The last of 2008. Ride Report

 Saturday we spent the afternoon fixing Eduardo's honda 350
frankenbike. Reinstall rebuilt shock, change fork oil, swap master
cylinder, clean carburetor, see why e-start quit working...

We got his bike ready and proceeded on drinking some strong cane sugar
based liquor. Sunday morning we went trail riding. It have been
raining every night for the last week and while the sun is at full
force, the trails were expected to be dry but with no or very little
dust. That's the conditions we found when reached the jar trail.
Unfortunatelly, it did not rain enough to provide enough traction and
my worn out tires did not help, but there was no mud at all, it wasn't
a particular hot day and it was fun going on the twists of the single
track jar trail. We stopped to rest under a cashew tree -> they
produce cashews oly once a year, for about 3 months, and the season
just started <- when I noticed the lcd display on my digicam was
cracked and of course, wasn't working. Very cheap Samsumg camera with
huge lcd, I'll make sure that the next trail camera will have the
smallest lcd I can find.

At Itapuama beach, we decided to take the little woods section that is
kind of a shortcut from Itapuama beach and the paved road. This is a
single track, full of turns, trail. There are berms, you, if brave
enough, can really go fast on this one. I know the trail and tried to
go fast, but there was a log across the trail and of course, I hit it.
Bruised forearm 5cm above wrist, bent and destroyed brand new
handguard (acerbis rally pro) and knocked carburetor, ripping a very
small tear on the intake manifold. I didn't notice this at the time.
What I noticed, was bike was making a very weird hissing sound and
suddenly started popping and backfiring and I promply associated this
with the gasoline from that crappy gas station that I've never been
before, which was probably more ethanol and solvents (pirated
gasoline, not that uncommon) than gasoline. the hissing, well, since
the handguard was bent, the clutch cable got stretched and I thought
somehow it knocked something on the clutch or whatever. Bike was still
running decent and I kept on riding and I was already planning on
replacing my (stock from 2002 when honda put bike together) clutch
disks, only was going on "a few more rides, it is slipping so little
that I can squeeze a ride or three"...

We went to the zombie woods, was fun, no crashes, there was very
little mud on there, but overall, it was dry and with poor traction.

There is a river, that we followed it for a while... Just found a new
and nice single track, too bad it was short. From there we went play
hill climbing. We have a nice place for these games. Me and friends
like hill climbing. It is fun. Eduardo tried first, but did not made
it first attempt, he was too slow and bike stalled. No way to keep on
going up, it doesn't go, you need momentum. My turn to try and I got
farther than Eduardo, but I made a fatal mistake selecting the wrong
gear (1st) and bike wheelied and crashed, bending the handguard even
further and tearing a rip on my left foot boot. The clamp holding the
handguard on the mid of the handlebar was lost. Second attempt,
Eduardo made it, second attempt I went on a mix of second gear and
shifting to first halfway up and made it too. Eduardo do it in first
gear all the way up, but if I do that, I either stall or wheelie. I
can't do it second gear all the way up, the engine lacks power for
that. After climbing, I discovered that the hissing was from the
manifold leak... Had to slow down after that, I don't think it does
any good to the engine running with this leak. It was quite a leak...

We rode other nice trails after that. The trail for the old lamphouse
was nice, the mango forest trail was nice -> mango season to start any
moment, trees are full of small green fruits <- and we stoped at a bar
for some fish and vegetables.

We went on riding on rocks, big solid rock that looks like what
happens and lava cools. Nice. We took the jar trail on the way back...
Slow... My right arm was aching. It is pretty swollen today.

This was the last trail of 2008. And the more costly trail in a long
long long time. I need at least a new pair of boots. I just love my
Gaerne SG10 to get another model, but I just shopped around and got
into a problem that perhaps someone could help: On the local shops,
they are charging 2.5X more than what is on eBay or other online shops
outside country. Problem is the damn 60% import tax. Does anyone know
a dealer I could trust my cc number and who would make an invoice with
the price of a low end boot instead of the price of the SG10. The
customs officers will never notice the difference and that could save
me more than 300usd, between the cost of what they charge here and the
taxes.

My friend have a cheaper than mine digicam and got some spode moments
on "print". As soon as he send it to me, I'll post'em here. He caught
my crash on the hillclimb, but not the spectacular wheelie that
preceded it. :-)

merry christmas RMD!

 Thanks for the ride report. I really enjoyed it.

 I wish that I could still help with the boots, but am having a hard
time finding a dealer to replace me in such "special circumstances".
I will ask around a bit and see.  If I find anyone to help, I'll
contact you.

Jim



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