goodtimes
Expedition Poseur
To revive an old thread.....
I figured 3500 miles was enough asphault for the 650gs, and since it was a holiday and all....what better time to introduce the bike (and myself) to dirt. Now, I gotta say....I have spent quite a bit of time on dirt and rocks with 4 tires underneath me...and very little with just 2 tires under me. Holy crap what a difference 2 tires makes! This is a whole different world. The only bikes I have had off road (10 years ago) were a couple little dirt bikes (a 250 and 350 that we would bum from friends when I was in the military). Even then, it was a weekend every year or so.
So, I wandered down to Helvetia. Close to home, dirt roads in good shape with some side roads of varying difficulty. I figured I would just pick and choose to keep myself out of trouble. Yea, that didn't work.
The bike has a few new scratches, some rock rash, a broken mirror, bent shift lever, and a whole lot of dirt on it. It's not too heavy to pick up from its side on level ground (like the bottom of a dry sandy wash), but pulling it out of a gully when it is about 1/2 way between "on its side" and "upside down" wasn't fun.
The trip pointed out a couple of things I need to change on the bike to make it a little more robust for the washed out fire roads (and my supurb ability to dump it in the deepest hole in the area----I felt like the "FlyingWil of dual sports").
Anywhoo....just one photo stop (the rest of the time I was busy picking my bike up and cussing to myself).
I figured 3500 miles was enough asphault for the 650gs, and since it was a holiday and all....what better time to introduce the bike (and myself) to dirt. Now, I gotta say....I have spent quite a bit of time on dirt and rocks with 4 tires underneath me...and very little with just 2 tires under me. Holy crap what a difference 2 tires makes! This is a whole different world. The only bikes I have had off road (10 years ago) were a couple little dirt bikes (a 250 and 350 that we would bum from friends when I was in the military). Even then, it was a weekend every year or so.
So, I wandered down to Helvetia. Close to home, dirt roads in good shape with some side roads of varying difficulty. I figured I would just pick and choose to keep myself out of trouble. Yea, that didn't work.
The bike has a few new scratches, some rock rash, a broken mirror, bent shift lever, and a whole lot of dirt on it. It's not too heavy to pick up from its side on level ground (like the bottom of a dry sandy wash), but pulling it out of a gully when it is about 1/2 way between "on its side" and "upside down" wasn't fun.
The trip pointed out a couple of things I need to change on the bike to make it a little more robust for the washed out fire roads (and my supurb ability to dump it in the deepest hole in the area----I felt like the "FlyingWil of dual sports").
Anywhoo....just one photo stop (the rest of the time I was busy picking my bike up and cussing to myself).
