More Salem Errands

After leaving Raceway Ural, we had lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Salem called Marco Polo Global Restaurant. They had a huge selection of dishes with full Chinese, Europeon and vegetarion menus. I had stir fried noodles w/vegetables and mushrooms in salted black bean sauce. Absolutely delicious.

After lunch, we went to a couple of motorcycle shops in search of new boots. One of my boots fell apart at a gas station in Troutdale, OR, just east of Portland. The sole almost completely fell off. I left on the trip knowing that I would probably need new boots but figured that there would be a better selection in the lower 48. I was looking for waterproof boots with a cleated sole, without laces or zippers. Trobairitz spotted this pair of FirstGear Kathmandu boots which checked all the boxes. The one on display was even the right size. Plus, they were on sale! These will be my first pair of actual motorcycle boots. The old pair were leather work boots and had lasted almost 8 years. Not too shabby. But they had laces which got tangled with parts on the bike more than once.

The boots were purchased from Cycle Country in Salem. They had a decent (though not huge) selection of boots but also a lot of new and used bikes. The buckles, leather and padding on the First Gear boots are lighter duty than those you would find on dual sport boots but I think they'll be adequate.

The next stop was REI. I was not very satisfied with the Sierra Designs Flash 3 tent I had picked up in the spring for this summers motorcycle trips. The amount of netting in the tent construction and the design of the rain fly meant is was well ventilated but also too cold for even Alaska summer camping. I did like the integrated rain fly design which made setup a breeze. REI took the tent and the footprint back with no questions asked.

As a replacement, I opted for the Big Agnes Rattlesnake SL3. It still has (less) netting for much of the tent body but the rainfly fits a lot closer in more like a traditional dome tent. Or you can stake it out to get more ventilation. There is also a small eyebrow vent at the top of the rainfly that can be opened if you want to vent out heat and moisture. The floor space is almost identical to the Flash 3 and has two doors and two vestibules. It has some LED lights sewn into the the ridge seam. Not sure how useful that feature will be especially in Alaska. I had purchased the Sierra Designs tent using a 20% off coupon and they gave me the same discount on this one as well. REI has great customer service and the net price difference was $10.50 as the footprint was a bit more expensive.

How many tents require 3 AAA batteries? If you have a USB cell phone charger battery it will also run on on one of those as the interface to the tent is USB. So a better question is how many tents have a USB plug?

 

On Sunday afternoon, Troubadour took me up to the top of Mary's Peak in their Fiat 500. They offered to let me ride on the TW200 but I really don't feel comfortable riding someone elses bike. I suspect that Troubadour would have preferred to ride up Mary's Peak but he humored me and took the Fiat. That is a great handling car and performance was fantastic especially when you consider that the engine is less than 2x the Ural and the weight is about 3x the Ural. The weather was not ideal and after the nice weather in the Willamette valley, it really felt cold and windy on top. BTW, Troubadour compared the dimensions of the Ural and the Fiat. I think the Fiat was a little longer but the width was about the same.

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