Floribama Riders

[Written 6 October 2008
Lanquin, Guatemala]

(The last few paragraphs contain a story about a dead dog found in the road. Some readers may prefer to skip that part.)

Sometimes you need to sit by yourself at the end of a table, eating a desayuno tipico of eggs, black beans and tortillas in a room full of people and know that you are happy. In front of my breakfast, a map spreads out on a rough wood table in the outdoors restaurant of El Retiro, a backpackers' resort in Lanquin, Guatemala.

I slept in a hammock under a thatched roof last night, with my motorcycle baggage strewn about underneath. I slept fitfully under a blanket, never quite getting comfortable with my back in a U shape. Tonight, I'll be more comfortable on the straw mat.

I woke with the dawn in the five o'clock hour and attempted to take some arty photos of the hammock looking out on the beautiful grounds of El Retiro. In retrospect, a photo of your feet in a hammock with a pretty background is pretty cliche, but these photos feature *my* hairy feet.

This comes late as I've been slammed with a real estate project this week (but for which I'm thankful in "this" economy).

Great weekend.... perhaps the most intense racing I have ever experienced. We sat through Ike as it rolled through and dumped several inches of rain with sustained winds of 70 mph. Not gusts, but flat out wind of 70. And they RACED in that. Holy cow. David Crandall and I had seats against the mesh fencing at the top of our section, completely exposed to the elements. Wet, wind whipped, and completely soaked, we enjoyed every minute of the action.

My (not so) funny story........

      It's Sunday night and I leave on Wednesday. I have been busy getting my bike prepped for the MotoGP trip where I'm moto-camping. The bike is a BMW K1200RS which is cumbersome (at best) to work on. After going two weeks without riding it, my garage looks like a BMW parts bin. I finally get everything sorted out and I'm ready to do a shake down ride. It's about 8:00 pm and I've got it loaded down with my camping gear and some extra weight in the Givi trunk to simulate clothing and shoes. The main reason for the ride is to adjust the headlights which just got new high output lamps and PIAA foglights that are also new. Also new tires will be scrubbed in. I know its dark not the best time for this but its better than leaving for the trip on new rubber. Also I've mounted a radar detector with helmet speakers.

     Enough of the background.

Wednesday morning, we make yet another run into Gunnison. Greg needs to pick up his head gasket, I need a new riding jacket, and Jimmy needs to pick up his bike after the shop has made wheel and brake repairs, and installed a new rear tire. We arrive at opening time, and help Fritz roll out his used bikes for sale. His mechanic does not show up for work, and the new rear tire has not been mounted on the bike. Fritz tackles the job himself, while we watch out for customers in the shop. In 5 minutes start to finish, Fritz has the new knobby mounted. It is true what they say about those ISDE riders.

The Fed-Ex guy arrives, we grab the head gasket, and head back to Taylor Park. When we arrive, most everyone assembles for a ride, and Greg and I settle in to re-assemble the 525. With two of us working on it, it goes back together quickly, and starts right up. It sounds normal, so we clean up, eat lunch, and gear up for a test ride.

Monday morning dawns cold, rainy and dreary, looking like a winter day instead of Jul 7th. No big deal, as a sizable percentage of us are headed into Gunninson this morning, instead of riding. Greg's KTM 525 is overheating, and the best consensus we have is that it has a blown head gasket. Mark and Todd are going to seek a medical opinion from the previous day's crashes, and Doug and Sarah are in search of a 4-wheeler skid plate, and a wi-fi connection to handle a little school work.

Greg and I hop in his truck, and head for the KTM dealer in Gunnison. This is a 35 mile scenic drive, and one section of several miles has cattle along the road, and in many cases, in the road. Here's your chance to pretend you are a cowboy, from the comfortable seat of a diesel pickup truck, while listening to satellite radio. Surreal.

One long and one not so long day of driving takes us from Birmingham to Salida, Colorado. Just one tourist stop on the way, at the Capulin Volcano, (http://www.nps.gov/cavo/). We are staying at the Super 8 motel on Hwy 50 in Salida. Greg, Frank and Thom are already there, and are out for a ride. We unload, and I take the WR out for a short spin on the road to try to gauge the jetting. I have some old notes about my normal jetting, and jetting from previous trips to CO, but when I took the carb apart the last day in Birmingham, it wasn't jetted the way my notes said. Did I leave it jetted lean from the last trip? It seems OK, but I won't know until I get on the trail.

I just got back from a week of dual sporting in Colorado. I need a day or two to rest, and to let the experience marinate in the grey matter a bit before I post about it. I thought I would post this photo from a trail near the Cumberland Pass, as a teaser. Out of the 500 or so photos I have of this week, this is one of my favorites.

At 9,500 miles in less than a year on my DR650 I've decided that the masochistic experiment Suzuki calls a seat must be changed.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered three 18x36x1 sheets of urethane foam in high, medium, and low density.  I was surprised, when the box came, to see just how much foam I had ordered; I thought I had wasted my money buying so much.  I needn't have worried though because my first attempt at comfy seat fabrication was a torture device worse than the stock seat.  My second attempt is indeed quite comfortable but asthetically sketchy, so I have plans for a third attempt tomorrow.

One limitation I have is that whatever I do must fit under the stock cover because I don't sew.  I had to stretch the cover with all my might to get it over the current foam, and it's still narrower than I would like.

My plan for tomorrow is to make a pattern and work on my foam shaping technique.  Maybe I can even figure out how to embed the pictures too.

 Click here for pictures.