NorthCarolinaNick
06-30-2008, 06:58 PM
I'm simulcasting this on advrider and ktmtalk, but I thought some people here would be interested as well :ride:
Day (-4)
6/30/2008
Charlotte, NC
Man, so many things have been going on lately in preparation for this trip, I don’t even know where to start. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have time to write this if I wasn’t stuck in my work cell (cubicle) until 5~6pm. (Being very productive aren’t I?) But anyway, I’ll start from my 2-wheeled beginning…
G-Forces have always thrilled me. So naturally, I was drooling over super sport bikes throughout my teens (around the 90’s). The parents were having none of it. And for good reason. They knew I had the daredevil streak, and knowing what I know now, 18 years old + 1996 GSXR = Bad News. They were right, but my desire for “the ride” never waivered, maybe I have a motorcycle gene?
Yes, I probably do. Not too long ago my mother shared a picture with me of my biological father’s 1962 Sears Allstate Puch:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/322717042_zDJZL-L.jpg
He was killed in a hunting accident in 1981 when I was 3, so I never got to know him and was never influenced by him, but from what I gather, I think he passed down my adventurous and independent tendencies.
Fast forward to 1996 (18 years old, 10ft tall, bulletproof), my buddy Jim spotted a 1970-something RD350 that “ran” in the local classifieds for $100. We travel 1.5 hours to find out that it doesn’t run, so Jim scores it for $75, we spray some ether in there and nearly blow the thing up after a few kicks. She was stuck at redline for what seemed like a minute while we were fumbling around trying to get it stopped. I think Jim ended up shorting out the plug with a screw driver. We end up running it up and down the road for a few days before one of the plugs kept fouling up. The first bike I ever rode. I’m now hooked again.
But... still under the parents’ domain for the next few years, my own motorcycle would go un-purchased for the next 10 years.
It wasn’t until 2 years ago that I moved to another software development job and it seemed like everyone there rode. Feeling left out, I felt it was time for me to purchase what I’ve always wanted, a sport bike. Not knowing anything about motorcycling other than what I’ve seen and heard from a bunch of other newbs, I went looking for a Ducati, but ended up bringing back a much cheaper 06 SV650:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/321703970_YR8zq-L.jpg
My first bike. Not that I knew what I was doing, but this turned out to be the perfect bike for me, it’s a total blast to ride around town on. For 28 years I had always dreamed of riding, now I couldn't get enough.
Case in point, several months after I purchase my street bike, I get a call from none other than Jim:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/323175126_7Mf3x-L.jpg
“Yo Nick, heading up your way to Brushy Mountain to do a little dirt bike riding, you interested?” “Heck yeah”. In less than 24 hours, I had purchased a 2003 RM125 (didn’t know what I was doing then either), a helmet, goggles, a pair of gloves and was on my way to Brushy. Not exactly the place to learn how to ride dirt (especially since I had only been riding street for a few months beforehand). A few little wrecks failed to dampen my spirit and I made it out in one piece.
It was soon obvious that I had picked the wrong bike for my 6’1” 210 frame. “Yo Jim, what bike should I get”. “WR450F”. “OK”. Bye, bye RM, hello 2006 WR450F:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/323149754_Zgvcq-L.jpg
A quick suspension upgrade from Factory Connection and the WR was ripping the trails up like nobody’s business (well, from my perspective anyway). Not so much on the motocross track though:
http://www.southernsolutions.net/image.bad1.resize.jpg
Yes, it may not look bad until you realize that my hand isn’t exactly lined up properly with my arm. A bungled attempt over a double jump less than a year ago didn't even put me back on 4 wheels. Yes, I’ve got the bug and probably a little ignorant too.
But anyway, the wrist healed up nicely and it’s now reinforced with a titanium plate and 7 screws. Back to riding!
Having an SV650 had me trolling the svrider.com forums. It was there that I stumbled across DonnieJ’s solo adventure cross country (also posted here):
DonnieJ's RR (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289350)
After reading the whole report, it wasn’t a question of if I was going to do something similar, it was just a question of when. When will be this Friday July 4th, Independence day. I decided on this date back in January and started to make my preparations.
First up was the bike. The street-legal EXC’s had just come out and I determined that this was the bike I was going to take. (In hindsight, I probably could have picked something better for the road, but I fell in love with the EXC and really didn’t spend any time considering other options):
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/317187974_LP2qU-L.jpg
You can view my trip planning threadhere (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355023)
I’ve also set up a blog here (http://www.nichelob.com). I’ve been making some posts there already if you want to get up to speed.
My plan is to try to produce my ride reports on the fly. But I’ll be camping out as much as po$$ible which will probably not help me punch out “live” reports. But I’ll post what I can, when I can and will probably embellish on my posts when I get back home. You'll have to bear with me, I've only been riding for 2 years and this is my first major ride report!
For now though, I have my hands full with the bike. One thing I forgot to plan for was my suspension settings. I’m already 210 lbs (40 lbs over what the factory sets the EXC up for), carry 4 more gallons of fuel than the stock tank and my luggage is 50 lbs. I sat on the bike yesterday and found out quickly that I’m nearly bottoming out just by sitting on it. So, I ordered some stiffer springs from Factory Connection today and will receive shipment Wednesday. I've got a guy about an hour away that is going to help me do the install. Keep your fingers crossed for me that nothing goes wrong there.
One other thing that causing alot of anxiety is the engine. Like a total retard, I plugged the hose from my crankcase to the carb thinking this would solve some backfiring issues I've been having on decel. Wrong! What it did was blow my valve cover gasket! Oil was spewing everywhere, luckily I was at home and found a gasket online to replace the bad one. My fear is that I may have compromised the piston rings. I'll be running a compression test soon, so keep your fingers crossed for me there too.
Needless to say, I’ll be very busy the next few days with last minute preparations, so I better stop writing and starting getting ready but there's one more thought that I'd like to share before closing my first post...
I get a lot of different expressions when I tell people what I'm about to do.
1. Some think it's the coolest thing ever
2. Some people pause and then look at me funny and think, "what a fool"
3. Some people don't give a rip (maybe because they've done so many cooler things, I dunno)
4. There's my 77 year old neighbor who I think still doesn't understand what I'm trying to do :gerg (he thinks the internet is useless, so I doubt I have to worry about him reading this:rofl)
5. And then there's expressions of my own, I went from highly excited to-> "man, this is expensive!" to-> completely overwhelmed to-> being lazy (status quo) to-> being really concerned about my future and now-> an equally proportional mixture of all of the former (basketcase :jump )
Stay tuned...
Day (-4)
6/30/2008
Charlotte, NC
Man, so many things have been going on lately in preparation for this trip, I don’t even know where to start. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have time to write this if I wasn’t stuck in my work cell (cubicle) until 5~6pm. (Being very productive aren’t I?) But anyway, I’ll start from my 2-wheeled beginning…
G-Forces have always thrilled me. So naturally, I was drooling over super sport bikes throughout my teens (around the 90’s). The parents were having none of it. And for good reason. They knew I had the daredevil streak, and knowing what I know now, 18 years old + 1996 GSXR = Bad News. They were right, but my desire for “the ride” never waivered, maybe I have a motorcycle gene?
Yes, I probably do. Not too long ago my mother shared a picture with me of my biological father’s 1962 Sears Allstate Puch:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/322717042_zDJZL-L.jpg
He was killed in a hunting accident in 1981 when I was 3, so I never got to know him and was never influenced by him, but from what I gather, I think he passed down my adventurous and independent tendencies.
Fast forward to 1996 (18 years old, 10ft tall, bulletproof), my buddy Jim spotted a 1970-something RD350 that “ran” in the local classifieds for $100. We travel 1.5 hours to find out that it doesn’t run, so Jim scores it for $75, we spray some ether in there and nearly blow the thing up after a few kicks. She was stuck at redline for what seemed like a minute while we were fumbling around trying to get it stopped. I think Jim ended up shorting out the plug with a screw driver. We end up running it up and down the road for a few days before one of the plugs kept fouling up. The first bike I ever rode. I’m now hooked again.
But... still under the parents’ domain for the next few years, my own motorcycle would go un-purchased for the next 10 years.
It wasn’t until 2 years ago that I moved to another software development job and it seemed like everyone there rode. Feeling left out, I felt it was time for me to purchase what I’ve always wanted, a sport bike. Not knowing anything about motorcycling other than what I’ve seen and heard from a bunch of other newbs, I went looking for a Ducati, but ended up bringing back a much cheaper 06 SV650:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/321703970_YR8zq-L.jpg
My first bike. Not that I knew what I was doing, but this turned out to be the perfect bike for me, it’s a total blast to ride around town on. For 28 years I had always dreamed of riding, now I couldn't get enough.
Case in point, several months after I purchase my street bike, I get a call from none other than Jim:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/323175126_7Mf3x-L.jpg
“Yo Nick, heading up your way to Brushy Mountain to do a little dirt bike riding, you interested?” “Heck yeah”. In less than 24 hours, I had purchased a 2003 RM125 (didn’t know what I was doing then either), a helmet, goggles, a pair of gloves and was on my way to Brushy. Not exactly the place to learn how to ride dirt (especially since I had only been riding street for a few months beforehand). A few little wrecks failed to dampen my spirit and I made it out in one piece.
It was soon obvious that I had picked the wrong bike for my 6’1” 210 frame. “Yo Jim, what bike should I get”. “WR450F”. “OK”. Bye, bye RM, hello 2006 WR450F:
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/323149754_Zgvcq-L.jpg
A quick suspension upgrade from Factory Connection and the WR was ripping the trails up like nobody’s business (well, from my perspective anyway). Not so much on the motocross track though:
http://www.southernsolutions.net/image.bad1.resize.jpg
Yes, it may not look bad until you realize that my hand isn’t exactly lined up properly with my arm. A bungled attempt over a double jump less than a year ago didn't even put me back on 4 wheels. Yes, I’ve got the bug and probably a little ignorant too.
But anyway, the wrist healed up nicely and it’s now reinforced with a titanium plate and 7 screws. Back to riding!
Having an SV650 had me trolling the svrider.com forums. It was there that I stumbled across DonnieJ’s solo adventure cross country (also posted here):
DonnieJ's RR (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289350)
After reading the whole report, it wasn’t a question of if I was going to do something similar, it was just a question of when. When will be this Friday July 4th, Independence day. I decided on this date back in January and started to make my preparations.
First up was the bike. The street-legal EXC’s had just come out and I determined that this was the bike I was going to take. (In hindsight, I probably could have picked something better for the road, but I fell in love with the EXC and really didn’t spend any time considering other options):
http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/317187974_LP2qU-L.jpg
You can view my trip planning threadhere (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355023)
I’ve also set up a blog here (http://www.nichelob.com). I’ve been making some posts there already if you want to get up to speed.
My plan is to try to produce my ride reports on the fly. But I’ll be camping out as much as po$$ible which will probably not help me punch out “live” reports. But I’ll post what I can, when I can and will probably embellish on my posts when I get back home. You'll have to bear with me, I've only been riding for 2 years and this is my first major ride report!
For now though, I have my hands full with the bike. One thing I forgot to plan for was my suspension settings. I’m already 210 lbs (40 lbs over what the factory sets the EXC up for), carry 4 more gallons of fuel than the stock tank and my luggage is 50 lbs. I sat on the bike yesterday and found out quickly that I’m nearly bottoming out just by sitting on it. So, I ordered some stiffer springs from Factory Connection today and will receive shipment Wednesday. I've got a guy about an hour away that is going to help me do the install. Keep your fingers crossed for me that nothing goes wrong there.
One other thing that causing alot of anxiety is the engine. Like a total retard, I plugged the hose from my crankcase to the carb thinking this would solve some backfiring issues I've been having on decel. Wrong! What it did was blow my valve cover gasket! Oil was spewing everywhere, luckily I was at home and found a gasket online to replace the bad one. My fear is that I may have compromised the piston rings. I'll be running a compression test soon, so keep your fingers crossed for me there too.
Needless to say, I’ll be very busy the next few days with last minute preparations, so I better stop writing and starting getting ready but there's one more thought that I'd like to share before closing my first post...
I get a lot of different expressions when I tell people what I'm about to do.
1. Some think it's the coolest thing ever
2. Some people pause and then look at me funny and think, "what a fool"
3. Some people don't give a rip (maybe because they've done so many cooler things, I dunno)
4. There's my 77 year old neighbor who I think still doesn't understand what I'm trying to do :gerg (he thinks the internet is useless, so I doubt I have to worry about him reading this:rofl)
5. And then there's expressions of my own, I went from highly excited to-> "man, this is expensive!" to-> completely overwhelmed to-> being lazy (status quo) to-> being really concerned about my future and now-> an equally proportional mixture of all of the former (basketcase :jump )
Stay tuned...
