Wilsons Sandbox

wow, what a difference after riding so many hundred miles in moab, to come back to new jersey (100% humidity before last night). yesterday's ride was on the kx125 in the rain through the muddy, gnarly, hilly single-track trails here. yuck. it was alot of fun, but i've never fallen down so many times in one day. i guess it's partly due to being spoiled riding a nice 4-stroke in good weather and with good traction out in moab. one crack of the kx throttle can send you sideways into a tree with this muck. anyway, thanks alot fred for all the little tips while i watched you change about 10 tires out there. i had to swap out a tube on the kx the other day, and it was a piece of cake. the best tip, for fellow novices, was this: when prying tire over rim, make sure the other side of the tire is in the shallow center portion of the rim, not out on the bead portion. the second best tip was to bonk the tire-prying-tool-thingy on the rim before prying the tire over, to make sure it sounds like metal and not like tube being pinched by metal. it works... and yes, fred, my old rear sprocket was (far) worse than the one used for the missing link award. it's actually hilarious. looks like a doughnut. shout if you need another trophy for next year. kurt, check out the xr100 for your son. yeah, i know, it's an xr. sorry, honda has proven it's worth to me. oh yeah, and, um, well, i did it. Y2K XR400R with 2-1/2 yr warranty $4800. and, in expectation, one Acerbis Zoom2 chest protector $115 8^). now, to find an XR400 e-mail group... gino, the "best" dual-sport ever made is probably dependent on what you use it for. the klr is one of the best all-around motorcycles ever made, just based on versatility. but my "best" dual-sport would have to be one i could romp around on nasty trails and still feel like i'm having fun. looks like i'll need to look into one of those dual-sporting kits for the XR... sorry for the verbosity. _pete 76gl1000 83rm250 86kx125 97klr650 00xr400r