How times change, and motos!

 Hello world.

Yes I am riding Dave's bike. :)

Year two of quarantine is rapidly approaching, and so is summer. I'm bored so I am here trying to write and record life tidbits again.

Whats new on the pedal front:

the AL remedy is gone; replaced with a carbon remedy 9.8 last year. an additional $1500 only netted me 1.5lbs weight reduction so not real amazed with that but the increased performance of the higher spec components is fantastic!

Road bikes remain the same: Cronus CX carbon

trials bikes remain mostly the same: Th Norco Evolve now has poorly functioning disc brakes and the Pitbull has flat tires.

So 2021 is hopefully forming up to be an action packed summer. Possibly another visit to Colombia (if borders are open and world pandemic situation is on the mend). Possibly another yacht racing summer. But the big trip I have spent the last week or two on is a motorcycle tour of Colorado highlands!

As of right now the plan is a week+ of dual sport riding from Silverthorn to Ouray, then SE and back up through Gypsum to Dillon. A large loop of 100-150 mile days and camping. I have my trusty Honda CRF250 Rally, and Dave is purchasing a brand new CRF450L. We will clearly need some prep work and shakedown adventures to prepare.

As of this moment the Rally is taken apart in the shed out back: I am trying to fit a different shock without spending $1000. One of my major gripes about the Rally is how poorly the suspension performs when you start pushing a bit. I have dynoed the rear shock from my bike, as well as done surgery on a free CRF250L shock to figure out how they work and things do not look good at all, out of the box.

Other plans for the trip:

GiantLoop Coyote soft saddlebags+duffle

Seat Concepts comfort seat

Larger footpegs

Handlebar protectors (barkbuster style) hopefully with LED markers

New Dunlop 606 tires before we leave. The rear for sure, not certain on the front yet.

Another goal is to reduce the weight of the bike significantly if possible.

The published weight of almost 350lbs is a real kick in the pants for the 22HP engine. It is also a lot of weight to handle on narrow technical riding and singletrack. Lots of small bits like plastics, emissions equipment, exhaust, but I fear that the majority of the weight is in the steel frame and there will not be a done to be done about that.

With the Ice riding I have been doing this winter, and the intro to singletrack trip me and Dave did last spring, I have a desire to get the overall weight of the bike down to a more managable number. Under 300 at least. Step one is obviously to get the bike on a scales to get a real world weight before getting to carried away on particulars.

More to come later on all fronts! hopefully before 2 years from now!