MacDuncan

Well done SocalHodaka, the bike looks good and also looks like it fits you well. Good to hear you are having fun on it. Cheers

I think Suspension 101 defaulted to original specs because it was primarily intended for my daughter. I was ok with that even though I planned to ride it too as I aged, and since 1/2 inch of air while jumping is my max, and I rarely do whoops seriously - haha. It wouldn't surprise me if he could offer a good deal on a stronger spring for SDAR folks if he has one in his shop.

Most of you will understand that I want a garage with 20 bikes to choose from daily... (much like Jay Leno's garage of cars ) However, that may not be a reality for this fella. I will likely sell a bike or 3 soon. 2013 v-strom 650 Adventure (original owner), 13,000+ miles, ~$ 4,300. One of the best attributes of the bike is that you do not have to be tall to feel comfortable as the seat height is ~ 32 inches tall (Nice to flat foot). Also nice that it zips to 3 digit speed as needed. Used mostly for street camping, roaming Colorado Rockies Hiways, quick loops to Borrego for Lunch 2-up, ride bagless or with 3 Hard boxes, At 6' + the buffeting was a concern, so all options have been done to make a quiet cockpit, but that depends on the riders height. Running shinkos, dry cover for seat for rain or heat, aftermarket screen, skidplate, bar extenders, engine guards, etc. (Pics below) 2008 WR 250r - ~ $3,100. less than 2000 miles. A more recent arrival to the barn in hopes that my daughter would ride with me. Her enthusiasm is high, but dang, so is the bike as most seem to be these days (and for a newbie that at every stop has to jump to the side to touch the ground and only have the back of 1 knee on seat (she is also new to clutch work), that seems tough . I know the original owner and the reason I picked it up is frankly.... how could anyone find a wr250r these days with less than 2000 miles on it knowing that they are one of the most dependable bikes up to tens of thousands of miles on them. It was stored covered, but outside, so it has a bit weathering shown, but it is still quite clean. I knew I would need to go through it, so I did, so all fluids are new, tires are newish, has numerous upgraded parts that would help with future bike camping.... bike runs great. However, the price may seem high, even though I will take a loss on it due to the surprise of finding out when the forks were serviced by Suspension 101, I had to replace more than fluids and bushings.... however, the suspension is like new now. (Pics below) 2021 Tenere 700. (original owner) ~ $9,100. This bike is fantastic. Best reason is how the motor pulls beautifully from any rpm. There are tons of reasons to love this bike. I used it for Borrego loops and riding to resort towns in Colorado 2 up, riding the CO BDR solo and then on the road to tour in Wyoming, Camping off the bike was great, but riding dirt too was a bonus. It has been farkled well (skid plate, engine guards, anti-vibrate speedometer bar, Camel easy clutch pull, barkbusters, Center stand, bigger wind screen, heated oxford grips, soft luggage pannier guards, luggage tail rack, headlight guard, running motoz, etc. What I was unable to do based upon my skill level is to steer the bike with the throttle and lean only when packed up for an overnight on skinny mountain roads (inside story). (pics below) Test ride other bikes to know if any of these bikes would meet your need to ride. PM preferred for actual potential buyers. . Mac Looping Yellowstone 2-up on vstrom: Camping in Joshua Tree on vstrom: Finding Continental Divides on V-strom (2-up): VStrom Today: Colorado BDR solo on T7: Road touring in Wyoming on T7: T7 Today: Local road we all know:

Happy thanksgiving Mimi, I hope your favorite local trails are still dirt, and not snow, so you can zip along in that wide open land! Cheers

Great cruise Goofy, glad to see you out and about! Hope you continue to share thoughts and strategies, and reflections (gear, bike, riding, route... ), about your outing even after you get home! It is always good to get insights from those who HAVE done it. . Safe travels home. Cheers

Well done Alpha, that looks like a fantastic exploration! I love to do just that, and enjoy knowing that you did! Cheers

Wow, that looks like great fun! Thanks for sharing!

Well done Zubb, and as you stated, it doesn't always need to be Toads wild ride to enjoy the ride, roads, bike, peace, etc......

Even without a boat, I can ride my moto to Glascow.... Did we win goofy?

Goofy, all that was shared by others regarding the loop is correct, but even though it may be a casual ride for many, it can be fun to zip around the perimeter , especially if you just need a quick moto-spin on dirt (but no zip-zam-zoom around blind corners as other motorcycles may be looping on the other direction, and there are occasionally jeeps crawling about). For add-ons, you can always toss in the entrance from Pine Valley to Kernan, and after the loop toss in the glider port out-n-back, and then maybe Noble Canyon. We used to toss in Fred's canyon once atop Noble to zip back down to Kitchen Creek, but there are many posts addressing that portion of the playground. It makes for a nice day from town. (Sorry, I do not recall where I captured the pic in the earlier post). cheers

PB, cite your sources!

Thanks Goofy, It is interesting how it is occasionally challenging to navigate new explorations (and research) when names are the same for different areas. It might be fun for you and others to enlighten us with names that are the same, but are in different areas. For example, you might earn a pricey ticket if you rode Black Mountain in Poway on your moto, but Ramona Black Mountain sure is fun. And, if the weather cools a bit in 8 days, I might ride to Picacho on the CABDR, but not the Picacho in Arizona. And, it was a coincidence that I was just wondering if the snow on Canebrake has melted enough to ride to Kennedy Meadows without going up the Kern, nor the 9 mile asphalt, but there isn't much snow in Canebrake if you wanted to also do a loop by the mud caves. - smiles. I appreciate the research and info about Dual Sporting you have been pushing out lately. Cheers, Mac

Hey Zubb, well done, for me, the track was easily seen, and it matches Gaia. Mac

I had a few days off and asked 3 buds to rally for a ride. One opted out at the last minute, but the other 2 said "let's go"! My work week was crazy and I couldn't find time to prep before Friday night. Even though most of the time we leave for multi day trips on Saturday around 6 am, I asked them if we could leave late Saturday morning, which means the Saturday ride would be a late afternoon short one. I was so proud of my buds who showed up at my pad without knowing where they were going for a few days, and frankly, neither did I. No plans, gotta love it. In fact, the only decision we made as we left was to head out on 67 or 8 (but that dang hiway 8 construction traffic jam/merge can be discouraging, so we cruised out 67N). I had info from Oracle, so we were headed the right direction, although even some low areas can have rain issues too. We wandered through Borrego Springs eventually and out to the Salton Sea, while keeping an eye on the sun so we could drop the bikes quickly and ride for a couple hours before dark, while also hoping that the location might also accommodate a place to camp. Fountain of Youth was considered, but a fire pit and late night beers may not have been ok there, and it was getting late! We almost stopped at inspiration wash just beyond Borrego, but there were quite a few folks, and we didn't really want to ride the routes we had ridden not long ago, so we kept going..... maybe truckhaven??? Holy Toledo, Yikes, as we approached Truckhaven, on that crazy damaged bouncy road, there were millions of people, thousands of jeeps, tens of thousands of rzrs, campers within 5 feet from each other...and so much noise and dust it made us shudder! No way, so keep going..... I began to think about stopping in Box Canyon (away from all the Gun shooting though), and leading a loop by starting out Bradshaw, cut over to Chirroco, and then maybe Palen Pass or Joshua tree...... but to my amazement, even though I often see hundreds of campers in that canyon, nobody was there... so bizarre, especially on a Saturday... and I didn't want to leave the trucks and all our gear isolated in that canyon.... so keep going..... Hmmm, as we exited Box canyon, and with the sun getting lower, we saw many very nice looking campers, motorhomes, etc.. dispersed just across hiway 10 at the entrance to Joshua Tree. Free campsites about a football field away from each other.... looks promising, and I had heard about a little loop near there. We landed a nice spot and quickly geared up and took off on bikes towards the Joshua Tree park, hmmmm, after some paved miles, we began to wonder if our plans would falter as we couldn't find the dirt, so maybe a passive asphalt spin in the beautiful park..... that could be nice.... (sorry knobbies) but right as we were slowing to enter the vehicle line to enter the park officially, the dirt road was just to the left... throttle on...... Pinkham route. It was casual loop and it was nice to be in the dirt after a fairly long pack and travel day.... A good 40 mile spin followed by a nice fire and brews. In the morning, we packed up to head east, but one of the trucks sounded the dreaded "click, click". With some maintenance beyond just jumper cables, we got moving and headed east on 10. Our late start had us thinking about maybe camping at at Walter's Camp and doing some BDR, and finding Hyduk road, but we opted to find a breakfast burrito in Blythe before deciding. We left Blythe headed south for about 100 yards ....and then I pulled a U-turn and headed to KOFA. Late start?, so what! It should not take too long to circumnavigate KOFA! We pulled into Palm canyon which has those fantastic large empty lots of free camping with fire pits, and with the next camper often 2 football fields away... Nice. We packed up and each took a 1 gallon Gas bag and 2 MSR 30 oz bottles. We had to ride a pole trail to get to Kings road and the entry point as our camp-spot road dead-ended to the east. All good, bikes sounded great, not too dusty, communication radios kept us in touch, spot on weather and spectacular views with the alluvial fans greened up from recent rains. WOW! We rode all day and the roads were fantastic, not too fast, but not too casual. In the first 50 miles, we only passed a couple rzrs, and 2 bicycles (pedaling in the deeper sand - ouch). The sun was getting low and we knew that moving at about 20 miles per hour in the rough stuff would make us head home in the night. My 525 halogen was like using a candle, but the other bikes had decent lights, but we slowed a bit as we were tired and didn't want to bif way out in nowhere. We plugged ahead and got back late (~160 miles). No dinner, no fire, just drop gear, enjoy the big moon for a brew or 2, and hit the pillow. Day 3, I proposed a 150 mile loop, but was out voted, it had to be around 40, but I knew once we got moving we would likely do 80 miles. We went north to the MrsT & T entry and cruised around turning randomly, it was great! Some roads had short stretches where you could grab some throttle, but there were lots of sleeper rocks that stuck up about 4-10 inches that had potential to toss you sideways if not paying attention, or maybe threaten a dreaded pinch flat! ... so alert throttling when you could was great, and called for. We didn't see any sheep, but with zoom zoom-ing, not likely. Hey, wait, like finding Waldo, where are the riders???? haha Oh there they are- taking a short break in the shade! A great Day 3, this time followed with some good camping food (that we skipped the night before ). And, a nice place to chill in the beauty of KOFA- Gotta Love it! Great rides and adventure. Cheers.

Thanks Oracle, Bike ran incredible. I may have a tiny start to a seal leak at front sprocket, but the bike took off like a jet when I asked it too. . I'll start a ride report.