Richmond Va chatter

Well guys, for any of you who might like to know I did manage to snag that DRZ today, and it was certainly an adventure! It started off with a 30 minute walk/jog in the rain carrying my helmet and backpack full of shit. Ended up carrying my jacket too about half way through because I was sweating my ass off after speeding up the pace a few blocks.

Got to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare though and then started the ride south 3 hours to Raleigh, NC. It was actually pretty damn good for a greyhound bus ride. Met dude at the station, took it for a spin around the block with cash in the guy's hand and really liked what I saw. We did the paperwork and I drove off. It was pretty much riding perfect, idling great, all that good stuff. By the 3rd hour my ass was starting to get pretty sore, but surprisingly not really any more sore than the same amount of time on my beloved Ninja with no stops. The seat feels really narrow in comparison for sure though, and firmer. Despite being 6'1" I can still barely flatfoot the bike, but I don't consider it a drawback. It's nice being up so high. The suspension kicks my old bikes' ass for sure. I'm sure the bigger wheels help too.

I was really enjoying the ride... getting to know the bike. The knobbies feel really weird, but I was totally confident for normal driving. I really felt like my speedometer was reading low though. In fact I was sure of it, almost right away! I tried to drive the indicated speed limit according to my speedo, but I was getting passed so aggressively on I-95 that, combined with my perception of slower speed than my speedo was reading, I ended up speeding pretty badly after overtaking a work truck with a bunch of stuff in the back. I think my fatigue and anxiousness to get home probably contributed something to that, and I wasn't paying attention to the speedo like I should have been. Long story short, I got clocked going way the hell over the 70 limit and got pulled. Apparently my speedo was reading correctly. I think that the increased height of the bike made it really made it feel much slower to me, and the insane speeding traffic, I thought, confirmed this suspicion.

Now I was under the impression that a freshly signed and dated title was free passage to get the vehicle home under it's own power, a "grace period" as it was described to me. Well, that's apparently bullshit and you need to get a "travel permit" for a nominal fee that allows you to transport the vehicle legally. So I was screwed on those two fronts, and coincidentally a couple of others. I definitely could have gotten a handful of tickets. Or even been taken to jail, had my license suspended, my vehicle impounded, the works. Holy FUCK that would have been a terrible end to the day

By the eternal grace of the Tao, the trooper (pretty sure he was a state trooper) recognized the bike and in fact is an ADVrider member himself. He let me know how I was in the wrong, I realized what a complete moron I am, but all the while we were talking bikes and stuff. He let me go with some friendly advice, and if you're reading this my friend, I can't thank you enough for using your discretion the way you did. Cheers to you and I hope you pick up a bike soon. Maybe sell one of your other vehicles that isn't being driven like it should or something. I'd love to hit the dirt with ya sometime!

So I went home being sure to mind the speed limit much more carefully. Got the bike back into town and now it's unwilling to hold a proper idle. It's becoming more and more apparent that dual sports and dirt bikes are designed to be a lot easier to work on which makes me extremely happy. Getting the carb off on the DRZ looks about 30x easier than it was on my Ninja.

So I'm confident I can get her running back to normal. I can't say I'm surprised that there are some fueling issues either. After all, this bike's been driven an average of 150 miles every year. Hell, I put more miles than that on it just today! It's still sound enough to get me to work and back so all is well regardless.

And here's a picture to go with the relatively happy ending to the day.



It's good to be in your ranks, all. Again, thanks for the warm welcome at the training grounds and hopefully we can keep up a steadier pace next time now that I have some better hardware to work with.

That looks like a fancy adjustable version of what I need. Perhaps I could drive the XT to your place and see if it would work?

I'm riding Saturday @ Forest Hill Ave. in Richmond if anyone's interested in going. Might have two friends of mine riding four wheelers (or quads as we called them up north) coming with me. If you want to ride hit me up with a private message.

- Kurt

Wow! I did a similar ride on a DRZ in nice weather. you are an ANIMAL!

I hope you get it, we'll be neighbors. Then I can bring my bike over and work on it with you haha.

Good luck with it man!

Man it rained like hell all day too.. you earned this one.

1500 miles spread over 11 years will tend to clog up your carbs.

Weird thing that happened just now:

I'm sitting in the basement by the woodstove watching tv browsing adv on the ipad. The dogs are bugging me to throw their kong toy.. they like me to throw it out in the woods as far as I can and they root around until they find it.

So I obliged, stepped out the basement and threw just as far into the bushes out back as I could. It's pitch black and raining but that's how they like it. 15 minutes later I hear the dog door flap and in they come right up to me on the couch.. with a racoon! a big ass racoon half as big as the dog. I may have let out a manly scream.. :eek1 anyway it was dead or mostly dead. I put on my fireplace glove and took it out. It was still warm. It had to be 15-20 lbs. Layed it on top of the trashcan in case it's really alive and just unconscious or playing possum. We'll see in the morning.

Holy hell, sounds like the friggin nature channel in your living room. :eek1 Hope the little bandit comes out OK, but somehow I doubt it.

Yeah, the rain wasn't too bad though farther south. I even packed rain gear just in case and ended up not even needing it. I still can't get over what a capable machine this thing is. I love damn near everything about it. It has more wind protection than my Ninja did! Hahaha. I'm not going to lie though, I'm pretty sore.

It was a good day. As the trooper I made friends with today said, I broke it in right and proper today!

Just sayin

^

Oooooh, sorry for the double post everyone but I just had to point this bit out too, it was the icing on the cake. My little Ninja that was driven 10k a year for 2.5 years. beat to shit (though sound mechanically and pretty decent looking) with drops and proper crashes sold for $1800, and I paid $1400 for it with 4k miles on it! So I basically rode for free for a couple of years. Too awesome.

The bike is in a good home now too. It's someone else's first bike now, and he even took a minor spill on it close to home after his own long ride back to Baltimore! So the legacy lives on...

small world!

Great store bastardbiker... Let's get together for a ride out to the mountains. Of course I will have to wait for my GS to get back from Morton's.

Manganos- Good job looking out for a fellow ADVer and thanks for informing the rest of us who may not know the correct Information on the proper procedure. It is good to see that there are people out there willing to take the time and understand situation.

I feel like a moron...second time this week people are warning me not to go out west...cage this time of course in to the wintery mix. Hopefully this trip turns out better than Monday's trip, we all know how that turned out for me.

I guess it's that Michigander in me that thinks...oh this is nothing!!!

I think you will now understand how amazed we all were that day when you could even keep up on the ninja that day in the woods when we first met.

You are going to be shocked at the change going to a real off road bike.

Think you got a GREAT bike for the price! Congrats!!!!

Splitlanes- hope you got the clutch fixed on the ArticCat...lets load that bitch up & head to the property out west!!!

That's is, I'm out of here in an hour. Could have left tomorrow and done it in one day, but with the weather, I'm skying out now. Dirtdoctor and I were planning on riding down to the Winter BMW rally in Florida this weekend. Unfortunately life is preventing him from taking a short vacation, but I'm still going.

So the wet weather gear is coming out, the heated vest is firing up, and I'm heading south in a few minutes ahead of the "storm".

If all goes well I'll be home Sunday night. Am taking the GoPro to see if I can film some of the GS rides this weekend in the beautiful Florida sugar sand. Hopefully the roads will be cleared by the time I head home.

See y'all on the flip side.

jeff

Ahhh... That's not good. You really should call the county and have someone take the animal and test for rabies. REALLY!! When I was very young we came home to our dog with a killed raccon, had it tested, it had rabies and they/we had to quarantine the dog (and our cat ) for six months to make sure they did not get infected. Do not take this lightly. You and your family, if you have one, could be in danger as well as any other person or animal you dogs come into contact with. The thing is a normal coon that is not all zombied by rabies would not have been caught by your dogs easily. The risk is high. I had to kill a rabid skunk one time too. It was stumbling in circles in our yard in the middle of the day. I mean who gets that drunk in the middle of the day?? Jokes aside, rabies is more common than you may think. Good luck with it man.

I kinda suspected this.

.

I have a buddy here from Michigan that's the same way. Actually he's an inmate and got me into dual sport... DURING one of those huge snow storms we had a few years ago he took his family to Wintergreen. He said it was no problem except it took a while because of all the Virginian's in the ditches....