Filght to Grand Marais and Back

Okay, so this posting isn't motorcycle related.  My bike is in the shop, getting some much needed maintenance that I've been putting off since the Arkansas trip.  The downside of a bike with 94,000 miles on it is that the money you saved by buying used is doled out in repairs, the death-of-a-thousand cuts thing.  And my mechanic has the civilian version of my bike, with only 19,000 miles on it, which he is restoring (that's kind of his gig).  But no, for now I'm sticking with Pepper, and she's going to get everything she needs to be road worthy.

So this week, my friend Diane and I flew up to Grand Marais MN - a beautiful little town on Lake Superior.  I flew the Gobosh, and the weather was beautiful, except for strong gusty winds.  I usually try to avoid those, and the timing of the trip north went OK, but the trip back, well, strong gusty winds which were across the runway made for exciting take offs and landings.  I was thinking of working my way up to handling that kind of wind by going with an instructor on a windy day, but it turns out it was me and a first time passenger.  What does a passenger think when the pilot says "fuck!" in the middle of a takeoff?  Diane handled it pretty well, but I'm sure I had her a little worried.  Anyway, it was fun and we made it OK.

So it's like motorcycle riding, in a way.  You need to put yourself into situations where you learn to react.  I spend a lot of time planning flights to avoid weather I'm not comfortable with, but the only way to get better is to try it and survive.  And with gusty winds, you set up for takeoff, and then when the wind changes and the plane swerves or dips you react - hopefully the right way.  Like what you do when a deer jumps on the road in front of the bike, or a cage driver cuts in front of you.  You need to train your reactions, and hope that training works the first few times, and then you have good instincts.

Anyway, I'll put up some pictures later - Grand Marais is beautiful, and Diane took some pics of the flight.

VBecky

The Porcupine of Damocles

Okay, so I'm not on the motorcycle, and not in the airplane.  We're hiking along the Anvil trail in the Schoodic portion of Acadia National Park.  The kids are ahead, and my son notices, perched right over the trail, a porcupine.  He stops my daughter from going under, then takes these videos.  At the end, notice that we take another path.

porcupine over the trail

As you can see at the end, we went another way....

My Bike #3, Yamaha Virago, xv750, review

This is my beloved 1995 Yamaha Virago xv750. My first "real" bike and the one I put the most miles on. (first one in line).

I bought it used with about 20,000 miles on it, and I have close to 40,000 miles on it now, and I've never been able to part with it.

I've ridden 400 miles in a day on this bike. It's been to Sturgis - this picture is taken in the Black Hills in Spearfish Canyon. It's been to the Keewenaw Peninsula in Michigan and back.

This bike is considered a cruiser. It has the ubiquitous V-twin air cooled engine, and cruiser type styling. But the frame is very similar to the Yamaha Vmax - which is a high performance bike, and as a result, this bike corners really well. It's not super spunky - the 750 cc V-twin is good away from a stop light, but passing takes patience and good timing. Top speed for me was about 100 mph - I was there during a prolonged pass - and I don't think it had much left. I got about 45 - 50 mpg, and with the 3.5 gallon tank I could make about 160 miles before needing to refill. I bought it because I hoped it would take my partner and me to Sturgis. We went, but she drove a car. Just as well, it was a long, grueling trip. (I'll probably post about that down the road).

Anyways,

I became a biker on this bike. I rode it enough that I could turn it on a dime in the parking lot, do a 180 on a country lane, and do the "keep up or go home" rides with the club. I learned to corner fast, wasn't afraid to scrape the foot pegs on a tight turn, and I trusted this bike completely. It never left me standing, though it tried hard once.

The color was referred to in the Yamaha manual as "cute green". The guy I bought it from called it "dinner mint green". It's distinctive and looks nice even after 14 years on the road.

The high points of this bike:

Simple and durable - I put 20,000 miles on this bike and it never left me standing, and I could do all the routine maintenance myself. I even did my own valve adjustment. The gas tank fed by gravity into the carburetors, and so even when the stator went belly up on a ride, the engine was fed with gas and I could make it home.

Easy to maneuver - In a parking lot or on a twisty road, this bike was very well behaved. I took the MSF experienced rider class, and aced it on this bike. Even though I had to be creative with the throttle to keep up, I could hang in with the top club riders because it cornered so well. The brakes were effective, and not that easy to lock up, so "panic" stops were safe. My feet were almost under the body, which makes a bike feel good in corners to me.

The issues I had with it:

Electrical - as happened on my other Virago, a major electrical component failed before 50,000 miles. This one it was the Stator, and I made it home only because the gas was fed by gravity. I like gravity feed - if gravity fails you got a whole lot of other problems! The stator hasn't been fixed yet - I spent all last winter and this summer deciding if I had enough gumption to take apart the oil wetted parts of the bike (transmission, crankcase, etc.) It also melted the stock headlight plug, which was hard to replace.

Overheating - While the V-twin is offset, with the rear cylinder out of line with the front cylinder for cooling, this bike did overheat on me a couple of times. Symptoms were a clicking from the cylinder heads (probably valves), and the shifter stopped working for the low gears. I eventually fixed this by using Amsoil 20W50 synthetic motor oil, which seemed to hang in there even when the engine got really hot.

Starting on the sidestand - two things happened with this bike when it was started on the sidestand. First one is that the "low oil" light came on - the sender was on the other side of the bike from the sidestand. Second, after I had it for a couple of years, one of the carburetor floats would get stuck, and gas would dribble continuously into the carburetor and into the air filter. After riding with the throttle open for a while this would correct itself, but it was annoying. I just took to not starting it until I was on it.

It's a pretty basic bike, and I rode it "naked" for a while, but eventually I got a small windscreen for it and that made a huge difference in comfort. I loaded it up with saddle bags and a tank bag, and could take long trips with it. This is the bike that gave me the name "Virago Becky" and I think I'll always be called that in the club.

I went on to more comfortable bikes, but I just can't let this one go yet. A good backup bike and nice for riding around town.

Update - it's 2010 and I still have this bike.  I got Dr. Al to replace the stator, and now the electrical system is working well.  A note on the windshield - I couldn't find the mounting brackets that fit this bike, so I had to modify some.  Not too hard to do, and very worthwhile.  I used this bike to lead one of my club rides recently, and it performed well.  It's just not as "tight" as my BMW - part of that is the suspension and part of it is the looser throttle response of the bike versus the fuel injection of the BMW.