Some numbers _ and side stories

Some facts and numbers on the trip so far. I am an engineer and I ommit I love numbers and mathematics {to some point} so. So they are always in my brain. 

1st odt overall distance traveled so far

2nd wear on rear tire _ this is related to nb 1 and actually an important factor for my travel plannings

3rd Golden eagle sightings  counter

4th motocycle lay downs counter _ that is more the fun part that's why I put it to the end 

Nb 1 crushed through odt 2.100mls so times 1,6 about 3400km.

Frist 1000 miles from a bike riding pretty boring and with the heat exhausting to. But they brought me here to NM and now Colorado! So worth to do and still since all was new interesting and I learned : don't want to do this again. 😁

No 2 started with 13mm so about half inch thread  now about 8mm quarter inch. Now math comes in play. 2mm isabout min. 6mm left so about 3000more miles. I should be good to Vancouver bc. Also I guess the heat in TX and NM was rough on the tires. Which leads me to an lifenexpectence of the rear tire to about 6000nhopefully 7000miles up in Canada and Alaska later. That's pretty much what Ralf and I will need. So looks promising. The new tires we get in bc should bring us up and back again. 

3rd Golden eagle _ steinadler  in German _ sighting. 

Some of you know and others might have read the hint in thunder day (who the hack waits in his tent for a humming bird to come back to take a shadow Pic) besides a cracy birder. Yes I do love birds _ watching them, listen to them, feeding them in winter... I love am all and when the barns wallow and housemartins come back in early April after wintering in south Africa we cheer to it at our house with friends and family. The girls with champaign me with a hefeweizen so. I am member of NABU which is the oldest nature preserve org _I guess World wide; yes all that stuff in Germany is super old founded back in 189x. I love to distinguish them by the way they look they fly the sing or make noise the way other birds react (here I want to mention the German gosh hawk you hardly see em but when all birds stop to sing he is not far _ also al who are equal good in flying attack em in combat). OK enough. 

Even without watching out for the majestic golden eagle 3 where very close when I crushed my pony. One carried a snake and was himself attacked by to ravens hoping he will drop it to have his claws to protect himself and they would have dinner then. Counter here in on : 3

4th motocycle drops 

Everybody is afraid to lay down his good buddy. First there is always some damage with it second these beast are depending on size and weight a pain to get back on their tires and third normally everybody makes jokes on you for it for quite a while. 

Counter here is on 3.

Yes 3! Pretty bad. Here come the stories. 

Drop 1_ happened actually already in Gerry gerage down in LA. All additional gear mounted the bike test loaded I thought I test if I can still put it on the fresh installed main stand. The klr weighs fully filled about 190kg all the steel I added I guess another 15kg or so all the stuff in the side boxes and in the 90l bag plus the 40l backpack and not to forget my camping chair 😁 roughly another 45 tob50kg. Adds up to 250 to 260kg times 2.2 gives 550 to 570lbs for the Americans. So long story short at home my R 1100 GS BMW weighs not much less so where is the problem. Yes problem is all that stuff on the passenger seatin the poxes etc.COG is somewhere but not in the middle or over the main stand also with all that sh.. Thee is nothing to really hold it. So  yes it fell over.

Still even only wearing trecking sandels I pushed it up. No need for help. Actually made me feel good and confident for the ride. The 560lbs outweighs me by the way more than  3times. No damage to my pony so all good. 

No 2: day 4 riding. Location north of Las Vegas NM. GPS leaded me on a gravel road with steep incline. Decided same second that I do not want to that since fully loaded I felt like no way. So stopped without being precausios. My right leg was not long enough to touch the ground _ which is normally no prob_ since the road land badly to the right side. Gravity knows no mercy as soon as these 550lbs where out of vertical there was no stop. Feld already pain in lower leg muscle _ so here it goes. Down to the ground.  I somehow jumped of and landed _ don't know how even on my feet_ got helmet off and tankbag which already payed in dirt. Concentrated like a jamanese Karate black belt pro preparing to kick through 1layers of 1inch boards and lifted my bike back to how it should look like. No big deal I knew out of experience I can do it LOL 😂. Oh yes big deal fully dressed and under real pressure it is a big deal. As we say I German I pumped like a ladybug before it starts flying away. My heart rate was at 200 and all my blood was in legs and arms which made the next steps difficult. Having no oxigen in my brain I realized I am on the right and so wrong side of the bike. No way to get on it. So I pushed it to the other side of the road in the shade to recover and figure out what to do. 

Eventually I decided to lean over the seat or what is left since the bag takes lots of space balance at the same time these 550lbs and operate the kick stand with my left hand. Would have been a bummer _ Brüller _ if I would have just fallen over again. OK but that was my best chance and due to good maintenance greasing I was able to get the kickstand out. Ufff big release. Jumped on it drove of 👍👍👍. 

3rd lay down. 

When fully loaded the bike lowers pretty much which results in the kick stand pushes the pony in a insane upright position no matter what way you turn the steering bar and from tire. It is always in danger to tilt over. So when I park it I have to look for a hole or at least a decline half inch helps. Filling it up I go kind of wrong way to the pump always having the kick stand opposite site since the pavement normally goes up towards the pump. In NM even with that the wind nearly pushed it over during I filled. OK enough _what happened. Going from Taos westward you go over the Rio Grande canyon and bridge. There is a nice viewpoint unfortunately without holes or uneven pavement.  I took my pictures. Came back and so did the wind. I was actually already next to it but could not help. Here it goes the 3rd time. 5min earlier I filled it up to the top top so getting it up was an issue. Gas came outof  the overflow of the tank. No fun with a hot engine only in his away. A  guy just came along and we had it back on its hufs again within seconds. Hope there will not be much need on updating you on this  but being realistic I guess it will go up. 

Thanks for your patience on this short stories which turned out long. 

I hope I can add other stuff like:

Nb of Black bea bald egal, elk, moose, whale, Wolfe etc. 

And update you on this once in a while. 

Cheers Dino