Mischief

There's another rider I see in my parking garage fairly regularly. We make a little small talk now and then, but rarely see one another on the road. She rides a teal and black Honda Shadow.

Anyway, yesterday we somehow both would up at the front of the line at the same stoplight. I tried to think of something conversational to say, but my brain failed me in the heat.

So I just turned and said, "You wanna race?"

Time for a New Lid

My Shoei TZ-1 has been an awesome helmet. It's comfy, reasonably quiet, covered in street-cred and I just plain like it.

But it's also five years old, and I think it has become self-aware, so it's time to get a new one before it permanently attaches itself to my skull and forces me to rampage through greater Phoenix.

What?

Anyway, I need a new lid. Any suggestions for helmets I should be sure to check out?

A Moment to Enjoy the Small Things

The visor on my helmet gets cleaned about twice a year. It's kind of nasty. Last night, I broke out the high-powered cleaning fluid and chipped every last insect carcass off my window to the world.

I also cleaned and oiled my chain. My chain isn't neglected like my visor, but it was getting a little noisy.

Riding in to work on a cool, gloomy morning with a clean visor and near-silent chain? Heavenly.

Street Cred, Denied

According to the standards documents I found online, it has officially been a very long time since I got new tires put on the Triumph. And, try as I might, daily commuting has not yet worn off the sprue nubs on the edges of my tires. Either they are very tough nubs, or I'm not spending nearly enough time at exciting angles. Or both.

Anyway, last night I glanced down at my tire and noticed there didn't appear to be any of the nubs remaining on the left side of my tire. Hooray, right?

This morning I discovered that, despite my best attempts, there were still plenty of nubs on the left side. Dammit.

I'm tempted to just sit down and pick them off, but something about doing so feels unsportsman-like.

I need to find some fast twisty roads before I lose all of my credibility...

Escaping the Heat

The Arizona Artist Blacksmith Association had a demonstration in Flagstaff on Saturday. I'd been planning to go for a couple of weeks, but the weather forecast was not in my favor. There was an Extreme Heat Advisory for the entire weekend, and a couple of hours in high, humid heat sounded pretty awful. It also sounded risky, since if the bike were to break down, I'd be stuck without shade in the middle of the desert, which is a bad thing.

I know I could have avoided the heat on the way up to Flagstaff by leaving early in the morning, but the only way to avoid it on the way home would be to leave Flagstaff very late in the evening, which wasn't acceptable.* So I didn't go.

Since Flagstaff was out of the question, it was imperative that I find a new destination, perhaps a little closer to home, for a recreational ride. I recently realized my ride to Tortilla Flat on Father's Day this year was the first ride I'd taken in a long time that wasn't commuting. Which is unacceptable.

Payson is approximately seventy miles from my house, and is at a higher elevation, so I decided to head that way. I got up early on Saturday and set off for cooler weather.

The ride was fun, but uneventful. I decided to ride on from Payson to Pine, and try to scope out some new pizza. Unfortunately, the only pizza place in Pine, apparently, is in a gas station. Frankly, I didn't ride all that way to have gas station pizza, so I cruised through town a little bit more and settled on HB's Place.

I suspect I was the only non-local in the joint. Everybody turned to look. Nobody smiled back. I think it was because I was on a Triumph. If I had to describe the restaurant's ambiance, I would call it patriotic.

Explaining to the crowd that the British were our allies in WWII and it is therefore totally OK to ride British iron seemed like a lot of work, so I just ordered my grilled ham & cheese, ate, paid, and left.

After that, I rode home. The weather was pleasant until I was about thirty miles out of town, which is where the heat really kicked in. All told, I got about 200 miles of pure recreational riding in. Woohoo!

*In hindsight, there's a longer route to Flagstaff that I forgot about which would have worked quite well. Oops.

Post-Apocalyptic Desert Biker Grub

Canned bacon is pretty neat, and coffee in a tube is simply brilliant.

And now, canned sandwiches. I, for one, can't wait for Candwich to go into production.

This is just an awesome product idea on so many levels. It's presumably shelf stable for a while. Rather durable packaging, and I imagine you could re-purpose the can as a small hobo stove. Or as a drinking/eating/cooking vessel. And you won't have to use your precious water supply to rehydrate it!

Of course, in a nomadic post-apocalyptic biker society, the bulk would require you to either have a food stash hidden away, or a large support vehicle in your tribe. That could be a problem if your survival requires light and fast travel.

Essential Desert Gear: Cool-dana

I picked up a Cool-dana over the weekend since we were going to an outdoor festival and it seemed like it might be a nice thing to have.

And it was.

Yesterday was the first time I tried using such a thing on the motorcycle, and I have to say, it's pretty awesome. Of course, it was completely dry by the time I got home, but it was very pleasant for the first half of my ride.

Anything that adds a little comfort to riding in the desert summer is a good thing.

The New Cage

Our 2000 Mustang has seen better days. It's been a fantastic car - y'know, as cars go - but after years of dutiful daily service and many wonderful road trips, the poor thing is kind of tired.

And so, it was time to get a new car.

If it were up to me, we'd probably have one of those pretty new Dodge Challengers. But it's not up to me, because I rarely drive. No, the choice of what new car to get should be made by the person who has to drive it every day. So Lady Luck was in charge of choosing the new cage.

We researched a lot of cars and trucks. When the smoke cleared on Saturday, we found ourselves with a 2008 Honda Element.

And, for a cage, it rocks. The handling is fantastic, and it's a whole lot faster than I would have expected. But the best part is the interior: I'll finally be able to haul my upright bass around in comfort, instead of cramming it in to the passenger seat and squeezing myself in to the driver's seat in what little space remains, and hoping I don't get in a wreck where they'd have to use the jaws of life to get me out of my bass.

So, in a nutshell, if you have to have a cage, you could do worse than a Honda Element.

Essential Gear - Every Day Carry Revisited

Back here I talked a bit about the stuff I carry every day, and you folks left some awesome suggestions in the comments. As you might expect, my list of items changes fairly regularly as things occur to me, or as I discover things I don't need to keep lugging around. Usually a purge of my kit happens every two months or so when I get sick of all the crap I've accumulated.

But, starting from the luggage and working my way in, here's what I've been carrying every day lately:

Timbuk2 messenger bag: This thing is huge. On the Vespa, I could conceivably keep a puppy warm under the seat and have a grown beagle enjoying the breeze in my bag. Or, on the Triumph, two grown pugs in the bag. Along with my gear. Seriously, this bag is so big, it's kind of overkill. It's super easy to get on over my jacket, and it's got a cross-strap so it stays put while I'm riding.

I've abused the hell out of this bag, and it's still in great shape. I recently used it on a four mile hike, and carried water for two people, a grotesquely over-packaged lunch, my SLR and other sundries with no problem or discomfort.

Leatherman PST: While a proper, fixed blade knife would be best for survival in the backcountry, here in the urban reality most of us deal with on a day to day basis, a multi-tool is just about the best thing ever. I can't count how many times this thing has come in useful, and I'm tempted to get a collection of other multi-tools just so I can stash them in handy places.

Small flashlight: It's cheap, it's plastic, it's a source of light. I've used it several times. I gotta remember to carry spare batteries, though.

Bic Lighter Wrapped with Duck Tape: Obviously, because some times you need to make sure something stays put and then light it on fire.

...OK. So, actually, it's just a convenient way to carry several feet of duck tape. And sometimes you do need to light things on fire.

Excedrin: Best painkiller ever.

Earbuds: I like music, and when I'm going on a looooong, boring ride (say, to San Diego), it's nice to have headphones that fit under my helmet. I don't use them in traffic. They also come in handy at work when someone starts having a conversation I wish I didn't have to overhear.

Bright orange bandanna: Think about it for a minute, and you'll realize the millions of possible uses for a bandanna. Especially if you're a sweaty biker who thinks bright orange is pretty cool looking. A bandanna is just an awesome thing to have, and if you don't have one, you should really get one. Or five.

Sucrets tin full of goodies: This is an evolving kit. Presently it has a stick of chapstick, a couple bandaids, a box of matches and several safety pins. Eventually I'm going to put a few Immodium AD tablets in there, because you never know when the pizza gods might be vengeful. Future additions include a square of aluminum foil, a ziplock bag or two, moleskin, and some baling wire.

Water Bottle: I've got a bunch of these, and I rotate through them when I think of it.

Thermax thermos: Because I'm not happy if I don't have my coffee in the morning.

Altoids or chewing gum: Cottonmouth sucks, and these keep my helmet smelling minty-fresh. Which is a good thing, because my helmet has been through five summers in the desert and I'm pretty sure it's close to self-awareness.

Pen and paper: Presently a Pilot Precise V5 and a couple hip, black notebooks. I'm not picky about my paper, but I am picky about my pens. The ballpoint is my second choice. My favorites are the Varsity disposable fountain pens. I could write all day with those babies, and they never walk off. Anyway, keeping notes is good, and I can't stand typing into my...

Cell phone: My phone and I have an agreement. I don't like it, and it doesn't like me. That said, I do get a lot of use out of the weather application and the calculator. And I've used it as a flashlight in a pinch. It also does a pretty good job as an mp3 player.

Sunglasses: I do live in the desert, you know.

Tire pressure gauge: Since the ones gas stations will lend you never work anyway...

So, that is my current daily survival kit. It works pretty well for me.

How to Ride Through A Desert Summer and Not Die

I've been riding to work year round here in the desert for about five and a half years. One question I get, over and over, usually asked with a mix of awe and disbelief, is "Don't you get hot?"

Well, yes.

I'm lucky because I seem to be physiologically well-suited to cope with heat. I know some folks just get sick after a long time in the heat and would probably keel over if they tried riding through the heat I ride through.

That said, I try not to be the stupid macho guy. Exposure kills people.

So, here are a few tips and tricks for riding through a Phoenix summer.

Maintain a good attitude. I know this is really hard. I hate the cold and fight against it instead of accepting it and getting on with whatever I need to do. And I know some people fight against the heat the same way. If you can just accept that you're going to be hot, and be OK with that, it's a lot easier to deal with the heat. Hey, some folks pay good money to sit in a sauna, right?

Try not to ride when it's really hot. I leave for work around 6:00 a.m. because the temperature rises significantly as soon as the sun comes up. I do my best to stay indoors, or at least in shady areas, during the hottest part of the day. I don't ride in the early afternoon unless I absolutely can't avoid it.

Cover up. You know what cowboys wear? Boots, jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves and a broad hat. Bedouins wear long robes and head coverings. Staying covered up serves two purposes.

First, it keeps the sun off of you. The sun is ridiculously intense here and anything left exposed in the sun, including you, will heat up very quickly. You can get sunburned in a very short time, even if you tan easily. Sunburn reduces your body's ability to cool itself.

Second, staying covered keeps your sweat from evaporating. Between the wind and the lack of humidity, it's possible you won't even notice you're sweating because your perspiration evaporates so quickly. Staying covered up slows down evaporation, which means your sweat can do it's job.

So don't be one of those dummies out there in shorts and a t-shirt.

Wear cotton. The desert during the summer months is the one place where cotton is actually a good fabric to wear outdoors. It stays wet, and keeps you cool. That would be bad in the winter, but it's a very nice thing indeed in the heat of summer. (Incidentally, synthetic underwear that wicks moisture away from your skin is just about the best thing ever when you're spending a lot of time on a hot motorcycle.)

I have heard that wetting a bandanna and tying it around your neck will help you stay cool. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm going to. I have also heard that soaking your t-shirt in water and wearing it while riding is almost heavenly.

Stay hydrated. It's extremely easy to become dehydrated in the desert. Drink tons of water. Drink enough water to "piss clear." When you think "Man, I don't want to drink any more water," have some water. If you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. If you're riding a long ways, stop every hour and have a bunch of water and a salty snack like peanuts or pretzels.

The pavement in summer around here can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to give you a third degree burn. Scary, huh? You're more or less riding around over a hot stove. You are going to sweat quarts of water. Keep drinking.

Also, carry water with you. Should you break down or otherwise end up stranded, you're going to need it, and water is scarce in the desert.

Keep your bike maintained. Once again, you're riding around over a hot stove. Extreme conditions are hard on mechanical things. Watch your tire pressure and tire condition. Blowouts suck. Check your oil and coolant levels regularly. Overheating also sucks.

Ride every day. Getting somewhat acclimated makes a huge difference in your comfort level. If you've been living in air-conditioned comfort all summer, and decide to go for a ride at 1:00 in the afternoon in August, you're going to have a miserable time. On the other hand, if you ride in the heat every day, well, riding at the hottest time of day in August is still going to suck, but it won't be nearly as traumatic if you're somewhat used to heat.

I have no doubt there are some things I'm forgetting, but I think this will get you on your way to surviving a desert summer on your motorcycle.