New Bike!

1996 XR600R:
Baja Designs Dual Sport kit
FMF Megamax muffler
Acerbis handguards
Trailtech Endurance computer
Acerbis Front brake shield
Utah Cycle Sports skid plate
Scotts Sharkfin rear disc guard
Fresh Dunlop 606 tires
rejetted

Friday I left work at noon, filled with anticipation about my soon-to-be new bike. Alex came by at 145 and we hit the road to Salt Lake City. The drive was fine, and we talked about motorcycle for almost the entire 6 hours! After meeting the seller in person, he informed me that he was frantically looking for the title and couldn't find it! This was pretty upsetting especially considering I had emailed him specifically asking him this one question "Do you have the title?" To which he had replied "Yes." Alex advised me to do a partial payment for the bike, with full payment pending reciept of a clear title. This arrangement worked, and hopefully this week said title will arrive via Fedex....

The bike was in good shape, very clean, with new tires, clean and lubed chain, clean air filter. Started right up, and ran fine in my down the block and back test ride. Wheels in good shape, swingarm and linkage was well lubed. Motor sounded good, shifted good, etc. He had a box of extras, and two extra dirt tires, and a stand.

We did a good bill of sale document and I gave him half the money and off we went back to Montana. We had got there to his house at 8:10pm and left at 9:15pm. I was so excited I drove all the back to Bozeman that night! A Red Bull in Pocatello carried me through till we got back to my house at 4am.

I could only sleep for 4 hours and woke up at 830 itching to go ride my new toy. After making a trip to the auto parts store for some supplies I did an oil change, and then checked the suspension settings. I used the manuals recommended baseline settings and adjusted the clickers on the fork and shock. After riding a KLR for years, I was excited just to have clickers to adjust! I looked over the bike, and checked a few other things, and then loaded up the truck to head to Pipestone, which is a big area of trails about an hour away from Bozeman.


I have ridden moutain bikes for years at Pipestone, and tooled around on the roads a little bit on the KLR. There is A LOT of miles of trails and roads here: 75 miles of trails, and at least that much of dirt roads. I was pretty stoked to ride out here on my new bike for a first ride. I got out there, got all my gear on, realized I forgot my gloves, and hit the trail.



Getting used to the XR600R was a joy. My dreams of riding a good desert bike, since watching Dust to Glory so many times, were coming true! Coming from the KLR650, having good suspension was the most dramatic thing I noticed, along with the light weight. The power felt much better too, tons of torque, and it seemed stronger throughout the entire rev range than the KLR does. This thing is FAST! I was getting wheelspin all over the place, which was a big difference too. I hit up the trails after a short dirt road stretch and was delighted at the speed I could ride this thing on them! Most of the trails at Pipestone are 4 wheeler width, and I had a great time bombing along....I did notice the ergos of the bars were not to my liking....I need about 2" more of rise I think, and the bars on there now have a wierd bend that I don't like. I had to hunch over a lot to ride standing up which wasn't cool.


Me and my new friend out on the trail. What a sweet bike!




Lower Pipestone area, with the trail winding into the distance. I saw three other bikes on the trails....a few quads on the road. I stuck to the lower area as it is more open and suited to faster riding. The upper area is mostly trees.


This was as fun as it looks! I was able to rally all this stuff, and had a big smile on the whole time. I think I made a good purchase!

I got on a singletrack early on and followed it for a mile or so but stopped when I saw it go up some steep tight rock section. I turned around and decided to stick to the two track until more familiar with my new rig. I have never really gotten to ride a real dirt bike, and I have a lot to learn.

I rode for almost two hours, and did about 37 miles. It was a great way to really get familiar with my new rig. I was pretty tired still from my minimal sleep, and headed home satisfied.

For the most part, after watching Dust to Glory about a hundred times, the bike behaved like I thought it might. Light, ridiculous power, great suspension, and FAST! I have been wanting to do big powerslides around dirt corners forever, and now I finally can....Woohoo! You could get in big trouble on this thing if you weren't paying attention. I have a six gallon Acerbis tank coming this week, and once I get it registered I will see how it does in on my normal kind of dual sport ride. This bike is going to let me link up my standard routes with all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't have touched on the KLR, which will enable some really great backcountry rides around Southwest Montana.