2016 USCA Sidecar Rally

The USCA National Sidecar Rally was held in Hotchkiss, Colorado in early July, so rode the Grey Phantom from New Mexico up following a portion of the Continental Divide Trail.

Here is a 12 minute video of the ride and rally for those interested..

The beautiful green and cream Indian sidecar rig belongs to my friend Muzzleflash. Three of us rode URAL sidecar rigs coast to coast following old Route 50 two years ago. Now he rides in style and faster with the Indian.

Am still studying and learning iMovie editing. This is my third video, but the first using the SONY Action Camera. In future videos I hope to see improvement in smoothing the panning and editing. Was surprised at the amount of memory video editing requires. 

The ride itself?  KLR handled the trail well, no issues with the bike. Still sorting out a few issues with the sidecar: mounts and placement of weight. Weak points were revealed, excess and repetitive tools will be removed and solutions to a few remaining issues is being sought. 

Issues to resolve: 

Replace the PVC tool tube/foot rest. After hitting a rock it shattered, leaving sharp pointed ends sticking out.  Removed it on the trail as being too hazardous. 

Where and how to carry drinking water

Constant vibration of sidecar board

More secure strapping of gas cans

 Some nuts and bolts thought they wanted to be free. Constant vibrating will do that. 

Apply loktite to ALL nuts and bolts, no matter the size.

Thanks for following along.

CCjon

Grey Phantom

Finally, everything is transferred from Da'mit over to the Grey Phantom. Dammit will be restored to a two wheel status and sold.

Now let's go play a little...  with a camera and the iPhone camera. Though we live in the suburbs of the fourth largest US city, are only five minutes away from narrow country lanes and pasture land. 

Oops,  lost a load!

To a motorcyclist, loose hay or straw is like ice on the road.  If you hit it you are going down.
For a sidecar rider, it's not so bad.  Sidecar don't fall over easily so one can ignore loose gravel, sand or mud on the road. 

 Note the small horizontal light below on the left front of the sidecar.  That LED light really doesn't enhance the safety factor as I wanted. The biggest danger to motorcyclists is drivers do not see us.  I wanted a second light on the front so as to be seen by other drivers. 

Swapped out that small light for a larger five bulb LED light. If nothing more, it attracts other driver's attention and makes them wonder what the heck is that? LED lights draw so very little amperage, one does not worry about overloading the bike's electrical system.

Okay, which of the these three photos do you like best?  

Number One above... Bright Orange Sunset.

Number Two below... Hazy Sunset.

Or Number Three... Black and White Sunset..

Ode of Life

I refuse to be a puppet

Made to dance and twirl

At the whim of some hidden master

On the stage 

Of Life

I shall pull up my pants

And tighten my belt

For today I will ride

My three wheels

Of life

Choosing my bearings

I accelerate freely

Awakening the senses, seeking

A fresher breath

Of life

Life may be short

Or life may be long 

Freedom of the road bodes well

A natural prolonging,

Of life.

The Sidecarist magazine was generous enough to publish another one of my poems in their March/April 2016 issue along with one of my sidecar photos. 

Really need to take a long road trip, the creative well is running dry. 

The Grey Phantom is ready, summer is upon us. Time to ride and write.

Ride safe, ya'll

CCjon

Times keep a-changing

Goodbye Da'mu!

Da'mu is leaving us for new adventures. He will soon be exploring the historic Civil War battlegrounds with his new owner this summer.

Da'mu was a great rig. Together we visited all 48 states in nine and a half days. A superb highway cruiser. Sad to see him go, but there is only so much room in the ole Man Cave and a new rig is in the works, soon to be heading our way.

Far up north in a small Pennsylvania town, where sidecars ideas are created and brought to life...

is the home of Freedom Sidecars LLC. 

The mad genius behind this operation, Claude Stanley, rules over the creation and birth of beautiful sidecar rigs for round town cruising or round the world riding. Bring your dreams and ideas to Claude. With his team of expert welders and fabricators they will bring it to life.

Other rider dreams are in progress ahead of mine.

  A yellow BMW awaits its new sidecar.

A Triumph has its chassis attached. Once the electrical wiring is complete, 

the tub will be bolted on.

My dream is to wed this blue adventure rig ( a 2007 Suzuki Vstrom 1000) with a Mini Mate pop up camper. Sleeping on the ground is getting old and the cost of motel rooms keeps rising. 

With this rig, plans are to explore the far reaches of Canada and Alaska, stopping when and where great photo opportunities arise. Being out in the wild when the sun comes up or watching sunsets from a deserted ridge are vistas that move man's soul.

Besides attaching the camper to the Vstrom, my wish list includes 15" car tires on all three corners, a ten gallon auxiliary fuel tank, a winch front and back, space for spare tires, parts and tools, driving lights, high ground clearance and rugged enough for hundred of miles of gravel, pitted washboard roads. 

Oh...  try to make the camper more aerodynamic too. 

Claude sent a photo assuring me that fabrication has started. Since this is the first time for them to mount the Mini Mate as a sidecar, it is a cut-fit-weld operation,  piece by piece by piece until complete. 

While Claude and his crew cut, weld and fabricate up north, 

back in the Man Cave progress is slowly being made to move the cargo sidecar 

from the red 2011 Da'mit KLR to the digital Grey Phantom KLR.

Da'mit the red KLR will be returned back in its original condition and sold off as a two wheel motorcycle. The Grey Phantom will acquire a cargo sidecar for exploring mountain passes 

and beyond.

Yes, times are a-changing in the Man Cave. 

Riding season is here so no time to waste.

Later, 

Ride safe

Ride long

CCjon

A Little Water

Normally I park my truck in the driveway near the garage every night. But last night, with a 14 ft trailer attached, I parked in the street for an early morning departure for Baltimore. Around 3 AM my neighbor calls to tell me my truck is disappearing under water. All the rain that fell in the Houston area last night, added up to 14 - 16 inches in our immediate area. 

Today was spent wet vacuuming the carpet then placing fans inside to dry it out. 

 Meanwhile back in the Ole Man Cave garage, Da'mu the big white whale is on the market. Was a tough choice to make but something had to go to make room for a different adventure rig coming soon. 

 Posted her for sale a week ago,  have had several interested and one gentleman come see her.  Is being sold with a ton of extras that I had accumulated for this Wing. She is ready to go across town or  across the country today. In fact I was signed up to ride her from Jacksonville to San Diego this week on another Iron Butt run. That ride will have to wait for another time. 

As much as I love the smoothness and power of Da'mu, she is not the right rig for an adventure ride I am planning for 2017. Have discovered by trial and error, (mainly by error), a task is easier to accomplish if the tool you are using is the right tool for the job. 

Da'mu is not the right tool for the proposed ride.

So what about the new KLR sidecar rig?? Well, the new KLR has been branded with her name: 

Grey Phantom

The week the 2016 KLR came to me, Paul Ryan died suddenly at the age of 66. Paul collaborated with my riding friend Tony DePaul on the Phantom series for newspapers and comics. Tony wrote the storyline, while Paul illustrated the Phantom  He did so for the past twelve years.

Tony obtained permission from King Features to allow me to use one of Paul's illustrations.  Then Tony's daughter Laura helped by creating the "Grey"  lettering to complete the name for the KLR. Thus the Grey Phantom (GP) was branded.

Once GP reached 600 miles, the first dealer service was completed. Now the process of transferring the cargo sidecar from Da'mit to GP is in progress. When that is completed,  Da'mit will move on to new pastures and the Man Cave garage will be back to normal with one rig on the lift and another in the warehouse. 

* * * ** * * 

Before the motorcycling bug bit, for many years my hobby was big game handgun hunting.  Have finally admitted that those days are past and not likely to be revisited, so my hunting handguns are for sale on a Texas site. Here are a couple of samples. 

RUGER stainless Super Blackhawk 44 mag, a Magna-port custom

RPM XL Hunter stainless single shot, 30-30 Improved with scope, super accurate

Thompson Contender, stainless single shot, 375 JDJ caliber with scope 

for African Safaris or Kodiak bears

Life continues on,  we adjust to our interests and abilities. 

Ride safe, live fully

CCjon

New Steed in the Stable

Pulled the trigger on replacing Da'mit the KLR for pulling the sidecar around, bringing in a 2016 KLR650

Fresh out of the barn and stretching its legs today. Went from zero yesterday to a laid back 120 miles today breaking in the engine... slowly and properly. Am keeping it under 4000 rpm for the first 600 miles. After she reaches 1000 miles, we'll move everything from Da'mit over to the new Hoss.

Color is Urban Camo, a digital mottled grey. 

Doesn't have a name yet, any suggestions? Was thinking along the liners of Grey Ghost, Grey Phantom, Corcel Vago or ......

Damit tries the forest roads again

Comments:

KLR Kracked Kranker

Da'mit the KLR rig is giving me heartburn. 

The continuing saga is shaking my faith in this bike.  As mentioned earlier, I bought this 2011 Kawasaki KLR650 locally off eBay at a good price. The previous owner was a university student. His first motorcycle. Yes, he dropped it a time or two learning to ride, but the few scraps and scratches would not affect how it ran.  The bike also sat for a while before I got it as the license had expired a year earlier. 

The first thing I do when getting a used bike is change the oil, check for metal particles, anything that might tell me if the bike was having engine issues. The oil was clean, nothing unusual. So I proceeded to build the adventure sidecar rig.

Everything was going great until Da'mit left me stranded in the Sam Houston National Forest. Previous to that I had taken the bike to northern New Mexico and ridden the forest roads up there. No problems, she ran great. Being stranded now in the forest was attributed to the bike sitting for too long. Old gas had dried inside the carburetor. Flakes of dried gas clogged the carb. After rebuilding the old carb did not work. That carb was replaced with a new one.  Ran great once again.

A month ago Da'mit develops starting issues. Was inconsistent when starting. Sometimes it fired right up. Other times the starter just whined. Sometimes acted like the battery was low, other times normal again. 

See the white plastic cover with colorful wires going into it, that's the auxiliary fuse block. Finally decided that the auxiliary fuse block might be draining some of the battery juice overnight, thus not having enough battery power to properly fire up the bike in the morning. So installed a 30 amp switch (not in photo) to turn that circuit off when not riding and at night. 

Now assured that the battery is fully charged, the starter is still acting up.  It won't consistently start. Sometimes it starts fine, sometimes it whines, other times it won't turn over.  Was giving out a strange sound when starting and running. Could not track down the cause, so I gave in and took Da'mit to a small independent Kawasaki repair shop. The owner rides and races KLR650's so I know he knows what he is doing with this machine. Asked them to check the valves,  timing, etc. 

A few days later he calls to say the valves are spot on, compression release working properly, timing is good.  They think the sound is coming from the starter clutch area. Opening it up they found that the heavy steel Coupling (that's what Kawasaki calls this piece) in the starter clutch assembly was cracked. Now how that piece can get cracked is a mystery. The starter gears are not strong enough to crack all that coupling. The owner and his mechanic say they have never seen a cracked coupling before. Am thinking it came from the factory that way. With use, the cracked opened wider. 

Of course more than just the coupling was damaged. Both parts on either side of the coupling were galled.   New parts ordered -

#42034 Coupling - $103.52

#16085 Oneway Clutch Gear - $307.33

#13194 Oneway Clutch - $90.79 

Plus gasket and seals.

With parts and labor, am now $1000 lighter in the pocketbook. Never would have found that broken part on my own.  Da'mit now fires right up, no hesitation.  But the mechanic says he hears a metal noise coming from the crankcase area of the motor upon initial start up and again later when the oil warms up. He asks if I thought the previous owner ran the bike low on oil? Have nothing to indicate that. No way to know if he did or not. 

The options are: 1). open up the crankcase and rebuild the engine. or.... 

2). find a different motorcycle for the rig. 

Instead chose option 3). Brought Da'mit home and will ride as is, for a while. Then decide which path to follow. Once we get a break in weather and work, Da'mit and I will take a spin back to the national forest trails north of Houston to see how she performs. 

More later,

Ride safe

CCjon