Riding Prescott!!!

Took off on my second day on my own again. I wanted to head northwest out towards Williamson Valley, then branch off from there. I was thinking I would be able to get about 20 miles out and then head sw and make a turn nw and come back via the Camp Wood area. Didn't quite work out that way. I headed out on 124, then thinking 705 would get me where I wanted to go. Not! 705 was blocked off and I had to turn back and hit another trail heading sw. I was heading off in the wrong direction for my plan. I didn't see a trail number on my trail, but it was such well traveled double track, I was comfortable continuing on. As it turns out, it was 65A, which eventually brought me down to 260, where I went the wrong way on before I hit another closed gate, turned back and ended up on Tonto road to the highway between Skull Valley and Prescott. Here's some pics!

Prescott Vacation!

So we came up to Prescott on Sunday. Came up to drop Daniel off at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for his first year of Aerospace Engineering. We have been coming up here for atleast seven years on vacation. We love it up here. So much to do here with the hiking, moutain biking, motorcycling, etc. We dropped Daniel at the university on Monday and haven't seen much of him since. We are a couple miles away in the Point of Rocks campground.

We have been keeping pretty busy. Inna has been able to go hiking in the mornings with some family friends and I have been able to get away on the XR to do some trail riding.

Tuesday I headed out towards Crown King going past Lynx Lake to start the ride. Cool ride up some backroads. Was about half way to Crown King when the rear end started sliding one way, then the other. Felt like a flat. Yep, indeed. 3" spike in the tire. I don't carry tire changing stuff, so it was a ride it out kinda thing. The trails weren't too bad, but alot of uphill and turns on the way back to Prescott. It was 20 miles on the flat. Thank god for rim locks. Kept the tire in place for sure. Also split the tire at each side of the sidwall on top of the rim lock. I knew it was going to kill the tire so no biggie. The last couple miles were on pavement, that was a little sketchy.

Inna came and picked me up in the truck and we headed out to Star Island Motorsports in Prescott Valley (formerly Hales Motors in Prescott). I had already called them and they had a Dunlop D-606 in stock and got it mounted up while I waited. Great service and prices. Not one store in San Diego had this tire in stock when I got it back in April. Anyway, got the tire on rode back to our campsite. Going North tomorrow.

Nice Shot from the Top of Devil's Slide looking West.

Probably the best desert shot I've ever taken. Looks like an add for the XR 650R!

Two Wheels.

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Here's a pic of the latest adventure machine. Just picked it up last night. I decided that my KTM 300XC, while probably the best bike in the world for trail riding, is probably one of the worst bikes for the wide open desert and open roads. Although the KTM was built to conquer the trails of Northern Arizona, I only used it up in Prescott 4 times over the last 4 years. Seeing as how many projects I have going right now and they all seem to be ongoing, I decided best to part ways clean with the 300 and get something that I could use more often.

Enter the XR 650 R. I have been toying with the idea of buying something that could be street plated and be a little dual sport and a lot desert. Something that I could use at least once a week, even if it meant driving it to work and back one day a week on the back roads. I've been researching bikes that would fit the bill over the last couple months. I finally came to the conclusion to get rid of the 300 before I could get anything new. I listed the 300 for sale on Tuesday evening this week and it was sold 12 hours later to a guy here in San Diego. Mixed emotions selling the KTM. I loved the bike when I was using it for what it was designed for, but I had been going out to the southwest deserts which are wide open for the most part. The 300XC is a purpose built bike for tight terrain that is only a 5 speed. Top speed was measured a few weeks ago with my phone gps at 77mph. The XR 650 R is a world renowned desert racing machine. It has won the Baja 1000 more than any other bike and is wicked fast and stable when set up right. Key words, set up right!

My goal was to buy a low hours 650 that was already set up with most of the aftermarket parts that I wanted. Many of these bikes that I saw advertised all had pretty much the same set up. They were all bought in socal and taken to Precision Concepts shop to do suspension and motor mods that would be similar to the XR 650's that have been winning baja for so many years. I found one that had one more mod than all the others and it was up in the Temecula/Murrieta area. It had all the mods that I wanted plus the HRC Power Kit. This is an "internal" motor kit, adding a different cam, piston, cam sprocket and chain, in addition to all of the carb and intake mods. The HRC kit adds 10 hp to an already powerful bike, putting out approx. high 40's hp stock. cont.......

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