Well, the ice bag on my ankle and the memory of how heavy my new baby was to pick up only slightly tempers my views of this weekend's ride. We went over to Four Corners, outside of Bend, rode on the north side which seemed to have more trails...even had a few "blue" trails - which only meant there were a few longer small rock gardens. Trails were really easy, flat, quad friendly... picking up the speed made them a bit more interesting. Was perfect terrain for a first ride on a bike I can only ballerina toe touch. Weather was gorgeous. Hardly anyone there.
My new bike is a dream. Whenever Randy would talk about getting the suspension dialed on his KTM and say it was like a magic carpet - I'm just thinking huh? My BBR is really fun and spritely and fits me size wise, but always has felt like riding a pingpong ball, with the CRF I now know what Magic Carpet means, (if we keep the BBR will take it to the suspension guy - I'm now sure its not set up properly for me).
I couldn't believe how easy the CRF was to ride, could pick my way thru rocks in 2nd gear, lugchug no stall, change directions at will (my will, not the bike's) and keep on going. I only once missed a shift in a rock pile and flang a foot out, otherwise NEVER felt the need for a foot to leave the pegs. Bike is so well balanced...came to a complete stop while trying to find a gear other than neutral, found it, took off, no problem. We did 30 miles on Sunday and I wasn't even tired or beat up at all.
Wouldn't have fallen at all except for I missed a turnoff and went out in the deep side sand to turn around and got caught on a bush, flang out my foot and over I went. Picked the bike up (no easy feat), got it restarted with the hot button, started forward got hung up stalled it and over I went again, this time got my ankle caught between the bush trunk and the bike frame. Wham. Bit of a struggle to free myself, picked the bike up again, got it started easily, this time bulldogged it out of the sand and over on to the trail (did NOT want to fall again and have to pick it up), got going and all was fine altho my ankle was pretty sore. Didn't look bad til we got home, was starting to swell and color, iced it, this morning is quite technicolor and fat. But not a showstopper by any means. Icing it as I type!
I can't wait to get this bike out on some tougher trails, it was soooo easy to ride out there. And since I was leading, didn't have any dust... poor Randy tho, it was pretty bad in the back and so he would hang pretty far behind. We'd better pray for rain before the China Hat ISDE on the 25th! One time out on a paved road cutoff we wanted to see my top speed, clocked it at 72, then Randy went off into the dirt and flew by me - I was totally blinded by the dust cloud... could only think of those sportbikes coming down the road at a hundred so dove off the side off the pavement and waited for clean air before going on.
The front spring is still too hard, have ordered a lighter one to be made since apparently the factory doesn't - so since the back was set up to match the front, it is a bit chopper-esque at the moment, but still extremely rideable, just not perfect. I could do Baja easily as it is. At higher speeds it tended to squat a bit and the front end got a bit light. We have the compression and rebound set as light as they would go and I still thought my front tire was flat it banged so hard when I hit a rock - thought I was hitting the rim. So we checked tire pressure back at the car and was at 13#, so its the suspension that's too hard. Can't wait for the new fork springs, then Darryl the suspension expert is going to revalve everything lighter too so we'll have some adjustability again.
I don't know if it was just that the trails we did were so easy that made the bike so easy... I never felt out of control, would pick a line and the bike would go there, all my problems with target fixation seemed to be cured! The CRF is not easily derailed from the line I pick, really nice.
Its really heavy tho. My plan is to never fall down again. Haha.....:-)
Figure I'll ride it at China Hat for sure!
-SusanP.
CRF250X
BBR230
My new bike is a dream. Whenever Randy would talk about getting the suspension dialed on his KTM and say it was like a magic carpet - I'm just thinking huh? My BBR is really fun and spritely and fits me size wise, but always has felt like riding a pingpong ball, with the CRF I now know what Magic Carpet means, (if we keep the BBR will take it to the suspension guy - I'm now sure its not set up properly for me).
I couldn't believe how easy the CRF was to ride, could pick my way thru rocks in 2nd gear, lugchug no stall, change directions at will (my will, not the bike's) and keep on going. I only once missed a shift in a rock pile and flang a foot out, otherwise NEVER felt the need for a foot to leave the pegs. Bike is so well balanced...came to a complete stop while trying to find a gear other than neutral, found it, took off, no problem. We did 30 miles on Sunday and I wasn't even tired or beat up at all.
Wouldn't have fallen at all except for I missed a turnoff and went out in the deep side sand to turn around and got caught on a bush, flang out my foot and over I went. Picked the bike up (no easy feat), got it restarted with the hot button, started forward got hung up stalled it and over I went again, this time got my ankle caught between the bush trunk and the bike frame. Wham. Bit of a struggle to free myself, picked the bike up again, got it started easily, this time bulldogged it out of the sand and over on to the trail (did NOT want to fall again and have to pick it up), got going and all was fine altho my ankle was pretty sore. Didn't look bad til we got home, was starting to swell and color, iced it, this morning is quite technicolor and fat. But not a showstopper by any means. Icing it as I type!
I can't wait to get this bike out on some tougher trails, it was soooo easy to ride out there. And since I was leading, didn't have any dust... poor Randy tho, it was pretty bad in the back and so he would hang pretty far behind. We'd better pray for rain before the China Hat ISDE on the 25th! One time out on a paved road cutoff we wanted to see my top speed, clocked it at 72, then Randy went off into the dirt and flew by me - I was totally blinded by the dust cloud... could only think of those sportbikes coming down the road at a hundred so dove off the side off the pavement and waited for clean air before going on.
The front spring is still too hard, have ordered a lighter one to be made since apparently the factory doesn't - so since the back was set up to match the front, it is a bit chopper-esque at the moment, but still extremely rideable, just not perfect. I could do Baja easily as it is. At higher speeds it tended to squat a bit and the front end got a bit light. We have the compression and rebound set as light as they would go and I still thought my front tire was flat it banged so hard when I hit a rock - thought I was hitting the rim. So we checked tire pressure back at the car and was at 13#, so its the suspension that's too hard. Can't wait for the new fork springs, then Darryl the suspension expert is going to revalve everything lighter too so we'll have some adjustability again.
I don't know if it was just that the trails we did were so easy that made the bike so easy... I never felt out of control, would pick a line and the bike would go there, all my problems with target fixation seemed to be cured! The CRF is not easily derailed from the line I pick, really nice.
Its really heavy tho. My plan is to never fall down again. Haha.....:-)
Figure I'll ride it at China Hat for sure!
-SusanP.
CRF250X
BBR230
