I've been meaning to go for a ride and today seemed like as good a time as any. The temp was hovering around fifty and it wasn't raining. Besides, I needed to figure out how to coordinate riding with stopping to take pictures. Preparing for takeoff. Apparently, the kids around here like to get high and spray paint things. I've always thought graffiti was cool. Not the vandalism part, but I like the idea behind it. Waiting patiently for me to stop photographing stuff and get on with the ride. Interesting story about this stretch of road. About three weeks after I got my first bike, a KLR250, I took it out here to see how fast it would go. Now, as many of you know, the KLR250 has its redline at 9500RPM. So I'm flying down this road, smashing myself as flat against the tank as I can ... 75 ... 80 ... 85 ... 90 ... I glance over at the tach just in time to see it inch past 11000RPM before KLUNK! and it just stops running. I, stunned of course, just pull in the clutch and roll for a bit. Still in sixth gear and rolling at just under 80 I decide to see if I can bump start it. Bad idea. The rear tire locks up and skids for about 50 feet before I can gather myself together and pull the clutch back in. The ride home consisted of kicking the thing over for five minutes at a time just to get it to run for 15 second wherein I could accelerate as hard as possible until it died and coast as far as possible. Good times. This bridge is really the whole point I'd gone on this ride. I like to come down every once in a while just to look at it because it's so intersting. And partly because I'm amazed it's still there. A few miles more and I come to a fairly straight and, after being on one lane roads for the past twenty minutes, incredibly wide two-lane blacktop. Some excessive speed and I arrive back home planning to take a picture of myself and the bike. There was some sort of issue with my hair however (not sure how I picked up that much static electricity) and I decided to just take this one instead. That's the KLR250 I talked about earlier. So concludes my first ride report. It's interesting how much more you get out of something when you plan to share it with someone else later on.
Looks like you had a good ride... but that poor ol' KLR250 doesn't have a rev limiter! the 09 KLX250S does have one.. Thanks for the report and pics. I hope you can revive the old bike.
I'm told it needs crankshaft bearings. Probably needs the carb rebuilt now also since it's been sitting for about a year with the same gas in it. Still runs though, somehow.
Whereabouts is that? It looks similar to some roads between Monticello & Mahomet I ride if I only have an hour and a half and want more variety than beans 'n corn, corn 'n beans.
It is 20-25 minutes east of Springfield. A few miles southeast of a little town called Mechanicsburg.
