New Member from Dickinson, ND

[Scoobynut]

Hey all,

I stumbled across your forum over on ADV rider, and I think it's really great that there are some dual-sport riders fairly close to home.  A little bit about myself:  I bought my first dual-sport bike in '08 (see below), really just so I could go ride the gravel roads around here with my son on his dirtbike.  The WRR was the first bike I'd ever owned that wasn't just a pure streetbike.  Like I said, I just bought it to putt around on the gravel roads around here.  Last spring, a friend of mine from Minot, ND who owns a KLR 650 said we should take a trip on our bikes.  "Oh yeah?" I says, 'Where to."  Well long story short, we rode from Dickinson down to the Hills, over to the Big Horns in Wyoming, and then on to Red Lodge, MT, for the Beartooth Beemers rally, 1600 miles in all.  Honestly, before the trip, a gravel road was the most challenging thing I'd ever ridden on a motorcycle.  At first some of the trails scared the sh*t out of me, but as the trip progressed I got a little more daring, to the extent that we climbed and descended some pretty gnarly (at least for me) mountain trails, and even did a 100' stream crossing up to the hubs on my bike.  I didn't dump the bike once (knock on wood), and I think two things were my salvation as far as that goes -- 1.)  The WRR's incredible suspension kind of does the work for you and 2.)  I've done some pretty hairy mountain biking in the past and I think all that experience really helped my bike control.  I'm 46 years old and let me tell you, riding that far on a 250 takes it out of you.  Farthest I rode in one day was just short of 400 miles, from the Beartooths to Dickinson, interstate the whole way!  Anyways, needless to say, I'm hooked on the dual-sport thing.  I have a '09 KLR 650 on layaway for the longer trips, but I think the WRR will be ideal for the Hills.

Myself and the guy I went on the trip with are hoping to make your June get-together in the Hills.  I look forward to meeting all of you down there.  Name's John.  That's my buddy Jeff's KLR in the 2nd photo, taken near a fire lookout in the Big Horns.  Note the BBQ grill wing-nutted to his ammo-can panniers.  Classic KLR farkle, eh?  1st photo was taken in the Hills, in the parking lot of that house that has a little Yamaha hanging from the tree.  I think it's near Lead?

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[fringefan]

Congrats and welcome. Amazing what a little mt biking can do to help your skills on a dual sport. That WRR is a pretty nice trail bike but I can not imagine riding that 400 miles in a day.

[Hank]

Welcome!   That's great.

You have your WRR setup about like I have my DRZ setup for the hauls across the state.   Did you also have a seat pad?    I ran the ~400 out to the hills last fall in just over 6 hrs on the DRZ, and it wasn't bad but I had a Walmart ATV seat pad with an extra inch of foam under it.    I have a similar small windshield and that helps a ton!

Hope to see you in the hills.    We had a few other NoDaks out last fall too.

[loingrader]

welcome.

mountain biking goes a long way in helping one be a better rider off road.  having a bike like the wrr doesn't hurt either.  it is an ideal bike for the hills, like you say.

klr's are awesome and many of us ride them.  you need to rig up a trailer so you can pull your wr behind your klr, down to the june rally.  then you have the best of both worlds.

hope to see you in june.

[Scoobynut]

Thanks for the welcome guys.  I just wish we had something like DDSR up here.  If us NoDakkers would get our heads out of our arses and get organized, I think we could do some pretty cool trail riding around the Badlands and Little Missouri Grasslands.  Anyways, I bought a Grasslands map and a Gazetteer atlas, so I'm going to do some scouting and see if I can't connect some trails...

Regarding the seat pad, I was such a newb to the dual sport thing, that it didn't occur to me to put a pad on the seat!

When I got home from the 400 mile day, I sat down to my desk to catch up on emails etc., and I got such a hellacious cramp in my hamstring -- oh sh*t it was painful -- that in my haste to straighten my leg out I kicked so hard that I flew away from the desk and out of my chair -- it had those little wheels on the legs -- and I ended up on the other side of the room, lol, lying flat on my back.  I had a good laugh about it after the pain went away.

So yeah, I'll be lookin' into one of those pad thingies if I ride the WR any distance next time.

[Hank]

I think Scubamoto (member here) has some sort of a forum going for the NoDakkers.  Not sure what its called.
He's from Bismarck I think and I believe the other guys that came down were also from Bismarck.

Yeah the seat pad is a life saver.  I couldn't get one at the local Walmart but from of the Rapid guys were nice enough to send me one from theirs.  I glued a 1" piece of extra foam to the bottom of the pad and the seat is down right decent now.  Comes off in about 10 seconds too.

[Scoobynut]

Thanks, Hank.  I wasn't aware there was a ND forum, I'll have to look into.  I'll also look into whether I can order one of those pads from Wal-Mart online. 

[The Yeti]

Yeah! Another WRR rider!!   

That seat is a plank, ain't it?  I use an air pad (made for ATVs) that I got at wal-mart with an Alaska sheepskin over that, pretty comfy.  Makes for a considerably taller seat, though.

Looking forward to the WRR rally this June!   

[Scoobynut]

Hey Yeti, I checked out some of your WRR adventures before I introduced myself.  Hope your hand is all better now. 

Yeah, the seat ain't the best for travelling.  I still Mtn. bike a lot in the summer so the WRR seat isn't too bad in comparison to one of those seats -- I'm sure the cycling helped my ass survive the trip.  I'm only 5'10" so a pad might put the seat a little too high.  I did do the factory lowering thing, but the bike is still pretty tall for me.  I'm thinking about getting one of those Spiral step seats from Wheeling Cycle Supply as it lowers the seat another inch or so and then my son could also ride the bike.  Then it might be low enough for me to use a pad on it for myself.  We'll see. 

I'm really looking forward to getting down to the hills again.

[fringefan]

If there is not a ND forum let us know and we can make a section here if your interested. When we started this thing it was just intended more for the upper midwest so it just happens that most of us are from SD. 

[Scoobynut]

Thanks fringefan.  I thoght there was a ND dual-sport organization out of Bismarck, but am not sure, and haven't ever seen a forum for them, but I will look into it.