I live in Illinois so that is no short journey. Time to start trying to talk my very accomodating and understanding wife. Wish me luck.
Men, women, and children-
Finalizing plans for a rippin good time out west over the May 22-23 weekend 2010. Tentatively planning on leaving early on Thurs. and arriving back home on the following Tues. night. I’ve been talking about this trip for a while, and haven’t been for about five years now, every year it comes and goes….not this year though. It’s a long drive, but worth the lifetime of memories even if you only choose to ride it once. We’ll possibly be picking up bro’s in CO, UT & CA on our way out. Have a big van & trailer with lots of room to keep the cost down. Plan is to burn out to Stonyford, CA, camp over night. Saturday morning, wake up by the sound of dirt bikes firing up, rip 170 miles of US Forestry wilderness just before ascending on the pacific ocean prepping for a relaxing night motorcycle stories and surf & turf dinner on the ocean. Waking up, Sunday morning to a motel parking lot packed full of dual purpose motorcycles, then ripping back inland to the Stonyford campground. Cracking a cold beverage, throwing some meat & potatoes on a grill and getting ready for the trek home, either that night or on Monday morning depending on schedules.
This is such an awesome opportunity, that registration fills up quick. So on April 1, we will be sending registration info. Rider limit is 500, and ride may be banned in the future so we’ve got to rip it up while we have the chance. Families ride this on the easy splits, so all you women and children there is no excuses.
Check out the link below and try to make it happen. Keep me posted.
Two midwest riding spots will be on Outdoor Channel Ride To Adventure Extreme in 2010. The Cliffs Insane Terrain Park and The Badlands. The Badlands I have been to quite a bit. I have never been to the Cliffs because we always had Buffalo Rock which was really hard to beat for an offroad motorcycle spot.
Anyway, check out the Outdoor Channel schedule and set your DVR!
I live in Illinois. I’ve come to accept that for what it is. Our opportunities to ride are not too bad considering how flat most of the area is. We have Palos and Kettle which are pretty hilly. CAMBR is working on Beverly Lake which has some good hills. Deer Grove is cool but fairly flat.
Sooo, it makes financial sense for me to ride a hard tail. I’ve had my Specialized Stumpjumper Pro since 1999. Specialized is one of the few brands that has not “sold out” (don’t have problem with doing so but it does impact the brand) to other big brands or the Chinese (not that I have a problem with our Asian comrades either, I follow their motorcycle scene closely). I guess I just like the Specialized brand and how it feels if that makes sense. Big company technology and a solid image.
Last week at I made the mistake of going to Bike Connection in Schaumburg, IL for no good reason but to look around. That is when the friendly salesmen slowly and knowledgeably steered me to my destiny. The 2010 Specialized FSR Expert. Only I will be buying the Test Bike in anno red at the end of the year. I love the bike’s brain functionality in general but I just feel in love with the testbike paint. 27ish lbs. It will be mine. Oh yes…
I am just recently getting into boats. I have tried to get my mountain bike on my my motorcycle so I can understand a canoe enthusiast wanting to get his canoe on his motorcycle. The guy obviously lived long enough to publish this shot of his bike so it must be fairly stable. Just watch those cross winds.
Love the double tank bag look!
If I knew where this image came from I would post a link. Anyone know what VFRD is?
After riding with Skinner, lamoson and Andrew Gore this weekend my mind keeps wandering from electric bikes to trials riding every once in a while. All these guys can wheelie. Andrew was wheeling the big BMW 650 no problem. I mean, I can wheelie but it is from slow speed in first gear sitting down. Andrew learned doing trails I think he said. Sounds good to me.
That is not the only reason I want to get into trials. The riding makes sense to me. I like lower speed technical riding. I could also ride a trials bike in the small lot next to my dad’s house. Trails makes a lot of sense for the suburbs where land for riding is at a premium and vacant lots are full of junk obstacles.
Andrew sent me a link to Nitro and and a schedule of IL trials events on his site. I will have to check them out this summer. Now that I wrote about it I can’t forget.
Had a great ride in Ternary, MI this weekend at Skinner’s place. A bunch of the advrider crew were there. It was a great weekend with a great bunch of guys. Lamoson from advrider put this video together…
This VTR 1000 Can Be Yours For $50 - unless your outbid
Found this great thread about motorcycle salvage websites. There are some great deals on potential track day bikes and road legal bikes if you have the patients to get a title. Many are in much better shape than the Superhawk above. Sounds like once a bike is classified as salvage it can be hard to make it road legal again on paper. Check the thread for horror stories. Anyone buy from one of these places?
I just placed an order with Motorcycle Superstore. It was a good experience, I will probably buy there again but it was kind of soured by the Bizrate survey and offer that followed. It made me feel like a sucker.
The offer was presented as follows:
Please take a moment to rate your shopping experience at Motorcycle Superstore and you’ll receive a Special Thank You (exclusively for US residents) valued at up to $100 – up to 4 of your favorite magazines are already paid for. Just $2 each for processing. Plus, enter to win BizRate’s $25 Daily Cash Giveaway. 20 winners daily. (See BizRate’s Daily Cash Giveaway Official Rules.)
I was very skeptical but I said why not. After giving my email address and my survey answers I was presented with the following text:
As a special thank you, the first year of up to 4 magazines is already paid for.
Misleading for sure. I would even say it verges on scam but it’s pretty minor. Motorcycle Superstore, I was a happy customer. Do you need my survey results bad enough to risk loosing my next motorcycle purchase?
I lost a little trust in Motorcycle Superstore because of this and I will definitely never take a Bizrate survey again. See the gallery below for screen shots of the offer before and after I gave them my time and information.
Wish me luck.
