367 Broken Electrons

Howdy.
It's been a couple of weeks since my last bloggy post, ain't it?
Much of that is because 12 days ago, my ol' trusty home PC took a dump and was acting in such a way that it would not reboot itself.
So, being the layman that I am with personal computers, I unplugged it and took it to a nice guy I know that runs his own computer shop for a check-up.

Well, this time, it was more than just a debugging of some stupid virus or such because he told me that the mother board inside my PC was fried, and since my computer was 8 years old (and that's a long time for a PC he says), he doubted that he could even get a new one to replace it with.
His recommendation to me was to shit can the old one and just buy a new one, and I took his advice.
I had him build me a brandy-new one, so here I am typing this on my new PC at home on Sunday afternoon.
It's a nice unit, and I'm just about familiar with the new (to me) Windows 7 operating system (my old one used Windows XP).
Oooohh, Stone Age, huh?
Eh, it's only money.  ;)

Earlier today, I went out for a ride on the ol' Pachaug enduro loop on the ol' CRF-450X9.
The ride was good and the weather and ground conditions were good as well.
It was completely cloudy and threatening to rain, but that's just fine and dandy with me because since bright sunshine reflecting off the light-colored ground makes me squint all day, I can see much better when the clouds cover the sun, Lenny.

I felt good, rode well enough to be satisfied with my riding, and even took a trail that I haven't done in it's entirety in about 6 months due to it being a flooded mess at the half-way point.
The last time I did this trail all the way through was on the ol' Yamaha WR-250FY, and doing it on the bigger CRF-450X9 sure gave me a workout (especially since I don't know it from memory all the well), but I completed it without incident.
I'm glad that the mini lake at the middle is dried-up, so now I can add this to my usual loop.
Until we get some quagmire-producing rain storm that floods it out, that is.  ;)

I need to change both tires, again, as I could easily feel a distinct loss of traction at both ends due to worn tires.
It really does suck big balls that I have to change tires so often if I want to have the best tire performance, but, that's how it goes when you have to ride on pavement a few miles each loop - the road wears the tires down a lot faster than the dirt and rocks do.
How fast and how often?
After 4 rides out there, the tires are worn enough to effect traction noticeably and start thinking about new ones.
The 5th ride is more so.
By the 6th ride, they're a liability and should be replaced if you expect anything like what a new tire can deliver off-road, and they really feel loose and less-than-solid when leaning the bike over and trying to use the brakes and throttle in a spirited manner, Bucky.
You really should have known.  :)

So, during this week, I'll be installing two new Bridgestones:
An M604 on the rear, and instead of my tried-and-true M23 front (which I hope I don't regret), I'll go with an M603 front tire, one I haven't used since my 2008 Yamaha WR-250R (not F, but R. Read this shit right, would you?), which was the dual-purpose bike I rode for a year, and which was the bike I used to get back into off-road riding in the summer of 2009, something I hadn't done regularly at that point for about 15 years.
The front M603 is the match for the rear M604, and since I do like the M604 rear, and since I just couldn't resist being a dork and straying from my old standby M23, well, I just hope it works and gives me a good feeling.
We'll see next weekend.
In fact, since I've already got the CRF-450X9 washed after today's ride, and there's almost two hours before FIM World Superbike comes on TV, I'll change that front tire right now.

-John