I left Barrow on the Thursday morning flight and arrived back home about 2:00pm. By 3:00pm, I was packed up again and heading out on my first Ural road trip. This is just a short, weekend trip to Anchorage to meet with my brothers family and start planning the 2016 Machida Family Reunion in Alaska. Bridget is flying down on Friday evening so I'm on my own for this road trip down.
I think that I need to remove the FrogzSkin from the air cleaner housing as the rig was really anemic. And gas mileage was horrible as in 16 mpg. I needed the gas in my 3 gallon gas can twice as I could only go 116 km before switching to reserve. We don't have that many gas stations on our highways. My son had asked if I was going to bring both 3 gallon gas cans but that seemed excessive at the time.
Right now I'm staying with friends just north of Anchorage having arrived at about 9:45pm. North of the entrance to Denali Natl Park, there was a strong headwind and I was barely able to maintain 50 mph on the flats. South of Cantwell, the winds died down and I was able to easily maintain high 50's and gas mileage jumped to 19 mpg. Tomorrow, I'll remove the FrogzSkin and see how much of a difference it makes.
Here is a short video with bits and pieces of the trip.
Friday Afternoon Update - After a restful morning visiting with BobP in Wasilla, I pulled the air cleaner housing and carefully peeled off the FrogzSkin mesh. Just in case I want to use it again. On the ride across Knik Arm, there was a really strong headwind and the Ural was able to maintain 55 mph without full throttle and the CHT was the desired 350°F/375°F. If I sped up to 60mph, which it now does easily, the CHT climbs into the less desirable 425°F range pretty quickly. And 61 mph on the GPS is about 57 mph on the Ural speedometer. I think that I'll ride with the GPS more often as the indicated speeds were all over the map i.e. not consistently high or low. The gas mileage without the FrogzSkin may be higher as I already passed the 116 km mark where I've had to switch to reserve twice on the trip down.
In Cantwell, I had forgotten to replace the gas cap when I took off so now I'm using a piece of duct tape. Not optimal. I stopped and visited Mickey and all of the ones he had lying around were for the older Urals. He mentioned that I should try an auto parts store as the cap is supposed to be pretty generic. I tried three stores and no luck.
I think that I need to remove the FrogzSkin from the air cleaner housing as the rig was really anemic. And gas mileage was horrible as in 16 mpg. I needed the gas in my 3 gallon gas can twice as I could only go 116 km before switching to reserve. We don't have that many gas stations on our highways. My son had asked if I was going to bring both 3 gallon gas cans but that seemed excessive at the time.
Right now I'm staying with friends just north of Anchorage having arrived at about 9:45pm. North of the entrance to Denali Natl Park, there was a strong headwind and I was barely able to maintain 50 mph on the flats. South of Cantwell, the winds died down and I was able to easily maintain high 50's and gas mileage jumped to 19 mpg. Tomorrow, I'll remove the FrogzSkin and see how much of a difference it makes.
Here is a short video with bits and pieces of the trip.
Friday Afternoon Update - After a restful morning visiting with BobP in Wasilla, I pulled the air cleaner housing and carefully peeled off the FrogzSkin mesh. Just in case I want to use it again. On the ride across Knik Arm, there was a really strong headwind and the Ural was able to maintain 55 mph without full throttle and the CHT was the desired 350°F/375°F. If I sped up to 60mph, which it now does easily, the CHT climbs into the less desirable 425°F range pretty quickly. And 61 mph on the GPS is about 57 mph on the Ural speedometer. I think that I'll ride with the GPS more often as the indicated speeds were all over the map i.e. not consistently high or low. The gas mileage without the FrogzSkin may be higher as I already passed the 116 km mark where I've had to switch to reserve twice on the trip down.
In Cantwell, I had forgotten to replace the gas cap when I took off so now I'm using a piece of duct tape. Not optimal. I stopped and visited Mickey and all of the ones he had lying around were for the older Urals. He mentioned that I should try an auto parts store as the cap is supposed to be pretty generic. I tried three stores and no luck.
I really like the video. It reminds me of happy times in my life touring CO and parts of the west.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much stronger you are since you started riding this rig. Maybe it's really no difference, but it seems to me there has to be some extra or other effort to ride this way.
It was a pretty nice trip down. The leaves were just starting to bud and even in Anchorage, things weren't very green.
DeleteDriving a sidecar rig is a good way to get an upper body workout.
Did you have pleasant temperatures for riding?
ReplyDeleteYou ought to find a big cork, a real cork, to replace your gas cap... There would be something comical about that.
40s and 50s. So heated gear was still used for most of the trip especially when the sun went behind the clouds.
DeleteWow...low mpg.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that it's improved now that I removed the FrogzSkin from the air intake.
DeleteRichard, the video exemplifies the lovely solitude that comes with riding solo ... of course the music had a great deal to do with it (and I'm sitting inside where I'm warm and dry.)
ReplyDeleteI feel much more at ease when riding solo. No need to be concerned about slowing someone down. And you can stop whenever you want. Is this being selfish?
Delete