Sunday, 20JUL08. A short little ride today left me most of the remaining day to relax at home hiding from the heat of the day, reading another travelogue.
This one was by Robert Edison Fulton Jr, he traveled around the world right after architecture college, on a six horsepower motorcycle made by the Douglas Motor Works. It was a two cylinder horizontally-opposed engine, with same tires as cars of the time, weighing in at 750 pounds! He'd had an extra 4 gallon tank mounted in the rear to supplement the stock 3 gallon tank in the usual spot. Mind you, he undertook this journey in the mid 1930s!
He equips the motorcycle to his specifications, adding to the items one expects something quite unexpected....the creation of a secret compartment for his .32 caliber pistol that he felt he wanted along! This along with thousands of feet of film for his camera and he was off.
He starts off his journey from London with some quaint ideas involving parties at embassies along the way, which of course required him packing white tie dinner attire! These illusions fade as he crosses Europe and the items are summarily discarded for the more practical.
His adventures include some lengthy wanderings in what was then British-controlled middle east lands such as Syria and Iraq. I found his description of British army life in the middle east and India, the ride through the Khyber Pass, and all the people he met along the way very interesting in light of today's modern view of the Middle East and its inhabitants. Thing sure have changed in that part of the world now that the Pax Britannica is no more. Border crossings apparently were challenging back then as they are today to modern world riders. His challengers however were somewhat more unique.
I believe a majority of the book is comprised of the rides in this part of the world; managing entrance into forbidden Afghanistan through the failing linguistic memory of the Afghani ambassador in Turkey. He rides into and out of what we'd call war zones today with a goodly amount of luck and fortune, for the middle east has always been a troubled area apparently.
His travels then take him through the Indian sub-continent, Malaysia, Indochina which is now present day Vietnam and onto China's major cities. The book is like a whirlwind tour at this portion of the world but still full of colorful details of the peoples he encounters and the cultures he's exposed to as a motorcycle rider.
He uses water and rail transport when needed and does not feel bad about it, his intent not being to lay claim solely to having ridden a motorcycle all the way. Heck, he even resorts to riding his motorcycle in between railroad tracks when they're the only clear way to his next destination!
His last foreign land is Japan and from there a steamship across the Pacific ocean and the USA which he crosses in a couple of pages on the book. The major event being his motorcycle being stolen in Texas but thankfully soon recovered afterwards so he could ride it home to New York in time for Christmas with his family after three years away.
He covered 40,000 miles on this severely underpowered scooter by today's standards, quite the adventure and accomplishment in my opinion. In today's age of accurate maps, GPS, satellite phones and Internet Cafes he would probably look curiously at today's world travelers and their gadgets and just ride on past with a cheery wave; well perhaps he'd like the maps for he sure wandered a lot due to the maps and roads of the day.
This book is one motorcyclist's view of the world prior to the second world war, quite fascinating to me as a history major in the picture he paints of how the world was before that war.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Book Review: Lois on the Loose
I just finished reading this travelogue of Lois Price, who rode a Yamaha Serow 225cc Dirt motorcycle 20,000 miles from Alaska to the southernmost tip of Argentina. Its a short book but packed with colorful details of here preparations, thoughts and the logistical obstacles she had to face on her journey.
She's got quite the flair for describing her surrounding and the people she met along the way, her riding companions were as varied as the motorcycles and nations they came from.
Lois Pryce carries on throughout the book in the storied British tradition of not letting discomfort, fear and mechanical problems getting her down and her flexibility in dealing with delays and breakdowns impressed me.
By the end of the trip she talks about fixing her motorcycle with the air of the experienced wrencher. She manages to communicate mechanical diagnosis information to mechanics along the way with miming motions and sound imitations, much to the amusement of the mechanics I'm sure.
There's the many droppings of the motorcycle, one big crash, descriptions of the "sanitary" facilities one encounters in Central and South America, descriptions of fabled tourist destinations such as Machu Pichu or Lake Titicaca, the kindness of strangers in rendering aid and/or shelter when needed, the dealings with the "fixers" at the borders "helping" one through each country's customs bureaucracy, the dealing with the hot-blooded latino lover wannabes, learning the hard way about watching what one eats in foreign countries, and descriptions of men that would surely be missing from a travelogue written by a man.
This book should be quite entertaining for male riders and I am sure would be an inspiration to ride for the female long distance riders out there. The book had me laughing a several points with Lois Pryce's description of people and situations that she encountered. To ride the ride she did, on such a small motorcycle, was truly a great adventure. Some of the roads she described crossing, I am not sure I'd attempt in the first place....at least, not on Maria, maybe Brigitta.
She's got quite the flair for describing her surrounding and the people she met along the way, her riding companions were as varied as the motorcycles and nations they came from.
Lois Pryce carries on throughout the book in the storied British tradition of not letting discomfort, fear and mechanical problems getting her down and her flexibility in dealing with delays and breakdowns impressed me.
By the end of the trip she talks about fixing her motorcycle with the air of the experienced wrencher. She manages to communicate mechanical diagnosis information to mechanics along the way with miming motions and sound imitations, much to the amusement of the mechanics I'm sure.
There's the many droppings of the motorcycle, one big crash, descriptions of the "sanitary" facilities one encounters in Central and South America, descriptions of fabled tourist destinations such as Machu Pichu or Lake Titicaca, the kindness of strangers in rendering aid and/or shelter when needed, the dealings with the "fixers" at the borders "helping" one through each country's customs bureaucracy, the dealing with the hot-blooded latino lover wannabes, learning the hard way about watching what one eats in foreign countries, and descriptions of men that would surely be missing from a travelogue written by a man.
This book should be quite entertaining for male riders and I am sure would be an inspiration to ride for the female long distance riders out there. The book had me laughing a several points with Lois Pryce's description of people and situations that she encountered. To ride the ride she did, on such a small motorcycle, was truly a great adventure. Some of the roads she described crossing, I am not sure I'd attempt in the first place....at least, not on Maria, maybe Brigitta.
The ME880 conquers the pre-resurfacing pavement
A short ride today to prove out two things:
A. That the Dynabeads method works on my new ME880 front tire on Brigitta at maximum foreseeable speeds to keep it balanced.
B. That the thread pattern on the ME880 front tire can handle the rough conditions presented by roads in the process of being re-surfaced. Conditions which had concerned (read terrified) me while riding on the I-70 superslab and in city traffic in Boulder.
I went out to Quincy Road west of it's junction with the E-470 super slab. It's a straight two lane road at this point for quite a few miles and you can see ahead for a very long distance. Once I was past the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, I knew there'd be no real traffic for a while so I opened up Brigitta until we were flying along to it's speedometer limit of 85mph. No problems with the front tire or the motorcycle for that matter.
I only held this speed for a short time, got turned around and repeated heading back westbound towards town.
--------
Once back in town, I headed towards the junction of Alameda and Tower. Its here they're working presently on resurfacing the street and have "conditioned" the road for the eventual pouring of fresh asphalt.
A Closeup of the surface
Brigitta, now laughs at these road conditions
I am happy to report that the new front tire did great on this kind of road surface. Sure, you still feel the motorcycle wiggling under you but I was able to maintain speed with traffic.
In fact, the motorcycle felt so much better on this surface that I turned around and did it again! Before I would have been looking for an exit street to smoother pavements, now it will not dictate my route!
A. That the Dynabeads method works on my new ME880 front tire on Brigitta at maximum foreseeable speeds to keep it balanced.
B. That the thread pattern on the ME880 front tire can handle the rough conditions presented by roads in the process of being re-surfaced. Conditions which had concerned (read terrified) me while riding on the I-70 superslab and in city traffic in Boulder.
I went out to Quincy Road west of it's junction with the E-470 super slab. It's a straight two lane road at this point for quite a few miles and you can see ahead for a very long distance. Once I was past the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, I knew there'd be no real traffic for a while so I opened up Brigitta until we were flying along to it's speedometer limit of 85mph. No problems with the front tire or the motorcycle for that matter.
I only held this speed for a short time, got turned around and repeated heading back westbound towards town.
--------
Once back in town, I headed towards the junction of Alameda and Tower. Its here they're working presently on resurfacing the street and have "conditioned" the road for the eventual pouring of fresh asphalt.
A Closeup of the surface
Brigitta, now laughs at these road conditionsIn fact, the motorcycle felt so much better on this surface that I turned around and did it again! Before I would have been looking for an exit street to smoother pavements, now it will not dictate my route!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum
I had good memories of the stop I made enroute to the National BMW Owners Rally in West Bend, WI last year at the National Motorcycle Museum. At the time I remember thinking to myself that the title seemed a bit pretentious for something stuck out in the middle of Iowa. LINK to posting.
That had been my first and only motorcycle-specific museum and it had a wealth of motorcycles of times past, including a bunch of beemers. I was hoping the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum would have a copy of the R90S airhead so I could closely examine how the S fairing is mounted to see if I could do it. Lets just say the National Museum had a greater selection of brands and number of motorcycles.
I left the house shortly after 0900 hrs and 65 miles and about an hour later I was at the Museum which is located off the Nevada Street exit off the I-25 superslab in Colorado Springs. The place was tiny! The Pikes Peak Harley-Davidson dealer and the museum share the same parking lot so use it as a landmark.
The place runs by the efforts of unpaid volunteers and donations. It's really a small building where motorcycles of such brands as Vincent, Excelsior, Indian, Yamaha, Honda are crammed in with a majority of old Harley Davidson Motorcycles. The only beemer I found in the place was this one, a cruiser:
A R1200C Beemer, the only one in the joint, and it was a model
The museum is small so getting good camera angles was difficult at best, most of the motorcycles are behind glass panels which precluded flash for the most part. So a lot of my pictures turned out too blurry to use due to my body moving while pressing the shutter in most cases. Alot had reflections from the light coming in off the parking lot, so conditions weren't great for camera work.
So I apologize for the quality of the pictures, the ones below are the ones that came out best under the above limiting conditions.
Interesting how the HD logo has changed over the years
While small and cramped, its a worthwhile visit if you're a Harley-Davidson fan, the place is crawling with them. There's photographs on the walls of famed riders apparently but since I am not a motorcycle racing fan, it did not register on my personal interest level.
Did I mention the museum is small? Still, a great effort by volunteers given the constraint of resources they work under.
Going out of the museum, what had been a warm morning had turned into a hot morning. It was in the high 80s to mid 90s the rest of the time I was out riding. I watered up and took the I-25 Superslab to the CO105 exit at Monument. I took CO105 all the way to Wolfenberger Rd which led me to Castle Rock and Founder's Parkway. From there it was a short hop to Crowfoot Parkway, the town of Parker and then since it was so sweltering hot I used the E-470 Superslab to get me home quicker.
Almost 135 sweltering miles under the fierce Colorado sun, I need to start remembering to take my camelback full of ice water from now on. I probably should have found a place to stop and soak my cooling vest but I just wanted to get home.
That had been my first and only motorcycle-specific museum and it had a wealth of motorcycles of times past, including a bunch of beemers. I was hoping the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum would have a copy of the R90S airhead so I could closely examine how the S fairing is mounted to see if I could do it. Lets just say the National Museum had a greater selection of brands and number of motorcycles.
I left the house shortly after 0900 hrs and 65 miles and about an hour later I was at the Museum which is located off the Nevada Street exit off the I-25 superslab in Colorado Springs. The place was tiny! The Pikes Peak Harley-Davidson dealer and the museum share the same parking lot so use it as a landmark.
The place runs by the efforts of unpaid volunteers and donations. It's really a small building where motorcycles of such brands as Vincent, Excelsior, Indian, Yamaha, Honda are crammed in with a majority of old Harley Davidson Motorcycles. The only beemer I found in the place was this one, a cruiser:
A R1200C Beemer, the only one in the joint, and it was a modelSo I apologize for the quality of the pictures, the ones below are the ones that came out best under the above limiting conditions.
Interesting how the HD logo has changed over the yearsDid I mention the museum is small? Still, a great effort by volunteers given the constraint of resources they work under.
Going out of the museum, what had been a warm morning had turned into a hot morning. It was in the high 80s to mid 90s the rest of the time I was out riding. I watered up and took the I-25 Superslab to the CO105 exit at Monument. I took CO105 all the way to Wolfenberger Rd which led me to Castle Rock and Founder's Parkway. From there it was a short hop to Crowfoot Parkway, the town of Parker and then since it was so sweltering hot I used the E-470 Superslab to get me home quicker.
Almost 135 sweltering miles under the fierce Colorado sun, I need to start remembering to take my camelback full of ice water from now on. I probably should have found a place to stop and soak my cooling vest but I just wanted to get home.
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