WOW! Have I been away. A lot has changed since I posted last August. We ran the Land of Enchantment (LOE 2011) Rally in October. All went well, had a great time catching up with friends. We will probably not run the LOE in 2012, the staff (really only two of us) are having conflicts with our scheduled dates and I'm really out during October this year so we don't want to commit. We will probably make a final decision next week. If you haven't noticed the name change, I sold the Gold Wing and now own a Silver V-Strom. I originally purchased the Goldwing while I was looking at a Dual Sport, the wife wanted something more comfortable. She said if I purchased a Wing she would probably ride more so that's what I bought. The Wing was great very comfortable to ride and I did a lot of miles on it last year. Went on my sabbatical, probably 8000 miles with no real issues. Came back did a couple saddle sore 1000 rides. Did the Smoke Chasing Tour too. All this riding and my wife really didn't ride that much so I decided to get rid of the Wing and get the motorcycle I wanted. I started looking and found my V-Strom at a local shop and bought it. It is a 2008 with just under 12K on it. I had a couple of issues but the shop has taken care of them, so I'm pretty pleased with the V-Strom so far. I cut the seat down to get me closer to the ground, I don't want to lower it because of the loss of ground clearance. I still can only touch one side at a time and that's on my toes but that's okay.
My first ride I decided to check out San Lorenzo Canyon in New Mexico. My son's boy scout troop was camping there that weekend and I wanted to make sure I knew how to get there. After you leave the pavement it is about 5 miles of riding in a wash. The sand is real loose and I figured this would be a good test for the bike. I found out quickly that the tires are no match for the sand as I got stuck a couple of times. The ride was fun but it sure wore me out. I'm not use to the physical work of riding in the dirt or dragging your bike through the soft sand. It must have been six inches deep at times.
Since that first ride, I have replaced the tires with a 70-30 (street-dirt) combination. This still will not help if I get in the sand again but the tires should work well on dirt/gravel roads.
I'm taking off this weekend to head to Portales, NM to see family then on to Lubbock, TX to meet up with friends. One of the guys has never been to a Joe's Crab Shack, so we are riding 400 miles for dinner. I'll probably spend the night in Portales ride to dinner and ride back to Rio Rancho with the group. I figure dinner at 19:00 get out of the restaurant by 20:30 then high tail it for home. I was thinking we run straight back should be home by 02:00-03:00. The weather looks good but should be a little chilly running in the morning.
Well until next time ride safe.
