Mark Gates Motorsports

What else can you do?

Luke brought up his KLR and we headed out for a day of fun.  It started outside of Gordon with some forest trails and some splashing in the puddles when we came across this cool little remnant of a stripping pit.  It was some small hills but include a cool table top jump.

The day then progressed into a full blown mud fest.  With some pretty big climbs thrown in for good measure.  I did climb the hill shown behind Luke.   If only the batteries hadn’t died there would have been a show of 4 attempts by me and Luke before making the top.

And we then finished the day with some rocky trails and a bunch more mud. 

Great Day.

I have been on the road way way to much this year.  The KLR is on slicks but I need some dirt!!!

Where are where are my D606s?

480 miles from my door to the beach house.  I decided that would be a good test for the KLR to find out how it would perform at highway speeds.  So off I went at 6:30am with nothing but four lane highway in my future.   5,000rpm equated to about 72mph so I decided that was what I would run and it pretty much stayed there for 9 hours.  The only problem I had was when I hit a dead stop due to a crash and it was getting real close to the hot line on the thermometer.  But since it is a dual sport, when it got close to hot I pulled intot he median and rode till it cooled down. 

The week at the beach was great.  I really didn’t get to do any beach riding between a battery that decided to die, road tires, and the beaches being closed to vehicles but I had a great time fishing and playing with the family.

The ride home was the same as going down.  5,000rp, for 9 hours with no problems.  48 mpg and a sore butt.  I am now confident that I can ride it to James Bay and back in a week.

Check it out

I leave for the OBX in 7 days.  Somehow I was able to work out a way to ride the KLR to the beach, 480 miles.  This is really a test for the week of July 4th when I am planning to head for James Bay and the farthest I have taken the KLR in a day so far is 200 miles.  I really need to see what I can do on it before leaving on a 3000 mile journey although after consecutive 800 mile days on the sportster the last time I went out west, I think I will make it.

I did order Fieldsheer pant and Thor 50/50 boots today.  The thought of having to ride down route 95 past Baltimore and DC as the only way to make the run in one day puts a little worry in me for some reason.  I don’t know if it is the KLR being slow or not being on an interstate for more than a year, but I am going with some extra protection.

It will all be worth it when I am slamming down the beach!!