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Random thoughts / pics thread

I got a little stir crazy and rode 400 miles or so on Tuesday. Didn't take any pictures, so I did it again yesterday.

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Tahoma looks much bigger in person. I meant to do a diversion and get another angle, but there were a lot of tourists bumbling around and I left later than I meant to. Ended up riding a couple hours in the dark.

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This is Riffe Lake, which until 1968 was the site of two towns, one named Kosmos. I forget the other. In '68 a dam was built and flooded the area. This part of Washington was once thriving timber country, partly killed off by the ascension to Protected Status of the Spotted Owl.
 
Went on a ride on the C50T "Boulevard" VL800 with the wife to get the state's best BBQ. So good we served it at our wedding.

On the way home I took us down through one of my favorite local twisties. Came zooping around a corner and a doofus in a white SUV was pulling a terrible uturn in a tremendously idiotic place to do something illegal. He should have traveled another hundred feet and pulled around in a driveway.

Anyway, I ended up pressing on the rear brake with a bit too much zest and the back end stepped out. Very exciting stuff, but much more enjoyable on a dirt bike. Left a skid a little more than a full bike length. I feathered off and gently regained traction, kept control, and wished my horn wasn't a feeble meep.

The guy turned around for a garage sale. Very irritating. In addition to the unwelcome lesson for all involved, it demonstrated it's time for a flush of my brake line. Yes line, it's a drum in the rear

You might know the road, but you never know what's really around that corner
 
Came zooping around a corner and a doofus in a white SUV was pulling a terrible uturn in a tremendously idiotic place to do something illegal.

Sadly all too common probably; I know I've seen it a lot.

Anyway, I ended up pressing on the rear brake with a bit too much zest and the back end stepped out. Very exciting stuff, but much more enjoyable on a dirt bike. Left a skid a little more than a full bike length. I feathered off and gently regained traction, kept control

Glad it was just a scare and not a wreck.

and wished my horn wasn't a feeble meep.

Even if you have a supertanker horn the people of this ilk typically will not admit to themselves or you that they are wrong and have been stupid. Indeed, they may think you need some tuning ; }
 
Coming back down from the skinny mountain FS roads yesterday on my WR250R, to where more people go, I saw bikes a few bends down below and overtook them quicker than expected. Turns out a family outing was to bring two mini dirt bikes up into the wilds and let everybody ride them in cutoffs and t-shirts. Real good parenting to get your little ones out there doing somewhat rugged roads with no protective gear whatsoever. What? You can afford the bikes but would rather risk hospital bills than buy some proper ATGATT for them?
 
You might know the road, but you never know what's really around that corner

So true! I came around a corner on a forested rural Arkansas highway and there is a car just sitting dead stopped in the traffic lane. There was nobody around, no hazard flasher, nothing. I guess the car broke down and the people just left it to go get help. Being an ultra conservative rider, I had plenty of margin to avoid hitting the car parked in my lane.
 
Haven't been riding the NC lately. Either too windy or I've been replacing my WR250R front sprocket, chain, and the front chain slider – and riding it. Good life on parts for a bike that does a lot off the pavement but I wanted two links more on the chain which lengthened my wheelbase 17+ mm. Ah, subtle handling and suspension change I'm liking. Anyway, few pics.

2020-08-30 14;05;23 by greenboy, on Flickr

2020-08-30 14;06;59 by greenboy, on Flickr

2020-08-30 14;26;41 by greenboy, on Flickr

2020-08-30 14;27;29 by greenboy, on Flickr
 
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Speaking of winds and gusting, I went out for some off-pavement fun on my WR yesterday. Intense winds and gusting picked up just as I left the pavement to hit a skinny hardpack road that goes over a low pass with plenty of drop-offs – the kind of hardpack that has lots of sharp rocks of various sizes lodged into it and more floating on top, with truck ruts and potholes in many areas. It's a fun road on this bike. Anyway, the last few miles leading up – and then back down on the other side – there had been a decision to "improve the road". Evidently they ran a large hard blade over it and it dislodged anything sticking up far enough. So now the surface was pocked by holes large and small, and more rocks of various sizes.

Oops, someone says. So they bring up some fine soil with lots of sand in it and dump it about 3" to 4" deep. This is not the kind of soil that's going to turn into evenly-dispersed hardpack unless you repeatedly run heavy rollers over it and get some water in there – it's just going to blow around like talcum powder. Trucks have already made soft furrows in it and you can't pick a track that's good because you can't see the majority of what's under it. It's hard to climb up through it and it's hard to descend, you have to go slow and be ready for the worst, while the dust just blows around like dervishes. Finally I get below the "improvement". Ahh, relief for the arm pump at last.

I get off and dust the bike and visor a bit in what is one of the more benign sections of the road, to take pictures but all the while I'm thinking: which is the worse choice? To ascend back up through that on the outer edge of unprotected steep long dropoffs (did see a couple logging trucks earlier) and back down the way I came? Or to keep going until I eventually hit pavement and brave the traffic speeds typically met there while the wind is switching directions every few moments like it does when you are winding up and down and around along a huge lake with ravines and mountains all around, and do 60-some miles of that? Well, the misery did prove to be lesser taking the two-lane, and at least the wind didn't get worse by the moment. I also eventually got behind a slow double-trailer truck that nobody could pass so the pressure was off in hauling ass and I could keep it below 65 at all times, sometimes down to 35.

Still, fun day because my bike was really feeling great and did real well, and I got some pics I like : }
 
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Too cold to start a fire
I'm burning diesel, burning dinosaur bones
I'll take the river down to Stillwater
And ride a pack of dogs

I'm gonna break
I'm gonna break my
I'm gonna break my rusty cage and run
 
So I guess not many give a flying eff about pics I took when I was out on my WR. Or out on my NC for that matter. So this may be, uh, more up your alley:

THE CHAP GAP –

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Umm, please tell us that ain’t a selfie...
 
My Ducati buddy crashed his Panigale 1199 at Barber Monday. Makes me sick! He had a lot of time and money invested in this unit. Lucky he got out with only a broken hand and mild concussion. Violent highside. He is not sure if rider error or something broke on the bike and locked up rear wheel. He might be able to sell a couple items off of it, but it is a total loss otherwise. We think the front tire is still good, only had 7 sessions on it. If so, he is going to give it to me to finish off on track. Although I'm not sure how I feel about that, could be cursed...LOL. but still a free, barely used race slick!

Had to go drink a beer with him and mourn the loss yesterday. LOL

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In my 66th year, this year, I got my first S.S. check and a first paycheck (I've been self-employed) in 35 years. And bought a refurbished '83 GL650 with 28,000 miles on it. I road to work to figure out road closures on the Mississippi Parkway for my monday commute and to test out a seat gel pad I heard recommended here.

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