Owning your own business has it advantages and disadvantages.
A major disadvantage relates to eating breathing and thinking of
it 24 hours a day.
One major advantage is doing what you want to do when you want
to do it. This is a story about that advantage.
The sun shined ever so brightly through the greenhouse type
windshield of my fully restored 1986 Lincoln Towncar. Surrounded
by the multiple pipelines of rude New Jersey drivers a thought
came to mind. What if I had a new 1996 XR600R in my garage
and what if I had a new complete set of riding gear?
Wow.. That would be nice.
It was!!!
Watching all those New Jerseyites middle fingers feverishly shaking in my direction as I swerved all 20 feet of my silver boat in the opposite direction I could think about was how to get 271 pound of red , white and purple on and of my F250 pick-up. A thought and a name ran through my mind.
My super (superintendent) "Ivan" and a new job description.
The trip to.. I don't have a clue.
This windshield was just as large yet it seemed less disturbing as I gazed behind into the bed of my truck to see a shinning blaze of glory my 600R.
We pulled the map out of the glove box and began searching for a couple square inches of pure green lacking those nasty lines of various colors.
Finally we spotted this area with an adjacent park and airport.
Looked promising.
We took the exit off the garden state parkway with Ferdenan
Magellan-like grins.
As we traveled down a side road lined with towering pine trees, an oncoming vehicle came towards us. As it passed, the beautiful sight of a Kawasaki 500 dirt monster tagged being on a little wagon-like trailer.
"Point Me The Way Pal"
That's exactly what he did.
Behind a race track (car) was supposedly a nice place to ride. We parked on the side, picked the bike off the truck, (rolling this monster backwards didn't seem safe considering the plank's width), suited up and took a seat on Mr. " Fresh Out The Box".
First let me be frank "Kicking" this bike over is a pain in the ass, period. I can remember the guys at the dealership were telling me to be careful due to it compression. Bullshit, I come from an age of the mid 70's CR 250 Elsinores. That was hard to kick. On the Elsinore, 6 out of 10 times you would sprain your ankle on the "kick-back" or just find yourself on your ass at the opposite side of the bike. A inspiration for "jump starting".
After searching numerous times for "some" compression finally it kicked. I discovered that by using the compression release to acquire compression it would work somewhat better. For best results, I would hold the compression release handle , kick three times, search for top dead center, allow the kick starter to come up a bit higher and kick the shit out of her, one hard time. It worked.
Believe it or not this bike warms up quick. After 45 seconds or so it she began to reject the choke so off the choke went and I warmed her up some more.
Slowly I eased her down a dirt road which supposedly led to the riding area. Slowly soon became dangerous. The rut filled road , still hard from the lovely Jersey winter "forced" me to gun it and she seemed to glide over all beneath. With this, I banged second, no clutch and full throttle. The front wheel gradually came upward about one foot and quickly returned to the ground. Third came into play shortly after the front wheel's return to the ground. Let me tell you there is a lot of third gear. I finished to the dirt roads end without another gear. Having so much fun with my first run of gears I forgot to look for an off shoot trail to the riding area. After turning around I discovered a trail to my left. Down a hill I went. The trail became more and more narrow as I traveled. I was very surprised with the easy maneuverability of this heavy bike. At the end of the trail was another treat. Some jerk piled sand about 12 feet high, with very little base. My first spill? Quickly I pulled in the clutch shifted by body over the handlebars like a bird perching over a branch. Slowly released the clutch while cautiously administering a consistant flow of gas. In flash I was at the apex looking downward upon a steep decline. Quickly I shifted my weight backward, fully extending arms and letting off the gas, fearful of stall I pulled in the clutch. She rolled down with perfect balance.
For a big, heavy bike her balance is extremely commendable.
I found myself on another dirt road but larger. Filled with excitement, I gunned her.. popped the clutch and watched the back end swing around. Traveling sideways I hit second and she straightened out. Third, the long one, was, soon discovered not as long as fourth gear.
This bike is smooth.
Opening to a large sand quarry made my heart beat like a thirteen year old getting his first hand job. Small streams formed by the melting snow runoff created a multitude water art at both sides of the bike.
Finally, broken in! At least in my book.
What I discovered about this bike immediately is that you better be on some type of weight training program if you want a quick response to unforeseen situations. Once you place the bike into position it vertually works on it own. The 600R will turn rough terrain into sheet of glass.
At one point I began crossing one of those larger streams only to
discover its bottom was deeper than anticipated and very soft.
The rear tire began to sink rapidly. I continued to gas her. Slowly but
surly she pulled herself out. The high clearance coupled with the power
of the 600 cc engine made all the difference in the world when it came
to avoiding a problem in wet areas.
The 600R does lack the quick throttle response of a two stroke when it come to adjusting the rear end on sharp upright turns. As for laying her down on berm shots ..its difficult. Adjusting to the bikes weight will take some time as opposed to the lightness of a high c.c. two strike cruising at 215 lb.
All in all you can't beat the quiet yet bulllike strength of the well balanced off-road monster. Smooth, slim, high, powerful and comfortable but it sucks to start.