So, this past winter, I was thrilled to get an invite from one of the local New England FJR guys, We'll call him Bill (mostly because that's his name) , to go out on a multi-day, primarily dirt roads ride, up through New Hampshire and Vermont, with the main goal being to ride up the Bailey Hazen Road from the New Hampster / VT border to the Canuck border, and then to hook up with the infamous Puppy Dog Route and ride that all the way south to Taxachusetts.
Bill, while owning and riding an FJR in recent years, has begun to bleed Katoom orange. He's a maniacally hard working accountant for most of the year, which means that after the April 15th rush, he wants to "get out and get away" to something that doesn't look like a 1040. On this kind of a ride, you want to keep the posse really small. As it turned out we had 8 guys (of wildly varying backgrounds), on 8 bikes (of also wild variation) and it was... like... the perfect number. Bill, and accountant? Who'd a thunk it? A few of us have some ties to the FJR Forum.
Any more than the 8 FF's would have been cumbersome. As it was, we would sometimes string out 15 minutes or more due to differences in riding abilities or (more likely) riding goals.
This was my first multi-day, off road extravaganza. As I told the other guys on the trip, I've got a lot of dirt biking experience in my (distant) past, but none of that was on a 500 lb Man-strom loaded with camping gear. But as it turned out, none of that was an issue, and the whole ride turned into the best damn time I've had with my pants on in recent memory.
I brought along a camera, but (as I am wont to) didn't use it much. I was too damn busy having fun. Besides, I saw all the other guys wielding cameras and helmet GoPro Hero cams, so I figured it was all getting pretty well documented.
One of the guys on the ride (Old Stone Jim) did a pretty comprehensive write up of it on the ADV riders forum here , thankfully saving me from having to do it.
It is surely not worthy of the full "ADV" title, but for a bunch of old coots, we did OK.
My main point in posting at all, is to encourage other foks to go ahead and open up your horizons. Stuff like this can be fun, fun fun... And I think that the more you ride on slippery, rocky, muddy, snotty dirty roads, the more confident you will feel with good dry rubber on a good smooth road.
Anyway... check out the link above. Hopefully it is enjoyable.
Another link to OSJ's Ride Report
Bill, while owning and riding an FJR in recent years, has begun to bleed Katoom orange. He's a maniacally hard working accountant for most of the year, which means that after the April 15th rush, he wants to "get out and get away" to something that doesn't look like a 1040. On this kind of a ride, you want to keep the posse really small. As it turned out we had 8 guys (of wildly varying backgrounds), on 8 bikes (of also wild variation) and it was... like... the perfect number. Bill, and accountant? Who'd a thunk it? A few of us have some ties to the FJR Forum.
Any more than the 8 FF's would have been cumbersome. As it was, we would sometimes string out 15 minutes or more due to differences in riding abilities or (more likely) riding goals.
This was my first multi-day, off road extravaganza. As I told the other guys on the trip, I've got a lot of dirt biking experience in my (distant) past, but none of that was on a 500 lb Man-strom loaded with camping gear. But as it turned out, none of that was an issue, and the whole ride turned into the best damn time I've had with my pants on in recent memory.
I brought along a camera, but (as I am wont to) didn't use it much. I was too damn busy having fun. Besides, I saw all the other guys wielding cameras and helmet GoPro Hero cams, so I figured it was all getting pretty well documented.
One of the guys on the ride (Old Stone Jim) did a pretty comprehensive write up of it on the ADV riders forum here , thankfully saving me from having to do it.
It is surely not worthy of the full "ADV" title, but for a bunch of old coots, we did OK.My main point in posting at all, is to encourage other foks to go ahead and open up your horizons. Stuff like this can be fun, fun fun... And I think that the more you ride on slippery, rocky, muddy, snotty dirty roads, the more confident you will feel with good dry rubber on a good smooth road.
Anyway... check out the link above. Hopefully it is enjoyable.
Another link to OSJ's Ride Report
