Ride Three

For Ural Sidecar Motorcycle Enthusiasts

This past Saturday, Jodie, Ella and I did a great day trip up Oregon’s Highway 126. The highway runs east of Eugene/Springfield, parallel to the beautiful McKenzie River towards the Cascade Mountains.

The trip went great, though we did have some issues with the bike stalling when we would stop.

I’ll be getting to all that soon. Not tonight though — I’m heading out to meet Jodie for a picnic dinner and then to see Garrison Keillor, who’s performing tonight for Eugene’s Oregon Bach Festival.

Stay tuned.

Highway 126/McKenzie River Day Trip, Oregon

• Gas Price Per Gallon: 4.599
• Gallons: 3.049
• Fuel Total: $14.02
• Tripmeter at fuel-up: 145.2 km/90.2 miles (approx)
• kpg/mpg (approx.) 48kpg/30mpg
• Odometer at fuel-up: 1282km/797 miles
• Date & Time: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 6:42 p.m.
• Gas Station: Pratts Leaburg Count., 42840 McKenzie Highway, Leaburg, Oregon
• Fuel: Premium (92 octane with 10% ethanol)

Notes on mileage: Definitely seeing better mileage with more consistent highway speeds and travel. No surprise there, but glad to see mileage in the 30s on today’s 100-plus mile road trip.

Highway 126/McKenzie River Day Trip, Oregon

• Gas Price Per Gallon: $4.659
• Gallons: 2.671
• Fuel Total: $12.44
• Tripmeter at fuel-up: 119.5 km/74.25 miles (approx)
• kpg/mpg (approx.) 45kpg/28mpg
• Odometer at fuel-up: 1136km/706 miles
• Date & Time: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 12:40 p.m.
• Gas Station: Santa Clara Chevron, 2785 River Road, Eugene, Oregon
• Fuel: Supreme (92 octane with up to 10% ethanol)

Notes on mileage: Tanked up before the McKenzie River/Highway 126 road trip. Off we go!

Thank you to David Strong, who asked me in an email:

You haven’t really mentioned your relationship with the hack recently in your Blog i.e how you feel when you hop onto it, warm it up etc?

I’ll do my best to answer that, David. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a big fan of my Air Vent Leather Motorcycle Jacket, from Taylors Leatherwear in Tennessee. With a comfortable fit and a stylish look, I’ve really been enjoying my jacket (as has a fellow reader and sidecarist who recently bought the same model — happy riding, Martin!).

In addition to the Air Vent Jacket, Taylors has a range of leather jackets. As a company who caters mainly to law enforcement, Taylors produces a high-quality, durable coat that just looks sharp. Not all jackets are motorcycle-specific, but all are worth a look, in part because of the range of styles.

Taylors used to sell online as well, but it looks like they’ve discontinued their online shop and are now directing customers to their dealer network. (Disclosure: I work for one of their distributors, but my job and Ride Three are not affiliated.)

Check out Taylors Leatherwear Jackets»

Ella has responded very well to being in the sidecar. She has become much more adept at getting into the sidecar on command, but one thing we have not sorted out yet is her riding on her own in the sidecar. We’ve been practicing that some, but more practice is needed.

Our first line of defense in keeping in the sidecar will be obedience, and making sure she perceives the sidecar as positive, a good place for a wee dog to be. But that’s not the only option, and we are keeping on eye on other solutions to keeping a dog in a sidecar, such as solutions shared in this Soviet Steeds discussion:

“How do you safely/securely rig your dog in the sidecar?” Follow the whole discussion: Soviet Steeds - Dog In The Sidecar

Leash? Harness? If we decide to install a physical means of keeping Ella in the sidecar, we’ll most likely look into the harness solutions discussed. That way if for some reason she did try to jump out of the sidecar, she could be stopped by a leashed harness, keeping the force of the stop spread over her body and not just her neck.

For now though, we’re going to focus on training. Ella is a very obedient dog, and I’m confident that all we need to do is practice more with just her and me riding, and her getting lots of praise for staying in the sidecar. We’ll see how she progresses.

Urals have arrived in Australia! At long last, too. gtrpete at ADV Rider attended and gave a great write-up and posted some photos: Aussie Ural Launch - ADVrider

Break a wrench, or just need some new wrenches? Keep an eye out for bargains at your local hardware, auto parts or home improvement store.

Jerry’s, our local home improvement store, had a sale going on some wee metric wrench sets. I snagged up 2 of wrench sets for $7 each. One set is now in the Ural’s toolkit in the trunk. The other set is in a drawer in the garage where we keep the bicycle tools and accessories.

Not a bad deal. $7 got me 9 metric wrenches, each with an open and ring end:

• 10mm
• 11mm
• 12mm
• 13mm
• 14mm
• 15mm
• 16mm
• 17mm
• 18mm

Adding these to my Ural toolkit also makes it easier to have 2 wrenches for a task – one to tighten the bolt, one to hold the nut.

Did I mention I’m not mechanically inclined?

Oops.

It might be chrome-vanadium and a decent toolkit as toolkits go, but if you still don’t know your lefty-loosey from your righty-tighty, then you’re gonna break s%&^.

So much for the 15mm end of this 14mm/15mm wrench.

On the plus side, I think I’m finally getting down the left/right thing. Mainly, I think lefty-loosey/ righty-tighty is a bunch of feckin’ nonsense. I can never get it set in my brain which way exactly constitutes left — they both can be left, to my odd mind.

How about just… clockwise for tighten, and counter-clockwise for loosen?

So far, that’s working for me. And the rest of the tools are still in one piece.

For now.

Seen a Ural in Eugene? Have questions about sidecar bikes? Here are some answers

Spotted an anachronistic sidecar motorcycle buzzing around Eugene? Did some investigative web surfing and wound up here? Here’s some skinny on sidecar motorcycles, particularly Urals, in Eugene, Oregon. Read the rest of this entry »