Re: Hill Country dual sport ride
Awesome time!
The trip started out on the paved roads with my 20-yr old Suzuki grunting to reach 68 mph. I was hitting 69 on the downhills.
Once we hit the dirt roads, I was more in my element. The water crossings were fun, especially the gravelly ones where you could charge right through.
I was the designated problem rider for this trip, it seemed (I hate being that guy). Yeah, my bike was slow on the highway, I rode 35 miles of the trip on a front tire that had zero air in it.
That was exciting. I ran out of gas at 85 miles (but I was carrying 1.25 extra gallons so I caught back up). And there was the really weird episode where I was riding in formation at 40 mph and the engine cut off cold, like the ignition failed. I shifted down through the gears waiting for it to light up but it was DOA. When a couple guys asked what happened, I was so sure the engine had an ignition failure, I was about to tell them to send a truck back for me. But I figured I had to make a show of kicking it (no electric start) and it fired back up on the first kick
WTH??
The St James river crossing was fun, and super-slick.
That's me in this video, . The bike skated 90 degrees starboard (we were in the water, all right?) and I was doing ok but tried to turn too quickly to get back on track and the front end went--->whoops!
I was really thinking it would be neat to explore other crossing spots other than the concrete/limestone slab.
One thing that I want to say to any future riders of this tour: bring goggles!! Seriously, the dust of 20 motorcycles in front of you pounding the crap out of these dirt roads will raise a huge amount of dust.
I enjoyed meeting all you guys. You''re a great bunch of people. A million apologies if not all the names stuck, there were around 30 people or so to get to know.
Thanks, Versys, for getting this ride going, it was great, for showing us how to save it in the St James! and for pushing me to get the tube changed out (I was reluctant to try this myself, because in my garage, I pinch the tube four out of five times
). Big shout out to RG, my group leader, Rick; to DR650 Jimmy for changing my tube, twice! and the other guys who helped. To Tony for providing said tube, and to the other rider who supplied the practice tube. Can someone remind me who I owe that $120 roadside tube supply fee to?
If you were on this ride,
PM your name my way and the bike you were riding, I will put together a photo roster. That will help a lot when we get together for the next ride.
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Hopefully the next ride will go just as well and even attract a few more riders.
Thanks!! Where do I send the check?
