I advised of the damage to the shift lever in my last report. Apparently bending cheap steel causes problems, so my shift lever was hanging on by a thread. Ordered an MSR Taiwan brand stronger cheap steel lever and it finally arrived last Friday.
Here's the old one.
Took a ride Saturday. For some reason I thought it was in the 40's. It was not. It was in the 30's.
I bundled up by installing liners in pants and jackets (No heated gear on the KLR) and went out and crashed.
I was pissed off and smelled gas so I picked the bike up rather than take pictures.
The new shift lever held.
This ride was not much fun. The tires just simply did not get warm on the street and offered no traction on the fresh frozen leaves and pine needles. I lost the front with no warning. Here's the crash site.
I tweaked my back (Again) and neck a little. Still sore Monday morning but I did install a fence Sunday, no doubt that's helping my body as well.
I tip-toed along with little traction and found some trails that are simply not worth doing in the summer. Winter death makes them passable.
Slightly frozen lake.
Trails that are tight in the summer look downright wide in the winter.
This ride kinda sucked; I may be done for the winter.
The tires sucked, I really need knobbies and I probably would have died had I stayed out another hour. That's an exaggeration but it's horrible sweating in gear and then hitting the cold hwy again.
It feels nice at first but starts to hurt after a while.
Freshly fallen somewhat frozen leaves are currently the most challenging substrate i've ridden in thus far.
A departing glamour shot:
