PART 1 -

Weather got up to 70 degrees today, which turned out the be good and bad.

I had a plan to ride to a nice nature preserve 50 miles away and take some nice dirt roads all the way. I've been able to find a lot of dirt roads nearby with a lot of 90 degree turns for practicing dirt cornering.

I'm exploring 10 miles from my house and I head down a trial near a cornfield. Everything seems fine, until I realize that I'm starting ot slow down, and next I'm startign to sink. What was relatively firm ground is now complete mud. Progress slows to paddling through a walking pace. NExt my front tire is locked up with mud and just sliding. Pretty soon, I'm stopped. I get off, and clear some mud out of hte tire and press on... the end of the trail is only 100 yards away. Hear I am in 6 inch deep mud that is heavy in clay and mixed wiht straw, twigs and grass... so it's basically reinforced paste. I discover a few things... First, a radiator is a very good thing and second , the OEM DOT tires suck a** in thick wet mud. The engine temperature light comes on. I keep fighting for a few more seconds and shut her down. Actually she stalled when I pulled in the clutch and started to idle. I catch my breather while the bike cools off. I repeat this process of clearing mud (front wheel is solid mud), rocking the bike to get started, then traveling 20 feet before the tires is caked again and the engine starts to overheat. Finally my last obstacle is a short hill up to the gravel road. It has grass but it too is mushy. I manage not to drop the bike and didn't have to walk 3 miles to a farmhouse to get towed out... which is good because I probably wasn't technically supposed to be riding there. I head home feeling triumphant, but with a very blue header, and badly in need of a powerwash.

I unfoortunaly didn't get any photos when the bike was still super muddy. I should have stapped after I got to the top of the hill and took a picture of the mud pit and the bike, but I just watned to get rolling again to cool off me and the bike and shake some of the mud loose.


PART 2 -

After 30 minutes of hosing the bike down to get the caked on mud off, I change my clothes and head back out towards my original destination... no detours this time.

Things are going well. I'm having a blast with the new pipe. Rowing throug the gearbox shooting out of every corner just leaves a smile on my face. The nice low tone of the exhaust roars. With my earplugs in, the exhaust drowns out most of the wind, gearbox whine, and tire noise... yet not too loud.

Everything is great, then suddenly the engine cuts out. I panic thinking perhaps a problem with the carb (I di the work after all), then I remeomber that my muddy excurions ealier sucked a lot of gas... I'm at 71 miles on the trip meter, but already I'm on reserve. Damn 1.9 gallon tank!!!! I know there's a gas station up ahead but I think it's almost 10 miles away. I've never been on reserve in this bike so I drop it down to 45mph and take every 90 degree gravel turn in 6th gear at 40 mph, taking a wide line to hold momentum.. so braking and hard acceleration here... I'm not pushing this damn thing. It ends up being only 6 miles away.

The rest of the day is much of the same... just enjoying the great weather and exploring to countryside for some twisty dirt roads. Altogether 5 hours, 180 miles and I'm finally at 600 miles, so tommorrow I'm changing the oil and taking the bike in to have the valves checked. After the high temps it saw, I want a professional to make sure the top end is adjusted right.

Enjoy the pictures.

 

It's looks worse up close. Thick mud with high clay content mixed with grass, leaves and twigs is mashed into every point on the bike. Even a hose won't get some of it off, I have to scrape much of it out with my hands. It took at least 30 mintes to get it all out. There was easily 20 lbs of mud stuck to it.



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Side view


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Blue header. This baby got HOT. Well, lets see, I was travling at 0mph, with the enigne at 6000-10000 RPM and about 30% throttle with wheel and drivetrain caked with mud and spinning in place.



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All clean!



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Short stop along the river.



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Ahahhah,
Thats funny that you mention that, I had the same thing happen to me today. I was just cruising down the road looking for some off the beaten path trails, when I notice that there is alot of land being cleared for a residential neighborhood, nothing but dirt to play in, so I thought[:-]. Anyhow I went off the road and took the trails created by the tractors and what not. Well my back end was being really squirlly but I was having a blast. Then I started going down this hill, and noticed that this was not dirt I was riding in, it resembled dry dirt, but its like thowing a thin layer of sand over a mud bog, the next thing I knew my tires were "COMPLETELY CAKED" with this georgia red clay moosh. I mean, there was no more rubber to be seen, it looked like I made my tire out of mud. So I get to the bottom of this hill and noticed I was in a valley, so I played down there and had my share of fun, then decided it was time to head back. Well, the valley was really thin and I could not get enough speed to make it up the hill, it was like trying to make it up an oil slick. I started thinking to my self "Shat , now I am going to have to get towed out of this place!" Well I headed down the valley a ways and noticed that there was a small patch of straw that they layed down to fertalize the ground. I got just enough speed to hit that patch of straw, which was dry, and then I opened the throttle completley when I hit that straw and build my momentum enough to get up the rest of the hill, WHEW!!. Anyways all in all my bike looks exactly like 128's bike, just without the muzzy exhaust lol. But ya, those tires get completley caked with mud, COMPLETLEY!!

 

This Georgia clay is hard to ride in as incabiker says. I have been practicing on the north shore of lake Allatoona in some of the muddy dry bays while the water is still down. At first without a run at it I would get stuck in about 6 inches of mud, now I have learned to keep on the gas even in a little mud to keep the tires clean and still digging. I have been able to consistently ride though about 10 inches of the red clay as long as nothing gets in front of me and I have to slow down. I think these tires are better in the deep stuff than on wet hardpack clay. Its like riding on ice sometimes. I guess you can't have a great street tire and a great mud tire. This clay sticks like glue and if you aren't spinning fast you will stop dead as I'm sure you know. My buddy has a non street legal bike and it's tires work much better. I did see some much more aggressive dot nobbys at the local dealer which is what I will switch to when these wear out. I am really impressed with these knobbies on the street however. I have laid the bike down pretty far around some dry streets in town. I am still a little leary of the slight movement of the back tire when you take corners so I just take it a little easier than I did with the Ninja.

 

I too am suprised and how well the bike can corner. I'm even taking some sweepers at 70mph, which is only 5mph slower than I would take them on my ZX9R. I have gotten the rear to slide a little making a regular left turn. I'm working now mostly on my supermoto/drit tracking turns on gravel or sandy roads. The rear brake on this bike is so powerful that you can't help coming into most turns a little sideways with the rear end partially locked up. Trouble is, that if I come in too hot, I don't have much confidence in the front end. It seems like you ride this bike on the rear tire, whereas you ride a sportbike more on the front tire. I probably need to just practice my stops and starts on a empty dirt road to get a better feel for it.

Overall I don't mid how much the rear end slides on these tires. In the mud I was in, my problem was that the front tire was locked up from mud wedged between the tire and the forks. Otherwise I was able to sit further back on the seat for better traction and inch along pushing with my feet as well.

 

Sup 250 bros, I do not chime in here very often but reading through your post brings back memories of ridding class 60 logging roads in Utah and getting side ways. Sure was fun!

I had my boy out on his 80 today in the mud and I get you on the clean up. We take the bike to a local pay and wash and pressure wash the mud off. It still is a pain though.
Ride safe.