Official 2017 NorCal Camping/Wheeling Thread!

lol, it's cool man.. I'm usually quicker on the uptake, I'll blame my work schedule and being switched to night shift.

It's a good thing we have the internet for shopping though. Imagine me going into to a sports supply store and asking the clerk for blackbeats...

 

#blakebeats

 

Lol, how did I miss that?

 

Haven't had an issue yet. But I did buy a pelican which has a lifetime warranty and is supposedly bear proof. I put the important stuff in it. Like beer.

 

Hey! I dont litter! Lol

Before summer is over. Nothing set yet

 

Pelican cases are super tough. I've been thinking about using them for side cases on my motorcycle. People crash bikes and the pelican cases save the bike.

 

That's a good idea! Depending on the dates I'm in.

 

I see a lot of wrecked bikes. The things you think save the bike may not always. Cases are pretty good prevention. Same with frame sliders. The sad part is they can also cause more severe damage just by their inflexible nature. Still, cases are better than nothing.

 

Also, I've read a bit here and there about hard cases breaking legs riding off road. I take my v strom on forest service roads a bunch but don't have hard cases yet. I might get a set of soft cases just for that. Or a Giant Loop. I'm also thinking about getting a Honda XR650, DR650 kinda bike where soft cases would be more useful on rougher roads.

I'm working on building a mountain bike rack for the vstrom similar to a 2x2 cycles rack. https://2x2cycles.com/product/motorcycle-bicycle-rack/
I definately want hard cases for that so I can lock my gear in the cases at the trail head while I ride.

 

These are stock photos of my bike. I have actual pics of my bike, with the extras I added, if you want to see. It's a BMW 650 single, XCountry. 2008 with 7700 miles. Excellent condition. I'll sell it to you.

 

Very nice Don! I probably wont' buy another bike until next year, if if I buy one at all.

 

I had bought race rails for my bike. Not a full cage but alot beefier than pucks. Dropped her a few times and she was good to go

 

I have full crash bars on the front and racks on the back. The crash bars do a great job except the turn signals stick out past them. I gave her too much gas down by big sur riding dirt, spun the rear wheel rode it into an embankment and crashed. Only the turnsignal broke. Not bad.

 

I find it hilarious that REI sells "Yeti bear proof cooler locks" that are literally just a pair of master locks.

https://www.rei.com/product/852553/...92gdG2Py4wa0X2YbdzyzNVNMLJPjE8QYaAqgmEALw_wcB

 

For regular touring, I prefer the hard cases. I have a Giant Loop Great Basin for off-road. I use it with a dry bag for my tent and other stuff that might get wet.

 

That's because the locks are Bear Proof. The Cooler sure as fuck ain't. But at least your locks will still be locked around 2 small pieces of plastic at the end of the day

 

I've been meaning to pick up some hard bags for my Raider. There's a couple dealers that have them, but the real pain is ordering them color matched

 

Speaking of coolers, rather than spending half the cost of a 12v fridge on an expensive one I got a Coleman Xtreme 5 52qt that I've started making a few mods to.

First I swapped out the plastic hinges for the stainless steel ones, then I replaced the plastic handles with stainless loops for strapping it down to my slide.



Then I wrapped some bulb seal around the lid. I can tell it improved the seal since now you can hear the air escaping from the only spot without it when closing.


Next I have some metalized bubble wrap insulation that I'm going to make a basic cover bag thing out of. I have a few other ideas of things to add as well.

I hope it actually does anything to improve performance until I have the green for a proper fridge.

 

Drill a hole and fill the lid with the spray insulation. Those xtreme cooler lids are hollow. The Coleman marine coolers lids are insulated which is the only difference that I can tell between the two. I have one of each.

 

we should have a cooler-off when you're done for fun. Not to be a negative lil shit about your mods, but the thing that concerns me about those steel hinges is if there's an incident where the hinge should break, but since you eliminated the hinges as the weak link, will the screws rip out or something worse?

For example, when I was camping with my gf a few years back, we had our dogs strapped to our igloo. Enough to keep them in the vicinity. Then another dog walked by our camp. Needless to say, a full 65-70qt igloo did not stop two sled dogs from what they decided was a necessary venture to meet this new dog. That's when our latch and hinges broke.

I could see other situations like this where the hinges being the weak link is actually a good thing instead of potentially ruining the cooler. But I'm always considering the negatives. Kind of a curse. Sorry if this post bugged ya