| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
I took a day off work today as a "mental health day". I bought a 1985 KLR-250 a few months ago dirt cheap on ebay ($650) and restored it back to a road worthy condition. Finally, it was good enough to take on a ride. Pictures to come... | ||
| Reepicheep |
My wife is not only beautiful and charming, she understands that inside a mans spirit is something that needs adventure. I am not only handsome and brave, but I understand that the day before company comes for thanksgiving, you can't plan a *big* adventure. Thus was born a mini adventure for a mini adventure bike...  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
A fairly normal view of rural Warren County Ohio... In the back ground is a tiny town with a fully functioning grain mill. The fields are freshly plowed to get the winter wheat planted...  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Half way to Hillsboro, a flock of sheep think they hear "food". It's ;ike the old Dave Berry column about fish... fish have only two thoughts in their entire life. The first is "food?". The second is "yikes!". Sheep are like that. This is the "food?" state.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
This is outside Hillsboro, perhaps a 70 minute ride. The poor little KLR-250 had its throttle basically pinned most of the time... a state where it will slowly wind out to about 71 mph at about 8000 RPM, and where it will apparently sit comfortably all day long. BratPac II taught me well. Ride to eat, eat to ride. This is when I stopped for the eating part. Hillsboro is a beautiful old town, known for little else then being the birthplace of one of the leaders of the temperance movement.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
About 20 minutes out of Hillsboro, things are getting seriously beautiful. The hills in the distance are basically what I will be riding for the next three hours.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
You suburban yuppies can keep your 3 car garages... here in farm country, thats just a shed. Four classic trucks, and a John Deer. Put that in your Porsche and smoke it.   (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Arriving at Pike Forest, an Ohio state managed APV area. If you have a street licensed bike, you can ride free. Its a beautiful setting, and in 3 hours, I saw 3 deer, one huge red tailed hawk, and absolutely NO HUMAN BEINGS ANYWHERE ON ANY TRAIL. For a brief moment, paying taxes didn't feel so bad. Did I mention that I am riding alone (my planned buddies had work and bailed)? Did I mention that this is the first serious dirt riding I have done? Did I mention that my dirt bike is now 65 miles from the nearest "friend with a pickup truck"? Note the Buell mirrors on the bike. I managed to break 3 of the 4 turnsignals later on this trip, so the Buell signals will be going on as well (I anticipated this, they are on a shelf in my garage). The KLR is becoming Buell bit by bit And believe me, after a 150 mile day on that seat, I am going to be looking to see if I can retrofit a 9sx seat on the thing... (read: Serious Monkey Butt)  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
This is better then I could have imagined. Its like skiing, but I don't have to wait for snow, I don't have to wait in lift lines, and I can go up hill. I can jump better as well Seriously. A day will come when I am too old to do something like this again... and that will be a sad day. It was a beautiful, spiritual, time.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
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| Reepicheep |
This was my first "off trail" tangent. It went fine. My second one was like it, but I went back down a different way, expecting to get back to the marked trail. Ooops. It dropped me down a gnarly slippery path, ending in a stream bed. Can't go back up (need real knobbies for that). Some panic driven adrenaline, lots of false starts ending in dropped bikes and backtracking, and I finally found my way back to a marked trail (all wobbly legged and sweaty). And smiling  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
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| Reepicheep |
Leave nothing but footprints And if you fly, you don't even leave those It was very cool.. I was the only person there, so I was watching my GPS for a while to make sure I was getting every trail... but then I noticed the *only* tracks from today were mine. I could see where I went already by just looking at the tracks. As a side note, I thought I broke my rear shock when I landed that jump. Big whack on the landing (KLR-250 suspensions are perfectly tunable for Japanese men of all shapes and sizes... provided they are shapes and sizes of 130 pounds or less). And the rear wheel was in a hole when I stopped to get out the camera... so it looked like it lost 3 inches. Fortunately, it turned out I didn't... but I was wondering what the implications of riding 65 miles with no rear suspension would be. Its amazing what terrible things I did to that bike and those tires today... and it just ran and ran and ran. Even more amazing is that an off road motorcycle can actually *do* in terms of going, stopping, and flying... all with this amazing intuitive feel. This is a 22 year old dirt bike... and it works great.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Just another trail. The terrain at this park was just wonderful. All up or down, all manageable (err... provided you stay on marked trails), all nice and clean. And just *beautiful*.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
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| Reepicheep |
Self timer shot number 1. Note to self 1: Bring mini tripod on mini adventures. Note to self 2: When you go down this hill, go down the way you came, if you go the other way, you will be stuck in a valley with no easy way out.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
My son Jack thought this picture was cooler, so I put it in at the last minute. Thats the pose I learned in my previous career as a fashion model... or maybe I just started walking before the camera actually took the picture Note the "Buell Sling Bag" strapped on my back! Viva La Buell Dirtbike! Buell did not forget you, and neither did I!  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
This view stopped my in my tracks. 65 degrees in the middle of November, in a place of staggering beauty. I just stopped and stared at this for probably 10 minutes. (which was probably wise anyway, as the KLR was getting pretty hot, even with the fan running. I need one of those reliable air cooled engines, these water cooled things are for the birds! ;) )  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
The Quest paid for itself in just this trip... this is a backup unit I bought on eBay for $100 (only run over once!). It routed me there with no stress and no fussing, tracked every inch of ground I covered, letting me know which tracks I had done and which were new, and routed me home without a hiccup. It ran on its internal battery (charged up last night) from 9 am until 6 pm, and still has (pause) 80% charge left. I dropped it last night from 5 feet down on a garage floor, and it just bounced. It does need the external antenna though (shown on right). The internal antenna did not survive the running over... which is why it was so cheap. $30 later, and it is good to go. Note the temperature gauge... it was running hot on the trails... but running well.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Don't you hate it when you take a picture of some sort of death defying cliff face that you bravely charged down, then look at the picture to see something utterly unimpressive? Hrrmph. Well, it was steeper then it looked, honest. I went both down and up it successfully... though slowly. Did I mention I am 60+ miles from home?  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
And we are off, happy to have lost nothing more then cheap aftermarket turnsignals (that had been glued up a few times anyway). To be honest, the ride there and back was almost as nice as the ride around the trails.  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Here are the various trails... 15+ miles, which is plenty to keep me busy for a day. I would not want to be there when its busy though... so I will stick to off days. Thanks for coming along. God is good!  (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) (Message edited by reepicheep on November 20, 2007) | ||
| Court |
That is incredible and it makes me miss Kansas in the fall. The lighting in the last picture, where the road forks, is wonderful and makes the picture surreal. I'd say that KLR pretty well takes a guy back to the "why I ride" . . . . cool stuff. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
very nice, Reep, thanks for taking us along. i know all about "mental health" days - i take 'em every chance i get (i need all the help i can get!) it's been literally decades since i've done any true dirt-riding (which is where i learned). the Road King, believe it or not, has been in some pretty gnarly stuff (my first-ever "glacier" crossing, as an example), but the fear, of course, is tossing such a big, expensive motorcycle on the ground, so caution always gets in the way of seeing if you can make it up that hill, or how far you can jump. as such, one of these days i think a couple of dedicated dirtbikes in the garage would be just the ticket for me 'n D. reckon we should start stocking up on Buell turn signals and mirrors??? thx for sharing your adventure - the pix and commentary are beautiful. FB&D | ||
| Marks3tbillet |
Nice pics Reep. I've been on 123 many times on my way to Cowan Lake. I have never been on 124, will be planning a ride now. I don't think I have the skill to ride the Uly on those trails though! Mark | ||
| Mikej |
Very nice, thanks. (thinking I may need to carve out a little room in the garage or craigslist shop for a tin garden shed and then see if'n I can find a street legal dirt bike over the winter. It's all Reep's fault.) | ||
| Ulywife |
Reep - great pictures and story. Glad you had fun and most of all got home safely! | ||
| Rasta_dog |
Nice job with the story and the pics. Man, you sure had a great day for that mini adventure. | ||
| Blake |
Cool! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Thanks all! Swing by and grab the KLR any time, and just follow the arrows on the GPS |
