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Test Run

6 Mar

I loaded up a 6’8″ in a canvas Julie Bag for a test ride. I cruised on up the the newly opened Deus Ex Machina on Venice and Lincoln to show the crew there what they had helped inspire. (There was an article on Deus in The Surfers Journal that showed one of their surf rack modified bikes.) I was surprised at the reaction. The moment I pulled up they all piled out to check it out. I showed them around the bike, making lame excuses for my prototype PVC mount for the front, but they seemed pretty stoked. They took some photos. Much better than this one of the DR back in my little garage, board in rack. How did it work. Excellent-ly. 😉

Yes, bad photo. But this isn't the right board bag, so the good shots will come later. You can see the PVC poking out under the nose. That's been painted black. The bungie up front attached to a tie wrap that goes through a small but convenient hole in the frame behind the triple clamp.

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Board Support Up Front

6 Mar

A big concern has been how to support the front of the board and to keep it from hitting the front wheel or fender when turning, and to make sure it doesn’t get caught on the front brake cable. Since the racks are on the rear, they are only holding the back third of the surfboard, so wind and bumps will cause the front of the board to move around. Probably a lot. The DR650es has an oil cooler with a frame extension for protection. It’s a perfect place to mount some sort of stabilizer. For now, and maybe forever, I cobbled together a support piece out of PVC. Here’s the piece for mounting to the frame.

What's difficult to see here is how I cut the PVC to mount onto the frame tube.

Yes, working at night. I ended up putting a piece of neoprene between the PVC and the frame tube to keep the PVC from cracking and to give some shock absorption. Hose clamps are used to secure.

 

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Surf Racks Mounted

6 Mar

Mounting the Carver surf rack to the Manracks tail rack was almost straightforward. As you can see in this pic, one bolt looks different from the other. The Carver rack mounting bolts are LONG, and would drill into the fender, so I replaced the left side bolt with a shorter one, about 3″. Not seen here is that I put a third bolt in the center. That one is even shorter. It’s a solid mount.

You can see that the Carver surf racks clear the DBz luggage racks nicely. That was a relief.

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Carver Surf Racks

6 Mar

OK, down to the good stuff: Surf racks on a motorcycle. I checked Deus Ex Machina rack, but you can’t buy it without buying the motorcycle attached to it, and at this point they’re only doing street bikes. I also checked out the Surfer Peg rack, but again, it’s street oriented, and needs to attach to the frame. That’s not inherently bad, but it would require fabrication that I’m not quite interested in. Primarily, though, it’s the street focus that steered me away. I settled on the Carver Racks, even though they’re not for motorcycles – bicycles and scooters, but not motorcycles. What I liked, though, is that it could be bolted to the rear rack.

When putting the racks together I encountered a small problem: The rubber tubes were too long, so the pieces wouldn’t fit together without a bit of cutting. I called the guys at Carver in Hawaii. They were a bit surprised, but were good with the mod.

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Case Savers

5 Mar

A slow-speed fall could spell disaster if the brake pedal or shifter gets driven into the engine case. And it happens all the time. So adding case savers is a must. I checked out the case guards at Procycle. They’re $80 and made of stainless steel. Then I found the aluminum (translation: lighter) guards at Motorcycleproducts for $60. Lighter on the bike and wallet too.

Easiest things in the world to install, once you find the right adhesive. The instructions ask for “RTF” adhesive. Went to the local hardware store, OSH, but they never heard of it. Went to Home Depot, same deal. But after scouring the aisle I found this (below). As it turns out, it’s basic silicon seal.

After finding the right stuff it’s easy. Clean the guards with 409 to remove all dirt or finger oils, and spread the silicon seal.

Press the guards to the cases and tape to hold in place.

After letting the silicon seal set for a day I added a bead around the edges to keep dirt from getting inside.

UPDATE: The installation went well, and after riding over 2,500 miles in Baja, most of that in desert temperatures well over 100, I’ve seen no problems. The news is that ProCycle now has installation instructions on their site. Not much different than these, but they like the red silicon. Check it out here.

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The Surfer’s Guide to Baja – New Edition

2 Mar

The new, 4th edition of The Surfer’s Guide to Baja is finally back in print. It’s been out of print for nearly a year while the update for the 4th edition has been under way. Available at core surf shops everywhere, or it can be ordered direct from Amazon, Createspace and other online vendors.

UPDATE: The Kindle version now available too…here.

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This is Inspiration

29 Feb

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Big Day – Rack Arrived

23 Feb

Tail rack from Manracks. The foundation for attaching the surfboard racks, as well as a place for luggage, probably the largest bag (the DBz Flat Top Duffle).

Big day, because the tail rack is the key component needed to getting this SurfMoto thing going. The surf racks bolt to it, and once the surf racks are on I need to make sure the DBz side luggage racks fit along with the new pipe. All good stuff; it’ll work out. This is the ManRacks rack. It weights 1.5#, so with the savings from the DG pipe With everything installed I’m currently at a net weight savings of 6#. BUT, I haven’t installed the surf rack, and that weighs 7#, so that puts it at a 1# gain…until the hand guards and luggage arrives. I can remove the foot pegs, for maybe a pound or so, but there’s not many more places to cut weight. Except from my own body.

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Baja’s Seven Sisters have an LA Cousin

17 Feb

http://youtu.be/FW0DVP5QjHY?hd=1

Travel the world looking for surf, but every so often, the good stuff is local. Here Venice does its best imitation of Baja’s legendary Seven Sisters, with a good NW swell combined with strong off shores.

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Travel

11 Feb

Nicaragua to LA. Arrive midnight on Thursday. Have a sunny LA day, then off to NY at 7am Saturday. Travel can be tiring and unpleasant, but experiencing the contrasts and having the forced thinking time outweighs.

I was told recently that I ran off to Nicaragua on this last minute surf trip to figure my life out, and maybe that’s what I do when I travel – that sure makes sense. But I went to work on the Nicaragua surf guide and take care of real estate business. And surf and get healthy. And just when my sea legs returned and my health meter moved back to the green zone I had to leave. I want to go back, when I think about it. But now I need to focus on other things.

And being back in NY is nice.

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