The teacher and his student

It was another lesson at the local playground.  Brendan is a tough teacher and I’m not exactly a stellar student although it was a great private lesson at the local playground.  Thank you Brendan!

Here is Brendan with his tools and a shot of the famous mud hole which I promptly fell in.  There I am with my saw as we make a new path.

Brendan tests out the new path.

Look at the squid testing out the new trail around the mudhold.  It’s easy peasy!  (22 seconds)

Now, it’s my turn to test out the trail.  The ruthless teacher wouldn’t let me leave until I had two successful runs on the trail.  That darned root got me a couple of times.

I’m pinned under my bike after getting caught on the root.  B walked up and said this is a typical scene for a dual sport ride with me.  I look like I’m taking a nap in the woods under my bike.

Another view of the mud hole and Brendan with his bike in the background.

This is what the original creek path looked like before we got to work.

Brendan uses his new foldaway shovel to dig a better path across the creek.  Here we are in a photo taking shoot off.

This was THE video of the day.  Brendan tries out the new creek crossing for the first time and upsets his balance a bit.  (1 min 27 sec)

Now he’s got the hang of it and blasts right through. (23 sec)

There he goes across the creek again.  (18 sec)

No ride report is complete without some Benson style shots.

My nemesis — the big hill.  During my other playground days, I admitted defeat as others rode my bike away.  This time, Brendan wouldn’t have it.  After doing some craaaaazy serpentine action, my bike was pointed sideways halfway up the hill.  B made me go back down, across the creek and back up.

On my second time back over the creek, I sat and stared at that hill for a very long time.   I’m sure my teacher had enough time to read a chapter in a book if he had one with him.

Finally, I mustered up all of the courage that I had (which wasn’t very much at that point) and made my way up the hill.  The whole way up, I chanted B’s words of wisdom:  Give it some gas… not too much gas… the bike will tell you how much… give it some gas… not too much gas… the bike will tell you how much… I’m sure you get the picture.

At the top of the hill, I had to pull off my helmet and breathe because I finally made it all the way up the hill all by myself!

After owning motorcycles for ten years, this will be the first time I’ve ever washed one beyond leaving it out in the rain.  Here it is before.

Forty minutes later…

The bike community rocks!   A special thanks to Kevin for shipping me this skid plate.  I haven’t been able to install on the XT yet because of a stripped bolt but it will be a great addition to my dual sport rides.  Check out what Kevin found laying out in the woods.  Note that funky 90 degree bend.

Another special thanks to Scott for being a whiz at fixing anything and everything.  He won’t ride a bike without a kickstart and his BMW 75 R/S is super cool.  Here is Scott straightening out the bends with a vice and hammer.

After he gets the skid plate just right, he washes and polishes it.  He is very meticulous about his work.  Voila — see the finished product!  Scott said I made his day because he was able to help me take something that someone had discarded as junk in the woods and made it usable again.

Amazingly enough, with Kevin’s generosity and Scott’s skills, I was left with a near perfect skid plate that was obviously made specifically for my bike.  What a coincidence!  It’s so great how everything came together to make this happen.  The red Photoshop spray paint is just covering up stuff Kevin wrote on the plate.  Now, I just have to figure out how to get out that stripped bolt and install it on my bike.

This ends another episode in the dual sport adventure world.  I’m finding it to be a totally different type of motorcycle riding — slower but more skilled, and very physically demanding.  As always, I know I have so much more to learn.  Like the teacher said, you just got to get back up on that horse and try again… but well, this horse has two wheels instead of four legs.