Misadventures in wrenching and riding

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#61 Unread post by **Skier** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:31 pm

My backordered Stop-n-Go tire repair kit arrived from Aerostich the other day. I spent a few minutes looking through it and reading the instructions. It was kind of difficult to figure out, never having used one before, but I finally got the drift of it. I will probably try it out on my 599's tires once they wear out next season, just to get some practice with it. Another karmic goodie to have, and hardly takes up any space. It will most decidedly be good to have on the trips I want to take next season.

One of the trips I'm looking at taking in a year or two is the Alaskan Highway, or "Alcan." It's about 1500 miles, one way, of permanently under construction road, with plenty of gravel and all kinds of potential trip-killers. Should be fun!

It's about 900 miles from where I'm at to the starting point of the highway. I'd need some more gear to do it, but I have a good idea essentials. Namely, a set of Metzeler Tourances and a Scottoiler.

I'm also looking into auxiliary fuel tanks for the 599. Gadget was kind enough to point me in the right direction with those. I'm looking at the Tour Tank 3.5 gallon jobber. 3.5 gallons added to my 5 gallon tank should give me a range of roughly 340 miles. There's a bit more logistics to plumbing in an extra fuel tank than I expected, but I am going to try to apply the KISS principle.

No, it's not rock and roll all night and party every day, but keep things simple. Keep the tank mounted high, with a custom bracket built from an OEM grab bar, and install a Pingle petcock on my main tank. This way, when my bike hit reserve after consuming roughly 3 to 3.5 gallons, I can just flip the Pingle petcock on to refill my main tank and start counting miles.

This beats my previous idea of having an electric fuel pump, which means more wiring, plumbing, fitting and having to determine how much fuel, if any, is left in the aux tank. Which would be a complex issue - either use a fuel pressure gauge on the main-tank side of the pump or rig up a sending unit in the tank. Both of which would be expensive and lots of wiring and gauge-mounting logistics. So simple it is! It will be cheaper and less likely to break, too. Everyone wins!

#62 Unread post by **Wrider** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:23 am

As much fun as they can be, make sure to watch out for the frost heaves on Alcan. We were up in Alaska and boy were they fun to take in a rented motorhome! But I guarantee you that at speed you WILL lose traction. Best of luck getting up there, wish I could go too!
Wrider

#63 Unread post by **Skier** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:22 pm

I make my own fun at bike nights:

Too much fun:

#64 Unread post by **Sev** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:06 am

Did you win?

#65 Unread post by **Skier** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:00 pm

Negative, I got whipped good.

#66 Unread post by **Sev** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:44 pm

Friendship over.

*Waits for Skier to start talking and interrupts*

FRIENDSHIP OVER!!!

#67 Unread post by **Skier** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:28 pm

It's been freakin' cold around here lately. Think below zero, Fahrenheit. Brr.

My poor bike has just been sitting there, so I've been coming up with other things to occupy my time. First and foremost was to get my nerd quotient back up to speed, so I've got a little project going.

My goal is to have remote temperature and humidity sensing for my humidor:

(It moves around a lot, that picture is a few years old).

So what's a nerd to do? Go home-brew, of course! I'm starting with a Digilent Nanocon combined with a temperature and humidity sensor with wireless communication handled through Bluetooth via a "BlueSMiRF" adapter.

Here's the Nanocon with an American penny for scale:

Once broadcasted to one of my PCs, a Python program will handle conversion of data and plugging it into a PostgreSQL database. From there I will use another Python program, scheduled to run every five minutes or so, to pull records from the database, whip up some HTML for reporting purposes and upload it via SSH to my web site.

I do believe that should keep me solidified in "nerd" status for quite a while.

Shorts · #68 Unread post by **Shorts** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:42 pm

Skier wrote: I do believe that should keep me solidified in "nerd" status for quite a while.

Ummm, yeah

I don't think I'm going to let my DH see this post, he might start getting wild ideas with his cigar box.

#69 Unread post by **Wrider** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:12 pm

Yep, same temps here, although to day it got up to the mid 20s F! W00t! Anyway, yeah, nerd status is set for at least 6 months after that project... Kind of a oxymoron though, don't you think? In your pic, you're riding a bike, (assuming) your gf on the back, and yet, still such a nerd? Wow... How do you pull it off?

Wrider

#70 Unread post by **Skier** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:26 pm

Wrider wrote:Yep, same temps here, although to day it got up to the mid 20s F! W00t! Anyway, yeah, nerd status is set for at least 6 months after that project... Kind of a oxymoron though, don't you think? In your pic, you're riding a bike, (assuming) your gf on the back, and yet, still such a nerd? Wow... How do you pull it off?
Wrider

Basically... I don't sleep.

And yes, that's the GF on the back, who even has her own endorsement now.