neuro

I'd be interested.

Hi Miriam! I'm not so fast, either. It's hard to bird-watch if you're going too fast! Welcome! Hope to see you on a ride, soon - although I admit I don't ride much in the hotter months.

Why is it called a vet track? That was an awesome day! Glad to see/meet all y'all!

I rode it up and down the street shouting"I'm so tall!" It's lowered an inch and a half already.

Looks like you found your bike. Could be a lot out there that I don't know about.

So, I do put keep my feet up, except when stopping. Honestly, dropping your bike at a stop sign is embarrassing to say the least. And I still crash. I'm probably not going to stop that any time soon. Learning power slides? Crash. Learning brake slides? Crash. Lose my line on a bad rut? Crash like heck. I've seen people do the butt slide to one side and I've practiced it, but I'm just not that agile. I'm even less agile in thirty five pounds of gear. By five pm I'm not only not agile, but my hips are not cooperating, they're done. I'm cool with just being able to get the ball of one foot down, which was the case on the wr250. But I'm not going to be one of those people vaulting onto a bike. It'd be ugly. So, sure, there are a lot of badass riders out there who are short. Gary LaPlante taught a class I took and that guy hops up sidesaddle onto a bike to get it going and then kicks one leg over to get going he's so short. But I'm not him. I've been riding less than a year. I'd keep the CRF another season, but the suspension's getting me into trouble. If things get tough, it can't keep up and it bottoms out and the rebound makes it hard to control and you can feel the forks bend. It's an ugly, ugly feeling. Maybe it wouldn't bother a better rider, but I have trouble bringing it back once it's bottomed and bounced. The 'what does your bike really weigh' thread was cool - but it looks like at least some of those are real dirt bikes and not dual sports? Sorry, I may need smaller words. I'm kind of guessing from pictures by the "That doesn't have a headlight" test. I'm also a little intimidated by the KTM maintenance schedule. What can you tell me about that?

I'm currently on a Honda CRF230L and it's my first bike and I'm not in love with my suspension. George Spinali out in Alpine did a great job making it rideable in time for the Sheetiron 300 up north last weekend, but it's quickly becoming just not the bike for me. I'm five foot four and in all my gear, weighed down with supplies and water, I come in at just under two hundred pounds. Most of my height is in my legs. Lots of folks I ride with love their DRZs, but to me they feel fat and clunky. I don't want to lose the agility of the little bike and I don't need to go real fast, but I do need a plated bike that's going to stay plated legally. I'm also still new enough that being able to properly get one foot down without having to do acrobatics is a real boon and when I drop it (and I'm gonna drop it) I really prefer to not have it be a major struggle to pick it back up. I'm eyeing the Yamaha wr250 since it's small but seems to have a more modern suspension. Does anybody have opinions about it? Any better ideas?