Sorry I’ve been away but RL does its’ thing

[Flappy613]

Hello everyone,

     So your friendly local Tiger fan hasn’t gone off his rocker and planted himself on the last yellow beastie I posted up but has in fact had quite a run-in with RL and I’m now a Widower at just shy of my 55th Birthday.

I won’t go into the gruesome details, suffice it to say it was a 5 time rollover in our Superduty and she died at the scene I crawled out of. I received a T11 microfracture and a bunch of abusive treatment at the hands of the local ambulance company on the way to the Hospital but that’s not for here.

The reason I am posting is one of hope.

Exactly three weeks to the day after losing her I grew tired of looking at her Tiger sitting there in the garage, mocking me over might have beens and could haves and making me cry.

So I gathered up what remained of my strength and traded it in, that very day for a new Scrambler 1200 XE in green. I kept my 800 of course, I haven’t lost my mind and it’s my “it’s longer than a day” bike for going to Montana and back in 24 on. I’ll just permanently-install the bags and forget day runs to the beach through the forests on it and use the Scrambler instead. 

Speaking of which a mini-review might be in order, I started taking it off-road pretty much right away as I’m not scared of dirt and my back is MY back after all, I’ll be the judge of what’s appropriate. 

To begin with these are 270 degree, 8 valve twin cylinder engines of 1200 cc capacity “loosely” based on the Thruxton R giving about 90-96 HP with 80ish lbs. of torque depending on who’s data you are believing. They smugly refer to a dry weight of 456 but after God knows how many quarts of oil, 4.2 gallons of gas and whatever the coolant adds this makes for a 500 lb. bike. So she isn’t exactly small. That being said my first impressions in loose gravel that I first rode in was that it was sprightly, even with the break-in imposed 4K limit. A bit nose-divey on pavement it seemed, but what do I know from Brembos which definitely helped with that impression. The twin pots out front will put you over the bars, especially if you have the up-spec XE which has PRO mode, essentially turning off ABS. Additionally it has 50mm more suspension travel fore and aft due to the biggest set of Öhlins twin shocks anyone has ever seen and huge 47mm fully adjustable Showas out front. Power comes on flat and wide, just like other twins of yore and you feel an immediate connection to the old Meriden bikes. That being said, this ain’t your Daddy’s Triumph and it makes me laugh when old duffers come up and talk about their old 750s or more pedestrian T100s, this bike is literally Bud Elkins and Steve McQueen’s desert fantasies brought to life. I’m pretty sure you can wheelie the first four gears or so, and anyone crazy enough to hang on to 500 lbs of bike in the desert like this deserves what will surely happen to them. Now that I’ve had it a while and actually put more miles in off road in a single day than on my Tiger I can say it are the Champ. I even put it into deep 2” loose gravel which the Tiger hates and I could plough through on this bike without needing to gun the crap out of it which is dangerous on forestry roads. Outside of zero carrying capacity and being thirsty she’s everything one could want in a play bike, and my Son is definitely right when he says to not load it down with a bunch of crap.

As proof of that I went to the Oregon Motrocyle Awareness Rally in Salem Saturday and by Noon I was following my nose down a road to Falls City, which I had never been to. After checking the signs in Falls City, I saw a sign indicating Valsetz. Valsetz is a Ghost Town, located upon Weyerhaeuser property and sometimes not readily accessible as during dry season they lock it up.

But Saturday the great ADV Gods smiled, it was a pleasant 70 degrees and the gravel was over 20 miles in. I not only rode to Valsetz, one of the last remaining Ghost Towns in Oregon I haven’t been to yet but I realized I was glad to be alive still and able to continue the business which we both built out of nothing to be one of two in the entire State licensed to practice at our level. With the help of my Children, especially my Daughter whom I’ve breveted to CEO, we will be able to continue our tradition of service to the people of the State of Oregon, one which we have maintained for over 15 years in our current location. My Wife would be proud of us, for staying here and continuing our work in spite of many attacks and demonstrations of personal animosity we remain, allegations unfounded, proven so and ready to STILL work hand in hand with DHS, the architects of our miseries. My motorcycling life has taught me much, and it continues to do so. Instead of lashing out at these people who hate me I have tried to find the ones who are of like mind and form agreements and alliances to get my Residents the care and benefits they deserve instead of being confrontational with someone who never saw them anyway. I don’t want to run on here but suffice it to say in the words of Garret Morris (somewhat paraphrased)”baseball (motorcycling) been very, very good to me”.

I may have lost my Wife, not watched the evening News since March due to the media storm surrounding her death, but I still grin when I get on my new Bonneville and wail down a County/fire road and I’d say that’s got to be worth something. It may alternate with tears but there is still joy, and for that I’m grateful.