DUDE!!!

Today was an interesting day. I took that slightly longer route in again and it was a great way to start the day. Most of the water is off the road now and all that's left is some sand. The creeks and rivers around here are something else, though - Mrs. HAL's been taking some great pictures of them, if I remember I'll haul a camera along with me and snap some too.

The ride home this afternoon was neat, though - after work I had to do some shopping, and after I was done I thought I'd take the scenic route home and spend some time on the Perimeter again. I figured I'd ride out to Inkster and then cut down Sturgeon before heading home. It was so nice this afternoon - around 14C, with just a little breeze and a few clouds - that I really wanted to ride a little more. I continued past Inkster and turned on to Sturgeon at the Perimeter.

Wow, what a mess. The stretch between the Perimeter and Inkster is "gravel", and I do use the term lightly. It actually looks a lot more like planes have been doing bombing runs on it, it's full of nasty potholes and washboards and whoops. Strangely, the first thing I thought of was a book I got recently called, "The Essential Guide to Dual Sport Motorcycling" by Carl Adams, and that the road would give me the opportunity to tell how the KLR's suspension is.

Well, I didn't think much past that, because an old blue beater truck turned off the Perimeter and was a little ways behind me. He was staying a good ways back, which I always appreciate.

Now, today I was feeling great - it felt like the KLR was an extension of myself. Shifts were spot on, I didn't even need to look at the speedometer to know how fast I was going (I could feel it from the revs without looking at the tachometer), that sort of thing. My confidence in myself and the KLR was soaring. So, I decided to turn that nasty stretch of road into a learning experience.

A twist of the throttle and the KLR and I were off like a shot. Despite my best intentions, I couldn't miss all of the holes and bumps - there were just too many. I hit the first set of potholes and hoisted my butt up off the seat and stood on the pegs, elbows wide out to the sides. The KLR bucked and bounced over the potholes and kept its course.

Confidence buoyed even more, I goosed the bike again and brought it up to 90kph. In the brief instants when my mirrors weren't showing a blue/brown blur, I could see the fellow in the blue truck beating the heck out of his suspension but not falling too far back.

The first set of big whoops almost did me in - the front suspension compressed after the first one and didn't unload properly by the time I got to the next one, so I got tossed around a bit, but the bike kept going. One section of washboard bumped me sideways a couple of times so that my legs kept banging against the gas tank, I clenched my jaw and gave it a bit more gas and it settled out.

Eventually, I came up to another fellow who was very gingerly driving his car at about 20kph around and through the potholes. I pulled up behind him, waited for the road to be clear (and made sure he knew I was there), and then passed him and got back up to speed. A few seconds later, the blue truck did the same. More of the same nasty holes and bumps, and there was a short stretch where it smoothed out long enough to almost convince me that it was probably going to be nice the rest of the way. Before I sat back down, the KLR was bouncing and jumping underneath me again like a meth-addled donkey licking an electric fence.

Eventually, I could see the traffic lights - we were getting close to Inkster. As I slowed down, sat down, and finally stopped at the lights, the blue beater pulled up beside me.

The driver (a fellow probably in his 20's) rolled down his window, waved at me and started yelling, "DUDE! THAT WAS *(&%#@ AWESOME I'VE NEVER ()@!&)(*& SEEN A MOTORCYCLE GO THAT $)(*@*!@%)& FAST ON THE $*@(&( ROAD HOLY *(@^($( (*&@($^ DUDE YOU WERE BOOKIN THERE I WOW $&(@*^ HOLY *@(^$( WHEN YOU PASSED THAT DUDE I THOUGHT FOR *(^@(*&% SURE YOU WERE GONNA @*#&%^!_ CRASH !%#(^* DUDE THAT ($*@*^((% WOW HOLY !*&%$#@ THAT WAS AWESOME WHAT KIND OF @(*^# BIKE IS THAT I CAN'T !$(*^#@ BELIEVE THAT HOLY @^(!@("

And so on. When the light turned green, I waved back at him, yelled "THANKS MAN!" and the we both went our separate ways.

The rest of my ride home was uneventful, and I spent it alternating between laughing my butt off and feeling rather proud of myself and the KLR. A year ago, there's no way I would've attempted that, but for some reason today everything just felt RIGHT. It's hard to explain. Granted, I was just going the speed limit on a pretty nasty road, but when buddy pulled up and started yelling all excitedly, that made me feel pretty good.

I gave the KLR an extra pat after I pushed it into its spot in the garage, and stood there for a minute or two looking it over while it ticked and clicked as it cooled down. Everything looked just fine.

I really wish I'd had my GoPro on and running, or a chase car - I would pay real money to see how the KLR and I looked as we boogied down the road. There is NO way I'd take the Civic on that road right now, and especially no way I'd do it at those speeds. The KLR is a big, heavy pig... but I think it did really well.

Safe riding!

Odometer reading now: 9223.1km

Distance since last fill: 144.4km