Ride to Nenana

After church today, four of us rode to the Monderosa north of Nenana. A Harley Softtail, two R1200GS BMWs and the Ural. I was obviously the slowest one of the group but it didn't seem to matter. For a couple of guys, it was their first "real" ride of the season. From the clouds, you can see that it wasn't the most pleasant day but it didn't shower too much. The temperature for most of the trip was in the mid-40s (°F). The Monderosa is a favorite ride-to-eat destination as they have, IMHO, some of the best burgers in AK.

On the way back to town, I made a point of stopping at the Parks Hwy Monument. The view wasn't fantastic but there were some nice clouds and you could see the Alaska Range in the distance. I still haven't picked up some proper riding boots so my feet were kind of cold by the time I got home. They've developed a leak over the winter. I didn't expect much for $30 from Sam's Club.

A few months ago, I won a small door prize at the AARC (Arctic Amateur Radio Club) meeting. It was an LED voltmeter. I had a simple voltmeter with just red, yellow and green LED to indicate voltage. The new one was just the bare numeric display with a circuit board. I showed it to my son and he used his 3D printer to make me a nice holder for the circuit board. I mounted it to the top of the headlight with 3M outdoor double sided tape. It came out pretty good. Though the meter seems to read low. Probably since it is simply tied into the switched 12V that powers just about everything else on the bike.

1st Last Ride

Today was the "real" solstice for this area. Equal day and night according to Weather Underground. So it seemed like a good day for the BMW riding group here in Fairbanks to schedule a "1st last ride of the year". There have been some years when they've made it to the 5th last ride but somehow we don't expect that to be the case this year. Note, I thought about taking the BMW but the Ural was the easier option.

We left College Coffeehouse heading out the Parks Highway towards Nenana. The goal was the Monderosa Bar & Grill just this side of Nenana. Once you climbed into the hills, the temperature warmed up to about 45°F (7°C) but once we dropped down towards Nenana, the temperature dropped to 34°F (1°C). These temperatures are according to my OAT installed in the windshield. This is the view from the Parks Highway Monument looking south towards the Tanana River and the Alaska Range.

Originally, I was just planning to stop and take a photo but the group decided to stop and try and troubleshoot an electrical problem on a R100GS/PD. The fuse for the tail lights/dash lights keeps blowing while riding. I suspect multiple broken wires in the bundle from the headlight to the handlebars. I offered to take the troublesome bike off his hands for $20 but he didn't take me up on it. BTW, the bike with the electrical problem is the red/white one in the foreground not the other red/white R100GS/PD that most seem to be looking at. 

Farewell George

Yesterday afternoon, there was a short group ride from the College Coffeehouse to the memorial service for George Rahn being held at Trails End BMW. Leading the ride was George's daughter and son-in-law riding his Harley V-Rod. George has been a fixture in the motorcycle community and had started Trails End BMW as one of the first BMW motorcycle dealers in the country and for several years was also the highest volume dealers as well. It was kind of ironic as George kind of despised this type of group ride and preferred to just ride on his own leaving everyone else in the dust.

There were quite a few impromptu speakers at the event with some great stories told. The dealer had moved most of their inventory of BMWs and Harleys out or to the side to make room for the crowd. The owner of Trails End BMW and the Harley Davidson Farthest North Outpost generously provided great barbeque for the event.

George will be missed by many. I had been meeting him for coffee at College Coffeehouse for a number of years and he has provided me with a lot of advice and information on just about all things relating to BMW airheads and sidecars. His current bikes in addition to the V-Rod were several Royal Enfield's one with a Cozy sidecar.

The following video was put together from the GoPro and Bridget's iPhone video.

Last week I was in Barrow and initially sad that I would miss the memorial service until someone (thank you Cee) reminded me that I could simply fly back. The thought had never occurred to me (Bridget said "hmmm, typical..."). I headed to Fairbanks on Friday afternoon and returned to Barrow on Sunday morning. The ocean view has changed dramatically in the last couple of days. You may remember all of the sea ice in my last post. The wind changed directions and there isn't any ice to be seen today. I'm told that the barge in the photo is part of the project to lay undersea fiber along Alaska's northern coast. This phase of the project is Prudhoe Bay to Nome to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

There Goes the Weekend

Not that rain is much of a deterrent to riding but unless there is somewhere I need to go or something that I need to see...

Maybe riding for fun is a casualty of everyday, year 'round riding. Riding has become another means of transportation. The addition of the Roadcrafter Light and the Ural has made riding just about the easiest way to get around. Easy to park, no problems backing up and, even with only 39hp it has more than enough power to keep up with traffic.

It always took more effort to ride the BMW such as pushing it in or out of parking spaces with the sidecar and even more so when on two wheels. And pre-Roadcrafter, putting on riding gear always took more time. This was especially the case in wet weather. Now it is under a minute from walking out the door to backing out of the garage.

I have already concluded that the Ural+sub-0°F temperatures aren't a good combination primarily due to the lack of a modern engine lubrication system. Three engine repairs in two years should be enough to convince me. The BMW seems much less "civilized" than the Ural. Very heavy steering and geared too high for sidecar use. It is also much more difficult to get out of the driveway during the winter even with studded tires. I'm considering putting the BMW on the market as I hadn't ridden it since February and even when I did, it wasn't the first choice. It still has the studded tires installed and it doesn't seem worth the effort to install the summer tires. Last year, I installed the summer tires and rode it only once.

Hmmm, lots to think about...

Out Of My Element

This evening, I went on the Tuesday evening BMW "group ride". I think that the last time I went on one of these rides I was still riding the '83 R100RT without a sidecar. So it's been a while. The group was made up of a F700GS, F800GS, R1200GSA and a Ural. One of these is not like the others in more ways than one. After meeting them at the top of Murphy Dome, we decided to try going down a trail to the Chatanika River. The pin on the left is where I decided to turn around and start heading back as I had been going downhill on a very rough, rocky trail for quite a while. A lot of off camber, loose rocks, tire ruts, etc. The GS's turned around about a mile further due to slick mud as only one of the bikes had knobby tires. That 41 minute estimate is pretty accurate as I rarely got past second gear and was in first for a good percentage of the time. And standing on the pegs for most of it as well. I need to find a set of handlebar risers that'll fit a Ural. At the time, I really had no idea where we were headed and needed to look it up on Google Earth when I got home. The road wasn't on the Garmin map but I do have a track. It was a fun ride but definitely needed some Ibuprofen when I got home.

I wasn't planning on going on the ride but had stopped into the dealer to see what their price was on Heidenau K37 tires. It turned out to be the same price as on the Internet and there was no shipping charge. That seems to be pretty reasonable to me. 

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm back in Fairbanks for a few weeks and just in time for a lot of rain. At least it isn't miserably hot anymore. I rode the Ural up to the Chatanika River on Sunday afternoon through a pretty steady shower and by the time I got home, water had worked it's way up the cuffs of my jeans. But everywhere else, including my hands and feet, were completely warm and dry.

On the way out, I noticed that the left front turn signal wasn't working so I assumed that the bulb just needed to be re-seated again. It turned to be a broken wire inside of the bulb housing. A quick fix at the Fox Spring turnout. No soldering needed.

Not much was very "picture worthy" around Fairbanks. The rain reduced visibility to the point where not even the surrounding hills were really visible. I spent much of today (Monday) at the university after stopping at College Coffeehouse. On the way home, I stopped to get some keys copied and rode around the back of the runway to see how high the water was on the Tanana as it has been raining pretty steadily for about 30 hours. You'd think that the fair was in town...

Ice on the Lake

Wednesday Morning - Look carefully and you can see ice on the surface of the lake next to the shore. The ice was a real surprise.

I ended up getting to do quite a bit of the work getting the indirect-fired water heater hooked up to the 40 year old boiler. Many of the shutoff valves leaked when shut off so we ended up pulling the manifold out and rebuilding it with new ball valves. Wayne, the boiler tech, had some pretty cool tools that sped up the installation. He only had to break out the torch to remove a couple of the old valves. All of the new fitting were ProPress fittings which needed a special hydraulic tool to crimp the joint. Pretty cool.

All of the connections between the boiler and the new water heater used Wirsbo plastic tubing. He showed me how to use the special installation tool and had me running all of the tubing while he started on the supply manifold. While we were at it, we added more ball valves to more easily isolate different heating circuits as well as replace the pressure relief valve which have been leaking since the original domestic hot water pipe sprung a leak inside the boiler which allowed domestic water to bleed into the boiler building up pressure.

Anyway, we now have this fancy digital temperature control to set the hot water temperature to whatever we need. And the 45 gallon tank should provide us with plenty of hot water.

Thursday Morning - On my way in this morning, I noticed that the ice on Ballaine Lake was all the way across. Obviously not enough to support anything beyond falling leaves but still significant. It was 21°F this morning and I had to spend a bit of time digging out the heated gear controller. I am back to using my older FirstGear Kilimanjaro jacket and pants and they seem awkward to put on compared to the Roadcrafter Light which is at Aerostitch for repair.

After coffee and running back to the plumbing shop to return some unused bits and pieces ($250 back!), I headed out to the Goldstream Valley since it was such a beautiful day. I turned at Murphy Dome Road since in the 33 years I've lived in Fairbanks I've never been to the top of Murphy Dome. It was a nice ride with about 20 miles or so of gravel. Kind of hard to see but there was a nice view of the mountains and still a bit of snow from our recent storm.

There is a government facility on top with some sort of radar but I didn't go out on the dirt road to see who ran the facility. There were a few other vehicles up on top with empty trailers. I assume that they belonged to folks out moose hunting as well as a couple of trucks at the radar site.

The views were spectacular to east and south. If you look carefully you can seen the Alaska Range in the distance with several prominent peaks. This was definitely one of those 200 mile visibility days. So nice after the rain cleans up the air.

Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley) can be seen clearly when up there but is a little hard to see in the photo. It is ⅓ of the way from the right on the picture. I used the Hydra iPhone app which has a zoom feature that takes a pile of pictures with you hand holding the phone. It uses your hand shaking to increase the resolution of the image since it is only using a portion of the sensor.

After all the running around locally picking up plumbing parts, climbing up and down a few hills and cruising on the highway, I filled the Ural up with over 200 km on the odometer. It took only 3.829 gallons of gas for a GPS corrected gas mileage of 35.7 mpg. My best tank ever!

2015 Ural National Rally Day

Today, Saturday, was the 5th annual Ural National Rally Day. Basically a virtual rally where they send out scoresheets and numbers and you try and rack up as many points as possible. Fortunately, from a point gathering perspective, it was raining/sleeting/snowing for most of the time I was out. Plus I had previously mapped out 35 km of dirt roads. Today, they were kind of slippery as some of the mud was frozen. And the rain put water in a couple of the creeks carrying runoff so there were four water crossings to add to the scoresheet.

The weather meant that Bridget didn't participate this year. It really felt cold as I had to leave the visor open for most of the day to prevent fogging and I should've wore the heated liner.

There were additional points for roadside attractions, and superlatives. The superlatives are the whatever-most locations for your state, country, etc. and are incredibly simple in Fairbanks. The local Denny's has a big sign posted as the "Northern most Denny's". And the local Harley shop sells t-shirts with the claim as the northern most HD shop. It is in North America but there are shops in Norway that are a lot further north. This is the Large Animal Research Station with musk ox and caribou as well as other animals and is a popular tourist stop.

 Another popular tourist item are these mileage signs. This one happens to be at the Geophysical Institute at the University. On the rally, I ended up going out to the pipeline viewpoint on the Steese Hwy and out to the Santa Clause House in North Pole. Only 104 km total as it was starting to get cold with temperatures hovering right around freezing for most of the day.

Just another touristy shot of the front of the museum. There were quite a few runners out today with some training for the Equinox Marathon which I believe is next Saturday. There were a number of runners on the Ester Dome dirt roads probably training as the route runs to the top of the Dome before dropping down a chute.

This is the visitor's center at Creamer's Field. There was a tour bus dropping off a bunch of Asian tourists. I believe they were Japanese based on appearance as I didn't here them talking much. The leaves are pretty much all changed and starting to fall off the trees. A strong wind yesterday afternoon helped somewhat.

This is outside of the volunteer supported air museum. By early afternoon, I headed home as the snow and ice was starting to sting as I had to leave my visor open to prevent fogging. All in all, I managed to accumulate 2225 points which is almost three times what I had last year. The sleet, snow and dirt roads really adds to the points!

Tomorrow is the "First Last Ride of the Year" for the local BMW group. I sent out the email last week. We'll see who (if anyone) shows up...

Return From Anchorage

I rode from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Monday and experienced my first flat. Less than ½ mile from my brothers home, it was flat. I still have not determined the cause though I didn't see anything obvious. It only took about 15 min to swap out the pusher with the spare though I had forgotten to pack a tire pressure gauge. It felt a little low so I just added some air using my handy air compressor before heading into Anchorage.

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. 

Ural Ride to the Monderosa

A small group of us rode out the the Monderosa again. I think this was the third time this summer. I think it is the only place that is a "convenient" distance away from Fairbanks. By "convenient" I mean somewhere handy to ride out, have lunch and return without having to fill up the bikes. Or for this group around 45 miles each way. This photo was taken looking to the west towards the flats but does show what blue skies that we had. The gas cans are now empty but I think it looks odd with just the gas can mount so for now, I'll leave the empty cans in place.

On this day, there was a R1200GS, Harley Road King (I think), two 200cc-ish dirt bikes and the Ural. One of the dirt bike riders was a new rider and has only ridden around 400 miles and this was by far her longest trip. I was the last to arrive (big surprise) but only by a couple of minutes. 55mph is a real comfortable speed on the Ural for me though I think I may need to balance all of the tires. There was some vibration.

This was taken on the way back at my usual photo spot, the Parks Highway Monument. The temperature on this trip was a very comfortable 60°F for most of the trip. The first and last photo were taken using the HDR app on my iPhone otherwise the colors looked really muted. I was originally planning on riding the Beemer on this trip but I haven't had time to remove the sub-frame. Saturday was spent driving up to the Arctic Circle looking for geocaches and I need to process the Go-Pro video so, next post…

Posted with Blogsy

Did He Ride Today?

Following Keith's lead in the title, did I ride to work today? No, unless you want to count riding on an Alaska Airlines 737. I am in Barrow for the next week or so providing IT support to visiting researchers, getting a couple more wireless clients installed and some other tasks to minimize support needs. I was hoping my other base station radio had come in so I would be able to expand coverage but it hasn't shipped yet.

As you may notice in this screenshot of the weather.com app, it is still kind of "wintery" here in Barrow. Very light snowfall has been coming down for most of the day but not enough to actually accumulate. But you can definitely feel the wind.

Steve's Unsatisfactory Ride post had got me thinking more about my ho-hum rides around town. I did get the rig out on the road running several errands over the weekend but did not take any purely "recreational" ride. The addition of the sidecar has changed the motorcycle from recreation to "functional transportation". I rarely ever think twice about driving the rig as it has become the vehicle used to go just about anywhere no matter what the weather or conditions. These days, the time between walking into the garage and leaving the driveway is rarely much more than a minute or so. Not much different than driving the car.

It doesn't take long before I recognize that the difference comes when I can feel myself smiling while headed down the road. No music or other distractions needed just the pleasant mechanical clatter coming from the engine. Driving the rig takes more concentration and physical effort than driving a car but that just adds to the fun. It doesn't matter if I'm headed to Anchorage or to the grocery store. The addition of easy to don riding gear has made weather almost irrelevant as far as enjoying the ride and just about everyone waves at you when you're on a sidecar rig. Not just the other motorcyclists but everyone from tourists riding the train to cabbies. Riding is still a whole lot more fun than driving.

Monderosa (Again)

As I had mentioned before, there are very few places in Fairbanks that motorcyclists like to ride. The Monderosa is one of these places. The loosely, non-organized BMW riders group went there yesterday for lunch and today, riders from our church rode out. As you can see, it was a mix of bikes with the majority being cruisers. The assistant pastor did have his new R1200GSW which he says is as nice as he had read about. He has an ADV bike rental business and this is the newest addition to his rental fleet.

Another "first", Bridget joined the group and rode in the sidecar. This is the longest trip we've taken together with the bike. Since the bike was set up for no passenger in the sidecar, it pulled to the right and with no steering mods, I got a pretty good upper body workout on the trip. She indicated that it was a little bumpy and kind of cold. The weather wasn't quite as nice as yesterday (61°F and partly cloudy) and the rain just caught us for the last mile. There were a lot of cross-winds trying to blow us around.

I set the GoPro to take a photo every 5 seconds and used the GoPro Studio software to put the photos together into a video. The 55 minute trip is reduced to a 22 sec video.

First Ride Out of Town

An email from the loosely organized BMW riding group here in Fairbanks mentioned a ride out to the Monderosa for lunch. Seven of us headed out from College Coffeehouse with the temperature around 70°F and rising. Pretty hard to pass up an opportunity like that. Two years ago, I rode to Anchorage around mid-May and ended up riding through snow and sleet for around 150 miles. The Monderosa is a popular spot for motorcycle rides as it's convenient for a lot of riders at about 50 miles. I know that when I first started riding, this felt like a really long trip. Today, not so far. But it is still my first trip outside of Fairbanks this year. The rig had no problem cruising up and down the hills at 65mph though I usually downshifted to 4th on the uphill sections. I took some boring video but haven't had a chance to look at it. But I need a more solid camera mount (less vibration) and a better location for the GoPro remote.

Yesterday was the "greening" of Fairbanks. This is when the leaves first show up and the hills take on a greenish hue. By late afternoon, some of the south facing slopes had a lot more than just a hue. The ground on south facing slopes are usually the first to warm up. This, obviously, wasn't my "first ride of the season" but it was the first ride out this year out of Fairbanks. I didn't stop at the Parks Highway Monument like I usually do as there was a lot of haze. It wasn't that nice of a view.

Added a little bit of the video. Edited the GoPro video on an old 11" MacBook Air. It did surprisingly well!

"Second Last Ride of the Season" Not

It was advertised as the "Second Last Ride of the Season" but I was the only one to show up ready to ride. Others showed up in four wheeled vehicles to see what fools would show up for the ride. I didn't disappoint them. The other name for these rides are FOG or Friends of George. But even George (Rahn) showed up with his truck. His bike didn't start and he figured that was a sign to not ride.

It ended up snowing for most of the afternoon but no accumulation on the streets. Originally, I was thinking of sending out an email for next Sunday afternoon but there is an Airhead tech-day already on the schedule.

Monday Morning -  It finally stopped snowing sometime in the middle of the night and it was a cold, beautiful morning. The weather guessers are claiming that it'll be well above freezing again for the rest of the week. I think that walking across the parking lot was the most treacherous part of my commute. No slipping or sliding with the sidecar rig and due to the conditions, everyone was driving pretty cautiously. I left a little early to avoid being on the road at the same time as kids rushing to the local high school.

On Saturday, I put the Arctic Cat foam hand covers on the handlebars and even though it was 21°F this morning, no additional heat was needed. They do a great job of blocking the wind and since the back is completely open, the controls are still easy to see. I believe that they are designed for use on snow machines or ATVs.

I just talked to Adventure Cycleworks to see if they had any left over inventory and it sounds like they may have a 100/90-19 Heidenau K60 front tire in their inventory. That'll resolve my front tire not having enough tread to stud. Too bad that I will be swapping out the front tire as it still has a few miles left just not enough rubber to stud.

Ester Dome Ride

Yesterday afternoon, I rode up to the top of Ester Dome, which is located just northwest of Fairbanks. The last time I was up there was back in September when I ran the Equinox Marathon. After the first half mile the pavement ended and the rest of the climb to the top was on dirt and gravel roads. It seemed like a long way up even on the bike. I vaguely remember the turn offs and road crossings from the marathon but seemed to have successfully blanked out much of that day from my memory. (I still hate running even more than ever!)

Many of the commercial TV and radio stations have their towers up here as it is the high point for the area at 2,323 ft. As you may notice in the lower photo, the rain had temporarily cleared out the smoke but you can see it building up again from the fire to the east which is on the right. I learned that I need to carry an easily deployed wheel chock since I don't have a parking brake. I do have folding chocks in case I need to remove a wheel but they are packed with all of the tools.

Sunday evening was spent looking for a different kind of geocache. The GPS coordinates just gave the starting point followed by directions following compass bearings. They were careful to specify using an uncorrected magnetic compass followed by distances ranging from 90 feet to 0.23 miles. It ended with 77 paces into the woods following your compass. It felt like we were following a pirate treasure map.

We found the ammo box in the woods right where they said it would be but the distances were more difficult to measure. I was using the Nike+ app to measure distances which used GPS. A simple pedometer would probably have worked better as that is what I think they used. The distances listed were always shorter than what I came up with. Fortunately, the distances were usually to trail intersections so we were able to figure out where we needed to be.

This photo was taken along the trail leading down to the "T" Field behind the university. The starting point was the Large Animal Research Station so this geocache was good for a few miles of trail walking. Nothing wrong with that.

First Trip with the Sidecar

On Friday afternoon, I headed south for Talkeetna, AK, a small touristy town north of Anchorage. The intent was to meet some other sidecarists in Alaska. Two answered the email counting myself sent out last winter plus Dom. This is at a turnout south of Cantwell where I stopped to remove my fleece liner. It was starting to get warm in spite of the snow.

I stopped at the South McKinley Viewpoint at the southern end of the Denali State Park to see if there was a clear view of the mountain. It was a little cloudy but the top was peaking out. By this time it was feeling pretty warm out. And there were a lot of people milling around whining about the horrible view, the weather, the bathrooms. You name it, they were complaining about it. I didn't think it was that bad.

After arriving in Talkeetna, I wandered around town checking out the three campgrounds and the rest of the group ended up being at the first one. I saw a sign saying "No Overnight Parking" so I assumed I was in the wrong place. But Dom had spotted me turning around and called while I was at the third campground. This photo was taken on Saturday morning since the light was coming from a better angle than it was the previous evening. This was taken from the beach near the campground.

Here is our campground with the four rigs, all very different. The pile of leaves were being collected by a local character who had an opinion on just about everything. For more information on the participants, please see Dom's post and Bob and Sharon's post on the meetup.

We had breakfast at the Roadhouse Cafe where I had to try the poutine since it was listed on the menu. If you like poutine, then you wouldn't care for this version. Their version was simply pan fried potatoes covered with white gravy and cheese. I wouldn't recommend it. After breakfast, Dom packed up and headed for the ferry to take him away from Alaska and all of the Ural's "issues" back to the relative security of the lower 48. Plus, as he discovered, part of the fun is being in Alaska when the tourists aren't here.

Bob, Sharon and I then wandered through beautiful downtown Talkeetna and explored every single shop in town looking at all of the Alaska trinkets with about 10% actually made in Alaska. Much of it was overpriced but some was very beautiful and original. I ended up getting some local non-bee honey (never heard of this before) and a hand carved birch rice paddle. We had a light lunch at the Wildflower Cafe (excellent food!) before heading back to camp so Bob and Sharon could finish packing up before heading home to Wasilla.

The Alaska Railroad came through town several times per day many times to pick up or drop off tourists continuing their "cruise ship factory tours" of Alaska. BTW, to anyone wanting to visit Alaska, I would not recommend a "tour" unless you want to be herded around like cattle. Saturday evening was spent with Dan and his 12 year old daughter Sophi and one of his friends from the Yamaha Star riding group.

I left Talkeetna around noon trying to time it to avoid a huge biker ride from Mary Cary's McKinley View Lodge to the Veterans Memorial about twelve miles north. When I passed the lodge, there were several hundred bikes in the parking lot. They were getting ready to leave but were a few hours after their planned 11:30 departure. Everyone out riding today seemed happy to be on two wheels again and I got waves from just about all of the bikes including bicycles, cruisers and most of the sport bikes. Even quite a few trucks and cages as well.

This is the same turnout as the in the first photo but the other direction. It was warm and I was starting to get pretty sore. Driving the sidecar takes a fair amount of physical effort and Dom was right, 300 miles with the sidecar feels like 500 without.

This is the turnout just a little ways from Fairbanks where I've taken other pictures. It was pretty warm at this point and I had just about every vent on my jacket open but was still pretty warm. I think it was over 80°F and if you look closely, you can see that the trees are starting to bud. The drab grey is finally turning green.

This turned out to be a pretty slow trip as I had to keep my speed under 60mph due to the fairing vibration. I think it's the sidecar wheel as I can see the sidecar fender moving up and down at the same frequency as the fairing vibration. Something else to figure out before the next trip.