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Who's up for the Raster route again?

Can you believe this will be our 10th annual High Sierra?! We have a pretty cool title sponsor this year too; Harley Davidson. They'll be in attendance and you'll get to see their new Pan America. To make it extra special, we're adding a dinner Thursday and breakfast Friday as well as a single prize drawing both Thursday and Friday nights. I'm still finalizing costs so don't have a price or ticket link up yet. Keep in mind last year's price ($178) was lowered due to covid and before I knew the food costs. So this year will back to "normal" but also reflect 2 additional meals and two years of their price increases. I do promise to offset that with what Harley Davidson is contributing though.

Do I get unsupervised alone time with a new PanAm? 😈

So long as it doesn't lead us into the fiery pits of hell again...

I tried wiring the tach sensor the way they said by wrapping it around the plug but it never worked. Didn’t really matter since I already have a tachometer. 990 is what I’ll ride for High Sierra. That is, if it still runs when I get back [emoji23] Tom Palmer from Motorrad Angels got here last night and we will do a week of riding around Costa Rica and then I will move onto Panama. I may hit an island on the Caribbean side called Bocas del Toro but not sure yet. I’m not that into the island resort feel. A guy I met on Instagram has a vacation place in Coronado on the Pacific side he offered me so I may be there a day or two while I figure out the shipping of my bike to Panama.

Thanks for the updates buddy! Good to hear you are healthy and living it up!!! Good to see the Voyager pro in good use too! I removed the tach gauge sensor. It worked for a bit. But does not now. Perhaps an update will fix that. I’m still riding the 990 and lovin it. If you need us to take your 990 for a rip I’m sure @jasonraster and I can do that for you while you extend your trip due to the COVID circumstances! Be safe, eat well and look forward to the next adventure!

Ride to Irazu volcano yesterday with some locals and then a bbq at a practice facility with a lot of nice riders. Volcano is 11,300’.

Yes, all good thanks! So, I was supposed to be in Panama by now but Tom recovered from his covid, tested negative and then got a ticket to fly here last weekend. But.... turns out his gf was told she needs a yellow fever vaccination to fly to Costa Rica. They got one but they said she had to then wait a week or so. So they get here Monday and we'll do a bit of touring for about a week and then I'll cross into Panama on the 4th. Since my last post I stayed in Jaco for two nights in a hostel then rode south to Quepos to visit an immigration office to extend my visa past the 17th. When I got there they said all I had to do was purchase more of their "health insurance" and then email that with a photo of my drivers license to an email address. I had already booked an airbnb there for two nights so that's what I did for the next two days. Tom had booked an airbnb for three nights in Jaco and he was unable to cancel it after he had to cancel his flight so he told me to just use the nights myself, which I did. After that I came to check out San Jose and have been here three days now. I got a cold back in Quepos which is gone now thankfully but everyone is so covid-panicked that I am very self conscious when I cough. Regarding the rest of my trip, I really need to consider what my next move will be. I met this other rider, Taran from Oregon, and he's down in Panama City now saying flying the bike is his best option because the covid test he needs to get into Colombia would otherwise expire if he took a boat. Oh, and it's now $1800. Tom and Dennis had paid $1100 a few years ago but that was before covid. The reason I need to ponder my next move is that while I can get into Colombia, their neighbors' land borders are all closed and while I thought they'd open pretty soon, a third wave of covid is spiking there now and so it's likely those borders will stay closed for at least a few more months. So the question becomes do I want to spend about $4,000 to go in an out of a country I've already seen seven times? Obviously the plan was to see just about all of South America but given the current covid situation (very much worse than the USA right now), that doesn't seem as likely. Tracy Charles (rider from Toronto) has been back in Colombia for awhile now and is essentially stuck there too. I really like Colombia though and there's so much of it I haven't seen yet. Doing that on my own bike would be nice. And I have a lot of friends there too. And then as far as returning the US, Mexico's southern border with Guatemala is now closed so I'm not even sure if they'd let me through if I were to come back. This medical device project I've been working on for five years is heating up as well and there's a decent possibility I can do that work remotely and was even considering applying for residence in Colombia and working from there. This investor is in Canada and doesn't need me or want me there and all work is now done via Zoom due to covid and all the medical conferences are also shuttered. I don't really *have* to be in the US and living here vs there will save me a lot more money. So there you go! That being said, I'll still be back in August to take my boy to Hawaii (cancelled last year due to covid) as well as for High Sierra.

@greedyg @Jason R. Thanks for the advice. 😆 Yes looking forward to these trails, leaning on the wild side myself. 👍

FRESH MEAT! First XLADV event? Uh Oh! We'll have to break him in easy guys... 🐔 I'm just jerkin' your chain. This is the easiest bunch of folks to spend time with. There's a plethora of trails to suit any type of riding from mild to wild. You'll really enjoy yourself. Just don't follow @RogersW anywhere...

I'm in, looking forward to my first XLADV ride! Those are good ideas to draw interest, see if I can think of any others...

Oh wow! Trying to block this one off!

Excited to be planning my tenth annual High Sierra! I want this one to be extra special. Any ideas? I’d like to add dinner Thursday and breakfast Friday as well as a prize drawing Thursday and Friday night. Covid cancelled Mojave but Harley Davidson says they want to sponsor High Sierra and bring some bikes out. I will see if I can get our artwork updated with the new Pan America bike.

In Panama City now. Booked a flight for the bike to go to Bogota in three days. Blew a fork seal and getting some new brake pads now.

Hey don't knock the ol Strom! I've owned both a 650 & 1000 and they were fantastic maintenance free bikes. They would never stand up to the abuse I put the 950 through, but fantastic bikes none the less. But back to the Harley, I'm quite anxious to throw a leg over one.

I don’t think of the V-Strom as an exciting adv bike but can Suzuki bring that many new riders to the adv world? That is what interests me the most about HD getting into the game.

Seems like a reasonable starting price in the world of high end large bore ADV bikes. I of course would need the PanAm Special which bumps that up a good bit... 😉

Glad someone is pointing out the niggles, as most of the reviews I've seen or read are glowing positive.

Here they are! The new Trailmax Mission adventure motorcycle tire from Dunlop being launched today in Lake Arrowhead, CA. They are saying it’s a 50/50 tire. Mike Thomas got a set in December and will be posting a review soon. I will have more details later today on pricing and sizing...

I just hope we can put some Motoz RallZ on it

Had a blast today riding with some locals. Juan Carlos from Elephant Moto invited me to ride with four others up to Irazu volcano at about 11,260 feet. Sadly clouds obscured the view but we went to a friend’s place where they were practicing riding drills in a large area and having a bbq. Super nice people.

I get to meet such nice people! I met Manuel and Karina at Triumph Costa Rica today. He said they have 7 900’s coming next week that are already pre sold!

Its been 11 days buddy, still alive?

Just don't follow @RogersW anywhere... He is mostly lost half the time!

Wnet to look at one of these and I found that standing on the pegs my knees didn't fit anywhere that was comfortable.. Those trim pieces that are right there are super annoying

Finally got to Costa Rica! Got here yesterday and will be two nights here with Chris White of Elephant Tours. He runs a great business here of tours and bike rentals. Tom from Motorrad Angels was going to join me here and ride but he got covid on April 1! We had an amazing dinner last night with a5 Wagyu and some Wagyu New York’s. We toured this guy’s wine cave and had great port. Then went for a starlit dip in the ocean and enjoyed the bioluminescence. I will go south tomorrow maybe to another beach town like Jaco.

Need to put in my time off now. Still up against Labor day?

Hopefully the rear brake line is tucked-up better for the production bikes.