Cb Off-Road

[Ulvetanna_imp]

All I saw was road. Paved and gravel. Even the gravel road was in fairly good shape. I consider off road your trails, paths through fields (even double paths through fields can be in pretty good shape and not worthy of off road unless muddy).

On maps, if is worthy of a line, it's a road. Now there are parts of Bloody Basin Road that are in pretty bad shape and I had some problems riding on it with my XR650L. Now I grew up in eastern Montana where the Mom's and Dad's would toot down gravel roads (three tracks) at 70mph in the old Chevy or Ford; thought we were in heaven if it was paved. Off road was literally striking off across the field with no tracks. Pretty much saved that stuff for pickups. You all are pretty spoiled.

The days when most roads were unpaved are long over. So, I grew up on a farm in Kansas and the first vehicle I drove was a tractor. Our fields were certainly off road. Our roads were gravel, almost all of them except good old Hwy 50. I learned that patchwork by heart, never looked at a map and could navigate anywhere, even at night, just by remembering what turn went where.

However, back in the days when motorcycles were ridden on unpaved roads, things were a bit different. In the early days of motoring, roads were often oiled and packed down, or they were completely impassable. Vehicles dripped and sprayed oil as they passed by, which was good for traction. The bikes handled better on loose surfaces because they had a low CG, the Harleys, Indians, and all the other brands that are now defunct.

Now we have a prevailing idea that it's de rigueur to ride a 600-lb motorcycle "off road", which is defined as anything but smooth pavement. All these advertisements for adventure bikes showing guys pitching it sideways on the Africa Twin and monster GSs are just bunk, the rider often crashed seconds after the photo was snapped!

A big top-heavy bike like the CB1100 is not going to fare well on loose surfaces, call it what we like. Best just to avoid that stuff as the thread shows.