Brian, glad you are back in the saddle. Welcome back.

That hole is strange. That's awefully deep for the whole to be so small and alone. I probably would have ridden right into it thinking it was just a shallow mud puddle. That would have left a mark.

 

Nice pics, I'm glad you didn't mess up the collar bone jerking on that bike. I do have a couple of suggestions for everyone out there. I don't claim to be an expert, and wouldn't it be great to take a off road class if they ever offered one, but for now we all can share what works for us and what we have found that didn't work. One thing that really gets a lot of guys woods riding is trying to get over trees and limbs. Well I am here to tell you what works every time for me, and if you already knew this then awesome, but if you didn't then give it a try sometime, you will be amazed. Weather its a 3 inch limb or a 14 inch tree the principle is the same. First of all try your best to get the bike as close to a 90 degree angle to the object you are about to cross. Approach it slow, and with a little gas and arm pump you can get the front tire to pop up and over the object, now the important part, if you have enough momentum you simply pull in the clutch and stand up and lean forward and the bike will almost always bump the rear over and you're off and running. Where most people get into trouble is either not squaring up the bike, or they give it gas and the bike slips sideways and you're looking for a safe place to land........face first. And it doesn't matter if the limb is small or large, if there is no bark on it, you're just asking for trouble using the gas. The other thing and I have no experience with this is that in the picture where your front tire is in the mud, it might be, and this is unproven as of yet, easier to get the bike out of the hole if you lay the bike on its side forcing up the tire and then a gentle drag back to get away. Usually the suction will make it really hard to move it, I only know because I used to get my quad and three wheeler stuck and man it was a bear to get out.

 

Nobrakes,

First off, it's great hearing that you are back riding once again. I know how much of a bummer it is not to be able to ride because of an injury!

I have but one question - does the KLX331 with FCR put a smile on your face?

 

Heck yeah man ... I can't stop thinking about how fun it is. I even rode it to work today. I do need tweak the FCR a bit, like I mentioned in another thread the mid-range doesn't feel quite right. The settings are very close as shipped from Jerry, but there's a bit of a hesitation or stutter in the mid-range similar to my old CVK before I rejetted it and raised the needle. The rejetted CVK actually felt better in the mid-range, so I still need to dial in the FCR a bit to get that back. But it is perfectly acceptable for now until I can get some time to experiment and figure out what I should adjust.

 

Hay Nobrakes, great ride report and pics. Have you checked the top speed of your bike yet? With the stock gearing I bet it will fly on the pavement now.

 

I've never had this thing up as fast as it will go - that's a little faster than I'm comfortable as I start to get a bit of head shake. It does go very strong now in 6th - it gets up to speed now from a stop very quickly so I have to be careful because before I know it I'm up over the speed limit.

 

Brian,

On the "headshake" front - I'm not sure if it's really headshake of just the fact that the front forks are responding so quickly to us. I had a day on a long straight stretch of road where I basically laid down on the tank - no I didn't strip down to a swimsuit [sm=badidea.gif] - and just held the throttle wide open after the "free mods" were done. It will take awhile, but it will get up to 85 mph indicated on the GPS. I too noticed that it does not take much to give you a very uneasy feeling. I tried to ease my grip on the handlebars and it did settle down. Perhaps the wind hitting us is being transmitted to the handlebars by a too tight hand grip - easy to do when things are like that!

 

right on bro that looks like alot fun. nice pics too. enjoy!!

 

Brian,
Enjoyed the pics and ride report. Glad to see your doing good and welcome back to the active scene.

Matt

 

superb ride report and nobrakes is the kind of guy I want to know and go riding with [sm=alcoholic.gif]