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Bagstr

How Far do you ride your Dirt Bike on Pavement??

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So, We Adventure Riders have all types of motorcycles and many descriptions for the bikes and the riding we do. 

Adventure, Dualsport or Race bikes;  How far do you ride your bike on the Highway? 

Some Adventure Bikes never see the dirt, some Dualsport bikes never see the pavement. I am curious how far you are willing to ride your so called dirt bike on the the highway. ( Not the freeway)

   Bagstr

Personally, every time the 450 hits the pavement, I feel like it is being abused. 

        :dirol:

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We'll see.......treks involving long stretches of major dirt road (ideally) or pavement was a motivating factor in buying the 950SE........that said, I've only ridden it around the neighborhood so far! :huh::heh:

Hope to get out and stretch it's legs in the coming months......

I try avoid boring dirt roads and pavement to the greatest extent possible on the 350/500.......long/sustained cruising at ~60mph+ can't be good for those single cylinder engines......and they're just not that comfortable for "cruising"

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I rode my Ténéré 530 miles of highway last night.  It’s a street bike that has some dirt capability. 

My Husky sees street miles as well, I like to use it as a dual sport...garage to dirt and back to the garage.  It sucks on the highway though.  

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I have ridden the Husky 30 to 40 miles on the pavement but cringe the whole time and know I'm wasting rubber.

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Many times in Baja Ca. on pavement but not more than 10 miles at a time, the longest in Alta Ca. about 20 miles , both of these numbers are on 300 2 strokes all miles have been on Mousses in standard compound spin balanced FIM enduro DOT tires (all I use).

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I'll go as far as needed. Rode from Phoenix to S.D. once. Ughh. (I know,  freeway). Tecate to Ensenada all pavement aswell.  - 650l-

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Small bike:

Pretty much to the end of the driveway

 

Big Bike:

What ever it takes 

 

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When we finished the COBDR we turned around and slabbed it back to the trucks. I think it was about 400 miles. I never gave it a 2nd thought and the bike was fine. I enjoy the 500 on back roads.

Your results may vary.

 

 

Covered in Miles

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My Super Tenere mostly lives on pavement. It has seen a couple trails and some fire roads, but I would say right now it is living a 95/5 life on the road. I enjoy riding it on the highway and on back country/mountain roads.

 

My little TDub has more of a 50/50 life, if not more of a 45/55 in favor of dirt. It gets ridden to/from the trail a lot. In fact, today I road up Otay Mountain (PSA: north gate is closed,) entered from Marron Valley Road. I did about 74 miles total,  33-ish of those were on pavement. Had I not needed to go all the way around it would have been a lot less on the pavement miles.

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I don,t have a dirt bike . But me and Van rode 290 miles on each on our KTM EXC 500,s to collect the pickups when Matts Dual Sport gave up the ghost. So lets say that was 580 miles in one go . 

Are you itching to go riding with us this June ?

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 In the end, we all make up our own Moto story.  The important thing is to go out and execute whatever story you make up.

It is entertaining to watch all the different stories.  These days mine is shorter loops in remote places.

Always itching to explore, need to work out the details of family life.

Bagstr - Cleaning the air filter of life and the trail

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18 hours ago, Covered in Dust said:

When we finished the COBDR we turned around and slabbed it back to the trucks. I think it was about 400 miles. I never gave it a 2nd thought and the bike was fine. I enjoy the 500 on back roads.

Your results may vary.

 

 

Covered in Miles

I rode the 620 thumper on pavement from Sedona to San Diego in one day.........~500 miles.........I've put big slab miles on the 500 and 350 in AZ/Utah/Baja...........it can be done, but I've talked my wife into believing each bike has a special purpose - 350 for rocky crap and single track, 500 for longer dualsport explorations, and 950SE for big/easy trips with baggage and lot's of open dirt/paved road..........so don't blow my multi bike alibi :coolio::D....

Covered in Excuses

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Well....I rode the 990 4,750 street miles last fall in one ride.
TntMo did something far more spectacular on his Tenere.

But I'll truck the 500 to Tecate.

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22 minutes ago, paulmbowers said:

Well....I rode the 990 4,750 street miles last fall in one ride.
TntMo did something far more spectacular on his Tenere.

But I'll truck the 500 to Tecate.

I did about 1500 gravel miles, so 92/8 for street/dirt ratio.  😂  Just ride, no matter how you do it.  Nothing sadder than a dead battery and a clogged up fuel system.  Two wheels will get you where you want to go.

E21A7B11-17B2-4915-A8EA-74E0304B05B5.jpeg

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1 hour ago, tntmo said:

I did about 1500 gravel miles, so 92/8 for street/dirt ratio.  😂  Just ride, no matter how you do it.  Nothing sadder than a dead battery and a clogged up fuel system.  Two wheels will get you where you want to go.

E21A7B11-17B2-4915-A8EA-74E0304B05B5.jpeg

 

Not to thread jack, but how do you corner in the loose stuff on that little beast of yours? Do you put weight on your feet to get it to the front tire? Not to mention, those tires are really dirt oriented.

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16 hours ago, Bagstr said:

" Big Bike, whatever it takes"

IMG_3893.jpg

What am I missing here? It looks like an old fender maybe filled with rocks used to pull the bike up? From my chair, looks like that setup defies the laws of physics. Is there more to the story?

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33 minutes ago, erik_26 said:

 

Not to thread jack, but how do you corner in the loose stuff on that little beast of yours? Do you put weight on your feet to get it to the front tire? Not to mention, those tires are really dirt oriented.

Just ride slow, same as riding the big bike off road.  Going uphill is easier.  Small tires and poor suspension makes it not ideal but it fits the topic....riding dirt bikes on the highway (not ideal) or big bikes on single track (again, not ideal) but everyone has their own way of getting where they want to go.  Just ride!

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7 minutes ago, tntmo said:

Just ride slow, same as riding the big bike off road.  Going uphill is easier.  Small tires and poor suspension makes it not ideal but it fits the topic....riding dirt bikes on the highway (not ideal) or big bikes on single track (again, not ideal) but everyone has their own way of getting where they want to go.  Just ride!

Nice! For whatever reason, I pictured you kicking your leg out, crowding the bars and whipping that thing around the corners. Slow and steady is always good and more my style, though yesterday I felt like I was going break neck speeds at 20 MPH up and down Otay. That is fast for me. Next time you are going to the plane wreck site I wouldn't mind tagging along, if  you don't mind the company. I went to an area that looked similar to where you were in your video, but no luck for me. Oh, and I did find a rattlesnake down in the canyon, so beware.

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17 hours ago, Bagstr said:

" Big Bike, whatever it takes"

IMG_3893.jpg

😵

What the! Oh boy, I looked at this photo for a while. At first, I assumed it was a joke... and I thought rigger just felt neked without rope close at hand strapped to his bike! Nice rigging!

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1 hour ago, erik_26 said:

From my chair, looks like that setup defies the laws of physics. Is there more to the story?

The story of my life....

 

Way more to this story,   long cliff notes dropped the big girl literally for the first time :( some where in New Mexico on the CDT right at sunrise, after getting crushed by the elements all night and the mud won...all I wanted to do was get to higher and drier ground, make some coffee and reevaluate my days approach 

with no traction or strength to right the bike even with all luggage removed - due to slippery mud and a weak back - the situation was looking a little grim 

With no civilization within any reasonable walking distance and realizing the bike would not stand up on its own - I headed out on a walk about to generate some clarity.

 

aimlessly walking through the beautiful desert in search of anything - I came across what appeared to be (something) an old fender that had grown roots from 50 years ago.

quite the anomaly in the desert landscape, instinctively it initiated some kind of mental ballast vision 

dragging it back to the bike proved to be quite the challenge as milage was involved 

great here it is next to the bike - now what....?

doing the math in my head I needed a LOT of rocks to defy the law of physics, that proved to be more of a challenge and more mileage 

finished product was an old wheel well / fender filled with large boulders and secured with ropes and tent spikes etc.

 

Application:

ratchet strapped the handle bars to secure them 

dead tied one end of the rope to the back of the bike, ran it through a pulley attached to rock pile then through a pulley attached to handle bars then to me, creating a mechanical advantage - it all sounded great in my mind - it was either going to work or NOT

 

the first few pulls on the rope generated a lot of tension it was the moment of truth..

does the rope just slip right out shock load the system and fail - and I just accept the last few hours were for zen purposes 

or will it hold and allow the bike to slowly rise out of the mud 

it was a pretty awesome sight to see the bike slowly lift off the ground, once at 80 degrees or so I was able to run the rope through the carabiner at the rock pile generating resistance and tie off at the pulley at handlebars with cool knots like clove hitches and bowlines 

 

Took a deep, deep breath and told myself I will always carry rope and 2 pulleys, the pictures don't really give the situation justice but it was pretty legit.

 

it was shortly after I was packed up, fully dressed and ready to conquer the new day when I saw something way off in the distance 

yup - it was a pick up truck....  held my ground within 10 minutes he rolled up and looked at me and said "you ok"

 

Guess I could say at that point was "yes BUT could have used some help a few hours ago"

 

the rest is history 

thanks Bags for posting, brought a BIG smile to my face 

 

- rigger

Screen_Shot_2019-03-26_at_11_00.42_AM.png

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12 hours ago, Riggerdan said:

The story of my life....

 

Way more to this story,   long cliff notes dropped the big girl literally for the first time :( some where in New Mexico on the CDT right at sunrise, after getting crushed by the elements all night and the mud won...all I wanted to do was get to higher and drier ground, make some coffee and reevaluate my days approach 

with no traction or strength to right the bike even with all luggage removed - due to slippery mud and a weak back - the situation was looking a little grim

- rigger

Wow! That is a neat story. Glad you were able to figure a way out. 

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