26 June, 2010

Today it was a short ride to the resting place of Admiral Yi Sun-sin. located in Asan it is a short ride from the camp.

Wikipedia says the following about Adm Yi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Sun-sin

Admiral Yi is considered one of Korea's greatest heroes of all time. Koreans look upon Yi as a man of courage, perseverance, strength, self-sacrifice, intellect, and loyalty to his country.

The Memorial is a large fenced in compound that contains his house, a museum, archery ranges, Koi ponds and many period buildings.

There are statues of the man all over the country and he is considered a national hero. and reading of him he is regarded on levels reserved for those above Napoleon and Horatio Nelson as he kept the Japanese from invading for seven years until he was killed by a stray bullet.

Well worth the trip and I can cross this one off in the tourist guide.

19 Jun, 2010

One of my Co-workers had to take his Harley to the dealership in Suwon for a service today and I went along to keep him company. his wife followed us in their Honda Pilot.

the route was Highway 38 to 45 to 42 and it took about an hour to get to the dealership. the ride up was easy highway riding, freeway speed and not very complicated. the weather start out as rain and ended up just being overcast and hazy.

We arrived at the Harley Dealership without issue and turn in the bike for it's service. we all browsed the store for a bit and marveled at all the HD goodies. this HD store is like any HD Megaplex in the states. lots of chrome, lots of widgets and outrageous prices. but it is a good slice of Americana.

Noticing a small leak under my bike I tightened up the hose fittings on the return line.

Leaving the bikes at the store we took the car to lunch as the service was going to take around 3 hours to complete. we found a steak place called VIP's Steak and Salad in the Suwon Train Station. the Food Courts in the Train Stations in Korea are first rate. a little pricey, but the food is good and you don't leave hungry. this place was no different. Excellent food and really good service.

We returned around the time the service was supposed to be completed, had a cup of coffee and got ready to go. we came back the same route in reverse. Heading out the traffic was easy and light for the middle of the day.

I had a sneaky suspicion that the return oil line was going to give me an issue on the way back. I always keep an eye on the Oil Pressure Guage and figured as long as there is pressure there is oil, so keep going until it becomes a problem. around halfway back My friend started Honking and pointing. figured I'd better get over to the side of the road and see what was up. Look at the pressure, still good. Looked for an off ramp, found one. Looked at the pressure again, zero. Oh Shit. Pull the clutch, killswitch, turn the key off and coast.

Coasted to a stop an the bottom of the offramp and into a parking lot. got stopped and notice oil all over the back tire. and then noticed the Oil Return line had come off the tube on the bottom of the engine. so all the oil had been pumped out of the bike. While I was thinking how I was going to fix this, My friend said, "hey, lets just load it into the Pilot." OK this is going to be interesting. Lets stuff a 300 pound motorcycle into the back of a Honda Pilot.

Wouldn't you know it, the bike actually fit as you can see in the pics above. we got back to the base without further incident, unloaded the bike and went our seperate ways. I want to thanks the Kemps for their help and company today, all things considered, the was a good day.

13 June, 2010

Todays ride was little more than aimlessly wandering the local area. I had no real destination in mind and figured I'd shoot from the hip and see what transpired.

I headed out toward Dangjin and meandered through the countryside then road out to the Seawall in Asan. Coming back north along the coast I stayed on the country access roads and make my way towards Pyeongtaek. Traffic was light and it was worth it just to get out and ride, even if the weather was not as nice as it could have been.

10 June, 2010

A group of rider that I work with went out for a short lunchtime ride today. 6 Bikes; 2 Harleys, a Suzuki Boulevard, a Yamaha 450 Enduro, a 125cc Daelim Naked Road bike and My Trump. A new route going out Hwy 34, over a mountain on country road 57, onto Hwy 21 then returning along Hwy 45.

Going out 34 is that same as I have written about previously, although we turned prior to going up the mountain that I had enjoyed previously.

Country Road 57 if a sweet little gem of winding switchbacks up the side up the side of a mountain. little more than one lane road, it is far too technical to do at any speed. However the corners are well balanced and the lines are challenging yet possible. at the top of the mountain the road opens up to two lanes and follows a small scenic river down the opposite side. though not as twisty as the way up, it was a pleasure to ride.

Feeding onto Hwy 21 east of Cheonan, we rode until was saw a small Beef and Leaf Korean BBQ place that we stopped at for lunch. Fresh cooked bulgogi, rice, lots of sides and plenty to chat about as we all ate our fill.

The decision was made to head toward Hwy 45, which is a major Highway, in order to make time getting back. This would have been true, but a Daelim 125cc 2 stroke has never held a speed record and is certainly not going to set the world on fire. so we hung with him and cruised back to the base. Not a bad way to spend lunch.