drool - dr-z400sm supermoto - nklr

[knevlklr]

I rode both days of the Meteor DS (100mi -Sat; 55mi Sun) and had a great time but certainly got my ass handed to me. I can emphatically attest to the 11 mi section falling under the category of "hero." I don't think I've ever seen trails that tight before- there were times I had to stop the bike and weave the handle bars through trees too tightly spaced to ride straight through. Now granted my experience was colored by the fact that this was only my second off-road outing (I've been riding street bikes since college- and just completed a 5 day/1800 mile trip up to maine and back on the KLR), but I'm afraid neither I nor the KLR came back from the weekend in the same condition we left. I retained all limbs etc but lost significant amounts of energy and water. The KLR did not do so well. After 20 or so crashes over the two days (I guess we'll call this a learning curve) here's a preliminary damage report: 1. ripped off both radiator shrouds 2. lost right rear body panel 3. ripped off 2 of four aftermarket low-pro turn signals 4. ripped off chain guard and guide (after it got jammed in the wheel of course) 5. broke the cluch cable 6. bent the clutch lever (would have been worse had I not had the acerbis rally pro guards) 7. lost the dual-star muffler guard 8. bent the metal frame work under the headlight/cowl assembly (blame the trees) 9. lost a clamp that retains the header pipe 10.broke off the plate that securse the overflow hoses for the battery 11.drew a number of scratches in the tank (this is the only thing I'm unhappy about) 12.repeatedly tweaked the fork/steering assembly 13."sanded" any other remaining body part left on the bike by crashing on beach-like trails but the best part is try to name any other bike that you can do all this damage and more to, wash it off, zip-ty it up and cruise back to NYC at 95 mph. I don't think any other bike exists. Granted my '04 no longer looks like and '04 but a few replacement parts later and I'll be ready to break some more crap off. This bike rocks. Oh, and by the way, while I don't advocate trashing the woods by leaving the trail - it ends up that when you are out of control and veer off, the KLR has NO problems running over trees up to 2.5-3.0 in in diameter. The KLR kicks ass! The meteor DS kicked mine. Great time. --- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, bigfatgreenbike wrote:

> I rode the Sunday loop of the Meteor MC dualsport ride, the third year > I've done this event. Meteor cut the mileage down considerably, from 95 > to 55mi. It was actually 43mi, + an 11mi hero section that was really > challenging- very similar to some of the tightest terrain from the Sandy > Lane enduro. The rest of it was wide open fire cuts and sand washes. > Basically except for the tight section (there were cutouts for it) an > R1200GS with knobbies would have had no problem. The dust was insane, > occasionally reducing visibility to 50ft or less. I managed to float a > KLR over a small section of whoops for the first time, I was on top of > them before I knew it due to dust, no room to slow down. So I hit the > gas and prayed. > > I nailed a tree in the tight section, tweaking the font end and rotating > the bars forward in the clamps. Straightened out things but the bike > never really handled well after that. Realized 15mi later when I got > back to the campsite that I had NO air in the tire (pinch flat from > hitting the tree). Lots of 50mph sand roads and blacktop. Dual rimlocks > make a HUGE difference, if you got a blowout on the highway with dual > rimlocks you could keep riding until you saw a convenient place to fix it. > > Devon

[knevlklr]

I rode both days of the Meteor DS (100mi -Sat; 55mi Sun) and had a great time but certainly got my ass handed to me. I can emphatically attest to the 11 mi section falling under the category of "hero." I don't think I've ever seen trails that tight before- there were times I had to stop the bike and weave the handle bars through trees too tightly spaced to ride straight through. Now granted my experience was colored by the fact that this was only my second off-road outing (I've been riding street bikes since college- and just completed a 5 day/1800 mile trip up to maine and back on the KLR), but I'm afraid neither I nor the KLR came back from the weekend in the same condition we left. I retained all limbs etc but lost significant amounts of energy and water. The KLR did not do so well. After 20 or so crashes over the two days (I guess we'll call this a learning curve) here's a preliminary damage report: 1. ripped off both radiator shrouds 2. lost right rear body panel 3. ripped off 2 of four aftermarket low-pro turn signals 4. ripped off chain guard and guide (after it got jammed in the wheel of course) 5. broke the cluch cable 6. bent the clutch lever (would have been worse had I not had the acerbis rally pro guards) 7. lost the dual-star muffler guard 8. bent the metal frame work under the headlight/cowl assembly (blame the trees) 9. lost a clamp that retains the header pipe 10.broke off the plate that securse the overflow hoses for the battery 11.drew a number of scratches in the tank (this is the only thing I'm unhappy about) 12.repeatedly tweaked the fork/steering assembly 13."sanded" any other remaining body part left on the bike by crashing on beach-like trails but the best part is try to name any other bike that you can do all this damage and more to, wash it off, zip-ty it up and cruise back to NYC at 95 mph. I don't think any other bike exists. Granted my '04 no longer looks like and '04 but a few replacement parts later and I'll be ready to break some more crap off. This bike rocks. Oh, and by the way, while I don't advocate trashing the woods by leaving the trail - it ends up that when you are out of control and veer off, the KLR has NO problems running over trees up to 2.5-3.0 in in diameter. The KLR kicks ass! The meteor DS kicked mine. Great time. --- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, bigfatgreenbike wrote:

> I rode the Sunday loop of the Meteor MC dualsport ride, the third year > I've done this event. Meteor cut the mileage down considerably, from 95 > to 55mi. It was actually 43mi, + an 11mi hero section that was really > challenging- very similar to some of the tightest terrain from the Sandy > Lane enduro. The rest of it was wide open fire cuts and sand washes. > Basically except for the tight section (there were cutouts for it) an > R1200GS with knobbies would have had no problem. The dust was insane, > occasionally reducing visibility to 50ft or less. I managed to float a > KLR over a small section of whoops for the first time, I was on top of > them before I knew it due to dust, no room to slow down. So I hit the > gas and prayed. > > I nailed a tree in the tight section, tweaking the font end and rotating > the bars forward in the clamps. Straightened out things but the bike > never really handled well after that. Realized 15mi later when I got > back to the campsite that I had NO air in the tire (pinch flat from > hitting the tree). Lots of 50mph sand roads and blacktop. Dual rimlocks > make a HUGE difference, if you got a blowout on the highway with dual > rimlocks you could keep riding until you saw a convenient place to fix it. > > Devon

[Devon]

knevlklr@... wrote:

>I rode both days of the Meteor DS (100mi -Sat; 55mi Sun) and had a great >time but certainly got my ass handed to me. I can emphatically attest to the 11 >mi section falling under the category of "hero." I don't think I've ever seen >trails that tight before- there were times I had to stop the bike and weave the >handle bars through trees too tightly spaced to ride straight through. >

Those 11 miles took me a little over an hour to get through, including a 5 minute stop to fix my handlebars (I went over the bars, and spun them forward in the clamps). I'll have a video to post by next week. I totally missed you on Sunday, I drove all over the gun club lot and the field next to it but didn't see you. Were you camping at the Turtle Run campground?

> >Now granted my experience was colored by the fact that this was only my >second off-road outing >

That was just about the tightest trails from the Sandy Lane enduro. You've got a pair of brass ones to ride that your second time in the woods. I know places to ride, if you can get up early on a Saturday or Sunday. Lots of lazy dual-sporting, and a few places with hardcore woods trails.

>(I've been riding street bikes since college- and just >completed a 5 day/1800 mile trip up to maine and back on the KLR), but I'm >afraid neither I nor the KLR came back from the weekend in the same >condition we left. I retained all limbs etc but lost significant amounts of energy >and water. The KLR did not do so well. After 20 or so crashes over the two >days (I guess we'll call this a learning curve) here's a preliminary damage >report: > >1. ripped off both radiator shrouds >2. lost right rear body panel >3. ripped off 2 of four aftermarket low-pro turn signals >4. ripped off chain guard and guide (after it got jammed in the wheel of >course) >5. broke the cluch cable >6. bent the clutch lever (would have been worse had I not had the acerbis >rally pro guards) >

If you get aluminum handlebars, the handguards mount metal-to-metal and won't slip (and allow the clutch lever to get bent). When you get tired of bending the Rally-Pros back into shape, look at Enduro Engineering handguards. BTW Sunday had the easiest and the hardest trail sections that they usually have. What was missing from last year was the 30mi of stuff in the middle- sweet, 2nd and 3rd gear woods trails with enough room for the handlebars, some whoops, and no straight sections longer than 75ft. Devon

[denis@teachlinux.com]

Sounds more like a demolition Derby.. Denis

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004, knevlklr wrote: > I rode both days of the Meteor DS (100mi -Sat; 55mi Sun) and had a great > time but certainly got my ass handed to me. I can emphatically attest to the 11 > mi section falling under the category of "hero." I don't think I've ever seen > trails that tight before- there were times I had to stop the bike and weave the > handle bars through trees too tightly spaced to ride straight through. > > Now granted my experience was colored by the fact that this was only my > second off-road outing (I've been riding street bikes since college- and just > completed a 5 day/1800 mile trip up to maine and back on the KLR), but I'm > afraid neither I nor the KLR came back from the weekend in the same > condition we left. I retained all limbs etc but lost significant amounts of energy > and water. The KLR did not do so well. After 20 or so crashes over the two > days (I guess we'll call this a learning curve) here's a preliminary damage > report: > > 1. ripped off both radiator shrouds > 2. lost right rear body panel > 3. ripped off 2 of four aftermarket low-pro turn signals > 4. ripped off chain guard and guide (after it got jammed in the wheel of > course) > 5. broke the cluch cable > 6. bent the clutch lever (would have been worse had I not had the acerbis > rally pro guards) > 7. lost the dual-star muffler guard > 8. bent the metal frame work under the headlight/cowl assembly (blame the > trees) > 9. lost a clamp that retains the header pipe > 10.broke off the plate that securse the overflow hoses for the battery > 11.drew a number of scratches in the tank (this is the only thing I'm unhappy > about) > 12.repeatedly tweaked the fork/steering assembly > 13."sanded" any other remaining body part left on the bike by crashing on > beach-like trails > > but the best part is try to name any other bike that you can do all this damage > and more to, wash it off, zip-ty it up and cruise back to NYC at 95 mph. I don't > think any other bike exists. Granted my '04 no longer looks like and '04 but a > few replacement parts later and I'll be ready to break some more crap off. > This bike rocks. > > Oh, and by the way, while I don't advocate trashing the woods by leaving the > trail - it ends up that when you are out of control and veer off, the KLR has NO > problems running over trees up to 2.5-3.0 in in diameter. The KLR kicks ass! > The meteor DS kicked mine. Great time. > > --- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, bigfatgreenbike bigfatgreenbike@n...> wrote: > > I rode the Sunday loop of the Meteor MC dualsport ride, the third year > > I've done this event. Meteor cut the mileage down considerably, from 95 > > to 55mi. It was actually 43mi, + an 11mi hero section that was really > > challenging- very similar to some of the tightest terrain from the Sandy > > Lane enduro. The rest of it was wide open fire cuts and sand washes. > > Basically except for the tight section (there were cutouts for it) an > > R1200GS with knobbies would have had no problem. The dust was insane, > > occasionally reducing visibility to 50ft or less. I managed to float a > > KLR over a small section of whoops for the first time, I was on top of > > them before I knew it due to dust, no room to slow down. So I hit the > > gas and prayed. > > > > I nailed a tree in the tight section, tweaking the font end and rotating > > the bars forward in the clamps. Straightened out things but the bike > > never really handled well after that. Realized 15mi later when I got > > back to the campsite that I had NO air in the tire (pinch flat from > > hitting the tree). Lots of 50mph sand roads and blacktop. Dual rimlocks > > make a HUGE difference, if you got a blowout on the highway with dual > > rimlocks you could keep riding until you saw a convenient place to fix it. > > > > Devon > > > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at www.dualsportnews.com. List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > Unsubscribe by sending a blank message to: > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com . > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > >

[Jim Priest]

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/13september04_drzsm.htm Man - you'd just really piss off all the crotch rocket guys at Deal's Gap with that thing... jim

[matteeanne@yahoo.com]

I am just wondering if perhaps you did not have your helmet on backwards? lol. Man, I am picturing that bike in my head... I have beat thumper up pretty bad, but nothing close to that. I in fact still have not layed the damn thing down. I have come closer than close a thousand times, but some how seem to save it at the last moment. The other day the front tire washed out on some gravel, (1st gear) so I nailed it to try and right the bike, double wash, so I plopped out my size 14 boot and at 20 mph, pushed the damn thing back upright. Now on my old dirtbikes, I would not consider this a feat of any kind, but on thumper, it aint easy. I cant see doing all that damage to my bike unless it was to save my life, or a darn big prize. And you say you broke no bones? --- denis@... wrote:

> > Sounds more like a demolition Derby.. > > Denis > > On Tue, 14 Sep 2004, knevlklr wrote: > > > I rode both days of the Meteor DS (100mi -Sat; > 55mi Sun) and had a great > > time but certainly got my ass handed to me. I can > emphatically attest to the 11 > > mi section falling under the category of "hero." > I don't think I've ever seen > > trails that tight before- there were times I had > to stop the bike and weave the > > handle bars through trees too tightly spaced to > ride straight through. > > > > Now granted my experience was colored by the fact > that this was only my > > second off-road outing (I've been riding street > bikes since college- and just > > completed a 5 day/1800 mile trip up to maine and > back on the KLR), but I'm > > afraid neither I nor the KLR came back from the > weekend in the same > > condition we left. I retained all limbs etc but > lost significant amounts of energy > > and water. The KLR did not do so well. After 20 > or so crashes over the two > > days (I guess we'll call this a learning curve) > here's a preliminary damage > > report: > > > > 1. ripped off both radiator shrouds > > 2. lost right rear body panel > > 3. ripped off 2 of four aftermarket low-pro turn > signals > > 4. ripped off chain guard and guide (after it got > jammed in the wheel of > > course) > > 5. broke the cluch cable > > 6. bent the clutch lever (would have been worse > had I not had the acerbis > > rally pro guards) > > 7. lost the dual-star muffler guard > > 8. bent the metal frame work under the > headlight/cowl assembly (blame the > > trees) > > 9. lost a clamp that retains the header pipe > > 10.broke off the plate that securse the overflow > hoses for the battery > > 11.drew a number of scratches in the tank (this is > the only thing I'm unhappy > > about) > > 12.repeatedly tweaked the fork/steering assembly > > 13."sanded" any other remaining body part left on > the bike by crashing on > > beach-like trails > > > > but the best part is try to name any other bike > that you can do all this damage > > and more to, wash it off, zip-ty it up and cruise > back to NYC at 95 mph. I don't > > think any other bike exists. Granted my '04 no > longer looks like and '04 but a > > few replacement parts later and I'll be ready to > break some more crap off. > > This bike rocks. > > > > Oh, and by the way, while I don't advocate > trashing the woods by leaving the > > trail - it ends up that when you are out of > control and veer off, the KLR has NO > > problems running over trees up to 2.5-3.0 in in > diameter. The KLR kicks ass! > > The meteor DS kicked mine. Great time. > > > > --- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, bigfatgreenbike > > bigfatgreenbike@n...> wrote: > > > I rode the Sunday loop of the Meteor MC > dualsport ride, the third year > > > I've done this event. Meteor cut the mileage > down considerably, from 95 > > > to 55mi. It was actually 43mi, + an 11mi hero > section that was really > > > challenging- very similar to some of the > tightest terrain from the Sandy > > > Lane enduro. The rest of it was wide open fire > cuts and sand washes. > > > Basically except for the tight section (there > were cutouts for it) an > > > R1200GS with knobbies would have had no problem. > The dust was insane, > > > occasionally reducing visibility to 50ft or > less. I managed to float a > > > KLR over a small section of whoops for the first > time, I was on top of > > > them before I knew it due to dust, no room to > slow down. So I hit the > > > gas and prayed. > > > > > > I nailed a tree in the tight section, tweaking > the font end and rotating > > > the bars forward in the clamps. Straightened out > things but the bike > > > never really handled well after that. Realized > 15mi later when I got > > > back to the campsite that I had NO air in the > tire (pinch flat from > > > hitting the tree). Lots of 50mph sand roads and > blacktop. Dual rimlocks > > > make a HUGE difference, if you got a blowout on > the highway with dual > > > rimlocks you could keep riding until you saw a > convenient place to fix it. > > > > > > Devon > > > > > > > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at > www.dualsportnews.com. List FAQ courtesy of Chris > Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > Unsubscribe by sending a blank message to: > > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com . > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at > www.dualsportnews.com. List FAQ courtesy of Chris > Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > Unsubscribe by sending a blank message to: > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com . > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > >

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