Tpoppa

Participant trophy for everyone 🏆 It's a 2015 BMW R1200R

The only day I would have been able to go was Saturday, but...wait for it... I'll be driving to Detroit to sign the paperwork on another motorcycle I just bought. I told myself I'd never have more than 2 in the garage again, but I caved, so here we are. BTW, the Vulcan is for sale. I keep trying to like cruisers (mostly for the passenger accommodations) but I just don't.

Same

I wouldn't. Maybe the house is more important than the job?

After years of riding street and training yourself to avoid gravel, you kind of have to overcome that mental block to ride gravel roads. I was surprise how quickly you can ride on gravel with proper technique and tires. You can ride 50-60-70mph on gravel roads even around corners if you have reasonable line of sight.

FN makes excellent stuff.

I'd rather have it in a suitable trailer that is already setup for motorcycles, with a wheel chock, etc.

Appreciate that you'd be willing to let me use your trailer, but I don't have a suitable tow vehicle.

It doesn't.

You can get a knee down on most any bike

Winter boredom has me looking at motorcycles online & I'm considering buying a bike that's located near Detroit. I'm not counting on January weather being nice enough to ride it home. Know anyone local that can transport a motorcycle in an enclosed trailer about 110 miles? Not looking for a favor. I'm willing to pay someone who can transport a motorcycle without damaging it.

I got to see the Ramones live back in the day.

I'm very curious to see what public reaction will be, and what kind of voter turnout we'll see in the 2020 election.

Shadow VLX 600s can be had on the cheap.

The newer rebel 500 has enough motor to actually be fun.

This guy talks about deregulation driving the economy, wages, low unemployment, growth...so I looked it up. Pretty Interesting. https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/tracking-deregulation-in-the-trump-era/

There is longish offroad trail in Ohio called the TOT. That's where @theroamr and I started to develop some basic off road skills. It's not very challenging (except for 1 or 2 sections), and you "probably" won't drop your bike 😄

Keep an eye on the weather if you attempt the KAT. There are some low areas that are prone to flooding. The water can get too deep to pass very quickly. In some sections, if the clay/mud gets too wet you won't be able to get enough traction to ride up the inclines. We had a GS1200, Triumph Tiger, GS800, and my CB500x all get stuck on the same hill. We had to back the bikes down the hill in defeat. And that was only after about 20 minutes of moderate rain. The KAT is the most challenging thing I've attempted on 2 wheels. I'd do it again, but only if there was no rain in the forecast 😄 edit...I had the least off road experience in our group. Even the guys that rode the KAT before struggled in the wet. Every bike went down at least once after it rain started.

I went through water that was higher than the air intake on the CB500x. I had to go fast enough to create a wake. If I would have lost momentum, it would have sucked water into the intake, and that CB likely would have been abandoned in KY. At one point, I had so much mud stuck to the tires that the front wheel wouldn't turn. There was 500 foot(?) incline that was about a 35-40% grade where the trail was made up of rocks the size of baseballs. I made it about half way up before I lost all forward traction and was just shooting rocks downhill with my rear tire.

If you are looking for a challenge, take a look at the Kentucky Adventure Trail. The GS is pretty much built for it, but polish up your off road skills first. I did about half of it a few years ago (the whole loop is about 1000 miles, IIRC). It was fun and challenging even though some stretches were a little above my off roads skills.

I would have done the same.