Tiger down

[WIDGIN]

Ouch, I was running a little too fast on a gravel/dirt road last weekend and lowsided at about 30mph.  Wow, it dropped quick.  Guess I've been riding a little too aggressively.



About 10 minutes before I dropped it I was wondering whether TKC's would give more grip on that surface ?  



Really glad I was wearing a decent Hein Gericke jacket since I landed on the right shoulder pad before rolling.  Scraped up my knee and stiff neck for two days but no real injury.  



Tiger wasn't so lucky.  I had a major struggle picking it up out of the ditch.  Was even harder since the top of the bike was lower than the front and I needed to basically dead lift it. Dropped it once back onto my leg and was pinned until I fought my way out and tried a few more times.  



Have to say that the Touratech crash bars did well considering the speed.  



Here's a list of damage:

Fairing - deeply scratched and small crack.  New one on way from Triumph for $325.

Turn signal - lens scratched and being replaced for $10.  Also cracked inside of plastic piece that connects to tank but may JB weld it before spending $70 for a new one.

Tank - deeply scratched but usable.  Used one with minor scratch on way from e-bay for $235.

Mirror - sanded out the scratches and painted with textured black spray paint.

Muffler guard - filled in deep scratches with JB, painted with crackled spray paint.  Looks almost like new.

Top case - scratched much worse than before and used up my bottle of Triumph touchup paint without much luck.   May sand and rhinogard top part at some point.

Off Road Muffler - one small ding in center.  Nothing to be done but consider it a battle scar.

Touratech bars - Sanded and in the process of trying to get a decent gloss finish back on it.    



Found the coolant tank cover laying in the muddy puddle of coolant that was running out.  Luckily, bike ran okay on the 60 mile trip to the dealerr before a refill and limp home.



The worst thing:  

I'd covered about 40 miles of dirt road and found that I'd dropped it 1/2 mile before getting back on pavement.  



The best things:  

The fact that I dropped it on dirt at 30 mph instead of asphalt at 80mph.  

My wife's reactions " you wanted a big dirt bike" and " there's no fool like an old fool."

[zadok_oz]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about that. At least you came out of it reasonably well and the bike was ridable.

[burntclutch]

Hey there...glad you are ok...way sorry about the bike but you've just added some character.





40 miles of dirt road? Hey...I live near Atlanta...Roswell actually...where was this?  :idea:  :D

[WIDGIN]

40 miles of dirt road? Hey...I live near Atlanta...Roswell actually...where was this?  :idea:  :D

I'm in Roswell myself.  The roads were Forest Service roads west of Suches.  Wasn't a single 40 mile road but a collection of them.  I'd need to pull my map for more info but know I passed some military camp at the beginning of the dirt.

[fano]

Don't over do your cosmetics. You are going to take it off road again. Aren't you?  :D

[burntclutch]

40 miles of dirt road? Hey...I live near Atlanta...Roswell actually...where was this?  :idea:  :D

I'm in Roswell myself.  The roads were Forest Service roads west of Suches.  Wasn't a single 40 mile road but a collection of them.  I'd need to pull my map for more info but know I passed some military camp at the beginning of the dirt.

Yeah, I'd love some more info, thx...and maybe next time you might want another Tiger to tag along? :)



I have made some runs down the Coopers Creek WLM area before.



Running Tourances?

[WIDGIN]

Burntclutch,



I'm running Anakee's but can't iimagine that Tourances would be any different.  I love the Anakee's on the road but they feel pretty sloppy on dirt at speed.  I either need much more aggressive tires for off-road or need to slow down in the dirt.  Actually, 30-70mph on a gravel road is probably much too fast on such a heavy bike without true knobbies.  Reminds me of riding "enduro" bikes back in the '70's on stock "universal" tires.  Once a knobby was installed on the rear the bikes character completely changed and they could be powerslide with confidence.  



I'm sure I would have avoided this lowside if I'd been able to powerslide through this corner. But I know if I try to do this on this type of tire I'll be down in a flash.  I've been considering TKC's but wonder whether they really have enough knobs on the sides to allow this type of riding.  Opinions seem to vary about their ability and you never know what the person considers good dirt performance.  I'm also not sure I want to give up the road performance (too much fun riding down the tailpipes and passing the sport bikes on Wolfpen Gap Road.)  



I'd love to run with another Tiger.   I usually run up to the mountains for a full day every other weekend or so.  Drop me a PM and let's meet up somewhere.  

[Advwannabe]

Glad you are O.k Rbike,



I've scratched up my Touratechs on both sides now from off road 'stability challenged' incidents.



I wonder if its worth seeing if we could get carbon look alike pads for the main impact areas? Might save the repaint every time we drop Tigger.



She is hard to deadlift. I can live with the top-heaviness until its time to pick her up!

[Advwannabe]

I've run Tourances and Anakees on the dirt and can't really tell a lot of difference.



I'm going on a desert ride in Sep this year and was thinking of buying a set of TKCs in Adelaide and freighting the Anakees to Alice Springs and the end of the dirt part of the ride.



Has anyone tried the Metzlers (?) that are OEM on the KTM990s. They look to be a little more dirt oriented but still o.k on the street?

[Guest]

Glad your ok.Dropping a cat,wow.I would probably walk off and cry.Dropping my klr,well,just about everytime I get on it.I run tourances on the gravel and dirt roads in wv and gonna stick with them.I run tkc's on a klr in the spring then switch to mefo 99 explorers late spring.If your not used to running knobbies I would reconsider.They tend to (walk) around a bit on gravel.Plus the milage sucks on the tkcs,around 2500 and they are pretty much useless.If I could find a set of mefos to fit the cat I would run those.IMHO,the best dual purpose tire ever made.11,500 out of the rear,don't know about the front,I trashed it.Again,glad your ok



Mike

[JRO]

No, a Tiger is not a real dirt bike.  I learned that when I first got mine - fortunately - without having to pick mine up (close, though).



I still use Anakees.  There are a lot of rough roads in my area, and I like the grip in the rain.  They're not great on gravel or sand, but they're better than pure street tires.  They're not a real off-road tire, by any stretch of the imagination, and they aren't the best cornering tire, to be sure.  I've found the wear to be adequate.



I am interested in anything better, naturally.  I've never heard of the Mefo tires.  Mike thinks they are the best, but I can't seem to find a supplier in the States (on-line, that is).  Curious about them, is all.

[Guest]

Sorry to hear about your spill. I'm in the cartersville area and bought a new leftover 05 tiger a month ago and love this thing. The anakees did ok for me on FS 42 but the TKC's are alot better offroad. I ran them on a DL 650 and got 6500 miles out of them and they handle the twisties of north ga fine. I ran them in the rain and never had a issue with them. Alot of people say they only get 2k to 3k miles out of them but on the weestrom which isn't alot lighter than the tiger, the hold up great. I just got in from the GMR and seen a few tigers up there which was good because I decided for the riding I do, the thunderbike guards look to offer alot more protection than anything else I seen.

[WIDGIN]

Sorry to hear about your spill. I'm in the cartersville area and bought a new leftover 05 tiger a month ago and love this thing. The anakees did ok for me on FS 42 but the TKC's are alot better offroad. I ran them on a DL 650 and got 6500 miles out of them and they handle the twisties of north ga fine. I ran them in the rain and never had a issue with them. Alot of people say they only get 2k to 3k miles out of them but on the weestrom which isn't alot lighter than the tiger, the hold up great. I just got in from the GMR and seen a few tigers up there which was good because I decided for the riding I do, the thunderbike guards look to offer alot more protection than anything else I seen.

That's interesting info since it seems you ride same areas.  I take it from your overall comments that you'll be putting TKC's on your Tiger after the Anakee's wear out?  You don't feel that you'll give up too much on-road perfomance?

[kev187]

Wow, sorry to hear about the fall, glad to hear your ok & the Tiger just needs some TLC.  



if your going to re-finish your crash bars, I had my Ma's cycle bars sprayed in line-x.  The shope sprayed them pretty thick for $50 & its tough as hell.  Ill go through the posts, I put a lot of pics of the bars on here last year.



I am running the avon distanzias they catch the loose stuff better than the Anakees, but even still, once over 30MPH the big cat feels a little loose.  I do mostly street riding, but we hit the mountain roads here west & north of the DC area, where my tiger is happy riding over patched garbage roads, as my sport riding friends complain of wrist pain.  That's about the most off roading I do on a regular basis.  :-)

[WIDGIN]

Line-x looks pretty good.  Think I may need to do that on my topcase.  Here's a few post drop photos, if I can get posting to work. http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x120/widgin/DSCN1978.jpg[url][url=http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x120/widgin/DSCN1981.jpg]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x120...CN1981.jpg //