Summer of Love -08
- A summary
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Just took this lousy pic when I parked the bike outside after getting home from work. It hit me that this is probably the end of this season. We had snow this morning that melted during the day, but the weather forecast tells me winter is coming. Was half way to work when I realized the pavement wasn't wet, it was frozen hehe. Guess most of you have many weeks left but up here summers are short, too short. Gonna wash the bike (for the first time since I bought it) during the weekend and store it in the basement at work.:(
This summer has sort of evolved round this bike. It's a crazy feeling, the bike seems to be tailored to me exclusively. Whatever I want to do the bike follows without hesitations. Anyone else who felt this? A funny thing is that I've had so many plans on mods for the bike and I have piles of stuff at home that is waiting to get mounted, but all the quality time I've had with the bike has been spent riding it, because it's so darn fun, so it's still practically in its original shape. =)
The whole thing started in June when I took the train down to the south of Sweden and picked up my scratch free brand new Teneré. I have never bought anything brand new before so it was in itself a sensation for me. Was so happy that I was worried I could cause a traffic accident when I loaded it up for the first time in the dealers backyard:
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Toured around in the south of Sweden for a week, did the 1000km service and headed the 1400km back home. Only incident was a flat tire, the bikes behaviour was flawless and I loved every kilometer of it.
When I came home I was hooked, took long trips to different places for the pure fun of riding. Luckily some of my riding companions got XT's so we we could go places where the crotch rockets couldn't follow.
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Me and a female friend tried some 2-up touring too, very pleasant :) :
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Then something happened: I got bit by the dirt bug. Pavement turned into boring transportation between the fun stuff, gravel.
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I'm not a experienced offroader at all, but the Teneré taught me how fun it can be. I replaced the tourance tires with knobbies and went into the wild. At first I explored nice little forest routes close to home, like this:
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Then I experienced the long sand routes we have up here:
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And I was hooked for life. Have had more accidents that I can count and really tested the durability of the bike but I just want more. Went on some offroad conventions and camped out in the forest, got thrown off in a painful highsider somewhere in the desert up by the arctic circle, got some road rash when a car ran a red light right in front of me and a bird almost knocked me out of the saddle when we were out cruising in the midnight sun. The bike is still new but covered in dents and scratches, but in short; best summer ever! =)
Have made 14000km this summer and I can't repeat enough how happy I am with the bike. It's funny that it's so hard to explain why this bike rox to the not enlightened:
"is it better offroad then lets say a KTM?" - "no"
"is it fast?" - "Ehm, no"
"is it a good stunt bike, wheelies and jumps you know?" - "no"
"can you load it up like in Wrath of the Grapes and tour around the world?" - "depends on how masochistic you are.."
"sooo.. whats good about it?" - "it kicks ass!!"
:D
So sorry for the lengthy post, but now when the summer has come to an end I just want to say that I really look forward to the next one when the snow leaves in 6 months, but maybe I get me some spikes on the tires if the abstinence gets too rough. =)
//Molgan