B
ballisticexchris
Guest
Ready to ride!! and what a heck of a ride it was!!
Things definitely did not go as planned!! I ended up tucking my tail between my legs and turned around. It started off really nice. The knobby’s were howling in the wind, settled in at 70mph cruise control on a light traffic ride to the 138. Headed up to Silverwood Dam and and turned into the dirt road that connects into Lake Arrowhead. I know my SPOT should be mounted on my body. But is was just too hard to get to in my jacket for check in's. I figured at the speed I was going I could get to it if I became separated from my bike.
Really nice view just wheeling along in 2nd gear.
Within about 1 mile things started getting sketchy. It gets a lot harder and rockier than this. I’m just at a spot that I can stop to take a picture. Believe it or not just slowing down to take a picture put me into this rocky rut!! I was trying to get into the smooth line to the right but had a hard time climbing out of a shallow rut.
After this stop things took a turn for the worse. I was going through a pretty easy rutted off camber section and my hand slipped the clutch out too far and I did a lurch and slow speed tip over. Trying to pick up a 600lb+ bike, with slippery moto boots, off of slippery off camber dirt, aint’ fun at all!! It took me almost a half dozen tries and 15 minutes to get it off the ground. At one point I had it halfway up and was holding it at an angle until I could catch my breath and muscle it up the rest of the way. After I got it upright I realized I was at such an angle I would not be able to take off without falling over again. So I started the bike, put it in 1st gear and walked off the side of it slipping the clutch and getting to a flat spot I could continue. The shifter was bent like a pretzel and cracked. I took some vice grips and bent it back best I could to get me riding again.
I decided to continue. I then had another close call “almost tip over”. That’s when I decided to play it smart, turn around and head back. But first I had to find a spot to turn around. Sorry no pictures. I was now in survival mode. The road got nastier and off camber with a water flow running between an exposed pipe and rock piles. I ended up using the slippery, rocky rut as a guide and sliding/walking one boot along the pipe and the other boot walking across rocks. After this I finally found a turn around point. I set my suspension to full soft (to lower the bike) and carefully made my way back to the road and safely home.
As far as the tires, I truly believe they saved my butt!! Very good traction. It’s the weight of the bike that is the equalizer. You have to respect the weight of these beasts. When things go wrong on a two wheeled 600+ lb machine it can get ugly and in this case expensive. Fortunately the crash bars and skid plate did their job on keeping the plastics and radiator from being damaged.
The shifter is going to cost close to 250.00 to replace. I already have my stock shifter and footpegs ready to go back on tomorrow. This is twice my bike has tipped over costing major damage. I’m going to try to live with the stock pegs and shifter. The aftermarket pegs and shifter cost close to 500.00. They are just to expensive to use off road. OEM is cheaper and I’m sure I can adapt to it.
Fancy German shifter destroyed:
And this is after it was bent back:
Things definitely did not go as planned!! I ended up tucking my tail between my legs and turned around. It started off really nice. The knobby’s were howling in the wind, settled in at 70mph cruise control on a light traffic ride to the 138. Headed up to Silverwood Dam and and turned into the dirt road that connects into Lake Arrowhead. I know my SPOT should be mounted on my body. But is was just too hard to get to in my jacket for check in's. I figured at the speed I was going I could get to it if I became separated from my bike.
Really nice view just wheeling along in 2nd gear.
Within about 1 mile things started getting sketchy. It gets a lot harder and rockier than this. I’m just at a spot that I can stop to take a picture. Believe it or not just slowing down to take a picture put me into this rocky rut!! I was trying to get into the smooth line to the right but had a hard time climbing out of a shallow rut.
After this stop things took a turn for the worse. I was going through a pretty easy rutted off camber section and my hand slipped the clutch out too far and I did a lurch and slow speed tip over. Trying to pick up a 600lb+ bike, with slippery moto boots, off of slippery off camber dirt, aint’ fun at all!! It took me almost a half dozen tries and 15 minutes to get it off the ground. At one point I had it halfway up and was holding it at an angle until I could catch my breath and muscle it up the rest of the way. After I got it upright I realized I was at such an angle I would not be able to take off without falling over again. So I started the bike, put it in 1st gear and walked off the side of it slipping the clutch and getting to a flat spot I could continue. The shifter was bent like a pretzel and cracked. I took some vice grips and bent it back best I could to get me riding again.
I decided to continue. I then had another close call “almost tip over”. That’s when I decided to play it smart, turn around and head back. But first I had to find a spot to turn around. Sorry no pictures. I was now in survival mode. The road got nastier and off camber with a water flow running between an exposed pipe and rock piles. I ended up using the slippery, rocky rut as a guide and sliding/walking one boot along the pipe and the other boot walking across rocks. After this I finally found a turn around point. I set my suspension to full soft (to lower the bike) and carefully made my way back to the road and safely home.
As far as the tires, I truly believe they saved my butt!! Very good traction. It’s the weight of the bike that is the equalizer. You have to respect the weight of these beasts. When things go wrong on a two wheeled 600+ lb machine it can get ugly and in this case expensive. Fortunately the crash bars and skid plate did their job on keeping the plastics and radiator from being damaged.
The shifter is going to cost close to 250.00 to replace. I already have my stock shifter and footpegs ready to go back on tomorrow. This is twice my bike has tipped over costing major damage. I’m going to try to live with the stock pegs and shifter. The aftermarket pegs and shifter cost close to 500.00. They are just to expensive to use off road. OEM is cheaper and I’m sure I can adapt to it.
Fancy German shifter destroyed:
And this is after it was bent back:
