Said in your best Mister T voice, you can call a German a lot things but apparently you shouldn't call them late. And so the day started. We head out to complete track 4 and end up at the trailhead for the second Class IV road. Not 1/4 mile into, my bike putters to a stop. No amount of cranking it can bring it back to life.
As the story unfolds, I have apparently ripped off the ring for the side stand switch. It is much like a Pinto car (e.g No-go). We flop the bike on the side and gain easy access to the switch. Too bad the interwebs are full of wrong information, because the Brown + White wire will start the bike, but it will stall out as soon as you put in gear. A quick change to the correct wires, with the aide of some electrical tape and dikes from J4S, the Red & White wires permanently connected and the switch bypassed.
As the story unfolds, I have apparently ripped off the ring for the side stand switch. It is much like a Pinto car (e.g No-go). We flop the bike on the side and gain easy access to the switch. Too bad the interwebs are full of wrong information, because the Brown + White wire will start the bike, but it will stall out as soon as you put in gear. A quick change to the correct wires, with the aide of some electrical tape and dikes from J4S, the Red & White wires permanently connected and the switch bypassed.
Over halfway into the Class IV, but not sure if the side stand fix is perfect, we track back and out the main track. Having confidence some 40 miles later, we are back to the next Class IV. I have to say the track today was the most disappointing. There wasn't much too ooo and ahh over that I wanted to stop and photograph. It seemed more like we were just riding around peoples neighborhoods. The road was hard pack and you probably could have hosted the Tour de France bicycle race on it, it was so smooth and hard.
Then on the other extreme was was the Class IVs. These were just boulder ridden torn up ATV/Snowmobile trails. While certainly it was rideable, you had to be precise and enjoy bouncing among the rocks. At times, it seemed as if we were actually riding in a river bed. Loose round rocks moving everywhere! I think that after the harsh criticism of the MABDR, the design team had something to "prove".
Then on the other extreme was was the Class IVs. These were just boulder ridden torn up ATV/Snowmobile trails. While certainly it was rideable, you had to be precise and enjoy bouncing among the rocks. At times, it seemed as if we were actually riding in a river bed. Loose round rocks moving everywhere! I think that after the harsh criticism of the MABDR, the design team had something to "prove".
J4S gave it one heck of a go. Here he is demonstrating that you can lose the ass-end of a GSA in divot. Blaster to rescue collecting rocks and building up the exit. I was helpful too as I would huck the rocks under the bike, but only after ricocheting them off the brandnew Touratech skidplate...much like a dong rings a bell.
While it does take some finesse to find restaurants, it seems to be especially difficult during COVID. Today, we ended up at at a little gas station for lunch and Blaster partook in a Dog Dick HotDog. Learned something new today.
So 4 states down (NY, CT, MA, VT) and two left to go.
So 4 states down (NY, CT, MA, VT) and two left to go.