Dean Vaughan » Bikes

Labor Day!

Deano — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:48:59 +0000

3 Fast, 3 Furious – Tokyo Drift

Deano — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:47:32 +0000

DIY KLR Trunk

Deano — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:31:24 +0000

I've got a problem with my cheapo KLR trunk.

I was prepping my bike for the new season by tightening all of the bolts up, when I got to the bolts that hold the trunk on I noticed they were very loose. So loose, they fell out of the holes when I touched them. I tried to put them back and they would touch the head to the bottom, but only tighten a quater of a turn.

My first thought was, 'Oh no, the bolts are too short, I better buy some longer ones.' But then my second thought was, 'If the bolts were plenty long before, how did they magically get to be too short?'

I took the trunk completely off and this is what I found:

See those silvery bits in the holes? That is the back end of the bolts sheared off inside. The bolt is supposed to be about two inches longer. Not cool.

Weeee

Deano — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:49:12 +0000

Saturday afternoon turned out to be pretty nice. It rained early in the morning, but by noon the temperature had come up to 70 and most of the rain had dried up. I took the KLR for a ride up 186 and over to Horse Head lake.

Not much to say about the ride. Everything is brown and dead because of the winter.

The highlight of the trip happened five minutes into it when I came upon a Boxster in the Post Winery parking lot.

I dig the red calipers.

I Miss the Summer

Deano — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:03:39 +0000

I really do...

Pedestal Rock, AR

Deano — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:40:30 +0000

I took a ride to Pedestal Rock Saturday. I had heard of Pedestal Rock from a friend earlier in the week. I was surprised to hear about it, I thought I knew of all of the odd natural places around.

It was cold on Saturday morning. I had planned to leave at ten, but it was only 48F then. I waited until noon to leave. It wasn't much warmer.

I rode about two hours to get there. Once I arrived I had a heck of time finding a place to park. The parking area is soft dirt that my kickstand dug into. I ended up circling around until I found a flat rock, then I picked it up while still on the bike, carried it over to a flat area, dug a hole with my boot, dropped the rock in the hole, and put the stand down on it.

It is a thirty minute walk to the rock. It's a very easy hike. If you were so inclined you could do it with motorcycle boots on.

I think the speedo reflection looks cool.

This is what I saw the whole trip up HWY 7. Lots of bikes out. I didn't see a single sport bike.

I stopped here for lunch. The sign by the road says it has the best burgers in Arkansas. I don't agree.

The start of the 2.2 mile Pedestal Rock trail loop.

I went up.

Sweet!

Trees! The lighting was pretty poor for pictures.

I kept going up.

The trail wasn't marked the best.

In Amerikkka even the trees are fat.

The top of Pedestal Rock.

The bottom of Pedestal Rock.

Random cave. There were three of these that I found.

Another cave.

I almost fell in this hole. I was busy looking over the cliff face, and not watching where I was stepping.

This cruiser was parked behind me when I walked back.

DIY Camera Mounts and YouTube Doesn’t Like Me

Deano — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:38:10 +0000

I had the good idea of filming a run up St. Mary's Mountain, one of my favorite places to take a quick ride.

The video came out horrible. My ex vibrates a lot more than the ZZR did, so much so that the video will give you a seizure if you watch it. On top of that, YouTube compressed it into nothingness when I uploaded it.

ex650r

Click here to view the embedded video.

ZZR.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Evolution of a KLR

Deano — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:30:02 +0000

Story is, that before I owned it, my KLR was dropped in the woods and the front fairing, headlight, and hand guards were destroyed. That owner replaced the headlight and fairing with one from a DR. It looked gay.

First thing I did was take off the DR fairing/headlight cowl. Then I attached an Action Packer storage bin.

Next time around I purchased a real KLR headlight cowl, wind screen, and a pair of Acerbis hand guards. The look is much improved.

Moving forward, I went with a pair of Conti tires and a Jardine pipe.

Most recently, I painted the hand guards black. The original red color never matched the KLR's color, plus I swear it was fading and becoming more pink.

You can't really see the hand guards. I like that.

I had to try out the new black hand guards. I went for a long ride in the Arkansas River bottoms. After a four hour trip, they're still black.

I'm deep.

I Wanna go to Hawaii, Yay!

Deano — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:47:50 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dear Diary, I went to Hawaii. It was awesome. The End.

Pictures in no real order.

Packed and ready to go.

In order to find the airport, first I had to travel through the mountains that smoke.

I'm told the journey is easy in a yellow submarine.

Trusty steed part 1. Also, Hawaii supports gay pride.

My trusty steed part 2. BMW 650GS. I would review the GS a bit, but it was a horribly ragged out rental. I wanted to take it home with me; rescuing it from the abuse it receives at the hands of Japanese tourists.

Trusty steed part 3, Asus EEEEEeeeeeeEeeeeePc. (Nerd)

My room had a nice view.

This is a good summary of Hawaii.

Random hula girls.

First thing you see at the Arizona Memorial. Is this really needed? Last time someone bombed Arizona we nuked Japan.

The boat to Arizona

Lots of oil floating around Arizona.

Missouri from Arizona.

Lots of fish around Arizona.

Missouri looking bad ass.

Random Bird.

Posture :(

Friends I met at the zoo.

These two already knew each other. Turtles make loud, freaky moans when getting it on. You could hear these guys through the whole zoo.

Impromptu exotic car gathering on Ford Island. Holy shit.

Some random overlook on Highway 72.

Taken moments before this girl busted her ass. She was in heels.

I didn't use zoom for this picture. I thought the pigeon was dead until I poked it.

I'm told I look fat.

My arm isn't supposed to be that red. It was ok though, by the end of the next day everything else matched. I wore a rash guard surfing after that.

Odd jelly fish in the Waikiki Aquarium.

This is another good summary of Hawaii.

My camera gave its life to take this photo. I’ve done underwater shots before by sealing my camera in a zip lock. I’ve never had a problem. I took a bunch of water photos, and my camera was working when I took it out of the ziplock. Trying it an hour later was a no go. I really liked that camera too. A trip to Sam's Club netted me a Kodak Z812IS with 12x optical zoom bitches.

Home!

Random Cool Photo

Deano — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:45:25 +0000

How many reflections can you find?