A Motorcycle Lifestyle... a Foolish Dream?... or a Shining Reality?

My blog and website aren't only about Motorcycle Touring... They're about... the Motorcycle Lifestyle...

Now, I know, some folks hear that and all they can think about is tatted up, beer bellied Harley Riders... and there's more then a few of those boys around... and most of those... good riders to have backin' you in a tight!

But there's more to it then that... There's Ara and Spirit... pushin' their BMW sidecar rig... There's guy's riding Suzuki Dual Sports every day... following two tracks across the world... and more then a few Sport Riders, wearin' the rubber off of two wheels... With the vision of two lanes of asphalt, winding up through the hills blurring their vision... and filling their dreams...

... and then, all us big Ol' Cruiser riders... Harley, Star, Victory, Kawasaki... and Suzuki's there too...

It's about... what makes me tick... what makes us tick...

I've been out on the road, full time for most of a year now... Living in a worn old fiver... with the Raider up on the, just as worn truck, between camps...

It took me a long time to figure out where I should be... and work out a way to get there. My only regret is that I didn't grab the handles of the life I've got now... a long long time... and many many miles ago...

I should have been Riding to Wisdom... since I was a kid... NOT... waiting until I'd already "crossed over the Mountain" and was slidin' down the shady side...

This video of a ride I made the other day... is a flavor of what everyone, who grabs hold of that Dream could be living... I hope a few do...

 ***the start of the music is... uh... Different...***
***keep watching... it works!***


Why wait until you have to drink two pots of coffee before you can stand up straight in the morning? Why be "The Man's"... Boy... for 40 years... on the Hope... you'll be able to enjoy a few decent years at the Tail end?

Find a way to Live those good years... Your Whole Life... Start when you're 18... Don't wait... Live it Now... Ride it Now!

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

I Am a Free Ridin', Raider Lovin', RVin' Man

The Only Problem is... I took too long to realize... THIS... is the way I should have been living... a long, long time before now!

I live full time, and do my writing, in a fifth wheel. (The writing being a large and growing chunk of my income)

A good part of the time, my "home" is parked in National Forest Campgrounds, Corps. of Engineer camps, or BLM Campgrounds. The rest of the time... you'll find it tucked up in some dispersed camp, boondocked in Far Country.

*Raider Motorcycle in a RV Boondocking Camp!*

Now, I'm not old enough, yet, for the "Senility Discount" ... uh... I mean "Golden Age" passport ... but, I am the holder of a "Golden Access" card... due to the disability rating I have from the U.S. Army... something about my butt and the ground trying to occupy the same space at the same time...

... the ground won that argument... and... you might could say my spine got a lil' unexpected customizing. The result being that when we're wandering, I can get us into those campgrounds half price. I don't know that walking funny sometimes is worth the discount :) ... but I'll take it!

Still... the price of those dispersed camps, being FREE... are that much better... and keeps maybe five or nine bucks a day, in my pocket when we're bushed up somewhere on public ground. That and the solitude, back here in the woods, is something I value, as highly as my Raider... So, I tend to prefer those places, when I can find good ones.

I do have my standards though :) I pretty much require two or three things when I'm hunting up one of those "Dispersed Biker camps"

... First, since the internet makes access possible, to that large and growing part of my income, I need to have enough signal to run my air card... or at least have it fairly close by so I can run and do my "electronic chores" regularly.

... Second, while most others search for Shady camps... I need a sunny spot to keep my Solar Panels charging my batteries... so I don't have to run that generator!

... and third, though I do prefer to be "Back-O-beyond"... my Raider requires that I'm not TOO far off the pavement, and the road in ain't TOO awful and nasty... That Raider is an Awesome machine... but... a dirt bike she ain't! :)

Most times she rides into camp still up on the truck.

Makes her a lil' self conscious. She gets all twisted up, if she thinks folks are lookin' on her as a trailer queen! :) "I've rumbled up the Alcan! and wallowed through miles of mud, to get home, back in Nunn!" she squalls!

What can I say. When your house is on wheels...you have to make concessions when you move the "House". That bike may have to spend some time on the truck... but, a trailer Queen she ain't... and has the Hail dings to prove it! :)

This camp, She was on the ground already for the ride to Al's Motorcycle, down in Hamilton, for a fresh back tire... uh... maybe ya noticed the strong need for that in the picture? :)

Our scouting found us a real good camp, only a bit over a mile off the pavement... and the road a pretty clean logging road/access... so it'll work fine.

This is a pretty good way to live and Tour on a motorcycle. The Best... Was my mistake to NOT have done this a long, long time ago! It sure beats trying to chase the "Conventional" American Dream...

You don't have to be rich neither! The  low cost accomodations, living in an Old fiver, parked in Free dispersed camps, sure fits my poor boy budget...

... and having a warm dry camp, no matter what the weather is... is fine! :)

Though... if the weather would just become a lil' more accomodating for riding... and shut off the freakin' rain for a while, I wouldn't complain!

For a person who wants to "Live Motorcycle"... I can't think of a better way then parking your Motorcycle along side an RV that suits you. Gives you a warm, dry, always there, "base camp" from which to tour the area you're in...until the urge strikes to move your riding to a new Motorcycle Roads!
Think about it... Find a way to live Free... with ever more time to...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Finally! The first of my "New" Motorcycle Videos...

... and a lil' bit of an inauguration of my Motorcycle Vlogging effort...

It's nothin' fancy, for sure and for certain... and actually... it's not just one... I've got three uploaded!

I made about an hour and a half ride several days back... then it took me those several days... to fight my way through a software education... and when your brain is as soft as mine... that can be a painful experience!

Thing is... when most folks only want to watch a maybe a 5 minute video... or Motorcycle Vlog... I went and left the camera running... on the way over... and all the way back... so... considering that I can pretty much talk until the battery goes dead... It gave me plenty of material to practice up on editing with! :)

Now... I cut 'em off at 9 minutes or so... and I'm gonna work hard at tightening things up some more... but what can I say? I've got a lot to learn! :)

So... give a look see at some of what I've done... and feel free to send me some feedback... either right here... or... in comments on you tube... I still have to calculate how and where to fit the videos into the blog/site... but... for the time being, if you search for drifter50038 on you tube, you'll find everything I've kicked out to that point.

Now, again, All your comments are Highly regarded. Only way I can learn, is by folks tellin' me what they like... and what they don't... so give a fella a hand at learnin'... OK?

Just... be gentle... You know I'm a sensitive Ol' Buster. :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Motorcycle Video Making is a Tough Nut to Crack for Slow Witted Fellers!

 ... and this slow witted biker cowboy is still slippin' and slidin' up that steep learnin' curve!

I've worked out, or at least understand most of the hardware issues... the camera takes nice crisp pictures... and the only issue with sound is my leaky helmet... which should be relatively easy to fix when I replace it with a fresh one.

If you're not interested in talkin' while you film... the mic on the camera itself will work just fine... unless of course you intended to just overlay some tunes on the video... and then for you the microphone would be a total non issue...

So... hardware squared away... get out and play... and ran smack into the evil relatives of road gremlins... the nasty... psychotic... software goblins.

Now... I'm certain sure my gremlin bell kept 'em from climbing from the road up into the camera... but... I've been struggling just the same, trying to get the software in my laptop to recognize the .mov file format that comes from the camera.

The issue is strictly a thing twixt Microsoft XP and my stingy self, Not anything to do with the camera. If you've got the later windows 7... you're likely golden! I just don't want to spend any more dinero just now... and since I'm a little familiar with the windows movie maker program that's been on both my laptops, I just couldn't see a need...

The version in my lil' 10" acer can read it... but that lil' 'puter is so slow, trying to work video, that it's nigh on to useless... so... I'm trying to get my older Dell, with windows XP to do the job... and as is my habit... that damned Murphy is kickin' me in the slats!

Good thing I ain't got any hair... 'cause I woulda pulled it out!

Luckily, Andy at SportHiTech, where I bought my camera keeps sending me in the right directions to overcome my personal  "issues"... pretty good service after the sale... They've got my money already... but they still keep on kickin' out the service... didn't leave me twisting, and that's what counts... when it comes to choosing people to deal with ain't it? If you're looking for something give them a try. They've sure been goin' the extra mile for me.

anyhoo... he put me on to a video conversion Freeware program at Freemake.com that converts the format into one that my older version of movie maker should recognize... and since the price is FREE... it fits my budget! :) ... so far so good... a short test proved out... so... now I'm waiting on the conversion of a longer clip to try to start editing...

I'm not there yet... but I'm gaining!. I swear!

Keep watchin'... once I get all this shovelin' and tinkerin' out of the way... I should be able to actually start kickin' out some wind splittin' talkies! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Still Climbing the Motorcycle Video Learning Curve...

Made my second "Test Ride" yesterday... 'bout a 40 mile round trip... rolling to the Post office over in Dutch John Utah... to pick up our forwarded mail.

It's ugly... but I taped the visor on my Nolan Helmet, in a test to prove whether the excessive wind noise on the last test video I made was indeed, due to a helmet malfunction, or not... and... yup... it was...

*Nolan Helmet Taped to seal leaky Visor*

With the visor sealed up well... if ugly... and the microphone sensitivity on my Drift HD170 camera turned to it's lowest point...

... The audio quality turned out to be very good... 'leastways to my tin ears...

I mounted the microphone to the cheek piece on the right side... with it's lil' clamp...

That's a weak mount... I keep knocking it loose when I put the helmet on... so... I'll stitch in a small tab of fabric... to the cheek piece... to give that microphone clamp something it can more easily grip... and move the mic up and over a lil' more out of the way...

*Drift Innovation camera and Microphone mounting*

*Helmet camera and Microphone mounting*

The camera itself... is mounted on its Drift Innovation Helmet mount, using strong velcro... to the lower right side of the helmet... You can see the external microphone, just above it to the right.

Though the camera looks "bulky"... there is no weight to it at all... you don't feel a thing, either from it's weight or wind drag... You really don't know it's there...

With it's good field of view, mounted in this position, the picture shows everything from the the fuel tank forward... including a bit of the side of the helmet... a pretty nice; "Birds Eye view"... and, with the visor taped, the wind noise is pretty much gone...

I'd have an initial "test video" uploaded... but for the fact that where I'm parked now, the signal is so weak, I can juuuuuuust get a blog post made... uploading video is a no go... :)

It's been suggested that I try Roxio Creator to solve my "editing" issues with the XP laptop... I'm likely to pass on that. I checked it out... and it's "Format" looks a lot like Windows Movie maker... which is free... not the hundred bucks of buying the Roxio Program... 

Since I do have that functioning... on my lil' Acer (10" notebook) which has the windows 7 version that WILL FUNCTION, with the Drift Camera, I think I'll try to get along with that... until I can afford to upgrade my main laptop...

That... and the fact that it looks like I'm gonna need to replace a helmet a little sooner then expected... unless I get to liking the idea of riding around with duct tape all over my head! :) ... has me likely taking the "Cheap" way out... and making do...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Motorcycle Tires and Motorcycle Videos

Made some progress on a couple of fronts the past few days...

Good as it is... living full time, on the road in a Fifth Wheel... can create problems of it's own... like... the lack of good air card signal when you're fighting your way through a computer glitch... or hunting motorcycle tires...

After struggling with that dang computer and video camera for a couple days... and an email conversation with the outfit I bought my Drift Innovation Video camera from, I'm on the trail of getting videos into production... I've run into a couple of obstacles...which have turned out to be issues "outside" of the camera itself...

One being the Microsoft Movie Maker program I prefer... and the fact that the version on my "Old" laptop won't read the files from the new camera... and the second being, that Nolan Motorcycle Helmet of mine has developed its own issue. The face shield won't completely seal down any longer... so... it makes a lot of wind noise in the microphone... I've got it taped to test my belief that is the source of the excessive wind noise...

But... after fretting about the camera for a couple days... it's a good thing that the problems I've found are OTHER pieces of software and hardware, and NOT the new Video Camera... the camera itself seems to function pretty fine... gonna make another test in today's sunshine... to prove out my thinking...

Then, sitting in the Laundromat yesterday I finally found a rear skin for that big bad Raider of mine. :) My Droid phone is pretty handy for such searches in unfamiliar country...

Several Motorcycle shops could "order" one... I guess there are areas of the country where use of that 210 Metzler tire still isn't common enough for them to stock it... but ordering in a "Special" makes it a lot more costly...

I Did finally find a shop up in Missoula that had the next size bigger, a 240 that still fits on... Yup... and only $500! :) ... uh... Do YOU see something wrong with that song? :) Guess what tire I'm NOT putting on Red? Bad enough a Raider eats that back rubber in 8,000 miles... but... I'm not gonna pay $500 plus mounting... every 8,000 miles!!!

But... thanks to that good Ol' Droid phone... Sitting in that Laundromat in Vernal Utah... surfing and calling to find a tire somewhere along our projected route of yondering... I found the tire I need up in Hamilton Montana.

Their price is the goin' rate in a normal location (not out in the sticks) so I'll take it... but... a Motorcycle tire that is something around a 1/3 more then the tires on the truck... sure makes a fella wheeze a bit! ... good thing I'm in love with that bike!

So... when we pull out of this camp, Sunday or Monday... I'll be working my way toward Hamilton, Montana...

... and studying Motorcycle Video Making along the way!

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads