Full Throttle Touring - 150 through the Rocket City

Time to ride some more. I took off and rode a few hundred yards and stopped to wait for Steve at this intersection. Nice view to the right.



Nice curve to the left.



Where was Steve???

He should have been here by now

So I went back.

His bike was dead

He thought we should jump it and he did have jumper cables. I recommended trying to bump start it since we were on a hill. So I gave him a push and he rolled a bit down hill and it fired right up.

He rode a ways and turned around. His bike was running but the dash was flickering on and off

He removed the seat and we wiggled some wires and check the fuses to see if anything was loose.

No luck. When he revved the engine the dash went dead. Since the engine was running we decided to take the quickest way home and hope it didn't die. So we rode around 60 miles home. It ran but occasionally missfired.

Steve thought maybe his rectifier was bad since that had happened on a previous bike. Time to trouble shoot. If it was a rectifier or other electronic component it was unlikely to be able to get a part in time for the Saturday ride.

After we got home we discussed the problem. I thought we should try charging the battery and see what happened. It wouldn't charge so most likely that's the problem. We checked and the local Batteries plus has one in stock so we'll go tomorrow and get it.

I had that exact visual in mind when I saw Win in the chair!

Great minds think alike Rich!

New battery fixed Steve's KLX. We rode to Wheeler and.......

Nail in the rear tire.

It's fixed now so we should be ready for the ride tomorrow

I hope the lead up to this ride has not put a dark cloud on Saturday
I am bringing the “China bike”

Yes I feel his pain.

I was even more mad when @Thinwater told me how the nails got there.

There was still some color left in Wheeler today.



Didn't take a lot of pics because much of the time it looked like the pic above and then our ride got cut short by a nail in Steve's rear tire. I was actually riding it when it went flat. Since we were only 15 minutes from my house I went and got my truck rather than attempt a fix on the trail. We ended up patching the tube.

Looking forward to tomorrow's ride. It looks like there will be at least five of us.

Come on.... You enjoyed being on the back of the KTM!

If I could wear out something besides the belt on this Buell, I’d get a 790!

Saw it with my own eye. Local fisherman using free firewood from his work to night fish by in the form of left over pallets. He's adding at least a hundred nails every fishing trip.

On Saturday morning I went to the garage and checked Steve's bike. The rear tire was holding air after we had patched the tube Friday evening. Steve checked the pressure and it was good so we rode to Ardmore where we were soon joined by Rich on his Brozz 250, Ronnie on his Guzzi V85TT and Randy on his CRF250L



After the minimum required daily allowance of tar kicking it was time to ride. Most of the leaves were down but there was still some color left.



We went through the two tunnels which is now my standard route if we are on dual sport bikes.



Although this part of the route is paved, it's a bit rough on street bikes or scooters. Eventually we got on some dirt and gravel.



Most of the ride however was on pavement. I advertised this as a "Tennessee Goat trails" ride. There are many roads around this part of Tennessee that are paved but actually rougher than many of the gravel roads. They are narrow, have poor or broken pavement and sometimes still have gravel on them.

This was not one of those roads:

This is what I consider a "paved goat trail". There was no traffic while we were riding it or the 15 or so minutes we took a break here.



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We got stuck behind this truck on a narrow road but it was moving along at a pretty good pace.



You can't tell from the pic but the road surface is pretty rough and the extra suspension of a dual sport bike is nice to have.



I didn't used to really like this kind of road because you can't go that fast but now I love riding these roads. Even though the speeds are pretty low it really feels like you are hauling ass because the roads are so narrow and the trees and bushes are whizzing past right next to you.

I was having a blast on these roads



I have ridden most of these roads on both of my scooters and my Versys but they are more fun on the KLX.



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Downtown Lynneville still had some colorful trees.



Lunch was near Lynneville at the Hwy 31 BBQ.

I like this gate:



It had warmed up to around 70 so we could sit "outside" and enjoy the fresh air.

After lunch we topped off out gas tanks and Rich and I swapped bikes. For a "cheap China bike" the Brozz 250 is a really nice bike. The first thing I noticed is the seat which is about 300% better than the seat on any Japanese or European dual sport bike. It felt like it would be all day comfortable. The motor made decent power but a bit less than the KLX250. The suspension was softer than the KLX which was great on the roads I rode it but might be a bit lacking for serious off road riding. My only real complaint was the brakes. They were lacking both feel and stopping power despite having steel braided lines. Maybe some better pads would fix that?

Still, for the price it's an awesome bike and regardless of price it was a great bike for the riding we were doing that day.

At the next stop I got back on my bike and Steve and Rich swapped. Eventually we stopped again.



I stopped at this same spot on my Versys the week prior. It's a beautiful spot although didn't have the color of the last time.



Steve and Rich discussing their bikes.

More riding



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Elk River.



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We got back to Ardmore around 3, kicked some tars then headed home. I ended up with 211 miles. In six months I have put around 3700 miles on the KLX.

I scored a pretty good deal on a brozz bike today,
The good,

"The bad"