No, this guy isn't wearing a Halloween costume.
That's none other than Omar Gadhafi on one of his better days.
He's one of the luckier guys around because he needs to buy no costume come Halloween time. :)
Well, we're in the last days of February (thank God), and Tuesday marks March 1st.
What day I start riding my WR-250XX to work will depend on two key things:
1) When the streets will be reasonably clean of sandy salt.
We just had a nice rainy day yesterday that did well to clean a lot of that salty shit off the roads, but, my town's trucks were out early this morning putting more down since it went below freezing overnight.
2) When my dad, who lives next door, will have the garage clear, allowing me to park my bikes in there as I always have over the years.
99.99999999999% of the time he parks his truck outside by his kitchen door, but since we've had more snow covering the ground for a longer period of time that I can remember since the 1970s, and since he can't walk too well over snow and ice-covered ground, he's now parking it in his garage.
I assume sometime in March these two key elements will become viable.
Viable.
Ever listen to somebody talking and they start using words that you don't think they'd use everyday?
Kinda' funny to me it seems because it makes them seem like they're putting on a verbal Halloween costume for you.
I'd almost always get that feeling whenever I had to talk with some kind of salesman that would come into the shop I was working for at the time.
The smarter ones would drop the act as soon as they realized that the fancy words weren't doing it for me. :)
Got another message board/forum kick from another guy writing his opinion down having to do with the Yamaha WR-250R vs. Yamaha WR-250F.
To refresh your memory, the WR-250R is a dual-purpose bike made for street riding yet still being able to ride off-road.
It looks like a dirt bike with street-legal lights and instruments and street-approved tires.
The biggest hindrance off-road is the relatively cheap and poor-working suspension.
Poor compared to what?
Compared to the WR-250F, that's what.
You see, the guy was another of these guys who rides a WR-250R (as I did for over a year) and will basically be quick to try convincing anybody who asks about the difference between these two bikes that the WR-250R is the better choice.
Then, another guy who rides a WR-250F will post, saying that the WR-250F is much better off-road and it might make more sense to get one of those and register it for street use, depending on how much off-road use is planned upon.
When the guy on the side of the WR-250R reads this, I find it funny because I can tell from the response that he's never ridden a WR-250F before and can only write things about it that he assumes would be the case, things like, "It'll be a bitch to get registered...etc., etc..."
What these WR-250R riders never seem to want to acknowledge is that the WR-250R suspension is so much further down the performance food chain that a guy planning on more dirt riding than street riding would be better off on a WR-250F.
I'm one of those guys, myself, being out in the Pachaug rock pile every weekend that isn't in wintertime.
I have ridden my WR-250RX and my WR-250FY out there, and there is no comparison whatsoever between the two, the WR-250F works so much better off-road.
So, whenever I come across this kind of discussion, that's typically my input to the mix.
I also notice that more than a few (probably at least half) of the WR-250R riders are pretty mouthy about mounting heated grips, luggage racks, fluffy and cushy seats or seat covers, brighter headlights, heated vests, and all manner of luggage to their bikes.
They'll write many paragraphs on this stuff, making threads that are quite long.
I never really thought that doing that stuff required so many words, but, I guess it's a hot dual-purpose topic with lots of guys.
The ironic thing is that these same guys writing a long post about their saddlebags and sleeping bag packing will have to write-in and ask how to service their air filters and how often it should be done, or what oil is supposed to be used in the engine, or where the oil drain plug is located, or how to remove excess slack from the throttle cables.
I'm often surprised to read that many guys never thought their clutch cable could use a lube, even when they write-in asking why the clutch lever seems hard to pull and has started making squeaky and creaky noises.
Yeah, having to ask how one adjusts their drive chain has the word NOOB written all over it, and that it pretty much a large percentage of dual-purpose bike riders out there.
I remember when I, myself, had to first learn about drive chain tension and adjustment.
It seemed so simple, basic, and just a case of physics and geometry that was right there in front of you.
Amazing that many riders are out there and not sure how to do this, and these are the guys saying the WR-250R is the best bike out there.
Well, I agree that it's a great street bike and rates off-road as OK at best.
Sure, you can ride it off-road as I have many times.
Compared to my WR-250FY, though, it's lousy at it, and that's due to the Yamaha factory equipping the WR-250R with second-rate suspension parts.
This is a fact that I've proven to myself first-hand.
This is why I ride the WR-250FY on the Pachaug rock pile trails and not a WR-250R.
My WR-250RX has been sold, remember. :)
When the WR-250R riders read anything about the bike being second rate, this gets their nostrils flared-up and makes for some interesting posts to read.
Often seems funny to me with what they come up with.
Another thing that becomes apparent from their words and especially their videos they sometime post:
I'd be willing to bet that these riders are also riding their bike off-road so slowly that they wouldn't be able to percieve the performance difference to any appreciable degree.
I guess in that respect the WR-250R is a fine choice for them, and to these guys, what they imagine when somebody says the suspension on their WR-250Rs is not all that great is that it isn't meant to take landings from big jumps like you see AMA Supercross riders doing.
That's not it at all.
It's simply how it performs over the most ordinary bumps and plain ol' natural terrain you see while riding over a daisy-covered field, sleeping bag piled up over the rider's head. :)
Off to another freebee Saturday at jerk,
-John
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