Sport-Touring.Net - Quick day ride in Central Orygun to field test my fork oil change

Took of with another KLRista from the KLR board to ride the old Brooks-Scanlon logging road from Bend to Sisters. I rediscovered how much the KLR hates sand, but more on that below. The forks performed scads better after the fork oil change.

Out in the PNW the logging companies built lots of narrow gauge railroad from forest to mill in the pre-truck era. The tracks are gone, but much of the Brooks Scanlon became a wide dirt road although there are a few berms where it's truly the old railbed.

Brooks-Scanlon was closed to protect winter range for deer, but it opened April 1. The bike handled better across the loose gravel, hardpacked dirt, exposed rocks. I was doing between 10-30 mph and 30 mph on dirt is flying for me. Great views of the Three Sisters (trio of 10,000+ snow-capped peaks for those not familiar with 'em), Mount Jefferson (another 10,000+ peak in the Cascades), and terrain ranged from ponderosa pine forest to juniper to sagebrush.

We got to Sisters and then went east on OR 126 to ride Barr Road, a dirt road that goes across BLM land, ending at Cline Falls Hwy a few miles north of Tumalo. OHMYGAWD. Lots and lots of whoops, which when I got the cycle right were very fun, when I pancaked on my HT skidplate, not so much. But worst was the sand.

I finally ended up just about crouching on my tailbag. I stood on the pegs, kept my weight back, rolled on throttle whenever the front tire would start to tuck, which was about 3,000 times a minute, and looked ahead and hoped. If I had my weight any more shifted rearward, I would have been running behind the bike.

Had two spectacular near disasters, once when I 98% lost the front end and somehow saved it and once when the rear went to 8 o'clock while the front went to 2 o'clock. I managed to snap the bike back upright and get the wheels pointed in the same direction by a combo of rolling on throttle, throwing my weight to the right, screaming in my helmet like a little girl, and doing the mambo in the saddle.

But it was a great day. Royce, being an old dirt biker, just stood on the pegs for hours and hustled right along sans much drama

Topic: Quick day ride in Central Orygun to field test my fork oil change (Read 927 times)