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.

Posted with Blogsy

Getting Ready

I arrived back in Fairbanks this afternoon and after a few quick errands, I started to get the rig ready for the Memorial Day road trip. Bridget and I are riding down to Talkeetna for the annual Alaska Sidecar camp out. We are leaving around 3 pm with Jed and his shiny Ural. Last September, I had picked up this 60mm ammo can at the Palmer fair with the intention of mounting it under the back of the sidecar. Procrastinator that I am, I finally installed it. I used 4 3/8" bolts with fender washers inside the sidecar and inside the ammo can and 1/4" thick rubber washers between the box and the bottom of the sidecar. It opens towards the bike and there is plenty of room to completely open the door. Later, I'll put on a small padlock to keep honest people honest. For now, I have the scissors jack, the spare tube, a quart of oil, funnel, and a small rachet set in there. There's room for more but that's probably enough weight.

I had mentioned that the one thing I miss on the Ural is a clock. This afternoon, Jed stopped by and dropped off a motorcycle clock that he had lying around. It's just what I was looking for.

So now the rig has quite a load with two camp chairs, a three person tent, two sleeping bags, two thermorest pads, stove (actually 2 stoves), cooking stuff, two breakfasts, one dinner and some snacks. Plus the normal camping gear, insect repellant and a couple of changes of clothes.

I checked the sidecar alignment since one of the lower clamp bolts was loose but it is still right at ¼" toe in and 1° lean out. The new gas cap came in and it is now tethered to the bike. I still haven't decided whether to put the duffle on the rear of the bike or on the rack.

Posted with Blogsy

Camp Stove Comparison

Being sort of prompted by Bobskoot's post about his camping gear, I decided to compare the performance of some of my camp stoves by heating 1 litre of water from 60°F to 200°F. The first one to be tested was the tiny MSR MicroRocket at only 2.6oz was by far the smallest one. It heated the water in 5' 40". Not too bad at all. I had just recently picked up this tiny stove for short trips. The negatives are stability with a heavy pot and, I'm told, low temperature performance.

The second stove to be tested was the MSR WhisperLite International. I had picked up this stove about three years ago before my road trip to California as a replacement for my old MSR XGK. This is without the included aluminum wind screen. Using standard pump gas (regular unleaded w/o ethanol), it heated the 1 litre of water in 4' 50". About what I expected. Being able to burn car gas is the biggest attraction of the multi-fuel stoves.

The next stove to be tested is a multi-fuel Coleman single burner stove that I found in the middle of College Road about five years ago. I think it may have slid off of someones car after they filled it up with pump gas as it had a full tank. It heated the water in 6' 25" but would have performed better with a larger diameter pot due to the larger diameter burner.

The next stove to be tested was my 35+ year old MSR XGK multi-fuel stove. I remember this being a very hot stove and has been used on numerous trips. Using the same unleaded pump gas as the second MSR stove, it heated the litre of water in 4' 05" but it covered the bottom of the pot with soot in the process. One of the convenient features is the flint striker next to the solid fuel line. The solid fuel line means that it won't fold as compactly but the fuel tank adds to the stability of the unit.

The final stove in my comparison is a one-burner, table top model that we picked up at an asian food store in Los Angeles. We used it on a road trip after getting frustrated with the instability of the Coleman one-burner model tested above.It uses a butane/propane mixture probably very similar to the MSR IsoPro cartridge though the fuel is sold in a different form factor and is available in quantity at Costco/Sam's Club type of stores. I've seen these single burner portable stoves used commercially at restaurants outside of the kitchen. It heated the litre of water in a very quick 4' 30".

All of the tests were done with a 1.5 litre MSR pot. And the water temperature measured with a remote probe cooking thermometer. The results are consistent with my experience using the different stoves. Even though the 35+ year old MSR stove puts out the most heat, I'll probably retire it due to the soot on the bottom of the pan. It is the only true multi-fuel stove as it came with a different jet for burning kerosene (aka #1 diesel or Jet "A"). I've only used diesel once as it also covered the bottom of the pan with soot. But back in 1980, diesel was only 11¢/gal in Mexico and I was not even charged for filling my one litre fuel bottle. I have used this stove for numerous other tasks besides cooking such as starting campfires and wood stoves and preheating chimneys.

You just can't beat the cartridge stoves for convenience but the non-refillable cartridge is a real negative for me. If I run out of liquid fuel, I can just pop off the fuel line on the bike and fill up the fuel bottle. Also, gas in the fuel bottle could be added to your gas tank if you run out and get you a few more miles down the road. This was not meant to be an exhaustive test but I just happen to have these lying around today. Untested is the two burner Coleman camp stove.

Can you tell that today was a slow day? I think that I have too many stoves…

Posted with Blogsy