Fontanaman
Robin Trower
I choose Saturday July 21st as my first ride on the DR650 I bought last week. The primary goal was Stocking Meadows a remote place in north central Idaho. It is so darn remote Google Maps as no images. Very odd.
How did I choose Stocking Meadows? Well I whipped out my Benchmark Maps Idaho Road and Recreation Atlas and on page 33 there it was. I like high mountain meadows they are very scenic.
So I laid in an ambitious route and had 3 bail out points. I brought tools to fix a flat and Camelback with water and some food. I even brought my FJR hat but forgot to get it out for a photo.
Here is the route. The magenta is the planned route while the green are the deviations from the plan.
I ride I-90 to Wallace Idaho a distance of 80 miles or so. The little DR was willing. For some reason the song Willin' as sung by Linda Ronstadt comes to mind. Man she sure could sing, what a voice. The ride to Wallace was just fine. I was doing about 63 mph and DR was happy. So was I. Just slow down and enjoy life. No hurries. I am retired.
I gas up in Wallace and found the gravel road south of town. I stop for this photo op of the first time on gravel with my new toy.
Inspired by Pants.
So the first 5 miles are like this. Nice and easy. The handlebars rock a bit back and forth and the DR skitters down the road.
It was supposed to be like this most of the way to Avery but the Zumo decides the shorted distance is a 4x4 high clearance road. Now I am up on the pegs on a goat trail. I am in first and second gear. The DR has some torque and handles this junk very well. It has more capability and your truly.
I follow this for about 1.5 miles before turning around and when I do the crazy Zumo reroutes me to the way I wanted to go in the first place.
Here are a couple of photos of the goat trail.
Technical riding for sure. Talk about getting some experience with the new bike quickly.
Back on the easy peasy super highway things get back to normal.
On the way to Avery Idaho there was about three of these. I get a splash of gas in Avery Montana.
After leaving Avery I was about to get a surprise. The Benchmark Maps have two definitions for gravel roads. Unpaved road and High Clearance 4WD road. A small dark red line defines one while the other is a red thin line. It is nearly impossible to see which is which. So I choose a route that had a lot of High Clearance 4 WD. About 15 miles in it goes from easy peasy to up on the pegs. My street riding boots don't have a thick enough sole. Note to self - need some dirt riding boots with a good thick sole for stand up work.
Typical High Clearance 4WD road. In the photos you can see a 4 wheeler. There were lots of this out here. I was not alone.
And it was scenic.
But this was wearing me out. Somehow I missed a turn and the Zumo rerouted me or who know. I was on the Stocking Meadows road then took a right to the Fishhook Gold Road - wrong choice. I figured out what happened at home and have turned off auto recalculate. A didn't get to Stocking Meadows but there will be other days.
Anyway it was all good. I click on the GPS button go home getting a response you will be home in two hours at 5:00pm. I say yes please. The last insult of the gravel road was the last 2 miles or so. Road crews had applied 6 or 8 inch layer of basalt 1/2 crush gravel. Had to stand on the pegs to navigate this junk then it was pavement.
So what did I learn? I looked carefully at the map to find a lot of the non paved roads in Idaho are High Clearance. I will need knob tires to be safe. Th DR has Warp 9 one inch handle bar risers and my hands are higher than my elbows so my wrists got sore at 175 miles. The bars were about right standing but I can work with bars an inch lower. Next ergo issue is the seat. It was good for 175 miles. A Russell is in my future and I want it one inch higher or a bit more to get over the handle bars and provides some additional space between the seat and the pegs. Anybody interested in a Sargent seat?
I road about 225 miles on a shakedown ride. Not bad for a retired old man. I had zero bobbles had a good day and learned a lot.
How did I choose Stocking Meadows? Well I whipped out my Benchmark Maps Idaho Road and Recreation Atlas and on page 33 there it was. I like high mountain meadows they are very scenic.
So I laid in an ambitious route and had 3 bail out points. I brought tools to fix a flat and Camelback with water and some food. I even brought my FJR hat but forgot to get it out for a photo.
Here is the route. The magenta is the planned route while the green are the deviations from the plan.
I ride I-90 to Wallace Idaho a distance of 80 miles or so. The little DR was willing. For some reason the song Willin' as sung by Linda Ronstadt comes to mind. Man she sure could sing, what a voice. The ride to Wallace was just fine. I was doing about 63 mph and DR was happy. So was I. Just slow down and enjoy life. No hurries. I am retired.
I gas up in Wallace and found the gravel road south of town. I stop for this photo op of the first time on gravel with my new toy.
Inspired by Pants.
So the first 5 miles are like this. Nice and easy. The handlebars rock a bit back and forth and the DR skitters down the road.
It was supposed to be like this most of the way to Avery but the Zumo decides the shorted distance is a 4x4 high clearance road. Now I am up on the pegs on a goat trail. I am in first and second gear. The DR has some torque and handles this junk very well. It has more capability and your truly.
I follow this for about 1.5 miles before turning around and when I do the crazy Zumo reroutes me to the way I wanted to go in the first place.
Here are a couple of photos of the goat trail.
Technical riding for sure. Talk about getting some experience with the new bike quickly.
Back on the easy peasy super highway things get back to normal.
On the way to Avery Idaho there was about three of these. I get a splash of gas in Avery Montana.
After leaving Avery I was about to get a surprise. The Benchmark Maps have two definitions for gravel roads. Unpaved road and High Clearance 4WD road. A small dark red line defines one while the other is a red thin line. It is nearly impossible to see which is which. So I choose a route that had a lot of High Clearance 4 WD. About 15 miles in it goes from easy peasy to up on the pegs. My street riding boots don't have a thick enough sole. Note to self - need some dirt riding boots with a good thick sole for stand up work.
Typical High Clearance 4WD road. In the photos you can see a 4 wheeler. There were lots of this out here. I was not alone.
And it was scenic.
But this was wearing me out. Somehow I missed a turn and the Zumo rerouted me or who know. I was on the Stocking Meadows road then took a right to the Fishhook Gold Road - wrong choice. I figured out what happened at home and have turned off auto recalculate. A didn't get to Stocking Meadows but there will be other days.
Anyway it was all good. I click on the GPS button go home getting a response you will be home in two hours at 5:00pm. I say yes please. The last insult of the gravel road was the last 2 miles or so. Road crews had applied 6 or 8 inch layer of basalt 1/2 crush gravel. Had to stand on the pegs to navigate this junk then it was pavement.
So what did I learn? I looked carefully at the map to find a lot of the non paved roads in Idaho are High Clearance. I will need knob tires to be safe. Th DR has Warp 9 one inch handle bar risers and my hands are higher than my elbows so my wrists got sore at 175 miles. The bars were about right standing but I can work with bars an inch lower. Next ergo issue is the seat. It was good for 175 miles. A Russell is in my future and I want it one inch higher or a bit more to get over the handle bars and provides some additional space between the seat and the pegs. Anybody interested in a Sargent seat?
I road about 225 miles on a shakedown ride. Not bad for a retired old man. I had zero bobbles had a good day and learned a lot.
