Ready to Hit the Town?

This week’s rides have been pretty similar and marked by a common theme: I’m feeling ready to start taking my Ural Patrol around town.

• Did have an interesting evening with finding neutral. I’d been riding around for about an hour, and suddenly I just could not find neutral. Kept slipping into second, and stalling whenever I thought I had neutral. Went home, tried a few more times, and gave it up for the next day. Began to wonder what I would do if something was wrong with the clutch…
• Next day, no worries. I spent some time just practicing neutral, and had no problems. I just hadn’t been feeling it out right. See “The Key to Finding Neutral on a Ural” for more.
• Down to 40 lbs. of ballast in the sidecar tub, and have had no problems. If anything, it’s been more fun to remember to shift my body weight a bit more.
• Found an area where a housing development is going to go. Streets are paved, but no houses yet — perfect area to practice some techniques. There are some good but slight curves, plus a long straight stretch perfect for accelerating, shifting and braking exercises. There’s also a turn-in that’s handy for working on steering in reverse.
• Some of the stop signs are on some short but pretty steeply angled slopes. The streets have all been residential, with virtually no traffic. They’ve given a great low-pressure environment to come to a smooth stop, shift into neutral, and then work on shifting into first, releasing the front brake and working on that sweet-spot combo of rear brake, clutch and first gear, for a smooth transition from full stop to pulling into traffic while on a slope.

The Patrol Loop

I haven’t been back up to 55mph on the Northwest Expressway yet, but will be soon. I’d like one more day of practice in clear weather and light traffic before getting out there more “for real”. However, I have been getting in more kms at higher speeds, 35-45 mph, and that’s been a big help to work on smoother shifting, handlebar grip and body position.

I’ve also been doing a big loop for more experience at different speeds, stoplights (and finding neutral at them) and riding in traffic:

• Neighborhood streets at 25mph, in second gear mostly, to work the engine and warm up the bike, then
• River Road at 40-45mph, leveraging third and getting some quality time in fourth), plus stoplights, changing lanes, checking mirrors, looking over my shoulder but keeping the rig in a straight line, etc., then
• Maxwell Road at 35-40 mph, nice straight stretch when I can lay the throttle on healthy, then
• Back to the neighborhood and soon home to whip up some grub

This wee “Patrol Loop” has been a big confidence booster. It’s real-world driving, at rush hour, on some of the area’s busier roads. Stack it all up, and I’m feeling more and more all growed up, and ready to start taking the bike around town.

First Day at 55 mph. Or 88.5 kph. Whatever you want to call it

Bordering our neighborhood is the Northwest Expressway, a somewhat out-of-the-way, not-too-trafficked 2-lane 55mph highway. In other words, the perfect road for me to start working on my highway-speed chops.

On Sunday afternoon, I did some warm-up riding around the neighborhood, then ventured to an on-ramp. My goal was just to wait for a very clear stretch of road, so no traffic would be behind me. Then I’d get on the expressway, accelerate to highway speed and take the first exit, not far up the road.

I did this twice (then came home so Jodie and I could take our first ride with Ella). Here are some observations:

• That’s a lot of wind smacking into your torso. Will take some getting used to. Also need to start pricing fairings.
• Acceleration takes longer. The only vehicle I’m used to on highways is our Hyundai Elantra, and that has some decent get-up-and-go. With the Ural, it takes longer to get up to speed.
• It’s not easy to shift smoothly at higher speeds. Especially when you’re nervous and still working out the kinks of moving at a faster speed while also trying to get up to and maintain that highway speed. Shifting was rough, and I swerved myself a little. That’ll smooth out over time.

It was a good exercise. I got on a highway, I got the Ural up to 55mph, and I made it through in one piece. This weekend I’ll be trying again, and should also be getting farther up the road too.

• Gas Price Per Gallon: $3.559
• Gallons: 4.009
• Fuel Total: $14.27
• Tripmeter at fuel-up: 135km/84 miles (approx)
• Date & Time: Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008, 5:42 p.m.
• Gas Station: Jerry Brown CFN, 2690 Prairie Road, Eugene, Oregon
• Fuel: “V-Power” 91 octane (some Ural owners say they don’t go for the high-test; I respect their opinions, but for my money, I’m going to listen to what the manual says and pony up the extra coins per gallon)
• Note to self: At next fill-up, try to track approx. kilometer-per-gallon/ miles-per-gallon

Putt-putt-stall

I’d intended to post up something entirely different today, but this evening’s ride turned out to be very post-worthy. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday afternoon, we picked up Jodie’s silver, size small, HJC CL-15 helmet (just like mine) at Eugene’s Discount Motorcycle Parts.

Since our helmets are identical, we had to find a way to tell them apart. So we found her a wee sticker for the back of her helmet. It says, “Foxy Rider”. Hell yes she is!

More smiles per gallon

The day we got the Ural, Jodie had gotten to sit in the sidecar, but this was the first time that we actually got to ride around together. We’d been looking forward to this for a couple of days, as I finally felt confident enough for her to start going around the neighborhood with me. (We also tried to ride with Ella, but so far she’s not adjusted enough to her doggles or the bike in motion. She’ll be riding around with us soon enough though.)

I did feel a little nervous, since this was my first time driving the sidecar with an actual passenger, instead of some bags of pellets. On the plus side, pellets don’t shift their weight on turns. Jodie did just fine, leaning with me and the bike on turns and curves.

Driving up the Happiness Factor

Driving the Ural already has been an exercise in seeing lots of smiles and waves. At the risk of sounding a bit corny, these crazy Russian sidecar rigs bring a bit of happiness to people.

Riding around with an actual passenger, however, drives that happiness factor up exponentially. The entire time we were out, people were waving. Grinning. Tapping their walking buddy on the arm and pointing. Seeing two people on the bike, not just one, made a big difference. Jodie and I got a big kick out of all the smiles and waves.

Back home, Jodie was all smiles too. “I loved it!” she told me after we took off our helmets.

I knew she was the perfect hack monkey. And such a foxy one, too.

Something like 3-6, anyway

I’m not really counting, that’s for sure. Usually I’m too busy trying to remember which gear I’m in, so when I stop the Patrol I can get it down to first and then into neutral smoothly.

Moments of firsts

The past few days have been a mix of riding and non-riding days, but there have been some interesting moments of note — most of them moments of “firsts”:

• First night-time ride. One evening I threw on my fleece and leather jacket, and hit the road. Got the feel of riding with my headlight, and gauging distances in the dark — including distances between the tub and curb. Not too different than in daylight, but a little bit. Or, to put it another way, that nighttime ride is the only time where I’ve rolled the sidecar wheel over a curb. So far.
• First real roads. On, let’s see, Thursday or Friday, I felt confident enough to get a real road. One with, like, other cars. And stoplights. And cyclists. Real-world stuff, man. The street is called Maxwell, and it’s a feeder street connecting two main roads and a lot of neighborhoods. I was riding during rush hour, and while Maxwell isn’t terribly busy, it has a good share of cars. Didn’t have any problems (well, save for stalling once while trying to shift into neutral at a stop sign). Even aced my first stoplight.
• First time swearing into my helmet. Today I made my first (brief) venture out onto River Road — turned left from a stoplight onto rush-hour River Road, a much busier street. Rode up it a few blocks, intending to make a left at another stoplight to get back to puttering around neighborhood streets. As I approached the turn lane, some idiot tried to turn left by cutting across the turn lane — luckily it was before I was occupying that space, but I did feel ready with some swerve skills on stand-by. The idiot turned; I let loose a volley of curses and insults into the padded interior of my helmet. But at least the Patrol and I were still in one piece.
• Shedding ballast. For today’s ride, I felt it was time to start shedding a little ballast. Now my Patrol is riding with 80 lbs. of ballast (instead of the original 120 lbs.) — one 40-lb. bag of stove pellets in the tub, and one 40-lb. bag of stove pellets in the trunk. The next time I shed ballast — probably another week or so — I’ll remove the bag from the trunk, leaving only the bag in the tub.
• 100km! On Saturday, the bike crossed the 100km (or 62 miles). And she’s runnin’ fine.
• The most important first actually merits its own post. On Saturday, Jodie rode in the sidecar for the first time.

10K a Day

My goal for these first couple of weeks has been to average 10km, or about 6 miles, per day. So far that’s been working out well. My “clutch chops” are improving, as is my non-slouchy riding posture (still keeping an eye on that). We didn’t ride yesterday, so to make up for it I did 20km (~12.5 miles) today. Felt great.

Mechanically, the bike and I are getting a better feel for one another (YMMV):

• At start-up, I pull both enricheners before starting the engine. While listening to the sound of the engine, after 15-30 seconds the engine will start to struggle, due to the richer fuel mixture. With the bike in neutral and the parking brake on, I push in both enricheners and let the bike warm up for 5-10 minutes. Am trying to increase the warm-up to 10 minutes consistently — less than that, and the first couple of kilometers are marked by a lot of put-putting, especially while in first. Rolling on more throttle seems to help though.
• Neutral isn’t quite the enigmatic beast it was a few days ago, but we’re still not entirely sure of one another yet. Today at stop signs I was having trouble finding neutral, and stalled a couple of times. Mainly it seems I’ve been having trouble counting down and making sure I’m in first before trying to shift into neutral. To improve this, I’m working on double-checking my shifting, counting gears, and really checking the feel of the bike when I start shifting towards neutral.
• Turns rock. Man do I love curves. And turning a bike is fun too. Even at these lower speeds in the neighborhood, cornering and turning is what it’s all about. Also getting a better feel for how much I need to shift weight and downshift as I enter turns.
• Speaking of shifting weight, I’ve also been working more just on nudging the handlebars and shifting my weight, say to motor past a dodgy-looking object in the road. It’s amazing how little weight shift it takes — even with my wee 135-lb. frame — to affect the direction of the bike.

Overall, I’m feeling really good about my progress on my Ural Patrol so far. There’s still plenty of rough spots to work on (smooth shifting, neutral, etc.), but all told, I’m feeling much more confident on the bike now. Getting to go on a ride with Jodie in the sidecar was also very bolstering. By the end of the week, I’m hoping to be out on more of the “real world streets”, and getting the throttle up some more too.

Pre-Trip Check

Today, my second day in the Ural saddle, I wanted to do a couple of things:

• Get the hang of reverse
• Practice shifting
• Practice some of the things we went over in the Adventure Sidecar course, such as braking while in a turn
• And, well, rip around the neighborhood some more, of course

Date: Sun., Feb, 17, 2008, 1-3 p.m.

Conditions: A little chilly and foggy at first, but soon the fog had burned off and the day was bright and warm. Still glad I wore my insulated gloves.

Area: River Road (my neighborhood)

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-Trip Check

Learning to crawl: Since I’m a newbie not only at sidecar rigs, but at motorcycling itself, it’s going to be a while before I venture out of our neighborhood. For my first ride, I spent about an hour or two just cruising around our area, Eugene’s River Road. At the risk of being over-cautious, I’m not in a hurry to see so much as a stoplight. I’m going to err on the “learn to crawl before I can walk” side of sidecar driving.

Passenger Pellets: For the first few weeks too, my only passengers are 3 bags of stove pellets (one in the trunk, 2 in the tub). At 40 lbs. a bag, or 120 lbs. total, this is the perfect amount of ballast for me to start with. Jodie and Ella will ride along only once I feel comfortable with riding the rig in traffic.

Date: Sat., Feb, 16, 2008, 3-5 p.m.

Conditions: Sunny and warm (high 50s?). I express my thanks to the motorcycle gods for an uncharacteristically perfect February day for my Patrol to arrive.

Area: River Road (my neighborhood)

Read the rest of this entry »