KamoKLR

Today, I'll be working on plans and details for the Devil's Creek Dual Sport Rally this Friday through Sunday (March 1-3) in Brooksville, Florida. Devil's Creek is the primo of all rides/rallies in all of Florida, filling their 175 rider registration limit within hours of opening registration each year. This year, registration opened at midnight January 2, 2019 and closed 14 hours later.

This year I'm working up my plans with a very heavy heart. My 23 year old son, Samuel, who has been with me at this rally the last four years will not be with me this year or any future year. I lost him in a motorcycle crash on June 2, 2018.

Nine months after the crash that took my son from his mother, sister and me, I remain under a gag order as lawyers banter the details. So I can't tell you what happened or what I think about it. What I will tell you is that the kid had three jobs as he tried to fund a piece of property for his future and was on his way to work at Cycle Gear in Tampa. He wasn't out screwing around. He rarely rode streets; he was at home on the dirt trails. He was just on his way to work using one of our motorcycles, for no other reason than motorcycles are cheaper on gas as he saved his money.

Yes, I've had a very heavy heart for many months. He was really my only friend.

Immediately after the crash that took his life, I promptly sold off all of our motorcycles, believing I'd never ride again, including the 2016 KLR650 that was half his to begin with. He could make the KLR650 work on technical trails. He rode that KLR650 on tracks that would scare away experienced riders on two-fifties. He'd become well-known, almost an expert, on the southeast rally circuit.

As discussed in posts elsewhere in this blog, after selling it, I re-acquired the KLR650 in October after the second owner, a close family friend, blew up the top end. I re-acquired it and rebuilt it. I rebuilt the top end. I replaced everything that needed replacement; new crash bars, new tires, everything. Took the better part of three months, but I got it taken care of. Why? Because I just couldn't let my son's primary dual sport motorcycle come to that kind of an end.

At the same time, working on rebuilding the KLR650 (and the passage of time since my son's passing) sort of brought me back to my senses about what motorcycles really mean to me. Motorcycles have been a big part of my life for the better part of five decades. I started on the trails in Upstate New York and moved to motocross. Unadila in South New Berlin was my home track. I moved to road bikes to go off to college and my early working years, but found myself back on the trails in the early 80s with a Honda XR500R that I just loved. From there, it was back and forth between road bikes, dirt bikes, dual sport bikes, adventure bikes (Tampa to Alaska and back) to sport touring (cross country east west twice and an Iron Butt). And, most importantly, motorcycling was something that my son and I shared for many, many years. I was wrong to abandon motorcycling and sell my motorcycles. I wasn't thinking straight. There's just no way Sam would have wanted me to do that.

As December 2018 closed in and all the rally announcements started popping up on my computer, I finally decided that I really needed to be on the trails again...but not on the KLR650. It's a great motorcycle, but it is too heavy for me on the rally circuit. On the KLR, I'd be stuck doing the adventure rather than the dual sport tracks. I'd be stuck riding with the seven hundred pounders on lightly dusted roads. That's not my style.

The rally bike that I chased my son around on the last four years was a DR650; much lighter, much more trail oriented. I'd ride that in any OHV park. I really liked the DR650 and would have been looking for one of those.

However, while at my dealer in November, working on one of the final repair items the KLR650 needed, I noticed that Kawasaki now offered a Digi Camo KLR250. At 300 pounds wet, it was like the KLR650Lite. While a two-fiddy ain't gonna have many of the capabilities of the larger bore thumpers, it certainly had the look.

On December 5th I bought the 2019 KLX250 and was riding the Wild Bear Safari in New Smyrna Beach on December 8th and 9th. From there we went to the Polar Bear in Keystone Heights (Gainsville) in the beginning of January and the ADVshit weekend ride in Clewiston at the beginning of February. Beyond the organized rides, the KLX and I have been mapping some of the smaller Florida Forest Trails. This weekend we'll be spending three days on one of the more technical tracks in the Devil's Creek Rally. I think I've found something in the KLX, that I can work with.

So where does that leave the KLR650? Well, honestly, it could just sit right there; a monument to my best dual sport buddy. However, I was approached by an individual from our trail circuit that got wind of the whole story about the top end blow up and rebuild and wanted it for adventure riding. With a much clearer head, I now feel that keeping the KLR650 for nothing more than as a monument to my son would not be something he would be keen to. Rather, while I believe Sammy wouldn't want for the KLR650 what the prior owner did, he would definitely want it used by an enthusiast for the rest of its natural existence. If that can't be me, then it needs to be someone else.

Yesterday afternoon, during a most appropriate heavy rain, I parted with the KLR650 for the second time. I hope I've done the right thing.

2019 Rally Calendar - In Process

My 2019 rally calendar kicked off in early January with the Polar Bear Adventure ride out of Keystone Heights, Florida and covered the northeastern section of Ocala National Forest. That was a great ride, particularly following the Wild Bear Safari out of New Smyrna Beach that had us in the southeastern section of ONF.

Looking forward, I'm working on 2019 rally calendar. Here's where I'm at:

February 8-10 The ADVShit Figure it Out Rally, Dinner Island Ranch WMA, Okaloacoochee Slough Forest, and Spirit of the Wild WMA, Clewiston, Florida Area. This ride is an impromptu event that was organized to replace the annual South Florida Winter Rally. Last time I did this rally was 2016. Not a hard track, very adventurish...except his track includes the highly unpredictable Jane's Scenic Highway. Here's a photo of my son on the KLR on Jane's back in 2017. Gonna get our feet wet.

March 1-3 Devils Creek DixieDualSport, Brooksville, Florida. Devils Creek is the gold standard dual sport ride in Florida. To give you and idea how popular this event is, it sold out its 150 spots 14 hours after the registration opened. This will be my fourth Devi's Creek. My first year I was on the KLR, the next two years I was on my DR650. This year I'll be doing the nasty swamp trail on the KLX250.

April 12-14 Spring Southern Discovery Rally, Hohenwald, Tennessee. Hohenwald is just south of Nashville and it takes me two days to get there. However, it's worth it. This will be my third trip, having missed all of last year. This is one of the most fun dual sport rallies that I participate in. The tracks are outstanding.

April 26-28 Perry Mountain Tower Run, Stanton, Alabama. The Tower Run kicks off the 2019 American Motorcycle Association Dual Sport Series. It's the closest event that I can get to on their schedule this year. This will be my first time doing the Tower Run. It is known to be a very challenging and technical "enduroish" event.

June 7-9 The Hooch, Greater Georgia Recreational Trail Riders Association, Suches, Georgia. Registration is not yet open, but I look forward to returning to the amazing North Georgia Mountains. The event is hosted out of very remote Two Wheels at Suchs Motorcycle Camp. It's simply an amazing track, with some optional OHV tracks. This was the location of my famous collision in the creek photo (below). No harm, no foul...it's was the guy's impatient daughter that bounced off of him and was sent careening down the creek.

That's all I have committed to at this time. I'm currently reviewing the 2019 Cherokee Chuck Calendar of Events. I've done the Road and Trails Rally and the BRR Blue Ridge. I'll probably focus on his rides for the Fall Season Rides.

2019 KLX 250

While at my dealer, Tampa Bay Powersports, delivering and loading the KLR650 for the water-pump work discussed in the last restoration post, I noticed that Kawasaki now offered a KLX 250 in Camo. Kool looking bike.

Over the next couple weeks I talked myself into buying it with an eye toward using the lighter dual sport for the Florida Rally tracks. Due to the deep sand and heavy mud, I usually get trapped in the Discovery or B/C groups with the KLR in Florida; some other places also. Plus, I'm just getting old; turning 60 here shortly. The -130 pounds that the KLX gives up to the KLR will ease the pain so to speak. 

So I picked up the KLX on December 5, ran it through some quick trials in Richloam WMA (Brooksville) and was off to the Wild Bear Rally in Ocala National Forest on the 7th. 

I've added a link to the new blog in the sidebar.

Following is a copy of the post from the Wild Bear Safari held in the Ocala National Forest on December 7-8, 2018.

I completed my second Wild Bear Safari Dual Sport Rally this past weekend, December 7-9. The rally tracked some great forest roads and trails through Ocala National Forest on Saturday and New Smyrna Beach on Sunday (before we got rained out on Sunday).

My original plan was to use my KLR650 for the rally, but having picked up the KLX just a few days earlier I thought I'd give it a whorl...even though it only had 20 miles on it. Of course, I had to keep with the running in requirements, but that really wasn't too much of a problem. One of these dual sport rallies, with the constantly changing rpm levels, is probably a good way to do the running in.

Here are some photos of the rally:

So this is my routine setup at the rallies that I attend. I have a 5' x 8' enclosed utility trailer to transport the bike and that holds all my stuff. It then serves as my camper for evenings. If I don't have electric hookup, I carry my 2000 Watt Predator Generator that I got at Harbor Freight. It's good for lights and fans, but not anything heated. It did a good job lighting the Christmas lights on my canopy.

This was the rider's meeting on Saturday.

Most anything here off road in Florida looks like this. You learn to ride in sand...or you ride with the Harley guys and Sport Bike Squids on the streets.

Okay, so I usually try and find good photo ops. Sometimes I do better jobs than others, so I stopped here with an eye toward getting some action in this dip on film. Everyone took the bypass. If I wasn't running in my little KLX I'd definitely have rolled through this.

This restaurant was in Crescent City, Florida. Wow! What an awesome place. I wish we had something like this around where I live.

Lastly, the Wild Bear was also a Toys for Tots Donation Site. I donated a couple nice starter fishing sets.

Enduro Engineering Roll Chart Holder Review

Enduro Engineering Roll Chart Holder Review
Side Loading Chart Holder

A couple weeks ago, I purchased an Enduro Engineering Roll Chart Holder; $26 from Amazon. I normally get the cheaper MSR or Moose chart holders with the snap-down lids, but I wanted those nifty aluminum knobs this time around.

Side Loading vs. Lid:

The Enduro Engineering Holder is side loaded and secured with a bolt and wing nut. The cheaper MSR and Moose Trophy roll charts have snap-on lids. My experience (and the reason I currently need a roll chart) is that the tabs on the lids snap. If you can catch that in time, you can wrap a rubber band around it. If not, as I've experienced before, the the lid goes flying. That, of course won't be a problem with the Enduro Engineering model.

Casing:

The casing of the Eduro Engineering is a very strong polycarbonate. It's solid. It's going to take some good whacks by tree branches/brush sailing down the trail.

The window is clear making the chart highly visible.

No Ram Solution:

Ram is the gold standard in all things that attach to a motorcycle handlebar. However, not dissimilar to the cheaper models, the Enduro Engineering did not provide for a Ram Mounting Solution. Rather, it has the typical rubber hose and hose clamp.

The reason a Ram Solution is important is it's a much more "flexible" solution. It also allows the chart holder to be raised up off the bar so as to NOT have to look down at the chart at speed on the trails.

To mount Ram Ball, I had to drill out the two rivets and drill new holes on either side of the rivet holes. While drilling is from the back,when drilling I placed a protective surface to prevent damage to the face of the chart holder when the drill bits pop through.

Of course, Ram Balls come in a number of shapes and sizes. I used this one.

Important note...mount the Ram Mount side to side or the bolt heads will interfere with the paper chart and exacerbate the issue discussed next.

Does not hold enough chart:

My first real issue with the Enduro Engineering Chart Holder occurred before I even got on the trail. It didn't hold the whole day's ride in Ocala National Forest for the Wild Bear Safari.

The day's chart was only 10-11 pages cut; that's not a lot of chart but it didn't hold it. Never had that problem with the MSR or Moose Trophy.

The Enduro Engineering Chart container doesn't seem any smaller than the Moose Trophy. After staring at it for a moment, I noticed that the problem is that the connecting rollers (to which the charts are taped) are not in the center of the container. Rather, from the face of the holder, the rollers are about two thirds down the side. Wow! that gives up a lot of layers of paper!

The only thing I could do was split the chart into two pieces (at the lunch point) and then change out the chart to finish the day. No, not a big problem, but I go to these events to socialize, have a nice lunch. I really don't want to be carrying tape and farting around with the roll chart.

Chart Advances on its Own!

Now, I've actually heard of this issue happening after a lot of use and wear that the rollers impart on the holes or, in some cases, the grommets that the rollers pass through. However, this one was new out of the blister pack...and, yeah!...it was a little loose.

The trick to fix a worn roll chart is to wrap a rubber band or large o-ring around the knobs. Well, as fortune would have it, I had a rubber band around the second half of the rally's chart so I put it on and...Viola!...my expensive new chart didn't advance on its own for the rest of the day.

Conclusion

On the construction, it would be good if Enduro Engineering would recognize that most of us like to use Ram Solutions and set the rivet holes consistent with where a Ram Ball would mount. That is, it would avoid the need to drill holes and risk damage to the holder.

Also, on the construction, the manufacturer needs to move the rollers to the middle of the chart box, not down near the bottom. As it is, the chart box does not hold enough chart.

Overall, the construction and appearance are very nice, but functionally, I'd rather have a chart holder that holds a full day of chart and will probably go back to one of those....even if the quality of the lid construction isn't as good.


LINK to Installation Instructions.


Update:

I noticed that Enduro Engineering also sells a Roll Chart Holder with a Lid for $22.95. They also sell replacement lids for $8.95. I don't think MSR or Moose sell a replacement lid. Definitely a good idea there EE.

Registered

First stop in 2019 will be the Polar Bear Adventure Ride up near Gainsville. However, the biggest event of the season for me is Devils Creek in Brooksville, Florida, which marks the fist leg of the AMA Dual Sport Series. It runs the first Friday-Sunday of March. I always worry that I'm going to miss the registration window that's usually open for around a day and a half before the 150 maximum slots are filled. I had it on my calendar...registration starts January 2, 2019.

Then out of the blue, yesterday at noon, the organizer of this event opened up registration to the first 25 riders or 10 PM, whichever came first. The 25 slots went in three hours...a weekday afternoon. Fortunately, I was just sitting here at my computer when it came across and I was the first to sign in. So I got that out of the way.

Good grief they increased the registration fee from $150 to $180.

UPDATE:

LOL!!

Wild Bear Safari (ONF)

I completed my second Wild Bear Safari Dual Sport Rally this past weekend, December 7-9. However, I ran it on my recently purchased 2019 Camo KLX 250, a motorcycle that I will probably use going forward in the Florida sand box.

The rally tracked some great forest roads and trails through Ocala National Forest on Saturday and New Smyrna Beach on Sunday (before we got rained out on Sunday).

My original plan was to use my KLR650 for the rally, but having picked up the KLX just a few days earlier I thought I'd give it a whorl...even though it only had 20 miles on it. Of course, I had to keep with the running in requirements, but that really wasn't too much of a problem. One of these dual sport rallies, with the constantly changing rpm levels, is probably a good way to do the running in.

Here are some photos of the rally:

So this is my routine setup at the rallies that I attend. I have a 5' x 8' enclosed utility trailer to transport the bike and that holds all my stuff. It then serves as my camper for evenings. If I don't have electric hookup, I carry my 2000 Watt Predator Generator that I got at Harbor Freight. It's good for lights and fans, but not anything heated. It did a good job lighting the Christmas lights on my canopy.

This was the rider's meeting on Saturday.

Most anything here off road in Florida looks like this. You learn to ride in sand...or you ride with the Harley guys and Sport Bike Squids on the streets.

Okay, so I usually try and find good photo ops. Sometimes I do better jobs than others, so I stopped here with an eye toward getting some action in this dip on film. Everyone took the bypass. If I wasn't running in my little KLX I'd definitely have rolled through this.

This restaurant was in Crescent City, Florida. Wow! What an awesome place. I wish we had something like this around where I live.

Lastly, the Wild Bear was also a Toys for Tots Donation Site. I donated a couple nice starter fishing sets.