Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Ready for Ozark National Forest

Only two more days of work between me and riding in the Ozark National Forest with friends! I am very excited about this ride. This area is one of my favorite in the country and I can't wait to explore it more closely. Hopefully I don't lose any more parts on this ride. I suppose it makes a better story if things don't go exactly as planned though.

I finished prepping the DRZ last night. The clean air filter made an enormous difference. I had no idea how bad it was until I took it out. It would hold water rather than letting it pass through. 20 minutes soaking with air filter cleaner though and a really thorough rinse made it as good as new. Then spray with air filter oil and we are ready to rock! It was like a brand new bike between that and the new back tire.

The routes, for this weekend are a bit spotty but I think they should suffice for general navigation. It looks like we have a decent chance of rain while we are riding a few of the days but after riding the trails last Thursday in the rain, I am not too worried about it.

On a related note, I have said it before but I love dualsportmaps.com. It makes route planning so much easier. Last weekend I had my gps on the handlebars and had no trouble following the route that I put together before I left. It was easy to alter the route as I went along too. I came to a few spots where the road was closed and I need to make alterations to the route that I had put together. I had no trouble navigating around the obstacles and getting back to my route. I could not believe that I had not been doing this all along!

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