Riding the Olympic Mountains

[fjmartin]

Short slide show and little bit of video of my ride yesterday with a bunch of guys from the Pacific Northwest Dual Sport group. We took the ferry from Edmonds, WA to Kingston and then rode out to Quilcene and started our ride in the mountains. Couldn't get to the good lookouts due to the snow so we went low and splashed around a bit on a power line. Good times and the RX3 is handling it like a champ!

[BlackBike]

[QUOTE=fjmartin;236830]Short slide show and little bit of video of my ride yesterday with a bunch of guys from the Pacific Northwest Dual Sport group. We took the ferry from Edmonds, WA to Kingston and then rode out to Quilcene and started our ride in the mountains. Couldn't get to the good lookouts due to the snow so we went low and splashed around a bit on a power line. Good times and the RX3 is handling it like a champ!



Wait a minute, everide said you can't do that with an rx3

Looks like your training is going well

[rtking]

Originally Posted by BlackBike

Wait a minute, everide said you can't do that with an rx3

D'oh!

I think fjmartin is proving what we've said all along - the RX3 can do what most people want. If you want a bike to do the extreme riding that Everide does, you'll need to customize it (like he did to his other bikes) to handle the hard riding conditions he puts the bikes through. But I think the RX3 proved itself well as it survived that rough ride in STOCK form, and it found its way to another buyer/rider in Utah that is really enjoying the bike. The RX3 just keeps on running!

[fjmartin]

I think about that often when I'm on the bike. I've done some pretty knar stuff on the bike and it's handled it like a trooper. I've crashed it 5 times so far in tough stuff and it's held up just fine. Slightly bend crash bars that I used a lever to bend back after the ride. During black friday I ordered a spare uppper and lower crash guard so once I've done those in I will change them out...for a total of like $70 but I think they'll last many more crashes until I have to do that. And EVERYONE who I've ridden with...yeah, those guys on Yama's, Honda's, Suzies, BMWs, KTMs, etc are all super impressed with the bike and how it's doing...and how I'm doing as a noob. And, they've all heard of it!
Yeah, Everride doesn't like the bike for what he considered dual sport and that's fine with me, I don't fit the bike he likes or most of the others on the market. My buddy was on a KTM 690 and I swear my toes were a good 6" from the ground on both sides. I don't want that!
Will I upgrade to another bike in the future. I don't know right now, but the TT250 keeps calling my name so I can hit even tougher trails but I feel like it's more of a day rider where the RX3 is a multi-day trip ride. We'll see when I do some of my big rides next year!
BTW - I subscribe to Everide and enjoy some of his stuff. I've got no hard feelings. I do think his attitude and review of this bike were jaded from the start and not very professionally done but hey, that hasn't stopped me from my adventures in dual sporting. If he told me he was coming to Washington, I'd offer to show him around.

[jbfla]

Another mud puddle ride.....don't you guys have anywhere dry to ride?

Good show!

jb

[BlackBike]

I like the fact that fjmartin is using the hell of the bike and is crashing it. That means he is exceeding his comfort zone and pushing the boundaries of what and where a motorcycle like this is supposed to go. (Skills quickly increseing when uour butts on the line, right?).

Those Ktm's and the like are basically specialty monster on/off road bikes that are truly capable for all terrain. The rx3 is one of those, a little bit for every kind of place bikes what most of us want.

[fjmartin]

This time of year us folks for the Great Pacific NorthWet don't tan, we rust! The other side of the mountains is desert but this time of year that means cold and snow and tough to get over the pass.