PHX - Riding Wildcat with PAMMY!

Met up with PAMMY, on her Service Honda 250x, on this cool [not], dry [not] Arizona August morning at Wildcat OHV area in the Tonto National Forrest northeast of Phoenix.

You get to see a lot of great sunrises if you plan on doing anything in Arizona in August.



PAMMY was anxious to hit the trails!



I was a little over anxious...and in the blinding morning sunrise, ran straight into this crooked, knarly, giant branch hanging half way out into the trail.



That's going to leave a mark!

We had terrible monsoon storms this week and the trail erosion was significant!





PAMMY loves the technical trails!

There was a lot of debris on the trails. This cactus was totally blocking the trail so we removed it.



We moto'd out to the Star Wars slot canyon. So awesome!

PAMMY on a jagged rocky nasty downhill.

PAMMY loves the easy uphills too!



Pirate Ridge is no rookie trail! I usually avoid it, except when I have the best riders with me, and it's like 100 degrees out.



It might look like a break in the action, but it's anything but a break!

Pirate Ridge feels like it goes on forever!



Oh my! PAMMY is doing her best Bubba scrub impersonation.



Holy smokes! That was a close call! Quite the drop off!



We took a break in the shade of this tree. PAMMY is pointing to the tree just in case you had problems finding it.

Back at the trucks, I decided to show off my new body art.



We finished early enough for breakfast at Harold's Cave Creek Corral!

Some of my favorite trails!!

Way to throw yourself to the wolves NS! Take some time off then hit it hard, well done. Both of you deserved those refreshments at the end!

You two are rock stars.

And I almost forgot to mention...

You may remember me getting my forks and shock resprung and revalved by Rob at MotoLab in June:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=990555

Well, I spent the better half of Friday afternoon back in the MotoLab workshop having Rob properly adjust my suspension with me, on the bike, in all my riding gear. I thought the new suspension was great after having the forks and shock done, well, it is AMAZING now that it's been adjusted on the bike for me!!

Rob was eyeing up my novice setup. He says, "I bet you get a lot of deflection in the rocks." And I'm like, "Holy smokes, do I ever!" He's cranking up the shock, reducing the sag from about 130mm to 105mm. I had the forks topped out in the triple clamps, and Rob is like, that's no good, and drops them 5mm and says that's where you want them.

I was very nervous how the bike was now going to respond to the radical changes we made. Of course, the bike is now configured the way it should be, but I had become accustomed to riding the ill prepared Honda. Much to my delight, I was no longer fighting and struggling to get the bike to where I wanted it on the trail! It is now point and shoot instead of tug and pull!!

It's funny, Rob was giving me instructions on fine tuning the clicker settings. Turn the clickers in if the suspension behaves this way or crank them out if it behaves that way. I was thinking, yeah, whatever, I never feel any difference when adjusting my suspension. What I realized out on the trail was, if your suspension is so far out of spec, adjusting the clickers won't overcome the other major suspension problems. Now that my suspension is already in the zone, adjusting the rebound and compression settings has a noticeable effect!!

Coincidentally, I made the last payment on the Honda this month. I was thinking my bike was old and tired, and that perhaps I should start considering upgrading. After riding my freshened bike yesterday I am in LOVE again and can't wait for the temps to cool off so I can get back on my Honda and ride every weekend again!!

When ever I miss the heat and dust of AZ. I read one of your reports and feel like I am right there. Keep up the good work NS. and enjoy your fresh Honda.
Brian.

If I rode with you, you wouldn't use the ropes to pull cactus, you'd using those ropes to haul my heat-exhausted ass back to some air conditioning!!!

Great RR NS!

Sorry I missed out.

Excellent new ink there. That red tat looks almost like real blood!

Nice timing on the pic of her looping it out. That is cool.

Good to see you back on the trail every once in a while.

That's awesome. May I ask how much did it cost to have all the suspension work done? Nevermind, I already asked. You can PM me if that's better for you.

Oh my! PAMMY is doing her best Bubba scrub impersonation.



Holy smokes! That was a close call! Quite the drop off!




Those helium filled tires must really lighten up the bike.