Ride 10/23/11 Sunday Virginia Covington Area
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1 - 6 of 6 Posts
The ride was AMAZING! Best ebay impulse buy i have ever made!
Yep one fine evening i was surfing ebay and wondering for the gazillionth time if i should get a dirt bike/ enduro
Some 15 years ago i nearly bit it on a quiet sunday night by some kid in his car showing off
The idea of an enduro was exciting, but i didnt want to be tempted to ride in my overpopulated neighborhood...
But off roading around here seems to be non existant
Hence my dilemma...
Then also what bike to get? Drz400? It just seemed too tall, im a mountain biker, not equestrian...
One night i spotted this tw200 complete with a hitch carrier, and my crv could support the weight on its hitch...
Could it be that easy?
I was googling frantically while the minutes ticked away...
With a few minutes left i threw in a max bid...
And minutes later i won!??
Omg, i have to drive to Virginia!? What have i done!? This thing is tiny!! My last bike felt a bit underpowered sometimes and it was a 750cc!!
Well i can always resell it.. It will be an adventure...
I left NY at 2 am that friday and arrived at 11a
From 10 - 11 i was excitedly calling friends and family to tell them they absolutely must come to VA asap!
The views were stunning as the fall colors were in full effect and although it was only 50 degrees out, the sun shone a bright white and was beginning to scorch- welcome news on an otherwise cool fall day.
By the time i got to the sellers house, i could almost care less about the bike! I already felt i had experienced all that the trip could hold. I couldnt fathom what was yet to come...
I went ocer the bike carefully- items not mentioned: very rusty chain, bent bars and a head gasket leak. Hmmm...
Normally id have negotiated, but i knew the bars were gonna get upgraded, and facing the dilemma of no bike and the idea that yhese bikes are indestructible, along with use of the sellers VT plate so i could ride the roads.. Ah what the hell, maybe just a retorque and a chain... Who cares!
I rode the bike, signed the papers, and proceeded to stick the carrier in the hitch and loaded up the bike...
It was like 3 feet from the back of the car and the resulting leverage put the bottom of the rack just 10" off the ground. The rear suspension of the crv was heavily compressed, and the front was very unweighted! This is gonna be trouble...
I picked up a right angle section of box channel that came as a kit for changing ball heights on a receiver hitch- actually 2... 1 each from two different auto parts stores.
The last one pointed me towards Covington Farm and Tractor which on a saturday at 230 pm took my car in and we set to work planning out the modifications to bring the rack in 2 feet and up 1. They welded with skill, added some bracing and sprayed up the rack.
While they worked, i installed my new spark plug and fixed the horn button with contact cleaner and dielectric grease which i brought in my box of tricks. Two hpurs later i drove off vastly safer and almost ready to ride...
I stopped in at walmart and bought their only motocross helmet in stock, which just happened to be in my size. (i since have ordered a ds agv ax8)
One of the locals and i started chatting and he drew me a map of where to ride, but i was cooked. I hadnt slept since thursday night/fri morn. So he lead me to a local restuarant, introduced me to the owner and bid me farewell. I went to best western and crashed out for the night.
9 am i was eating the continental breakfast and 10 am i had my dainese wave pro v on (previously purchased, helmet was on order)... As i was gearing up at the car, another local came pver to chat, actually a few did... Turns out everybody loves the tw200 or wants to know what it is because it looks like a lot of fun. One local insisted on getting me a map, 15 min later he returned and we examined my hand drawn one feom the local the day before to the topographical one and it was almost exactly to scale!
So I set out on a local road, which turned into a gravel one which turned into dirt...
I rode 120 miles of dirt, neighborhoods, twisties, you name it.
I saw america as i never have before or likely ever would have.
I was elated the entire time and finally packed up the crv and headed home at 5:00p absolutely floored by the experience.
The idea now of driving 3 hours to a good riding spot is nothing and i have complete confidence i will be enjoying some new unexplored territory and flying down some beautiful back road twisties.
That was last weekend, last night i finally took it out for a ride locally very late at night. The roads were quiet, quite familiar and utterly boring. And it was still a nice little sublime rush, a remnant of the past weekends exaltation of the spirit of true two wheeled adventure.
Pics will follow!
Yep one fine evening i was surfing ebay and wondering for the gazillionth time if i should get a dirt bike/ enduro
Some 15 years ago i nearly bit it on a quiet sunday night by some kid in his car showing off
The idea of an enduro was exciting, but i didnt want to be tempted to ride in my overpopulated neighborhood...
But off roading around here seems to be non existant
Hence my dilemma...
Then also what bike to get? Drz400? It just seemed too tall, im a mountain biker, not equestrian...
One night i spotted this tw200 complete with a hitch carrier, and my crv could support the weight on its hitch...
Could it be that easy?
I was googling frantically while the minutes ticked away...
With a few minutes left i threw in a max bid...
And minutes later i won!??
Omg, i have to drive to Virginia!? What have i done!? This thing is tiny!! My last bike felt a bit underpowered sometimes and it was a 750cc!!
Well i can always resell it.. It will be an adventure...
I left NY at 2 am that friday and arrived at 11a
From 10 - 11 i was excitedly calling friends and family to tell them they absolutely must come to VA asap!
The views were stunning as the fall colors were in full effect and although it was only 50 degrees out, the sun shone a bright white and was beginning to scorch- welcome news on an otherwise cool fall day.
By the time i got to the sellers house, i could almost care less about the bike! I already felt i had experienced all that the trip could hold. I couldnt fathom what was yet to come...
I went ocer the bike carefully- items not mentioned: very rusty chain, bent bars and a head gasket leak. Hmmm...
Normally id have negotiated, but i knew the bars were gonna get upgraded, and facing the dilemma of no bike and the idea that yhese bikes are indestructible, along with use of the sellers VT plate so i could ride the roads.. Ah what the hell, maybe just a retorque and a chain... Who cares!
I rode the bike, signed the papers, and proceeded to stick the carrier in the hitch and loaded up the bike...
It was like 3 feet from the back of the car and the resulting leverage put the bottom of the rack just 10" off the ground. The rear suspension of the crv was heavily compressed, and the front was very unweighted! This is gonna be trouble...
I picked up a right angle section of box channel that came as a kit for changing ball heights on a receiver hitch- actually 2... 1 each from two different auto parts stores.
The last one pointed me towards Covington Farm and Tractor which on a saturday at 230 pm took my car in and we set to work planning out the modifications to bring the rack in 2 feet and up 1. They welded with skill, added some bracing and sprayed up the rack.
While they worked, i installed my new spark plug and fixed the horn button with contact cleaner and dielectric grease which i brought in my box of tricks. Two hpurs later i drove off vastly safer and almost ready to ride...
I stopped in at walmart and bought their only motocross helmet in stock, which just happened to be in my size. (i since have ordered a ds agv ax8)
One of the locals and i started chatting and he drew me a map of where to ride, but i was cooked. I hadnt slept since thursday night/fri morn. So he lead me to a local restuarant, introduced me to the owner and bid me farewell. I went to best western and crashed out for the night.
9 am i was eating the continental breakfast and 10 am i had my dainese wave pro v on (previously purchased, helmet was on order)... As i was gearing up at the car, another local came pver to chat, actually a few did... Turns out everybody loves the tw200 or wants to know what it is because it looks like a lot of fun. One local insisted on getting me a map, 15 min later he returned and we examined my hand drawn one feom the local the day before to the topographical one and it was almost exactly to scale!
So I set out on a local road, which turned into a gravel one which turned into dirt...
I rode 120 miles of dirt, neighborhoods, twisties, you name it.
I saw america as i never have before or likely ever would have.
I was elated the entire time and finally packed up the crv and headed home at 5:00p absolutely floored by the experience.
The idea now of driving 3 hours to a good riding spot is nothing and i have complete confidence i will be enjoying some new unexplored territory and flying down some beautiful back road twisties.
That was last weekend, last night i finally took it out for a ride locally very late at night. The roads were quiet, quite familiar and utterly boring. And it was still a nice little sublime rush, a remnant of the past weekends exaltation of the spirit of true two wheeled adventure.
Pics will follow!
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
