8.28.2006

dirt trails and shotgun shells

Yesterday the RedQueen, Funkz, Ruby and I went to Mike's place. It was great! He had 4 XR100s running and his CL360. His friend Jerry spent sometime with RQ teaching her the basics of clutch work and controls. She did great, much better than my first time on a bike when I was a kid. Next time, she'll be ready for more actual ride time. While she was getting instruction, we ripped around on the XRs, then brought out the ATV. The RedQueen and I hopped on the quad and followed everyone around the trails back in the woods, then played on the flattrack. It was too wet to ride the track so we just cruised around the outer edge.

After some dirt riding, we headed back and Mike let me ride the 360. It was good to get a bit of street time in. It's all straight country roads around there, which is good because I need the practice. It even started to rain a bit but I cruised on. I went a couple of miles out then decided to head back. The bike almost stalled on take off (carbs need a good cleaning) but I recovered and eventually made it up to 5th, cruising around 65mph with plenty of throttle left. It gave me a good idea of how my bike is going to feel. The high pipes didn't seem to effect the ride, so I'm pondering keeping mine. More on the 450 later.

Once the rain blew over, we got out the AK and 9mm carbine. Everyone took some shots with the AK, even RQ. She had quite the day of firts! First time riding, first time shooting a rifle. We cranked out enough rounds to make the foregrip start smoking. The title of this post is a bit of lie, no shotguns were fired but there were shells on the ground. We're definitly looking forward to heading up there again sometime soon.

We browsed his massive bike collection and drooled over it all. He has a ton of dirt bikes, a 72 Norton, BSA, 2x RD400s, a Kawasaki Triple, 2x Dreams and a lot of newer bikes. Even a couple of road racers, flat track bikes and a trials bike. Motorcycle heaven....

The brief ride on the 360 made me itch to hit the shop and get wrenching. But time is still slim and tough to juggle. I still have to get air filters, fine tune the timing and check the carb set up. Mike and I talked about having a wrenching party some day and see if we can get the Frankencycle finally running. I want the K&N filters but I'm going to settle for Uni's because I can afford them. I also told him to keep an eye out for something for RQ. She wants a bike and I'd love to surprise her with one for Christmas but we'll see. He also has a Yamaha SRX that's just sitting. I had to mention that if he wants to part with it to let me know. It's stripped down for racing but it wouldn't take much to get it road worthy. I have Surly to thank for planting the seed of interest in the SRX. Next time I'm there, I'll be sure to see if I can take it for a spin.

Atleast I got to ride on the street once this year on something close to my bike. But it only made the sickness worse...

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