About Me

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Henry Martin spends his nights writing fiction and poetry, which predominately deals with the often-overlooked aspects of humanity. He is the author of three novels: Escaping Barcelona, Finding Eivissa, and Eluding Reality; a short story collection, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts; and a poetry collection, The Silence Before Dawn. His most recent published project is a collection of Photostories in five volumes under the KSHM Project umbrella, for which he collaborated with Australian photographer Karl Strand, combining one of a kind images with short stories and vignettes. He is currently working on his next novel narrated in two opposing points of view. He lives with his family in the Northeast.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Early Christmas Surprise

I've got an early Christmas surprise today.

But first, let me backtrack a little. A few weeks ago, a riding buddy emailed me that his wife gave him the green light on getting a better bike -- He currently rides a 2007 KLX250 -- and he asked me what would be a good bike for the type of riding we do. I recommended the WR250R, and asked him whether he would then sell his KLX to me. I rode a 1989 KLR250 then. We exchanged a few emails as to the pros and cons of various bike, and he then emails me that he found a WR250R in Maine.
A few days later i get an email that he bought the WR, and that he will sell me his KLX in January (so he can finish the year on his old bike). I list my KLR and find a buyer, get his VIN for the KLX, put it on my insurance, and am anxiously awaiting January to arrive, so I can start working on the KLX. It needs nothing, but I plan to do some mods nonetheless - 122 main jet, open airbox, fork oil, et cetera.
My wife and I talk about how lucky he is to have found a WR at a decent price, and how excited I am about getting the KLX.

Fast forward to today. As we exchange gifts under the tree (we exchange our gifts on Christmas Eve), I get a small box that I'm not allowed to open until 7 o'clock. When I do, I find a small card that says to look outside. I do, but I can only make out a person walking up my dark staircase leading to the deck. In comes my riding buddy (whom I told not to disturb my time with family today :) ), and he takes me outside, In front of the garage sits the WR with a bow on it.

So, the wool has been pulled over my eyes for a month. My wife contacted him regarding a bike for me, he tricked me into telling him what I like, found it, then he drove 700 miles round trip to get the bike, hid it at his place, cleaned it, and brought it to me tonight. And the best part - I was not expecting it at all.
I would have never thought that my wife would even consider a bike for me, since she does not like me riding in the woods. I would not expect an ADV Inmate I met only this year to go out of his way like this for me. And I would not expect the two of them to scheme behind my back. Together, they surely made my Christmas special.

   Oh, the bike is an 08 with 5k on the clock. I suspect we'll have fun together.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Sunday, November 25, 2012

AFX FX-39DS helmet update

So now that I've done a few rides with the helmet, I figure it would a good time for an update. I still like the helmet. As a matter of fact, I like it quite a bit. It's great, especially off-road, while conquering the gnarlier dualsport routes.

Since my last post, I used the helmet on three rides, all of them with temperatures below 50F degrees, and the last two started at around 30f degrees. Needless to say, the air is pretty cold when riding, and gets even colder at 70 mph. This helmet is great off road as it lets in so much air. The same, nevertheless, can be rather inconvenient when riding at higher speeds on the pavement. I realize this is not the right helmet for any long distance trips over pavement, but I find myself reaching for it more often than not. So, to deal with the air issue, I came up with a simple idea - chin curtain. I mean, my Scorpion has one, why should this helmet not have one?

After searching my gear pile, I found a piece that solved the problem. The piece in question came off an older Gmax helmet, and it was originally used as an over-the-nose piece, probably to prevent the breath from fogging the windshield. It has a 3/4" plastic edge with some snaps in it to attach it to the Gmax helmet. Well, I took the snaps out, bent the soft plastic in the middle, and inserted it between the helmet shell and the impact material. Voila, we have a chin curtain!

To test this, I used the helmet on a 4 hrs DS ride that included some class VI roads, some short pavement sections, and a lot of unpaved, graded forest sections. With the curtain in place, my shield fogged up a lot on the slow, rough sections. But, once I cracked it open a little, it was fine. On the faster, 40-60mph sections it performed as I had intended - restricting the airflow from underneath. The helmet is still pretty loud, but much quieter than it was. Also, going 60 in a 40 degree weather no longer freezes my chin.

So, AFX, if, by any chance, you are listening: Consider adding a chin curtain to an already good product - it will only make it better.

The nice thing about this homemade solution is that the nose piece has a piece of soft metal inside (to allow you to shape it to your nose profile), which means I can bend it either in or out to increase or decrease airflow. Here are a couple of pics:


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

New Helmet AFX FX39DS

For the past two years, I rode in the woods with my older, simpler full face helmet. It was nothing special, a Gmax model of sorts, but it was bright red, had a dual-pane windshield (less fogging), and I did not care if it dropped every now and then. Nevertheless, it was heavy, a pain to put on and remove, and the peripheral vision was not so great. Furthermore, now that the sun sets much earlier in the day, I found myself squinting to see the trail anytime I rode in the afternoon. So, last Saturday was my last ride with the Gmax. I experienced all of the above symptoms, got home, and decided it was time to get something more woods friendly.

Despite the fact that I really like the Arai XD series of DS helmets, I can't see myself ever spending that amount of money on a helmet that gets hit by flying gravel, mud, and meets small tree branches more often than not.

I've done some research online, narrowed my choices to a few different helmets, spoke with a few guys I ride with about the goggles vs shield options, and decided to start shopping.

Since I believe in supporting a local business (nothing against online retailers, but I always try local first), I headed down to my local bike shop. 99% of the time they treat me right, and either have what I'm looking for in stock, or can get it within a few days. I forgot to mention that I headed to the shop on Monday morning at 9:15 after I found out that I would be doing a nice DS ride at 11:00. Yeah, I was in a hurry.

The shop had one of the helmets I was considering: AFX FX39DS. There were not many color choices available in stock, and wearing flat black or camouflage during hunting season is not really an option, so I ended up trying the Hi-viz yellow.

First impression: Helmet felt light, well build, with good quality padding. The shield closed tight, chin strap was fully adjustable (and has a nice quick release feature), visor has some adjustment to it, and the price was right. I grabbed it and headed home.

At 11:00, I met six other riders at a gas station a few miles from me, and immediately was subjected to jokes about them needing sunglasses due to my helmet. Whatever. :) The helmet IS bright.
 At 4:00pm I was done with the ride and headed home, muddy, dirty, and tired. The one thing that was not sore - my neck. Yes, the helmet is light.

So, after the five hour ride beatdown test:

Helmet performed great. Taking it on and off with gloves was not an issue at all, thanks to the quick release buckle. I must say that I always put the aftermarket quick release on all of my helmets, but this one came with a good quality OEM setup.
It is a little noisier than a full face, especially above 60MPH (street between dirt sections). The visor did great and I could actually see the trail, even with the sun straight in front of me. Surprisingly, the visor did not create any wind issues at higher street speeds.
Helmet was very comfortable, and felt secure on my head at all times. Peripheral vision is great, clear, and natural.
The windshield has only a few open positions and was fogging a little when fully closed. I managed to find a sweet spot where it was cracked open only about 1/8", and it stopped the fogging completely. Maybe, if I was in better shape, I would not breathe as heavily when riding :) But that was the only downside I experienced. I imagine that any helmet would fog at 9mph while wrestling a bike to stay upright on rocky, muddy ground.
I took a few hits in the windshield and visor from low branches (at slow speeds) and there is no damage whatsoever to the finish or parts.




Overall, I'm very happy with it. Up until the day I researched more woods friendly helmets, I never heard of AFX, so I was a little uncertain. Now, however, I'm sold. This helmet will probably replace my Scorpion EXO1000 on most of my summer rides that combine light DS (no real dirt) and distance. I think it would be perfect for a few hundred miles on unpaved, graded or gravel roads on the bigger bike, and it just shines when on the small bike in a nasty terrain.

  

Monday, October 1, 2012

Loving the TKC 80s

 I had some fun at Catskills this weekend. As usual, Max BMW put on an awesome event. Sorry, no photos of the route - too busy staying upright :)






Friday, September 28, 2012

Touratech front sprocket guard and chain guard

During maintenance, I realized that my stock sprocket cover was busted. First I thought about fixing it, but then the desire to farkle won.

How do you spell trouble? 
The front sprocket cover is a simple, two piece design.

At first, it did not want to fit properly as the front kept interfering with an engine case bolt, but with a little bending it worked out. I opted for the original design vs the Rally style, as the original maintains some protection between the chain and the engine, whereas the Rally appears wide open on all sides. I know I've picked some stuff on my chain in the past I would not want hitting the engine case.
  Since I was doing the sprocket cover, I also got the lighter, cleaner-looking chain guard.
Again, a simple, two piece construction with an extra ABS guard that goes on the opposite side.
The long vertical piece bolts to the chainguard, and then attaches to the bottom of the swingarm via a plastic hex spacer. Really? Not only those little bolts (3mm dia, IIRC) that attach the spacer are the weak link, but the lack of any through bolt leaves me wondering about the longevity of this piece. On the plus side, the hex spacer was far too long to fit: 
So I modified it with a nylon spacer, and a 6mm stainless through bolt.
I also read some stories about the TT chainguard breaking from vibration, so I used some O-rings between the chainguard and the mounting points on the swingarm. Loctite is a must :)
Overall, not a bad looking piece.

I also reused the stock BMW bolts since they are Torx and I already carry Torx bits on my bike (for all the other BMW stuff). The stainless Allen bolts just strip too easily.

Here is the ABS guard, again, attached with stock BMW bolts and backed by O-rings.

 So, my first impression of Touratech? Decent product at a not-so-decent price. The material could be much thicker and the instructions could be in English (German only). Shipping was fast and reasonable, packaging was exceptional, and their stuff is just...cool. The quality, however, could be better. Finish is rather nice, and there are no sharp burrs, but the parts lack "meat" for lack of a better word. 

My homemade light bar and rear master cylinder cover are three times as thick.
It's been a long maintenance week for the GS and me.

What started as a simple tire change - going for the TKC 80 here - turned out to be sightly more complicated.
When the wheels came off, I looked at the sprockets. No doubt, they needed changing. My chain started stretching at a higher rate in the last 500 or so miles, so I knew I would have to change them soon, but I was hoping to finish the season on the old set. At 11k, the stock sprockets looked like this (new sprockets right next to them):
The front, especially, was pretty bad.

Every time I take my wheels off, I like to check the bearings as well. The front was fine, but the rear would not even turn when trying to spin them by hand (on the bike, however, I never noticed this). So out came the bearings and then it was time to shop for new ones (which I found at a local industrial supply shop at a low cost - same part numbers as the stock ones, SKF brand).
To remove the bearings, first I had to pry the seal out (with a dull blade screwdriver), remove a circlip, then knock on the bearings a couple of times to free the inner spacer. Once I got the spacer moving enough to tilt it slightly, I could get a long screwdriver in to hit against the bearings' inner races. A little heat from a hairdryer on the hub helped things along the way. I've seen some people use propane torches to heat the hub, but the gentle heat of the hairdryer did a fine job without melting any paint.
The sprocket carrier bearings are a little different. The inner bearing has to come out first, followed by a spacer, a circlip, and finally the outer bearing. Again, a little heat and they came out without any problems. You just have to move the spacer out of the way to be able to hit the inner race.
Before installing the new bearings, I cleaned everything really well (on the inside).

On the outside of the sprocket carrier there is a spacer that rides halfway in a seal. The trail-made lapping compound of mud and sand did a fine job in making two smooth groves in it. This would either allow more dirt behind the seals, or damage the seals over time, so I had a stainless steel spacer made at a local machine shop. There were also some rock nicks on the spacer.

A little cleanup around the front sprocket shaft, the rear carrier, and swingarm, and it was time for my new chain. I decided to go with RK XSO chain. I'll see how long it lasts under the harsh, Dualsport use. If I can't get any decent mileage from this one either, I'll be switching to cheap, non-O-ring chains and swapping them more frequently. 
I cut the change to stock length, 112 links, then used a clip master link instead of the rivet type. Some people like the clip links, some don't. I have never had one fail, so I used one on this chain as well. I think the key is to install the clip properly. First I put the O-rings where they belong, then squeezed the plates together with a pair of 6mm nuts over the pins. This pushed the O-rings in place and, after removing the vise, install the clip without any issues. I then cleaned the outside of the clip and baseplate with brake cleaner, and applied a little RTV to secure the clip in place should it fail for some reason.
While the wheel was off, I noticed my rear brake pads were on the thin side, so I replaced those as well.
And then I found that my from sprocket cover has a crack at the bottom and two of the brass inserts (through which the bolts pass through) pulled out of the plastic. Fix it or Farkle? Farkle won, but that is a story for a separate post.

The TKCs do look nice on the bike though. :)