Ivory Jacks

I’m feeling much better today. Maybe, almost “normal”, The jury is still out on what “normal” may mean in my case. This evening, we went is search of a Alaska experience for visiting family and settled on Ivory Jacks. A bar and restaurant in the Goldstream Valley. It had tons of posters and dog sled paraphernalia on the wall. In fact, we saw a dog sled go by while walking out to the car. Unfortunately, no one had their phone ready for a picture.

That wasn’t the case while we were waiting for our dinner. Since I was the only one not messing with my phone, I stepped back and took a picture. After dinner, we went over to the Goldstream store as it sort of typified to me an Alaska rural store. Baskets of potatoes and onions next to bins of peanuts and dog food. Some local craft items and a small selection of groceries. For several years, this was my local grocery store as I had lived in the area. I don’t remember ever going into the old Ivory Jacks as that required money. As a graduate student, I didn’t have any to spare. The original building burned down around twenty years ago but was rebuilt within a few years.  

World Travelers

After getting back to Fairbanks, I checked the DeLorme page for CCJon and saw that he was in the Walmart parking lot. We had been texting back and forth since he had some sidecar and tug issues while on the road. I went to the parking lot and he and Nestor, his nephew, were easy to spot even among all of the RVs that fill the lot during the summer. Here, they are spraying chain lube on Nestor's chain after he arrived back from Deadhorse. Coldfoot to Deadhorse and back to Fairbanks in one day. Amazing. He has now completed the entire Pan American Highway.

I led them back to our house through all of the road construction that seems to be plaguing Fairbanks these days. He let me drive his extremely wide sidecar rig. The plastic marker is nice to have as it is easily a foot wider than the Ural and you can't see the fender while riding. Even with the weight and size of the sidecar, the rig is very easy to drive. At least for the short distance of the test drive. Tons of power even at low rpm and lower gearing. The bike is what felt huge to me.

After dinner, CCJon decided to set up and stay in the tent trailer since all of his gear is packed inside anyway. I had been really interested in his rig ever since I saw what he was putting together. It was built by Claude Stanley at Freedom Sidecars in Middleburg, PA. The tug is a 1000cc V-Strom with only slightly lower gearing than stock, leading link front suspension, and car tires. The support leg of the tent trailer platform doubles as the rack. The tent supports are then raised and his moto-RV is ready for occupancy.

Anyone who has tent camped while on motorcycle trips will really appreciate the attraction of this rig. Lots of dry storage and not sleeping on the ground. During the setup, I noticed that the anti-sway bar arm was touching the sidecar frame. And the suspension piece that determined the ride height of the sidecar frame was set to its lower limit. I.e. there was no upward suspension travel at all on the sidecar. We made a small adjustment the next morning and he will see if it upsets the handling. I expect that the pull to the right will be reduced and the sidecar to tug attachment will need to be raised as well. That would eliminate the slight lean in i.e. the bike looked like it was leaning towards the tent trailer. But, then again, I have no experience with rigs running car tires.

This is Nestor's V-Strom that made the Pan-American Highway trip. Still really clean and from what I heard, it has been a very reliable bike. Some of the gear was removed when this picture was taken. It was not seriously overloaded like many of the riders that I see passing through Fairbanks. The only preparation needed for getting on the road again was adding air to the tires after the trip on the Dalton Highway.

Here they are both packed up and getting ready to head south again without much of a break. CCJon's rig had developed a crack on one of the sidecar cross members which he had welded and reinforced. The welding shop recommended by DavidR did a great job. It looks stronger than it did originally. CCJon also plans to rebuild the clutch slave cylinder. It sounds like there may be some seepage in the slave cylinder when the lever is held in as he needs to regularly add hydraulic fluid. From here, they are headed to Haines to catch the Alaska State Ferry to Washington before heading back to Texas. The ferry trip should be a good time to relax as I think it's a five-day trip.

It was great to see CCJon again. I missed him the last time he passed through Fairbanks but caught up with him a few weeks later at the BMWMOA rally in Salem, OR. He mentioned that the next Sidecarist rally is in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, next July. I may have to add that to the calendar. CCJon is involved in the organization of the next rally and plans to check out the venue on the way.

Saturday - I just received a text from CCJon. They are in the very crowded town of Haines. Hopefully, they both get onto the ferry on Monday.

Motoblogger Visit

On Friday afternoon, we went to Gold Dredge Number 8 with our four guests. Dom and Martha, and Chris and Lori. In the picture, we are on a replica of the narrow gauge Tanana Valley Railroad after we had tried our hand at panning for gold. I didn't do as well this time as back in May. In fact, the first bag of dirt that I was given didn't yield much of anything. The second bag had about $17 of gold or so they say.

On Friday evening, we rode up to the top of Ester Dome to get some sunset photos. Chris dug their bikes out of the Sprinter and Dom rode in the sidecar. I'm impressed at their setup for transporting the bikes and even more impressed when Chris rode the bikes up the ramp into the van. The next trip on Saturday afternoon, Dom rode Chris' Honda CB500X. My feeble attempt at a sunset photo is shown below. I don't think I took any photos at the top of Murphy Dome.

Before heading up to Murphy Dome, we stopped at the Harley/BMW/Honda shop for some free bratwurst and burgers to celebrate Justin's new position with BMW corporate. And Keith's new position as Justin's replacement.

On Sunday morning, Chris and Lori hitched up their RV and started their trek down the highway with plans of visiting some moto bloggers in Corvallis as well as other friends and family as they wander towards their home. We went to Chena Hot Springs and I was surprised at all of the changes at the resort. Lots of new landscaping, additions to buildings. The whole place just looked better than it has in the past.

The next picture is the creek running through the grounds in front of the large cabins.  I took the picture as a "Live Photo" mostly to play around with the effects. Specifically, the long exposure effect. It added too much blur to the water...

After CHSR, we visited the Santa Claus House in North Pole, AK, before having dinner at the Pagoda.

Tourists

This afternoon (Wednesday) was spent in meetings examining the installed IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities and upcoming changes. At some point, the goal is to turn over management of the network to UIC. The target is when high speed terrestrial broadband is available through one of the local telecoms. The publicized date is first quarter of next year but next summer would be more reasonable and first quarter of the following year may be more realistic.

This evening, I took several of the visitors attending the meeting around town to see the sights including the iconic whale bone arch near the Top of the World hotel. Also on the tour was the local grocery store to see the phenomenal prices that people pay to live and work in this area. We also headed out towards the point to see the baleen palm trees. They are getting to be in pretty sad shape.

Meeting up With Mike

This morning, I had another opportunity to meet up with Mike Saunders. an intrepid Ruckus traveller. I had originally met Mike several years ago when he was near the beginning of his last trip. Since then, Mike has crisscrossed the country multiple times from Key West to Prudhoe Bay and Baja to Labrador. After being in Fairbanks for the last couple of months, it is now time to venture south again before the snow flies. This time the Ruckus was mostly unladen before he heads south to Wasilla before heading towards Canada and points south.

I think that this may be a good time to start tearing into the Ural. I usually don't ride when the snow starts to fly. The weather is pretty nice in September but without third gear, the Ural isn't really very rideable. When hitting a hill, you are relegated to 30 mph unless you can make it up at least 50 mph. 

Tombstone's Travels

Ken, the author of Tombstone's Travels, stopped by with his new V-Strom. He has recovered from his accident on the Dalton Hwy after riding up to Prudhoe. I was hoping for an opportunity to visit before he headed out of town and since I am heading out of town tomorrow, today seemed good. I had also invited BruceW, Whojigger on SovietSteeds, who was up from Ketchikan over for dinner. We had a wonderful time talking, hearing about his adventures and accident on the Dalton. He and another friend from Utah are planning to be back on the road again within the next couple of days.

Here is the mandatory group shot as they were getting ready to head out. That is Bruce on his blue/white Ural Patrol. You might notice the green leaves but what you don't see is the 80°F temperatures that we have been dealing with. Pretty grim weather.

It was great to finally meet up with Ken as I thought I was going to miss him by a couple of days. He had arrived in Fairbanks when I was last up in Barrow and was originally planning to pass through Fairbanks while I was in Anchorage last week.

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01-08-2015

Quite a change from the normal fare on this blog in the middle of January. Took a walk this morning to look for an optometrist office as my glasses seem to have gotten bent out of shape. Maybe too much pressure on them when pulling the helmet on and off. The Bombardier winter helmet is tighter than the Nolan.

This bird of paradise (I think) was part of the greenery in front of the hotel as I always liked the way they looked. This area really looks and feels like the neighborhood I grew up in. Lots of ethnic businesses. I think that it is nicer to walk around here than San Francisco. Not as crowded or hectic.

And since I had it available, here is the next PBC video. I had to run into town on Tuesday and I filmed this specifically to submit while I was out of town. Unfortunately, I only have one more ready to go for tomorrow. I should've planned better. Oh well, it's a challenge not a competition. (I think I am the points leader now but that won't last very long).

I heard from Whojigger, the Ural rider from Ketchikan who is getting ready to ride up to Fairbanks and beyond in a couple of days. He and his international monkey (England I think) are expecting to arrive in Fairbanks by the 16th. Unfortunately, I'll be in Barrow that week. He's the one who should be submitting PBC videos.

Visitor With a Yamal

This morning when I went for coffee at College Coffeehouse, a soft spoken gentleman asked if I was Richard with a sidecar. He then introduced himself as SteveZ, the proud owner of a new Ural Yamal. He had arrived into Fairbanks yesterday after driving up from Washington state with his new purchase and is on his way home in south-central Alaska. Compared to Dom and CCjon, he is lightly packed but still has all of his camping gear stowed in the sidecar. He came up on the Cassiar and his rear pusher tire still shows plenty of life left. Maybe it's just the load that was causing the accelerated wear on Dom's tires. This model is the one named after the Russian ice breaker and has the teeth on the right front side of the car as well as accessories such as the front bumper with fog lights, a gas can on the left rear and the paddle. It was a very nice looking rig and he hasn't had a bit of trouble with it.

Of course, I couldn't take a picture of the Yamal model and not take a shot of the paddle. It was a pleasure to meet you Steve and I hope that we will meet again. He has been following both Dom's and CCjon's trips and was more than a little concerned by their problems as you can imagine. This is his second Ural so I am sure that he knows what he's getting into.
George Rahn was amazed with the number of Urals that are making the trip up the highway.

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The Adventure Continues

Yesterday, Dom aka Charlie6 from redlegsrides.blogspot.com, took his Ural down to Jon at Frozen Motorworks for installation or warranty replacement engine parts. This morning, he carefully packed his rig to continue on his Alaskan adventure in really marginal weather. At least he opted to head south to Los Anchorage rather than north to the land with no cell service.

Bridget came out to the garage and asked me how I managed to ride down to California last year without all the carrying capacity of a sidecar rig. There are truly a lot of spares, tools and supplies fitted into the sidecar.

 

Of course everyone had to get a turn trying out the drivers seat as who knows when the opportunity might arrise. It'll be a while before he can reach the pedals or even the handle bars.

 

Even Bridget took a turn trying it out for size. She mentioned that maybe with this she'd be able to pass the motorcycle test since she didn't need to touch the ground nor lean. Dom took a family photo with most of the family around his rig (including the two noisy dogs) and Bridget said that it was kind of sad and felt like a family member was getting ready to leave.

All good things must come to an end. Dom is getting ready to take off after showing off one of the biggest selling features of a Ural, i.e. reverse. The temperature was still feeling very cold and wet. Last time I looked at his Spot tracker, he had made it past Cantwell and was well into Denali State Park. Hopefully, the clouds will clear a bit to get some good photos. He commented that there was nothing really scenic in Fairbanks, or at least no mountains where he could pose Valencia. The pile of ice from the driveway doesn't really qualify and I now have a second opinion when I say that there isn't much to photograph around Fairbanks.

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Visitor!

We rarely get visitors especially those that travel up the Alaska Highway, and even fewer that venture up before the tourist season "officially" starts on Memorial Day. Last year it was Chris from everydayriding.org and this year its moto-blogger and adventurer, Charlie6 from redlegsrides.blogspot.com. He arrived yesterday evening after an uneventful ride on a typical Alaska Spring day. If you want to hear what really happened, you need to check out his blog.

Today was maintenance day and a fellow rider, Solarmoose on ADVrider helped change several well worn tires in his shop. Later in the afternoon, I got my first sidecar ride (as a passenger) during a test ride to "make sure the wheels didn't fall off". The Ural has a much lower first gear than my Beemer and I was impressed by the acceleration and comfortable ride. More maintenance needed tomorrow.

I also took the opportunity to remove the screw in studs from my rear tire. They were really worn down again and some of them were pretty difficult to remove.  

Visitor from Outside!

We get so few visitors from outside. BTW, I had never even thought about the phrase "outside" until Chris mentioned it on one of his blog posts. But it refers to anywhere in the lower 48 states. (n.b. not Hawaii!) This weekend, we were pleased to host moto-blogger,  EverydayRiding, having survived the ride from Minnesota via Idaho. He is two weeks and 3,800 miles into his ride, "Everyday for 7 Weeks". You can read all about his adventure on his blog with almost daily posts and tons of beautiful pictures and videos.

There aren't too many attractions or sites in Fairbanks but I think he ended up seeing most of them. He did run into the horrendous prices we have to pay for living at the end of the highway as he purchased a rear tire from a local shop. Not too many options around here. We did get to visit a bit with local motorcycle legend George Rahn at a local coffee house. George used to own the BMW dealership, Trails End BMW, and is still the local expert when it comes to repairing airheads and the older K bikes. He was very impressed that Chris rode up here without a windshield. These days, George owns the Royal Enfield dealership and still rides almost year around on his bike and side car rig.

We did make it out to the Alaska pipeline turnout along the Steese Highway as I took him along one of my favorite routes home. It turned out to be a great day though my bike seemed to be handling kind of odd. I had sort of blamed it on my lack of riding for the last week but it turned out to be low tire pressure. Really low, like in the teens! I refilled both tires this morning and the familiar handling returned.

My whole family enjoyed having Chris visit and we discovered another amazing connection. Family that he is visiting in Palmer is friends with my brother in Anchorage as they had recognized the last name in one of his social media posts. I'm going to have to pick up a couple more things before my trip south in July such as a Spot tracker and a heated liner.

Ride Safe!