> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 14:16:20 -0600
> From: "Verle Nelson"
>
>> I'm curious. How many dirt miles do you folks put on in a year on your
>KLR?
>> Compared to street miles? I ride ~12k a year, but only a few hundred are
>in
>> the dirt.
>
>I think I know what you mean, but if taken literally, I don't see how this
>question is relevant.
I didn't _mean_ anything. No ulterior motive, no agenda. I was trying to
get an idea of how much experience experienced dirt riders have. (To give
you some perspective, I surf. Real surfing, not that abomination of a word
rip-off - websurfing. A ride on a wave rarely lasts more than 10 seconds.
You can spend hours in the water for a minute or two of actual wave-riding.
That doesn't make it any less valid, or important, or any other qualitative
judgement you may put on it. It's just statistics.)
>A more meaningful question, and perhaps the question you intended, would be:
>"How many miles of pavement do you ride that are not for the primary purpose
>of getting to and from an off-pavement ride versus how many off-pavement
>miles do you ride (excluding graded dirt and gravel). I think hours would be
>more meaningful, though.
You ask your question, I'll ask mine.
>Anyway: 8,000 miles in 9 months on my KLR (1/2 of which was winter) and all
>but a thousand or less were directly related to off-pavement or getting to
>or from off-pavement rides in the San Juan mountains or southeastern Utah.
But that doesn't tell me if you have 7,900 dirt miles under your belt, or
100. I could say I've ridden 33 years and several hundred thousand miles
preparing me for the few dirt miles I've put on the KLR, but to me,
_that's_ irrelevant when it comes to my dirt experience. Well, OK, it says
I have _some_ survival skills on two wheels. But there are obviously a
bunch of people here who are very knowledgeable about dirt riding and I was
trying to get some idea of where that knowledge comes from. I could have
asked how many miles does it take to call yourself an experienced dirt
rider? Or how many years/miles do you have strictly on the dirt? Or a bunch
of other questions (& I probably will, if you give me time,) but the one I
asked seemed simple enough.
TomK