Well, for starters, I decided the suspension settles in enough that I'm going to leave the height alone. I still don't lean it over far enough at a stop light to get one foot or the other all the way flat, but it hasn't been a big deal.
On the way out of the house yesterday I noticed the streets were a little damp. I'm not relly sure where it came from, but I guess it doesn't really matter. The stock Trailwings handled it well enough, I never had a problem with cornering or braking, though I was being conservative. Apparently I was a little less conservative with the throttle as I passed through Denton, though.
Let me just take a moment to say I feel sorry for anyone who has to drive through Denton on a regular basis. I took 380 between I35 and 75, and found Denton full of the slowest drivers I'd ever seen, coupled with a series of wonderfully arbitrary traffic lights. I suspect the traffic sensors are designed to give the red light to all approaching traffic, and the green light to any direction that doesn't need it.
The frustration in Denton may be why, the few times I managed to be first at a red light, I ran into traction issues when I got the green. Between the overnight moisture, and a lack of any recent rain, the first few car lengths at every light were a little slick... not so much that I ever locked a tire under braking, or felt like my feet were solidly planted at a red light, but enough that a little bottom end grunt from the 650 would spin the back tire. There were several intersections where I managed to spin the back tire for several feet, but despite a little fishtailing, I was surprised how stable the DR felt. That was something that kept coming to mind later in the day on other loose surfaces, and allowed me to hang in there when instinct said "Hey, this can't be right, back off."
I learned early on that I was glad I'd decided to take the DR instead of the Sherpa. I'd been more worried about the extra weight and height of the DR, but ridng the Sherpa all that way, I would have been more concerned about "Am I there YET?"
Meeting up with Sprocket in Princeton, I topped off and we proceeded to take every conceivable dirt road he could find between there and Bonham. 99% of the time everything was great, I was goosing the throttle to slide it around turns and it all just kind of felt right. That other 1% came from a few patches of deep gravel that got the front end oscillating back and forth. There were several occasions where I thought "There's no way I'm NOT going down" but a little mor throttle and the DR always pulled out of it. Later in the day, I followed oldbmw's example of standing on the pegs and found that the problem just didn't seem to materialize anymore. Maybe some of the more experienced dirt riders can fill me in on the physics of what was happening. I'd heard Sprocket mention getting my weight to the rear and letting the front lighten up to scoot over those kinds of soft areas, but then again, standing up seemed to let the front dig in and track straight. either way it sounds like I'm not supposed to just sit in the middle and wait it out.
After picking up oldbmw in Bonham, we went back to taking dirt roads where we found them. I don't know if the rest of the dirt roads were less difficult, or if I just got better at them, but the rest of the ride didn't seem like so much work. On the other hand, maybe it was that following oldbmw's KLR gave me more warning about the squirrely spots. Sprocket's XR just never seems to flinch at anything, so watching his back tire doesn't tell me much about what he's hitting in the road. I could also tell that a big part of it was an experience advantage, but having both of these guys to follow did a lot for my own confidence level. It was a lot like my first time riding a street bike in the rain, 90 some miles worth of wet pavement on a poker run. I got plenty of chances to wonder how the heck the tires were going to stick, but seeing the bike ahead of me do it was a big help.
Not long before lunch, we wound up on a dirt road like I'd never seen. Easily 4 lanes wide, smooth (mostly) and well graded (not big pockets of 4 inch deep gravel), it was fun despite looking boring. It was a little weird doing 60+ on dirt, but I kept wondering if I should go a little faster and pass the KLR ahead of me, despite the scorn it would earn me at lunch.
This is the closest combination I could find to demonstrate who was sitting on my shoulders...
Anyway, I decided not to give in the a lust for speed. The only thing worse than crashing, is crashing while you're trying to show off.
A little further down the dirt superhighway we saw why it was so wide. Some kind of a facility off to our left had a few of those giant 3 story tall dumptrucks that take up two lanes. I doubt one of those could fit down most of our earlier dirt roads, much less let two pass in opposite directions.
I don't remember whether that was before or after our pics at the cemetery. Either way, those shots were taken where we found our first patch of sand. Well, we may have hit some earlier, but not deep enough for us to be aware of it. I was too far back to see the XR hit it, but I saw the KLR get a little squirrely and knew something was up. Again, a little advance warning let me prepare for what might have been a problem if I'd hit the sand first. After a litle rest stop to try and figure out just which three way intersection on the map depicted the one we'd found, we picked a direction and took off. At least we didn't have to go far to get out of the sand. Everybody got a little goofy for a few feet, but I managed to wash out the front end badly enough that I had to put down an outrigger for the first time all day. I was really glad 20 feet later when it went back to packed dirt.
Beyond that, nothing really noteworthy, except finally a long pavement section leading up to lunch. I guess the other two guys weren't actualy aware that I'd just picked up the DR the previous day. I have no idea how fast they were going, but I started losing ground early, not wanting to push the throttle too far. By the time we stopped along Hwy 82 for lunch, I was still close enough to see them turn off for gas station burgers, so I guess somebody checked a mirror eventually and took pity on me.
Lunch was a welcome break from that skinny little plank of a seat. On the dirt sections I guess I was always to preoccupied to think about the seat, but on the pavement, it became painfully obvious. The only thing I LIKE about the DR seat would be the grippy cover. On the Sherpa, I slide around a little under hard braking or a hard launch in 1st gear, but on the DR, you don't move unless it's by choice. I'm kind of considering maybe having a place in Carrollton just refoam the factory seat, rather than buy aftermarket. Too many aftermarket seats are going overboard on widening out a shelf to sit on, resulting in something that I'm sure is more comfortable on long stretches of highway, but they just look like they will compromise my ability to sit where I want when I'm on the dirt. Whichever way I go about it, I can see a new seat will take priority over a larger gas tank.
After lunch, I think we'd all had enough for one day. I know I had. We slabbed it back west on 82, I managed to buy myself a few extra miles when I missed the turn off for 121 and was too stubborn to turn back. I held off on gassing up as I passed through Sherman and found I hit my reserve at just about 101 miles. A bigger tank is definitely on the list, it's just not first.
Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
PM me a good email addy for you and I'll shoot you the route we took from Princeton to Bonham. It was pretty decent as well. 
The regular street helmet is okay unless it gets real dusty. Then the goggles are nicer because your eyes don't get as crusty... Also, if you ride in the dirt you wil eventually hit the ground. A dirt helmet is usually quite a bit cheaper than street helmets to replace.
