Had a great ride today, another down around Fort Bragg - that's some seriously fun riding! Long fast sandy trails, corner drifting, some rough sections, water, rocks, you name it. If you like to go fast, you would love this place. This is the same place I rode in my "Area 51 Sand Box" vid. This time was better, though, because it rained the the day before and the sand was wet and somewhat packed making it fast. I looked down and saw 65 - 70 MPH a few times. Also, no dust.

I took helmet cam the whole time and after skimming through, it all turned out good, but it will take a few days to edit it down to something presentable.

Here are a few pics, though. Note I've got the larger 3.4 gallon tank, so she's sporting a slightly different look from the BOTM glamour shots.

Taking a break at a sand pit. Someone found a cootie hat there, somehow it made it onto my handlebars.




Most of the riders here in this shot. We had lost one by this time, he was a new rider and it was a little much throwing him in with this bunch, so he bailed after about 30 low sides. So ... and then there were six.




Oops. Just doing my duty - first priority when your buddy goes down is to get the pic first, then ask if they are OK.




How many hooligans does it take to destuckify a KLR?

Two?




Three?




Aha! Four.




That last one reminds me of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima :




At some point in the afternoon we stopped for food at Taco Hell.




Unfortunately, I don't have any more after that, because that's when the rain hit. I kept the helmet cam rolling though, it's waterproof.


Oh, here's a shot someone else took of me, highly sensitive background imagery blotted out, otherwise people in black helicopters might come track us down and erase our memories if they knew we were there.




KLR had just done some donuts and dropped, so I was going to make the KLR my b*tch and do a bunch of donuts around it, but as you can see my plan didn't quite go as well as I had hoped.

 

So is that how you park in the South East. Squeeze the front brakes and spin the rear until it is about half buried.
No need for kickstands

Looks like fun. Nice photos. Thanks
SlapDrum

 

good times! thanx for sharing NB ( i hate you)

 

That looks like a blast. Spring can't come soon enough.

 

nice pics. Cant wait for the vid!

 

Yep. The kickstand is no good there anyway, the deep sand won't support it and the bike will just fall over anyway. So, just rev up and dig in.

 

We have had snow since last wednesday, you suck man. LOL

 

Thanks for sharing mate. Always enjoy your reports. Look forward to the vid.

 

Nice pics Brian...looks like you had the lightest bike out there.

I luv wet sand....you actually get a little traction and can fly.

 

Yeah, the 450 is the little bike with this crew. I held my own, though. The dude on the 640 wanted to play on one of the straights, but the LC4 640 didn't have anything for the RFS 450. He has a brand new set of Dunlop 606s, too, and I had my worn out MT-16s. I think it must have been because his LC4 is red - the wrong color of course.

You're right about the wet sand, that stuff is a dream to ride in ... very confidence inspiring. Last time I was down there it was dry and dusty, this time it had a totally different feel.

The three guys in that top photo can really haul, though. They know the area the best and ride there all the time. I was following the guy on the KLR through a little scramble loop which was a bit more off-roady than the rest of the ride and was one of my favorite parts of the whole day, I remembered it from the last ride there, and asked if we could do it again. It's only about 2 or 3 minutes and I have the full section un-cut from the helmet cam in my vid. He may as well have been on a KDX the way he moved that big KLR around. And the weekend before, he took it from Fayetteville down to Daytona and back, probably over 1000 miles round trip - talk about contrast. It's def no garage queen. The front shroud is cracked and riveted together with sheet metal, dings and scratches all over. And I think it has some mods.

I've got the vid edited, and it is uploading now. It's still saying 2 hours left on the upload, and then it will probably sit in the Vimeo queue for a few hours after that. Should be up later tonight, maybe tomorrow.