A day in the country

Rode out to a friend's place for lunch today. Just under 40 km there, about 10ish km of it dirt. Sorry to be so vague but I still haven't fixed the speedo. I rode out quite slowly, about (I guess) 50 km/h and arrived with 6 out of 11 bars remaining on the voltage gauge.

I plugged in there and had some lunch and caught up with events. I'd missed some excitement as one of his girlfriend's friends had borrowed his chinese trailbike and stacked it in the bush. She'd been shuttled off to hospital with a headwound (yes, she had a helmet on) and suspected broken ribs. I'd seen them on the dirt road, flying low in the other direction. We had some lunch and then chuffed off to recover the bike that had been left still lying in a creek. Two 4WDs filled with lunch guests headed out and I followed on the DS.

I thought the road was a bit slippery as I was riding but when I got off the bike at the crash site I nearly fell over just walking around. The wet clay was like oiled glass. I was quite pleased at how the DS had gone on it. The road was quite tough and we ended up getting one of the 4WDs bogged and the suzuki Sierra had to snatch it out. I hadn't gone fast, only car speed (glacially slow). After about 8 km there and back it was still on the same 10 out of 11 that it had been when I took it off charge after lunch.

I plugged it back in and had a look at Tom's new CRF450. John and Dave took off for a trail ride and I headed home, setting out fully recharged again.

I rode home a bit faster. I still don't know how fast but I'd estimate 60-70 km/h. I arrived home with it flashing low battery on the hills but it was solid 3 bars on the flats.

Overall I'm quite pleased. Just under 100km of gentle riding and a fine day out with friends. It handled graded dirt roads very nicely even with road pressures in the tyres. I would have liked to go a bit faster on the dirt as the bike felt very stable.