draco_1967

I was finally able to go for a ride today. It wasn't a long ride (40-ish miles on the long way home from work). I noticed a big improvement. I didn't slide forward at all coming to a stop. I am probably the only one who doesn't hate the stock seat. I've done an SS1000, and several 600-900 mile days without much issue. The slope mode will make it even better for me!

I just installed the JK3D kit on mine during my lunch break. It felt good sitting on it in the garage making "vroom-vroom" noises. I look forward to giving it a little test ride soon. Installation is very easy, and took about 10 min. As others have said, it's a really clean solution, and looks almost like factory.

Yeah, they need some kind of stiffener around the cuff, which the fancier brands have. I wonder if the OBR stuff is meant more for enduro bikes that wont be on the highway much.

I have a set of Warm n Safe / Firstgear heated gloves. They are 3m thinsulate, so decently warm on their own. The heated element is awesome. They are waterproof, and not too bulky. The best solution for staying warm and not having bulky gloves is a set of Hippo Hands (or similar) with heated grips. You can wear summer weight gloves and still be toasty in cold temperatures. The down side is they look dorky. How cold are the temperatures you want to ride in?

Yep, 141. The road had just been repaved before I rode through last week, so it was smooth! It was a little rough when I went through last year.

Yes, I discovered the same thing. At first I thought it was my helmet, but it didn't change no matter how I moved my head. On a whim, I taped over the little "V" on the adapter plate, and the whistle was gone. Good luck in your search!

PM sent!

Although the second night was much colder at ~9k feet, I slept toasty warm in my bear burrito. I was up early, but took my time cleaning up camp before hitting the road. I didn't mind waiting a little for the sun to peak over those massive mountains. I hit the road about 8:30, and rolled into Silverton. Well, I rolled by Silverton. I've been in the town, and I didn't feel the need to go through this day. I did stop for a few pictures. The mountains and trees were ablaze in the morning light! I wanted to stop at every little pull-out and overlook on the road, but I knew I had a lot of miles to cover to get home. 580 miles to get home! Continuing south on 550 brought me to Durango. I rode by a mural on the wall of a laundromat, and decided I needed a pic! The first half of the way home was the least direct, but most fun. I headed West toward Dolores, then Northeast toward Ophir and Telluride to complete the "San Juan Skyway" scenic byway. The road up to Telluride is almost as amazing as Million Dollar. Then I headed Northwest again toward Naurita. There is a sublime road between Nuarita and Gateway that wind its way beside the Dolores River through the canyon carved by the river over a few millennia. The canyon walls are beautiful red rock, and the valley floor is lush and green. The road slowly descends in altitude toward the desert floor. This was my 3rd time through this road, and I have never once stopped for pictures! Smooth pavement, sweeping corners, and long sight lines makes me want to just flow through that gorge like the river itself. I just got into a rhythm and kept on rolling. If you are out this way, it is a must-ride road. Here is a shot from Google Street View: From Gateway, I turned Northeast again toward Grand Junction. Then the miserable 4-hour slog along the highway to get home. It was worth it though! I want to do this trip (or something similar) every year around this time. One of these days, I need to get the Dirt Ninja out here and ride some of the passes that crisscross the mountains between the mining towns. Summary Beautiful roads Lame highways Perfect temperatures 580 miles ~1500 total trip miles Map Epilogue Many bugs were killed in the making of this trip

The top case is an E55, and the side cases are the Trekker Dolomiti 35L. They are large, but not super heavy. I did notice that the front end gets light when I hit speeds above 85mph. The top case is light stuff (heated liners, extra gloves, clothes. The heaver stuff is in the panniers. The bike still handled great at normal speeds, and I hardly knew they were there. I'll put the last leg of the trip up tomorrow. And I promise, no more selfies for y'all 😄

I never sleep well on my first night camping. This time was no different. I woke up early and started packing up camp. I ate some breakfast (oatmeal, jerky, and trail mix), brushed my teeth, and hit the road at about 7:30. The early bird gets the worm! As I headed further east, I encountered something interesting. There were signs indicating that a road ahead was closed, and an alternate route is needed. Fortunately, that alternate route is the one I planned on! There was some kind of run going on. The opposite lane of travel from me was coned off for the runners. It was a little bizarre riding right next to runners for several miles. Soon after, I entered the area around Rocky Mountain National Park. The road wound through a ravine with steep, rocky cliffs to one side, and steep, grassy slopes on the other. The roads meandered pleasantly through the mountain gorges. There was a fair amount of weekend traffic heading home, but not too bad. The Tracer is great at passing when the opportunities arise, and I was there to enjoy the scenery and the roads. I wound my way down to Estes Park, then further south to Idaho Springs. At one point along the route this day, I climbed to around 10k feet, and wound up on this huge, high plain. It seemed to stretch for 100 miles. The altitude hung around 9-10k feet the whole time. Eventually, I made it down to Poncha Springs to hit US-50 over Monarch Pass toward Gunnison and Montrose. From Montrose, down US-550. The stretch between Ouray and Durango is known as the "Million Dollar Highway". Million Dollar is one of the greatest roads ever. It's not great just because it is a beautiful road that winds through the mountains. No. When you get to the good stuff on that road, you are balancing the fear of falling 2k feet to your death and the breathtaking mountains towering above you at 13k feet. The steep mountains are littered with old mining structures, stunning colors of earth, and alpine forest. In late September, those trees are just beginning to change color. I'll let the pictures tell the story. Ouray Million Dollar Red Mountain: I made it to the area I wanted to camp, just outside of Silverton, at about 6:30pm. It was much busier than I anticipated on a Sunday evening. I found a decent spot and started setting up camp. One of my neighbors stopped by to say hello. He rides dual sport a lot, and lives somewhat close in Pagosa Springs. He and his wife invited me over for a dinner of home (camp?) made vegetable soup. It was delightful to eat with them and talk for a while. Summary: Western Colorado is Beautiful BIG mountains There's silver in them thar hills! 481 miles Map:

The support brackets won't fit. The passenger peg mounts (where the brackets attach) is different between the two models. The 2015-2017 part# is 2PP-F84G0-V0-00.

Those mountains out east have their own beauty about them. They may not be as grand vertically, but I love the seemingly endless choices of curvy roads that wind through them! I need to head back that way again.

Utah and Colorado provide some excellent riding, both for the quality of roads, and for the vast array of geological wonders to see! @betoney Also, make sure to avoid the now regular smoky season. That will ruin the vistas just as much as the rain! This trip started out early (it wasn't bright, as it was quite cloudy and raining lightly) on Saturday morning. I suited up, checked tire pressure, and rolled out of the garage. It is hard sometimes balancing the desire to ride good roads with the need to keep a trip to a bit of a schedule. I had about 1500 miles to ride in 3 days, so I knew I would need to ride some of the boring roads too. I-80 just east of Salt Lake goes through Parley's Canyon, which is full of high-speed sweeping turns. It's also full of traffic most times. Early Saturday morning is not one of those times, but the rain made me keep my pace pretty sedate. Then I headed toward Kamas and Wolf Creek Pass, which is one of my favorite roads in this area. Again, things were wet, so I took it easy. Next came the long slog on 40 between Duchesne, UT and Dinosaur, CO. I have ridden this section several times on my way out toward the Rockies. Thank goodness for cruise control! I pointed toward Steamboat Springs for a couple of potential photo tags for the 2021 Mileage Mania rally. Sadly, I got skunked on the one I was really after: a picture of a road sign that shows both miles and kilometers. Google Street View showed the signs were there, but apparently that view is outdated. The signs were gone 😪 Here is what I did get. The rally is to support Freedom Service Dogs, and the bonus tags always have an animal or military/veteran theme. Anyone know of a place with mile/km signage that isn't across one of the borders? My passport expired, and it won't be renewed before the rally ends in October... I continued on my way East. The roads became more interesting as I ventured into parts of the Rockies that I hadn't seen before. I didn't take a ton of pictures on this first day. I guess I was just in the mode of getting as far as I could on this first day, so I could enjoy the even more interesting roads over the two days. There were plenty of campgrounds, but also plenty of people out and about. I wasn't too surprised, but I was hoping people would be less likely to swarm the mountains now that school had started. I found a campground with a few open spots. I set up my hammock, and started cooking dinner. After dinner, I took a stroll along the river by camp. I have needed this outdoor therapy for a while! My wife says I don't take enough pictures of myself on these trips, so here is me. Hello Internet Strangers! I still need to pull a few pictures off of my camera and edit them. I'll add those later. Summary: Rain Heated gear is da bomb 468 miles (753km) No metric signs A map:

I am thinking of making this a late-September tradition. Those Rocky Mountains are beautiful at any time, but add in the blaze yellow of Aspen leaves turning, a pinch of red here and there, and perfectly pleasant temperatures, and I'm in heaven! I have been struggling getting my riding buddies to commit to any solid ride plans this summer. I have a 6-month-old, which doesn't help either (but she's worth it). Fortunately, my wife is amazing. She supports me in my two-wheeled addiction, and is willing to give me some time for moto-therapy. I decided to just put something on the calendar and go. I decided to go see a few things that I haven't seen before in the Rocky Mountain NP area (couldn't get into the park with their timed permit system), then head south and west toward Gunnison and then the San Juan Skyway. This would be a fairly fast-paced 3 day excursion. I just fitted my Givi panniers, so I was excited to see how they did (they did great up to about 90mph, then the front end gets a little light and unstable...the owner's manual does say not to use both panniers and a top case.). I packed up my gear and was ready to head out Saturday morning! Preview: More to come...

Are you using the stock, rubber valve stems? FOBO recommends a metal valve stem because the added weight can cause rubber stems to flex and crack.

Congrats! Having two bikes in the garage is great. When you have one bike torn apart for maintenance, you can still go out and ride while you wait for parts, step away in frustration, etc. I really like the CP2 engine. I test rode an XSR700 a couple of years ago, and I liked the character of the engine. The T7 is a great choice.

Yes, there are LEDs in there. This box came with an electronic lock release and LED brake light, but I found both to be quite flaky. The latch release would work about 5% of the time, and the LED connections involved some really weak connections. Every few months I would have to go in and reconnect the tiny wires inside. Once I moved the trunk to the Tracer, I didn't even bother hooking up the power to the box. Admore has some better quality LEDs for Givi boxes that include running, brake, and turn signals.

I rode a Pan America S this morning, and I want one! It might be a couple of years, but I will have one in my garage. That 1250 is a nice engine, and the idea of no valve checks is appealing. The features are really nice. Hopefully they add some other means of navigation (Android Auto or Apple Carplay) because I have heard nothing good about Harley's nav system.

Thanks! It's 3M vinyl that I did. Looks good from 5' away 😀 They are 36L, and are $584 for the set. They measure 39" wide. I'm running Barkbusters, which are a little narrower than the stock guards. I'll mostly use them for touring, so I'm not too concerned. I spent too much time waffling between FJR cases, Givi V37s, Shad, and these. I wound up scoring a set of Givi PLR racks for a good price, so that meant these boxes. I like them so far. I never loved the FJR bags when I had my FJR, so they were bottom of my list.

Got my new Dolomitis mounted up! They look good, and they came with a spare cylinder so the top case uses the same key. The rear is now 3" wider than the bars, but I probably won't use then often for around town or commuting.

I bought a relatively cheap rugged phone (Oukitel WP8 Pro). Sadly, I didn't look closely enough at the specs, and it has a micro USB port, instead of USB-C. There are lots of options for that type of phone. I am probably going to upgrade to one with wireless charging soon. I like having my actual phone separate from the phone mounted on the bike. iPhones are notorious for breaking cameras when mounted to a bike too, so that's another reason to go the Android route.

It's part of the FOBO app. I am not sure if it is available on the iOS version. On Android, you have to go into the app settings to turn it on, and it requires permissions to be able to float on top of other apps.

I have a dedicated nav phone that runs my GPS and music, and connects to my FOBO TPMS. I have it set so the app starts up when I connect my Cardo to the phone. There is even a little widget that will float over my map to display the pressure.

That is a bit of a bummer. I knew Canada had some different rules about rebuilding bikes, but I didn't realize it was that tough. That takes the value right out of a bike like mine. The T7 seems like a great option though. Very similar performance-wise to what I've built. Better suspension setup though, and plenty of available farkles that don't need to be fabricated. They seem to be getting less available (DL1000 wheels at least). They don't pop up on fleabay often, and usually go for around $400. The DRZ forks are in a set of Versys 650 triples, so they are set a little wider than the stock DRZ. The Vstrom spacers fit perfectly, and all I needed was to fab an offset bracket for the brake caliper. The axle is a swing-arm bolt from the Ninja (had a spare from switching swing arms), which is 20mm diameter. I can't take 100% credit for my bike. A lot of inspiration by a gent on ADVrider who has built 6 or 7 of these bikes now. Here is my build thread: https://advrider.com/f/threads/yet-another-budget-ninja-mutant-build.1364714/

I picked up a set of used pegs off of a Super Tenere. They required some modification to fit the Tracer. The pivot point was a couple mm wider than the Tracer peg mount, so a little grinding made them fit. They were about $50 on fleabay, and I am very happy with them. It's unfortunate that the pegs that fit the MT-09/Tracer are no longer available.