Chirpy said:
If you pick up two, I'll buy the other one off of you.
I'm still planning a "dirt day" for early May before it gets too hot. If things go right, there will be at least three XR100s and a freshly groomed oval. Not too mention all the county roads you can handle to practice on.
XR100's that brings back some memories. Aside from our Honda Big Red, the first real motorcycle I had was a Honda CR80. That thing would run with the 125's and I could beat the 250's off the line and through 3rd. Then they would scream by. But it is fun when your able to really embarass the older guys in high school by beating them in a short drag race with me on my "mini-bike" and them on the big 250's. I eventually grew to where I could handle a 250 and dad bought a new to me one on on my 16th birthday. I loved that CR250 and I think that is my problem when I get the pig off the hard stuff.
I went into the navy in 89 and bought a VT1100 shadow, and then moved up to a hand me down GL1500, and then bought a GL1800. Infact this pig I now own is the first non-Honda product I have ever owned. I have ridden only street and only large street bikes since the summer of 1989. Less than a year ago when I bought the GS was the first time that I have been in the dirt in a very long time.
Anyway. When I get the GS off in the dirt I feel like a teenager again, like I was riding my 250. Just when I think that I am getting good enough to manuver, I lose control. I have never laid the GS over, but I think that is only because I am tall enough and fat enough to support its weight.
I don't know how to explain it, but on the CR's, I never thought about how to ride, I just rode. There used to be a place off a forgotten about county road near my parents that we called the sand pit. You all know the place as I am sure you had one near where you grew up. It is where you would go on a friday night with friends when there was nothing to do in town and turn the radio up. It was also the place we would meet with our bikes after school and on weekends and go through 3 fill ups of fuel having to much fun. Jumping, and racing on our pretty good if not imaginary MX track. Never worried about laying it down. Never worried about breaking it. All though it would blow hard when you landed hard and popped the chain, (you would only do that once!)
Now I can't stop thinking about how to ride. I try to imagine how I rode the 250 in the sand and think that I am doing the same. Sit back, light on the bars, give it fuel... SMILE.. So far that is not working to well.
In that first picture of the pig snowplowed in the sand, I was clipping along at about 40/50 mph on hard pack with some gravel, having the time of my life, singing in my helmet. When I rounded a bend and WHAM, I am all over the road. I went hard right, near up to the burm, pulled it back to the left and that is when I centered on the burm in the middle of the road. The bike came to a stop, REAL FAST. So fast I did good not to go over the handlebars. I had the clutch pulled in and at a standstill when I realized that my feet were on the pegs, I am not moving, but I am not falling over.... needless to say that was a pretty odd moment. I hop off and take the obligatory photos. and think about just how close I came to hurting myself. I get back on the bike and after several trys to ride out of the sand pile, I get moving again.
Over the next couple of hours riding the back county roads with more sandy sections than hard stuff I gradually get my confidence up to relax if the front tire 'wiggles' when entering the sand from the hard stuff. I still don't like it, because even though my brain knows that speed keeps the gyroscopes upright and pointed. My butt is telling me something totally different and the pucker factor over rides.
Oh well, I guess like with anything in life. The more you do it, the more complacent... err, competent you get. I need to get back and visits my parents more and while there go play on the surrounding county roads.
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Thanks for the report Duke, looked like fun.
