Styx In The Mud - Adventure Rider

Day three of the trip begins at over 9000 feet in elevation. Having tossed and turned nearly all night we wake and don our cold-weather gear. It's too cold to eat and between yesterday's crash and the cold neither of us are in any mood to stick around too long. We load the bikes and head towards the nearest town for our morning routine of fuel, food and bio-breaks. After the prior day's fiasco it becomes clear that we are unlikely to make our planned mileage so Chris starts making adjustments to the route and lops off a chunk of the ride from the early part of the day. It's also clear that our gear really isn't suited for 30 degree nights so our initial plan of staying at over 10,000' needs revision. While enjoying a breakfast burrito from a local New Mexico staple our tour plans are revised: the new goal is to make it just across the Colorado border, cut out a portion of the route and find an established campground. At least, that's the plan... Our route be...

With the inaugural trip just a week away I'm starting to scramble to get everything ready. I have most of the gear and equipment yet still have a laundry list of tasks to complete before the trip. The overnight test-trip taught me a few things and the bike isn't quite ready yet. The first project that needs completion is the swap-out of my rubber. I had previously purchased a bead-breaker (for my shop) and a set of tire irons (for use on the trails in an emergency) and, much like testing of my camping gear, I could benefit from using these in a more-or-less controlled environment to gain a little practice. I select a Sunday morning to make an attempt one week before the actual trip and get to work setting up the bead-breaker and gathering the other tools needed: flat tire irons, curved tire iron, rim protectors, valve stem core removal tool, tire bead lubricant and the miscellaneous hand tools needed to pluck the wheels from underneath the bike. Rim removal is a snap and b...

With the majority of the camping gear acquired ( read here to see how I broke up the list into manageable parts) it's time to move to address a more interesting part of adventure riding: FARKLES! These mods come in a variety of flavors, give one's ride a little personal touch and (in theory) help to improve the ride along the way.  Levers :   To kick things off, I replaced the levers with a pair of fully adjustable and collapsible levers. While this was a necessary mod (the previous lever was snapped) it's also supposed to - in theory - fold up and out of the way in the event of an "off" instead of smashing into little pieces so that you can still brake & clutch after going sideways. I have no doubt I'll test this theory... Bar Risers :   This next mod shouldn't  be necessary but, unfortunately, is a requirement for giants such as myself since these rides are made for the average person. When standing on the pegs these risers should put the contro...