Jump to content

darylhunter

Members
  • Content Count

    716
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by darylhunter

  1. darylhunter

    Real world truck mpg

    2003 Ford F-250 with 6.0 l diesel. 17 - 21 mpg highway depending upon how I drive. 12 - 15 mpg city. The low end is when I commute 4.5 miles each way to work up/down a couple big hills. Truck never gets warmed up. The higher end city mileage is when I am out running around doing errands about town after the truck has had a chance to warm up. Towing my 30 ft weekend warrior I got 8 - 10 mpg depending upon how the trailer was loaded and how fast I tried to pull it. Speeds over ~60 mph really start to drop the mileage.
  2. darylhunter

    Garmin Montana 610 @ thegpsstore.com $349.95

    Happy with mine. Need to spend more time monkeying with the new mapping software. I was used to using Mapsource for my GPSMAPC60, but having moved over to the Mac platform have had to start using BaseCamp. Not sure yet how I like it, but it's the new reality I guess.
  3. darylhunter

    Endruo shop in oceanside is gone!!

    +1, same email.
  4. Would be interested in the big bike trip if I can get away.
  5. I was here for a year before changing over my vehicle. When I did, the lady at the DMV asked me in a wink wink nod nod kind of way if I didn't really just get here in the last 10 days. I think trying to save me the penalty and back fees. But like a dummy I said nope, it was a year ago. She said OK in a it's your funeral kind of way and handed me the fee calculation. After seeing that, I rather wished I wasn't as honest . . . It was several hundred extra dollars for a 10+ year old Bronco II.
  6. Would have liked to make it but have meetings. Interested in the GPS tracks though so maybe I can repeat when I have time.
  7. darylhunter

    Radiator repair

    Can't help you with the radiator repair, but hoping that your kid is OK and didn't get bent too bad . . .
  8. I hope the guy came through OK and good job on you guys trying to help. I too would try cell phone first but would probably fire off the Spot too if there was any question about the phone working. I did some coverage analysis for the Spot satellites a few years ago to see how much of a hill would block the signal. Turns out you can be pretty far down a ravine and still get a signal out within 5-10 minutes. The bigger issue I think is, is the signal blocked by trees or other stuff, and how is the battery, etc, and you don't get good feedback that the signal was received. The actual signal from the Spot will be received by the satellite and sent back to the earth in less than a second, so that part of the system isn't the problem. It is the delays once they get they emergency signal and who to route it to and how they handle it. There were some horror stories early on a out the emergency responders not speaking GPS or confusing DMS with decimal degrees and so on. I know when I called the police to report a stolen jeep that I found off road, the police had no clues as how to handle GPS coordinates and ended up having me call the helicopter sheriff to have him help them out.
  9. Noticed the Klim shirt in the photo. How was it for heat wicking? They are supposed to have some new models coming out this summer. Really like my Klim Badlands jacket.
  10. Enjoying the read too. I'd like to hook up with folks for a multi-day big bike ride some time. Same issue though that the other guys have, busy work schedule with frequent travel (heading to Geneva Saturday) plus kids and home life - which of course is why I need to get away on the bike
  11. darylhunter

    Cop skills

    Great photo! I found that practicing slow full lock turns on my trials bike really helped. You can counter balance with your body to the outside and really lean the bike over and tighten up the turn. If you screw up and fall over there's no drama as trials bikes are essentially weightless compared to a big adventure bike. But a smaller DS bike works well for practice too. When I got my 1190 R the same techniques were directly applicable. It sure was nice learn them without dropping a big heavy bike Another approach which works well on higher horsepower bikes is the Gary Rothwell method of clamping on the front brake and lighting up the back tire and doing a huge smokey burnout pivoting around the front tire. You can make some really tight turns that way - but local constabulary generally doesn't take too kindly to that. ;-)
  12. I'm aways amazed that people camp out on the outside of a turn with no safety barrier between themselves and the race vehicles. Always sad to hear about the death of a child, but especially sad given it was totally preventable had the parent just used some common sense. RIP to the riders involved.
  13. darylhunter

    Shifting without using the clutch

    Back in 1996 at the Suzuki track day that came with the bike, the Suzuki chief mechanic for one of the racing teams told us to do clutchless upshifts and that the transmission would be fine. Basically, lightly preload the shift lever just before the shift and then give the throttle a quick blip towards the off direction and then back on. I'd been doing it for years, but it was nice to hear a factory mechanic endorse it. What he did say never to do was what he call fan the clutch shifting. In that case, people leave the throttle wide open and then fan the clutch while moving the shift lever. The problem is that the rev limiter can't react quickly enough to keep the revs from spiking and doing damage to the engine. Still do use the clutch when upshifting but mostly between the lower gears when I have a passenger just to help keep the ride smooth.
  14. darylhunter

    Radio License Class 02-April

    Good job guys! Daryl KJ4KK
  15. darylhunter

    Prayers for Texas Dualler

    Ouch, +1 on the been there (broken ribs, etc). Hope your recovery is speedy, uneventful, and relatively pain free.
  16. darylhunter

    ktm adventure or adventure R

    Can't say, not having ridden the Adventure. The electronically adjustable suspension might be nice, but for me the larger wheels of the R model fitted with knobbies and the more dirt oriented focus was what I was after. Did a multi day camping trip with the KLIM and Veys Powersports folks a few weeks and got to ride it in some dirt. Nothing serious, but it was nice to get an introduction into riding the big bike off pavement. Happy with how it performed. On the way out and the on the back we did have some Interstate and some highways to cover and I thought it was perfectly comfortable on the street even with the knobs. On the last leg of the trip I headed up Palomar with it and even while being cautious with the knobs and bags hanging off the side still made a surprisingly quick trip up the hill with little drama. There were only a few moments where I felt the ABS kick in off road, and those were expected as I was kind of overbraking a bit just to see if/when it would engage. It seemed to do the job just fine, but more practice will be needed before I can feel confident with it being an integral part of my riding technique, but it's nice to know it is there in case of emergency. The traction control engagement isn't super obvious on road other than as a general reduction of low end grunt. Switching from Street to Sport mode wakes it up somewhat, but I'd like to see it less aggressive while upright. To really have some fun you need to turn TC off all together. Then all the wonderful power is fully available to you and you can wheelie to your heart's content. I tried to be mindful of the rear tire but turning off TC will definitely shorten the life of the knobs. I just wish there was an intermediate mode where TC still functioned while you were on the side of the tire because I'm still wary of opening the throttle too much while leaned over on the knobs. When riding off road in Dirt mode, I did feel TC engaging and at times it felt a bit choppy as the tire was working over some stutter bumps but nothing really bothersome. There was also one section we rode over that was a little rutted and when TC engaged I would have liked a more linear feeling of throttle to wheel control. But in the Dirt mode TC will definitely let you spin the rear tire and allows you to steer with the rear tire. To really try to duplicate some of those Chris Birch antics TC will need to be turned off. I know the ABS and TC functions are the same between the Adventure and the R, but figured I'd give my impressions of them anyway. I'm really happy with the bike.
  17. darylhunter

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRAWDADDY!

    +1 Happy Birthday
  18. Was a fun trip for sure. A nice way to get introduced to Adventure riding and try out the gear while still having a bunch of support in case your forgot something. Definitely looking forward to planning my next trip.
  19. darylhunter

    Radio License Class 02-April

    Getting licensed is well within reach of anyone who wants to take the time to study for the test. I've been licensed for 35 years and found that over that period the Morse code part of the exam was the main thing keeping many from getting a license or progressing further up through the license levels. Now that the code requirement is no longer part of the licensing process, it really isn't that hard to get legal. Because the license exam question pool is actually published by the FCC and part of most study programs, you could simply drill on the questions themselves and not even learn any of the electronics fundamentals themselves. Most people who go that route tell me that it only took them an hour or so a night over the course of a week to prepare for the test that weekend. In fact, now that my daughters just started riding, I'm working on getting them licensed and drilling over the question pool is probably the way we'll go. It's been a while since I last tested, but I think at most sessions they'll give you two chances to pass the test before having you come back for the next testing session. Low power simplex operation typically gives plenty of range for riding within a small group, but sometimes you want some extra range - say to talk back to friends or family back at the base camp - and in that case, operation through a repeater is desired. This is where a license really comes in handy. Many repeaters also have a phone patch function where you could make a call home or to a friend to send someone to help, or to call emergency services. An unlicensed person using a repeater sets off all sorts of alarm bells with the ham community. In an emergency of course one would still do it, but the FCC has handed out fines anyway in a number of cases for such use.
  20. Haven't done it with my jeep yet, but have done it several times on bikes. I think its likely easier on my EXC 500 than with a jeep, but don't think I'll be trying it any time soon with the 1190.
  21. Love the AR videos and the Chris Birch ones too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpCubYprqFQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqHjSZr99Jo&feature=iv&src_vid=NpCubYprqFQ&annotation_id=annotation_637714309 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWIZfYQhgMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScFHdTo9OM Thumbs up to those guys for showing how the bikes can be ridden. Rode the 1190 the past weekend around a few washes out on Ocotillo Wells. It's definitely not the EXC 500! Suppose if I aired down the tires a bit that might have helped, but deepish sand was a bit puckering when going slow. Going on the KLIM camping trip next weekend with it so we'll see how it feels with more miles under my belt off road.
  22. darylhunter

    First Aid Class 2/25/16

    Any chance the class can be recorded? I really wanted to go but can't get out of my business meeting
  23. darylhunter

    First Aid Class 2/25/16

    Unfortunately I won't be able to attend now due to a conflicting business meeting. Too bad as I was really hoping to get some first aid training exposure for my daughters who are now riding too. Best wishes for a successful class.
×

Important Information