- Likes
- 990
- Location
- Connecticut
Call it what you will, but this past weekend I met up with @Duncan at one of my favorite places to ride, and one of the only legal places on state land, Pachaug State Forest in CT.
It was great to met up with a fellow Alta owner! Duncan is, as I expected, a super nice guy and a true motorcycle enthusiast. My best riding buddy and son were with me, but for the first time (maybe) the Alta to ICE ratio was 50/50!
I had previously run a 37 mile loop that I can easily complete with my Alta. Duncan was a bit unsure with the distance, but with plenty of bailouts onto the public roads we had options if DTE was a real concern. The day was extremely humid but not too warm, everything was damp and covered with leaves, including moss covered rocks. Adding to that, many of the dry water crossing were flowing with water! Lots of mud, water, and slippery rocks.
We had some different tires to compare as well. I was on the MotoZ Hybrid Arena Gummy and the Shinko Fat Tyre up front. Duncan has the Shinko 505 Cheater and Fat Tyre as well. My buddy Tim, on a Husky FE250, has a new Kenda IBEX Gummy on the rear and Kenda Triple Sticky up front. The condition were mostly wet with a slight green moss on the rocks, with wet leaves on top of that. To say that the conditions were slick would be an understatement! Opinion: I was very happy with the MotoZ Gummy, and thrilled with the Shinko Fat Tyre. It appeared that the Kenda IBEX Gummy had the advantage in the rocks given the conditions.
Duncan and I swapped bikes for while. Although a direct comparison might be hard to make since the two of us have a 4 inch and 40 pound delta, we had a good time trying out each others bikes nonetheless. My 17' MX has the stock suspension at full soft, Duncan mentioned he as done some work on his 18' EX suspension. Hopefully he can chime in and give his opinion. I thought EX was a little bit stiffer than my MX, and had a bit less damping on rebound. His EX had a 13/50 setup, my MX is stock at 12/53. It felt like my bike had more pull in mode 2 which should be expected.
My MX has the LHRB. I can say I missed it when riding the EX!
One significant difference was the DTE indicated. Our riding styles were different which may explain most of the difference, Ducan was harder on the throttle coming out of the corners and would wheelie through the whoops vs rolling through them and letting the suspension do it's thing. The other difference was what we did with the key. I keep my bike on throughout the entire ride, shutting off only the throttle when stopping. Duncan would key off the bike. Although our actual total range might have been the same, my battery indicated I had quite a bit left when we bailed off the loop to head back to the trailers. We ran 37 miles, about 7 more than Duncan though we could, but I figure I had about 5 miles left beyond that.
We had a great day riding. The conditions were especially tough but the Altas really shined with the right tires. I can also say the puddles were fairly deep and especially cold.........
It was great to met up with a fellow Alta owner! Duncan is, as I expected, a super nice guy and a true motorcycle enthusiast. My best riding buddy and son were with me, but for the first time (maybe) the Alta to ICE ratio was 50/50!
I had previously run a 37 mile loop that I can easily complete with my Alta. Duncan was a bit unsure with the distance, but with plenty of bailouts onto the public roads we had options if DTE was a real concern. The day was extremely humid but not too warm, everything was damp and covered with leaves, including moss covered rocks. Adding to that, many of the dry water crossing were flowing with water! Lots of mud, water, and slippery rocks.
We had some different tires to compare as well. I was on the MotoZ Hybrid Arena Gummy and the Shinko Fat Tyre up front. Duncan has the Shinko 505 Cheater and Fat Tyre as well. My buddy Tim, on a Husky FE250, has a new Kenda IBEX Gummy on the rear and Kenda Triple Sticky up front. The condition were mostly wet with a slight green moss on the rocks, with wet leaves on top of that. To say that the conditions were slick would be an understatement! Opinion: I was very happy with the MotoZ Gummy, and thrilled with the Shinko Fat Tyre. It appeared that the Kenda IBEX Gummy had the advantage in the rocks given the conditions.
Duncan and I swapped bikes for while. Although a direct comparison might be hard to make since the two of us have a 4 inch and 40 pound delta, we had a good time trying out each others bikes nonetheless. My 17' MX has the stock suspension at full soft, Duncan mentioned he as done some work on his 18' EX suspension. Hopefully he can chime in and give his opinion. I thought EX was a little bit stiffer than my MX, and had a bit less damping on rebound. His EX had a 13/50 setup, my MX is stock at 12/53. It felt like my bike had more pull in mode 2 which should be expected.
My MX has the LHRB. I can say I missed it when riding the EX!
One significant difference was the DTE indicated. Our riding styles were different which may explain most of the difference, Ducan was harder on the throttle coming out of the corners and would wheelie through the whoops vs rolling through them and letting the suspension do it's thing. The other difference was what we did with the key. I keep my bike on throughout the entire ride, shutting off only the throttle when stopping. Duncan would key off the bike. Although our actual total range might have been the same, my battery indicated I had quite a bit left when we bailed off the loop to head back to the trailers. We ran 37 miles, about 7 more than Duncan though we could, but I figure I had about 5 miles left beyond that.
We had a great day riding. The conditions were especially tough but the Altas really shined with the right tires. I can also say the puddles were fairly deep and especially cold.........
