405 Hours of Riding

Sunday's (yesterday's) Pachaug loop ride was a bit shorter than Saturday's, as I did 28 miles versus 50 the day before.
Why?
The weather forecast was to be cloudy but dry up until around 4:00 pm.
However, as I was driving out to the riding area at 10:00 am, light drizzle was spotted on my windshield.
It was very light and barely perceptible while outside and standing still, but, I still made note of it.

As the ride was under way, more drizzle was felt, and this made me decide to cut the ride short.
This was mainly because I felt that with my luck, I'd be washing the muddy bike in a steady rain in the early afternoon, something that was certainly possible but not enjoyable.
So, I chose a route that avoided the water and mud for the most part and formed a compromise:
I got some riding in on a nice overcast fall day with a bike that came back with relatively little dirt stuck to it (and avoiding a need to actually wash it) at the expense of not riding my usual route.

Of course, as luck (or lack of it) would have it, the rain held off until well after sunset.
Nice, huh?
Oh, well.
At least I was out there on the WR-250FP for about an hour and a quarter and felt good doing it.
Notable was the performance of the M22/M23 tires.
You may wonder why I mention tires so much, but the correct tires to suit your liking are a key ingredient in getting the feel out of the bike and the riding experience that you are after.
If you're not out there to ride a dirt bike to feel, once again, how great it is to be riding a dirt bike on terrain you enjoy and how good it feels to put the bike through it's paces and getting a good feel back from the bike while doing this, then you must be out there only to observe the fall foliage that is quickly piling up on the ground.

This morning, I'm reading some writings thrown back and forth on an Internet dirt bike forum.
Some guy is asking the same old questions and getting the same old advice from asking what bike would be best for riding the street 100 miles out to some good off-road riding terrain.
The guy doing the asking already has a dirt bike with a license plate on the back that he claims he's very satisfied with as far as the off-road riding goes, but he wishes for something that basically feels like more of a smooth-running bike for the street, something that has an electric-smooth-feeling engine (low vibrations felt) which has tall gearing for relaxed-feeling highway cruising, a bike that gives him the feeling it was actually made for street miles to be piled up on it.

This is the same ol' story:
I'm looking for a great-feeling dirt bike that also has full-on street bike qualities to it when asked for them.
This bike doesn't exist because it's like expecting an ice cube to last in a furnace.
A bike designed for many street miles in one ride requires things that hurt off-road performance and feel, like very tall gearing to loaf along at 70 mph, tires that feel good on the street yet work lousy off-road, and an engine that's tuned for long-term and high-mileage usage between overhauls, which is another way of saying an engine detuned compared do a full-on dirt bike and makes less power than a dirt-only bike.

In my experience, a bike like the Yamaha WR-250R is an excellent compromise.
It feels just fine on the street and comes with everything needed to make piling on street miles 100% possible - tall gearing, street-worthy tires, an electric-smooth engine, and solid reliability allowing high mileage without worry.
Basically, if you can't maintain one of these bikes, you can't maintain a toaster, Bucky.

The trade-off is that isn't as good off-road as a dirt-only bike because it weighs more and the suspension is of cheaper quality.
You can improve the suspension, but the heavier feel will always be there since a large chunk of the added weight comes from the very heart of the engine, itself:
The heavier crankshaft, heavier generator rotor, heavier vibration counterbalancer, and larger and heavier crankcases to house all of these parts that make the bike so smooth and trouble-free while racking-up miles on the street and running with high-speed traffic.
Practically speaking, these spinning parts make the bike feel heavier and it is highly unlikely a WR-250R rider will be able to do anything about this - it's how the bike rolls off the showroom floor.

With the suspension set-up to work for the rider, it's a fine bike for street and dirt out of one motorcycle.
You really can't, however, expect it to feel exactly like a dirt-only bike AND a street-only bike at the same time.
Unless, that is, you are either not picky at all about what you ride, or are just a good straight-faced B.S. artist.

-John