2015 The Year of Dual Sport Riding part 1

With just 3 weeks left in the year 2015, looking back, there is not much I can say except that this was the year that I got back into Motorcycle Riding full throttle ....in fact, even back in my prime street riding days, 1974/75 and later in the mid 1980s, did I put over 4000 mile in a single year, the year of 2015 I have already put at least 4200 miles and with warm weather staying with us, at least for the next week, I may put a few more on the 2014 TW200.

In 2014 I purchased the Yamaha TW200 in late March, and after being out of the saddle for over 25 years, I eased back into riding with caution and slow and steady....putting a bit over 600 miles on it, as it sets in the garage this December 10th of 2015, it now has 4877 on the Odometer...the vast majority of those put on since mid March of this year....I can point to 3 events which highlighted the riding year....

March 2015....Moab, Utah

Moab was kind of a "pipe dream" late in 2014 until I hooked up with Kurt, a lawyer from outside Auburn, Indiana, who lived and worked not far from Rick Pearson's wife Toni....so we had a connection besides TW200 motorcycles and hanging around on the TW Forum:

TW200 Forums 

We started talking Moab, a trip some 30 other members of the forums had decided to venture to in March of this year....he would drag his 20 something Nephew, "Weasel"  with him, and my old buddy Nick would tag along as well...but he planned on riding a Quad...Nick wanted no part in getting back into Motorcycle riding after over 40 years....that lasted until January, when we finally got drunk and with some pushing from Kurt, we browbeat Nick in to buying a new 2015 TW....

Moab was a done deal by this time and I rented a cabin at the nearby KOA Campground...in early March Nick and I dragged our rides up to Kurt's ranch outside Auburn, and we finally got Nick riding, for the first time since 1974...he might have "broken in" his TW with 50 miles total before we trailered up and headed to Moab on March 19th....4 TWs on a haul trailer behind Kurt's Toyota Pickup....Weasel would do all the driving...younger, and with more of a lead foot, nobody complained as we took 2 days and zoomed across the Rockies on I-70 towards Moab.

8 days of riding the desert mountains followed...we crashed in sand some, came close to the edges of mountain drop offs some, and had one Hell of a lot of fun and great learning experience....after all, I had not ridden off road in nearly 40 years, but got plenty of practice, although harrowing at times, in just a bit over a week in the dust and sand of eastern Utah...

It was still snowing as we arrived back in Indiana on March 29th....but we knew by that point, we were going to ride and ride some more, God willing, before this year was finished....One thing for sure, we made 30 or so new friends, whom we had a great week or so together, riding, drinking, eating, and BSing with:

Up Next, The Lower Michigan, Northern Wisconsin, and "Yooper" ride in July and August.