A Fuel sipping Power Cruiser, Camp Hunting and Cogitator lubrication

I had a couple of goals in mind while running north under the Montana sky. The first was to find a fresh camp for the next week or so.

The second was to test a theory.

The last few months it seemed to me that most of the time my fuel mileage was down quite a bit. While I'd grown accustomed to routinely breaking 50 mpg with the big cruiser, lately that number's been down 'round 45 a lot more. Hell, we generally still get 48 on the two up runs.

So, I was wondering if "something" on my gal was off a bit. Sonja seems to rumble the same tune she always has...but lately, it's like she's a bit thirstier.

I've Cogitated on the problem while lubricating my cogitator with a number of various brands of fine locally brewed lubricants... such as my latest find...

Heavy Horse Scotch Ale from the Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula Montana.

So... not only are Montanans  blessed with their Big Sky, ... They've got a brewery that builds a damn fine ale to wind down with after a day on the saddle.

It might not be fair for one state to have so much!

Anyhoo... with Sonja whispering; The problem is not me! and the road that runs past our camp calling to come and play...

... I managed to devise a test. You see, I got to wondering if maybe... poooooosibly... I might have gotten a lil' heavy handed with my Girl here lately...

So I came up with this idea;

I'll ride to Hungry Horse and back... find a camp... and test Sonja's claim that the Problem didn't reside in her. I'll ride her steady and even and Cruise up that two lane between 60 and 65.

Well, on a bright and sunny Saturday morn I fired her up and we headed north, drinking the wind.

It got a lil' chilly, sunny as it was, in the vicinity of Swan lake so I pulled in for a minute to add my fleece under my jacket. Then it was hang on to that cruiser and follow the paint stripes to Hungry Horse.

Have you any idea how difficult it is to maintain 63 mph... in Montana? Especially when you got bozo minivan drivers who see no reason to pull across the center line when passing you until they're something less than fifteen feet behind you? arrrrggggghhhhh....

...and then... they see no worldly reason to actually go clean over into the other lane to make the pass? Like it will save tire rubber or something if they only go far enough to put two wheels across the line? ... and after all; "you ARE on a motorcycle! You can just move over and let me have half your lane! There's plenty of room! Stop being so hoggish!"

I have found a fairly effective method to coax them to actually put their entire car on the other side of the paint stripe as they pass though... this trip... a left foot raised as high as I could lift it, attached to a cocked knee... was apparently perceived as an intention to leave a size 9 boot print on an otherwise unblemished passenger door.

Their vee-hickle suddenly moved 36 inches in an away-from-me motion allowing my knee to uncock and the smile to return to my shaking head. Wanting to maintain civility and good humor I waved my forgiveness at the apparently lane dyslexia afflicted operator with the universal symbol of friendship and understanding... The Bird.

Without further excitement other than the sweeping road under that always Big Sky I made the turns from 83 onto 35 at Big Fork and then off of 35 onto 206 toward Columbia Falls. Caught Hwy 2 and turned east for the short run of maybe five miles to the access road that turns south to Hungry Horse Dam.

And it's a damn Fine Dam!

But beavers build those too, and my interest lay beyond... I was hunting my first goal... another camp so I kept rolling.

It turns out that my luck was running. Though the camps along that right bank you can see behind the dam are managed by private corporations... because... you know... the Forest Service... unlike the BLM is too busy not cutting timber to manage it's campgrounds... ;) ...

... They apparently don't lock these up at the end of the season. The folks at the visitor center on the damn assured me they're left open well into the fall.

So... I followed along the nicely twisting road (but mind your manners, there's gravel and deadfall trash on a lot of the bends in it) to check out three of 'em...

Sweet! Goal Number one is ticked off the list. Now, roll back into the lil' burg of Hungry Horse... choke down an A&W Burger and a big mug of Root Beer... and fuel up to check the stats on that Big Sky Brewing Co. lubricated Theory.

Sonja was whispering the truth.

I took a stick and stuffed all the fuel into her tank I could fit and then did my cipherin'. It tallied up 131.7 miles on 2.52 gallons = 52.26 MPG Ha Ha! Not too shabby for a big Ol' voluptuous Power Cruiser! :)

And... with that quandary put to rest... I could roll home a lot quicker than I left it behind. Yeah... we drank a good bit more wind going south than going north... and gaz-oh-lean! ;)

Yes sir... run her steady and even 'tween 60 and 65 and she sips at the fuel pump. But twist her up tighter... sail along in that country north of 80 a lot and she'll get thirstier. Still a respectable 45 or so... but it falls off when you get north of 65-70 a lot... and especially if you do that gettin' with a pretty athletic twist of that right hand.

Finished a sweet day at 223 miles and knowing Sonja was healthy... She just works up a thirst if she's workin' harder. What a surprise huh?

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

The Way Home...

After listening to the Elk bugle much of the night I rose to enjoy the soft sunrise of my last day on the road, walking along the Canyon rim of Flaming Gorge.

As I was returning to camp to pack up several of the locals wandered by...

I was watching this doe and this year's fawn when I spotted some movement coming up from a Canyon Overlook up ahead.

I'm guessing they bed down in the safety of the Canyon Walls for the night and then come back up to graze through the day...

Don't know if it's coincidence or they're prospering, but it seems like every time I come back their numbers have increased...

*Big Horns, just clearing the Flaming Gorge rim*

*Nice View from camp*

But no matter how fine the view I had miles to go before sunset so I'd no choice but to load the bike and keep on rolling...

I wasn't anxious to get where I was going (the end of the trip) so I cruised pretty easy coming down out of the High Country into the desert around Vernal Utah.

The Fall is well advanced up there...

*The road out of Canyon Rim Campground*

*Roads through the Aspen Gold near Flaming Gorge*

I rode out past Dinosaur National Monument (didn't stop this time) and on through Meeker, Craig, Steamboat Springs to Walden. I fueled there and coffeed up for the final run down Pouder Canyon and home...

Figures that the best mileage of the ride (55 mpg+) came on that last tank running down the canyon. ;)

Getting back from a ride is always a mixed bag. By the time a trip is done my head is clear and my strength is greater... The sheer Joy of being exactly where I belong feeds the desire to just keep on rolling...

We'll be moving camp early next week. It's the start of a slow, month long migration back to the Valley of the Sun for a weeklong November job at NASCAR.

... I'm scheming a few rides this winter around that southern desert country...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Cooling Out on a Raider in the Early Fall

Figured out the laptop glitch... So I'll start the tail from the beginning now that I've got my pics available!

I rode out of Fort Collins a lil' late and really still not having it settled what way I wanted to ride. Makes it a lil' difficult to pick roads!

But, the road kinda forces you to make a choice and ended up rolling up hwy 287 toward Laramie.

I hit the border and thought it'd be good to stop and collect that border crossing sign. I was standing there doin' my thing when a lil' car pulled up and stopped.

* The Wyoming Border South of Laramie*

It gave me a chuckle. It was a fella named Wes Parker and his wife on a trip from I think he said Atlanta, but that part escaped me. Anyhoo, as he's takin' his pick of the sign he says; "Looks like your takin' a trip."

"Yep"

"Where you headed?" He asked.

"Not really sure" I replied, where ever I end up I guess." A genuine Then Came Bronson moment. :)

So,I continued rolling, right into the usual Wyoming wind. Not sure how hard it was blowin' but the quartering wind I ran against nearly all day knocked my usual fuel consumption form the 50+- mpg vicinity down to 43 mpg. Not so important down here in the states but things like that can cause knots in your shorts up in the Yukon...

when ya'll only have a 4 gallon tank... and you have to run the last gallon with the computer tellin' you're empty and how many miles you've been running on that "reserve". :)

I decided to take U.S. 30 out of Laramie to Medicine bow where I'd turn onto Wyoming 487 to make the run to Casper.

*The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow Wyoming*

You know, this trail runs right through there... Uh... it really don't give a traveler a whole lot of confidence does it? :)

*What? A Massacre? - Sand Creek Massacre Trail sign*

There's a wind farm just north of there a ways... I don't really remember it being there the last time I went this way...

My son-in-law is a crane operator. I believe he runs a 190 ton. He runs up to Wyoming a lot to work on the wind mill farms, so it's likely he set a good number of these wind turbines up above Medicine bow. That and lifted parts on and off for repair...

*Wind Power Farm near Medicine Bow Wyoming*

 Seems more of these things keep poppin 'up ever' time I pass...

I refueled on the west end of Casper and turned onto U.S. 20 toward Shoshoni. Right about there is when I really first got to noticing the smoke filling the sky up ahead.

Just my luck the road was aimin' right directly for it. How-some-ever, After a few miles it started anglin' off toward some blue sky and I risked the fantasy I might just ride clear...

*Smoke in the sky as I rolled toward Shoshoni Wyoming*

Well, I turned North to stay on U.S. 20 at Shoshoni but No such luck... I got out from under that smoke cloud going through Wind River canyon I believe... but as soon as I did, I slid right in under a second soon after I made the turn onto Wyoming 120 at Thermopolis.

This one was closer to the ground and had my eyes burning...

By the time I got to Meeteetse my thoat was burning. The road I was supposed to take out of Meeteetse to the campground I'd been planning on ran straight into the smoke cloud, which was heavier and lower than that back by Shoshoni.  I just kept that Raider runnin' north and rolled all the way into Cody.

There bein' no Forest Service camps right close to hand there and it bein' late I chose to just pull into the KOA and use it for the night... even if such doin's was a budget buster for a busted Buster! ;)

...and that's when I found out my 20 year old whisperlite stove wouldn't fire up to cook my supper any more. Sweet Momma Yamaha! Betterer and betterer!

Good thing I was at a fine KOA! 'cause they had a micro wave in their lil' game room that was probably built the same day my stove was. Once I deciphered the tricks to turning it on, I nuked the meal in a box I'd grabbed in Thermopolis, had me a hot supper and called it a night!

Come the morning I rose to one of those "Red Sky at morning" warnings...

*Red Sky Sunrise over Cody Wyoming*

Sure was purty enough though...

I fought with the stove some more before pronouncing it KIA and tossed that pricey old timer in the trash bin...

... and started day 2...

To be continued
Brian

My Raider Refit has Begun!

I got the first step of refitting my Yamaha Raider for Motorcycle Touring done Friday afternoon.

After riding the bike for a couple of years with the leather Osprey saddlebags I decided that I needed to rework the setup.

The bags have served well, but as it turns out, the conditions I live in now are not made for the endurance of leather saddlebags. I just can't keep ahead of the abuse the weather puts on the leather bags that are exposed to the elements 100% of the time.

But, to change to the fiberglass hard bags I'm going to install, it required the replacement of the existing, factory exhaust pipes.

*Yamaha Raider with Factory Pipes*

 That dogleg in the pipes rises up so high it's pretty hard to squeeze in any sort of a hard bag with the size I want to go to.

That's the other thing working here. I wanted to enlarge the bags a bit to improve their capacity for Motorcycle Touring on my Yamaha sled.

I chewed on this for a long time... flopping back and forth from one style to another... and finally settled on the 3" Big Straights from Hard Chrome in the Black version.

*Yamaha Raider with 3" Big Straights by Hard Chrome*

Geeze... You'd think a guy taking a portrait of his most favorite motorcycle of all time would remember to pull the protective masking tape off the frame first! :)

But look at the difference in space twixt the pipes and the bags... I'm impatiently waiting now for my new Tsukayu Coner saddlebags to arrive!

That and the noise... I'm not real BIG on Loud Pipes... I was nervous about these being too noisy... So far? I'm happy. They've got a deep burbling rumble to 'em without that ear cracking edge. If you stay off the throttle in the "neighborhood" and keep your rpm down the neighbors have nothing to complain about.

On the Highway, where before I couldn't even hear the motor over the wind... I now have that nice, deep rumble that always tickles the giggles of a "Motorhead"... OK... so I'm a partial motorhead. So far it's a real pleasing note... needs be, I can swap the baffles for a "quieter" variety... but with the pipes being the long style, I think they'll ride just as they are.

I was a lil' anxious about going in the Blacked out "direction" but, already, I'm liking the more subdued style of 'em. Since I live in the "you can polish 'em or you can ride 'em" school of thought ... and sit solidly on the Ride 'em side ;) I think the black is gonna do better in that situation than chrome!

Riding the bike back to the rig from my kids place in Denver... I rolled up I-25. One of the first things I noticed was there seemed to be a bit more vibration. The second was that my fuel mileage kinda went to hell!

Geeze! And I thought it would improve a bit...

Then... I looked down at the speedo... Hmmm...

Ya think that maybe all those extra numbers I found when I looked at the speedometer might have something to do with more vibration and poorer fuel economy? :))

Took a roll up Poudre Canyon yesterday... at my more "normal" cruising speed and that idea seems to have been borne out... Mileage seems to be back in the 48-52 mpg range that I normally run. Guess I'll have to guard against the Thunder Induced Velocity!

Now that I "played" for a couple of days...

It's back to work for me now.
Brian

Motorcycle Auxiliary Gas Tanks for Motorcycle Touring

How do you carry extra fuel on Long Motorcycle Adventure Tours... or Just Motorcycle Touring where you're not quite sure if you can make the distance between fuel stations?

On my recent Solo Tour to Alaska... on my Raider that can only go, comfortably, a mite over 150 miles 'tween fillups... I carried an extra gallon in (4) MSR, Quart sized fuel bottles made for Back Packing...

I carried 'em in the pockets of my Ruck, strapped on my tail rack... which seemed pretty good to me! ... I did have the thought, a time or two, that those MSR bottles are kinda thin... and really didn't wanna see the consequences of dropping the bike...

So... I made an extra special effort to keep that Yamaha Raider Upright! :o)

I recently found an outfit called Tour Tank that builds some pretty fine looking auxiliary fuel tanks for motorcycles. From what I can tell, these things are just the ticket for Long Riders... and Adventure Riders.

They also build something they call "Tour Tubes". These don't cost much more than the MSR Bottles I used, (with similar volume) and their weight and construction should make 'em a hell of a lot sturdier and safer for Motorcycle Touring use...

These would have, I do believe, fit right in the same place as the fuel bottles I used... and a lot less risk in the event of an "Incident".

So... back to my chores... see ya down the road somewhere!

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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First "Test" Tour on the Raider

Heidi and I just finished a 2+ day, 500 mile test "scoot" on the Raider... and for me... that Star Motorcycle has proven its mettle as a good base for a Touring Motorcycle... and soon to be... with a few more accessories and bits... my Best Touring Motorcycle...

We rode like we like to travel... Let them Iron Butt fellas see how much they can endure... we prefer to go a couple hundred miles a day... stoppin' along the way to smell the roses a bit...

Climbed over Cameron Pass, Rabbit Ears Pass, the grade up to the Eisenhower tunnel, and Vail Pass... Rode through the cold and snow on top... and the warm down in the Valleys... hitting too many digits on the speedometer, on Rabbit Ears pass to really "Please" herself... :o) ... and still the fuel Mileage exceeded what Yamaha/Star rates it at... (which I'm assuming is figured on a solo rider)

Both seats... the factory drivers seat... and the Bitchn Stitchn custom passenger seat... proved comfortable for miles and hours, in the saddle.

I was wonderin' how the posture I sit in would "wear"... after riding hours, Splittin' the Wind... and I gotta say... No Complaints... My arms, shoulders back and butt... were just fine... NO... Complaints! ... Sweet! ... so... I'm thinkin' my plans to change out the handle bars for a bit more pullback... are on the back burner... I have an appointment at Bitchn Stitchn to recover the front seat... and add a gel pad...

I'll wait to see how that all rides... before I do anything else with handlebars or such.

The only Black Cloud on the whole trip was a lil' didoe... just north of Walcott. We'd pulled into an "overlook" to watch some people doin' Zip Line traverses... across a lil' canyon... the ground in that overlook was all rough, humped up and badly uneven...

Not sure what exactly happened... but the end result was... my foot slipped and that top heavy Red Beauty... leaned over pretty hard, comin' down on the left drivers peg...

Took me 'bout 10 miles to figure out that it was busted... It got pretty clear... when the sucker fell off! :o)

So... pulling out that fancy Droid "Smartphone" I'm carryin' now... I located a Yamaha Dealer back 50 miles or so, up the Interstate... that offered to sell me a foot peg off a brand new Raider, sitting on their showroom floor.

I suppose for a kid... riding 50 miles or better, with your left foot hangin'... would be no big deal... and it wasnt' for me either... till long about 40 miles... I gotta tell you... that sucker started gettin' heavy! Tryin' to keep it off the pavement, got to be work! :o)

But... the guys at Silverthorne Power Sports took good care of me... Let me buy that peg off their New Bike... and then discounted a shirt 40% to boot! :o) Awesome... So... if you're ever in the Silverthorne area... on a Yamaha... and need some help... give 'em a ring... they might be able to keep you rolling too!

What I did learn from the trip was... My Raider is going to serve me just as superbly as I thought it would... for Motorcycle Touring the way I want to roll... Especially, once I get the Custom Saddle Bag mounts for it completed... and get the Saddle Bags Mounted!...

I'll also be shopping around for a small... to medium sized tail pack... to sit on that tail rack I added a couple weeks ago...

... 'cause... I'm workin' hard at tryin' to get her set up... for a mid summer run (end of July) to... ALASKA!

Suh-Wheet! :o)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Yamaha Raider Fuel Economy - Is Still Better Than I expected

Been Riding that Raider for a few weeks now... thousand or so miles on it... At least what I put on! ;o) ...

I'd been expecting my fuel consumption, from everything I'd read and heard 'bout the cruiser, to be down in the mid to high 30's... the first tank calculated out at 47 mpg... and they are all just staying right up there.

So far, the fuel consumption has only gone below 40 once. That was on a two up ride, against a good headwind, up to Cheyenne for late breakfast/early lunch that worked out to a bit over 37 mpg... My last fueling was 44 mpg... and I cheated a bit on stuffing fuel in :-) trying to keep it honest... so the actual was a mite higher.

Now, don't think I'm puttin' 'round at 35 miles an hour neither, working to squeeze out some miles. I'm fairly certain that's almost impossible on any Raider... I just don't know anyone that has that much self control! :o) ... and yesterday...  I was a baaaaad cowboy...

Rolled out of the south side of a lil' town south of here, on my way to my 'day' job... twisted the throttle back up to the 65 mph road speed between towns... and then couldn't quit twisting... Uh... I was juuuuuuust a lil illegal when I untwisted that throttle! as in "XXX" ... you count the digits! :o)

Bad or not... I had a big Ol' grin on my ugly mug... I love this Motorcycle!

The point is... I'm riding this sweetheart of a Raider Motorcycle... and her performance is suh-wheet! I'm not gonna complain 'bout anything... unless it's having to actually turn in to the parking lot when I get to that dang day job... rather than... just rollin' me away!

I read on Motorcycle Philosophy the other day an opinion 'bout Motorcycles and Religion... I'd have to agree with him... on most of it... though I can say I am a 'believer' that the Boss exists... I also have to say that, that right there, is a real, personal choice...

And, I've never thought of a Motorcycle as a Shinto Shrine... kind of a sweet concept! gonna have to give that a lil' cogitatin' the next time we're splittin' the wind.

The thing is... it's awful nice to be able to "Ride to Church"... and do it for as little gas as that asphalt munchin', sweet machine drinks!

So...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
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Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
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