Well
it’s a new year so we had to get our first ride with all four TAT-2016 riders
participating. It was forecasted to be low 30’s at 9:30 a.m. and even though
there was some grumbling about starting before noon, everyone arrived at Dunkin
Donuts to get fueled up for the ride. This was our first joint ride in several
months due to my hand surgery. My hand was a little weaker than normal with a
bit of pain using the clutch but it finally loosened up by the end of the day
and feels pretty good now.
This
ride was also a test of our gear and clothes for cold weather riding. By the
time we hit the road around 10:30 it was still pretty cold; high 30’s. We
headed out to ride back roads and gravel north of Vilonia. Total ride was
almost exactly 100 miles with the GPS track provided below. We had to stop
several times early in the ride to warm up and add or adjust our riding
clothes. I had added an electric outlet on my CRF for my heated jacket/gloves
but never even hooked them up for this ride. I have pretty good cold wx clothes
so never got cold enough to need the heated gear.
This
was Steve’s first ride with the TAT team on his WR250R so we were very
interested how it would perform. It clearly slowed him down some compared to
his KLR650 but he said he is real happy with it and the loss in top speed
wasn’t a problem. Steve was trip leader today since he was the only one with
the GPS track loaded. We still had to get him to slow down to 50 mph so the
rest of us didn’t have to strain to keep up with him. Steve had added heated
grips on his WR a couple of days ago so was hoping to have toasty hands the
whole trip. He ended up having only a left warm hand and a cold right hand.
Something quit working on his throttle grip heater. If he gets the bugs worked
out, I might add them to my CRF.
This
was the first ride for me using new boots and I quickly realized the gear
shifter was too low for these heavy riding boots. I managed to shift using the
edge of my boot but several times missed a shift or even down shifted by
accident. Woodrow was also using new boots and had the same problem. As soon as
I got home I moved my shifter up for the perfect fit.
Other
than being cold most of the ride it was pretty uneventful except for one instance.
We had been going down a back road and got blocked by a flooded stream. We
backtracked and rode several miles around to the other side of the flooded area
with the road down to the water being a steep decent. I wanted to get a joint
picture by the flooded road so stopped and put down my kickstand. I could tell
the slope was too much for the bike so moved it a few feet to get on a more
flat place to park. Well I didn’t move it far enough and when I started to get
off my bike it fell over throwing me off hitting the back of my helmet on the
road. No injury except to my pride but I took a couple of pictures before
picking up the bike. I had actually planned on laying the bike down (easily) to
test my new hand guards plus see if I could actually pick the bike up alone
with my weak hand. The answer is yes I can. This incident also tested my hand
guards strength since the bike landed hard and not easy as I had planned. One
picture shows the scratches to the hand guard bar.
The
temperature was 57 degrees when we finished the ride so we took a short detour
through some mud on our way home. No problems and everyone had a great day.
Everyone
is anxious to get started on the TAT adventure and we are working picking the
launch date based on several projects at work. Right now it looks like either 3rd
week in March or 2nd week in April.
My
bike is ready to go so all I need to do is pack up and go. Some of the other
guys still need a few items but no showstoppers.
Time
is flying!
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