Ural Camping

[cheesy]

Finally did it. Mrs. C and I went on a two night trip to a somewhat nearby Illannoy state park near Rockford. Mrs. C requires more (a lot more) stuff than I do, hence the load.


I was told by fear mongers that the load would cause the bike to handle badly. Liars. The bike handles badly no matter what. This just took more effort to keep straight. Getting there was a tad over an hour because Mrs. C has a narrow comfort zone and will only try things in small bites. I'm surprised that she agreed to try sleeping on a cot.

We scored a quiet and remote campsite for $12US a night. It also wasn't level. This ain't trick photography. This is the campsite.


Not so bad from this angle, but still...


We had to laugh when we'd wake up during the evening and found we'd slid a few inches downhill on our cots. Mrs. C has given the cots a thumbs up. Too bad she claimed my very nice and very expensive Thermarest Ultralight cot and left me with the 'meh' cot. I still slept better on that than I do on the ground with a pad.

The ride there was uneventful with the exception of catching every possible red light along the route.

I did learn that I need to spend some more time with the MSR stove. The first meal I cooked with it was perfect. Diced potatoes and ham with sweet corn. Breakfast the next day was a lesson in cremation. Crunchy potatoes good. Black crunchy potatoes bad. Dinner that evening was ground beef with Spanish rice and came off without a hitch.

As far as entertaining ourselves, we rode around the park grounds, which are pretty nice and then rode to Beloit, WI, just to say we'd been there. When we got back from Beloit, the campground host flagged us down. She wanted to take our picture on the Ural for the IL State Park Guide for next year. Maybe we'll be famous.

As boat rentals are available, we'd been itching to get out on the lake. I wanted to rent a double kayak but Mrs. C is very afraid of tipping over. She also wasn't keen on a canoe, for the same reason. We ended up with, and God help me, a pedal boat. It was okay, and it necessitated an 8:30 bed time, but from an ex bicycle racers' view, it could have been much better.

After last nights dinner, the guy who set up across from us, wandered over to check out the Ural. After some small talk, I asked him if he wanted to go for a short ride. He was in the sidecar before I finished talking. So, a short ride in the dark with ALL the lights on. He offered us breakfast the next day, but I had decline the offer. We had to get home early today to catch our grandsons' football game.

We skipped cooking breakfast and opted for a small town diner on the way home. We can heartily recommend the Boone County Family Restaurant in Poplar Grove, IL. The ride home was rough with some killer headwinds. I had all I could do to make 50 mph on some stretches of road. But, other than the wind and some UDF at the diner and at a fill up, the ride home was uneventful. That's how it should be.

This, though, is what makes all the little problems go away.

[jsumd]

It looks like you all had a ton of fun! Nothing in the world like camping off your bike.

[Weldangrind]

I like the cargo hauler in the receiver; tough to do that on two wheels.
My daughter and I rode in a pedal boat this summer, but the lack of seat adjustment made for a short trip. My knees cant take being around my ears when I pedal.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

My daughter and I rode in a pedal boat this summer, but the lack of seat adjustment made for a short trip. My knees cant take being around my ears when I pedal.

Agreed. Mrs. B is short of leg and it wasn't an issue for her as it was for me. Now, if the seat was adjustable and the steering was a tad more precise I'd probably be saying "Shut up and take my money".

[Emerikol]

Cheesy, I'm with you, those pedal boats are a two thumbscrews away from being modern-day torture devices. Glad you had the Ural out for a camping trip, and I'm even more glad for you that the Missus signed off on it. I can tell you, my Gear-Up has been an absolute hit for the three days I've had it here in Phoenix. I must have given all the neighborhood kids (and more than half the parents) rides already. The UDF even strikes when you're just trying to get all your stuff unpacked from a move across the country. I'm going to have the bike out on some of the local desert trails before too long, maybe make a run up to the Grand Canyon.

[BlackBike]

So glad you finally made the trip! What were the nighttime lows? Warm enough? That carrier worked out great

This making me want to go again.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by BlackBike

So glad you finally made the trip! What were the nighttime lows? Warm enough? That carrier worked out great

This making me want to go again.

First night was in the upper thirties. As I am folliclly challenged, I kept my noggin inside the bag as much as possible. Second night was in the mid forties.

We have no shortage of sleeping bags for various temps and opted for our Eureka bags rated at +15F. Throw on warm pjs and a sleeping pad on the cot and you are warm as toast.

Yeah, the cargo rack worked better than expected. I found a storage tub that fits it pretty nicely and will be able to toss odd shaped toys that don't take well to strapping down in it. As an aside, when we got home, all the straps had come lose yet all the gear stayed in place.

[cheesy]

E-If I designed my own paddle boat, the seat would definitely be adjustable, along with a standard tiller. While I'm designing things, maybe an easily accessible pony keg for when one gets thirsty.

Glad the Ural is a hit. Let me know how the desert runs go.

[BlackBike]

Brr.. that sounds coolio to me. But your indigenous and can take it. I would be freezing me arse

[cheesy]

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by cheesy

E-If I designed my own paddle boat, the seat would definitely be adjustable, along with a standard tiller. While I'm designing things, maybe an easily accessible pony keg for when one gets thirsty.

Glad the Ural is a hit. Let me know how the desert runs go.

Cheesy, while you're getting fancy and designing things, you could very easily put in a reduction drive for the paddle assembly (maybe even put in a worm drive and use a proper set of props instead of the inefficient paddle blades), and let's not forget about an evaporative cooling unit for the pony keg. Now the wheels are turning in my head, and I'm trying to think up all the ways that could be done, what the cost of modifications would be versus buying a shell and starting clean-sheet, and finally what the ROI would be on those types of units... Not much call for boats out here in the desert, though. Who knows, maybe the stars and planets will align and we just planted the seeds for a niche boat shop. This is going to be interesting thinking on a nice Halloween morning. Talk to you soon, Happy Halloween!

[Weldangrind]

A Peltier device on a grand scale would keep a pony keg cold with just a small 12v battery. A solar panel would be a good plan as well.


I'd love to see a worm drive operating two props on a pedal boat! Might as well add a derailleur on the primary drive while you're at it.

[Emerikol]

I know that the parts exist pretty much off the shelf to create a dual-prop worm drive setup on a pedal boat. The design challenge is with the driveline as a whole. On the current mass produced boats, everything stays pretty well under the hull, so there aren't any penetrations to keep sealed. With a worm drive, all your shafts would need to be in a straight line, thereby hull penetrations would become a fact of life. All that being said, modern sealed bearings should do the trick for the type of pressures and velocities a craft like this would routinely encounter. Poor Cheesy, he was just lamenting that the pedal boats are uncomfortable, and here we are redesigning the wheel around him.
As for the Peltier Device, I don't think that would scale in the economies we're dealing with. For the cost of those, you could get an older ammonia absorption system (maybe from an RV fridge or something similar). Those systems use next to no power, and just use thermodynamic cycles to keep the cooling process running. Another cooling option would be either a small stirling cycle device, or even a cardboard shell with a small water pump to create something like an evaporative swamp cooler.

[Weldangrind]

I have two Peltier-based coolers ($12.00 each from the thrift store) and they have frost on the heat sink after a few hours of use. They are remarkably efficient and they are cheap on eBay. That said, an ammonia-based system makes more sense.

[Emerikol]

It would even be possible to make a small water pump that drives off the pedal power and then evaporates out of a lining for the kegs. That's a camping trick. If you have a bottle of beer that is unacceptably too warm, wrap it in newspaper, soak it down with water, then drive for about three miles or so with the bottle out in the airstream, and BAM! Cold Beer!

The water pump system off of a small outboard motor would work a treat for moving water around a system like that. Of course, by the time you're done stripping an outboard down, you may as well of just put it on the pedal boat and called it a day...