Posted by Witch Doctor on June 03, 2000 at 00:59:52:
A: See how DC managed to ride his bike off highway. The past two days I rode around the fields at work (several hundred acres of sod).
Here are my conclusions, in no particular order.
1) Don't go above 30mph unless you really know the area.
2) Street tires are lousy on red clay gravel, even when dry.
3) Keep out of the "rut hopping, air grabbing, dirt bike frame of mind". I shook my handlebars loose (half turn per allen bolt, 6mm by the way). And that was keeping both tires firmly planted to the ground.
4) Don't hit the back brake hard when you are on grassy areas, unless you like to powerslide like the Valkyrie on the Honda commercial.
All in all, it handled pretty decently for a lightweight street bike in an environment it was never meant to be in. Did the designers of HD or BMW military bikes have a hand in this perhaps?
B: Post an up to date bike abuse notice. 8833.3 miles, little maintenance, third oil filter, second plug. Still run original air cleaner. Only modification to the motor is turning out the air screw, carb innards, pipe, etc still bone stock. Stock tires and brakes as well.
Here is what I have managed to destroy so far: headlight shell, mirror on right side. Damaged left shock cover and rear turn signal. Bike has been dropped/dumped/fell over/knocked over 6 times. Considering that I treat it like an old school (generator case or flathead) HD beater bike, I'm actually very pleased with its stamina and willingness to take what I dish out abuse wise. It is kind of refreshing to find a ride that I can't just outright kill off, no matter how little attention I pay to it.
C: Offer yet another unsolicited opinion about the state of motorcycling. I was on deliveries the past three days, and have had three hardcore HD riders stop and make positive comments about the baby Suzi. One has offered to let me use his shop to chop it to my hearts content. Now, that just don't happen. It seems that even the hardcores are recognizing that this is not your ordinary knock-off twin, crotch rocket, or putt around trying to look tough metric bike. I wasn't even on the bike at the time, these folks just out of the blue asked what I rode. Guess the lifestyle shows thru even though I shaved off my beard and stopped wearing bike shirts to work everyday. Go figure. I guess the RUBS and other posers so common to the HD scene have finally managed to drive the real bikers away. That's OK, they can tag along any time they want, as long as they paint their bikes ORANGE and BLACK, you know, the color scheme real biker bikes have if they aren't painted rattle can flat black.
Gottoa go, time for reruns of MASH. Catch you folks this evening. Live to ride, ride to live. Keep it in the wind.
-WD