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So, I’ve decided to keep a record of all my stupid bike drops. There are all sorts of ways to drop your motorcycle. Some folks almost never do, and then there are those like me, that do it all the time. I’ve decided to keep my sense of humor about it, and post them.

Bike: Buell Blast

Drop #1 I was being a good little noobie, and doing my parking lot practice. I’d felt like I just, finally, nailed my figure 8, and hopped off the bike to move my cones and do it again. I was only going to be off the bike for a minute, so I was going to leave it running. Put down the kick stand, swung my leg off and dropped the clutch. Would have been great, but I’d neglected to put the bike in neutral. Drove it right off the kick stand and onto the ground. Woo Hoo! Got my first one out of the way. Left side drop.

Drop #2 I’d been riding for about a month, but was still struggling with the clutch. The Blast had a lot of low end torque and it scared me a little. I stopped at an intersection and got ready to turn left. Lefts also bother me for some reason. And to add to the stress, I was headed slightly uphill. I stalled, and stalled and stalled. The last stall, I lost it to the left. I tried to save it, but no dice, hurt my arm and fell down. OK, this one really bothered me. Bike wouldn’t start, front turning signal broken. Eventually the bike started up again, but I was wondering if I was cut out to be a rider. I thought briefly about just loading the bike up on the truck, and heading home with my tail between my legs. But instead I want back to camp, and built the fire for the evening and waited for everyone else to ride back in. It was the smart move. They had me talk it through, and found my error. A common one it turns out. The bike starts much easier in first gear than second. Double check to make sure I’m in first, and my stalling on starts magically disappeared. I’m glad I stuck with it and asked for the help.

Drop #3 It had been a good summer. I was getting comfortable with riding and had learned a lot. Just a little too comfortable as it happened. I stopped at an orchard to pick some early season apples. I’d parked sideways in the grass on a hillside. I loaded up the apples in my tail bag and hopped on the bike. I gotten so casual, I used the momentum from mounting to swing the bike upright. Which would have been fine, but when my right leg looked for the ground, it wasn’t there. The more I hunted the worse it got until it went all the way over. Doh!

Drop #4 So after a long season, I’d gotten very lazy in my techniques. I was making a u-turn. I had a wide road with shoulders on both side. Across the road was a driveway for extra room if I needed it. Now the Blast didn’t need any of this, but I hadn’t practised in months. So I make this wide turn, run onto the shoulder and into the driveway, but I’m suddenly running out of room because the entrance to the driveway is actually a bridge over the stream running along the side of the road. I either need to crank it back on the road or stop, ’cause I’m headed into the stream. Stab on the brakes, bike is still leaned over to the left, so straight to the ground. I stood there and laughed. How did I screw up? Let me count the ways. But if I’d just turned my head and looked where I wanted to go all would have been fine. And really, parking lot practise is probably a good idea.

So a grand total of four drops for the season, three to the left and one to the right. Damage done, two turning signals (same one twice), and a few scratches. Nothing to make me quit riding. I was really looking forward to the next year.

I’ve been exploring the custom luggage rack problem. The more I look into it, the more I realize that I don’t know enough about metals to make my own, so I’ve talked to some professionals. I talked to a welder in town, and he had a hard time coming up with a number. But he seems like a good guy. There were two kids dirt bikes up against the building, and a cruiser out back. He did seem interested in the problem, and knew what I was looking for. But said he’d have to spend at least an hour just staring at it to get a handle on what needs to be done. But when I let him know I wouldn’t hold him to a number, he said around $300. Then I decided to check into a custom motorcycle shop. Felt very awkward, but I got over it. Interestingly enough, the Chop Shop had just as hard a time coming up with a number. The project is apparently fiddly whether or not you done it before.  These guys have built custom racks for metric sport bikes. His number was higher, $500, but I got the impression he highballed it. He did say it might be less, and it definitely would be less in the winter.

So, now I’ve got some decisions to make.  The cost of the custom rack is reasonable no matter which number it turns out to be closer to. The question is: how long am I going to keep the bike? I love the Blast. It’s so much fun to ride, but I know that eventually I’m going to want a bigger bike. The Blast just isn’t long enough to carry clothing, camping gear and my photo equipment. And truth be told, I really like the Triumph Bonneville. I’m probably a good enough rider already to be comfortable with the Bonnie now. But, it’s twice the price of the Blast, so I’d not have much money after making payments. If I did buy a Bonneville, I’d still need to spend money on luggage racks, although there are off the shelf options. Plus, I’d want things like engine guards and highway pegs.

The main competitor for my motorcycling money is training. There’s the experienced rider course, the Women’s Riding School, Lee Parks Total Control, a dirt riding couse, maybe a cheap dirt bike for my own practice. Turns out riders with dirt experience are substantially under represented in motorcycle accident statistics. Since I don’t want to become a statistic myself, I want to know whatever it is that dirt riders know that keeps them out of accidents. And considering the kinds of “roads” I keep finding myself on, dirt experience is certainly transferable to the kind of riding I seem to do.

It’s going to be a difficult decision. I’ve always believed that tools don’t make the craftsman. And a skilled craftsman can make art with any tool available. But jobs are always easier when you match the tool, the job and the craftsman. I’ve matched the camera to me the budding photographer. While I can’t currently push the limits of the D200, and I may never do so, it’s comfortable for me, and never gets in my way. The limits are all mine. The Blast is just a ton of fun, but I’ve got a sense already what it’s limits are. The Bonneville looks to be the motorcycle equivalent of a prosumer SLR.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The higher seat came in today; I picked it up and rode it home. I secured the old seat across my tail bag by using the cargo net. Pretty odd looking. The guy at the parts counter said if anyone asks, I should just tell them it’s a three seater.

With the taller seat, it felt like a whole new bike. The seat is a bit hard, but the height feels pretty good. I think it really will solve the leg cramping problem. It’s gonna take some time to get used to it. It felt more like six inches than two. But I’m still flat footed at the lights.  I am glad that the Blast has a low center of gravity. But it’ll probably take a few hundred miles to get used to it.

So, since the bike is getting to be more what I want, the luggage problem really needs to be solved.  After looking at lots of Bonnie’s, the solo seat really caught my eye.  And I got to thinking that this sort of thing might be possible with the Blast. Take off the tail piece and you can get to the tail frame underneath. I’d need to have somebody fabricate some kind of new tail piece, but since I’d be getting the back of the stock seat cut off and rebuilt, what would be some more custom work. But as I spent a long time staring at the bike, a cheaper solution occurred to me.  I already own a lockable, waterproof hard case. It just isn’t a motorcycle case. The question has now become, how can I attach Pelican cases to the bike.  The first thing to do was to find a top loading Pelican case for the saddle bags. They make exactly 1 size of top loading cases. It’s about the same size as the 1500 case that I use for my camera stuff. The 1430 top loading case is deeper. But what would it look like on either side of the Blast? One cheap and easy way to find out. Camera, tripod, Photoshop.

I didn’t actually check the dimensions very carefully until this morning. I was mostly too impressed with my faked up boxes. The one I got completely wrong is the width of the side cases. I vastly underestimated it.  What I’ve got in the picture is about all the wider I want the cases to be. So, I spent a good bit of time rethinking the whole project. I looked at all sorts of cases: Givi E21′s, and Hepco-Becker Straykers both caught my eye. Both they both quickly run into serious money, and I’d still have to find someone to modify racks meant for other bikes. The only thing that would make these classy cases worthwhile is that I could then use them on any bike I purchased in the future. All I’d need to do would be to buy the racks for the new bike. But I’m still not ready to drop $500 plus to get cases right now. So back to the problem at hand; can I get Pelican cases to work?

While searching out more info on the Straykers, I wound up back on TriumphRat.net. Lo and behold, I’m not the first person to think of Pelican cases for a cheap solution to the lockable, waterproof cases. CatDaddy came up with super cheap brackets to hook 1400′s to the Bonneville. So, back to Pelican.com. While the top opening box is out, side opening cases might just do the trick. 1450′s are 14.5 liters of capacity, with outer dimensions of 16″x13″x6.9″, for $65 each at CaseClub. And I could even get Yellow! Seahorse has some competing cases. The most attractive one is the SE-520, which is just a little smaller at 13 liters, 14.9″x12.1″x6.8″. Just the case alone is $48, but they come with an option of locks on the latches. This would keep the cases looking a little less cheesy, because I wouldn’t need padlocks. $76 also at CaseClub.com. And as CatDaddy has done, all I really need is nuts and bolts, and a bent and drilled bit of 1″x1/8″ strapping.

For a top case, I can also run a couple of straps over the passenger seat and mount Givi’s E-250 universal adapter plate, and get a really nice trunk. Or in the short term, I could just buy some other giant Pelican, or Seahorse case to use as a hard tail box.

The problem with side opening saddle bags is that when you open them, the stuff will fall out. Pelican actually has some overpriced soft bags that fit the 1450. But I think screwing cargo netting into the cases will solve that problem much more cheaply. With all the holes I’d be putting into the cases, I might be compromising the waterproof quality of them. I think rubber gaskets and silicone sealant should solve that problem. The hard cases would give me plenty of room to put on new reflectors, or if I get ambitious, LEDs. I’d lose the place for my current helmet lock, but there’s plenty of room to hook up a new one.