Deer Park

I was supposed to finish a series of posts, one a day, but the next one is a monster, 44 images so far, so I’ll sneak this one in instead and finish it tomorrow.

In a radical step, I mounted a pair of Tractionator GPS’s in Windhoek. They’re a 50/50 tire. I’ve ridden with countless TKC/Heidenau pairs, and various others, but circumstances are pretty specific for the next 8000K to the next tire stop in Nairobi, which is how long I need these to last. A TKC front wouldn’t make it. Plus I’m expecting lots of rain and garbage-on-pavement, so the Heidenau won’t work there either.

I don’t know anyone who has tried these for very long distance riding. But I did some research. If I’ve got it wrong, I have a time consuming problem ahead. The question is, how well do they perform in the various circumstances, despite good reviews, which we’ll find out.

Not very knobby, ouch

And I’m not fond of the solid strip on the rear

But they have some characteristics that appeal to me. Because I may be wrong, I’ll keep my rationale to myself until a tire report here. I’m tracking mileage carefully, so will get back to you after the first 4000K

I need my GPS for something (not ride related) tomorrow (you’ll see) and noticed this on my track history. I was in an email chat 2 weeks ago with Tom D, Tom F and Tom R, who are all better riders than me, but not Tom H, who doesn’t ride) and was blithering again about the Heidenau K60 rear tire.

Below, in Kohima festival madness, the road had a side slope, the traffic was stop-and-go, and the road was wet from the uphill side.

The black dots are the same time intervals (you can see me blast way from the slow spot). I’m sliding downhill, drifting across the road almost at a standstill, completely lost grip at 3 mph. The traffic was slow enough to stop while I somehow stayed upright (hard to do when the rear is on ice) and and eased my way forward. Crazy

Close up

This happens with this tire when there’s new water over dirty pavement, everytime.

So why go through the scares? Because the K60 is the best (rear, but not front) tire when you want a combination of great wear, decent dirt handling and all-around robustness, specially if you have a powerful bike and the next possible new tire is 1000’s of k’s away.

So far since returning:

1 The new 15% bigger oil cooler borrowed from the HP2 megamoto seems to be doing the trick. We’re running one bar lower on the gauge. Haven’t had the ultimate test yet, hours of gridlock in 36C, but we’re optimistic.

2 Very happy to have mounted the TKC 80 front tire, despite the long haul to its replacement. Its been tested as we shoot off onto the sand and rubble for the last few days due to endless road construction.

3 The suspension tuning is awesome.

4 The new lighting switches have slightly compromised my old 3 X 680ml water bottle home. We didn’t think that would be a big deal, with other options, but the other options have turned out to suck a bit. So we may relocate them when we bump into an electrical guy at some point ahead.

5 I don’t know exactly what Alexmoto did when he worked on the shifter and gearbox, but for an agricultural setup, it’s silk.

We replaced the whole headlight system. The world has changed in 5 years. But this is pretty radical, running with pure Clearwaters on a (being used for ADV) ADV bike

Four lights there. 3 Darlas and 1 Erica. Total 12,000+ lumin. A car equipped with Halogens might produce 2800, a more expensive car with HID or LED around 6000 lumin. Clearwater lights are the state of the art. Made in America.

The controls are on this small dash, above a stock gauge and off my cluttered bar

There’s a thumb switch (out of shot) that turns all 3 Darla’s on. The switch above turns the Erica on. The top right dial brightens/dims the Erica, the bottom the 3 Darlas.

I haven’t ridden them in the dark yet. Report to follow.

These were the Darla side lights we installed in Melbourne, back on a night ride before Bandung, Java. Indonesia is tied for best country so far

Now we’re heading out again, the above photo reminds me of something. My below route (in green) from East Timor to Medan, Sumatra, maybe the best ride, the perfect combination of complicated and rewarding. Maybe a small-scale rehearsal for India