http://bit.ly/waKPPE
A few weeks ago I rode my motorcycle to the top of Volcan Baru the tallest peak in Panama. I took a serious beating on the ride, and got some great video out of it. I wanted to do a ride from sea level to the top of Panama, so I started at the beach and filmed my ride to the top. It was exhausting, and horrible, and everything an adventure should be.
For this series of videos I wanted to do something special, something different so I have created an iPad book. The book has a bunch of photos, and 7 different videos with a combined length of over 70 minutes. Since it’s a book I was able to fill in the gaps between the videos and give more detail about what’s happening and what I was feeling. I’m really happy with they way it turned out. I’ve been asked a lot about DVD’s of my videos, or a book about my adventures. Well this is both. You get to read about the trip, see the photos, and watch the videos all in one place. Once it’s downloaded you don’t need to wait for video to buffer before watching them it’s all there you just hit play and it goes. Really if you have ever wanted to come along on one of my rides this is the closest you will get without flying to Panama and renting a bike.
I keep calling it a book because I don’t know another name for it. It’s more like a mini adventure and you get to come along for the ride. I’m very excited about it, it looks great on the iPad.
http://bit.ly/waKPPE
For the Volcan Baru Adventure I wanted to do something special, so I turned the adventure into an interactive book. I’m pretty excited about how it turned out, and I think you will really enjoy it.
The book is has a lot of pictures, and video. Over 70 minutes of video that won’t be seen on youtube is embed in the book. Read a little, look at some photos, read a little, watch a video. With the magic of the iPad the book is very cool.
Skeefoo and I went for a short ride on a dirt road above Boquete. We checked out a small lodge that does canopy tours. It looked like a lot of fun and we stayed to watch a few people flying over head then headed back down the road. It had been very windy while we were up there and we didn’t ride for long on the road before we came to a large tree that had fallen over blocking our path. There was no way the 2 of us were going to move it alone, so I headed back up to the lodge for help.
After a few minutes they sent a crew of guys down with machetes, and chainsaws to clear the tree. I couldn’t resist trying to pull the tree with the bike, it didn’t budge but I had to try.
On the way back from Volcan I busted out the Drift helmet cam for a little vlog. Narrow mountain roads like this can be dangerous, mostly because of epically stupid people trying to pass. I prefer to take them slow and stay behind something much larger than myself. That way if some dummy does try to make a pass on a curve they run into a dump truck instead of me.
http://www.progressivesuspension.com/
Skeefoo recently bought a KLR650, and when he came for a visit we decided to install one of the extra sets of forks springs I received from Progressive Suspension. They are super easy to install, just take off the cap, pull the old spring and spacer out. Cut the spacer in half, and drop everything back down the hole. Do one side at a time and you won’t even need to put the bike up on blocks.
After testing out the difference between stock and the aftermarket springs we came to the conclusion that they feel very similar. Because a large portion of the aftermarket spring is exactly like the stock spring. The aftermarket spring begins to work it’s magic when you are really hitting some heavy bumps, and compress the spring to that final bit which saves you from bottoming out.
Upgrading the KLR’s suspension is one of the first things people do to their bike. If your gonna spend a few months living out of your bike you should probably do everything you can to make it as comfortable as possible.
Skeefoo is one of my biggest fans. So much so he turned his helmet into a halfthrottle advertisement. www.halfthrottle.com isn’t actually my website. It was already taken when I was picking a name and they sell decals and stickers. Mine is www.half-throttle.com, but hopefully people will figure that out and find the right one.
Riding in the rain isn’t something I normally do on purpose, but once in a while you get stuck out in it. This video has a few tips on how to ride in the rain safely. Keep your brakes warm, give yourself plenty of distance, and don’t talk when riding. The visor fogs up like crazy.
I enlisted the help of my wife to announce the winner of our little contest from the guys at Empire Covers. I thought this was a great idea as many of you need to store your bikes for the winter. Congratulations to Bill Reese who’s name was pulled out of the helmet at random. If tragedy struck and you didn’t win scrap together some coin and head to http://www.empirecovers.com/ any buy something to protect your baby while she sleeps in the garage.
Be on the look out for future give a ways from my sponsors. I’ve already got 2 more lined up, and it’s some pretty awesome stuff.
http://amzn.to/xRpOTt I really like the small size and ease of use with this tire plugger kit. Having a tool that can quickly plug a hole in a tubeless tire and get you back on the road is a very good idea. And it’s so small and lightweight that if you have tubeless tires on your bike there’s really no excuse to not carry one of these. I have tubed tires and I carry mine anyway. Never know when you might come across another stranded biker in need of a hand.
I have used it to repair a nail puncture in the tire of my 1200GS, and rode with the plug in for much longer than I should have. Even at freeway speeds and it held up just fine. I’ve also plugged the tire of a Yamaha Rhino. A friend and I were playing around in the mountains when a rock punctured the side wall of the tire. We hiked down for the plugger kit, and pump. Neither of us could believe that the plug held inside the large hole in the side wall. And the pump I review in this video: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlIFNQffjYg) did a good job of popping the tire back on the rim.
While I was searching around I found 2 other versions of this plugging tool. One that looks to be the exact same as what I use in this video, plus a few CO2 cartridges: http://amzn.to/zGJKzk
And the other uses a sort of gun looking device to squeeze the plug into the tire.
http://amzn.to/ziix8w
Both those other kits will take up a bit more space in your luggage system than the version I have, but I guess if you are replacing a 12V air compressor with CO2 cartridges then it’s worth it.
