Everyone talks about dirt bike training and how good it is for road biking and in general. A couple of weeks back, I finally got dirt bike wheels for the WR250X from Warp9 Racing. The wheels came in startlingly quickly, and since I’m already geared way low (12/45 — or -1/+3) converting was a snap — or at least I didn’t need a new chain, just to drop the wheel in and crank it.
Steve over at Moto-Authority got me set up with Dunlop D606s, rim-locks and tubes and the bike was ready for some desert riding. Woods are still out, since there’s no spark arrestor on the Graves exhaust that that bike has and I’m not spending $450 just yet on the FMF that is apparently the solution. That said, it was off to the desert where Scott Cloninger offered to show me around:
The bike still functions on the highway, though the front definitely wanders and tracks the cracks, and it’s pretty tall with those knobbies on (and the 21″ front doesn’t help either). We headed out from Scott’s house straight into the Arroyo and then off onto dirt. I proceeded to tip-toe around following Scott. Then losing Scott, and hoping he’d come back.
The bike did great; the rider less so. I fell less than I expected, but the fact that I was in street gear (and street boots!) made me nervous. Too many folks I know have broken their ankles recently, so my caution was rewarded with smaller falls. We made it out to looking over the Rio Puerco Valley — amazing views.
A little more cruising around and then back. About 30 miles, including sand, hills, and deeper sand. Going to be an interesting learning curve and I was sore as hell the next day!