Well I went out to the SBR newbie day in the dirt on Saturday and had an awesome time out there; man what a huge learning experience that was! :D I felt like I was doing fairly well and my bike managed to hang in there just fine in spite of a few little issues. Even fairly aired down, the IRC Winner GT tires I had on the bike did not do too well in the mud at all, while on the hardpack and loose dirt they did just fine. Although I'd like to blame the tires for my many mud related crashes, a pronounced lack of rider skill in the mud was really the culprit. :) I suspect my next set of tires will be much more off road oriented, maybe something like the Kenda Trackmaster II 760's. Another area where the bike fell short was with the foot pegs. Once they got the clay-like Hollister hills mud in them, they were more or less smooth which made it impossible to stand up as I would instantly start sliding off the pegs.

The other main issue I had was due to handlebar height, something I never adjusted once I got the bike as they were way too low which made standing hard as my arms were almost straight up and down when I stood. Finally the last area where she fell short was with the gearing, the factory gearing is 15/45 which was just a little too tall for the semi-steep hills I was riding. I found that if I tackled a hill in 2nd, more often than not I would bog down and have to down-shift. I also found that on the tighter trails 1st gear was even a bit tall, so once I got home I ordered up a 13T and 14T gear for up font that I can tinker with. On a few of those climbs I also managed to pull an unintentional wheelie or two, which was actually not that bad and felt pretty smooth. I think once I get that lower gearing installed I'm going to have to play around with getting that front tire airborne. More than once I wanted to wheelie drop something, but just didn't have low enough gears to do it.

That trip definitely inspired me in more ways that one. First off, I rode with some pretty awesome riders who were super cool and had the patience to wait it out as I learned how to tackle many parts of the trails we hit. I also realized the potential that the little 225 that could has, with its light weight and low stand-over, I felt really comfortable pushing it out there, though I did feel out her shortcomings; which also really inspired me to tackle that ground up restoration on my RM125 because that seems like it would be the perfect trail bike to me. It's a 2 stroke so it would have more torque, it has way better and more travel and it just seems like it would handle much better in the rough due to its overall design. Don't get me wrong, I love my XT and like my big Jeep the fact that I can ride to, through and home from the trail on it is a pretty awesome thing, but a trailer queen sure does give you a bit more leeway.

I've worked out the bars since I can adjust them myself and I've got some lower gears coming soon so I'm really excited to see what kind of change those modifications will have in the way the bike handles. I've read about how some people modify the fuel delivery by adjusting their pilot screw and going from a 125 to a 130 main jet and from a 40 to a 42.5 pilot jet, but I'll try the gears out first. I also ordered up a Clymer shop manual for the RM125 so I can get that rebuild moving along.

Here's a group shot from the pre-ride meeting (photo courtesy of Andy SBR)


En route to the mudpit of doom (photo courtesy of Gary SBR)


"Hold on, I think I can make it...." *crash* ... "nope, guess not." lol (photo courtesy of Joe @4theriders.com)


I'm not liking mud right now (photo courtesy of Joe @4theriders.com)


Almost went down again but juuust managed to pull out of it :) (photo courtesy of Joe @4theriders.com)


My plate is quite fitting sometimes (photo courtesy of Joe @4theriders.com)


In case you don't know what it means: AUGER N = "Auger in" which means: