Overland Hadley
on a journey
I bought a moto! This has been in the works for about three years now, and this summer I was pushed to the edge and I jumped.
Here is where the bike sits now, under a cover behind the couch. Building it up for my use is my winter fun project.
My two wheeled history:
Motorcycles, all of 20 minutes.
Bicycles, well most of what I remember of being a kid was exploring on a bike. And I continue to enjoy mountain and road biking.
For the last three years I had really gotten the itch to buy a motorcycle. Mostly this would happen during the long dark winter months, and it was always a moto, never a snowmobile or something that I could use during the six months of cold/snow that we have. I have plenty to do during the warmer spring/summer/fall months, and for that reason I thought I would probably not actually get one. There was also some self doubt, worried about hurting myself and feeling that since I did not grow up around motorcycles it was not smart for me to start now.
Then this summer one of my crew on the sailboat bought a dual sport bike, and it was agonizing to watch her come and go on her bike. After hours of talking about motorcycles with her I decided to ask if she could teach me to ride, starting with the very basics. A quick lesson turned into a couple hours of me puttering around on her bike, which is woefully to small for me. A few days latter I found an add from somebody I knew who was selling one of their dual sport bikes, and I decided to go look at it just for the hell of it. That bike was also too small for me, but he let me take it out for a test ride and that is where I really got hooked. So I started searching for a motorcycle in ernest.
I already had a few bookmarks of places to look for used bikes on the internet, but mostly I used BikeFinds.com. I did not really know what I was looking for, mostly something that fit my 6'4" frame and was affordable and easy to maintain. Strangely for me, I did not do tons of research, maybe because it was the middle of the crazy season for me, and maybe partly because I still was not sure about me and a motorcycle. Then one morning there was an add for a DR650 with no photos, and for some reason that made me call the guy. Over the next few days I talked to the guy three or four times, each time he did not remember who I was. But the details of the bike sounded promising, 2004 with 3,000 miles and it had been owned since new by a gentleman in his mid 70s. It sounded like the whole family had DR650's as their play bikes, but supposedly this bike had never been driven off the pavement or in the rain, and had always been stored inside. The guys son was the one who was selling it, and I got the feeling that he did not really care if or when it sold, as he was not getting any of the money for it.
So I wanted to go look at it, just to check it out, you know. But I was working 12-14 hours everyday and the bike was three hours away, so I had no idea if I could get the chance to take half a day to go look at it. Then we got hit with a huge storm and I had the afternoon away from the boat. I got ahold of the guy, and of course he had a hard time remembering who I was. I told him I wanted to come look at the bike, and he told me that he did not even live in the same town as where the bike was. Huh, what? But not to worry we could both drive to the bike and look at it. Okay.
I purposefully did not bring cash for the bike, I did not even bring enough for a little deposit. I told myself I am just going to look and get a feel for it. When I got to the address where the bike was supposed to be stored the first feeling I had was "I am going to get mugged or murdered by a stranger from craigslist." The "garage" where the bike was supposed to be stored was in the middle of an industrial slum, and while I waited for the guy to show up I felt more and more uneasy. When he did show up I followed him into a dark mess of a shop. But as the lights warmed up I saw the bike sitting in the corner, and it was beautiful. The bike had been used but it was in show room condition. The back tire had been worn, but only down the middle, did the guy never go around a corner? The thing that I really liked was the owners manual, it was carefully covered in shaky handwriting noting torque specs and maintenance intervals. This bike had been taken care of.
I wanted the bike, but I had made a deal with myself that I would think about it. Over the next week I researched the bike specs, and made sure that I did not want to get another model, like the Honda XR650L. I also kept in contact with the guy and reminded him I was the guy who had come to look at the bike and liked it. Finally I decided to get the bike, and I made arrangements to meet at the bikes location, me driving three hours and him driving two hours, at least I think as I am still not sure where the guy actually lived.
The autumn was spent getting myself geared up for riding, safety gear and MSF-BRC were all needed. I had a couple of crashes on the bike from my lack of skill, nothing major but enough to keep me really sore for a few weeks. By the end of autumn I was commuting on the bike. Best part of commuting on the bike was I could do 75 out of 100 miles on dirt forest roads each day. That was a great couple weeks, 75 miles of dirt a day will teach you a lot.
The goal of riding the bike is twofold for me:
First, I want to learn and become proficient in a new skill.
Second, I want to re-explore the hundreds of miles of forest roads that I have been on in this area. I want to connect the roads and lakes of these woods and a motorcycle is a great tool for that.
I will have lots of basic questions about the bike and riding in general, please bear with me on that.
Oh, if you were wondering about the name of the bike. SETO is Superior (national forest) Exploration Moto. And DRD4-7R is the restless/wanderlust/explorers gene, described in this National Geographic article. I blame it for this motorcycle, among other things in my life.
Here are some photos from my rides and commuting this autumn. Enjoy, as it will be six months before I have new out and about photos to share.
Here is where the bike sits now, under a cover behind the couch. Building it up for my use is my winter fun project.
My two wheeled history:
Motorcycles, all of 20 minutes.
Bicycles, well most of what I remember of being a kid was exploring on a bike. And I continue to enjoy mountain and road biking.
For the last three years I had really gotten the itch to buy a motorcycle. Mostly this would happen during the long dark winter months, and it was always a moto, never a snowmobile or something that I could use during the six months of cold/snow that we have. I have plenty to do during the warmer spring/summer/fall months, and for that reason I thought I would probably not actually get one. There was also some self doubt, worried about hurting myself and feeling that since I did not grow up around motorcycles it was not smart for me to start now.
Then this summer one of my crew on the sailboat bought a dual sport bike, and it was agonizing to watch her come and go on her bike. After hours of talking about motorcycles with her I decided to ask if she could teach me to ride, starting with the very basics. A quick lesson turned into a couple hours of me puttering around on her bike, which is woefully to small for me. A few days latter I found an add from somebody I knew who was selling one of their dual sport bikes, and I decided to go look at it just for the hell of it. That bike was also too small for me, but he let me take it out for a test ride and that is where I really got hooked. So I started searching for a motorcycle in ernest.
I already had a few bookmarks of places to look for used bikes on the internet, but mostly I used BikeFinds.com. I did not really know what I was looking for, mostly something that fit my 6'4" frame and was affordable and easy to maintain. Strangely for me, I did not do tons of research, maybe because it was the middle of the crazy season for me, and maybe partly because I still was not sure about me and a motorcycle. Then one morning there was an add for a DR650 with no photos, and for some reason that made me call the guy. Over the next few days I talked to the guy three or four times, each time he did not remember who I was. But the details of the bike sounded promising, 2004 with 3,000 miles and it had been owned since new by a gentleman in his mid 70s. It sounded like the whole family had DR650's as their play bikes, but supposedly this bike had never been driven off the pavement or in the rain, and had always been stored inside. The guys son was the one who was selling it, and I got the feeling that he did not really care if or when it sold, as he was not getting any of the money for it.
So I wanted to go look at it, just to check it out, you know. But I was working 12-14 hours everyday and the bike was three hours away, so I had no idea if I could get the chance to take half a day to go look at it. Then we got hit with a huge storm and I had the afternoon away from the boat. I got ahold of the guy, and of course he had a hard time remembering who I was. I told him I wanted to come look at the bike, and he told me that he did not even live in the same town as where the bike was. Huh, what? But not to worry we could both drive to the bike and look at it. Okay.
I purposefully did not bring cash for the bike, I did not even bring enough for a little deposit. I told myself I am just going to look and get a feel for it. When I got to the address where the bike was supposed to be stored the first feeling I had was "I am going to get mugged or murdered by a stranger from craigslist." The "garage" where the bike was supposed to be stored was in the middle of an industrial slum, and while I waited for the guy to show up I felt more and more uneasy. When he did show up I followed him into a dark mess of a shop. But as the lights warmed up I saw the bike sitting in the corner, and it was beautiful. The bike had been used but it was in show room condition. The back tire had been worn, but only down the middle, did the guy never go around a corner? The thing that I really liked was the owners manual, it was carefully covered in shaky handwriting noting torque specs and maintenance intervals. This bike had been taken care of.
I wanted the bike, but I had made a deal with myself that I would think about it. Over the next week I researched the bike specs, and made sure that I did not want to get another model, like the Honda XR650L. I also kept in contact with the guy and reminded him I was the guy who had come to look at the bike and liked it. Finally I decided to get the bike, and I made arrangements to meet at the bikes location, me driving three hours and him driving two hours, at least I think as I am still not sure where the guy actually lived.
The autumn was spent getting myself geared up for riding, safety gear and MSF-BRC were all needed. I had a couple of crashes on the bike from my lack of skill, nothing major but enough to keep me really sore for a few weeks. By the end of autumn I was commuting on the bike. Best part of commuting on the bike was I could do 75 out of 100 miles on dirt forest roads each day. That was a great couple weeks, 75 miles of dirt a day will teach you a lot.
The goal of riding the bike is twofold for me:
First, I want to learn and become proficient in a new skill.
Second, I want to re-explore the hundreds of miles of forest roads that I have been on in this area. I want to connect the roads and lakes of these woods and a motorcycle is a great tool for that.
I will have lots of basic questions about the bike and riding in general, please bear with me on that.
Oh, if you were wondering about the name of the bike. SETO is Superior (national forest) Exploration Moto. And DRD4-7R is the restless/wanderlust/explorers gene, described in this National Geographic article. I blame it for this motorcycle, among other things in my life.
Here are some photos from my rides and commuting this autumn. Enjoy, as it will be six months before I have new out and about photos to share.
