Well, about a month ago I stopped by the local Honda dealer, and lo and behold they had an XR650L - in fact, they had more inventory than I'd seen in a couple of years. Still no Transalp though.
Anyway, it followed me home, as I've come to my senses regarding that KTM 450, and it's going to a new owner.
Yesterday, had to run an errand and go pick up a sandwich down the road - maybe 6 miles and 20 minutes total round trip, depending on how long for them to make the sandwich. But it's May, the foothills are still green, and it's perfect weather. So I just wore what I had on - shorts, T-shirt and workboots, and added a light jacket. Well, I had to go on reserve and go get some fuel. I then decided to take the scenic route back home. To the tune of being gone for a total two hours and an extra 50 miles of backroads. That was hazard 1 - get on a bike, and maybe it takes hours to do a 20 minute trip.
Hazard 2 - Never go commando and ride your motorcycle wearing shorts. Some mean-assed bug could fly up your leg and sting you in the right nut.
Always dress to crash when riding a motorcycle on or off the road
Years ago coming back from the LA state line on IH 20 about 80MPH, a junebug hit me right in the middle of the chest at speed. I thought a road rager had shot me A few years ago when I still had my Valkyrie, a truck passed me with a load of scrap metal, and some of it bounced off and one nasty piece of angle iron stabbed right into my headlight like one of those movie ninjas with a throwing star. Even though it cost me 80 + dollars, I was glad to have a hole in it instead of me There's other things- bees up the jacket sleeves etc. etc.
I had a yellow jacket sting me in my leg riding home from a flag football game when I was in my early twenties. That will wake you up in the morning. Congrats on your new XR650. Have fun and ride safe!
Ron
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. Orwell
base layers - check hip, thigh and coccyx armor shorts - check knee and shin guards - check riding pants - check motocross boots - check motocross upper armor for chest, shoulders, back and elbows - check riding jacket - check helmet - check gloves - check
I've now taken more time to dress than it takes me to get to the local market. Via 35-40 mph country roads.
I'll be wearing work pants next time I go to the store, and won't go on a longer ride. Forewarned I am. Or I'll dress right, and incorporate an hour of dirt riding as well. Gonna need that Acerbis XL gas tank
Originally Posted by fester
I enjoyed the heck out of my xr650l!
Congrats on the new bike!
Check out thumper talk.com and the xr650l sub form. I’ve been a member there since 2005. It’s a gold mine!
I've been browsing there for a couple years - mostly to get ideas on how to un-POS a Yamaha TT230 and finally joined a week or so ago specifically because of the XR. I'll be looking for ideas on a rally fairing for the XR, as plans include taking it up into the mountains from where I am in the foothills. Figure about 45 minutes of hwy 49/20 before turning off into the National Forest. Going faster than 50 for extended periods of time has me wanting a bit more wind protection. The eventual goal is to get some soft luggage for it, and use it to access various fishing water in the Yuba drainage.
base layers - check hip, thigh and coccyx armor shorts - check knee and shin guards - check riding pants - check motocross boots - check motocross upper armor for chest, shoulders, back and elbows - check riding jacket - check helmet - check gloves - check
I've now taken more time to dress than it takes me to get to the local market. Via 35-40 mph country roads.
I'll be wearing work pants next time I go to the store, and won't go on a longer ride. Forewarned I am. Or I'll dress right, and incorporate an hour of dirt riding as well. Gonna need that Acerbis XL gas tank
Originally Posted by fester
I enjoyed the heck out of my xr650l!
Congrats on the new bike!
Check out thumper talk.com and the xr650l sub form. I’ve been a member there since 2005. It’s a gold mine!
I've been browsing there for a couple years - mostly to get ideas on how to un-POS a Yamaha TT230 and finally joined a week or so ago specifically because of the XR. I'll be looking for ideas on a rally fairing for the XR, as plans include taking it up into the mountains from where I am in the foothills. Figure about 45 minutes of hwy 49/20 before turning off into the National Forest. Going faster than 50 for extended periods of time has me wanting a bit more wind protection. The eventual goal is to get some soft luggage for it, and use it to access various fishing water in the Yuba drainage.
You should have Zero issues building that bike the way you want it! Dave’s mods helped my bike breathe considerably better. What part of the drainage are you going to be riding?
I do a lot of riding in the paradise, Collin’s lake, la Porte area and Burlington ohv.
My riide with Deputy was on his Honda at night, on a black two lane road with a helmet and full face shield got hit in the face by an owel at about 60 mph. It like to have taken him off the bike, it stunned him, he ran off the road onto and off the shoulder, and just by luck was a grassed shoulder with not trees. Said the owl came over the wind screen, broke the helmet face shield and a wing lodged between his face and helmet interior. Helment still had the small fine feathers stuck to it. He thought the owel dove on something and that he and the owel got into the same place at the same time by coincidence.
I myself, wearing bathing trunks only, was dragged by a bike through an intersection when a car ran a stop sign. Spent six months getting rocks, picked out of meat and being treated to stop infections. No more bare skin on bikes for me.
“To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is best to plan for all eventualities then believe in success, and only cross the failure bridge if you come to it." Francis Marion - The Swamp Fox
Skin don't win, not even the good stuff riding pillion at Daytona.
I'm lucky in that EVERY time I broke the rules and exposed something, a MINOR owie was the immediate result, no more than two miles/minutes from the beginning of the sinful behavior. So when the MAJOR owies attacked, I came out alive and unhurt.
Up hills slow, Down hills fast Tonnage first and Safety last.
You should have Zero issues building that bike the way you want it! Dave’s mods helped my bike breathe considerably better. What part of the drainage are you going to be riding?
I do a lot of riding in the paradise, Collin’s lake, la Porte area and Burlington ohv.
Are you familiar with Henness Pass road? Between 49 out of Camptonville and goes to Verdi NV. I'll be hitting some small drainages off that, maybe even hike down to the Middle Fork. And there's all sorts of lakes in the area. I also plan on spending a bit of time out of Downieville and Sierra City. Lots of naive fish in the Yuba as well as all those drainages that empty into it.
It looks like I'll be doing the Dave's mods real quick, as well as re-gearing to 14/48. I like that the first thing to be done, is to grind off the ear of the idle mixture screw.
Used to wear goggles when riding. They look cool, but a hard shell beetle at 40 MPH to the end of my nose convinced me to go to a full face shield. Almost 60 years from my first bike ride to my first major crash, but that one made up for being luck all that time. Blown rear tire on a Gold Wing at 65 MPH got me a separated shoulder, 5 broken ribs, a chipped spine, two titanium splints and 15 screws holding my left foot on- - - - -now I ride a Harley Soft Tail.
Seems most everyone on a motorcycle has intercepted a stinging insect at some point, this is the first I’ve heard in the crotch tho.
A big grasshopper nearly took me out tho, over the top of the windscreen and right into the eye. Sounded like a gunshot when it hit and had me reeling for a few moments into the next lane.
Back in the days I rode so much in the sun down here that the skin on my arms was getting old faster than the rest of me. So I switched to long-sleeved t-shifts as my “protective gear” 🥴
Speaking of bare skin, more’n a few women have a muffler brand from a hot exhaust on the inside of their lower leg. Usually aquired while stepping off the bike. There’s one out there somewhere with a backwards “K” she got off my Ninja.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
Well, about a month ago I stopped by the local Honda dealer, and lo and behold they had an XR650L - in fact, they had more inventory than I'd seen in a couple of years. Still no Transalp though.
Anyway, it followed me home, as I've come to my senses regarding that KTM 450, and it's going to a new owner.
Yesterday, had to run an errand and go pick up a sandwich down the road - maybe 6 miles and 20 minutes total round trip, depending on how long for them to make the sandwich. But it's May, the foothills are still green, and it's perfect weather. So I just wore what I had on - shorts, T-shirt and workboots, and added a light jacket. Well, I had to go on reserve and go get some fuel. I then decided to take the scenic route back home. To the tune of being gone for a total two hours and an extra 50 miles of backroads. That was hazard 1 - get on a bike, and maybe it takes hours to do a 20 minute trip.
Hazard 2 - Never go commando and ride your motorcycle wearing shorts. Some mean-assed bug could fly up your leg and sting you in the right nut.
Express our condolences to your right nut for us...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
My riide with Deputy was on his Honda at night, on a black two lane road with a helmet and full face shield got hit in the face by an owel at about 60 mph. It like to have taken him off the bike, it stunned him, he ran off the road onto and off the shoulder, and just by luck was a grassed shoulder with not trees. Said the owl came over the wind screen, broke the helmet face shield and a wing lodged between his face and helmet interior. Helment still had the small fine feathers stuck to it. He thought the owel dove on something and that he and the owel got into the same place at the same time by coincidence.
I myself, wearing bathing trunks only, was dragged by a bike through an intersection when a car ran a stop sign. Spent six months getting rocks, picked out of meat and being treated to stop infections. No more bare skin on bikes for me.
Took my Honda 750 out on a 400 mile from here, down Hwy 101 to CA Eureka and then across to Redding CA.
Quite a number of years ago.. left home it was 50 degrees.. It was cool down the coast, and not bad on HwyUS 299.
Got into Redding thru down town, heading for I 5, and my head felt like it was cooking...
I had on an open face helmut. with a visor on it, and a leather jacket. I was thinking I have something wrong going on with me. This is like 2 or so in the afternoon. Was going to pull over and check out why I was so damn hot. Passed a bank and they had a big thermometer on the bank sign. Said it was 117 degrees! Thought that can't be right. Passed another one couple blocks down the street that also said 117 degrees. I pulled over and cooled off, got some hydration, but there was no way I was going to ride that bike without that leather jacket and my helmet off.
I was a corpsman in the Army. Off duty I treated some patients being first on the scene with motorcycle mishaps. Saw first hand what that can do when you don't have protective clothing on....Never rode my motorcycle with no helmet or no leather jacket on...and no ankle covering boots on either.
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
