Today I went to the Oregon Dunes for the first time. I loaded up my bike and headed out in the light rain. When I got there, there was people everwhere! I unloaded the bike and it fired 3rd kick! It was going to be a good day...
I rode around in the sand by the parking lot to get the feel of the sand. My knobbie didn't get much traction. I knew right away I should have got a paddle. After the bike was warmed up and I was used to the sand, I decided to try "the face" A huge very steep dune with whoops leading up to it. Cautiously with a my right eyeball twitching I managed to hit it at about 20 MPH with my 75% tread knobbie spinning about 45. I was pinned in third heading up the face holding my speed well. The only problem was that it kept getting steeper as it went up! It was getting very steep very fast and I was loosing speed... I stomped it down into second and it still kept slowing down, Paniked, I tried to turn to get up at an angle. I was 20 ft. from the top and about 100 from the bottom! I was stopped and the back wheel dug down deep. (why it did the following I don't know, maybe so steep that it starved for gas?) UH-OH I thought so I pulled in the clutch but then It started to scream wide open! :eek: HOLY CRAP I am very scared now. I pushed the kill button but it didn't even help me at all. That thing is like a cummins diesel when it heats up! it didn't need any spark. So I just put the back brake on and dumped the clutch. The noise stopped as a slow stream of blue smoke rose out of my DG silencer. then I turned around and coasted down the face. I didn't try it again. I fired it up at the bottom and cruised around in the rest of the dunes. It was great :)
I rode around in the sand by the parking lot to get the feel of the sand. My knobbie didn't get much traction. I knew right away I should have got a paddle. After the bike was warmed up and I was used to the sand, I decided to try "the face" A huge very steep dune with whoops leading up to it. Cautiously with a my right eyeball twitching I managed to hit it at about 20 MPH with my 75% tread knobbie spinning about 45. I was pinned in third heading up the face holding my speed well. The only problem was that it kept getting steeper as it went up! It was getting very steep very fast and I was loosing speed... I stomped it down into second and it still kept slowing down, Paniked, I tried to turn to get up at an angle. I was 20 ft. from the top and about 100 from the bottom! I was stopped and the back wheel dug down deep. (why it did the following I don't know, maybe so steep that it starved for gas?) UH-OH I thought so I pulled in the clutch but then It started to scream wide open! :eek: HOLY CRAP I am very scared now. I pushed the kill button but it didn't even help me at all. That thing is like a cummins diesel when it heats up! it didn't need any spark. So I just put the back brake on and dumped the clutch. The noise stopped as a slow stream of blue smoke rose out of my DG silencer. then I turned around and coasted down the face. I didn't try it again. I fired it up at the bottom and cruised around in the rest of the dunes. It was great :)