Pawnee National Grasslands OHV Area - January 27, 2008
I've been itching to get out and ride again. I've been tinkering with the
bike for the past couple months or so and wanted to get test out the mods. Some
of things that I have done have been, getting the Mikuni TM36-68 pumper carb
tuned in, Moto Pro Suspension, replaced the damaged clutch cover, ...
The county roads out to Pawnee were clear of snow, but the mile or so of
access road still had a bunch of snow on it. Used 4WD high just to be sure. At
the end of my day, the access road was a sloppy mess.
Arrived at the parking lot at 9am and was the first to arrive for the day, by
the end of the day a dozen or so parties had joined me.
The temperature was in the low 50's. To the south of the parking lot,
things aren't melted out as much to the north. Although I was able to get all
the way to the southern boundary and back, I got stuck a couple of times.
There's a small stream meandering through there that needs to be crossed several
times, it's mostly iced over, but in a couple of spots I broke through the ice.
I spent most of the day (did about 40 miles in 4.5 hours) in the northern end
of the draw. Things had melted out more, but some of the ground was deceiving.
What looked like dirt was actually dirty ice. Spent most of the time
practicing small jumps, wheelies and table climbs. When I was almost
finished for the day, I took a break and snapped a few photos.
Last wipeout of the day (on some hidden ice) ended up dislocating the right
hand guard to the point where the throttle wasn't returning on its own -- kind
of a cruise control.
Things got really sloppy by the end of the day and the mud cake on my bike
resembled concrete. I'm very pleased with the suspension work, very plush
ride, no front end diving when braking, more control and small bumps just get
absorbed.
