[Jbird]

I spent some years living in AZ and NM. Im retired and prospecting was my hobby. My home was a pickup camper on the back of my pickup and behind that I pulled a trailer with a Yamaha Kodiak ATV and a Yamaha TW200 dual sport motorcycle. That TW 200 was a hell of a good desert machine with its slightly oversized tires. Lots of open lands in those western states and I really enjoyed putt putting into the back country on the TW. It redlined at 55mph on the highway which was good enough to get on down to another dirt road. I put 9000 miles on a TW before ruining the engine riding it up over Emory pass (8000 ft alt) so I bought another one and started scrubbing the paint of off of it.

Now, in my olden years (72), I decided to play it safe and bought a Burgman 400. Love this machine. Almost stomped the floorboards off trying to clutch and brake it but managed to adapt to everything being on the handlebars. This is one fun machine for the Texas hill country where I live, beautiful roads to ride. Not much traffic and when traffic is not pushing me from behind, I just putt putt along enjoying the scenery. And just to get the adrenaline pumping, there are always those nice twisty loops and long swooping curves to take a little more speed.

But I have a problem. Finally I'm getting to it. As I am swooshing along on my nice little road machine, I keep looking at the bare ground between the road and the fences. I keep thinking, Boy if I had a dirt bike, there is some whoopies I could ride!! It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Soooooooo...........Im thinking of adding a little dual sport to the stable. Then I can swoop these roads with the burgie and spot some of the better road ditches I can ride on the dual sport. Everything here in Texas is private land, no BLM or National Forrest Land like in the western states. Everywhere I look is fences with signs like "Trespassers will be persecuted" but by golly, there is some nice looking road ditches still open. Im thinking of a Yamaha XT225. It should get me quite a ways away from home on the pavement.......with an occassional whoopie do thru the road ditch. I can see it now....if they find me splattered out in some ditch and start checking my tire tracks, they will say, "Look at that, this old coot left the road way back up yonder and never stopped untill he hit these whoopy do's". :lol: Wish me luck!

 

[flintbobbi]

Welcome JBird! AZ does have some open land, and i've been tempted to find a dirt bike myself. The Burgman is a blast, but I do occasionally wonder what it would be like to take a few side trips down some dirt roads...ah, perhaps when I'm retired...(I'm 38).

I'm sure plenty of folk here can give you advice on a nice dirt-runner. I cannot as rode 4-wheelers mostly when I grew up in MT.

ride safe.

 

[Jbird]

Hey Flint.....I lived In Prescott from 94 to 97 and prowled the Bradshaws metal detecting and prospecting. Beautiful country! I couldn't find anyone to go with me so prowled around a lot by myself on that old TW 200. Big misstake I guess but I survived and so did the cycle. You should join that prospecting club that has most of Turkey Creek claimed up and go gold panning with them on weekends. Take a very light weight dual sport with you, 200 to 250 CC is good enough and you can have some fun. I lived at Deming NM from 97 to 2000 and had one riding buddy that would ride with me and he rode a little Kawasaki 100 with good results. That is a great little fun bike. When he traveled in his RV, he could take the handlebars off and stuff the whole thing into a storage compartment. 8). You can get a carrier and stab it into the trailer hitch receptacle of your car or pickup that will safely carry a cycle. Get you a dirt bike to keep your burgy company!

 

[NormanB]

Hi JB

I like your style.
I admire your 'get up and go. :thumbright:
I look forward to reading many more posts from you - they are a real good read!

 

[Randy]

Jbird:

I have friends live up in Kerrville, nice area to ride / live in.
What you want to do sounds like fun at any age but I would remind you that old bones do break easy,
so in a few years when you start to get older be careful :lol:

 

[Jbird]

Thanks for reminding me Randy. But I cant hep it, I think the debel is gonna make me do it. I have gone without a cycle for almost five years now and just think of all the riding I have missed. We are lucky to live near the 33X roads in this area. where do you live?

 

[wasions]

I can sure relate, Jbird! At only 53, I figure I can afford another tank slapper or two, so on Wednesdays, my reward for mowing the grass is a fast ride on the DR350. Like you, I mourn the loss of so much land we used to get to ride in the past, but I've found some way fun dirt/gravel roads here in SoIl and across the river in SoIn. The biggest problem is that I have too much bike, and like to ride it to the limit when I'm alone. I should have gotten a 200 or 250.

You might want to consider a used Kawasaki 250 Sherpa, or if you could find an older Honda TLR200, you'd probably get a kick out of it (no electric starter on that one )

Mid-life crisis at 72. Heh. I love it!

Steve