ADVrider.com
Good day, ADVrider Inmates and visitors, and welcome to Photos of the Week. We begin today with a motorcycle that’s outfitted for comfort. And let it be known: any motorcycle that carries a rocking chair is a motorcycle we want in our lives. It’s almost as good as the Oldsmobile Touring Car carrying Grannie and Elly May and the rest of the Beverly Hillbillies—maybe even better because Grannie’s not sitting on it. This shot was posted to us by @Mountain-horne, who says the 2005 V-Strom DL1000 came to him earlier this year, and left too short a time later. We like the general appearance of this Featured Photo, but also the size of the landscape behind the bike. It looks inviting, and it was for our correspondent. But Mr. -Horne’s story brings a few tears, too, though something of a happy ending follows. We’ll hand the mic to Mr. -Horne now so he can tell you in his own words, and pictures, what happened.
It was June of this year when I rented a car one way and drove from California to Pennsylvania with no real plan in place. I acquired the perfect rocking chair for playing my guitar and also found the perfect bike to transport it home. I found the Vstrom on Facebook and bought it. I spent two weeks riding around the east coast before setting out on my journey home.
I had decided to take only two lane roads and travelled south and then west and ended up following most of the trail of tears. 13 days of riding and camping each night across 4000 miles. I arrived at my home in California, washed the bike and parked it safely indoors.
I never rode the bike again. A wildfire destroyed all my motorcycles and home.
Fast forward 5 months and I now have a 2018 KTM 1090R to breathe some life into my dreams of an Alaska moto trip or some other adventure this summer. Not sure if the rocking chair will make this trip, but I had plenty fun rockin and rollin last summer.
The KTM is a 2013 model 990 SMT, obviously not the 1090R he mentions, but still a great bike. The V-Strom was a 2005 model.
California riding
@Ontheroad68 sends us a few shots of his 2006 DRZ 434 WR in California, taken recently.
Went to California for Thanksgiving to visit my DRZ, er, I mean, to visit my family and the riding was amazing as always!
California antiques
Here is @R80gseric’s son on a 1980 Honda XL500S, who with his dad explored Bishop, California, last summer. Dad, who can be seen in the young man’s visor, was riding a 1986 BMW R80 G/S.
Here we are on Buttermilk Road. A cold summer storm swept through cooling us and our bikes.
An army of two
Here are @The Bear and Kate on their Multistrada about to leave the venue where the Bear Army Manoeuvres were held a few years ago, “when our insane insurance rates still permitted such a thing.” More from The Bear following.
Delivery!
Here is The Bear delivering a road test 2022 model Benelli TRK502 from Sydney to Melbourne.
Direct distance by freeway is about 500 miles, but I added to that by taking back roads instead. Lots of gravel through the mountains and poorly maintained tar elsewhere. Despite being a mildly-specified adventure bike, the Benelli ate it up and I had a great time breathing fresh air.
The Bear’s photos were shot a few months ago.
Making friends. And memories
Here is Paul on a BMW1200 GS who was riding from Belgium to Australia when he met @Tjilpi, who was on a Honda Africa Twin at the time (2011) and was on his first ride “throughout Laos (recommended).
We stopped at a school on the hill (with million dollar views) and amused the students for a while. Very few, if any, of them has been so close to and even on a big bike before.
Tjilpi says he and Paul became friends “and rode together for a few days,” then went their separate ways. “We maintained contact until recently when I heard that Paul had died peacefully at home. RIP dear friend.”
Honda country
Here is the Honda CRF4300L belonging to @Sporthog93, who was riding in southeast Iowa when he shot these pictures a few months ago.
Up in the Rockies
Bselaiden says he was about 12,000 feet up on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park when he shot the picture below of his 2015 BMW F800 GS a few months ago.
Dual sport ride
@Mike Mueller says he “took on the 39th Annual running of the AMA LAB2V Dual sport ride Thanksgiving weekend and while it’s a ride and not a race it was every bit as hard as when I did it back the late ’80s.” That’s a 2014 KTM 690 Enduro R.
Yes, those are my Mosko Moto Reckless 80’s on the back as after the ride ended in Vegas, I slabbed down to Yuma and did the CA BDR!
Idaho bound
@I Ride says he had his 2006 DR650 “ready for the Idaho BDR in July 2021. Loaded and ready for the road from New Mexico.”
Myself and Rick (the tall guy). Disaster struck the first day as Rick went down in southern Idaho and broke his ankle. Had to be shipped to Boise for surgery.
Met up with another guy from Boise area, John, and continued the ride. Beautiful scenery in Idaho and the BDR there is great. Not technical but a great ride. Last pic of John and me as we headed east and west home.
On the trail
On Nov. 6, @felix was “out for a ride on a gorgeous Sunday” near Graford, Texas, and Possum Kingdom Lake. “This is a stop at Kimberlin Ranch Overlook—Historic Sight, located on the Goodnight–Loving Cattle Trail.” That is a 2009 BMW K1300S relaxing by the highway. “Total for today’s ride, 353 miles.”
And below, felix’s BMW on a “mid-week, three-day trip down to the Texas Hill Country to ride the Three Sister.” Ride total: 764 miles.
Crossroads
Here are a Honda 125, a KTM 390, and an Aprilia Tuareg 660 relaxing while “our motley crew” takes a break “at a crossroads in the Blue Ridge WMA in N Georgia. Doesn’t matter what bike, as long as you’re having fun!” That’s @TwoWheelTed talking, by the way. Photo was taken a few weeks ago.
Dumphead’s journey
He was on a solo trip from New York, “up the NEBDR (the woody pic), and then up and across the Trans-Labrador Highway and into Newfoundland this past summer” when @Dumphead took the pix below.
Around Churchill Falls the bike developed a rattle that I couldn’t pinpoint, but since it wasn’t leaking oil, smoking, or running any slower than a scalded jackal, I pushed on to Blanc-Sablon, across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, onto Newfoundland. The picture in which you see the front of the Elefant is at Pistolet Bay on the way to St. Anthony and L’Anse aux Meadows.
Then, rattle still rattlin’, but bike still purring, down south to the Bert Bark Inn in the Codroy Valley, where the Wreckhouse Winds were howling.
The long-distance shot of the bike is at Rose Blanche lighthouse on the southern coast of Newfoundland, before crossing into Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The last shot is me, back home in NY, just before I discovered that the rattle was a broken head stud on the horizontal cylinder. Stayed together for the 4200 mile ride, though.
And that is a 1994 Cagiva 900AC Elefant, broken head stud and all. The photos were taken about six months ago. And while we’re here, may we take a moment to express our admiration for Mr. Dumphead’s inmate name? One of the best yet!
Getting sandy
@C_H_R says the photos below “are from my first trip to the Sahara desert in 2017—the Erg Chebbi in Morocco. Since then I love the desert and have returned several times.”
I attended a sand training course there as preparation for the Tuareg Rally a week later. With some advice and some twist on the throttle sand riding isn’t as difficult as it seems.
Over the passes
@DaveFromDenver says he was on a four-day Continental Divide ride with Exit Tours of Salida, Colorado, last July when the photo below as taken at Cumberland Pass, near Gunnison, Colorado. “We crisscrossed the divide over and over on some passes I didn’t know existed, and I’ve been riding pavement in Colorado for 15 years! Over my head on Hagerman Pass but made it and proved if you always do what you always have done, you’ll always have what you always got. Whatever that means!” He was riding that BMW R1200 GS, a 2014 model.
Steamy little thang
That’s a 2016 Honda Metropolitan in the photo below, our last photo of this week’s feature. @Ambkosh3 tells us that the bike itself wasn’t steaming, though. “I took this photo in the alley behind my office after work on Nov 11th. There was a laundry vent making the steam. Big times on a little bike!”
And so, we must say adieu, whatever that means. It’s been swell, and I do hope you have enjoyed your visit. Remember to send us your photos, and a big hearty thank you to all who have contributed! We love seeing your adventures!
The post Inmate Photos of the Week (#45-2022) appeared first on Adventure Rider.
