It's All About the Bike » moto

Utah Desert to Idaho Mountains Dualsport Video

moto — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:42:41 +0000

The dilemma after getting back from a long motorcycle trip is whether or not to shake the dust out of all my gear first, clean up the bike first, or wrangle the multimedia into some sort of narrative to share on the blog before the trip fades into a distant memory. In this case, I also had to deal with taking care of myself after an injury, which further complicated the decision making process. Here is a short video with some clips taken from the Utah to Sun Valley Rally. It’s a rough cut, but you get the idea.

How My Mind Works Sometimes

moto — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:17:31 +0000

I realize this post will likely create a lot of questions about what happened. I’m not a linear kind of guy when telling the story of a five-day dualsport motorcycle trip. I don’t keep a journal when I am out on the road. When you are riding in a large group (7 on this last trip), you go with the flow. I use my iPhone camera to snap some images that will help me remember the moments out on the road, and the places we have been. Then I piece the story back together in chunks that sometimes all fit together, never neatly. This post is about the Touratech Zega-Pro anodized black cases that I installed on the bike a few months ago. This was the first trip where I had them loaded to the gills. As you can see from the photos below, they got a little banged up on this trip. I learned an important lesson. Some would say a rookie mistake. When your bike is loaded up with 75 to 100 pounds of gear, the suspension handles quite differently when you are in rough terrain. That’s all I’ll say about the cause part of the cause-and-effect. This post is about the effect. The right side took quite a bashing. The pannier rack deformed enough that the box was pinching against my gas tank, but the box didn’t come off. The box itself was dented in the rear and the side, but later that night in the City of Rocks campground, my mates helped me bang it out with a two-by-four. We also took the rack off and did some blacksmithing to bend it back to the point were it wasn’t hitting my gas tank. Unfortunately there were a few cracks in the welds, so at least the right side rack will need to be replaced. The whole assembly did a lot to prevent my bike from serious damage. Check it out:

Direct side view of the right side box, post incident.

View of the box from the back. Ouch.

Walking it off after eating it in the ditch.

Roadside Attraction: BMW R100 GS

moto — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:04:13 +0000

This past weekend, I had embarked on a rather long solo road bike ride, to try to shake the cobwebs out of my legs, and the bad attitude that was left over from the thorough ass-whooping I endured the day before in the Big Cottonwood Canyon Hillclimb. I rode from Park City, down Brown’s Canyon, through Oakley, then out Smith-Moorehouse way, up the Weber Canyon road. I didn’t notice it before the turnaround, but after I made my U-turn at the end and started heading back down the canyon, I saw this beauty parked in the gravel, near the gate to one of the cabin communities up there. I don’t know if $5,000 is too much to ask for a bike like this, but it kind of reminded me of the first GS I ever ever saw. This one is a 1992.

1992 BMW R100 GS for sale in Utah.

The Jake Rack: Take Your Bike On Your Bike

moto — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:10:55 +0000

Check out this prototype bike rack for a motorcycle, fashioned to Jake’s new KTM 990 Adventure. There have been many times I wanted to load up my moto with my mountain or road bike and head out of town. It’s always been an either/or proposition in the past. Jake is going to prototype one of these for my BMW F800 GS. All connections are said to have quick release pins, so the hardware can be removed easily. Stay tuned for detailed photos and a test drive once we get a prototype on the BMW.

Bicycle rack for a KTM 990 Adventure

Side view of Jake's Bicycle rack mounted on a KTM 990 Adventure

Now if we could just get Jake to put some dirt tires on that KTM…

Slideshow from Lakeside Daytrip

moto — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:53:41 +0000

Below is a link to recent daytrip around part of the Great Salt Lake. The IAATB crew consisted of Moto, Darth, Bartman, Han Solo, and @ScottSLC. We need to think of a good road name for Scott.

Here’s the link, if the embedded slideshow doesn’t work properly, as in, if you can’t view Flash.

Spy Photos: Somebody’s New Baby

moto — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:38:19 +0000

I recently posted a look from Bike EXIF of the new BMW F800 GS 30th Anniversary model. It’s a throwback color scheme, and the red saddle really completes the look. It also comes stock with the BMW bash guard and hand guards. I took these photos while down at BMW Motorcycles of Utah in Sandy. They were having a big open house event, and I spied this baby being hoisted from the crate. One thing that is lame: it should come with knobbies. Why not spec it out with some TKC 80’s?

BMW F800 GS 30th Anniversary Model

Winter Weather Still Has Its Grip On Utah

moto — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:15:10 +0000

Not much to report here, other than ski season is still hanging around. The BMW F800 GS is still covered up, hooked up to the battery tender, dying to get out on the road. I dug this photo up from an early spring moto trip a few years back, dated by the bikes: my KTM 640 Adventure which is now in the capable hands of North American 10k Biathlon Champion Casey Simons, and the Blue Angel which is now in Scott Beck’s garage. Never fear boys. Rip up the powder while we have it, it won’t last long. And soon the dirt roads will unfold ahead of us as we chase the setting sun.

Spring Dualsport Moto Trip circa 2008

Waiter, Taste The Soup

moto — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:07:47 +0000

Is this real? Who cares. I have no doubt that BMW’s new S1000RR suberbike in capable hands could pull this trick off. Check it out.

Pivot Pegz Install

moto — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:25:43 +0000

I have been hearing a lot about Pivot Pegz lately. After a September dualsport trip into the high passes of Colorado, where we spent long periods of time standing on the foot pegs, I realized the first upgrade I needed to make was larger foot pegs on my BMW F800 GS. After watching a Globe Riders DVD with host Helge Pedersen, I was convinced Pivot Pegz were the way to go. They are readily available from web retailers like Touratech or Adventurer’s Workshop (where I bought mine). They essentially have a spindle and bearings, a lot like the pedals on a bicycle. Unlike the pedals on a bicycle, they have stops so they can only rock a few degrees forward and back, under spring tension. The benefit is your feet are always flat on the foot peg platform whether you are sitting or standing. I haven’t ridden with them yet, but I will tell you the install took about 10 minutes. All you need is a flathead screwdriver and some needle nose pliers. Here are some photos of the install.

Pivot Pegz feature a pivoting axle and springs, and nice big grippy platform.

Almost twice as wide as the stock foot pegs! Very grippy teeth.

The entire install took about 5 minutes per side on the BMW F800 GS.

Follow Bart’s Death Valley Trip

moto — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:00:30 +0000

Bartman took off from St. George, Utah, this morning on a Death Valley dualsport moto trip. Although I haven’t seen any photos yet, he forwarded me this link from his SPOT GPS Tracking System. Pretty cool that you can follow up-to-the-minute progress of the route in realtime. Hopefully Bart will send some photos from the trails. I was hoping to be on this trip, but couldn’t break away from work. Man, the moto is calling in a big way. This is what happens during ski season when the sun is out and the snow is getting thin. At least until the next big dump of fresh powder, I will have moto brain.