UberKul
Tire Assassin
Edit 11/28/18 Because I let the eblinkphoto.com domain go the photo links broke. Unfortunately not you have to view the photos separately
on my Smugmug account here. It would be just too much work to go back and change all the URLs.
The Alaska Slo-Mo Photo Tour June 21, 2014 - July 21, 2014.
Dave Higgins (Highlander) has quite the green thumb. He planted a seed in my brain and it grew into this.
March 3, 2014
Here it is a little over three months before the trip and about the only thing I’m still struggling with is how to report the ride. ADV Rider would make the most sense with it’s huge viewing numbers but this forum seems to be where I’ve made the most heartfelt connections so here it shall go. Not saying it won’t get cut/pasted and cross posted with other forums like DRRiders but this is where real time updates will go. If you can’t wait for the pictures or like me loose interest in after two sentences just go to this link
https://www.eblinkphoto.com/MotorcyclesAndOtherSports/The-Alaska-Slo-Mo-Photo
to get the raw footage. I hope to post a few phone and quality photos during the trip since only a little Nexus 7 tablet is coming along for photo transfer. The little tablet positively sucks at transferring a quantity of photos from the camera to the Smugmug online photo storage but it can be done. What the tablet does excel at is providing a tough little internet connection for updates and communications with the folks back home without the bulk of a laptop. Tracking via the Spot messenger 3 can be found here.
https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0jJIGUD9X6j1NcYP02zdns4R9Z2Ggck8S
or Spotwalla
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=9e12538246dbd5cfa
As some of you know I’m not much for wordy ride reports and tend to let the pictures speak for themselves. This report will not be an exception other than this introduction and maybe some follow up commentary after the ride. My photographic weapon of choice for this trip is a Panasonic G5 micro four thirds camera with 14-140 zoom lens, Mefoto compact tripod and Lumix LX5 point and shoot camera.
Getting ready for this long ride has been a fun exercise in micro planning and macro spending. I now have as much in the 2002 Suzuki DR 650 and gear for the ride as I spent on the bike itself. At the inception of this ride it was just going to be me, solo all the way and damn the torpedos. More of an affirmation of independence than actually wanting to be alone. Practically speaking, so few candidates would normally be able to get that much time off according to my schedule I never even asked. If I did ask it was the usual “like to but can’t” I had become used to until I came to Don Wilke my auto mechanic friend. Leaning over a fender pestering him about something or other I mentioned this ride and in a moment of weakness threw out the offer to come along. I write weakness only because Don and I hadn't really known each other that well or even ridden together much. I knew him by reputation and one FODS trip to Death Valley. I knew he was a real deal motorcyclist with more miles and years that I but most importantly a light hearted happy-go-lucky attitude towards traveling. Riding for ridings sake and not wanting to influence the course of the ride as much as be sucked up in wake of the DR and have a great time exploring. So the I became a we, the solo journey became a duo and after a few more talks, trips and strategy meetings (beers) the team was set.
Mar 11, 2014
Took a little day ride with Don and some other guys to the snow line last weekend. The thought for that day, don’t break anything important. The thought for today, get oil change parts together to ship to Rick in Alaska. Rick and Karen are Yamaha FJR 1300 riding buddies who moved up to Alaska a few years back and now live in Anchorage. We plan to shack up at their house one night mid-trip and knock out an oil change.
Mar 12, 2014
Don bought an Original Bug Shirt for the mosquitoes on this trip and I only have a head net? Will I live to regret not getting one? These are the little things that occupy your thoughts when you have all the big stuff taken care of.
Mar 26, 2014
Now that I’m in double digits the time is flying by. Feels like when you just crest over the first large drop on a rollercoaster and the speed comes at you in an unexpected rush.
Mar 27, 2014
How can this be? Eighty-something days to go and I’m obsessing about what pocket knife I’ll need to take! Does a normal person sweat **** like this? Yeah, I’ll admit it, I’ve been on kind of a knife kick lately but this is getting ridiculous! I have my new and never used EAK Nordic W11 fixed blade that I bought for Elk hunting in Colorado a few years back as my primary knife. The CRKT Hissatsu folder I purchased for this trip and used on the Crater Lake test run was just a little too hard to keep clean for food prep and steak knife action. So the fixed blade will fill that role perfectly but leaves the carry knife position wide open. The Hissatsu is a fantastic heavy aggressive folding knife, too much for the slot. A Case 110 RogDeb gave me for my 50th (thanks again guys) is a little large and heavy as well. The few other knives I own all suffer from the Goldilocks syndrome, a little too big, too little, too hard or too soft. I think have it narrowed down to the Spyderco Delica 4 in orange . Light, great slicer, cheap, good color to find on the ground and great compact size. Yeah, that’s the ticket ...just right. Nothing at all like the old orange Spyderco Rescue fully serrated I tote in my pack regularly right? So now you see how this goes.
Apr 14, 2014
78 Days to go. Put the 15 tooth countershaft sprocket on tonight to see if I could get rid of the 50 MPH dead spot between 4th and 5th gear. Maybe get 5th to act more like an overdrive at highway speeds of 55-65 MPH? Oh yeah, 12 minutes using pack tools… BOOM!
More importantly I finally made a decision on the small pocket knife! The Spyderco Delica with green G10 handles. All you knife guys will sleep better tonight knowing that decision has finally been made.
I’m getting just a little concerned RicinSac, my FJR buddy who now lives in Anchorage, has not responded to my email about shipping him a couple oil filters. No big deal if I can’t since they are small and would not take up any room but I was just trying to avoid damaging them from lugging them a few thousand miles in the bottom of our baggage.
May 10, 2014
Took a day ride on the 15 tooth countershaft sprocket last weekend and like for this trip. Can hit 55 no problem in 4th and 5th makes for comfortable cruising at 65 MPH. Also tried out the new Gerbing Gen 4 electric vest. I’ve always thought of electrics as cheating, they are, and it feels soooo good. Broke down and bought new sprockets and chain. Ten thousand miles on the current set made me think just a little too hard if they would make the full trip or not. Putting those on along with new cush drive rubbers and tires just before the trip. I have one more off road excursion planned before taking off the knobbies and parking the bike for the final maintenance.
Ended up buying a Spyderco Dragonfly in green G10 as a pocket knife for this trip but analyzed it right off the packing list since the Leatherman Skeletool can fill that roll and stays in the Camelbak anyway.
Rick (Ricinsac) and I have been playing a vicious game of phone-tag but I did get his mailing address so the oil filters can be mailed next week. Almost seems silly only to ship two filters but I can’t think of anything else to stick in the box.
Started laying out items on the spare bed today. I think Lithium AAA batteries are about the only thing left to buy. Christy will be happy about that, I think she is ready to take a blowtorch to my wallet while it’s still in my pants.
May 14, 2014
Picked up my new trifocal sunglasses yesterday. Yes trifocal, need to read the dash and GPS not just the restaurant menu or street signs now days. Embrace the decrepitness. Also picked up some motion sickness medicine for the long ferry ride or possible helicopter ride to a glacier. If you have ever been on a boat with me you’d know why. Taking one last day ride on the DR this Saturday to Calaveras Dome below Salt Springs Reservoir. After that the thing goes on the stand for the final transformation to distance thumper. 38 days, but who’s counting.
May 15, 2015
Bought 80 minutes of Canadian cellular from AT&T for $30.00.
May 21, 2014
Dropped the bike on the left side last Saturday and put a good little dent/gouge in the magnesium ignition cover on that Calaveras Dome ride. Time to get that bit right and prevent it from happening again with an ignition guard.
Serviced the bike to include swapping out the tires, tubes and cush drive rubbers. New chain and sprockets as well make the drive train new, fresh and mostly worry free. These extra heavy duty tubes and Heidenau tires needed a lot of weight to balance, 2.5 front and 3.5 ounces rear. Last thing to do is attach the ignition cover protector when it arrives in a couple days. Having dinner with Don and his wife this weekend to go over last minute stuff and talk about how the wives can track us on the trip.
Just requested a Canadian proof of insurance card from Geico. They said I didn’t need it but gave me one just in case.
May 23, 2014
Finally touched base with Rick (Rikinsac) who confirmed the roads and sights planned were good and put a little fear in me regarding bears. Not much I can do other than be smart don’t take my place on the food chain too lightly. The ignition cover came in and is installed. Staring at the bike isn’t going to make it more ready or departure time come sooner. Staring at the bed covered with supplies is a little more productive, nothing new going in the pile but a few things coming off. My mantra, if it won’t fit in the bags it doesn’t need to go and light is right. My buddy Don’s theory of pack it if you might need it is a little different placing comfort over size. Somewhere right down the middle is probably perfect but if we all thought alike it would be a very boring world.
June 2, 2014
The 2014 Gathering of the Clans meetup happened this weekend in Sonora California organized by Richard (Fairlaner). Good times all around with the exception of a little mishap with Steve (Bluestreek) and Doug (Bugnatr) at the end of Saturdays ride. Reminded me that riding motorbikes is all about the degree of risk you are willing to take. Mine inadvertently jumped into the red for a second last weekend and pegged out for my buddies. Riding hard is fun but riding and finishing is better. If I write this down that thought might last until the next time I get on a bike, but I doubt it.
June 4, 2014
Don mentioned bringing a flare gun for bears and if I could research it he would buy and bring it. Keep in mind I wasn’t even intending on bringing bear spray so the idea sounded kind of paranoid t o me but a google search showed he wasn’t the first to consider this. Long story short, it sounds like it is legal in Canada but mostly impractical for bears and could slow you down at the border crossing. My favorite comment was “If there's one thing worse than being ripped apart by a grizzly bear, it's being rippled apart by an on fire grizzly bear”. Waiting to hear back if he is hitting the buy now button on this or not.
June 6, 2014
I’ve been sleeping on our new pillow top bed with fancy pillows for the last week and it kinda has me second guessing sleeping on the ground for the next month?
June 7, 2014
Put mostly everything on the bed that is going on the trip. Man that is a lot of crap! It does fit inside the bags though and weighs the same as the pre-run we did to Oregon.
on my Smugmug account here. It would be just too much work to go back and change all the URLs.
The Alaska Slo-Mo Photo Tour June 21, 2014 - July 21, 2014.
Dave Higgins (Highlander) has quite the green thumb. He planted a seed in my brain and it grew into this.
March 3, 2014
Here it is a little over three months before the trip and about the only thing I’m still struggling with is how to report the ride. ADV Rider would make the most sense with it’s huge viewing numbers but this forum seems to be where I’ve made the most heartfelt connections so here it shall go. Not saying it won’t get cut/pasted and cross posted with other forums like DRRiders but this is where real time updates will go. If you can’t wait for the pictures or like me loose interest in after two sentences just go to this link
https://www.eblinkphoto.com/MotorcyclesAndOtherSports/The-Alaska-Slo-Mo-Photo
to get the raw footage. I hope to post a few phone and quality photos during the trip since only a little Nexus 7 tablet is coming along for photo transfer. The little tablet positively sucks at transferring a quantity of photos from the camera to the Smugmug online photo storage but it can be done. What the tablet does excel at is providing a tough little internet connection for updates and communications with the folks back home without the bulk of a laptop. Tracking via the Spot messenger 3 can be found here.
https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0jJIGUD9X6j1NcYP02zdns4R9Z2Ggck8S
or Spotwalla
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=9e12538246dbd5cfa
As some of you know I’m not much for wordy ride reports and tend to let the pictures speak for themselves. This report will not be an exception other than this introduction and maybe some follow up commentary after the ride. My photographic weapon of choice for this trip is a Panasonic G5 micro four thirds camera with 14-140 zoom lens, Mefoto compact tripod and Lumix LX5 point and shoot camera.
Getting ready for this long ride has been a fun exercise in micro planning and macro spending. I now have as much in the 2002 Suzuki DR 650 and gear for the ride as I spent on the bike itself. At the inception of this ride it was just going to be me, solo all the way and damn the torpedos. More of an affirmation of independence than actually wanting to be alone. Practically speaking, so few candidates would normally be able to get that much time off according to my schedule I never even asked. If I did ask it was the usual “like to but can’t” I had become used to until I came to Don Wilke my auto mechanic friend. Leaning over a fender pestering him about something or other I mentioned this ride and in a moment of weakness threw out the offer to come along. I write weakness only because Don and I hadn't really known each other that well or even ridden together much. I knew him by reputation and one FODS trip to Death Valley. I knew he was a real deal motorcyclist with more miles and years that I but most importantly a light hearted happy-go-lucky attitude towards traveling. Riding for ridings sake and not wanting to influence the course of the ride as much as be sucked up in wake of the DR and have a great time exploring. So the I became a we, the solo journey became a duo and after a few more talks, trips and strategy meetings (beers) the team was set.
Mar 11, 2014
Took a little day ride with Don and some other guys to the snow line last weekend. The thought for that day, don’t break anything important. The thought for today, get oil change parts together to ship to Rick in Alaska. Rick and Karen are Yamaha FJR 1300 riding buddies who moved up to Alaska a few years back and now live in Anchorage. We plan to shack up at their house one night mid-trip and knock out an oil change.
Mar 12, 2014
Don bought an Original Bug Shirt for the mosquitoes on this trip and I only have a head net? Will I live to regret not getting one? These are the little things that occupy your thoughts when you have all the big stuff taken care of.
Mar 26, 2014
Now that I’m in double digits the time is flying by. Feels like when you just crest over the first large drop on a rollercoaster and the speed comes at you in an unexpected rush.
Mar 27, 2014
How can this be? Eighty-something days to go and I’m obsessing about what pocket knife I’ll need to take! Does a normal person sweat **** like this? Yeah, I’ll admit it, I’ve been on kind of a knife kick lately but this is getting ridiculous! I have my new and never used EAK Nordic W11 fixed blade that I bought for Elk hunting in Colorado a few years back as my primary knife. The CRKT Hissatsu folder I purchased for this trip and used on the Crater Lake test run was just a little too hard to keep clean for food prep and steak knife action. So the fixed blade will fill that role perfectly but leaves the carry knife position wide open. The Hissatsu is a fantastic heavy aggressive folding knife, too much for the slot. A Case 110 RogDeb gave me for my 50th (thanks again guys) is a little large and heavy as well. The few other knives I own all suffer from the Goldilocks syndrome, a little too big, too little, too hard or too soft. I think have it narrowed down to the Spyderco Delica 4 in orange . Light, great slicer, cheap, good color to find on the ground and great compact size. Yeah, that’s the ticket ...just right. Nothing at all like the old orange Spyderco Rescue fully serrated I tote in my pack regularly right? So now you see how this goes.
Apr 14, 2014
78 Days to go. Put the 15 tooth countershaft sprocket on tonight to see if I could get rid of the 50 MPH dead spot between 4th and 5th gear. Maybe get 5th to act more like an overdrive at highway speeds of 55-65 MPH? Oh yeah, 12 minutes using pack tools… BOOM!
More importantly I finally made a decision on the small pocket knife! The Spyderco Delica with green G10 handles. All you knife guys will sleep better tonight knowing that decision has finally been made.
I’m getting just a little concerned RicinSac, my FJR buddy who now lives in Anchorage, has not responded to my email about shipping him a couple oil filters. No big deal if I can’t since they are small and would not take up any room but I was just trying to avoid damaging them from lugging them a few thousand miles in the bottom of our baggage.
May 10, 2014
Took a day ride on the 15 tooth countershaft sprocket last weekend and like for this trip. Can hit 55 no problem in 4th and 5th makes for comfortable cruising at 65 MPH. Also tried out the new Gerbing Gen 4 electric vest. I’ve always thought of electrics as cheating, they are, and it feels soooo good. Broke down and bought new sprockets and chain. Ten thousand miles on the current set made me think just a little too hard if they would make the full trip or not. Putting those on along with new cush drive rubbers and tires just before the trip. I have one more off road excursion planned before taking off the knobbies and parking the bike for the final maintenance.
Ended up buying a Spyderco Dragonfly in green G10 as a pocket knife for this trip but analyzed it right off the packing list since the Leatherman Skeletool can fill that roll and stays in the Camelbak anyway.
Rick (Ricinsac) and I have been playing a vicious game of phone-tag but I did get his mailing address so the oil filters can be mailed next week. Almost seems silly only to ship two filters but I can’t think of anything else to stick in the box.
Started laying out items on the spare bed today. I think Lithium AAA batteries are about the only thing left to buy. Christy will be happy about that, I think she is ready to take a blowtorch to my wallet while it’s still in my pants.
May 14, 2014
Picked up my new trifocal sunglasses yesterday. Yes trifocal, need to read the dash and GPS not just the restaurant menu or street signs now days. Embrace the decrepitness. Also picked up some motion sickness medicine for the long ferry ride or possible helicopter ride to a glacier. If you have ever been on a boat with me you’d know why. Taking one last day ride on the DR this Saturday to Calaveras Dome below Salt Springs Reservoir. After that the thing goes on the stand for the final transformation to distance thumper. 38 days, but who’s counting.
May 15, 2015
Bought 80 minutes of Canadian cellular from AT&T for $30.00.
May 21, 2014
Dropped the bike on the left side last Saturday and put a good little dent/gouge in the magnesium ignition cover on that Calaveras Dome ride. Time to get that bit right and prevent it from happening again with an ignition guard.
Serviced the bike to include swapping out the tires, tubes and cush drive rubbers. New chain and sprockets as well make the drive train new, fresh and mostly worry free. These extra heavy duty tubes and Heidenau tires needed a lot of weight to balance, 2.5 front and 3.5 ounces rear. Last thing to do is attach the ignition cover protector when it arrives in a couple days. Having dinner with Don and his wife this weekend to go over last minute stuff and talk about how the wives can track us on the trip.
Just requested a Canadian proof of insurance card from Geico. They said I didn’t need it but gave me one just in case.
May 23, 2014
Finally touched base with Rick (Rikinsac) who confirmed the roads and sights planned were good and put a little fear in me regarding bears. Not much I can do other than be smart don’t take my place on the food chain too lightly. The ignition cover came in and is installed. Staring at the bike isn’t going to make it more ready or departure time come sooner. Staring at the bed covered with supplies is a little more productive, nothing new going in the pile but a few things coming off. My mantra, if it won’t fit in the bags it doesn’t need to go and light is right. My buddy Don’s theory of pack it if you might need it is a little different placing comfort over size. Somewhere right down the middle is probably perfect but if we all thought alike it would be a very boring world.
June 2, 2014
The 2014 Gathering of the Clans meetup happened this weekend in Sonora California organized by Richard (Fairlaner). Good times all around with the exception of a little mishap with Steve (Bluestreek) and Doug (Bugnatr) at the end of Saturdays ride. Reminded me that riding motorbikes is all about the degree of risk you are willing to take. Mine inadvertently jumped into the red for a second last weekend and pegged out for my buddies. Riding hard is fun but riding and finishing is better. If I write this down that thought might last until the next time I get on a bike, but I doubt it.
June 4, 2014
Don mentioned bringing a flare gun for bears and if I could research it he would buy and bring it. Keep in mind I wasn’t even intending on bringing bear spray so the idea sounded kind of paranoid t o me but a google search showed he wasn’t the first to consider this. Long story short, it sounds like it is legal in Canada but mostly impractical for bears and could slow you down at the border crossing. My favorite comment was “If there's one thing worse than being ripped apart by a grizzly bear, it's being rippled apart by an on fire grizzly bear”. Waiting to hear back if he is hitting the buy now button on this or not.
June 6, 2014
I’ve been sleeping on our new pillow top bed with fancy pillows for the last week and it kinda has me second guessing sleeping on the ground for the next month?
June 7, 2014
Put mostly everything on the bed that is going on the trip. Man that is a lot of crap! It does fit inside the bags though and weighs the same as the pre-run we did to Oregon.
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