First dirt

Last Sunday was the first time I really took the 1150 out on dirt. It was awesome. Great fun. More fun than I've had on my DRZ400S, which is a far better tool for that sort of thing. Yeah, the 1150 is a big and heavy beast, but I love the thing.

First off, the knobbies just about double the coolness. Putting them on was a major pain ...

But like I said, the coolness of my bike definitely went up a notch or two:

Many thanks to my friend Miriam, who helped with the tire change.

The Sunday dirt riding took place around Epping, NH. Here is one of the pictures in which I look like I have some idea what I'm doing:

There are many more pics in this ADVrider thread. It's probably some sort of trick photography, but in a few pics it would appear that I in fact do not know what I'm doing. Like when I wound up in a little puddle:

(Photo credits here go to Beez of ADVrider. Great people to ride with! Good encouragement to keep you going, and ready cameras when you screw up.) That water was cold — those are chunks of ice floating around my bike! Fortunately the knobbies did their job, and I was able to drive right out of the hole, no problem.