What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[the Ferret]

Looks good Gone. Those are some serious cases.

[Gone in 60]

Yeah, I kinda thought big on the side boxes, but if a pair of smaller ones came along I might grab them.

[pdedse]

I'm half-way through my 5-6 day trip to the Boise, ID area, on my Suzuki DR650.  I started a ride report on the Advrider site.  Just Day 1 finished, but more will come.  It's beautiful out there!

From Day 1

[Cormanus]

You have to see the pics in pdedse's ADVRider report. HERE.

[the Ferret]

Indeed beautiful pics in that report pdedse

How does one load and unload a DR 650 by himself into a pickup bed?

[pdedse]

Indeed beautiful pics in that report pdedse

How does one load and unload a DR 650 by himself into a pickup bed?

Just pick it up and toss it in, right?  Helps to have the tailgate down.  



Sorry, couldn't resist.

I have a ramp with two sliding sections, maybe 5' long. It telescopes out to about 9' and provides a reasonable angle.  I use 1 or 2 steps, a 1' bench and a 5 gallon bucket and I look for an incline.  If I find a good incline, I don't need the 5 gallon bucket, just start at the top of the incline and gather some momentum and push walk it up along side the ramp, step on the bench and then onto tailgate and in.  If no incline is to be found, I put the bike in first gear and slowly, slowly walk it up, step on bench, then 5 gallon bucket, and then tailgate, but I really have to be careful with that.  I mean inches at a time and not be in a hurry.  It helps that I'm 6'3" with long arms, long reach so I can stand on the left and reach the right brake and throttle.  

Getting the bike off is the same, I look for an incline.  At home, no problem, as the driveway is perfectly inclined.  On the road, it's more of a challenge. If someone is around, I never turn down an offer of help.  

I tried riding my KLR650 onto the pickup years ago, lost my balance and both bike and I went over the left edge of the pickup.  I was hurt worse than the bike...but both of us only scraped up, broken turn signal.

Day 1 of this trip, I was just starting to back the bike down the ramp when I realized a second too late that I didn't have my right hand on the brake!  Yeah...an emotional experience and I just reacted...the bike was going down that ramp with or without me--as U2 sings--and I just jumped off the tailgate and held on to dear bike. Helps to have long enough legs, too. There was plenty of room so no biggie, but I didn't need to start my first day like that.  

One day I'll have a trailer and stop with the ramp nonsense!

[the Ferret]

Wow being a munchkin (at 6'3" I'd be breathing rarified air) I wouldn't even try and put a Grom in the back of a pickup.

Trailers are great and relieve a lot of stress loading and unloading. Just tougher backing up.

[Gone in 60]

Wow, what a cool trip, Pdedse! Really look forward to doing something like that soon.

---

Berta got some love Friday. The way our delivery schedule is working out so far, I only had one trip lined up for late Friday.

Since I had time to kill early in the day and was technically on the clock, I asked the boss if he’d mind if I did some maintenance on the bike. I could tell it could use a brake fluid flush and bleed, and the oil in the sight glass was pretty dark.

He said of course, and since I have a company card for gas, I spent the early part of the day I did an oil change, flushed the brakes and topped off the coolant. As long as I had a good bit of the bodywork removed, washed out the grime on the engine and inner parts. 

Then jumped on for the afternoon delivery and she felt much smoother. 

Still super hot up in the Valley area north of Downtown LA, but looks like the heat wave we’ve had for the past few weeks is finally coming to an end.

[rdprdp01]

You have to see the pics in pdedse's ADVRider report. HERE.

Beautiful and inspiring

[rdprdp01]

Indeed beautiful pics in that report pdedse

How does one load and unload a DR 650 by himself into a pickup bed?

I have a ramp with two sliding sections, maybe 5' long. It telescopes out to about 9' and provides a reasonable angle.  I use 1 or 2 steps, a 1' bench and a 5 gallon bucket and I look for an incline. 

As documented in the User Manual and approved by OSHA.

pdedse, you are a force of nature and will prevail no matter what country or continent your travels may take you. David