9/17/13 - Steering Stabilizer

Tonight I installed the Billet Racing Products Rubber Mounted Sub Mount and Scott Steering Stabilizer on my KTM 300 XC-W.  It was a a little bit of a struggle getting the steering post installed since I had to remove the triple clamps (which frees up the front forks and tire from the frame) and then get it all back together.  The biggest pain was getting the fork/head to go back up inside the frame and line up properly.  Eventually (2.5 hours later), I got all of it working and I took the bike for a quick ride to test it out.  It should give me a little better control in rough/rocky terrain because it keeps the front wheel going straight.  You can dial the amount of dampening you want right on the unit.  I wanted to spend the extra money to get the BRP system that mounts the stabilizer underneath the bars for a cleaner and safer set up overall, although it's not the cheap way to go. 

Overall I think I'm really going to like this new set up and a bonus is that the bars about about an inch higher than they used to be.  That is good thing for me which will keep me a little straigher up when I'm standing on the bike (which is about half the time).  The rubber mounts are supposed to reduce some of the vibration although I didn't notice a huge difference on the 15-20 minute burn I went on tonight.  It shipped with blue bushings that you can swap out for a softer feel if you like.

One downer is that the Cycra wrap-around hand guards that I so pains taking installed while camping this summer will have to have different mounts in order to work with this new set up, so I had to leave them off for now.

Once I was finished putting tools away it was completely dark.  The pics below were taken on a tripod with a 10 second exposure since I don't have a flash on the Canon 6D.  I used my 50mm lens for these shots at f8.

Daddy Daughter Date - 9/6/13

Well isn't it obvious that if I'm going to take the boys camping that I need to take Kaylee on a camp too?  It's been a long time coming because you have to schedule this 8 year old out months in advance and then hope you don't get trumped by a friends birthday party or baptism, but we finally got to go camping, just the two of us.  We had a great time eating our tin foil dinners, and going on hikes.  This is the same area above Silver Lake Flat that Konnor and I went last year, although we didn't park/pitch the tent in the same spot this time.  I had a really special afternoon/night/day with Kaylee.  Here is the video that we made and some of the pics. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu3lswNpfYs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUj8_8RcJRf73iO_0o1Djd-g

Boys Only Camp - 8/30/2013

Konnor, Kase and I went camping up on top of Lake Mountain near the Fairfield VOR.  Since it was Labor Day and the Archery Deer hunt, all 3 of the normal spots that I have scoped out for good camping up there were taken already.  We had to resort to plan D and find this little spot.  By the time we got there, the sun had already set (though not dark yet).  I hurried and set up the tent before making a fire for our dinner.  The boys ate hot dogs and ham steaks.  I ate ham steaks and a can of chili that I heated up by the fire.  I only took a couple of pics before the light was too low for shooting, but there wasn't enough light for video.  We all had a fun night in the tent, and I got up early to take pics of the morning sun light.  When the boys woke up an hour or so later, we shot some video and took some other pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uflZpmlxEJc