Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali

Shanti Nehi (No peace) here in Kasar Devi, it's full war with fireworks of all sizes, each of the poorest quality and quickest burning fuses found anywhere.

Photos to come soon, winter is coming and the last wave of tourists is due soon, the Himalayen mountains have been clear every morning until atleast noon, only this past week have they opened up completely again since march, now it gets colder and clearer views each day. nights are getting long and days short, and while many people shifted one hour due to winter time, india does not have DST and never shifts it's time during the year.

The housing project has shifted focus to a more general bio-composite housing project, adapting to the most availible fiber in a given area. The previously chosen fiber is now seen as unresonable when large quanitities need to be obtained, and creating an fiber industry for a materiel which is banned is outside the scope of any housing project.

Arrived in Almora - Painting Bike

I arrived in Almora at night on July 3rd, around 9:30pm, and made it to Pushkar Guesthouse by 10. I have been relaxing and recovering, i feel quite productive up here and there is a lack of tourist which is quite a relief in it's self, as the locals are in a different mode in off-peak season. The rains have continued almost everyday, but only for a few hours generally in the evening, but some days the morning. flooding has continued to devastate Utterakhand, with many road closures in the mountains. The flooding 1month ago was so devastating that many towns were destroyed, and the Char dam yatra was canceled, after the complete destruction of Kedarnath, where only the main temple above the town was sparred by the avalanche/landslide when a boulder rolled down before it happened and stopped above the temple, protecting it from the massive torrent of rock and ice.

I have changed my oil, as it was more than 500km after my Piston/Cylinder/Head Kit was changed after blowing my piston up in Nepal. My bike is running like new, with way better compression and power then it ever had in my hands. I have fixed my rear brake light, in addition to installing the upgrade free-flow k&M air-filter that rohit gave me, and re-jetting to adapt for it. My mileage is excellent, getting 80+mpg, or 35+km/l unlike before at 50-60mpg, or under 24km/l. In Pokhara after seeing my massive ring gap it is amazing i had compression  at all, but changing my rings without dealing with my real problem at the time (needing a bigend overhaul, and having a 'soft-seized' piston/cylinder, showing scraping spots, which was already 0.040" oversize, max oversize for both piston and cylinder.having the compression boost from the rings in pokhara pushed it over the edge, as not 65 km out of pokhara i blow my piston in half, and have to get rucked 100+km to Butwal, where the very nice and competent mechanics at the Royal Workshop did my bigend and new headkit, in addition to a few other tweaks. Right before i left Pokhara i look down at my rear shock after packing, and see it is rubbing on my rack, after closer inspection i could see it was broken at the rod internally, forcing me to delay another few hours before leaving butwal, and costing me another 2500npr for a single used shock.

Have read a number of books over the past few weeks, starting with most of hunter s thompsons work (hell's angels, rum diary, f&l), then tropic of cancer by Henry miller, then the new translation of siddhartha we were given before we left. I have also been writing as much as possible, both in my journal and about open-hardware/education.

In the past few days i have transferred half of my 1tb hd to my 3tb backup, which is now possible because i found a 12v powersupply  and a fat barrel connector to power up my 3tb backup. I now can continue shooting photos at full speed. After the first day of transferring i came home to find my battery charger (for both cameras) was belly up and dead, but after opening and fixing a cold solder joint, it now works with 12v input at least, and the cap that is swelled up is probably the only thing keeping it from working on mains, which will be an easy fix once i find a replacement. I am really glad i bought a soldering iron in nepal, because i have needed it at least 6 times, and will let me rewire/cleanup the wiring on my bike reliably.

Next stop will be Manali, where i will then plan the Leh/Ladock trip. Myles just left for this tour, and it will take a month or so. This is supposed to be the most amazing bike tour in India, with much of it virtually offroading. If you look at a map the one road goes from Manali stright up to Leh, where there is an amazing lack of roads for hundreds of kilometers. This requires a bike in top running condition, and people on the tour who can assist in repairing. Like always I will have my tool kit, but will also invest in a tire pump, a set of tire irons, and an innertube and patchkit. This plus a set of all cables for the bike (brake, throttle, decompresion, clutch) will make the chance of surviving much higher.... Also mandatory is sleeping bag, tarp/shelter (ideally tent), warm clothes, smaller jets for carburetor for 18000ft pass (or you will run way rich).

BTW, please comment more if you read this, i dont get  much internet access so comment are a good way to talk.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintance

I need to read the Pirsig classic, as the parallels of two characters, one with a new bike and no plan to learn about repair, and another with an older bike and a desire to learn how it works and how to service it, are surprisingly similar.

Downloaded the service manual for my enfield bullet motorcycle. It is a well written and detailed manual, and the bike is easy to work on and well designed. Both on my phone and tablet, but a printed copy would still be handy. Though nanden advises to take the info in the manual with a grain of salt, and use it forguidance more then reference.

Having fun adjusting the idle speed, brakes and clutch, which need a little tuning I feel. (This was written before i saw i had almost no compression due to my piston having 'soft-seized' in addition tomy piston rings had a huge gap from wear. This probably happened on the highway getting to pokhara, as it was the first time i opened her upto almost full speed, which in retrospect was a mistake, especially not knowing the topspeed we hit. According to nanden, even an engine broken in, but only city or mountain ridden less then 70km, will seize up if you just take it to topspeed and leave it, he claims you must slwoing wear the clearances for that working temputure, which is a perfectly logical approach. The enfield, when new has many parts not set at working fit, but interfereance fit, and only through careful wearing the parts in can you achieve perfect tollerences.

Currently I need to fix my rear brake light, which apparently was disabled after a mechanical fault (a screw attaching the brake switch to the bike is missing, causing the switch to rotate) by removing the spring and splitting the electrical connector to the switch, both are easy to fix. My turn signals also need to be fixed, one of the rear ones is falling off, and the front ones are removed entirely. They have also been electrically disconnected.i also want to fit larger jetsin thecarb and the k&m airfilter rohit gave me, plus change the tires formodern knobbies, and change the rear suspension or the spring/recharge or tunr the pressure, or find an oldschool oil dampened shock and tunr that instead.

Work done on my bike so far (as i remember)
-rear shock bushings
-front shock seals and oil
-rear brake pads changed from knockoff
-engine rebuild and new piston cylinder head kit after catastrophic seizure
-wheels bearings
-centrrstand needed weld tokeep bike upright, making it easiertoget offthe stand[needs tobe done again]
-oil pump rebiolt
-used pistons fitted, needto put new ones in india
-got a rack
-fixed/disabled rear brake light myself a few times [missing a bolt i cant find, gonna use wire as there is no stress]
-Got spokes fixed in rear wheel and wheel trued.

In Rishikesh - Planning a Enfield trip to the Himylayen mountains and Nepal.

We have been here in Rishikesh for the past 2 weeks, and right now am plannning the next leg of our trip. Our Visa's need to be extended by may 11. Current plan is to go to Tungnath, one of the panch (five) kedar's on rented Enfield motorcycles on tuesday (the 23rd or april) We have hooked up with Rohit, a friend of sophia's that organaizes bike tours and shoots photpgraphs, who has agreed to bike with us to the nepal border across the india himalayen range, after he joins us for a 300km trip from here to Tungnath.


Ideally we plan to each purchase a bike with the idea to sell after the summer, which is cheaper than renting for 600 rupes (11 dollars) a day. Prices for an enfield is around 50000 rupees (1000$usd) for an slightly older (1998-2006) bike without disc brakes in trip ready condition, a almost new bike (2009-2011) is around 85000 rupees (1600$usd) with front disc brakes. The bikes can be sold back to the same person we bought the from in rishikesh at 70% of what we bought them for, or sold to someone else for anywhere from 35,000-45000, making the cost for having a bike around 10,000-15000. Most enfields are 350cc bikes, but there are 500cc models, and there are rare old models called the interceptor, which is 2x 350cc engines bolted together in a v-configuration. I have never seen one, but enfields are a common sight. They are similer in style to a Norton or Triumph, from similer british origins.


List of Enfield Motorcycles


Looked at a few bikes today, and got my first 50-60km trip in on an enfield today. these bikes are powerful, sturdy, and heavy, and a dream to drive. The advantages of the enfield are increased stability compared to the lightweight japanese and indian bikes, ease of repair and finding parts, reliability, and a huge userbase in india. The bikes are also incredibly well balanced. 

Learning Hindi and Devenagri

We have been pushing each other to learn Hindi. Also trying to learn Devenagri, the hindi and Sanskrit script, which would be a great help.
I have made flash cards, and both Myles and I got good Hindi books. Also practicing writing the script as often as possible. Hindi is all phonetic, each vowel or consonant is independently pronounceable, making it easy to pronounce written text if I can remember all 12 vowels and 36 consonants. Reading signs in Devenagri is important even of you can't yet understand the words.

Sanskrit uses the same character set, with slightly different rules, so this is another goal to learn. After sitting through a few Bhagavad Gita lectures in sanskrit with Ira and Shyamdas, I am inspired to learn this beautifully concise and philosophical language. Each word seems to contain incredibly deep and profound meaning.

I thought to do a Sesame street style class, as in today is brought to you by the letter प pa, the number १३ तेरह terah and the word बड़ा bara (big). I want to get a small chalkboard for this purpose. I can count to twenty, but still working on larger numbers.

My vocabulary is limited, but expanding. I have been advised Mersin in an area lacking English is the best way to pick it up, which has been experience for other languages.

Helmets procured

We have bought two helmets, black full face style. Devin rented a Honda hero motorcycle, something like 100-150cc and we have been riding for a week or so. All freaks came out for the full moon, and we joined them.. New years promises fun, parties everywhere from arambol to anjuna.