Winter Riding

[Dirt_Dad]

Alright, technically it's not winter yet, but this is what winter riding looks like in Virginia and West Virginia. Lately the Tenere has me craving as much off pavement as I can find. This past weekend I found some nice dirt roads that were hiding close to home. Good dirty fun.

Winter Ride 2011

I've decided I purchased the wrong camera for the job. I bought the rugged Sony TX10 in hopes it would give me both good HD video and stills. I'm satisfied with the stills, but the video is unreliable. I never know if the video will record for 10 seconds or 10 minutes. 9 times out of 10 the camera will be off before I reach to turn it off. Sometimes it appears to be due to vibration, others times are unknown. Plus it would appear that the camera did not stay in HD mode after originally set. I'm willing to say that one may or may not be user error. I think I'll need to find another video solution.

With the exception of the two or three action stills taken by checkwrecks, all of images from this video are from the Sony over the couple rides. Since the video did not come out in HD the still don't look full quality on the video.

 

[spklbuk]

Fun rides ::012:: ...great mix of roads. Thanks for taking us along.




I've had issues w/ vibration killing a camera too (though mine is not sport specific)....frustrating.

 

[colorider]

Nice!! Not sure when my bike will be out of the stable again....

 

[rem]

Alright, technically it's not winter yet,

Say what ???? ::025:: ::025:: ::025:: R

 

[colorider]

Say what ???? ::025:: ::025:: ::025:: R

Not sure about there, but it won't be until sometime tomorrow evening here in Colorado.

 

[rem]

April. Talking April here ....... NOOOOOOBOOOOODY KNOWS >>>>>>>>>>> R ::007::

 

[Dirt_Dad]

April. Talking April here ....... NOOOOOOBOOOOODY KNOWS >>>>>>>>>>> R ::007::

Ouch...that would hurt. We sometimes get up to 3 or 4 feet of snow at a time, but that's rare. Usually winter looks like the video. As long as I'm confident I won't be getting into black ice I'm out nearly every weekend of the winter. Electrics make it comfortable, Tenere makes it fun. Really enjoying finding new dirt roads near home.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Cool beans!
::012::

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Cool beans!
::012::

Thanks for the shots you contributed.

 

[TNWalker]

Nice presentation. Looks alot like the local roads here in Tennessee. thanks for sharing. ::001:: ::022::

 

[spklbuk]

As long as I'm confident I won't be getting into black ice I'm out nearly every weekend of the winter. Electrics make it comfortable, Tenere makes it fun. Really enjoying finding new dirt roads near home.

How do you deal with the road salt on your bike? Dang stuff is already everywhere here in spite of the unusually mild intro to winter.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

How do you deal with the road salt on your bike? Dang stuff is already everywhere here in spite of the unusually mild intro to winter.

Don't often find it a problem. In my usual winter ride areas they don't spread salt unless there is snow or ice on the ground. I don't ride in those conditions and will normally wait at least 4 or 5 days after a snow before riding. By that time most of the salt has been pushed to the side of the road. No question there is significantly more debris (mostly find gravel) in the road during the cold weather months. That just gives me a chance to practice staying within the small tracks of clear road. I like to think winter riding helps me build precision in my riding skills.

 

[dcstrom]

Great vid Jon,

You remember when we did the recall run to Romney, I was saying I knew this great dirt road "somewhere around there" - then we didn't find it - or anything much good, really. Well I found it - it's actually a lot further south, just north of Rt 33

http://g.co/maps/p2bfc

I did about half that route on the Strom one time - need to check out the other half. Who's with me??

BTW, dunno if you've seen this cool feature in google earth, but it will run the route for you in 3D - did a screen recording if you don't have Earth installed

http://youtu.be/YeFe6JkrQyU

I'm off all next week...

Trevor

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Trevor, that route looks awesome. Love to hit it with you, but not sure which day I could do. Need to consult the family schedule.

Considering yesterday was the shortest day of the year are you thinking about doing it in one day, or two? It is just far enough away that unless you slab down to it I'm wondering if can all get done in one day.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I'd love to go too, but need to stay close to DC for the next week, have a week off call after New Year's, and then head out of the country till Jan 21.

 

[Tremor38]

April. Talking April here ....... NOOOOOOBOOOOODY KNOWS >>>>>>>>>>> R ::007::

Same with where I'm at. We're quite a ways south in latitude from you guys, but we get winds coming out of Siberia and snow fall off and on through the month of March. Our riding season officially opens every year on March 31, per rules set by the base I'm licensed through. The only exception to that rule is when the Base Commander overrides it. That's been known to happed when a motorcycle rider is in charge ::26:: ::008::