Open Iris

Sorry this took so loog, but life has been busy. After Rich saved the day with his safety wire, we were off again. I was happy that the bike seemed to be fine, the Otterbox was firmly attached, and the day was still fresh. That is, until we pulled up briefly to a gas station that had many riders milling about, taking a break. the group quickly decided to move on, and did so quickly. That is, except me. I was pushing the start button, and the engine was cranking over, but nothing else, nothing that was supposed to happen, was happening. No start. From previous scans of the Canondaller.com website, I was armed with the knowledge that the spark plug on these bike would foul at the slightest provocation. I was trying to not hold the button down for mare than a few seconds at a time, fearing that the spark plug would soon be covered with a gooey mess. Just as i was about to get off of the bike, or at least look for something to lean it up against (remember that I did not have a kick stand) the bike started up. I was off. for a while.

About three miles down the road, shortly after we entered another forest road, the bike just, well it just died. Rich was at this time behind me, and stopped to offer (again) his assistance. The start button, this time, was offering no help , just a siily thing on the handlebars to push, with the hopes of something happening. Nothing this time. Just as I was about to give up hope again, and after waiting five minutes (I found a tree to lean the bike up against) she started up. After this point, every thousand feet of so the bike would start to die. I would then pull in the clutch, wait a few seconds, and then press the magic read buttons, with the engine roaring to life. This happen, over... and .. over...I was getting tired of this, and wanted to get off, but since we were on some great double tracks, I figured what the hell and kept on riding. Soon enough, we exited the trail system and arrived at another gas station. I had had enough.

After getting some gas, and buggering up one of my decals as the bike leaned up against the pump (did I mention not having a side stand???)> I decided to call it a day. T.W.O. was about 10 miles down the road, and the lunch was just a few miles the other direction. I chose to retreat, heading back to T.W.O. with Jim form Texas, who had had enough of gravel roads for the day. We made it back of (the bike only hiccupped once on the road back) and soon, we were sitting under the shade of a tree, eating some great burgers served up by the staff at T.W.O., and talking about like, bikes, and things that make us what we are.

After I had taken a nice, hot showier, I took of a look at what was ailing the Cannondale. After I removed the Front and rear side panels, and the fuel tank, found the problem, a loose negative connector at the battery. I have had this happen on a carbureted bike, and if it starts, it runs. No so with a fuel injected bike, even more so a fuel injected dirt bike.

Lessons learned:

1. Ride with the correct tires for the roads/terrain.
2. Learn a new bike before you take a big trip with it.
3. Shake down a new bike before you take a big trip with it.
4. Other riders are great to have around to help, but don't put yourself in a position that you wear out the good will.

Posted by Chris Witzgall at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Soon Rich and I met up with the rest of the group that was patiently waiting for as at the next intersection.

We found ourselves on pavement, twisting and turning downward. Did I mention that I had soft Compound motocross tires on the bike?. I sure didn't think about it like I should have been, but I had never ridden a dirt bike on the street before.

At the bottom of the hill I came out of a turn and found myself faced with one of those decisions that seems to take forever: straight or left, hard left, over the bridge. There was a old man standing in the corner, pointing left. I was hoping for straight, should have gone straight. So I started to brake. Hard. Before I even new it was happening, my rear wheel was locked, and was drifting beside me way to fast. Yep, I was going down, a low side, not too fast thanks. I skidded a few feet toward the man, or was he running away from me?

Shaken, but not stirred, I had a bit of pain in my knee, I think it hit the bike, and the shifter lever was tweaked, but other than that, no problems. Mike came around the turn as I was getting up, asked if I was ok, and we started off again. It was then that I noticed I had an audience, there were twenty or so fisher folk along the bridge. The were all staring at me, who was this man, what does he think he is doing, disturbing the fish?

Yes, there is more to come!

Posted by Chris Witzgall at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cable ties are not that strong. Coming out of a clearing, I looked over my shoulder and saw Rich giving me the "Hold" sign. I kept looking back as he got off his bike and walked the grade on the side of the road. He was looking for something, but I was not sure what! I shut the 'dale off and started to look for a tree to lean the bike against, when a glance at my bars revealed what he was looking for - my big yellow Otterbox was missing! Just then, Rich held it up over his head. By this time I am feeling a bit stupid, perhaps helpless, for not making sure that the thing would stay on the bike, and for not having a sidestand or the bike. I wanted to test out the viability of the PDA/Otterbox combo, but bouncing it off the bike was not planned, yet it looked just fine, save an abrasion on the rubber coated back. Anyways, Rich comes through again, with some safety wire, and soon had the mount affixed like a pro. Mental note to self, get some safety wire! We were off again, but I was already feeling like a burden on the group. It got worse...

Posted by Chris Witzgall at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday morning came about, and I was feeling refreshed, and ready to go dual sporting. Please note that all of my dual sporting experience thusfar had been on my KTM Adventure R, a truly capable motorcycle. At 340lbs dry weight for the KTM vs. ~250 for the Cannondale, I was looking forward to experiencing a "weight liberation".

I went over to the registration tables. Since I had stayed in a trailer at TWO, and approached them from behind, I did not see the "you must do tech before registration" signs at the proper entrance. I whipped out my AMA card (just got it, and required), got my lunch and dinner tickets, and went back to get myself and the bike ready.

Now the route book at events like these comes in tiny little rolls of paper called roll charts. I have a route book holder, six inches wide, on the KTM. Instead of buying one of these little holders, I thought I would try something different. Something geeky. I have a Ipaq PDA and a rugged waterproof enclosure, complete with ram mount, that I have been sitting on for some time, as a concept for a rally computer platform. So I asked the organizer for an electronic copy of the route book two days before, and he obliged with a Microsoft Word Doc. I did some quick reformatting when I got it, loaded it onto the PDA, and presto, electronic route book.

Well, I was riding the day with four other guys, all whom I just met. There was Jim, from Houston, and Jim, Rich, and Mike from Florida. They had all ridden together allot, I was the new guy. We started out on a great double track sized road that was a good, steep, muddy start to the day, allot of fun, with some water crossings, mud holes, and lots of rocks. About 10 minutes into the ride, I lost most of the pressure of my clutch, it would shift, but I could not stop without stalling in a lurch. So I am thinking, "Damn, I guess I did not burb the clutch properly, and there is still some air in there. We all stopped at one point to regroup, and I pointed out my problem. Someone else pointed out I also had a different problem, the Otterbox PDA holder was coming lose, and one of the two bolts holding the ball mount to the box was gone. Rich came to the rescue with a couple of cable ties.

Did I mention that I did not have a side stand on the bike? The stock one is so cheesy that it was bending right over, and not holding the bike up. Ever. So I took it off. I was starting to miss not having a side stand!

Here is a Pic that Dirt Bike Mike sent to me today, taken at this stop. That's me on the far right:

Well, after we go the Otterbox back on, off we went again.

if you think this is the end, think again! Stay tuned!

Posted by Chris Witzgall at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past weekend I made the trek to my first southern dual-sport ride. I also had a humbling experience, a dose of what can happen when you push things a bit too hard, and do not prepare properly. Be forwarned. What you are about to read makes me look like an idiot. I am writing this here to help my lessons learned sink in a bit further into my brain, and hopefully help someone out there as well.

I bought a Cannondale e440r about six weeks ago. Now what you might not know is that my wife and I just moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina in March. We busted our butts to get our 1833 antique colonial ready for sale, sold it, moved and here we are. Exhausting. Of course I have a whole new set of stresses at work, as the move brought a whole new set of responsibilities. So in-between the hectic pace at work, and getting settled into a new house in a new state, I bought a new bike. Not the best time to do this.

I ordered a dual sport kit from Baja Designs, and finally got the chance to put it on a few days form the ride. I had to give them a call to work some confusion on my part- the Cannondale is not wired like most other dirt bikes, I imagine because it was American Made and fuel injected. So I was up late in the garage two nights in a row getting it together. I also bleed the Hydraulic fluid for the clutch (replaced cable, the original one got tweaked on my first ride on the bike, but that is a different story), changed the engine and transmission oil. All for the first time on a bike I really did not know well.

To make things more interesting, I thought that the bike would not pass the sound check (92 db) so I stuffed some loose steel wool pads into the exhaust, a quick fix I read on the internet. I had tested the bike at <90 db using a sound meter from work, but since it was not calibrated to the microphone; I did not think that it was accurate.

Finally, I had a pair of DOT knobbies that I was going to put on the bike, but ran out of time to get them on. The tires that came on the bike, I learned later, were soft compound motocross tires.

That is it for now. Stay tuned to read what happened.

Posted by Chris Witzgall at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)