Why don't you ride a real dirt bike...?

WHEN I'm out in the back country, maybe by a Jeep driver or gas jockey, I'm sometimes asked that question "why I don't ride a real dirt bike?"




Sure having a lightweight KTM 200 or maybe a Husaberg or even a WR 450 or similar would in some cases be better.  When I was racing mx back when the polar ice caps were still growing... I raced what I felt I could do well with.  I raced Green machines, yellow ones, red ones, blue ones and half a dozen more besides.  I picked the bike that I felt comfortable with, and that appealed to me.

Riding around in the AZ desert or even the Baja desert alone for the most part, I need something with adequate suspension preferably a little soft, something with torque not horsepower, low enough to the ground that I could put at least one toe on the surface and with enough fuel range to get me there and back with some reserve.  

The places this little bike has been...

Some of my best trail rides have been on my XT 225.  Light, decent power with a 6 speed gearbox, fairly low and, did I mention light?  When I fall down as I inevitably do once or thrice a season it's usually because I can't get a foot down and like Paul said... "T I M B E R" over I go.  

BACK WOODS pei

Times like that, it can be a challenge getting the bike off the ground.  

Two instances come right to mind; on the climb to Mike's Sky Ranch, throttle pinned in 2nd gear, I churned my XT 600 up a sandy side-hill a distance of about 200 yards in axle deep shifting sand and seemingly no bottom.  Deb following wasn't as fortunate and tipped over towards the low side, on the uphill.  I had no idea, it was enough for me at the time to keep momentum uphill.  

BAJA veteran XT 600

Once on solid ground I saw her trying to lift up a fully laden 350 pound motorcycle.  I walked back about half the distance and indeed both of us had a struggle lifting the big blue bike upright.  We had the advantage of only having to lift it 70 degrees and not 90 but the lack of a solid bottom made it quite a chore.  


The other happened 2 year ago on my way across the 5 miles of no mans land between the Upper French Creek rd and the bottom of the Wagoner loop road. The trail (that had defeated me twice before) dropped into yet another dry riverbed full of basketball sized boulders and narrow to boot.  As I bounced my way over the rocks I ended up with the front wheel jammed sideways and in an instant I stalled and tipped over, smacking my shoulder and head into one of the rocks on the way down.  So here I am, fuel leaking out of the carburetor overflow tube with me wedged under the bike.  Only thing that kept it from pinning me was the soft sided saddlebag behind my thigh.

It took a few minutes to wiggle out of there, but I needed all my technique (and it is a technique) to lift the bike from past horizontal onto its wheels.  Between moving boulders and butter soft sand it was almost too much.  In fact when I did get it raised... I overbalanced and went right on over, falling across the bike at the same time!




By the time I got the bike up and re-started and out of the wash to a shaded location, I was about ready to melt.  It's times like these I tend to gulp water (not a good thing, should always ration) With gear and helmet off, I just sat there on a rock and composed myself for at least 20 minutes until my heart rate returned to some semblance of normal.

The reason I don't ride a pure dirt-bike is height (have you noticed how tall some of those buggers are?) fuel tank range and most of all... I can ride the Wagoner road from the streets of Peoria right to highway 87 and on into Prescott!

Can't do that with your motocross-er! 

This was relatively easy, that's my 350 waaay up the hill!  CK trail.

ANYWAY, when I bought my place in Phx and went shopping first for a

scooter which I affectionately call my 'mule' and then a dual purpose bike, I had some particular parameters in my mind.  It had to be legal for both street and trail, simple, air cooled, preferably both electric and kick start... again preferably with a 6 speed gear box, light and most of all reliable. That left out 99% of the models made over the years.  I knew the Yamaha line very well having been a dealer for many years but the only thing that came close was the XT 350 series.  Suzuki had a very similar bike, also four cycle and a few models came with both electric and manual starting but they were never real popular (don't know why it was a great bike)  The Yamaha Trailway also offered much of what I was looking for but at only 199 cc, simply not powerful enough to travel highways.

YOU could count on one hand how many bikes fit that bill!

I chose the 350 Yammie based on that criteria.  It doesn't have an electric leg, a minus, but it did have a 6 speed tranny and had been in production many years, a plus.  There have been many times I wished I had a button on the right control pod, but alas, no such luck.  

Occasionally when the engine goes 'pituie' at a red light, I have to balance on my left toe and kick her back to life.  Fortunately she is pretty easy to start being equipped with a kick-start activated compression release.  It's easiest when I can stand on the foot-peg while the bike is leaned over on her side stand and put enough oomph into the kick to roll the engine over fast enough to light!



Anyway... I digress.  The Yamaha does many things well, nothing spectacular, but has carried me into, and more importantly, out of some pretty sketchy places in the 6 years she's made her home at my home.

... and that is why I don't ride a real dirtbike!