The End of an Era

Most of you have heard that I had decided to retire from endurance rallying after the ’15 IBR. A promise that I have maintained. I wanted to see if I could go back to normal motorcycling. I considered swapping off the rally bike for something smaller, perhaps a scooter, dual sport, or dirt bike. I just couldn't convince myself to part with my well equipped rally bike.

When the Cognoscenti rally Big Dog came up in July I tried to sign up as a slacker but no openings so I signed on as a rider. The 600 mile trip to Ely, NV sealed the deal on my motorcycling career. Yes, it was hot but I realized that the fun had gone away. Dale (Warchild) Wilson graciously understood my dropping out as a competitive rider. I knew I couldn't meet the criteria to be a finisher.

Therefor, after 50+ years of motorcycling I've decided to liquidate the bike. [I'm working up an advertisement. Please contact me for details if you can't wait.]

So what's Mike going to be riding now? I found a great alternative. The first of August I took delivery of a Rad Rover Electric bike. The smiles are back on my face. This is just what I was hoping for: the ability to make short trips, go off-road, go some distance, and get some sorely needed exercise. 

Of course, it's being farkled. Tail rack, saddlebags, phone holder, a good lock, and a bike carrier for my truck so I can explore things further away.

So far, I've put over 200 miles on it and each day wake up excited about what trails and sights I’ll find on this day's trip. It's amazing the things you find in our back yard, like this on the route to my daughter's house:

Fantastic News!

For those of you who might have been lamenting my retirement from making Aux Tanks I've found somebody to take over fabrication of my designs.

The gentleman is Mr. Walt Preston, owner of Preston Machine and Fabrication in Newark, Ohio. 

His background as a mechanic, machinist, fabricator, and race engineer will give him ample experience in picking up where I've left off. 

His machine shop is much newer and more capable than mine and the more centralized location will be a benefit to many potential clients.

I will continue to maintain my web site for inquiries and price quotations as he gets his feet on the ground. 

Please join me in welcoming Walt to our crazy community of Long Distance Riders.

Mike

Triumph Trophy More Lights

Several years back I had some nice amber fog lights. They provided some nice infill but weren't very bright. I've been making some fork mounted light brackets and decided I'd use a pair for myself. I found some nice amber LED driving lights on Amazon for $26.00 with free prime shipping. They came in short order.

Now I had the problem of switching these lights. Mounting a switch is a real pain. I used to have an AutoSwitch but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle.

With a bit of searching I found this cute little thing. A PWM dimmer with a remote control. At the $2.00 price (free shipping) I figured it was worth the gamble.

The actual unit is very small so I just wired it into the harness going to the lights. Some connectors to allow light removal and several hours of wiring later I was in business.

 The remote provides 3 levels of dimming: 100%, 50%, and 25%. The item description had no indication of what the "modes" were so I was anxious to get them working to see what would happen. Well there are 3 speeds of standard flashing, plus some pulsating flasher modes. Looks like these modes have the potential to get you pulled over so I'll likely not use them.

I plan on just sticking the remote in a handy location with some velcro.

The final element was some type of pilot light. Nice to know if these are on or off in the daytime. I happened to have a bunch of 12V LED pilot lights and was able to tap one in and put it on my dash shelf.

With the lights, dimmer, and wiring I have these lights for less than $35 all in.

I'm off for a long trip soon so I'll try to update with a ride report.

Vacation Time

Hello to all my clients and potential clients.  

It's been a busy year and I appreciate the tremendous support I've received. I've finally caught up on my external obligations and now need to turn to some internal obligations. The list has grown long: familial, household maintenance, travel, and my motorcycle says I haven't had it on a trip since October.

As such, we will be shutting operations down until August 1st, 2017 to catch up. Some web pages at www.maplefarkles.com may be down for maintenance.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Mike

The Latest in Motorcycle Safety Gear

Just got my March WSJ Women's Style Magazine wrapped inside the newspaper. Normally this hits the trash pretty quickly but the cover caught my eye. I guess this is fashionable but I'm curious about how good it would look with some road rash.

Naturally I had to flip through the rag to see what other images were there. Only one bike related.

The Trip To Gerlachfest 2016

I had an interesting trip to Gerlach, NV for this year's Gerlachfest (a Cognoscenti/Iron Butt social gathering). Gerlachfest was a good event this year. As always, there are motorcycles, guns, and liquor. We're sane, so the liquor is never combined with the guns and motorcycles. But after we're done with the riding and shooting the liquor flows freely.

I usually do the 650 mile trip all at once but I get in late and am tired. Plus I haven't ridden much this year, so I took 2 days for the trip. Made a back road route of about 750 miles. I visited with a friend and had lunch in Hemet, CA then meandered to Lone Pine, CA where I stayed at a hostel. Good facility and considering the $30 total price was more than $100 less than the lowest cost (and probably cheapest) motel I was pleased.

I took off fairly early and my EPA for Gerlach was about 1430. That was before I got rear ended at a stop sign in Hawthorn, NV. I was stopped at the stop sign waiting for traffic to clear for a right turn. There was a pickup in front of me. Since the turn was at a 45 degree angle as the pickup rolled forward I was going to angle to the left a bit so I could see better. Just as I started this maneuver, my bike violently took off. In the split second before I hit the truck, I thought my clutch had engaged. Of course, once I'm crunching into the truck and going down that thought disappeared.

The young man that hit me had gone to sleep. He has no recollection of the accident. It's hard for me to piece together the sequence of events and I was awake. In surveying the damage to all the vehicles I'm having a hard time figuring out what really happened.

The impact was pretty major. You can see from the photos that his car traveled at least one car length after the impact. All of the ram ball mounted equipment on my dash shelf was completely straightened out. My Storm case which was securely fastened and had a security strap was ejected. I was thrown to the pavement landing on my right side.

Because I was slightly angled when he hit me his bumper got my tire and muffler. I think this launched my motorcycle into the truck at an angle. You can see that the truck took a good hit on the right rear bumper but the obvious damage to the front of my bike is the right crash bar and the left side of the windshield. Go figger. [This keeps playing in my head and I'm now wondering if my rocketing Pelican case is what hit the truck's bumper. The Pelican case does have some damage.]

I was damn lucky. This could have easily been a major injury accident. Incredibly the bike was ridable and after a 2+ hour delay I made it into Gerlach at 1630. The ride home was all in one leg and with the aches and pains from Friday's event was not particularly pleasant. But I did make it home safe and sound.

Here's a couple of the photos to show the accident.

Iron Butt Association™ Artwork

The Iron Butt Association™ has some pretty cool artwork they use on the Iron Butt Rally™. I regret that I haven't paid closer attention to it.

I recently borrowed a motorcycle from a friend to do some engineering work. He had it up in LA having a custom windshield made. He brought it down and later I returned it to LA. I really hadn't paid much attention to the windshield aspect until I pulled up the shop, met Paige Ortiz for the first time, and discovered I was at Aeroflow!

My son and I got a tour of their facility, learned how they design, form, and test windscreens, and best of all learned about Paige's background and skill sets.

Turns out he is quite an accomplished artist and has been producing the art for the Iron Butt Rallies for some time. I should have been paying more attention to this art over the years. He does these great line drawings and manages to "personalize" each one. The elements of his identity extend far beyond his signature.

Consider this image from the '07 IBR.

The theme that year was National Monuments and as you can see that reflected in the art with things like the Golden Arch, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and so on. So where is Paige's imprint? First off is the motorcycle, that's his bike and him riding it. Next is Mount Rushmore, we have George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt or do we? Look closely at Teddy and you'll see that it's a self portrait of Paige. I've been looking at this for years and never noticed.

There are lots more examples of this in past and present IBR art. Regretfully, I didn't take pictures at his shop where he has the originals. I'm going to have to make another trip before long and make up for that.

Thanks Paige for your support of the IronButt Association ™  and the long distance riding community.