So, I am pretty amazing where this big pig can go, despite the cries of "too 'eavy", from the reviewers. I like its plantedness on the freeways and the ease of taking someone on the pillion or loading it up with luggage. However, it seems to float over large and loose gravel with ease. Deep sand is what makes me sweat, especially on narrow twisty climbs.
I have really pushed the bike and myself this summer, with tons of WA State backcountry rides and a couple of rallies. Not as fast as some through the trails, but not as slow as others. I really enjoy learning how to let it take me to amazing vistas and places, and learning from . In all the miles, I really only have got into one situation where I felt like I didn't want to be there, dumping several times on one trail. It was an accidental: "whoops, the GPS says we are no longer on the planned route" moment and it was too narrow to turn around. Here are a couple of pics from before and after a sandy, narrowing with encroaching brush, up-hill with turns through "mistake" trail, that would have been interesting on a 250 cc. Was riding with a GS800 rider with an automatic clutch that helped me lift a couple of times (embarrassingly) :-[. Forced to keep going not knowing whether the trail was going to get even more impossible. Sweated a lot, and really wore myself out by the time we reached a clearing (shown) where turning around was possible. That morning I had taken a PSSOR advanced course, which was tough in of itself, so the beer tasted extra special that night, and the story of the bike-chomping squirrel-path took on new dimensions. Of course I want to go back and do that trail again, now. I mean: What would Jaume do? ::003::
Interested in your "harrowing" tales of sticky situations with the big twin.
I have really pushed the bike and myself this summer, with tons of WA State backcountry rides and a couple of rallies. Not as fast as some through the trails, but not as slow as others. I really enjoy learning how to let it take me to amazing vistas and places, and learning from . In all the miles, I really only have got into one situation where I felt like I didn't want to be there, dumping several times on one trail. It was an accidental: "whoops, the GPS says we are no longer on the planned route" moment and it was too narrow to turn around. Here are a couple of pics from before and after a sandy, narrowing with encroaching brush, up-hill with turns through "mistake" trail, that would have been interesting on a 250 cc. Was riding with a GS800 rider with an automatic clutch that helped me lift a couple of times (embarrassingly) :-[. Forced to keep going not knowing whether the trail was going to get even more impossible. Sweated a lot, and really wore myself out by the time we reached a clearing (shown) where turning around was possible. That morning I had taken a PSSOR advanced course, which was tough in of itself, so the beer tasted extra special that night, and the story of the bike-chomping squirrel-path took on new dimensions. Of course I want to go back and do that trail again, now. I mean: What would Jaume do? ::003::
Interested in your "harrowing" tales of sticky situations with the big twin.
