Bar Risers and Dunlop 606's

So my buddy talked me into doing the Pine Barrens 500 this year ( http://www.pinebarrens500.org/ ). 500 miles of dual sport heaven right here in NYC's back yard, AKA Jersey. If you have the chance to do something liek this i highly recommend it, it ROCKED!
Hang on, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Having never done any type of off road riding i figured that a little warm up was in order so we planned a ride for the weekend before the event. In preparation for this ride I spent some more money!!! I ordered a set of Dunlop 606's since i had read/ heard that they were the best compromise for on and off road riding. they look super knobby but offer an amazing amount of grip on pavement. check them out:



I jumped into the deep end with the tire changing by reading a little online and then just going for it. I ordered a 21" for the front and a 17" for the rear that way i dont have to change out the front tire on my fancy new 19" wheel. pulling the front tire off was about as easy as my reading had led me to believe. IT SUCKED! Don't let anyone fool you, changing a bike tire is a total pain in the ass. I recommend you make friends with a bike shop and get them to change all your tires for you. they have the correct tools and can do it easily. i spent about 45 minutes with 3 pry bars and a roommate to get the front tire on and could not for the life of me break the bead on the rear. I wound up taking it to my saviors at Speed Motorcycles. They pulles off the sweet new Avon and replaced it in about 20 minutes. This is after i struggled with it for 40 minutes before giving up. So now i am in the market for a spare rear wheel so that i never have to change a tire again myself. i know it is the easy way out but i don't care. I cant keep paying them $40 to swapa tire every time i want to go get dirty and I don't ever plan to change a tire if i can avoid it. i know how to now and that is all i wanted. sigh. here is what the bike looks like with the all dirt set up on it.



Pretty sweet.
I also was trying to find a solution to the horrible stock seat. it is fine for a short ride but feels like some sort of torture device designed by the Japanese to punish my big fat American ass.
I borrowed my buddy's Suzuki Gel seat to try it out. One word: LAME. Don't even bother with the Gel seat. I wont even bother posting a pic of it it isnt worth the time to resize the image. It feels like they jsut removed all the padding from the stock seat. you sit lower and i dont really like that, maybe i just got used to sitting so high but i like the height of the stocker much better and i liek the padding of it better too. i rode with it for 2 days and couldnt pull it off the bike fast enough. Save your money for a Renzaco (foreshadowing...)

So sweet new tires and its time to get the bike dirty! first trip off road and it was very different from the street riding that i am used to. I learned some important things:

1. dirt riding is fun.
2. Deep sand SUCKS
3. sliding the back of your bike in turns on the throttle is awesome
4. Deep sand and whoops SUCK
5. This bike will ride over anything on earth, and i mean anything.
6. Deep sand might be my mortal enemy.

I also learned that my bars are a little too low for comfortable stand up riding. they arent bad they are jsut a little too low for my arms/ legs. you knwo what that means: Bar Risers!



these are as easy to put on as it seems. pull out the bolts that hold your handle bars on. put in the metal shims until they are as high as you want them to be, put the new bolts that come with the kit in and tighten everything up. done.



They really do make a difference, your back will thank you. I found them on ebay for about 24.95 plus 5 bucks for shipping. worth every penny. the last thing you want to do while you are hanging onto your rip-snorting fire breathing dirt-death machine is be uncomfortable.

The next thing i discovered while out in the Pine Barrens was that my bike was jetted in CA and not for the east coast. this manifested itself by cuttign out on me while i was riding in my favorite enviornment: narrow trails, deep sand and whoops. this SUCKED. so when i got back i dropped my baby off with my good friends at Speed Motorcycles (i know i am putting their kids thru college). they had it ready to rock on Thursday afternoon just in time for me to load up and head to Jersey for the start of the PB500. The mistress is even better than before and runs like a top. I also learned that the bike has a DJ kit installed by a previous owner, and that it has had the paper base gasket replaced with the metal one. Neat-o!

Next up, the PB500!