I was thinking of stopping at Alaska Leather, a motorcycle accessory store, to pick up some Hyper-Lites, the flashing led brake lights, and now I added an inner tube to the shopping list. It turns out that they still had free tire pressure gauges courtesy of Abate. I didn't bother fixing the flat since I had the spare tube in case I needed to fix things on the road. I aired up the tire the rest of the way and headed north. The temperatures varied from 38°F to 65°F and there was even a bit of rain. The photo is from the Parks Monument just outside of Fairbanks looking south over the Tanana Flats.
It was a beautiful trip back though I will note that 400 miles on the Ural is much more tiring than 400 miles on the Beemer (sans sidecar). Though maybe it's just the time on the road. After removing the FrogzSkin pre-filter, the gas mileage jumped up to the expected 26 mpg.
Below is a short movie of the first half of the trip. The SD card filled up with all of the jpeg images.
And from the second half of the trip. From south of Cantwell to north of Healy. I think some of the nicer scenery on the trip.
Update - I removed the tube from the flat tire and the valve stem was pulled out of the tube. Maybe it was the incredible acceleration of a Ural but more likely it was me not checking the tire pressure on a regular basis. The Heidenau tires have such a sturdy sidewall that they can be low on air and the only way you can tell is with a gauge. Just looking isn't sufficient. A new tube is installed and the K37 is back on as the pusher. It feels so much more planted than the stock tire. I ordered one of the Heidenau K28 sidecar tires from Heindle Engineering and he told me that I am 3rd on the list. U.S. availability was supposed to start around now.
It's always nice to get home, especially if the road was pleasant. Glad there was no harm done from the flat.
ReplyDeleteThe road trip was really pleasant. It was the first longish trip with the Ural. I was wondering how far would be a comfortable day.
DeleteGlad to see you are getting spring! Too bad about the flat tire :( Digging the google music.
ReplyDeleteFlat tire was when I was going slow so no problem at all. The music for the videos continues to be a challenge.
DeleteNice to see some green starting to pop out on those trees.
ReplyDeleteA long day in the saddle, no matter what you're riding.
Pretty nice to see the green leaves. Some color on the hillsides besides grey and white...
Delete400 miles was a pretty long day. About 8 hours.
I've had the stem ripped out on a couple of inner tubes as well and I do believe it's because of not checking the air pressure .... bummer about the failed experiment with the frogzskin material
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of checking the air pressure again before I left but the gauge was in the house so I put it off again.
DeleteYeah, I thought the FrogzSkin would work. I have most of the parts for the air box from SS. Just waiting for the filter itself and the aluminum connectors from Aircraft Spruce. I should have it made before my road trip.
So, can the spare work for any of the three wheels?
ReplyDeleteNo, the spare only works on the pusher and sidecar. The front has a disk brake.
DeleteI LOVE the second video. Very You-Are-There. But I wanted to look around! Looked like some interesting things to see along the way and the clouds were great. Must have been a relaxing ride.
ReplyDeleteIt really was a very relaxing ride. Not too much traffic, nice roads and traveling at Ural-speed. The clouds were coming and going all day occasionally dropping a little bit of moisture. In the first video, I was trying to capture the mountains but the trees kept blocking the view. I was in a bit of a hurry to get back so no stops on the way back except for gas. But we are headed down again in another week.
DeleteI can't believe that there are still leftovers from snow. Just returned from Southern France where we had 33C (91F)...
ReplyDelete