| Motorcycle rides and riders in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia | |||||||
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04-09-2008, 06:28 PM
| #45 |
| Licensed Joined: Jul 2006 From: Pullman WA I Ride: the parts counter... | Ironman desert run last weekend- 80 miles of Basalt boulders and whoops. I only got up to the top end of fourth once... And no I don't have a hunchback I had a 3L camel back ziptyed to my turtle shell/spine protector        |
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04-27-2008, 11:21 PM
| #47 | |
| Retired  Joined: Feb 2005 From: s. greenlake bitch I Ride: KTM 625 smc | TL1000S/R | wr450 | CB350 | CRF50/88 | TTR50 | your mom | 
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04-28-2008, 08:38 AM
| #48 | |
| Streetfighter  Joined: May 2007 From: Mill Creek I Ride: 07 Aprilia Tuono |
 sick bike. | |
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04-28-2008, 11:13 AM
| #50 |
| Licensed Joined: Jul 2006 From: Pullman WA I Ride: the parts counter... | The 950 is fun as hell to ride off road. It takes a different riding style to use it off road than a smaller machine but you learn to handle the weight in a few hours. I hopped on my brothers 250 EXC 2T after the 950 and I felt like I was on a 50. The main thing you have to keep in mind is that if you are going sub 5 mph and the bike leans more than 20º off vertical you physically can't keep it up, you learn quick to try to save your back and ease it down then get good footing and pick her up. I weigh 170 at 6'5" so your results may differ but picking it up is not as bad as you would expect. This is really noticeable if you loose your speed in a rock patch of big (basketball size) loose boulders. The front end will roll the boulders and kick it over 1' and then you are kind of screwed. But if you keep your speed up and you are above or in second gear (~30 mph or higher) you find that the beast starts passing 450s. In the corners it is not a matter of planting a foot and letting the rear end slide, you just goose the throttle and point her in the direction you want to go and hope the guy behind you is wearing a chest protector for the rock shower. If you do get off of a good line into the crap then you just keep the speed up and she will jack hammer and plow her way through anything. A smaller bike in the same crap would get tossed around instead of holding the line. The run had several killer sections- my favorite was a long (150 yard) flat section with what can only be compared to 20' table tops across it. They were either deep ruts or drainage ditches on 20' centers. We hit them well into third gear and actually got a decent rhythm going and passed 6 or 7 bikes. The 950 flys and lands like my old 250- straight in the air but easy to adjust your attitude and even though you know that you are near bottomed out on landing you feel like there is a yard of travel left. Really progressive suspension. The fastest section was a drained pond that was the flattest section on the course. I ran the bike off the rev limiter in fourth, 80+mph, and then got hard on the brakes for the whoops that were on the hill climb out of the flat. The tightest sections were down by the river section and were tight single track (24" wide tracks of whoops) in high (8') sage brush. The bike corners really well at low speeds as long as you spin up the rear end to counter the Mack truck like turning circle. There was 5 miles of this and water crossings on what looked like dark chunky mud but was actually bed rock. On several occasions in this section when I was in front of my brother on the 250 I took the path less traveled (not traveled) and went for passes out in the sage brush and used the weight to beat down a trail for the 250. All in all this bike is a killer machine once you figure out that you have to ride it aggressively or you will be worn out and fighting the bike. Other than that it takes a lot more body english to get her to do what you want. You get tired but then the really fast sections come along and you leave everyone in the dust and all you can do is laugh and see if you can hold her open for a little longer. |
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05-07-2008, 02:40 PM
| #53 |
| El Duderino "Old Timer"  Joined: May 2005 From: Seattle, WA I Ride: '00 DRZ400S/SM, '08 Ulysses XB12X, '95 DR350SE | I posted up a TON of dirt pics from my ride in Death Valley a couple weeks ago, awesome experience. Check 'em out if you missed 'em! http://www.pnwriders.com/ride-review...ng-report.html   |
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10-17-2008, 05:40 PM
| #60 |
| Endorsed  Joined: Sep 2008 From: A place where it will snow one day and be sunny and 60 the next.. I Ride: like a pot-bellied stallion | ok so im too lazy to post the pics again but here is the link to the thread i posted them on... have pics on page 1 and 2 http://pnwriders.com/trail-time/8742...ke-school.html |
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