I survived the 2011 Roaming Rally !!!

Lots of details about this project here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=594395

and here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=636024


But essentially, about 60 riders showed up on a very wet Friday morning for a 3-day ride from Richmond to Bancroft. In a car, this would normally be a 3.5 hour drive on the highway, but following trails through the woods, sand and gravel fire roads, and tracks along major power lines, it's more like two full days. The 3rd day was to get home.

Here the riders met in the pouring rain, at the hockey arena in Richmond, Ontario

Stopped for gas and lunch at the popular Munford's Restaurant,

 at the corner of Hwy 508 and Hwy 511 in Calabogie.

My luggage setup: a Pelican 1500 bolted to a Pat Walsh luggage

rack with a dry bag bungee tied to the top, tent across the seat.

The Wolfman racks weren't actually being used.

Big Phil rode his F800GS all the way from Boston to join the party.

A really nice guy and funny as hell.

Other riders stopped for lunch. Quite a variety of bikes.

tents set up at Black Donald campground, 1/2 hour beyond Calabogie

Stephen slept in his comfy Henessey Hammock.

Gotta say I was quite impressed with this thing.

The shitty shitter

Dave unpacking his stuff.

The rain actually stopped for a short time but it wasn't sunny.

Stephen is checking out the trees, or maybe he's taking a piss.

Three KLR's and a DR/RMZ franken-bike.

I have no clue why people nailed shoes to a tree.

Nonetheless, we saw several trees just like this.

some very fun dirt roads

Camping at Silent Lake Park, 30 minutes beyond Bancroft

Silent Lake Yurt: three double sized bunk beds, a wood stove, plus a propane BBQ.

$90 per night is a little steep though.

This guy rode all the way from Cambridge, Massacheussetts on a 25 year

old XL350. He rode the whole weekend, then his engine blew up just minutes

after his departure for home on Sunday morning. Fortunately he landed a ride

in a truck/trailer so he wasn't stuck for long.

Stephen and I stopped for coffee at the Neat Cafe in Burnstown on the way home.

Roaming Rally TCAT trail ride

Boy, am I looking forward to the last weekend of May. Big ride planned. Essentially, some local guys are heading up a giant project to map out a dual-sport riding trail that will cross Canada from coast-to-coast without using any paved roads. The project is called the Trans-Canada Adventure Trail, or TCAT. On the weekend of May 27-29, a large group (60 dual sport bikes) will ride the section from Richmond to Bancroft. This would normally be a 3 1/2 hour drive by car on the highway, but taking trails through the woods, gravel and logging roads, we will ride the entire weekend. We'll be camping Friday and Saturday nights, and people will head home on Sunday.

For this awesome 3-day weekend of riding, there's is much prep work to be done.

A bunch of stuff is on order for the bike: Wolfman side racks -- onto which I will mount my indesctructible and waterproof Pelican 1430 top-loading cases. I've recently installed a Pat Walsh rear luggage rack for mounting either my Givi E37 top case, or possibly the Pelican 1450 case (not sure yet).

Pelican 1430 cases.

I also bought a new tent: an Alps Mountaineering Neptune 2 from REI.com. It was being sold in their Outlet Store, marked down 60% because it's been discontinued. Sleeps 2, floor space is 90" x 60" (37 sq. ft.), 46" high, weighs 6 lbs.  It was normally priced at $199 but I got it for just $89. I also bought the matching footprint ground sheet at 50% off, for just $12. The fly is not shown in this photo, but it covers the entire tent. It seems to have very positive reviews for a $200 tent.

Alps Mountaineering Neptune 2

And today was the annual Mountain Equipment Co-op Gear Swap. There are always plenty of deals to be had for those who go early... so I did... and I scored a major bargain on a sleeping bag. Well, actually, it's considered an overbag. It is meant to provide extra warmth for sleeping bags that are not rated for really cold temps. It was brand new. They guy selling it had purchased it for use on a particular camping trip but it apparently never got cold enough, so he never used it. And I got it for just $40. He told me he paid well over $100, and I just saw on the MEC website that the long version (this guy was 6' 6" tall) retails for $148. It's super compact, and weighs only a little under 900 grams (2 lbs).

MEC Emperor Penguin Windstopper Overbag

"Cut wide to fit over modern mummies, and adds 5 to 10°C to the bag's rating. It provides an extra layer of insulation against the cold, and more importantly, the WINDSTOPPER® shell protects the bag from external moisture. The overbag also reduces built-up condensation from frost and the sleeper's own perspiration. The result is your sleeping bag's insulation stays drier and more effective."

I've got a brand new Michelin T63 rear tire with a new heavy duty tube mounted on my spare rear rim. And my new front tire should be here in a few days.

Also picked up 2 spare lithium-ion batteries for my GoPro 960 camera. $25 each from Best Buy. So now I have a total of 3 batteries. I've got two 8GB and a 16GB memory cards, but I'm planning to get a 32GB card later this week.

 

And while in New Zealand last month, I picked up this awesome backpacker's stove from Kathmandu. It's ultra compact and lightweight. Made of titanium, it burns standard propane/butane blend canisters. It, too was 50% off, costing me just under $50 CDN.

While at MEC today, I grabbed some storm-proof matches and a waterproof match case, plus a glow-in-the-dark Nalgene water bottle (1 Litre), Musquol insect repellent, and a few other little doo-dads. 

This rally ride / camping trip is still 2 weeks away but I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather will be dry.

New EBC front brake pads

Feeling somewhat disappointed with the brakes on the new RMZ front end, I've been considering an oversized brake rotor kit. The RMZ wheel has a slightly smaller rotor than the original DR rotor, which translates to less stopping power. But before spending $250 for a 320mm big brake kit, I thought a new set of brake pads would be worth a try. The pads that were on there seem to have lots of material left on them but the material looks like shit... cracked bits, dirt and grime, rough at the edges.  I took them off and cleaned them thoroughly, and sanded them down a bit with some 220 grit sandpaper. I even sanded the rotor. Didn't help much.

So, a quick call to a couple of local shops. Other than OEM, they only seem to sell EBC brand pads, by far the most popular. But the local shops want $50 plus taxes. Suzuki dealer wanted $75 for OEM pads. Screw that. Ten minutes of seaching on eBay found lots of vendors selling the same EBC pads for $30-$40.  So, I bought some from peakmoto-powersports and they arrived just 6 days later. Not bad at all, as none of the local shops had them in stock anyway.

$37 shipped to my door.

Gotta love eBay for its great selection,

competitive pricing, and convenience.

So today I pulled the caliper off, removed the old pads. I gave the caliper a very thorough scrubbing with brake cleaner and a very hard bristled brush. Re-greased the pins, installed the new pads and went for a 20-minute test ride around the city. By the time I made made it through 3 or 4 intersections, I could feel how much better these new pads were. And by the time I finished my ride -- with lots of stop-and-go riding in traffic -- it felt much like the old DR front brake setup used to. Now I'm happy. Even happier that I didn't spend a lot.

The old pads. Still plenty of material,

but they're in pretty rough shape.

These were cleaned and sanded a few days ago.

Incidentally, EBC lists the same part number for use on both the '96 and new DR650 and the '07-'08 RMZ 250.  Good to know that DR brake pads will fit an RMZ and vice versa (I already knew the caliper was the same, so I figured the pads would also be identical. However, Suzuki's parts fiche lists different part numbers for the two bikes, but I expect it's because they are different compound materials because the RMZ is made for hig performance offroad use only, while the DR brakes are probably made to last longer and see use in all types of riding conditions (more of a general purpose pad).

LED turn signals relocated

I relocated my Watsen Design's LED turn signals. I bought these a couple of years ago for my SV650. They are actually made to fit the turn signal slots of the front fairing on a V-Strom, but they have a pretty generic mounting system, they can be adapted to fit almost anything. They were quite expensive but I do like the fact they are made with top quality craftsmanship, and they're small and extremely bright.

I decided to relocate them because I recently swapped my OEM luggage rack for a Pat Walsh Design rack. Rather than drill holes in the new rack I tried to come up with a more creative mounting solution that would be practical. This is what I ended up with:

Drill a couple of small pilot holes.

Enlarge the pilot holes and drill 2 more small ones for the lock pins.

Use a glue gun to seal the wiring.

Cover it all up with heat shrink tubing for added protection.

Right side installed.

Both installed. Clean and out of the way.

While these suckers may be small, they are extremely

bright... insanely bright.  They are easily visible

on a sunny afternoon.

Here's the link to a previous blog entry which shows how they were mounted with the OEM luggage rack

http://www.fy-yff.com/2010/03/led-lighting.html