28th October 2006, Here (finally) is the newer version of my jump. Same place as in the previous vids, but much better height, maybe style too, i am not sure. And a photo of me from Bobs camera :)

24th October 2006, The off road riding is real fun. It's something new to me really. Having only messed about a bit off roading on a small triangle of Dirt in my hometown of Derby on a 125 dual sport Yamaha. That was fun. This is Larger more varied fun, although at the moment it's much less muddy, hehe. I have attacked all sorts of stuff while riding off road, some of which made me feel small and excited/nervous. I have so far made it through these tests fine. Not really any close calls even, but some very exciting ones. Looking down a drop that appears to be vertical is amazing, especially when the bike drops away so far that your butt hits the rear end of the bike tail fairing with your arms fully outstretched. Amazing stuff. I also know that my bike is not really perfect for what i am doing with it. I am doing more than just 'riding trails'. But i feel the bike is well competent, even if a bit heavy. The only downside at the moment i feel is the squishy rear shock. So here i am riding with me buddies, and now i have quite a few that will do these rides, i find myself missing something. As i am getting better at this type of riding, and believe me when i say i am getting better. Smoother, faster, more confident for sure. Interestingly enough, the better i get the more i can see what lies before me, where i can make improvements, where i am weak etc. I am sure as i get even better, i will see even more that i need to work on. This is exciting for me, as i don't feel quite the same about sportbike riding. It's not that i am an expert, or feel i can Race, oh no. It's just a feeling of confidence, of ease of that style of riding, at least up to the point i ride that bike. I have no idea of course why the front end slid and i went down at WSIR, and it will always haunt me. I was riding in that corner at 90% of my abilities (i felt), and for the front tire to slide and not the rear is weird. Maybe i should been able to save it, i dunno. I do know that it must be a tough lesson to learn, how to deal with it, cos it's gonna mean many more falls. And i do not want to fall, especially when having so much fun. I think i will do more track days, and i would love to go back top WSIR, but next time, i think it will be slicks. I want to lean as much as i would like, and hang off loads, without having a real fear of the front letting go again. Anyway, i digress. So here i am thoroughly enjoying my newly found experiences off road. The tiring nature of the fun makes you feel a bit melancholy when it's over (like the next day), and this makes one reflective. So here i am reflecting, hahah. So it's weird. I feel something is missing, and i know what it is. I am hopeful that Eliza will be able to get out there and join me at some point, and one never knows, maybe even the kids, i know for sure they will have an awesome time out there if i get everyone a vehicle. HA, i'll bet your thinking that this last detail was what i am referring to this whole waffle eh?? C'mon admit it you know i am right. Well Your not. What i am missing is my Bro. He will be reading this as he always does, excited that i am up to stuff, and usually he can relate. This off roading stuff is harder to relate too, even though he has some experience. But i am missing the single fact of him not being able to accompany me and learn and grow as i do. So when we get chance to waffle on about bikes together, it will be hard for me to explain the sheer joy/fun of this type of riding. Well, not adequately enough anyway. So Dave.... i miss ya buddy(Bro)

24th October 2006, So much for having time to writeup my off roading escapades. I don't feel i have time for much of anything. Excepting of course going riding on sunday. Yup, i did it again. Thanks to my new Truck, without which i wouldn't have gone. I bought it from a private party on saturday morning. Very nice family too. The kids love riding in the back section as it's an extended cab. It has a roaring v6 4.3L engine and didn't mind in the lest carrying both mine and bob's bike at any speed we would like. It also did really well over the rough terrain of Rowher flats. Check out me pics.

17th October 2006, I have about 20 odd photo's that i have shrunk down, but due to their nature, i do not want to go and shrink them anymore. This means i am going to have to link to them, so ya gonna havta click. Sorry bout that. But better'n loading them all each time you open this page. I also have a couple of links to some boring bits of off road video (wasn't boring for us mind).

16th October 2006, Well i eventualy managed to find a rear tire that is 17 inches. Man was that a bear. Anyway there i was late on friday evening trying to get all me stuff together for the saturday ride with Everyone. Lee was going to be collecting me on the saturday morning, and i needed everything ready. Now i had a lot of 'fun' with the front tire of course, but i believed i learned a few things while bumbling though that one. I am actualy right as well, as doing the rear tire turned out to be quite easy. Well apart from actualy have more difficulty getting the old tire off than the new tire on :S I eventualy used my bench vise to press the tire together with blocks of wood, then just manhandled it a lot to get it to release. Boy was it on. Once i got the old tire off (took about 30-40 minutes). The new tire went in in about 15-20 minutes was all. Sweet. ok, i am going now to get the pictures from the ride sorted out and shrunk for ya Dave :)

5th October 2006, What a trying day it was in parts yesterday. GGGrrrr is the only way to describe last night anyway. So let's go first to catch up on Liza. She now has a new cast, that will be on for another 2 weeks. Not so bad, but then it's take it easy time i am sure for another 2 weeks at least. Then maybe she'll be able to ride.

This saturday i am organising to go do some more off roading. This time it's serious. yeah right! I have a bunch of noobs to go along with and the plan is to go to Rowher flats. This i am sure might be a bit tough on the minivan, as i understand there is a mile of dirt road from Sierras highway to the parking spot. With no idea how bad the road might be, i have to worry a bit. I have gotten my new front wheel now, and so went to TRE (The Racers Edge) in town. What a great store. I have been in there before but never really looked around. The staff were very helpfull, and their prices were very reasonable or Cheap. So i bought a front Tire (they didn't have a rear in, in my size.. 17 inch!) I also managed to get myself a pair of gloves for off roading, FINALLY! Bloody big hands i have it seems. (Yup, xxl not big enough :S). So as you will see in a picture below i now have the front tire on the bike. This was not so easy though, and took me a total of about 1.5 hours. Yikes, i hear.. lol i would.

So the tire removal from the front rim was very easy really, a few tire levers flying around the garage barely missing me noggin was aok in my book. I thought it went smoothly, and was quite happy with my first tire removal. Then it came time to put the new one on. Now new tires are tough, they are really TOUGH. They don't wanna stretch in any direction, and they have this penchant for pressing your fingers in the most annoying and sometimes painful way.So i ge the outside part of the tire around the rim, this wasn't so bad, a couple of trapped fingers and more flying tire irons, and t's all good. Then i realise that the innertube i left on is now sticking outta the wrong side. I try to push it up ove the rim, but the tough new tire just says NO, and keeps throwing it back at me, BAH, and it hurts me fingers. So i decide to take it out and go in from the under the tire direction. This worked quite well really even though i never thought i'd be able to get the valve stem back into the hole.. eek, what a job. So then it's just a case of getting the final side over the rim. Geez, is this tire tough, it took more flying irons, and this time they Flew, lol. I did however get it on without too many issue's (although i now know i missed a very important step!!). So then it's justa case of inflate the tire eh? Well i thought it would be. So then i spend the next 45 minutes to an hour bashing smashing cursing and hurting, to try to get the tire to pop correctly onto it's rim. It just wouldn't lie straight and even. I used a manual pump to put air in the tire, and i eventualy broke this (part of the reason it took me so long). So i have to say i was getting quite the workout, as i had seen someone fix this problem of the tire not fully out in open area before, and they swung the tire and smacked it on the ground, as i was now doing. Boy what a workout, hehe. I then realised that i had failed to do a very important part of putting on a new tire. I had forgotten the lube. Oh man.... So i go get me fairy liquid (washing up liquid), and deflate the tire. Then i somehow squeeze my fingers inside the rim and lubricate it. This hurts ok, Never ever do this. It hurts.. Yup, i said it again. My fingers hurt today because of this idiocy. So then i re inflate and start bashing the tire again, as it's still not settled properly. I should have a picture at this point really, but i was so annoyed and hot by now. Finally, i got mad. And i decided i don't care what happens i am gonna over inflate the tire and then bash it some more. So i went up to 30 pounds, and slipping sliding... POP. It was there, all the way around, nice and even. Oh my. Was that All i had to do to begin with, no real need for all this pain? BAH! I wish i had video'd it all, cos it would be great speeded up, with a few slow mo's of me throwing this wheel around above my head, and it bouncing back up and nearly braining me, heheh. In hindsight it all seems rather daft. But in the moment it's so much more intense. Yes my hands and fingers hurt today, and my shoulders and arms got a great workout i can stil feel the burn from. In the end i saved maybe 25 bucks, and boy was it worth it. Of course i need to get the rear tire changed by friday, hehehe anyone for part 2 :O

It must be bonus picture day. In this photo you can see the old brake rotor over the top of the new EBC rotor i just bought. This will allow me to use this DR350 rear wheel for the DR650. YAY.

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2nd October 2006, Liza has to go back today for 2 week examination on her hand. Lets hope it's good. Although i haven't written much lately it's not because i haven't been busy. So where to start.. hmmm .. i know.. Let's start with talking about my DR650. I haven't been off roading again, but i have been trying quite hard to get the bike better setup, i haven't gone to the lengths of the fork spring redo or anything like that. I figured i'd start with the main attachment to the road. So i bought some wheels off of Ebay, i got em pretty darn cheap too. both wheels and their gubbings like axles for only 200 bucks. Now these are DR350 wheels which i read somewhere would be aok for my bike. Well they looked great if a little dirty, but when i checked them against my dr650 wheels i found that the brake rotors don't match.. The rest of them seems aok :) This has led me a merry dance, but i have finally got to the point where i have bought a replacement rear brake rotor from EBC, in fact it just arrived while i am writing this. I shall havta get a picture, but i am stoked as it fits the rim bolts, and also is the same size as the dsr650 one. The disc that was on the rear is just not the same diameter. I also have to say that impact drivers are great tools in undoing the brake rotor bolts. Man were they tight, i had to use an extractor set for the final two bolts as well. :S OUCH So now my rear wheel should be good, so i just need to go buy a tire and also an innertube. The deal is i want an e3xtra set of wheels so i can do street or off roading, better than intermediate tires can on either surface. Now the front wheel is much more of a problem. The DR650 has a set of 6 fastening holes, but the dr350 wheel only has 4. Also the diameter is smaller on the dr350 rotor, bah! I have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find a fix, but in the end a new front wheel on ebay came up for 200 bucks, so i just bought that. Now i hope to resell the dr350 front on ebay :) We shall see how this all works out this week, as i am expecting to go trail riding on saturday morning. We actualy had some rain yesterday and overnight as well. I have also purchased an off-road helmet and feel i am ready to go boyo!

The CBR is going well. It feels so good, even though i still haven't washed it :S I did a wheelie the other night (which is odd cos of the tree lined road i did it on, it's mega the way the headlight goes up the trees, very cool!)., and i managed to hit the rev limiter which brought it down. I felt a little guilty, but it's amazing how comfortable one can get on the back wheel at 80 mph. Weird!!

Bob has managed to get his KLX fixed now and looks like it's running fine. Man his story is long and tortuous as well. My workmate Orn has bought an rm125 now, to go with the kx250 he bought a week ago. Man that 250 is nice. My friend Janry has a coupla bikes now, a supermotard as well as an off roady. So it could be 5 of us minimum this weekend for the ride, i sure hope so. I shall make sure to take me camera this time, and water too :D

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15th September 2006, Liza takes a Tumble....

While i was away on a works trip to Dallas, my wife decided to ride the cbr954. Now this shouldn't be a problem. Now as you turn onto the main road near me (a right), it's very very slippery on this big painted line.

So she pulls away, and next thing she knows she is on the ground.
What happened is she accelerated away and the bike hits the line, and the back tire slips around, then after the line it grips up and she highsides, at what musta been about 10-15 mph at most.
Luckily some drivers coming along the road stopped and helped her get the bike back up. These nice people then followed her home (she was now unsure about riding).

The next afternoon i get back at look at her hand.. Hmm, i call the Dr of course. We get there and she has it xrayed, and lo and behold. Her little finger bone on the outside of her palm is broken... DOH

Well she didn't think it was broken cos it didn't hurt that much.. LOL
That's women who can have babies eh! High threshold for pain etc.
Anyway, she now has her arm in a temporary cast and sling. Till she sees an orthopedist next week.

Life on a bike can be so frustrating. (once i get the pics done, ill post em up here)

12th September 2006, I picked up the bike last Thursday around lunchtime.. I was so excited. It somehow felt More exciting to me than when i first went to collect the bike. But maybe i just don't remember that day correctly. Either way, it was an exciting day. So i go home (on the way to the bike shop!) and pick up the missus, and of course take all me motorbike gear (ok, ok, i secretly stowed the gear in the car anyways, you know.. just in case ;). So we get to the shop, and his just has to put on a couple of bolts for the fairing, and i go and pay the large sum to the cashier inside. (large sum of money being 1298 dollars!!!). I was of course told by the wifey that i must take it esy. NO wheelie's that mean't. So i rode very nicely all the way home. On the way my mind wondered how such a beastly machine could plod along so calmly, so easily. In fact after about 1.5 miles i was a little worried that they had tamed the beast within. So when i pulled away from some traffic lights i pulled the throttle back a bit quicker, and Lo and Behold.. there were the horses. All at the ready.. just awaiting the merest flick of the whip, and they'd be off and running. This made me feel content.

Once i got home i put on the front indicator lights... DOH! yeah, i forgot to take them in, so 5 minutes later and they were on, and then i re-attached the rear right power wire (wasn't connected strong enough i guess). This all looked good. The biggest disappointment from getting my bike back is the way it looks. Yeah some of the fairing pieces are scratched badly, but Honda never washed or cleaned the bike, after being all over it with dirty hands. I know the thing is scratched, but it doesn't mean i want it dirty.. well does it?? Then i placed my baby next to the baby blade and took a photo.. as seen below i guess.. well you will once i place it there :) So ends day #1 of getting me bike back

Friday dawned at it's usual time.. sometime slightly before i have to wake up to get the kids to school. I take em in and when i get back i reveal my diabolical plan to the wifey. Yeah, i suggest we Both ride to work, she on Andy's Baby blade, and me on the Blade. She readily agrees and this makes me as chuffed to bits as can be really. So we get all geared up and head off into the sunset... erm.. ok, maybe not the sunset, but the early morning sun.. yeah that's it. I of course take the scenic route to work, adn along the way i get stopped at some lights, now today is the day i want to test the bike out a bit more. It feels Big.. It feels great. Big i guess cos of riding Andy's bike quite a bit recently. Great cos it's a monster engine, and it loves to show itself off if ya let it . Anyways after about half a ile we end up stopped at some lights, once they change i rip ahead and pop a reasonable wheelie. Boy it makes me feel Good. In the way raw power can you know! We have a nice ride to work including more wheelie's and full acceleration round a long wide deserted bit of road, this was good, i only went to 90 mph, but it was enough. Once we got to work, the wifey punched me in a playful way for my wheelie.. I said.. just the one wheelie ??? Cool ;]

We both enjoyed the ride, and since then i have enjoyed riding the bike. I now NEED badly to get a new rear tire. Which should be obtained later today i hope. That will make me feel better about riding the bike really.

6th September 2006, Blimey.. I have just received word that i can collect me bike tomorrow after 11am. Now Me Wifey is telling me when i collect it i must not wheelie it. ARGH!. I mean, it's just not fair. Not like i'm an idiot or something... erm.. Well maybe not too big a one anyways. But NOT to Wheelie, after 9 months.. erm... Is it possible i can ride 2.5 miles without one.. Everytime a light goes Red and i am at the front... What will i do ?? The Wifey says she will be following me, which just makes me wanna wheelie MORE! Well i guess i'll let ya'll know how it goes soon :S

5th September 2006, I managed to get my Bash plate fitted this weekend. So here it is.

I cannot believe it has been 9 months since i last blogged on here. I know it's parlty cos i am depressed about 'me bike'. Which by the way is nearing its completion. Should be done this week. Well i have been busy doing stuff, but here is what i wrote to my Bro a few weeks back.

It all started because of my friend Brett. He has an RM250 dirt bike, and a hankering to go play. He also lives up in Saugus, which is not far from where we end up trail riding.

Friday

5pm: I go rent a Uhaul trailer, a nice 5x9 model gets attached to my minivan.

7pm: I get all my clothing ready for the mornings ride.

Saturday
7am: Wake up and start getting ready. I know my friend Bob and his KLX650 will appear at about 7:45am. So i need to have all my stuff ready for then. So breakfast wash, and get my stuff in the van, also rememebring lots of water and gatorade and of course snack foods :)

7:30am Load up my bike. It's easy enough with the trailer being so low, and also i have the canyon dancer handlebar tie-down, so it's easy enough.

7:45am Bob arrives and we load up his KLX. With both bikes facing in on the trailer we run into the issue of the handlbars being in the way of each other. We do however get them strapped down, even if the KLX is at an awkward angle.

8am We leave to get to Bretts place by 9am.

8:50am We didn't get lost and arrive to find Brett loaded up and ready to ride, apart from he needs some Gas for the bike.

9:10am At the gas station we fill up and do the air in the RM250 tires. I also get the chance to go to the 7-11 and buy an Adventure day pass for 5 bucks :) I also get meself a nice sarnie for later. But i decide it's time for second breakfast, so eat it as we pack up. Then we set out for the trailhead.

10am After a windy drive down Bouquet canyon road, we come up on the reservoir on the left. Just then we turn off the main road onto a dirt track that leads up round the big hill on our right hand side. It leads up to the area where we parked after about 650 yards of rough trail (rougher with the trailer of course). Then we park up in this derserted spot, adn start chatting while slowly unloading our bikes.

10:15am We have unloaded the bikes and it is at this point that i realise i have done a dumb thing. This is now the second time that i have done this, and the second time hurts, hurts much much worse than the first time. I guess because i have been this dumb before, therefore making this time Extra Dumb. DOH! Yeah, anyone that knows me will recall when i did the Big willow trackday that i forgot to take my bike key. This was the same scenario. I was bummed out... The guys were bummed out too. It was a really depressing time.

10:30am After discussing what should be done, and options (of which i felt nothing could console me). I decided i would travel back home and get my key, while the guy could go for a relatively short ride. Which would be good for our trail virgin Bob. So we loaded up My bike onto Brett's Truck and then detached the trailer. After that, i was all about getting home.

11:40am Arrived home and grabbed the innocent looking key off the key rack. Then got a soda and headed back onto the road for the return journey. On the way back out of Valencia i had noticed the north bound traffic up the 5 was real bad through Valencia, so decided to join bouquet a different way when going back. So i went up the 14 and then onto the windy road that is bouquet.

12:45pm Got back to the trailhead and found Bob and Brett looking very happy. Bob was a little shook up with his firt ride offroad on his 650, and waffled a lot about how scarey it was. He was definitely very excited about this ride :)

1pm Got my bike down off Bretts big ass truck and got dressed for the ride. I felt good after driving to get the key, and not in the least bit frustrated at this point. I was very excited about doing the thing i really bought the DR650 for. I wanted a cheap commuter bike, but i really wanted a trail bike too. That's why i ended up with this hybrid.

1:15pm Riding up the hills like there is no tomorrow, Woohoo! It's so amazingly exciting. It's 'EXACTLY' what i envisioned trail riding to be like over here in summer. Dusty hard packed trails that wind up and down the big hills. I felt pretty comfortable right off, but i kept having to tell myself to relax and release my death grip on the handlebars. funny how those death grips kept coming back. lol.

1:45pm top the mountain to ya. The ride so far has been very easy, and no near death experiences at all. This was cool. Although i knew i wasn't going too fast, adn of course i wanted to end the day in one piece cos my record on ride days ain't so good really.

2pm We all stopped at the top of the mountain, but while we were traversing the top of te hills, i found that there is an easy road and a harder road. The easy road goes around the peaks, while the harder road goes up and over. I really liked those (not that they were very hard really!). And on one particular one Bob followed me up the hilltop. Then he had to deal with the fact he has to ride back down the craggy looking down slope. It was ace, i waited for him to go down first, and then rode down pretty comfortably. I have no idea how much safer this might get when i get my off road tires on the bike.

??pm We rested at the top and took a few photo's and discussed the fact we could see Rowher flats (a place to start from if ya want). Then it was getting a bit late, so we all set off back down the trail. Bob was now improving fast and so was much faster, and that mean't when we waited for him, he caught up real fast. Excellent stuff. When we got the the red gate (did i mention that before ?), anyway the red gate marks the down trail to the parking area, it also is the 5 mile mark for the ride. So me and Brett decided to ride the bikes down without them actualy running. So we coasted all the way back down. Ok, so it was Bretts idea and i copied ;)

??pm On the way back down Brett wanted to show me this area withing a bunch of large trees that contained a track of sorts around the trees. Brett and me went for it, but when it got reaqlly soft and tricky Brett went down. The bike just sliding away from under him on a slope on the soft stuff. I got off me bike and picked it up. That was about it for that, adn we rode the rest of the way back down.

3pm At base camp me and Brett swapped bikes for a few minutes and boy! What can i say. His bike was hard as hell suspension wise, and really light too. It has been a long time since i have been ona 2-stroke, and this ones power band is about as wide as a hair! We went down the traila abit and then razzed back up. It was fun, and we shall have to do that again. Brett thought my bike was like a comnfy armchair (which is what i think of it too!).

Then we all packed up with Bob waffling within his own excitement all the time. Then it was back down the trail and bouquet and back to Simi, where we unloaded and i then took the trailer back to Uhaul. Their trailers Rock.

Eventualy i got home and showered and was at my neighbours party by 5:15pm i think. And then by 6pm i was quite merrily drunk. What a day, What a fantastic day!
3pm We are back at base camp and it was ACE. The ride was safe

4th September 2006 Again, EEEK, i just found my Gorman pics.... So here they are with NO explanation whatsoever.. yet ;)