A few hundred miles or so on the road ought to do it, no? I got together with a few friends and had a great overnight trip down to Indian Beach, NC from Raleigh on Sunday and Monday. This wasn’t a very long ride, nor was it much of a trial in terms of weather, but it left me feeling much better that Triangle Cycles got Big Red back in good running order.

We all rallied for breakfast at the Hardee’s in Clayton, NC and then headed out from there. The weather was cool but the sun was shining down on us. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the shared condo in Indian Beach, NC. The promotional materials didn’t do this place justice. It was actually much nicer than the brochure had let on. The view from our spacious balcony was breathtaking.

Monday rolled around and we split up in Morehead City, NC after lunch. Most of the crew was going to press on up into Hatteras and spend an extra day. My bike still runs badly in the rain, and a major storm system was on the forecast for Tuesday. I’ve got a new air cleaner, still in the box, waiting to fix this achilles heel on my bike. But for now, better safe than sorry. I already know from experience that the open air cleaner works really badly in the wet stuff, even if the protective “sock” is put on over the filter. I also had my friend Jeff along with me on the ride home.

The bike ran like a dream. There are still some things I’d like to fix up on her farkle-wise before I take on really long runs. The Road River Trolley Bag worked out really well, but the Yamaha hard luggage has got to go. The Yamaha seat is also particularly hard on longer rides. I found myself wanting a short break around every 50-6o miles. Some highway pegs would also help to keep things rolling longer between breaks. As would a throttle assist or maybe even a throttle lock.

This was also the first long ride with the Metzler ME 880′s and I was more than pleased with their performance.

Where to next? Charleston, maybe? Or possibly West Virginia?

So much has happened since the last time I updated this blog.

Firstly, I bought a bike! Late last summer, I bought a 2006 Yamaha Road Star. I almost bought an older Harley-Davidson Softtail Heritage, but the local stealership did not want to budge on the price. The same day, I found this Road Star that was pretty much perfect for my needs. The tires were bald so I added the Metzler white walls after I bought it.

Next, I got patched in to the Degataga Motorcycle Club!

This bike had been sitting for a couple of years, and was running a bit rough. I’ve had a qualified Yamaha tech sort out the air/fuel issues, get her running in top shape. I’ve got a Kuryakyn Pro-Series Hypercharger waiting to go on there, mostly because that open air cleaner is awful in the rain, and the Hypercharger is said to be pretty good in the rain as long as you’re not running WOT.

The OEM battery was getting pretty long in tooth and wouldn’t start the bike in cold (near or below freezing) temperatures, so I replaced it with a nice AGM battery. That seems to be doing the job, though the cold weather seems to be gone now.

I’m also not fond of the factory hard luggage. I’m finding that the locks let water in to the bags, and this is a common problem on this bike. Also the mounting brackets were chromed cheaply so they are already rusting out. I expect to eBay the luggage & replace it with Easy Brackets and some leather bags. I also picked up a Road River Trolley Bag, which is pretty nice. My only nit is more with the design of the Road Star and how the passenger backrest is so low that it makes mounting any kind of sissy bar bag a challenge. So add to the wish list a taller sissy bar.

At any rate, I’m going for an overnight trip on the bike tomorrow, down to the OBX. Should be a nice shakedown run before trying anything more ambitious.

My Triumph is sold. My Magna is down for the count, didn’t even make it through the shakedown run. I’m going to do whatever I need to do to make that bike “right”.

In the meantime I have an extra car that I’m trying to sell locally. Proceeds from that are going to go to a second motorcycle that is less of a “project bike” and more of something I can just throw my leg over and ride 1,000 miles if I so desire.

If you’re planning a road trip to Deals Gap or Pisgah NF or anywhere else near Murphy, NC, you might want to check out River Cove Cabins. I’m not getting any kind of kickback for this or anything. But my group recently stayed there and it turned out to be a really good base camp for our trip to the mountains.

This is a shot of the group I rode with out to the mountains on my recent trip. What a magical time we had!

The photo was taken in front of Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah Nat’l Forest. If you’re ever even remotely near this site, you need to make a point of adding this to your itinerary.

During my road trip I found this custom bike parked near our group in the small town of Copperhill, TN. The owner of the bike was nowhere nearby so I can’t give proper credit.

Apparently he’s a fan of Motörhead, though (as am I).

visited 5 states (10%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

My Triumph is for sale, and my Magna still isn’t running right yet. But I borrowed a dear friend’s 650cc V-Star and did a bit of riding recently up into the mountains of northern Georgia, southwestern North Carolina, and southeastern Tennessee.

Once the Triumph is sold I should be able to finish the Magna build and get some miles on her. I’ve also found some cheap used luggage for her and a set of forward controls.

Death Wish II

Originally uploaded by ~Haggis~

I haven’t written much in awhile. I haven’t had much to say. The Triumph is a wonderful bike but not something I would want to take long distances after all. I could put a lot of money into fixing that, or I could start with a better foundation.

I chose the latter option.

Last week I picked up a 1985 Honda V65 Magna. The bike has been torn down to the frame & reassembled with many new parts. There are some areas that didn’t get enough attention so I’m sorting that out now. Minor stuff, really.

She wasn’t starting in the sub-freezing morning temperatures we’ve been having here so I replaced the original lead acid type battery with an AGM type battery from BatteriesPlus+ with a very high CCA value so she turns over quite easily in even 20 degree temperatures.

But the starter has issues. The starter clutch is on its way out. It can be coaxed into engaging but I don’t wish to be stranded with a dead starter, so I’m going to rebuild it.

The speedometer cable is broken. Will fix that. Also the alternator cover leaks and doesn’t have a real gasket, just RTV. So I’ve got a gasket to install.

There are cooling issues. I rode to Durham yesterday in sub-freezing temperatures and the coolant temperature gauge was warning over imminent overheating unless I rode the balls off the bike (quite a thrill with this beast, let me tell you!)

But the foundation is there. The frame on this bike is a bit more stout. With some luggage farkles added, it should be able to haul quite a bit in the way of spare parts, tools, supplies, etc for longer trips. And the engine? Well, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the old V65 Magnas, let me point out that this was the Hayabusa of the mid 1980′s. Yeah, it looks rather cruiser-ish or mildly UJM-ish, I know. But this is a muscle bike. With a more average sized rider it could turn quarter mile times under 11 seconds!

I don’t need all of that power for racing or riding like a jackass. But I’m a big dude, and when you add long haul luggage, the bike is going to be carrying over 350 pounds of rider + cargo. With the big water cooled V4 to haul me up the side of a mountain and the monster dual disc brakes up front to ease my descent, I’ll be in pretty good shape.

I ordered a Renntec Sports Rack from Newbonneville.com last week. They packed and shipped my order the same day after confirming to me that they had it in-stock. It was waiting on my front stoop when I got home yesterday, and with nothing more than a 13mm socket wrench I had it installed in under 15 minutes on my Bonneville.

I need to get some photos of it mounted on my bike. I went with the black finish instead of chrome. Chrome just isn’t my thing (I sometimes say that I’m no chromosexual).

This thing is built like a tank, though! I think it’s only certified for like 5 or 6 pounds but I’ll tell you what, I picked the back of the motorcycle up by the rack and it felt super sturdy! It anchors at six different points on the frame and they didn’t cheap out on any part of it.

There’s not a lot of surface area here, but I feel I have a very sturdy surface to strap bags to now.

I just heard back from my HR manager:

Hi Magnus,

You currently have 90.8 vacation hours available.  Plenty of time for a
motorcycle trip!  

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks!
Lisa

Great news! Looks like I’ve got two weeks to burn. I don’t think I’m going to use it all on this first trip. Maybe I’ll burn a week.

Now where to go…