the wiring for it on the FJR, I wired up the audio system too, so that everything is under the seat. By now it's pointless to leave though, I'll grab a few hours of sleep and leave early in the morning instead.

ST.N National - Day -1

2006-06-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to the ST.N National in WV. That's on the other side of the country - but I don't have to be there till next Wednesday. That should be plenty of time.

Of course, as seems to be the case for the last few trips, I didn't have everything prepared early enough. It's 1:45 am on Friday, and I was planning to leave early in the morning - not happening any more. I'll leave in the afternoon. The good part is that I think I got everything wired up and working correctly. Valentine 1 and music and I can hear both.

It's tough to get everything ready on a new bike in only a few weeks. I got a lot of stuff done, but didn't have time to install the driving lights. I have the lightbar and the lights in a box here - wish I had them installed. Jesse is taking his sweet time getting my cases shipped. It's been 2 weeks since I ordered them - for something that was in stock, that's a damn long time. He might ship them tomorrow. Too late now, I'll be installing them after I come back. For now I went to Road Rider and got a Cortech tail bag:

Along with my Givi V46 topcase and the tankbag, this should provide enough space. The tailbag is getting things like tools, a bottle of oil, some water and some MRE's. And the fuel bottle and the tire pump. The Givi will get the clothes, laptop and other miscellaneous crap. I'm short on space on this trip - I generally try to leave the Givi empty, so I have a place to lock my helmet and gloves and in case I need to get something on the way and be able to transport it. Obviously that's not happening this time.

Anyways. I'm gonna go pack my clothes and go to sleep. I'll be posting updates to this thread as I go along. Anybody who's not going wanna plot various people's daily locations on a map? Use the Google Maps API, it's pretty easy. I'm too tired to set anything up for that right now.

GS farkle - tank bag

2006-06-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

BMW R1200 GS has a plastic tank cover, so my old trusty Cortech tankbag with a magnetic base would not work. I needed one though, so I went to CalMoto and bought a Touratech tankbag.

Since the magnets won't work, it uses a different system to attach to the bike. There are 2 pieces that are attached to the bike, and the tankbag mounts to them.

Tank with attachments installed

The front attachment point

As you can see, the tank bag zips to the front attachment point and then velcro's to the back attachment point. This makes it pretty easy to remove (though not as easy as a magnetic mount). In order to mount the attachment points, I had to glue 2 pieces of velcro to the tank cover. The attachment points then velcro to the tank.

The bottom part of the rear mount is secured with 2 straps

Front velcro attachment

The bottom part of the front attachment thingy has 2 metal hooks that go under the VIN plate that's in front of the tank. You put the hooks under it and pull up, then velcro the piece on.

The attachment points stay on the bike all the time, with the rear one also acting as a tank protector. The bag can be mounted only when needed.

Tank bag

A carry handle on the front of the bag

The bottom of the bag is covered by some kind of vinyl, which makes it stick to the tank and not slide around.

Tankbag mounted on the bike

View from the front

Rider's view

And this just a really cool picture :)

Now a total of 10 cylinders of bikes!

2006-05-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

So I had 8 cylinders of bikes (a V4 and an I4), but now I added 2 more! This one is a boxer twin :)

I wanted one for a long time, and was finally able to buy one. It's a BMW R1200 GS. I like the Adventure better, but even this one is a little on the tall side for me, and the Adventure is even taller. I'll try my best to give it all the features of the Adventure though. Watch for modifications in the future.

It had 9 miles then, but now has about 160

I think I can fit one more in that space

WCRM 2006 - Day 3

2006-05-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of the WCRM, Sunday, I just headed home. I headed down 101 and kept my speed reasonable, as I didn't need another ticket. elseanno and Shay passed me soon after (they filled up at the same time I did, but I left earlier). It was intermittent rain, but no traffic until I got to Santa Rosa. I filled up in Santa Rosa, and then lanesplit through traffic on 101. The only other traffic I encountered was at the 580/880 split in Oakland - I just lanesplit there too. The rest of the ride was uneventful.

I had a great time at the WCRM (performance award notwithstanding), and can't wait to do it again!

WCRM 2006 - Day 2

2006-05-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

On the second day (Saturday) I went for what seemed like a good ride - highway 299. This road is great! 299 has nice long sweepers and excellent pavement. It was wet in places, but still great. I left late (because I like to sleep in) and ZX11Andrew tagged along. I let him lead, since he's much faster than me. We headed up North to Eureka/Arcata and made a right onto 299. That was fun! We enjoyed this for about 30 miles, railing through corners and passing the occasional cars (legally, thank you very much). The fun stopped after 30 miles. We met a CHP going the other way. We were going around a right-hand curve, with the mountain on the inside and a cliff on the outside. My theory is that the CHP had the radar on all the time, but our radar detectors (Andrew's V1 and my Passport X50) didn't see him because there was nothing for the radar signal to reflect off of in order to go around the curve. Anyway, our detectors were going full blast when we saw the car, but it was too late by then. I saw the red and blue light come on and saw the cop turn around behind me.

I slowed down and pulled to the side, when the cop passed me and just said "Follow me" through the loudspeaker. He caught up to Andrew and pulled him over, and told me to pull over too. We both got tickets :( . Hopefully I'm eligible for traffic school, I haven't had a ticket in a while (and never in Cali).

Andrew, after the cop left:

We stood and talked for a while, and I decided to turn around and go back, while he continued on to complete the 299-3-36 loop. He later told me that he saw 6 or 7 more cops along 299, but the rest of the loop was clear.

I headed back to Fortuna and stopped by a shopping center. I got some ibuprofen at Safeway, and a mono audio cable at Radio Shack (to connect the radar detector to the Starcom). Came back to the hotel, unloaded the bike and walked over to Subway to get lunch. I ate lunch sitting outside and talking with a few people who have also returned by now. I was just killing time until dinner at the brewery.

As we were standing there talking, a BMW KLT pulls up - it's USA MEDIC! I didn't know he was coming, but he and a friend (Eddie) just went for a ride that day and came over on a whim. They decided to stay at the hotel until the next day.

BMW KLT (LT = Light Truck :) ):

Lots of FJR's were there:

USA MEDIC and his KLT:

A GS:

More bikes:

Then I walked over to the brewery. DantesDame just pulled up:

We all had fun at the brewery. The food was good, the beer was good, the conversation was awesome! (And the waitresses were cute :) )

Here's (clockwise, starting from the front center) miles, Thatman, MsLusty and bluepoof:

ST.N'ers at other tables:

Left to right, MsLusty, bluepoof, Zarly, DantesDame, n2q: