Let's see those bikes

A few of us (5) went to Badlands Park on Good Friday.



Ended up getting both them dirty. One of the guys that went with, his bike kinda quit running. Ended up letting him ride the 520 for the day.


Got er all wiped down and shined up with sc1. Hopefully for the year. Actually got both done but forgot a picture of the 520.

 

A DRZ400SM that a friend just picked up(gray) used next to mine(black).

We cruised here and there after work until a little after dark yesterday evening.

 

Is the 520 the best off roader ever created? Saw a guy at the Dragon with one set up street legal. He was smiling big when he came back from his run.

 

Shes definitely a beast offroad! Tractor like torque and luggability, she'll drive ya right into stuff if your not careful.

I'll tell ya, thats what i wanna do with this one. It's already got a street legal title so about all i need are some 17" wheels, street tires, and maybe a license. Since i bought this 300 2 stroke i hardly ride it offroad unless the 300s broken. It would give me a reason to buy another offroader for a spare. Plus have a pretty unique street ride.

 

Did 51 miles yesterday. 24 of it on 50" 4 wheeler trails and 27 on single track trails. It had rained the night before so the sand was decently firm. Was a good day.

 

When she finally agrees to go on that bike vacation with you...

 

Does this count?

Like I really needed something else to do... My daughter had this given to her, thinking she could use it to get around with, since her car engine had an unscheduled catastrophic event. She lives in town so it seemed like a decent idea.

Never even seen one before and it was pretty rough from being stored outside, so it took a couple weeks of freeing things up, oiling, greasing, adjusting, rewiring, ordering some parts, and doing maintenance that nobody ever does.

Well.. turns out she's terrified of it, and the complexity and operating procedure is more than she bargained for so that makes me the proud owner now.

Turns out I like it! I love taking it out for a decent cruise on our back roads, parts are cheap and it's easy and fun to tinker on.
Nice warm day I cruise all over the place and see stuff that's escaped me for years driving by in my truck.

Now I'm toying with the idea of a larger 80cc unit to handle the long hills, and a bit more comfortable and stable bike like a beach cruiser.

 

There's some kid in town that has one...muffler is either gone, or gutted, very loud! He rides like an absolute maniac, and will probably end up in the ER because of it!

 

I even took the muffler off and looked inside to see what makes it so quiet. It's a huge chamber with little restriction so there's no need to gut it for sure. Not interested in speed, I've survived more than a few street motorcycle wrecks relatively unscathed when young and dumb, no desire to do it again at my um... advancing age.

EDIT; That kid may likely end up with some scars if he doesn't keep an eye on the maintenance.
I've a sprung chain tensioner and a CNC rear sprocket adapter on order. The idea of wrapping a chain scares me enough, and the adapter clamps to the rear hub to take the place of the rubber, out of round rag joint clamped to the spokes.

 

July 4th

 

My son just bought this bike. 2004 Sportster 1200 custom with 3600 miles

 

C'mon Jeff, where you at? You were pretty good about posting pictures of your trips, regularly for a while.

I put a Pelican case knockoff on my DRZ. It's an Apache 2800, commonly sold at Horror Freight, but I ordered it from Amazon.

I trimmed and drilled an aluminum buried cable sign after making a construction paper template. It will serve as a strengthening plate to potentially keep from something or someone from ripping the bolts through the plastic.




It turned out well, just need to clean everything up now.

 

Great idea for some storage on the bike. I have a little case bolted to the rear fender on the 300 for some tools.

My bad for not posting. Must've kinda slipped my mind a little. Maybe be the summer rush? All excuses aside, here's a one from first of June.

Buddy and his girlfriend went to an Upchurch concert at an offroad park that I've been to a few times. They rented a cabin and invited me along. Ended up on the couch but was a fun weekend.



He brought their sxs and lifted jeep cherokee. He ripped a front axle mount on the jeep within the first hour of the first day. Lol. At least they had the sxs with.



As for my riding that weekend. Mostly rode by myself but on Sunday i met a couple random guys in the parking lot and tagged along with them for several hours. Luckily we were about the same speed/skill so it was alot of fun. Great way to end that weekend. Got on 89 miles total.

 

Looks like good times were had!

Here's one recent pic...
I get out that way to play trains with the guys there every once in a while. This is near Providence RI.

I have about 7400 miles of throttle therapy to far. Minor electrical? problem but still fun to ride.
(Camera is on the fritz as well)

 

Another was the end of June, first part of July.

Here in Michigan there's a trail system called Tomahawk. Its supposed to be one of the top destinations for single track riding and is up close to Petoskey.

I've been wanting to go for years now and finally did. It's about 4.5 hours away and unfortunately i couldn't get anyone to go with but that wasn't gonna stop me.

So i got on Google maps and Michigan's interactive map and found the state owned forest/land up there. Picked a spot to camp before i left the house. Actually had 2 spots picked just in case. Luckily the first spot was a pretty good one. So i set up camp in the middle of nowhere and had me a good 4 day weekend. Put on right about 100 miles for the 3 days i rode.

Here's the path into where i set up camp.


Where I'll set up camp at.


Camp


It rained a few times but i was lucky enough to be at camp or close by and had a canopy to stand under while cooking dinner.


Here's one on the trail.


Packed up and ready to head out.

 

According to my notes, it looks like there was a day trip to Muskegon in there on June 15th.



Got in 37 miles. No pictures except this one i took leaving the first trail.

 

At first, I didn't think too much of 100 miles....I do that in a day here.
But then thinking about it, 100 miles on TRAILS is a LOT Of miles!!

Looking through your picture progression was neat. Im totally impressed that you got all the gear AND the jeep in that 1 bitty package in the "all packed and ready to head out" picture.

Imagining how you stack cordwood boggles my mind now....

 

Yeah for street riders, 100 miles is just a little afternoon fun. When your average speed is 15mph, 100 miles is an accomplishment.

Beings i went to a new location and trail system, i stopped alot and checked my location. That and riding by myself i didn't wanna get turned around. That put me on the trail about 3-4 hours each day. That's single track, maintained at 24" wide at the ground.

Now if i ride 2 track in a location in familiar with, we can do 100 miles in a little over a day. Gets kinda sketchy tho with the sxs and whatnot on the 2 track. So really just depends on riding style.

Thanks for the kind words. The jeep fills up surprisingly fast, especially with riding gear. Was able to keep it loaded below the window line for the most part tho.

That package gets decently gas mileage, compared to pulling a trailer, and gets me into spots most won't go. That camping spot, nobody drove by or remotely close for the 4 nights and 3 days i was there.

 

Second step of my 6 spoke wheel conversion is complete. $30ea to strip and media blast.