Mix Canyon Road Mount Vaca and Accessory Outlet Install

In a previous post I showed my roadside emergency kit which included a small 12v powered air compressor I figured that I would just clip the ends of the plug and put some spade connectors on the wires and just connect it directly to the battery when I needed it.  I was met with mixed opinions on the efficacy of this solution.  There were a lot of suggestions that I wire in a accessory socket with people expressing the valid point that I would add a lot more capability to the bike such as powering a heated vest or charging a phone or powering a GPS.  Some said that it would work just fine others bemoaned the amount of space it took up and suggested that I go for a CO2 inflation option for the space/weight savings.  Not too long after purchasing the components of my kit I had a chance to test out its usefulness when I got a second flat tire.  I was not at all impressed with the small pump it hardly seemed effective and being that I was close to a gas station I limped the bike over to their air pump after plugging the tire and filled it quickly.

After that incident I decided that I may start carrying the CO2 inflater that I have on my road bicycle with the bike and carry enough cartridges to quickly fill the rear tire.  After posing the question: How many of these bad boys do you think it would take to fill my FZ1's rear tire (180/55-ZR17) in road-side flat tire type situation," on the forums I frequent (listed at the bottom of my blog) once again I was met with mixed response.  It would appear that the people who prefer a pump stayed quiet when I posted about the Air Pump but became vocal once I showed interest in the CO2.  Arguments ranged from you would never be able to fill that size tire with CO2 to pointing out that once you use up you're cartridges and you flat again you're stranded.  Both were good points!

After doing a little research on my air compressor (a cheap jobber from harbor freight) the reviews all reflected my sentiments about how slow it fills a tire but they did also point out that it can and does fill a tire to full pressure given enough time.  Though you need to give the pump a change to cool down every 10-15 minutes and then proceed again once it has cooled.  It realistically could take me 30+ minutes to fill up the rear tire with that pump.  Being that I already had the pump and I already had the CO2 inflater and I'm not super strapped for space on my bike I decided that for now I will carry both with the plan being to use the CO2 cartridges on the first flat which should take 5-12 gram cartridges to fill my rear tire to 32 psi according to the chart a member on FZ1OA shared with me...

...and then top off with the pump if necessary and then deal with the pump on the off chance I have a really shitty day and end up with two flats on the same trip.

After deciding this I also decided that I would install the accessory outlet after all to simplify any road-side repair situations and also add some more flexibility to my motorcycle.  I found a basic accessory socket at the NAPA store and picked up a in line fuse holder some fuses while I was there.

I have seen others buying kits that come with longer wires or "waterproof" caps but where I was going to install it I don't think that much water ill be getting to it and I have a ton of automotive wiring at home so I knew I could just splice, solder, and shrink tube the connections I needed to make.

I chose a spot on flat area to the left of the tank near the dash to as a location for the install.  I had a speed bit that was the correct size for the hole which made quick work of the relatively thin ABS plastic.  I also found an illuminated switch in my box-o-random parts that I decided to wire in as well in the oft chance I was on the move and for whatever reason wanted to turn off whatever it was that I had plugged into the socket and didn't want to stop to stow a dangling plug.  It stretched out the install time a bit but as it has been of late with my motorcycle projects the planned task was going to end up taking much longer than I would have ever anticipated.

I was making good progress with the wiring and was to a point where I was going to take the body panel and the newly-mounted socket onto the bike and run the wire back to the battery.  That meant that I would need to lift the gas tank to zip tie the new wires to the outside of the wiring harness that runs to the battery.  I busted out my trusty set of long, metric, Craftsman allen wrenches.  The tank is held down by one socket-head cap screw.  When I went to loosen the the screw it with the Allen wrench either it or the screw or both at the same time decided to give up the ghost.  And for the second time in as may weekends I felt that sinking feeling you get when you know you have exceeded a part's mechanical limits.  I held in my hand a nicely rounded out Allen wrench and the socket portion of the screw matched the end perfectly.  It was time to go to bed and re-assess in the morning.  I put put things back together enough so that should I need to ride the bike before I finished I could and called it a night.

The next day I woke up knowing I had two options, neither of which I looked forward to:

1. Slot the top of the screw and hope that my impact driver would be able to loosen the screw.

2. Drill out top of the screw and try to use an EZ out to remove the remainder of the stuck screw and then possibly drilling and tapping the the hole if it would not come out.

Things were complicated again by not having a garage, while I had an extension cord it was not long enough to reach to the parking spot (that I'm "not supposed to be working on my bike in") where my bike was sitting at.  So I went for option one.  I grabbed a hammer, my impact driver and some chisels to slot the screw with.

For as as easily as the screw rounded out it did not relinquish to the chisel (which was made of some derivation of butter apparently) without a fight.  Eventually though I did have a slot in the top and I went to it with the impact driver.  The only issue was that there was a hole in the center of the crew so the flat head bit only had a small area to act on which ended up not being enough and the bit also succumbed to the screw!  By this point I was pissed and determined to get this screw out.  I was going to take great satisfaction in watching that drill bit sink into the the head of that screw.

I finally decided that I was going to push my bike through the courtyard, between the two the two condo units and around to the other side of the porch from our condo so I could just throw the extension cord over the wall and power my droll and soldering iron from there.

This also had the added benefit of being out of the sight of most of the residents not that I think any of them actually care if I work on my bike or not but there's always one legal eagle in each bunch that seems to pop up so it was nice to be able to be able to work with a little less scrutiny.

The drill did the trick I made sure to start with a bit that was just slightly larger than the hole in the center and worked my way up until the head of the screw broke free to avoid any snapped bits with the way the day was going I felt that was a real possibility!  After I got the head off the screw I lifted off the tank and found a nice surprise.  See the video below:

So at least I didn't have to use the EZ-out or tap a hole!  Obviously I didn't have an exact replacement around so I found the tiny section of metric fasteners at Home Depot and used the closest thing I could find.

Here's a shot of the final product installed and ready to go.

All that work took me the bulk of the Saturday.  At least the parts that were cool enough to want to hop on a motorcycle and go for a ride.   I was hoping to get out that day and check out a view that I was told about by our on-site maintenance guy (Clay).  He is a beekeeper as well and was telling me that he had some hives up on Mount Vaca which is the highest mountain in the area.  He had mentioned how he had hiked up to the very peak and said that the view was spectacular being that you could see down into the valley on one side and out to the bay the other direction.  I had been meaning to check it out for a couple of weeks and it looked like I had missed the chance that day.

I need to break away from the the story for a moment and go off on a side track for the rest of the story to (hopefully) make sense.  This particular weekend was the weekend before the seven year anniversary of a good friend of mine's death.  His name was Jeremy Eckerman.  I was not with him at the time of his death but he was out on a weekend river rafting trip; the kind where you party at the campground and then hop on a raft and party all say as the river carries you along.  The Wolf River has a lot of cliff areas and and people sometimes stop to climb up to the tops and jump off into the river.  Jeremy had decided to do that this particular day.  Back then we were all pretty hard charging partiers and I'm sure Jeremy was "feeling pretty good" by that point.  Accounts differ but he either lost his footing and fell or jumped from the 20' cliff and while he was on his way down he hit his head against the cliff.  When he landed in the thirteen feet of water he never came back to the surface.  Rescue divers found him later and he was pronounced dead.

As I mentioned Jeremy was a partier but in many other ways he liked to grab live by it's horns and shake the best out of it.  He was a wild-man, outspoken, funny, and sensitive when you least anticipated it.  I think most of his friends (myself included) prefer to believe that Jeremy jumped that day grasping at the highest fruit on the tree of life experiences than to to think that he was just the hapless victim of a drunken misstep.

In the years following Jeremy's death we tried to commemorate his passing by getting blindingly drunk and partying to the later hours of the night.  However as time passes you just have to come to accept that while Jeremy will forever be 27 years old we have gone on living and are getting older.  I decided that this year; instead of getting hammered alone at home that I would try and commemorate Jeremy's life by attempting some other sort of "Ecker-manly" act.  As my Saturday was drawing to a close I was sitting in my living-room about to have a beer and then go to bed when it dawned on me.  If that view from Mix Canyon Rd was so spectacular during the day then it must be just as spectacular if not more at night!  It was 10pm and the temps were going down and I said "fuck-it" grabbed my gear and headed out to the bike.

Mix Canyon Rd is only about a half an hour ride from my house so it didn't take long to get there and once there, it didn't take me too long to figure that this would definitely fill my "Ecker-Manly" act quota. Mix Canyon road it turns out is as narrow as a driveway at points and except for the lights on the porches of the few homes that are sparsely scattered along the road there is absolutely no lighting along the road.  It snakes it's way up Mount Vaca with very steep inclines and tight sometimes off camber turns.  With only the FZ's headlights (which are quite bright even without the high beams on) to guide my way up the road I found that on an ascent such as this they were not the most effective.  With the bike point it's way up the incline whenever the road flattened or dipped it just looks like you are riding into blackness as the headlight is still pointing up.  Another issue is that with an unpainted single lane road with a 2-4 inch lip where the pavement ends and transitions to a ditch or a steep drop you really want to be able to judge your bikes position on the road but the headlights give you a sort of tunnel vision and while they illuminate your way forward I could not see to the sides of my bike.  Consequently the five mile trek up to where the road becomes gravel was completed at 10-15mph.

Speaking of the gravel it took me about 100 yards to realize that I was on it.  Clay had warned me about this and suggested that I hike the rest of the way up.  Being night time I did not want to try that but I was keeping an eye out for the road transition.  I reached a point where the road flattened and widened to what appeared to be a turnaround  and that was when I noticed that I was on the pavement/gravel transition.  I eased the bike to a stop and looked around I was definitely up as high as I was going to be getting that night.  I could see that the road was just as narrow as before but there was a wide gravel/sand turnaround area.  I cranked my handlebars to the left and started to back the bike up to get it perpendicular to the roads path so I could drop down off the roads 2-4" lip down to the turnaround area.  Feathering the clutch and covering the front brakes I eased the FZ's front tire off the road when it hit what I anticipated to be hard-pack sand and gravel the front site sunk another 4-5 inches into some very loose gravel having both feet on the ground for balance I only had the front brake and when I touched it to slow the bike the front end washed out and went down and just like that for the second time in as many weeks I was staring at my bike on it's side.

I shut it off and picked it up and wheeled it over to a flat spot put the kick stand down, got out my flashlight and inspected things and the bike was none the worse for wear.  I hopped back on thumbed the starter and she fired right back up and I proceeded to make my way back down the road.  As soon I made it around the first bend I realized that in my intent to not die on the way up I had not noticed the breathtaking views going on behind me.  I made it a quarter of a mile back down the road when I discovered another turnout where it looked like campers or highschoolers looking for a place to drink beer might stop and hang out and enjoy the view. I decided to do the same.

The above video shows nothing of what I saw when I was up there.  Some things I guess just aren't meant to be shared with the world.  I was high enough up and far enough away from the city lights to be treated with a bowl of a starry sky above me with a bright moon and a twinkling jewel of a city down in the valley.  It was the perfect place to take in the silence and stillness and feel a little bit closer to my friend than possible in my day-to-day existence a perfect moment so shortly after such a failing one was unanticipated.

The trek back down the mountain was just as treacherous I alternated between braking and engine braking so as not to over cook either with the most unnerving part coming when I encountered an oncoming vehicle and not being able to see the sides of the road thought I was going to fall off the edge.  When I made it home I had that beer I had been intending to earlier and went to sleep feeling much more accomplished than I would have had I just stayed home not to mention more at peace.

The next morning I realized that when the bike had tipped over on the mountain the gate opener for out Condo complex (basically a garage door opener) must have fallen out of my tank bag.  Knowing exactly where it should be I decided to take the opportunity that morning to go back up the mountain and take some daytime pictures (below) and the above video.

That's it for me for now.  I already have the content amassed for my next post (an impromptu ride to Monterey and Laguna Seca Raceway for the MotoGP race) I will try and get that put together for you ASAP.

Until then I hope you've enjoyed this post and as always; Thanks for reading!

San Francisco Ride Report

I decided that this weekend that I would ride into San Francisco and do some urban exploring.  I figured that might be a better idea rather than venture out on the “B” roads and sharing them with the holiday weekenders.  My main destination I picked out was Baker Beach, it would give me the opportunity to ride some of the bridges in leading in and out of the city and do a little exploring as well.

Vacaville to Baker Beach

Crossing the Golden Gate was anticlimactic the fog was so thick that aside from seeing the cables on either side of the road it was just another ride on a road.  I couldn’t see anything over 100 yards away.
When I was looking for the entrance to Baker beach I got a little sidetracked and found myself at Battery Godfrey   I had read about the coastal guns at some point so it was cool to see one of them in person.

Temperature-wise it was pretty cool up at Battery Godfrey I was glad I wore the Tourmaster Transition jacket and not the Joe Rocket Reactor mesh jacket.  When unobstructed by the low-lying clouds there is apparently a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge from this location.

Here is a shot of one of the bunkers to the left is where one of the guns was mounted.

You don’t really get a sense of scale here but this mount is around 5 feet in diameter.

The view down the cliff was impressive, check out a short video I shot below.

I eventually made back downhill to the beach, I had brought some shorts to change into in case it was warm enough to chill at the beach for a bit but I was comfortable enough in my riding gear walking around and taking pictures.

I did get a shot of the Golden Gate bridge (sort of) you can see the footings of one of the bridge towers in the background.

After all that cool weather I was ready for a little coffee so I searched on the iPhone for a coffee shop and I was getting a little hungry too. The Blue Bottle Coffee at the Mint Plaza Location had some great ratings so I headed there.

Baker Beach to Blue Bottle Coffee: Mint Plaza Location

There was motorcycle parking right outside the plaza unfortunately I only had thirty cents in loose change so I had to plug the meter with what I had and run into the shop and get some change.  There was quite a line but the staff said it would be cool if I went up and just grabbed some change from the cashier.  I plugged the meter and got in line.  It took about 10 minutes to wait in line which went out the door and wrapped around the building.  The décor had a theme to it but the café was pretty crowded and people were not filtering out quick enough to afford everyone a spot.  I lucked out and got a seat right away though.  I sampled their Espresso along with a Grilled Cheese Served on Acme Sweet Bread with Beemster Cheese, Ham, and Piquillio Pepper & Grain Mustard.  The Grilled cheese was outstanding and just what the doctor ordered.  The shot of espresso was intense which I liked but it was small.  Normally I like to chill out at a at a Coffee Shop but this one was so busy I packed up and headed out as soon as I was done with lunch.  I decided to take The Bay Bridge out of town and stop off on Treasure Island to take in some of the sights.

Blue Bottle Coffee to Treasure Island

Crossing the bay bridge was more gratifying, even though you are covered by the top deck when you are leaving the city the views off to the left and right were pretty breathtaking.  Traffic moved pretty reasonably on the bridge so lane-sharing was not necessary which I had read some interesting threads on the Bay Area Riders Forum or BARF; regarding commuting on this bridge.

Here is a shot of the bay bridge and San Francisco.

A shot of Alcatraz.

A nice panorama including both.

One of me.

Treasure Island to Vacaville

One thing that I am still getting used to is the buffeting you take when you are riding along the interstate.  In Wisconsin on the Interstate traffic moves around 70-75mph.  Here the fast lane travels at around 80mph or faster.  Apparently my body isn’t used to that sort of sustained buffeting yet and adding crosswinds to the mix by the time I got home I was pretty beat down.   That was after around 140 combined miles and maybe 2.5 hours of combined riding time.  I’m now thinking that longer interstate rides will need to be built up to.  The 230 miler that was on mostly “B” roads didn’t take nearly as much out of me; it must be the sustained high speeds.

That’s about it for me today I just wanted to share the moto-portion of my Memorial Day weekend with you I hope that you all had a safe and enjoyable weekend as well!

Lets Go to the Park!

Yesterday was a nice day; it was in the low 70s and just the kind of day that makes you want to be outside!  Now of course, not every day can be an epic motorcycle ride when you are existing "With Only A Motorcycle" and truthfully all days shouldn't be.  Maybe that is just me saying that to make myself feel good about being (like most people) entrenched in wage servitude.  I don't say wage slavery because when I do finally complete my training and I am back to being a system operator I am sure that I will find the job to be engaging and rewarding.  But of course there will be days that I'd much rather just hop on the motorcycle and go for a ride and since I don't have that luxury it is still a form of servitude although a willing one most of the time.

Once again I am getting a little sidetracked at the off but my point being when I'm not out on an epic ride one of the things that I like to do besides swilling down overpriced coffee so I can have internet access to publish this blog is to read a good book about Philosophy and if the weather is nice; I like to do it outdoors perhaps at a park.  If I was not at the Extended Stay America maybe I'd have a porch to sit on as well but for now the park is a good option.  In the first two pictures in this post you can see that I did indeed go to a park (Andrews Park to be specific) and it was indeed a beautiful day for it.  Unfortunately being solo-moto means that in order to go to a park and enjoy it as a park should be (in shorts, flip flops and sunglasses) you run into one of the ever present modern motorcyclist conundrums.  Do I really need all that protective gear?  What could possible happen?  It's too hot to wear all this crap.  Riding in shorts and a t-shirt feels awesome (it does).  I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I have never ridden without gear or that I will never do it again.  

In fact last summer I had a run of a few weeks where I rode my 1979 Suzuki GS425L in just jeans, t-shirt and sunglasses and closed toe shoes.  It felt amazing, for some reason the standard UJM format of the bike just made it easier to not take safety as serious as I would hopping onto my old...

...2002 Suzuki SV650s or my current 2001 Yamaha FZ1.  I felt like a badass and a rebel all at once rolling around on that old hunk of steel and aluminum with all of its 30-ish horsepower.  In fact the only thing that would have made me fee more badass would have been a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one of my sleeves and maybe one in my mouth (eat your heart out James Dean). 

Now comes the part where I complain; for the most part nowadays I ride with a bare minimum of jeans, my mesh jacket, gloves, helmet and steel toe boots (sometimes I go with a regular closed toe shoe if I am sick of the boots).  When I am going on a serious ride I wear more serious gear.  So I could go to the park in jeans but in my mind that just doesn't work I need to be in shorts so I got dressed in the way I wanted to be (shorts t-shirt) and then put on all the gear you see in the above pictures and the two below.  My textile riding over pants, mesh jacket, riding gloves helmet and closed (non steel toe) shoes.  I threw some flip flops and my Philosophy book into the tank bag and headed out.

Before I even got down the hallway down the one flight of stairs and out of the lobby; the back of my legs were sweating from the knee down.  Basically, for whatever reason whenever my skin makes contact with the material inside those pants my legs sweat and the material inside the pants then clings to my legs.  If I'm wearing full length pants underneath I wouldn't sweat in the same temperature; it's irritating to no end.  Now some have suggested that some light undergarment like warm weather Under Amour would be more comfortable than jeans and take care of the stickiness when I'm out for ride and I agree and will try that for my rides, but the last thing I want to be wearing when I go to the park is a pair of basically spandex leggings.

After I arrive at the park comes the next awkward portion of the endeavor I then have to in public take off my shoes one at a time and transition to the flip flops and then proceed to take off my pants, of course I have shorts on underneath but I can't imagine what it must look like to an onlooker.  It's just not ideal, lets say that.  Once I got changed and was chilling in the middle of the lawn you see in the second picture from the top I was at peace again.  I always knew that being solo-moto would complicate some things so I'm not disheartened but the trip to the park just venting a bit.  Maybe someone who has been solo-moto for a while will be able to share some ideas and strategies for this sort of situation.

In other news, I survived my first two rainy days with little real exposure to the elements; just lucky timing really so I haven't gotten a change to really test my riding gear's waterproofing yet.

I also received my official California driver’s license (complete with M certification)!  Slowly but surely converting to a Californian.

Thanks for checking out the blog today!  Hopefully I'll have another ride report for you after the weekend!

Clear Lake Ride Report (230 Miles Logged)

Click Here to see an active Google map of my route.

Hey everyone!  I went for a ride up north to Clear Lake today and unlike last weekends ride this one was about perfect.

You may notice that the route I wrote up on paper the night before the ride varies from the link I shared at the top of the post.  We'll get to that in a bit.

I woke up at 0615 threw some coffee on, did the normal morning routine stuff and made some breakfast.  I wanted to be on the road by 0700.  I'm not sure if I had mentioned this before but wearing the textile pants without a pair of jeans underneath did not go so well on my first ride.  The inside material gets clingy if you start to sweat and it's just not comfortable; so this time around I decided that I was going to wear jeans underneath and should I get too hot I would take the textile riding pants off and just wear the jeans.  It turns out that I made the right decision, while I was anticipating a hot day it actually stayed cool and I was able to ride with the textile jacked (sans liner) and the textile pants (with the jeans underneath) all day long with no issue.  Actually, there were points on the ride where I had wished that I had the jacket liner!

36.2 miles in on Berryessa Knoxville Rd after turning off of CA 128: I had pulled off the to take a picture and as soon as the tires hit the gravel I remembered that I most likely got the flat from a well placed rock.  I made sure from then on only to pull over where there was a paved shoulder.  I also made sure that I kept an eye out for rocks in the road as well and had a handful of times where I had to adjust my line mid-turn to avoid some rocks.  Though if I was still riding in Wisconsin I'd be dealing with loose gravel in almost every turn at this time of the year so no complaints. 

39.3 miles in on Berryessa Knoxville Rd at a turnout, The giants bird's nest on the capacitor bank caught my attention.  It turns out that it's actually set up with a pedestal for a birds nest to be built there.  The view the other way was spectacular!

50.0 miles in on Berryessa Knoxville Rd.  Access denied... The road was blocked off for the Napa Valley Triathlon   They weren't going to let anyone go through until all the bikers (who were just starting to come out of the water) cleared the 7 mile stretch of road that shared my route.  They said that the wait would be an hour and a half.  Luckily I had cell reception and was able to use my iPhone to plot another route which is the one you see at the link at the top of the post.  They had "special event ahead" signs posted and I have run into cycling events on Sundays past in Wisconsin and had to adjust my route accordingly so no big deal.  The park ranger and the policemen were accommodating so nothing to do but find another way.  I do need to invest in a good paper map that has all the smaller roads on it though.  This making a list of turns and hoping that everything goes to plan is going to bite me one of these times.

72.8 miles in on Pope Valley Rd I just though the clouds over the mountains in the distance looked cool.  Snapped a self-pic while I was at it.

123.1 miles in at Library Park in Lakeport, CA off of CA 29. A shot of the FZ, a couple of the lake and one of me with pretzels in my mouth.  At this point of the ride I was feeling pretty chilly; that's what 9 days in the 90's will do to you.  High 60s feel cold already.

168.8 miles in At Bear Creek Vista Point Overlook off of CA 20.  I just so happened to see the sign for the Scenic view and decided to pull off and take a couple of pictures.  This whole area must have had a wildfire go through the area as there were a lot of larger trees that looked scorched.  I really wish that I had a go-pro so I could have caught some footage of the CA 20/26 portion of the ride.  The roads were perfect CA 20 with long high speed sweepers that flowed together with easy transitions and CA 16 running pretty much downhill the whole way through a canyon that was cut out by the Bear Creek.  Just outstanding and the view was breathtaking,

Back at the hotel with 232.1 miles for the day roughly 6 hours of seat time (that's counting stops and a lunch break) not too bad.  I do have a couple of random thoughts that happened after the ride...

...Lucas Oil chain lube has to be the shittiest, runniest, stickiest chain lube ever made; I will never buy it again...

...This guy parked like a moron... That is all.

Hope you enjoyed the write-up should anything come up throughout the week I will make sure and share it here.  Thanks for reading!