Liquid Image 720p Offroad Goggle Camcorder

Tweet

This looks like a decent deal for anyone who would want to try out these camera goggles.

http://www.woot.com/offers/720p-offroad-camera-camcorder

The sale goes until 7/3/12 or until stock runs out.

Hatfield-McCoy Buffalo Mountain

Tweet

Last weekend some RCR members and myself headed down to WV to ride some of the Hatfield-McCoy trails at the Buffalo Mountain area. We trailered down small bikes for this ride. I had my Gas Gas with the freshly installed Rekluse which did excellent despite some carb issues due to a broken float.

Of course with all the rocks we had some bike carnage. I bent my subframe and broke off a chain roller during my only drop of the trip. There were also at least two dented silencers and one hole punched in a case. Nothing ride ending though.

We rented this little cabin by a noisy little stream. It was a hot and exhausting three days of dirt, and a good time. I'm already planning on returning in the fall when it cools off a bit.

Video:

Equipment Review: GoPro Wi-Fi BacPac (Part 1)

Tweet

The first thing that I noticed when I started pulling the parts out of the box was that the Wi-Fi BacPac is slightly thinner than the Battery BacPac. This combined with the extra button on the Wi-Fi BacPac means that the rear covers are not interchangeable.

My Hero HD camera, the Wi-Fi BacPac, and the Wi-Fi remote all needed a software update before they could be used. The camera update was easy enough, but when I attempted to use the PC version of the GoPro software (Cineform) it would hang up on the firmware update. After several failed attempts I tried my MacBook. The OSX version of the software worked on the first try. 

Playing around with the unit in my living room the response time seems fast and the display is easy to read. Switching between modes, starting/stopping recording, and powering up and down are all easier on the remote than on the actual unit. I am going to give the Wi-Fi BacPac a real world test this weekend at Hatfield-McCoy. I'll report back later with my impressions and how the battery life holds up.

Go to Part 2: Battery Testing

Gas Gas Rekluse Core EXP Install (Part 3)

Tweet

I did end up putting the stiffer springs in the EXP ring. I still have a little dragging at idle. I'm hoping that will go away as things break in.

Video of a test run in the back yard:



Click to go back to Part 1
Click to go back to Part 2

Gas Gas Rekluse Core EXP Install (Part 2)

Tweet

Success! After a few phone conversations with an engineer at Rekluse, we decided that the cover they shipped me was fine to use, I just needed shorter bolts or a thicker gasket. Rekluse shipped me a thicker gasket free of charge (thank you!), but they shipped it UPS ground and it won't get here until Friday, which leaves me very little time to get everything prepped for my upcoming Hatfield-McCoy trip. I found some shorter bolts today and they did the trick. I installed the cover and rode around a bit and it's breaking in nicely. I still can't just stop in gear and have it idle away...but maybe with the stiffer springs in the EXP ring along with bumping the idle up a bit I will. Update: the bike wouldn't idle because the stator was going bad. Once that was fixed it idles forever in gear and is almost impossible to stall. I left the stiffer springs in as I was happy with the engagement of the clutch.

My initial impression is that it will do what I was hoping it would, give me a little more of a relaxed ride without constantly being worried about stalling.

I need to do some riding tomorrow I think just to make sure everything is good before I haul it to WV.

Continue to Part 3
Back to Part 1

Gas Gas Rekluse Core EXP Install (Part 1)

Tweet

I am prepping my Gas Gas EC250 for a trip to ride the Hatfield-McCoy trails in WV in a week. Part of that prep work is getting a Rekluse Core EXP clutch kit installed. It's turned into such an epic struggle (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit here) that I decided I'd post up the story here.

I just laid the bike on it's side so that I wouldn't have to drain the oil.



Stock clutch exposed:



The Core EXP kit ready to go in. Look close...notice anything? I didn't either.



I soaked the EXP disc in oil while I was getting everything else removed and reinstalled.



Rekluse steels and the EXP disc installed.



New pressure plate and springs going on:



Notice my first issue yet?

Look closer.



For some reason my kit didn't ship with the set screws for the adjuster pre-installed like they were supposed to be. I called Rekluse and their customer service was very helpful. They mailed out the missing parts right away.

Now lets flash forward two or three days. I now have the set screws. I wish they had come installed as they were a real pain to get threaded in. They are just too small for my big fingers. Eventually I got them started and everything set back to where it should be. Last thing to do was bolt on the clutch cover and go break it in.

Now we come to my second issue of the install. The clutch cover bolts are bottoming out. I thought maybe I should be using a thicker gasket or something, so I call Rekluse tech support. The guys I talked to on the phone were very helpful but I had them stumped. I did some rough measuring and it looks like the Rekluse cover is thinner than the stock cover, which Rekluse says should NOT be the case. I should be able to reuse the stock gasket and bolts. So here is where part 1 ends. I need to go round up a mic so that I can get the exact measurements back to an engineer at Rekluse so we can figure this thing out. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fault lies with Gas Gas and not Rekluse on this one. We shall see...

Continue to Part 2

920 Miles of West Virginia

Tweet

A couple of buddies and myself decided to do a dual sport ride for the Memorial Day weekend. Our original plan was to ride out to Ocean City, but when that fell through I suggested we do my Trans West Virginia Trail loop again. I wanted to run it in the opposite direction than how I did it last year so I could hit some sections that I had missed. We ended up modifying the route a good bit so it was an interesting ride with some new scenery as well as some of my favorite sections from last year.