Ten to One
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 8:09 pm
I got home last night after a few days of trail riding. Most of the trails ridden where tight single track through the woods and swamps of northern Minnesota with a few fast abandon rail beds thrown in to make things interesting.
I have never seen the trails as wet as they where this week, we had water crossing that where over the tops of my boots when standing on the pegs and the ruts where all filled with water. I found out quickly that my Thor Quadrant boots are not water proof or even water resistance, no matter how tight I latched the buckles.
The Yamaha TT600N ran great, got to love this bike. It has tractor like torque, start up a hill in too high of gear and it will chug up with no problem, start out in the correct gear and it climbs like a scared cat up a tree. The bike will wheelie in 3rd gear with a tug on the bars, 2nd and 1st it will wheelie at will.
I manged to scare myself a few times, on a steep hill when I fell into a rain wash out. I was climbing Okay until the washout got narrow. The tire wedged between two big rocks, I thought that I was going over the bars, the rear tire came off the ground then slammed back down. Somehow I stayed on the pegs, standing there on the hill on a none moving bike. I manged to push the bike backwards to free the tire. Gave the engine some gas and slipped the clutch, the front tire climbed on one rock and I was moving forward again. The rear tire climbed up on the rock and I was on my way up the hill. Without fall down, I was breathing hard when I reached the top.
Bruce manged to mess his wrist up when he hit a tree. He was able to ride back to camp, where I loaded his bike on the trailer and he ate Motrin for lunch. I have not heard from Bruce today, not sure how he is doing. I hope Okay, it did seem to be broken, just sprained badly.
Where the 10 to 1 comes from is that the guy that I was riding with are all Long Distance Riders, sitting around the camp fire we decided that One mile of trail riding is the same as Ten miles of street in how badly it tires you out.
I have never seen the trails as wet as they where this week, we had water crossing that where over the tops of my boots when standing on the pegs and the ruts where all filled with water. I found out quickly that my Thor Quadrant boots are not water proof or even water resistance, no matter how tight I latched the buckles.
The Yamaha TT600N ran great, got to love this bike. It has tractor like torque, start up a hill in too high of gear and it will chug up with no problem, start out in the correct gear and it climbs like a scared cat up a tree. The bike will wheelie in 3rd gear with a tug on the bars, 2nd and 1st it will wheelie at will.
I manged to scare myself a few times, on a steep hill when I fell into a rain wash out. I was climbing Okay until the washout got narrow. The tire wedged between two big rocks, I thought that I was going over the bars, the rear tire came off the ground then slammed back down. Somehow I stayed on the pegs, standing there on the hill on a none moving bike. I manged to push the bike backwards to free the tire. Gave the engine some gas and slipped the clutch, the front tire climbed on one rock and I was moving forward again. The rear tire climbed up on the rock and I was on my way up the hill. Without fall down, I was breathing hard when I reached the top.
Bruce manged to mess his wrist up when he hit a tree. He was able to ride back to camp, where I loaded his bike on the trailer and he ate Motrin for lunch. I have not heard from Bruce today, not sure how he is doing. I hope Okay, it did seem to be broken, just sprained badly.
Where the 10 to 1 comes from is that the guy that I was riding with are all Long Distance Riders, sitting around the camp fire we decided that One mile of trail riding is the same as Ten miles of street in how badly it tires you out.
