First Ride of 2016

[chicagorandy]

Chicago weather cooperated quite nicely today so I was able to blow the winter cobwebs out of the engine and regain my cycle 'legs' during a fine 30+ miles quick jaunt about town.

Felt great to back on two wheels and here's hoping the full riding season comes early. Winter is when I kinda miss my all-season Ural sidecar rig.....kinda.lol

[ghostler]

Chicago weather cooperated quite nicely today so I was able to blow the winter cobwebs out of the engine and regain my cycle 'legs' during a fine 30+ miles quick jaunt about town. Felt great to back on two wheels and here's hoping the full riding season comes early. Winter is when I kinda miss my all-season Ural sidecar rig.....kinda.lol

Good to hear you were able to break free and ride chicagorandy. Interesting February nationwide, here in the high plains of Eastern New Mexico we usually can ride a few times in January. It was so cold and snowy that we didn't ride until a month after Christmas. Then another cold spell hit. Now for past two weeks we have had April weather. The trees are budding. Yesterday was in the high 70's. I'm anticipating another cold front to kill all buds, but weather forecast shows otherwise.

Actually the Ural is not a bad idea. I've been thinking of a dual sport. Can disconnect the side car and ride solo, but put back on for bad weather. In that case the two wheel drive would be preferred. Been also looking at dual sport sport-type bikes. Don't know why Honda has only a 3.7 gal. tank on their NX700, but their smaller NX500 has a 4.6 gal. Would prefer the larger engine. Suzuki V-Strom 650 has a 6.5 gal. tank. I'm inclined toward the Suzuki.

[chicagorandy]

After some miles the sidecar rig tires on the bike - especially the rear- tend to wear flat (the bike never leans) so disconnecting the hack ( a MAJOR PIA by the way) leaves you with a solo ride that would be 'challenging' to say the least, and deadly to say the worst - lol

If memory serves the two-wheel drive Patrols do not mechanically work as a solo bike. I put over 80,000kms on my Tourist model.

The Urals have always suffered from being underpowered/slow by USA standards. If you can be content with sedate life at 50-55? Then they are great back road tourers. But definitely NOT for making miles on a superslab.

[ghostler]

Thanks for the inputs, chicagorandy. You got a point, if it takes a good bit of work to disconnect the bike from side car to include irregular tire wear affecting riding, then it negates using as a solo rider. I used to ride a 1987 Suzuki LS650 Savage. At least I could take it on the open highway with its wide ratio 4 speed. At 75 mph it was doing 5,200 RPM, getting close to the 6,500 RPM red-line. (I used an electronic tach for Harley, which was perfect, since bike was dual fire.) I just made sure the oil was topped off at each stop. (Some ruined their Savages/Boulevard S-40's by not paying attention to the oil level. Air cooled on hot days would consume some oil. For a minimalist comfort wasn't the greatest, LOL ) The Suzuki V-Strom 650 is probably the right ticket, although I am open to others.