Journey of a thousand miles

It’s early.

I don’t need to look at my alarm clock to know that. The annoying little device on the bed stand can’t bother me with the time for the rest of the week anyways. It’s unplugged from the wall, rendered incapable of disturbing me during my time off; just one of those little things that I like to do when I am on vacation. No wearing of watches, no alarm clocks and no cell phones (whenever possible).

As I was saying though, it’s early. The room is still dark; everything outside my open bedroom window is silent, save for a garbage truck somewhere on the other side of my neighborhood, plucking rows of full cans from the street. Flicka, my German shepherd, is passed out somewhere in the mass of king size pillows next to me, she loves those pillows; I get one pillow, she gets the rest. Generally, if I wake up before the dog then I know it’s early. I’ve got to get up though; there are places that I have to be.




Rolling lethargically out of bed, I am visualizing a restless Charlie out on his front porch with his riding gear already on, protesting my tardiness, and his KLR in the driveway, loaded up and ready to go, both bike and rider anxious for my arrival. That’s probably not the case, but that mental picture helps stir me from my bed.

It’s the third day of my vacation, and the first day of a long awaited ride that Charlie and I have been planning for a while now.

A friend of Charlie has a cabin up in Northwestern Montana, hidden from view, tucked away in the wilderness of the Cabinet Mountains. He offered to let us use it, free of charge; we couldn’t say no to that. The plan is to use the cabin as a base camp to explore the Montana backcountry for the next four days.

There shouldn’t be any tourists in this neck of the woods, no paved streets or store front windows filled with bumper stickers and shot glass souvenirs to bring home as trivial evidence that we had once been there, that’s all reserved for places like Glacier National park a couple of hours to the east of where we would be staying.

Our souvenirs will be different.

There’ll be a few days of living with stiff joints and sore muscles and if we play our cards right, we can bring home with us, memories of our experience; endless stories that can be embellished as time passes, the personal accounts of two friends who spent a few days on an expedition through the high country with their motorcycles.

Then again, as motorcyclists/bikers, aren’t these anecdotes a part of our Raison d'être, regardless of what we ride? Yeah, I’m sure that we will have stories to tell afterwards.


But we have to get there first.

I begin by picking items out of the dresser that I’ll need for the ride up north this morning. Socks and a pair of jeans, a faded and yellowing Nike T-shirt that I can’t bring myself to part with just yet and a light sweater to wear under my riding gear. The German shepherd, still laying in her mass of pillows, is awake and completely engaged in what I am doing; she knows something is up.

Shuffling past the bed towards the living room, my clothes tucked under my arm, I give a few clicks of my tongue and in an instant, the dog is out of bed and following me close at my heals, so close that her cold wet nose is poking into my exposed calves; the two of us stumble to the back door to let her out.

A quick bit of “business” and then Flicka races off to the corner of her yard where she left her toy, her “toy” is a basketball sized piece of hard plastic called a Jolly-ball. She loves that Jolly-ball more than she loves those king-size pillows.

Running at a full sprint towards the ball as if it were prey, she hits it with the intensity of a blitzing Running back, driving it into the fence and chasing it around the yard. She is in full frolic now, growling and barking, pushing the ball across the yard with the tip of her nose, something like a seal might do with a beach ball in a pool. Standing there in my early morning head fog, I am amazed at how a dog can go from R.E.M. sleep to full throttle in an instant; God I envy dogs!

Once outside, the darkness that consumed my bedroom a few moments ago is beginning to dwindle. As morning takes over, ominous purple clouds to the north draw my attention. There is a good chance that Charlie and I will get wet at some point today. I won’t get wet, but perhaps my gear will.

With the exception of the camera, tripod and rider, my KLR is loaded up and ready to go. All that’s required of me is to gear up and hit the road.

Gearing up is a basic ritual that takes less than a minute, after that, the sound of dog food hitting a large plastic dish is all that is required to draw Flicka’s attention from her Jolly-ball in the backyard and back into the house.

I give her a German Shepherd sized hug, put her food dish down in front of her and assure her that Nana will be here this afternoon to entertain her for the next few days. One more quick peck on the dog’s forehead and then I head outside to the bike, grabbing my helmet, the camera and tripod from the dining room table on the way out.

With the few remaining items mounted on the bike, I swing my right leg high over the tail-bag, slide the helmet down over my head, thumb the starter and then pull my dragon skin gauntlets over the cuffs of my riding jacket.

Sitting here, waiting for the engine to warm up, I take a moment to think about the ride today. Where I am now, idling in my driveway and where I will end up by days end.

Palouse steps

Charlie and I will be in a very different place from where we began; the dark northern spring wheat blanketing my Palouse country will be replaced with Douglas fir and Tamarack pines and mountains that disappear into the clouds. The air will be heavy with the scent of backcountry pine and the crackle of our campfire will echo beneath the canopy and carry through the forest. Over by the cabin will be our two bikes, resting on their stands, waiting for tomorrow’s ride......... and there will be dirt on their tires.

With the needle on the temperature gauge beginning to rise from its resting pin, I pull in the clutch and toe the transmission into first gear, my KLR is ready to go and so am I.

There is a popular quote by the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu which states, “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.”

With my front tire pointed north towards Montana and a smooth release of the clutch, this is where my journey begins.

Ride Well

E.T.

Tech day

Tech Day

A unique opportunity presented itself for me and the bike this weekend.

I recently joined a KLR650 forum (there seems to be a forum for just about everything nowadays) and one of the local members hosted an Eastern Washington Tech day in my neck of the woods. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to drop in to meet some of my fellow "KLRistas".

99% of my rides in the past have been mostly solitary; I don't expect many folks to log the non-stop saddle time that I have an addiction for, therefore, most of my rides end up as lonely affairs, just me and the bike and 500 or so miles together before the day is over.

My bike socializing with some of her own breed

I arrived a little late to the tech part of the day, because of this, I missed out on most of the "fun" of watching the various valve and chain adjustments and a couple of doohickey replacements (doohickey:KLR slangterm for the cam chain tensioner or something like that, I'm sure that I will be corrected by somebody on this).

At the end of the day, we took a quick ride south up to the summit of Steptoe butte (big friggin hill in the area).

We did okay for a spell, me and my bike that is, until we got about 15 miles into the ride. I don't know if it's the thousands of miles of solitary time that I am so comfortable with that coaxed me into breaking from the pack of Kawasaki's or the challenge of taking a shortcut to get far enough ahead of the group to buy enough time to dismount, pull out the camera and get a shot of everybody riding together. In the interest of not appearing to be a total social introvert, I will go with the group photo excuse. Whatever the reason, that's what I did and yes I did get stopped and the camera out just in time to get the shot.

The group riding south to Steptoe butte


More of the group

My bike is obviously not quite used to social situations like these just yet, I think that must be why she was sitting a little bit away from the pack.

More pictures of the event can be found on this link

http://www.klr650.net/forums/showthread.php?t=64175&page=7

All in all, I had a great time getting together with this group of folks, I would like to thank Joe for hosting the event, it was a fantastic experience to be able to spend the afternoon with a group of riders who all share a common interest. As a lifelong solo rider, I look forward to more days socializing like this and if any of these guys are as stubborn as I am and have developed that special callous (where the sun don't shine) that's neccesary to be able to drain that legendary "ship of the desert" tank two or more times in a single day, you are more than welcome to join me and my bike.

Ride well

E.T.

New Picture

I've been wanting to do something different for the picture on my blog title for a while now, and I had this idea mulling around in my head for a couple of weeks, however with my solitary riding habits, I was finding it difficult to get the shot that I wanted.
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I have a close friend who has taken a recent interest in riding, so on the weekends, he has been meeting me out at my place to ride my XS11 while I escort him through the countryside on the quiet roads around my neck of the woods to see if this is something that might interest him. This Monday, while I was just getting off of work, he calls me up and asks if I would mind at all if we went for a ride that evening, I told him sure and to meet me at my place in about 30 or 40 minutes when I got home. He said that wouldn't be a problem considering that he was already there waiting in my driveway for me to get home! I think he likes riding.

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I seized this moment as an opportunity for somebody to take the picture that I wanted for the blog, so when I got home, he got suited up and we went out to a certain dirt road that I had wanted to use for the shot. I explained what I was looking for in the picture and to just take pictures as I approached him. After a few attempts and varying my speed to get just enough of a dust trail for effect, I settled on the one above, mostly because as timing would have it, the Wheat farmer in his tractor climbed over the hill and turned into the shot; I thought that it was a nice touch.

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The dirt road that I used for the shot is one of the roads that I use at times on my commute to or from work depending on how clean or dirty the bike already is. The photo above is a shot that I took from the cockpit of the KLR on the same road while riding home from a weekend stay in Idaho last weekend. Finally it looks like things are going to green up around here.

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We finished the day with about another 30 or 40 mile ride for my friend so that he could continue to get a little more familiar with the riding experience. Upon arriving back at my place, he told me that he is already planning a road trip to Roseburg, Oregon for us; when I asked how far that was from here, he replied, about 550 miles. I thought about that for a moment and then said that I thought it sounds great, but we need to get him a few more miles in the saddle first before heading out that far. By the looks of it though, it appears that the old XS has captured another riders heart.

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Riding the XS in to work this morning I thought about the bike, and wondered about her 30 year history and the places that she has been, and all of the other riders hearts that she has won over the years; and then I thought about all of the bikes that I have owned over the years New and Used and thought the same about them. I wonder if they are still around doing the same little magical numbers to their current owners that they did to me. Coming and going, changing hands, all the while touching souls............Kind of a Pete's Dragon thing I suppose.

Ride well everyone.

E.T.

T.G.I.F.

I am looking forward to this weekend, mostly because the weather is promising to be in the mid-60's both Saturday and Sunday. I'm getting up early Saturday Morning to take the KLR in for it's 600 mile service, and then after that I'm hitting the road. Although the break-in calls for me to keep the rev's under 6000 RPM for a few more miles, at least now I can keep up with the traffic, when I'm confronted with them. Doug C. from "Cruising Ohio" has a little weather window on his blog site that has been terrorizing me lately with those wonderful temperatures, here in the Northwest, winter does not seem to want to give up. I've been riding to work in snow flurries and back home in hail storms. Ugggh.

I may venture over into Idaho to check up on an old Friend who is moving to Wallace this weekend, I'm pretty sure that I'll see my fair share of snow up in the passes, but as long as the temps are in the 60's, I'll fair just fine. Either way, I need to start packing the camera on my rides from now on so that I can share some photo's here on the site. I should definitely have something to write about other than weathering the snow, hail, and wind by the end of the weekend. T.G.I.F.

At some point this week, I decided that I should take a look at all of the bikes that I have been thinking about before I decided finally on the KLR.

Yesterday I headed out to Beaudry’s in Post Falls to take a look at a 2001 Bandit 1200S that they had on the floor. I really liked the bike and found it a nice fit for my style of riding. I have always been intrigued by the idea of putting a big GSXR engine in a Standard style motorcycle thus easing up on the aggressive riding position of the GSXR and making the power band a little more street user friendly. The bike on the sales floor had a few things going against it for me though. It was seven years old and had 20,000 miles on the clock which really didn’t disqualify it in any respect, but there was a small dent in the tank, and I think that the tank bra that was on it was there in an attempt to hide the dent. The real killer however, was the aftermarket pipe that was on it. I’m going to be logging an awful lot of miles on this bike, and I really don’t want to listen to the annoying sound of a loud pipe droning along behind me all day long, also I don’t want my neighbors to have to listen to it at 5 o’clock every morning while I’m warming it up. Some pipes can sound fine but this one was just plain obnoxious when they fired it up on the sales floor. No thank you, I think I’ll pass on this one. Adjacent to the bandit was a brand new R1200GS and I just had to invent a reason to go perch myself on that beauty. It’s all in the eyes of the beholder, and I realize that to some, the GS might be a little garish, but every year that I grow older, that style just seems to look more and more delicious! Somewhere in the not too distant future my love, promise me you’ll wait. I did manage to walk out of Beaudry’s with a killer Ducati Corse hat, and at $34.00 that is about the most I’ve ever spent on a cap, but it is cool, and I had to have it.

Today, Flicka and I went into town to check out what KDR powersports had on the floor, anyone looking for a nice used bike no matter what it is, at a fair price, I definitely recommend going to KDR, whether it’s Japanese, European, or American all of their bikes are very clean; Somehow Randy knows how to find pristine bikes and then offer them at decent prices. Today, I had four to choose from, five for about ten minutes until a kid came in and almost immediately bought the SV650 that I was considering, I don’t think he even threw a leg over it before writing a check. What were left were a 2005 FZ1, a 05 Triumph 900 Sprint, a 05 Concours, and a 2005 Kawasaki 1200 ZRX. The ZRX was piped so I had to kind of rule it out although it did look really cool, the Triumph’s aftermarket paint job was a little too glittery and er...... Flamey (is that a word?), even the seat had a flame job embossed into it, and the FZ was a little too cramped for any long distance traveling. The Concours that Randy had on the floor was an extremely clean example with 20,000 on the clock. I can certainly appreciate the luggage and that wonderful 7 plus gallon tank, I don’t know why I salivate over big tanks they way I do, I just do. At $5400, it would come in just a little under the KLR after all of the additional costs were added on. It was on the short list.

From there, the plan was to go to Pier 1 to get my Mom a birthday present and then a little grocery shopping and back home again. As I headed towards Pier 1, I remembered that Roundy’s Kawasaki was only a couple of blocks away, I hadn’t been in there for a few months, so I thought that I would check to see if they had a green KLR in stock. I kind of told myself that I would be happy with either Green or Blue, but the more I thought about it, I realized that I was just settling on the Blue one, if there were no Green’s to be had. The more I thought about it, the more I concluded that if I am going to finally buy a bike that I have had my eye on since 1989, I had better get exactly the one that I want.

Roundy’s had all three colors, with the matching KLR bags to boot......Shit. When I asked how many Green ones they had left, they said that this was the last one.......Shit. Brian, the salesman asked if I wanted him to figure out the exact numbers and almost defensively I replied, “Yes.” Maybe it was the bags, or maybe it was the impending remorse that I would have felt if I would have bought something else after finally deciding to buy the KLR after twenty years of procrastinating. I knew it wasn’t just because it was the last Green one that they had. Even if it had sold, they would have been able to find another one for me somewhere. Needless to say I wrote a check out for a deposit on the green one today. I guess now I have to go to the bank and arrange some financing. Man I hope this snow melts soon! Couldn’t wait just a couple of more weeks could I?