Home run

I do love the work. Even when it's trying it's rewarding in ways I couldn't have imagined. I start at 5:45 AM and usually wrap up around 8:30 or 9:00 PM. Not too long ago, this was a 24 hour gig with short naps now and then to keep you going, or not. It's a crazy lifestyle that people all over the world pray for and thank their god or gods for. It's something I've always wanted, something I've worked hard for but in the end I realize it is a gift.It's also directly at odds with my wander lust. If I told you I've never felt confined, I'd be lying to you.

I fully understand why parents sell their bikes after starting a family. Like many things in our lives, it is dangerous, made more so by being sleep deprived and distracted. Those sunny Saturday morning rides, the ones where you are well rested and have no obligations until Monday morning, are a thing of the past.

That doe eyed ride stares at me as I depart, child screaming in the back seat. It taunts me as pull in, just in time for dinner. From some dark corner of my garage I hear, "Where are you going in such a hurry?" It is constantly reminding me of my desire to escape from under the burdens of responsibility and taste freedom.

Raising a family is not easy. The motorcycle becomes a symbol of conflict, I understand why people want it out of their garage and out of their minds. It’s also a tattoo, cleverly hidden beneath layers of cotton and polyester. It’s a commitment to yourself to be the person you know you are, or were.

I want that burden of freedom and responsibility, it’s my responsibility to show my family that freedom exists and they too can participate in it.

I live 300 miles from my parents, my brother, sister-in-law and my three nephews. The six hour car ride means our family spends a significant time apart and opportunities to get together are not to be wasted. I recently scheduled a solo trip home and when the time came the weather was just on the right site of rideable. 

It was 45 F and sunny when I set out at noon on Friday. Properly dressed for a comfortable ride, the blast down I-94 was enjoyable. It felt great to be out there putting miles on the bike again, knowing that my destination was three wonderful boys and their awesome parents.

The boys were pretty excited when I showed up on a motorcycle. I explained to them how I dressed warm and rode safely, taking brakes when I needed to. I like to believe that it left an impression on their young minds. Between their dad and their grandpa, they have plenty of exposure to bikes and "things that go." I was just doing my part.

I was happy to have the boys climb all over me all weekend. I even got out for a night on the town with their parents and mine.

We visited Brenner Brewing in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee. These guys make fantastic beer. They have a room dedicated to open fermentation and 10 foot tall oak fermentation vessels imported from France. 

Walker's Point is an interesting neighborhood, full of gems in the rough. 

The Allen-Bradley clock tower, the largest four faced clock in the world, keeps watch.

Lovely day for a Guinness! 

Sunshine and beers with the family.

Castle Rock/ Camp Douglass is located along I-94, half way between Saint Paul and Milwaukee. It's a great place to stop and stretch your legs.

Riding a motorcycle requires strategy both on and off the bike. It's this part of our "sport" that keeps me engaged. Combining trips, be it a work-day commute or a weekend get together, keeps me in the grove. And being in the grove keeps life in perspective, one hand on responsibility the other on freedom.

 - Ride North

XS 500: the oil filter problem

* UPDATE  10/10/2017*

Brad's FilterFix

I checked in with Brad about the availability of his FilterFix, here's what he had to say, "I just sold the last one I had about two weeks ago, [Sept. 2017] and it looks like that will be it for now. "

Brad followed up with a post to the forum thanking everyone who purchased the now limited edition FilterFix: http://www.xs500forum.com/index.php?topic=2042.msg10913#msg10913

Tru-Vantage

It appears that the Tru-Vantage is no longer available. From CrouchyUK, the forum admin, "...was marketing the Tur-Vantage adapter for someone else- I am sure I read somewhere he can no longer get them."  I looked around and it appears to be no longer available.

I just have to say that this is a hobby not a business and many thank yous to Brad and Uncle Fuzz for going way out of your way to have these parts manufactured and all the logistics it takes getting them sold and delivered.

It appears that the torch is available. In the mean time, keep an eye out on ebay for NOS adapters. (part number are below) and/or change your oil frequently to get the most out of your old-OS filters.

- RideNorth

* UPDATE *

Tru-vantage video has been unpublished from YouTube

The Tru-Vantage adapter looks like an excellent option (and more importantly available) There's a YouTube demo and it's available through eBay. It sounds like both Brad's oil filter fix (TM) and the Tru-Vantage adapter started life in the same way. "So. An XS500 forum member walks into a machine shop...)

Good people are priceless.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Tur-Vantage&ssPageName=GSTL

Find Uncle Fuzz on the YouTube.

Spring cleaning

Spring has come early to Minnesota this year and the conditions couldn't be better for early season riding. The roads are dry, the snow has melted and, thanks to a mild snow year, the sand and salt blanketing our roads were at a manageable depth. It was time to give myself and the bike a once over. Time to tap in to some of that muscle memory I've built up over the years.

I took a little time off on Friday afternoon to clean out the cobwebs. It was in the 60s, the sun was shining and I didn't have anything at work that couldn't wait until later. I've been eyeballing the road conditions on some of my regular routes and seeing mostly dry pavement. After the last of the melting (and refreezing) snow has returned to the earth, I pulled the trigger.

After a short ride down some familiar roads I suck away to a little dead end street. It was the perfect spot to practice a few quick stops and "full lock" figure eights. I picked out a garbage can for my marker and worked on a series of progressively quicker stops from 40 mph. The first one was awful and I missed my downshifts, but it progressively got better. 

I don't do a lot of U-turns but do find that practicing slow speed turns helps get my neck muscles back in the swing of things.

Taking a peak at the tire's manufacture date told me that they were made in the 13th week of 2012. Three years old is probably okay, but four is too many. It may be time to start saving my nickles and do what I can to scrub off what's left of the tread.

The  gremlins were hard at work this winter. The rear brake wasn't lighting up the brake lite. After some testing I found that the sensor just stays open when the brake is applied.  My guess is that it should act like a switch sending power to the rear brake.

If I've learned anything this winter it's that I need more bike and barn pictures.

It is so good to be back on the road, my family was starting to worry about me. My last riding day of 2014 was on election day, 20 weeks ago. While that may sound like eternity to some, it's probably my personal record for the shortest winter break ever.

- Ride North

Bikes that go to eleven

Like hair bands in the 80's, you've got to be faster and louder than the next guy. But just how fast is fast and what's the best way to measure fast?

Horsepower numbers can be all over the place and spark the never-ending debate about horsepower vs. torque. (horsepower is just a measure of how quickly torque is made) That aside, raw power numbers leave many important variables off the table. How much does this thing weigh? How much power does it make at the most common engine speeds, how much time is spent getting from idle to red line?

Time for an old standby, quarter mile times. How fast can any given vehicle travel a set distance. Speed around a track is perhaps a more interesting question, but it has many more variables and it falls short in two important areas. First, I couldn't find data, not that I looked too hard. Second, it doesn't do comparisons between 2 and 4 wheels very well, which is where the real fun is at.

To answer the $20K question, are you faster than a Mini Cooper S? Well, if you ride a motorcycle the answer is yes. To be fair, I can't guarantee that all these data are good. (see citations below) Also, rider, bike, track, temperature, tire combinations can account for whole seconds, plus or minus. That being said, it's clear that an 883 Sportster is faster than a Porsche Boxster.

But are you faster than a Mustang Cobra? Probably.

The Dodge Viper is a 13 second car but a 600cc Ninja will cover the quarter in 12.

 Can you spot the super car hiding in this sea of sport bikes?

- Ride North

We all know that if it's on the web it must be true. If you have a better source for quarter mile times please let me know. If something looks wildly inaccurate please let me know that too. In full disclosure: I grabbed these data to test drive a new data visualization tool and I can't claim that a ton of rigor was put into fact checking, although I did crosscheck a few bikes and cars.

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/downloads/carmotorcycleperformancecharts1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_acceleration

http://www.sportrider.com/tech/sportbike-performance-numbers

St Paul, Minnesota in February

It's a windy -5 f (-20 c) in St Paul today as the arctic air descends on the Midwest. The windchill this morning was -25 f (-31 c). I'd write more but I can't feel my fingers.

February 18th 2015

Keeping busy in the winter requires some creativity.
I'll be having fresh crappie tonight.

The St Paul skyline on a cold morning.

The high bridge. 

In the warmer months the Johnathan Padelford will
take you on a dinner cruise on the Mississippi.

the winter sky

North bound oil trains are carrying some extra cargo these days.

Bombing some runs with the family.

Surly's new "destination brewery"

Taps, tables and food. What more could you want?

The view from my home brewery is equally entertaining.

- Ride North

The future is bright

There has never been a better time to start motorcycling.

I've been attending the International Motorcycle Show since it was sponsored by Cycle World. Never have I seen more types of bikes for more types of riders. This years show ranks as the best one yet. The organizers did a phenomenal job putting together this event but that fifth and final star goes to the manufactures.

Is this the fall of the repli-racer and the rise of the street bike? No smoking Joe livery here, although there are many massively fast rides to be found. Young kids (or kids who I judge to be young) were climbing all over five hundred and seven hundred cc twins. Why shouldn't they be, these bikes bring the fun; the adventure and the tour. Hold the fear please.

My first bike was an XL185 and it was glorious!
This little guy was all over Project LiveWire. Is an electric enduro in his future?
I bet he'd be okay with that.

Touring on a 700cc bike, why not?
What's old is new again.

Scramblers have gotten big. Hare scramble anyone?

ABC

 A water cooled cruiser with a cast frame? That will never work.
Don't worry, Polaris knows what it's doing.

A perennial favorite of mine.

BMW steps in the ring with Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Aprilia, KTM, Triumph, and BMW.
Triumph Tiger (07-2012)?

The AMCA and VJMC sections were packed on Saturday.

What happened to Japanese motorcycle design?
Where did all the tasteful tanks and candy colors go?

I'll take one of each please. 

I had the opportunity to talk to the owner of this bike.
Just a kid, he started building this when he was 14 yeas old!

This year I was accompanied by two experienced riders and two former riders. My dad and our buddy Todd have been riding all their lives; they seem to be in a post-children-at-home motorcycling renaissance. While my brother and Matt, another friend of the family, are both former motorcycle owners with young children. My wife and I have a little guy too. I continue to ride, although my rides and my bikes are much different now.

One thing we all agree upon is that the CB300 would be fun for us big kids and a sweet carrot for those little people who grow up with motorcycles in the garage.

- Ride North

Challenge accepted.

A came across SonjaM’s moto-blog challenge via a post on Redleg’s Rides. Count me in. 

I've got barn pictures and bike pictures but surprisingly few bike and barn pictures.
I think we were lost in this picture

I've got bridges covered but not covered bridges. (Raspberry Island, St Paul, Minnesota)

Flying objects.

Me too Sonja, me too.

Ride North

Roosters Rules of the Road -

Objects in your mirrors are larger than they appear except for your elbows which are smaller than they appear.