darylhunter

+1 to petition signed.

Will be following this too. I noticed that the traction control light winks on very frequently on the 1190 R in the first few gears. I suspect I'll be in the market for a new tire before long - due not in small part to turning traction control off frequently in order to save rubber on the front tire

Hoping I get a chance to get a ride in this weekend. Have only had a couple quick trips around town on the bike so far, but did ride it to work and back today just for fun. On the way in to work I happened to notice the traction control light coming on in the first few gears when I whack open the throttle hoping for a bit of a wheelie while in Street mode. No wheelie, no drama, kind of milk toast . . . On the way home from work I left it in street mode and left on ABS, but turned off the traction control. O M G just O M G Let's just say wheelies aren't a problem in 3rd gear - or perhaps restated another way, wheelies are a problem in 3rd gear! At least if I want to keep my drivers license. Wasn't in a place where I could experiment, but I'm pretty sure 4th gear wheelies aren't out of the question

A friend and I were out riding and found a jeep way back in the weeds with no one around. Looked suspiciously abandoned. We checked around and found the insurance card in the glove box. Called the insurance company and sure enough it had been reported stolen. The insurance company requested that I contact the police so they could recover the vehicle. Not sure why they couldn't do it, but OK, I'll call the police. Turns out the Escondido police didn't speak GPS coordinates, they only understood street address. So they had me call the sheriff's helicopter unit because they might understand this mysterious GPS talk. Gave the coordinates to the pilot and he said they would do a fly by and verify the vehicle was there, and then they would log it as recovered. They weren't going to come in and get it, just note where it was and set its status to recovered. Turns out that recovered in this case didn't actually mean recovered and back in the hands of the good guys. I checked back in over the next few weeks when I rode in that area and the stolen jeep was slowly parted out and eventually vanished all together. Hope "recovered" has a better outcome in this case.

Tossing my hat in to the Adventure bike ring. Just picked up a new to me KTM 1190 Adventure R. Low mileage and like new. Now I just need to find time to ride it. But would love to join y'all on a ride some time.

My in-laws live in the San Diego Country Estates and are quite happy there. My mother-in-law's family has been in Ramona forever. Her mother (wife's grandmother) was the lucky little girl that got to throw the switch to electrify Ramona way back when. Father-in-law went to junior high and high school there. They tell lots of stories about Ramona back in the 50s. I also have a few friends and co-workers who live in the Ramona area. Most everyone seems to like it just fine. It's grown quite a bit in the 15 years I've been going out there to visit. New shopping and restaurants. Biggest problem is getting in and out of the city. The 78 and 67 get pretty backed up and the they're both subject to long delays when there's a major crash, which happens far too often on the 78. Wildcat Canyon is another bypass to the south, but that's really dangerous. My brother-in-law got his 4-Runner totaled when someone crossed the DY and hit him head on - thankfully he was OK. We get out there regularly - I just came back from there tonight because I picked up a 2014 1190 Adventure R from American KTM. Trip out there this evening took just under an hour in 5 PM traffic from Rancho Santa Fe Rd and San Marcos Blvd. Return trip at around 7:30 PM took less than 45 minutes. One last thought - you will spend more on AC than coastal locations - but there's always solar to help out ;-)

The suspension on trials bikes are kind of like pogo sticks where you don't have a lot of compression or rebound damping because most of the maneuvers are done at close to walking speed. Riding at faster speeds on the trails, you'll find that the compression and/or rebound damping that worked great at a walking speed starts to become limiting at 30 MPH. Similarly, the higher damping settings on an enduro bike that work great at the faster speeds encountered when blasting about some single track don't give you the springy rebound at walking speed that lets the trials bike bounce around on the rocks.

I've planted a couple times on HA Hill when using what seemed like not that much front brake. The decomposed granite marbles on top of the hard rock underneath are really slippy. I've watch a number of people fall on their butts just walking down too.

Jap Zap is a great technique applicable to both trials and enduro bikes. Not sure where the term originated, but it was one of the first things I got drilled on when starting to ride the trials bike. Really cool because you can clear bigger obstacles than you can wheelie over without hitting the skid plate. That is, try to wheelie over a big rock and clank, the skid plate comes down and hits the rock. But drive the front tire into the big rock about 2/3 of the way up and let the suspension compress, then give it a zap of throttle as it's rebounding and boing, the bike magically floats right over with no bashing of skid plate. The trials term that kills me is the spatter or splat. Probably named after what happens if you get it wrong. That's the move used to get big height for tall faces and where the bike gets rotated very high - sometimes past vertical so the rear tire is leading the front tire. http://www.wdtc.org.au/trials-training/splatter-splat-trials-technique.htm Can't quite bring myself to go for that one, because splatter is certainly what's going to happen

Is the XC-W unlocked so you can just just use the KTM tool and do the mapping yourself, or do you still need a dealer involved? I had my EXC 500's emissions system "validated" by a reputable KTM dealer and it now has much better performance and throttle response than off the showroom floor. Would be nice to be able to tune it myself, but then again I don't really know what I'm doing anyway . . . I know the XC-W is geared closer to what I ride right out of the box, but how does the suspension compare to the EXC?

I had a 2000 DRZ-400E that I purchased newish from Temecula Motorsports. The bike had been used by an emagazine writer for an eval. As I recall, he rode it a bit, then put on a new pipe and took out an air snorkel, and rejetted it, and then wrote about the differences. Once done he give return it to the dealer, who sold it to me as newish with a big discount Bike ran great, much stronger than the street version, but when I put the Baja Designs kit on it and tried to get it licensed the DVM said no way - red sticker only. I had a 2000 GXSR-750 for my track bike that I did get a plate for, so I just stuck that on the DRZ figuring if I ever did get pulled over the odds were low anyone would look further than 2000 Suzuki on the registration. But thankfully a year or so later, I heard that the DMV was opening a window to allow some bikes to get plated. Seems that there had been a lot of confusion at the DMV and in order to clear the queues and level the playing field they were offering a one time only chance to get some bikes plated. Went in the next day and came away with a plate for it. The bike compared well against other 450 class machines for power but was front end heavy when trying to raise the front over ruts and the like. It would often just spin the back tire where the guys riding next to me on a Honda 450x would seem to have a lot less problem raising the front end in the same terrain. Often we were running the same back tire, so we should have had comparable traction. Other than that, no real complaints about the DRZ, it was very reliable and easy to maintain. I sold it to a friend at work who still has it and says it's still running fine going on 16 years later. Moved up to a Husky TE-510 that was a totally different animal. Main complaint with it was a pop-stall issue off idle that I never got tuned out of it. Now riding a 2015 KTM EXC 500 which I prefer over either of the two previous bikes.

Very interested. Would bring my daughters (11 & 13) too who are just starting to ride. Only issue for me is the date. Hopefully I won't be out of town on travel for work.

RIP

I added another bike to the stable, so we are up to five now. EXC 500, GG TXT 300, and three TTR 125s. Now I need a trailer to pull behind my motorhome and would like to get an enclosed model rather than an open frame version. My MH is 40 foot long so a 20 foot trailer would be the max, but I'm thinking more like 16 feet as plenty as I'm not going to try to put my jeep in there too. A recommendation that I got this week while camping out at Truckhaven was to get an 8 foot wide trailer because then the bikes will all fit in a side to side orientation rather than front to back. Looking for other recommendations like brand and model, etc from those with experience.

It's a 40' American Eagle diesel pusher. Don't recall the hitch rating at the moment, but it's on a placard inside the MH. I used to tow a 30' Weekend Warrior with my F-250 but sold my weight distributing hitch along with the trailer. Pretty familiar with setting up the tongue weight and all that. With just a handful of bike loaded reasonably well, I'm hoping I won't need to get another WD hitch. But not expecting that either the tongue weight or trailer weight will be a problem.

My old Bronco II used to have a tough time (1984, last year with a carb). The shop I took it to told me to put some cardboard in front of the radiator and get it really hot before I brought it it. That model was always difficult apparently and needed all the heat in it you could get in order to pass.

Thanks. Wish I could have made it out there the weekend. Rode in the event in the Sportsman class first year I got my trials bike. Super helpful bunch of guys. Everyone at all levels were always happy to give a pointer. As a spectator it's also really neat because you can get right up close to the action.

One aspect of them that seems interesting that I'd like to get confirmation of is that the elastomer used doesn't look like a one time use material. That is, current helmet designs with styrofoam inserts are designed to absorb impact by crushing and once crushed offer no further protection. When I was racing and tipped over in practice or during a race and had any helmet to ground contact I tossed the helmet even if it appeared in pretty good shape. Better safe than sorry, but that gets spendy pretty quickly when you're wearing a $500+ Arai. So in the long run these might be less expensive. Also the styrofoam liners in current helmets degrade over time. Wonder if the elastomer does as well?

Again, that statement is for the whole 28 mile route. If you look on the map in the link, you'll see that only the Pinyon Mt drop-off is marked one way. Same for Diablo drop-off on a different trail. The difficulty rating for any trail is given for the hardest part. 98% might be paved road and 2% crazy trials insanity, but whole trail gets a double black diamond. The first part of the Pinyon Mt trail is used by people camping and you will see plenty of two way traffic before you get to the Squeeze. But as I said, watch the video, be your own judge.

Pinyon mountain trail is actually pretty easy up to the first set of boulders, which is where I said to turn around. Further, I posted several videos (not my own video) so that potential riders could have a look and gauge the level for themselves. I did also say, for most people it is a one way trail after the squeeze and certainly after Heart Attack hill, though I do know people who've ridden back up it. The level of difficulty in the first few miles of the Pinyon Mt trail is not much different from many of the other trails in the Little Blair Valley. The only potentially troublesome areas in the first few miles off of S2 is deep sand, but even that varies and can be pretty good following a recent rain. And really, encountering a few sandy spots on that trail is something that one should expect on any of the wash trails in the area. It is a nice ride with some good scenery along the way.

Little Blair Valley has some fun easy trails. In that area everything has to be street legal and is rabidly enforced by one of the rangers - unless he's retired by now. Watch speeding near camps and any off trail riding. When in the Blair Valley area, the first few miles of the Pinyon Mountain trail are also fun. Then things get interesting . . . You'll probably know know when it's time to turn around, but just in case, when you get to a large bolder patch that's where you would turn around. See the end of Part 2 video below. After the bolder patch you have to pass through the Squeeze, which is one way for some folks, and next up is Heart Attack Hill, also one way for most. See last video. Pinyon Mountain Rd S2 to the Squeeze Part 1: https://youtu.be/ofNsd3d3WOo Pinyon Mountain Rd "" "" Part 2: https://youtu.be/Zz01nu-SnTo Pinyon Mountain Rd Squeeze to bottom of Heart Attack Hill (Pinyon Mt. Drop-off): https://youtu.be/lQzTgUQBuD0 Once you get to the bottom of Heart Attack Hill, it isn't too hard the rest of the way back to Fish Creek wash as I recall, but it is quite a haul back to the starting point (77 miles round trip per my track log) so make sure you have plenty of fuel. There's a great book called "Guide to Southern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails Guide Book" by Charles A. Wells https://www.trails.com/catalog_product.aspx?productfamilyid=10496 This book has a lot of fun trails along with GPS reference points.

I wonder if removing the strap on seat from this would make it non-street legal https://youtu.be/eF2wK2BUY3A But even if the seat were left on, there's a pretty good argument that the bike was made to be ridden standing up. Suppose it wouldn't matter much anyway in some of the kangaroo courts where neither the officer or the judge have any experience riding a motorcycle and any motorcyclist is pretty much considered guilty regardless of the situation.

Diesel here today is $2.59 up the street from me Big plus for me when going with the diesel was better fuel mileage both unloaded and towing. My F-250 gets right around 20 MPG on the highway unloaded if driven at reasonable speeds. Gets 15 or so around town. However, if just driving to work and back (5 miles) I get around 10.5 MPG because it never gets warmed up. Towing my 30 ft toy hauler was where it really shined. Typically got between 9.5 to 12 MPG if I kept my foot out of it. When I'd get impatient and rip around cars going up hill or tow at 75 MPH (outside CA of course ;-) then the mileage would drop somewhat. The guys I know towing similar rigs with gas motors paid much higher gas bills, plus they couldn't go as far between fill-ups.

A number of us have probably done some pretty hard braking and maneuvering at one point or another while standing on the pegs riding on the dirt and still maintained control. The ergonomics of a dual sport bike is reasonably suited to riding while standing, unlike say a sport bike where everything is set up for a tucked in seating position. I got a ticket once when I was 16 because I took both hands off the bars for a moment to massage my wrists and shake out my hands. Residential zone going less than 25 mph, no kids or parked cars, etc to worry about at that spot. Ticket was for Negligent Driving. I think if they want to get you, they'll find some lame vague VC that is fairly broad and hope you don't fight it. Or as in my case above, fought it but lost anyway.

In Europe trials bikes are street legal and they don't even have a seat. I ride standing up regularly on my dual sport bike and frequently try to balance at a full stop at traffic lights and stop signs while waiting for other traffic. Never had a clue that this might be a problem