What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[pdedse]

I don't care if that heat is "a dry heat" or not, 111 degrees is HOT!

They should pay you hazard duty.

[Cormanus]

Agreed.

[Gone in 60]

Well, the job itself is sort of a hazard if you think about it. Still, beats a real job.

And unfortunately the dry heat thing isn't really much of a guarantee anymore.

[pdedse]

I was stymied by a closed hiway as I went looking for new-to-me forest service roads and trails...fire fighters needing to control access so they can move about unimpeded.  Oh well...I was testing out my new 3.8 gallon tank on my KLX300--stock is only 2 gallons.  Feels so good to not have to take a rotopax extra gallon of gas, nor even think about "how far do I dare ride into the forest?"

With new tank...all the original plastics fit nicely


Discovered some new camp-sites for the future


Sometimes you just accept defeat


Trail fun


70 miles in the forest and I'm wiped out.

[Gone in 60]

Dang, those are some tall trees. What is the range with the new tank?

[pdedse]

Dang, those are some tall trees. What is the range with the new tank?

In the campsite photo, there are two trunks from many years ago that are twice as thick as the others, which are pretty big themselves...makes me wonder if the forest used to look even taller.  I love it out there.

Nothing though, at least in my experience, compares with the redwood forests of N. California.  Jedediah Smith state park and hiway 199--put the area on your bucket list of mc riding if you've never been.  Humboldt Redwoods state park is 2.5 hours south, just amazing, "I-had-no-idea" experiences with nature.



My sis/brother-in-laws from Costa Rica visiting us from last September; CR has some big ol' trees too.  But even they were impressed with the massiveness of the redwoods.


  

The range with the new tank...I'm not totally sure.  It seems I get around low 60 mpg on the KLX, but that's normal street riding.  Off road riding that drops considerably because it's mainly speeds of 10-35 mph riding with higher revs, so it drops to around high 40s to low 50s.  With nearly 4 gallons, I estimate somewhere between 175-200 miles.  With the stock tank, around 100 miles, and with it I found myself limiting routes because of distance to next gas stop when out in the mountains.

[alprider]

today was honda-day (event)

                                           

---

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                    

[pdedse]

Alp, what a great series of fun looking photos!  Lots of great action shots.

Question regarding electric bikes: is it possible for engineers to create better lines for the big block of battery?  Every time I see a photo of one, that bottom, forward corner looks so out of place for a motorcycle:


Isn't it possible to "round the corner" so that that the line flows better front to back? Perhaps a small thing, but aesthetically that's a turn-off for me.

I asked AI to round off that corner: 


So maybe they could keep the battery square but add a curved cover to it.  Now I'd consider buying.

[alprider]

I wonder why one has to cover a battery just because one is used to not seeing it?
or
Batteries are a new technology and this results in a different design. ; up until now, batteries have been cuboid in shape.
or
Especially air-cooled engines are also completely uncovered....

well............aerodynamics could possibly be an argument.....yes...

[pdedse]

I wonder why one has to cover a battery just because one is used to not seeing it?
or
Batteries are a new technology and this results in a different design. ; up until now, batteries have been cuboid in shape.
or
Especially air-cooled engines are also completely uncovered....

well............aerodynamics could possibly be an argument.....yes...

It's just a visual thing for me...I like to see "a flow" to a bike, from front to back, as if the wind sculptured the bike.  The 90 degree angle doesn't have to be there, the corner could be rounded, providing a smoother look.  It doesn't affect anything else; except...people do talk about the "lines" of objects...for some reason a given look to something appeals to one person more than another.  

A similar thing happens to me when I see 2" thick, big square radiators on bikes.  For me they don't look right on a motorcycle, and I've consciously decided not to buy certain bikes because of them.  And it's something that can be made to "look better" (granted, a very subjective term).  For example, an air cooled KZ900 Z1 from the early 70s: the exhaust lines sweep back, no radiator--nice flowy look.


Kawasaki produces a modern "retro" Z900RS, and now it has a radiator...thick, square...and Ug!  "Ugly" in my book:
 

I can't look past the radiator--it's the very first thing I notice when I look at the bike.  

So do all radiator bikes have to have a square radiator?  Triumph came up with a much more pleasing to the eye look, although the logistics of a parralel twin provide space for a this different look.  Their T120: 


It's a thinner radiator, about 1.25" thick, and it's rectactular shape is darkened and placed between the two exhausts and follows the down tubes.  When I look at the T120 (and Triumph does this for a number of their bikes), the things I notice are the headers, the tank, the side cases--what I expect to notice.  And that radiator virtually disappears when viewed from the side: 


So at some point Triumph decided that the radiator look could be improved--it didn't have to be thick and square--the bike could be made to look to have more flow to it.  I think the result is fantastic, and I'd love to have a T-120.   

And that's my point with the squared-off look the electric bike--the harsh lines of the battery could at least be hidden.  

I suppose this is another reason why I like the CB1100, the w800, the RE650...all air cooled.