Brian A. Hopkins
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Horror Writers Association (HWA)

Acclimating to the Tiger
(January thru March 2005)

Some folks have asked why they haven't seen any new ride reports on my website, wondering if maybe I hadn't been riding, like it was too cold outside or something.  Psshaw!  Of course I've been riding!  I'm still getting the ZZR out on a regular basis and I've been acclimating to the new addition to the riding stable: the Triumph Tiger.   I've been preparing myself for a couple offroad adventures, the first in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas and the second in the canyons around Moab, Utah.  I've been working on the Tiger, too: modifying it to suit my needs.  I've also been accumulating new gear -- offroad boots, pants, and jacket -- so as not to ruin my leather street gear in the mud I'll inevitably encounter.  The Tiger and I have been exploring various backroads in Oklahoma, assessing and improving my riding skills, and we've been camping together several times.

Because the Tiger's battery was getting old and I was running electric gear to keep warm, putting an additional drain on the alternator, I wanted to keep a close eye on the battery's charge.  Also, the OEM clock on the Tiger's dash is pretty much impossible to read under anything other than optimal conditions (which you rarely have while zooming down the road). And I just about always want to know whether I should be sweating or shivering.  This set of digital gauges seemed to fit the bill.  I didn't want to modify my instrument cluster, so I cut a piece of clear Plexiglas to mount the gauges to two existing screws.  I have mixed emotions about the aesthetics -- it doesn't really match my analog gauges and I admit it looks a bit "kluged."  For the moment, though, I'll live with it.  It might not even hold up to the weather anyway.  Caught out in the rain once, it quickly fogged up.  I can't imagine it'll last too long if moisture is getting inside.  For the moment, it's allowing me to keep an eye on that battery, though, rather than rushing right out and buying a new one.  If you're looking for something similar and your bike does more than sit in the garage when it's wet outside, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

Electric clothing is great, but heated grips absolutely rock.  With the flip of a switch, warmth radiates from the grips, soaking into your gloves and hands.  I can wear lighter weight gloves now, improving my ability to handle the bike (no more fumbling with the controls through big, thick winter gloves).  Above is the switch I installed on my dash to light those puppies up.  Beside it is a 12V outlet for my GPS (see below).  While I had the grips off, I also added cruise control via Throttlemeister bar ends.  I've never been a big fan of cruise control on my motorcycles (always feels pretty dangerous to me, having the throttle locked), but the Throttlemeister setup is growing on me.  During a long ride, it's nice to be able to rest your throttle hand for a few minutes when there's no traffic nearby.  I guess what I dislike most about mechanically-actuated cruise controls like this is that the bike's speed will vary with the terrain, slowing down going uphill and speeding up on the downside.  I prefer maintaining a steady speed with my right wrist.  If I'm on a long stretch of level asphalt, though, with the aforementioned absence of traffic, I guess it's okay.

Here's my Magellan Sportrak Pro GPS receiver mounted on the Tiger.  I hope to upgrade to a better GPS unit in the near future, but for the moment this'll keep me from getting too terribly lost.  The Sportrak was a decent unit many moons ago when I bought it, but more modern units are better at automatic routing and stuff.  This one will always tell you where you're located, but you don't get anything other than line-of-sight routing from it.

Other than these modifications, all I've done is change the oil and filter on the bike.  I plan to rebuild the front suspension with some progressive rate fork springs -- already have the springs sitting in the garage, in fact -- but don't want to tear down the front end until after my upcoming trip to Arkansas.  The front suspension on this bike absolutely sucks (a lot of owners complain about the rear, too, but I can live with it).  With my camping gear loaded on the bike and my 185-pounds of chiseled man-muscle (You buying that last one?), the front end of the bike dives really bad under braking and after coming to a stop proceeds to wallow front-to-rear until settling.  Not good.  Progressive rate springs and new, heavier weight fork fluid should help.  I also need to bleed the brake lines, but that can wait until after my Arkansas trip, too.  Other than that, we're ready to go.  Since buying the bike in December, I've nearly doubled the mileage on it, mostly exploring Oklahoma backroads such as those below.

You see a lot of this in Oklahoma -- hard-packed dirt roads. Also gravel, sand, and some nasty ruts and mud.  The ZZR wouldn't like any of it.  The Tiger takes it in stride, even with street shoes (which we'll correct below).

Some old roads peter out on you when you're exploring.  This was once Highway 18 in Oklahoma, a major thoroughfare "back in the day."  What's left of it parallels Highway 177 -- where it wasn't just outright consumed by the newer 4-lane road.   You can find sections of the old highway here and there, most in better condition than this.  The road ended here because a bridge was long gone.  The Tiger and I explored as far as we could before turning back.

An old iron bridge that's still standing and in use along Old Highway 18.  I need to visit this bridge in the spring and summer when all those vines will be green.

Here's yours truly parked on the old rusty bridge (no need to worry about traffic out in the boonies), compliments of my Olympus C-50's remote control.  Still wearing leathers at this time, but those are new boots made by Gaerne (an Italian company) -- the Explorer model to be specific. They're actually ATV boots, which I decided would be perfect for dualsport riding.  That reflective piping around the top of the boots really jumps out, eh?

A tunnel under the railroad tracks just off Highway 69 (near the Atoka Reservoir).

And my first creek crossing near the same spot (railroad elevation in the foreground, Highway 69 in the background).  Sorry, no action shot, 'cause I was alone.  For such a little baby creek, it was damn exciting riding through it.  My heart was racing!  (Seriously, you have to remember that I was alone, a hundred plus miles from home, and out of sight of the roadway, where a fall could easily incapacitate the bike or my-own-precious-self.  Scary stuff to someone new to adventure riding.)

Camped south of the Spavinaw spillway in northeastern Oklahoma, lulled to sleep by the sound of all that water pouring over the dam.  The spillway here is an impressive sight; stop in and take a gander if you ever get the chance -- must be three hundred yards across.  After a beautiful day of riding, a major thunderstorm came through during the night with lightning, high winds, and driving rain, determined to test the weather-worthiness of my Northface tent.  The tent kept me completely dry.  It's always fun packing up wet gear in the morning, though.  Not!

Packed and ready to go.  The bike's warming up.  Seat's nice and dry 'cause I just wiped it off.  A heavy fog is settling into the background.  It was 34 degrees that morning and I was pretty happy to have electric clothing and heated grips.  There was only one other person using the campground at Spavinaw State Park that night, a fisherman camped way on the other side.  The place was the epitome of peace and quiet.  The Tiger and I tiptoed very carefully out of the mountains that morning, though, worried about hitting a critter in the dense fog.  Found a Denny's at the junction of Highways 82 and 412 and had a nice breakfast, while the locals -- collars turned up around their necks and cheeks all rosy -- looked at me as if I was crazy for being out in such miserable weather.  Truth is, I was having a blast.

Another campground, this time at Beaver's Bend State Park (southeastern Oklahoma).  It wasn't so peaceful and quiet here.  Some juvenile delinquents camped near the river (down the hill beyond my campsite) screamed and hollered and played rock music half the night.  I don't understand people like that.  I head into the woods to escape the noise.  These incogitant assholes intentionally brought it with them. I feel a quote coming on ...

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego.
--Jean Arp, artist and poet (1887-1948)

... But enough of that.  I slipped into Beaver's Bend late in the evening, so the ranger missed me.  I thought I was going to get away without paying for the campsite, but just as I was pulling on my helmet to leave in the morning, the bike all loaded and warmed up and ready to roll, the ranger pulled up and dinged me for eight bucks.  If I'd crawled out of my sleeping bag just one minute earlier...  See how the bike's down there in the woods amongst all the slippery wet leaves?  Couldn't do that with the ZZR -- not safely anyway.  The ZZR would have had to stay up in the parking lot (meaning I would have actually camped somewhere else so as to be near the bike).  Beauty of the Tiger is that it goes where I go: my "Big Ugly Go Anywhere Bike."  There was actually a slippery, leaf-strewn hill I had to climb to get back on the road: no problem for ol' tigger that morning.

All these trips were made with what are primarily street tires: the Michelin T66.  Not a bad tire, even though they've been discontinued by Michelin.  They appeared to be wearing well and the bike handled respectably with them.  Still, time for the Tiger to get something a bit more aggressive, methinks. First the old tires have to come off.  Here's the Tiger sans wheels, balanced precariously in my garage.  This would be my first attempt at mounting my own tires using nothing more than a couple tire irons and a whole lotta sweat and muscle.  I used woodworking clamps to break the beads, not an easy task on the rear tire.  Then I had to fight the old tires off the wheels and get the new ones -- Metzler Karoos -- on, being very, very careful not to pinch the tubes.  It took hours ... and hours ... but I got it done and, more importantly, I can now add it to my Renaissance Man resume.  You might notice one other slight mod in the picture above.  I painted the support bars for the skid plate.  They were a horrible, affronting rust red color before (ref the pics on my previous Tiger page).  E-gads, what was that all about?  Now they're black, like the rest of the frame, the crash guards, etc.

Doesn't the Tiger look ready for some real offroad traveling with those new shoes?

How about from this angle?  The dirt you see is from my yard.  My first test ride was around the house, where the bike ripped a six by six trench in my grass.  Yikes!  Better not do that again or the wife'll be after me with a rolling pin!

I took the Tiger out with a buddy who rides a BMW F650GS Dakar (Love that bike!).  We did about 200 miles one Saturday, 50/50 pavement and dirt/gravel roads.  Offroad, the Tiger handled superbly with the knobbies.  On pavement ... Holy crap, those tires are a whole new experience!  The front end tends to float and give little or no feedback to the rider.  You'd better be careful about your steering inputs or the front end's gonna wash out and send you down.  And at about 65 mph, the tires start to howl like banshees (especially if you've forgotten your earplugs, which I had done that day).  At 75 mph, the front end develops a definite wobble -- not exactly a tankslapper, but enough to be worrisome.  And at any speed they love to follow even the slightest groove in the pavement.  But El Tigre is ready to go pretty much wherever she wants now.  (Note the new pants in the pic above.  New jacket on the seat behind me, too.)

Arkansas in a couple days.  Moab after that.  Then comes Mexico.  After that, who can say?  It's a big old world out there.  Stay tuned...

Brian A. Hopkins
at Road's End, Oklahoma City
22 March 2005