Happy 4th Celebration...Montana Style

Happy 4^th Celebration

 The new mobile ghetto now has its fist 1000 miles on it and is anchored in Helena, Montana at Montana John’s house.  MJ (Montana John) has a place here in Helena along with a bunch of motorcycles, from modern to vintage so obviously it is the perfect place to begin a riding tour.

Having arrived on July 3^rd it turned out to be a great place to watch a 4^th of July celebration. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed watching people celebrate the 4^th of July so much. Montanans go all out to celebrate living in the USA! The celebration started with a few fireworks in the neighborhood we watched from and continued until the city’s official display fired up. But since REAL fireworks are legal in Montana, even the stuff that launches into the air to light up and explode, the locals just about matched the city display. I couldn’t sit down to watch because there was a 360 degree display going off around me that had my head on a swivel to take it all in. Simply amazing! These guys know how to celebrate. I saw dads everywhere lighting stuff that launched into the air for their kids while being responsible and keeping the kids at a safe distance, parenting and teaching at the same time, imagine that!

The next day we woke up to cool weather and overcast skies but decided to go for a dual sport ride anyway. MJ and I fired up the bikes and headed for the hills. We made less than 20 miles and I was freezing my butt off! Fortunately MJ took pity on me and turned the route toward town to shorten the time he had to listen to me snivel about being cold.  Good call because we were back at his house for about an hour or so when it started to rain! Perfect, tomorrow we ride newly watered trails!!!

#33

“To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while”

#33...On The Road Again

THE MOBILE GHETTO

Well summer is here so it must be time to hit the road to find a few new trails and riding partners. We are about to load up the KX and the KTM to go looking for a few new places and people to ride with. This trip should be more like a vacation and less like the Beverly Hillbillies on tour. The reason is the new/used mobile ghetto, (an 09’ 5^th wheel toyhauler), should make this trip more like staying at a resort as opposed to camping!

I sure forgot how much time and setup it takes to prepare a vehicle to be road worthy. There are about a million things to check, attach, modify, move, improve and just learn about on a new vehicle. So I have spent the past week with a tape measure, drill, screw gun, and a myriad of other tools whipping this bad boy into shape. I think the last thing I should have to do is attach granny’s rockin’ chair to the top and get a bit of rope. Is that banjo music I hear?

#33    aka Jethro

“Today is the youngest you will ever be, live like it”

Tire Installation Made Easy

  Tire Installation Made Easy

I was recently introduced to the ‘Baja No Pinch Tool’.  Having tried it on a rear tire installation in my garage (not on the trail) I can say it works as advertised. If you are tire install challenged and have to worry about pinch flats, then this could be the answer. It could make your tire changing worries all but disappear! 

It appears to be a very sturdy tool and should last a life time. It weighs approximately 2.5 lbs with the extra aluminum axel sizers to fit any axle. This makes it a great garage tool but less attractive out on the trails.

On my very first attempt the ‘No Pinch’ made putting the tire on the rim very easy with almost no chance of pinching the tube without the use of tire irons.  You must remember this is an installation only tool so you will need your tire irons to dismount the tire. That is what makes me classify the ‘No Pinch’ as a garage tool as opposed to a trail tool.

Also, it is much easier to understand how to use it if you look at their  ‘bajanopinch.com’  website. The written instructions that come in the box were not easy for me to use as a guide. But then again I am not tire install challenged, but I am written instruction book challenged.

Go change a tire so you can go riding!!!

#33

“Your Attitude is like a flat tire, you will never get anywhere until you change it.”

Pirelli MT 43...Trials Tire the Final Chapter

Baja tire test

I have now totaled up approximately 4,000 miles on a couple of Pirelli MT 43 rear tires and have purchased a third. After having logged enough miles to give an objective rating to the MX43.com readers I will continue using the trials tire with the addition of the tubesaddle mentioned previously.

The tire wore extremely well even in rocks when used as a trail riding tire, I did not push it at race speeds because it was never meant for that purpose. I had no chunking of knobs and nice even wear with both tires. The first went approximately 1700 miles and the second one was pushed to 2150 miles as I had to get home from a multi day ride in Mexico. This included a fair amount of commuting (500 miles) on Mexican roadways as they are paving way too quickly for my taste. A word of advice, if you want to ride Baja the longer you wait the more pavement you will encounter.

As a recap, I did use a tubesaddle liner on this trip but ran it with the air pressure set at 12 psi instead of the 7 to 8 psi the manufacturer, James Curry, said would be no problem. I never had a pinch flat but did pick up a cactus thorn and had to do one flat repair on the trip. I was riding with a very large group of riders and several of them changed to new tires part way through the trip. But I didn’t want to be that guy that holds everyone up, you know with a pinch flat because I ran low air pressure for better traction. I will now begin testing the tubesaddle on my own with lower pressures and let you know how well it prevents pinch flats as I begin airing down bit by bit.

The Pirelli MT 43 performed very well in everything we encountered from hard to sand to rocks. I generally tried to go slightly slower than most of the other riders up the same climbs to test the tire without using momentum to climb things. I was impressed with its clawing action as long as you used a judicious throttle hand. I finally did notice one place the knobby tire provided an advantage. On steep descents I could feel the trials tire would skid slightly sooner when using the front brake hard and transferring the weight to the front of the bike. Nothing scary but it felt like a well worn rear tire in that instance. It was easy to control by using the rear brake a bit lighter once I felt it.

So just like in MMA fighting (mixed martial arts) we are about to begin round 3………ding, ding!

#33

The Out of Towner Tour

I just had a great time riding with a few buddies from out of town that came for a visit. Of course they all brought motorcycles why else would they visit? The characters on this trip were Terrmeister (Terry), Recon (Don), Gino Belino (Gene) and #33.

We had a great time on a 3 day romp through the desert stopping of course along the way for burgers and tacos respectively each day. The first day included a stop by a local shop, B&M Cycles that happened to be having a vintage show/get together. Terrmeister and Gino could both really appreciate this because they both have quite a collection of vintage bikes, some beautifully restored. Recon liked it pretty well too because there were FREE Cookies and Drinks. Anything free to eat is like a flame to a moth when Recon is involved. He is all over it!

I was astounded that there were 2 bikes, a 1914 Indian and a 1914 Flying Merkel that were perfectly restored and valued at a minimum of $150,000 Each!  Wow, I even touched one. There was a whole slew of Maicos, Triumphs, Harley road racers, Honda Elsinore’s, and a bunch of others. Cool stuff, some of which I remembered I rode when they were new!

Then it was time to ride, as Recon would repeat several times over the next few days, “I just wanna ride!”  So we head out for a half day orientation ride to get the feel of the desert with no traction, lots of rocks and lots of miles. I cautioned the boys to be careful in rocks and used my left hand as a reminder. I had warned Gino to buy some elbow guards and he did, smart boy. Terrmeister didn’t have any so I loaned him a pair of hard plastic guards. He had no idea how grateful he would be later. Our first ride went pretty well with no one getting too carried away but a few tip-overs on slippery off cambers and hills. I discovered a couple of things about the boys on our first outing. Gino was the hill climber, Recon liked to go fast in the sand washes and Terrmeister wanted to escape unscathed. But then he is the wisest one in the group at 68 years old!

Our second day was our longest day and turned out to be about 160 miles and almost 10 hours by the time we got home. We saw some scenic places, an old restored cabin, a defunct mine that Recon and I explored with flashlights while I am pretty sure Terrmeister and Gino took a nap! We then stopped for gas and a burger at a roadside stop called Wikkieup. But just before the lunch stop, at about 90 miles, Terrmeister had a tip over in a tight sand wash that was fairly rocky in spots. Unfortunately he picked one of the rocky spots and gashed a hole in the left side radiator on his borrowed Honda CRF-X 450. Terrmeister is a motorcycle mechanic by trade and was about to remove the damaged radiator and cap the openings. He figured he could get it home on one radiator without too much problem. Gino and I said maybe we should try to patch it first, but we are Okie trailside repair kind of guys. Recon just stayed the Hell out of the way since he doesn’t do any more wrenching than absolutely necessary! Since I carry Quick Steel putty in my tool pack I told Terrmeister I had repaired side cases with it before. Terrmeister looked at me kind of crazy and then said ok if I really thought it might work. So I gave him my putty and told him how it worked. He made a patch and started the bike, it leaked. But we could see where he had missed a spot. So he added some more and extended the patch to cover the damage, filled the radiator with water, fired it up and no leak!  Away we went to lunch and completed the rest of the ride with the patched and twisted radiator.

On our way home it was getting late in the day and we were beginning to show signs of fatigue. Gino exceeded his limits of traction a couple of times and did an imitation of a baseball player sliding into home plate. We made it home with only a few scratches and no real injuries. We fixed the stuff we bent and broke and got ready for the Monday Taco ride.

Mondays are a short (45 mile) rip over to Golden Shores for dollar tacos at a place called Hooch’s Bar and Grill. We met up with two more riders Capt Don (Don) and Montana John aka M.J.   After a half hour or more B.S. session we head out to ‘get our grub on’ as Recon would call it. We maybe make 3 miles when Recon starts flagging us down. He has a rear flat tire (nail) and since he is running a Pirelli trials tire we have to fix it right now. With help he is back on the trail in about 30 minutes. We make it to Hooch’s with only a couple of tip over’s and get our fill of tacos, tostadas and beverages.  On the way home we divide into 2 groups, Terrmeister, Capt Don and M.J. make up one group and they deal with a flat on the way home. Recon and I make the other group and we have no mechanicals but do our best to get lost a bit while trying to find a small canyon I had been in before. We eventually all make it home safely, visit for a while and say our good byes.

Recon, Terrmeister and #33 do a short road ride home, put the bikes away, load Cheryl up and head out for a farewell dinner. We eat out on the patio of a restaurant overlooking the lake. Good Times, Good Friends.

#33

‘The last thing to age on somebody is their heart’