Two nice notes, and challenge accepted!

I received two nice notes yesterday, and an interesting challenge.   One note was from my good buddy Patrick and the other from my good buddy Stephen.

Good buddy Patrick in Baja last March

Patrick rode with us last year on the CSC RX3 Baja run.  He wrote about the upcoming adventure ride through Arizona and Utah and his recent experiences on his TT250…

Hi Joe, Patrick here, one of the fellows who went on the last Baja trip. I would like to do the longer ride with you guys. I’ve done a fair amount of riding in Utah and have found it to be one of my favorite places.

Last weekend, I attended a dual sport event with the Mt. Scott Motorcycle Club of Portland Oregon. They sponsored a 130-mile ride on August 5th near Mt Hood that had, in places, deep sand, round rock, crushed rock, boulders, etc.  Most of the riders were on expensive KTM bikes and I brought my TT250. No one had an ADV bike and I’m glad I did not bring my RX3.  I believe the course was too difficult for it as this was real dirt bike stuff.  

A couple of experienced riders let me go out with them and for the most part, I was able to keep up.  Any problems were with me and not the bike as I don’t have dirt riding skills.  I did three very low speed tip-overs in loose gravel and that seemed, to the experienced guys, the problem with me:  I need tires with more of a dirt bias.  But I was with them all the way, bombing up boulder-covered foot deep rutted trails.  Some of it was the cave painting ride times 10. They were impressed with the TT.  I lost a mirror and half a brake lever (why are they so long anyway) and scratched up some plastic.  

It was perfect!  Go down, pick it up, start it and go.  I never would have done the things we did if I was alone; being with those guys gave me the courage to do it.  What a confidence booster.  What a bike.

Thanks Joe, and hope to see you in October.

Patrick

Thanks for writing, Patrick.  I’m looking forward to the ride and to seeing you again.  And thanks very much for the above note.   I agree;  the TT250 is a great motorcycle.   Like you, I own both an RX3 and a TT250 and I love them both.  Each has its intended purpose:  The RX3 is a marvelous adventure touring motorcycle, and the TT250 is a great dual sport.  We’re glad you are having fun with both of your motorcycles.  I’m always amazed at how many of our customers own both an RX3 and a TT250, but I guess I shouldn’t be because the price makes both bikes extremely affordable.

Okay, on to the next note, and it’s from my good buddy Stephen in Park City.   Stephen is an RX3 owner, and Sue and I had dinner with him when we visited Park City a couple of years ago.

Good buddy Stephen and his RX3

Stephen, unbeknownst to me, is an AR shooter, and he picked up on the implicit challenge in my story about the Mini 14 a couple of days ago.  Here’s the note I received yesterday from him…

Okay Joe,

I can’t ignore you’re latest blog about your Mini 14 vs the AR!

So, I’m calling you out! 

You and your Mini 14 vs me and My AR.

We’ll have to agree on a course of fire but I’ll give you plenty of latitude to help you out :).

The Utah ride sounds great and I’m hoping I can join for at least a portion of it, if I’m not traveling at time.

Hope all is well!

Stephen

Stephen, great to hear from you, I hope you will be able to ride with us in Utah, and I’m accepting your challenge!  My initial suggestion is to have a 20-shot, 100-yard competition, shooting offhand from the standing position, with no slings or other supports allowed, using telescopic sights (or, we could both use iron sights).   We could shoot our targets near where we each live and post the results here.   Let me know what you are thinking, and if it’s okay with you, I’ll post the progress of our rifle competition and keep our blog readers up to date on it.  And for the rest of our readers, if anybody else wants in on this, let me know.  Willie, Matt, and Duane…are you listening?

Stephen, I’d like to see you win.  It’s going to be fun!