SHNF - First Trip

I took my first trip up to the multi-use trails in the forest today with a friend of mine, both of us on DR650's. This was my first real off road trip.

The mud was worse than we expected, and we were unable to complete any single section of the trails we attempted. After my friend fell over several times, and I got stuck a few times, we decided to call it.

The bikes performed very well, but our tires let us down. I had the factory Trailwings, and he had a Shinko 244 up front and a worn out Heidenau K60 on the back. It was rather limiting, and we knew it.

So tonight, I've ordered myself a set of Shinko 244's. I was planning on riding out the Trailwings, but I can safely say they're coming off ahead of my next off road adventure. They truly earned their nickname today, ****** deathwings.

Despite the shortcomings, we had a blast and can't wait to go at it again! Perhaps with a tire swap we'll do better. Hopefully we can find some drier trails as well!

Drier trails, probably in July! lol
Curious, which side of Lake Conroe did you go to? Eastside seems to dry quicker and has more sand. There's some trail that should have been a "little" easier. always a challenge on the bigger bikes, when it's dry the sand gets very deep, so it's a toss up.

Sounds like you had some real fun (challenges). tires make a huge diffence... Especially the front.

Yeah, those Trailwings don't like mud and sand. They perform well on paved surfaces and hardpack, which is what they were designed for. I ran through a set on my DR and had no issues as long as I stayed away from knobby territory.

The DR now has 244s and they work great. While giving up bit of road grip when compared to Trailwings, they more than make up the difference on all other surfaces. And at a terrific price point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

woodsguy said:

Drier trails, probably in July! lol
Curious, which side of Lake Conroe did you go to? Eastside seems to dry quicker and has more sand. There's some trail that should have been a "little" easier. always a challenge on the bigger bikes, when it's dry the sand gets very deep, so it's a toss up.

Click to expand...

We were on the westside. We might go to the east side next time, depending on when that happens to be.

Also, I know the DR isn't exactly tiny, but next to any of the "adventure" bikes, I can hardly think of it as large. Maybe I'm wrong in that opinion, but it seems to be a nice compromise between on and off road. Hopefully the tires will make a difference.

Depends on what you compare it to, definitely smaller than a GS1200 but not a 250 2 stroker. Lol

No pics... never happened

Tourmeister said:

No pics... never happened

Click to expand...

Well, the only pictures we took were of the two bikes sitting in a Whataburger parking lot, so I suppose by that logic it didn't happen.

Man... I could REALLY go for a Whataburger burger right about now... Been sick all week and have yet to have one really good meal...