Extending my dual sporting range
So while I'd like a little more umph, I do find my little XT225 to be a veritable mountain goat of a bike that really seems to be screaming "throw everything you've got at me." And though I've only had her off road twice, any shortcomings I ran into were mostly my own. So with a Rubicon trip coming up next weekend, I knew I'd need to do something about the puny 2.3 gallon factory tank. Unfortunately Clarke does not make a larger XT tank, so most XT owners end up with some mickey mouse version of a strapped down milk jug, or one of the Kolpin jugs (which can no longer be shipped to CA, which is ironic as with the emission friendly style ones we are sold locally I typically end up spilling gas all over the place lol)
I had spied some spiffy little NATO 5L gas tanks some time ago that I've been meaning to mount up in some way or another and when I recently saw some mounted on a TW200 I was inspired to get off my ass and fab something up for myself. Not perfect by any means and I'm surely more critical of my own work than someone else might be, but with some basic hand tools (and no vice, long story) I bent up and welded these together with about $12 of u-bolts and $19 worth of metal from Home Depot.
I do need to add some sort of rubber on the inside edges to prevent rattling, but otherwise they are quite stout. I can grab hold of one side and lift the bike off the ground with almost no flex, so I think they'll be safe when I lay it over. :) If you're wondering, 10 liters = 2.64 gallons so I've got more than a full fill-up. If I was only getting 75mpg, my range just shot up to roughly 370 miles before I need a fuel station.
It will really make me feel more comfortable going on longer trips and on far backwoods trips without the fear that I might run out of fuel and I've got to admit, I'm really happy with how well it came out. 
Labels: DIY, motorcycles, outdoor, travel, xt, xt225
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Sweet Pilot G2 pen upgrade
I got the idea from an instructable I spotted a while ago, forget the url but you could google it.
A Mont Blanc rollerball is a very nice pen, it writes smoothly and the body is nice and solid and has a good heft to it, the downside is that they go for about $200 give or take. If you're like me, pens come and go for some strange unknown reason. Whether it is lost or "borrowed" from my desk, they just don't seem to last. I think the most I've spent on a pen for myself was about $80, I have no idea how long that one lasted but it wasn't worth the $80 for the amount of time I had it in my possession.
Anyway, this rocket scientist figured out that a Mont Blanc rollerball refill (about $12 for 2 of them) is almost exactly the same as the G2 refill and in fact, that the only significant difference was the length. He also discovered that if you hack off a few millimeters off the end of a Mont Blanc refill, it fits perfectly in a G2 giving you the writing smoothness of a $200 Mont Blanc in a $5 pen. Now the G2 is no Mont Blanc, but it's a pretty decent pen ergo-wise.
So I tried it and it works, here you go.
G2 cart on top, Mont Blanc below, notice the blue end is a little longer
Loaded up and it writes so nice
The Mont Blanc refills are $12 for 2
Labels: DIY
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Coke can stove test
I decided to do the classic 2 cup of water boil time test with that backpacking stove I made out of two coke cans. Using my swiss tool I bent a coat hanger into a little ultralight stand. Of course, if you really wanted to save weight you could just dig a small hole or use sticks or rocks to hold your pot over the stove. I'm pretty happy with the stove as it performed coming to a boil in rougly 4 minutes. :) The can of fuel was about $5 at the local Home Depot, it burns clean and fairly hot. I recorded a small 1 minute video as well after the stove had been on for about 3 minutes. The coat hanger worked fairly well, if I was going to keep it for actual use I'd sand off the paint on it, but I suspect I'll just use rocks or sticks in the field.
This particular design has paper towel folded over inside the walls acting as a wick. I also use larger weep holes in the base and it seems to do well. The amount of fuel required to boil 2 cups of water is exactly 2 tablespoons, not bad. To carry the fuel you can just get one of those little containers from the travel isle at the local drug store.
Part way into the video you'll see me stick my hand in there, showing the time at about 3min after starting the fire. All in all it averaged to almost exactly 4 minutes. I should also note that I'm probably only about 100ft above sea level.
Labels: backpacking, DIY, gear, outdoor
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Ultralight backpacking stove
So I'd seen plans for years about little backpacking stoves you can make requiring merely a couple of coke cans a swiss army knife and a few minutes of time, but I'd never really gotten around to making one. I had been using nesbit tablets, which function, but I'm really not a big fan of them. Anyway, someone had posted a video on metacafe showing his own modified and simplified design and I figured I might as well give making one of these a shot.
Now, he simply states that you need to prime it first, then he is shown holding a lighter under it for a few seconds before lighting the jets. Of course, anyone that knows how primed stoves work realize that is total BS because you really need a priming pan, which defeated the whole point of his "modified" stove as it was supposed to be a completely simplified version of the different styles out there.
Anyway, I don't like the priming pan idea, it's just one more thing to carry around and lose. I'd prefer for the entire unit to be self contained. A great website, zenstoves.net goes into detail on the design and theory behind many different styles of these little stoves. Personally, I prefer the open top style, though slightly less efficient it lights instantly and the jets come on when ready.
I am somewhat happy with the performance I'm getting, though I do want to change the design a little and make the top hole smaller, I don't think it needs to be quite so large. Anyway, here's a shot of the flame you get for 5 minutes from a couple tablespoons worth of denatured alcohol.
Labels: backpacking, DIY, gear, outdoor
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
