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Anybody want to ride Sunday afternoon. Weather says Sunny and 44 degrees. A little cool but...... I can be ready around 1:00 PM in Liberty. I am not much on planning a dualsport route and would be glad to follow a person or group?? I do know some decent blacktops though if necessary.
Sorry but no high tech GPS stuff on this end. I know, boooring! Just let me stay in sight of your tail light. You do have a tail light on that thing, don't you?

If the weather is that nice, it sounds like a great day to ride. I may be game. I'll keep an eye on this topic.

I may be game depending on when my parents are taking off. I'll keep an eye out on here and the weather.

I'm watching this too. I'm having family up on Sat., but Sunday might work!!!

Two stations are saying 44, two are saying 49. All are saying partly cloudy to sunny from Friday until Sunday. Just got a Arai XD Helmet I need to test out.

71 on Wednesday .

Where would anyone like to meet?

carlrf wrote:Where would anyone like to meet?

Liberty

I vote we meet on the Liberty Square (old downtown) at 1 PM.

Here is a route we could do if you want. It starts on the Liberty Square and runs East and a little South to Missouri City then mostly North and a little East and works up to Excelsior Springs. The ride makes a scenic loop into downtown then there is a fast, curvy run back to Liberty on the excellent State Hwy H.

The route is under 50 miles. I don't know all the roads, but I believe a large portion will be pavement. I know it's pavement all the way from Excelsior Springs to Liberty.

We of course don't have to do this route, but it's an option.

Liberty to Excelsior Springs Route GPX File:
http://www.rideforum.net/gps/Liberty_Ex ... prings.gpx
Note: Right-click and choose to save to your harddrive.

If I'm able to come, the square sounds good to me. If you go further south and east toward 210 and Orrick there are quite a few curvy gravel roads.

Anybody else expect to ride without heated grips, jacket, etc.? I don't want to slow anybody up by trying to warm up every now and then.

tp_cracker wrote:Anybody else expect to ride without heated grips, jacket, etc.? I don't want to slow anybody up by trying to warm up every now and then.

FYI: Heated grips are cheap to buy and easy to install. I paid about $26 at Letko cycle for my heated grip kit and spent about 1 hour installing it...and that was taking my time with the install. Nice thing about a KLR is you probably have lots of room in the dash panel to add the switch. On my DR350, space is a bit limited.

Another quick option is to get "Hippo Hands". These are simply insulted covers that go on your handlebars and have a sleeve for your lower arms to go into and grab the handlebars.

Safiri provided this link in a previous topic:
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/naviga ... pCatg=6359

Not to get off topic, but I velcroed a little $3 "project box" from Radio Shack to enclose my heated grip wiring and switch. In the future, if I need more switches, there's plently of room.

JaySoy wrote:I velcroed a little $3 "project box" from Radio Shack to enclose my heated grip wiring and switch.

But doesn't that add 2.31oz to the KLR? How does it handle in sand with that extra weight?!

I added 1.78 mm of preload to the spacers in my front forks to compensate.

The square at 1:00 is fine. The ride sounds OK too but may be a bit short. I like to ride O between Orrick and Woodheights. 10 hightway at woodheights towards Richmond to C then C is fun North to Lawson. But once you get to Lawson it could get boring, but then we could take gravel back if anybody knows a way???? I really don't care and will be happy to be out with any of you, where ever we go.

I won't have heated grips but do plan to run the vest!

troy wrote:I vote we meet on the Liberty Square (old downtown) at 1 PM.

Get on that route with the ole GPS Troy. Doesn't matter to me where we go either, just gotta get permission from the boss. I'll gut it out as far as warmth goes, i've ridden into work on 152 when it was 25 so I'm sure I can handle 44 for medium periods of time. We gonna do any geo-caching while we're out and about Troy? That would definately give me time to warm up.

The gravel roads between Orrick and Richmond are good. Rusty (motorcyclecloseouts.com) led a gravel ride from Liberty to Richmond that included some good roads in that area. It was a rather long day, though, and since we are starting after 1PM, that's why I kept my route under 50 miles.

Having led over a dozen rides in 2006, it is my experience that I'm the last rider to get weary of the riding, and that apparently most people prefer less miles than I do. With my little DR350, it's not the miles that kill me, it's the type of riding that makes a difference. If I try to pound my little bike at 65MPH on pavement, the bike and I are exhausted within 30 miles. On the other hand, we can do 250 miles of gravel and dirt roads at 40 - 50 mph and love it. Yes, still exhausted at the end, but the difference is the big smile plastered on my face.

My preference is for as little pavement as possible and my routes tend to have a lot of turns, so 100 miles of my route is much slower than 100 miles of county highways.

You mention C from Richmond up to Lawson---that does look like fun--similar to H from Excelsior Springs to Liberty perhaps.

Unfortunately, I have a rather lousy bike for a high-speed, highway loop like that. It would be tedious for me and hard on the little motor. Most of you guys have nice bikes for that kind of a ride--and you should do it. I hope to pick up a second bike someday. If somebody wants to loan me a GS or even a crotch-rocket for the weekend, you know how to reach me.

I have to participate in some server updates this wknd. If all goes well, I'll only have about 30 minutes of testing to do Sun morning. If things go "normal", I'll be stuck at the office fixing things instead of riding.

I'll just keep an eye on this topic and join if my schedule and the route allow. If you guys end up doing a nice highway loop, I may instead hit some gravel roads and find a geocache or two.

I would love to do as much gravel as possible also Troy. My new back tire needs to be broken in on gravel. It's already had its fair share of pavement.

tp_cracker wrote:I would love to do as much gravel as possible also Troy. My new back tire needs to be broken in on gravel. It's already had its fair share of pavement.

Sounds good, tp. We'll just see what people want to do. Maybe we'll have two or 3 rides for people to choose by Sun. Everyone should definitely ride the kinds of roads and pace that they want---not feel obligated to ride with any particular person or group.

On a side note: I'm really pleased with the "success" RideForum.NET has seen. For our purposes, "success" can only be defined as having an active, happy community with lots of good discussions. Discussions that lead ultimately to more riding!