TAT-2016 Post 15 – Wednesday 23 Dec 2015

Hand is getting stronger and even been riding the CRF on easy rides including a little mud. Time is flying by and everyone is trying to get geared up for the Mar 2016 launch. That being said we’ve had our first desertion from the heavy bike KLR group; Steve.

This past weekend Steve went riding at Ott Park with another work friend named M&M. M&M used Dales KTM 530 and Steve was on his KLR 650. Ott Park is on the shore of the AR River so gets pretty wet with any rain which had happen recently. Steve had a very bad day from what he told the rest of the TAT team; Lots of water and mud. Steve evidently got the KLR buried down to the axle on several occasions and it took both him and M&M to get the bike out. Of course Woodrow and I gave him lots of grief about hauling that heavy bike on the TAT but then we forgot about it.

Well today Steve took the day off so I expected I would not see him until after Christmas holidays. On my way home after work I get a call from Steve asking if I could do him a favor. I asked what did he need and he said he needed a ride to Searcy to pick up his car. This was unusual so I asked more questions like why and what was he doing in Searcy. He finally came clean and admitted he had just bought another dual-sport bike (Yamaha WR250R) and was riding it home but needed a ride back to Searcy to get his car. I couldn’t believe my ears. He was deserting the heavy bike KLR team and jumping to the light 250 team. While on the ride to Searcy he said the Ott Park mud experience convinced him that using a heavy bike for this trip was not a good idea. He had been watching for sale adds and had found this 2009 WR250R which already had all the gear he needed for the TAT ride.

As soon as I got a couple of pics of his new ride I had to send them to the other team members and they were both blown away, especially Terry the only remaining KLR pilot. Pics are below.

As for the CRF, I continue to make modifications. Today I installed Zeta Armor Hand Guards that I received from SoloRacer. Installation went quickly and they fit the CRF perfectly.

I also received a plug and play circuit that corrects the speedometer error; SpeedoDRD. After changing the gear ratio with the new 13 tooth front sprocket, my speedometer was now 5 to 6 mph off. This circuit is tunable with any change in gearing or tire size to compensate for indication errors. Before I install the circuit I need to baseline the speedometer error against my GPS by riding 50-60 miles. This will have to wait a few weeks.

That’s all for now, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you next year.

Post 14 video

TAT-2016 Post 14 – Tuesday 8 Dec 2015

Cast removed two weeks ago and I’ve been doing rehab exercises every day. Hand is still weak but getting stronger. This past Saturday I rode my mountain bike for 13 miles (on paved trails) then road the CRF for 35 miles (4 miles on dirt and a little mud). My left hand started getting sore working the clutch so had to cut the ride short. I rode another 9 miles on the mountain bike on Sunday. Good to get back on the trail and road.

This CRF ride was the first time I got to try out my new mirrors and seat. The mirrors are great and rock steady. Because they stick out more than the stock mirrors I can see behind on both sides for the first time plus they can be folded out of the way while in the brush. The seat is so sweet! I can definitely tell the difference from the brick hard stock seat. Looking forward to my next long ride.

The big news this post is that I eliminated my ugly tail light/rear fender extension/ license plate holder. I replaced it with an LED unit from DRC Hard Ware that I purchased from CRF’s Only. It made the bike’s rear fender look so much more streamlined while increasing my visibility to all those Cagers. The single LED light also replaces the rear turn lights with a neat scrolling light. I’ve included pictures of all the garbage I took off the bike and the final LED light installation. I’ve also posted a GoPro video for the first time of the lights operation.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to repeat something I stated in my very first Post. I recently got a comment from someone that has been reading my posts that I’m too wordy. You are absolutely correct. I write these posts to document an adventure in my life for my kids, family and close friends. It appears to be of interest to some others since I’ve gotten almost 170,000 views and climbing steadily.  My response to being too wordy is please stop reading my posts and go do an adventure for yourself. I read many other blogs and get a lot of pointers and trip ideas from those other adventure riders. Sad to say that this adventure is just starting so I expect to be too wordy a lot in the future.

That’s all for now. Hope to ride again this weekend.

TAT-2016 Post 13 – Saturday 21 Nov 2015

Still working with one hand but cast comes off on Monday then rehab for a couple more weeks. I am definitely ready to get this off my hand.

In the meantime, I received the Grand Loop (GL) Great Basin bag and did a trial fit on the CRF. So far I’m pretty happy with the GL and it appears to be top quality construction. Even though the GL is made of waterproof material the seams may or may not be watertight. The GL does come with three (2 small, 1 large) dry bag inserts that would keep your necessaries dry even if the seams do leak in a heavy downpour. In addition, the GL comes with a heat shield (1) that straps to your pipe in case the bag is mounted close to the tail pipe (won't need to use on the CRF).

I stuffed the GL full of clothing to give it some shape and then put it on the CRF. With the RotoPax fuel tank on the back it pushed the GL too far forward thus limiting my seating area. Luckily the RotoPax can be mounted in–line (current position) or across the back rack so I rotated the mount and reinstalled the GL. That works much better. I still need to finalize the final tie down concept but it does look like it will be perfect. In addition, I can still tie my medium size watershed bag on top of the RotoPax for additional storage while still keeping weight low on the bike. My final configuration is shown in the multiple views below.

Summary:

Pros - I bought the larger GL bag to ensure I had room for all my stuff and this looks like more room than I will need counting the Watershed bag. It mounts low helping stability and it even provides a great backrest. When (not if) the bike is dropped I won’t get injured if trapped under the bag like I would be with hardshell bags.

Cons – Bag is stiff and it will take effort to take clothes in and out of the bag especially with the location of the zipper in back. The attachment to the bike is yet to be finalized but it won’t be quick on/off unless I work out some quick disconnect ideas. I will do that but need two hands. Plenty of time during cold months before launch.

Pictures also show how well the jack works on the CRF. I can actually move the bike around the garage on top of the jack with no fear of it falling off.

That’s all for now.

TAT-2016 Post 12 – Thursday 12 Nov 2015

Not a lot of news since my last post except I now have a hard cast on my arm from the surgery and it is driving me crazy. Another week and a half and I get it off and start rehab to get my hand back into full operation without the pain; or at least that’s what the doctor promised. It will be worth it if he’s right.

Weather started getting cooler and wetter right after my surgery so the rest of the riders haven’t ridden much. I keep pressuring them to go out before real winter gets here. I’ve always been a year round rider and have commuted the 12 miles to work down to freezing on many occasions. Of course that was on large cruiser bikes with wind shields and heated gloves and clothing. Not sure I would do that on the CRF; maybe to the low 40’s. We’ll see.

I wanted to document some updates to my bike while I’m out of commission.

I recently installed new mirrors from Doubletake. The stock mirrors give good rear view but continually get knocked loose with every fall. The Double take mirrors use RAM Mount hardware and can easily be stowed in a protected position or completely removed in rough terrain. In addition, they look bulletproof. I look at a lot of YouTube video of dual-sport ridding and I see these on a lot of serious off-road bikes. I also like the fact that they provide two more RAM Mount balls that can be used for my GoPro camera or SPOT. Pictures of my bike with stock and new mirrors below.

I have also ordered and expect to receive today a new seat from SeatConcepts. I’ve seen several of their seats on different bikes and they are sweet and much, much more comfortable than stock seat. The stock CRF seat works for day rides but would be a torture machine on a 10 day long endurance ride. I broke down and decided to add this comfort item to my upgrades to save my tired old body. Pictures of stock and new seats below.

I found out after a couple of rides that I had no way to lift the bike to oil the chain or even take a wheel off to fix a flat. I bought a motorcycle lift from Sears and it has worked out perfectly. I can lift the bike even with one hand in a cast and it feels stable while on the lift. Picture of jack below.

The one item I’ve been researching for a long time is my luggage configuration for the CRF. Since I can’t go riding for a while, I’ve been googling pictures of other people riding their dual-sports in some beautiful wilderness areas. I always take note of how they load their bikes to get ideas. As a result of my AK1 and AK2 rides, I have a fair amount of experience on what works and what doesn’t. Some basic facts (my opinions only) that helped me decide on what I want on the CRF:

1               Hard-shell paniers (saddle-bags) work great on large touring and adventure bikes. They are waterproof, carry lots of stuff and are easy to get things in/out when needed. They are also heavy and will get damaged when a 500+ lb bike falls over. I know from experience. They also make the bike wider and can get caught on trees or rocks on narrow trails. Most importantly is that when you fall (not if) they can be a source of injury if your legs or feet get caught under them. I quickly decided I would not install hard-shell anything on my CRF.

2               Stacking bags high on the back is a common theme on the dual-sport bikes I’ve googled. I understand the logic and did the same thing on AK1 and AK2 on my large touring/adventure bikes. The problem is that weight up high makes the bike hard to handle and very unstable during critical maneuvering. I know I will be carrying at least 1 gallon of fuel on my back rack in a RotorPax system. I will also be taking some items in a bag made by Watershed on top of the RotoPax. These are fantastic bags that are totally waterproof as proven by me flipping a fully loaded raft on an Idaho wilderness river and having all our clothes and sleeping bags set in the water over an hour until we got the raft back upright. Everything was dry in camp that night. I have several different sizes of these bags and will take either my small or medium Watershed to hold my electronic or other stuff. I’ll decided which one as I start doing trial loading in the future. Watershed picture below.

Putting another large bag on the back on top of my Watershed and Fuel container was not an option. After looking at a lot of dual-sport pictures I noticed there was a bag made by Grand Loop (GL) that may answer the mail. GL makes two sizes of a horseshoe shaped bag that sets on the rear of the seat and then runs down both sides to attach to the passenger foot pegs. The CRF does have a seat capable of carrying a passenger (not that I would want to) and does have foot pegs for the passenger. This approach also keeps the bag away from the rear wheel so mud won’t get between bag and wheel (hard-shell paniers).

The two GL bags are Coyote (dual-sport bikes) and Great Basin (touring/adventure bikes). They recommend the Coyote for the CRF250L but I noticed on some of the pictures I had Googled that the larger Great Basin was being used on several 250cc bikes and appeared to work ok. I had made up my mind that I would use one or the other so just had to decide which to buy. These are not cheap bags; $360 for Coyote and $450 for Great Basin. My experience on AK2 on buying luggage is pick carefully what you buy and price doesn’t guarantee quality. I bought Yamaha Paniers for the XT1200Z Super Tenere and they were extremely expensive but were not nearly as good of quality as some aftermarket paniers. GL bags have a good reputation but I was still struggling on which bag to get. I sent an email to GL asking if the Great Basin would work on the CRF and within a couple of hours got a reply with everything I needed to make the decision. They said it would work fine and would only be a problem if I was in a steep descent. I may feel like I’m setting on the bag rather than standing on the pegs and only if I had the bag stuffed full. I ordered the Great Basin and would rather have additional storage even if I don’t use it than have to add on more small bags because the Coyote bag was full. Once I get the Great Basin I will post pictures of it installed on the CRF.

Finally I decided to make up a tool bag specifically for the CRF. Not sure yet what I will carry on the bike during TAT ride (weight being the limiting factor) but these will be the bare essentials I need to work on the bike from my truck on day trips. I spent last Saturday in the garage sorting all my Metric tools and then trying every nut, bolt and Allen head I could find on the CRF and putting the wrench/socket in my CRF tool bag. I actually found that the required tools aren’t that much and since we have two CRFs on the ride plus two other Metric bikes (KLRs) I can split up the tools among all of the riders. I already have a spare clutch handle and gear change lever in the bag but I still need to add spare tire tube(s). Since I have a 21” up front and an 18” in back I would normally carry a tube for each. Some blogs I’ve read say you can use a 21” tube in a smaller tire for emergency so may go that route. Still need to add spare fuses.

Future work – I still need to add hand guards but have yet to find the ones I want. In addition, I plan on cutting down my rear fender. These dual-sport bikes have to meet certain laws to be street legal so that must be the reason they stick the large extension on the rear to hold the license plate. Totally useless and just in the way. I’ve found a YouTube video of a guy cutting his extension off and mounting the license plate just below the rear tail light. It requires modifying the tail light so as to provide light for the license but nothing serious. Hard to do with only one hand so this may have to wait until I get the cast off.

That’s all for now.