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Getting the gunk out
One of the downsides of riding a dual-sport bike is grease and dust make a mess of the working parts. During a routine oil change, I decided to pull the plastic housing away from the clutch linkage and front sprocket. An hour later I had scraped away the semi-solid layers of gunk. It was a coagulation of road dust and chain lubricant. Anytime I ride on a gravel road or ride in the rain, I clean and lube my chain. But the dust is especially nasty as it gets everywhere and it eventually needs to be removed. Adventure touring is
Silverton and Ripplebrook
I took the day off Friday. Although we had a stiff east wind, the sun was shining and it was relatively warm for this time of year. I spent the middle part of the day riding 160 miles, first south through Molalla to Silverton, where I had lunch (waffle and bacon and mocha) at the Silver Creek Cafe, then backtracked to Estacada where I headed east up the Clackamas River highway to Ripplebrook Ranger Station. I stopped for a few minutes to let my hands warm up before heading back down the river to home. There were a few bikes
Zoom, zoom!
Lately I’ve only had time for short rides on weekends, and when weather and errands allowed, the occasional commute to work. As a result, when I ride, I want to make it count. I’m fortunate that I live next to some tasty roads that remain snow-free 99% of the year. They tend to be through rural or semi-rural areas and are a diverse blend of curve types and elevation changes. This makes them excellent rides to keep my skills sharp during the off-season. The downside to these short but challenging rides is the lack of a proper warm-up period. It’s
Upper 20′s into work this morning
The street outside my house looked like white velvet under the street light. I crossed my driveway and scuffed my boots across the fuzzy white surface to see if it was slippery. Although it looked intimidating, it felt like bare pavement. I decided to give it a try. The temperature was in the upper 20′s when I rolled my bike out of the garage and started it up. Although we had a little bit of freezing fog during the night, the mist had dissipated and I could see stars overhead. My pre-dawn commute would be the first of the week;
Riding across the metro area
Saturday I rode to Beaverton on the other side of the Portland metropolitan area to visit my good friend, Keith. We used to work together at a dot-com and haven’t seen each other for nine years. He’s thinking about getting into motorcycling so in addition to the visit among friends it was also a chance to have a little Q&A about bikes, riding, safety, training, etc. The ride itself was about what you’d expect. I took expressways (Highway 26, I-84, I-405, and Highway 26 again) to get there as it was the fastest way across the city. Traffic was thick
Crazy weather
Saturday I went for a one-hour bike ride in the area and experienced dry pavement, wet pavement, snowy pavement, wet pavement covered with leaves, sunshine, rain, hail, and even snow flakes.
Slick roads and low-elevation colors
Fall is my favorite season. It’s not perfect, though. Leaves turn orange and yellow and red, then fall to the ground. It often rains at the same time, making leaf-covered roads slicker than snot. It’s beautiful but it requires control. Sunday, despite the heavy cloud cover and spitting rain, I went for a short local ride along roads Bluff, Lusted, and Ten Eyke. The route I chose took me down to Dodge Park where it crosses the Sandy River and back up the other side toward home. There had been a lot of wind and rain in previous days so
Slick roads and high-elevation colors
Friday afternoon I dashed out of the house to get a ride on Marmot Road before the rains came. The eastern half of the road had dust and gravel across both lanes because the road department had come along and scraped the side of the road (to kill weeds or something) and it pushed all the debris onto the road surface. They swept over the top of it but left a slick layer of dust and gravel. I reached Lolo Pass Road and turned around for the return ride and the rain started. Within minutes it was raining hard and
It was a dark and foggy morning
When I left work this morning it was still dark and I could see the constellation Orion the Hunter hovering above me, standing on his head. The air was chilly, in the mid 30s, but wasn’t cold, at least not to me. I was dressed appropriately as you might have guessed. By the time I passed by the Highway 212 exit I entered fog. It smelled odd, as if it was mixed with wood stove smoke and a faint hint of baked bread. The mist swirled around me and blended with the light from my headlights and those of oncoming
In the zone, and wanting more
Saturday I went on a mid-day practice ride on Marmot Road, but it was far too short. I wanted more. Sunday, mid-afternoon, I tackled the NF46 run to Detroit to make up for it. My bike was running good, the conditions were excellent, and I was in the zone. And I wanted more. It was the fastest, smoothest run I’ve had on that route to date and it felt incredible. I found myself feeling as if I was beyond the capabilities of my bike. The Suzuki V-Strom 650 has been described as “perhaps the most shockingly competent bike” available by
