Parks and Wreck Creation Rally pics

We a great turnout for our first rally. We learned a lot over the weekend and I think next year will be even better.

Approximately 18 people showed up from Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, and Iowa. As usual, there were a few breakdowns, but most of the group survived. It was a lot of fun having other fast bikes here to ride with and seeing/discussing other people's setups.

Pictures here:
http://leftovermopeds.com/images/rides/10.11-parksandwreck/index.htm

Staging at Allen Park:


Cody's bike...super clean:


Waiting for the ride to start:


Riding through Ottawa:




Lunchbeers in Utica:


Hiking at Starved Rock:




Nail in tire on the way back:


Good thing he had Gazelles:


End of Saturday's ride:


I met back up with the group for more riding on Sunday.

Here is Seb's bike. I love this thing. It's fast and looks like no other bike. It's janky, but it runs well.


The Ciao finally fired up and ran well...until it soft seized at 45+ mph on a long downhill stetch:


Gravel roads in all directions:


Ripping the country roads:




There just happened to be a car show in the same campground where everyone stayed.  We crashed it for a little while:


Thanks again for making the trip out everyone. I personally had a great time.

Radium City Riders Present: Parks and Wreck Creation 10.1.11

New GPS mount and top speed

I was using an older Garmin Etrex, but when I found out that the newer Garmin Nuvi handlebar mounts are only $10 shipped, I decided to pick up one of those. I already had the Nuvi and I knew it was much better than the Etrex. This was a no-brainer.

New low profile mount:


Installed:




After it cooled off last night, I decided to take the Newport out to see how it would do. On level ground with a little bit of wind at my back, I managed to get a new top speed. This is the first time I've made it above 45. I've been thinking about upgrading my Estoril exhaust to something from Motion Left. I'm wondering if that will push me even farther.

No more blown tail lights

I think I finally have my tail light issue fixed. For a long time the bike ran fine with no tail light issues whatsoever. Then last year I started blowing them all the time. It got to the point where I couldn't even make it down the street and they would pop. Well, that obviously wasn't going to work. So, I stepped it up to a 12V lighting coil to go with my 12V voltage regultor, and that seems to have done the trick.

Now I'm running:
12V lighting coil from Treats
12V voltage regulator from Treats
12V light bulbs front and rear
Both head light and tail light wired on the same lighting coil and through the regulator

I had great intentions of taking pictures during the installation process, but I guess I got caught up in getting it done and I forgot. So, this is all I have. :)

Riding along Lake Michigan

I brought my Newport with me on a short trip last weekend. I took a few hours on Saturday to ride near the lake in both Michian and Indiana. It was perfect riding weather and the bike ran flawlessly. No complaints here.

long ride

Since neither of us could make the Chicago rally, we decided to do our own local ride. This is the farthest outside of town that either of us have gone. It felt good. The trip was just over 20 miles.

We were hoping to get some footage with Josh's new GoPro HD, but the battery ran out just as we left. We'll get it next time.

For now, here are a couple of pictures.





Shortly after I left Josh's place, my bike just died on me and I had to pull over. I quickly realized that I was out of gas. I've done a lot of quick jaunts on this bike, but no major long rides, so I guess I never really knew what kind of range I could expect out of a tank of gas. It turns out I can only go about 20 miles before I hit the reserve. I think that works out to be a little over 30 mpg. Interesting.

BBQ and mopeds

I had a few friends over this weekend for a BBQ. I'm pretty sure everyone I know in town with a moped showed up. It was great to have that many bikes together. Unfortunately, it rained on us quite a bit...otherwise I'm sure we would have been ripping all over town.