We took the free way and head out to the Pine Barrens. This trip was with me, Chris and Jeff. The ride there wasn't very exciting, its simply a free way slab. When we got to the Pine Barrens, Chris wanted to do some wild camping. Jeff was too worry about getting fined. We ended up doing a campsite and paying 20 a night for the site, and I wasn't too bothered by it, because it was also the first time I was going to setup my Lone Rider tent. I didn't want to contend with other variables.
Next morning, Jeff's tire was flat. He had flat he patched before and it someone spun another leak and it was super flat. We finessed it on the spot. It took a lot of the time in the morning, but this was exactly the type of trip we need, to do stuff on the side of the road with the tools we have. It was gear test trip after all. Well mainly for me, since Jeff really have nothing for the trip yet. But he used my bead breaker and we were able to get the tire up and running.
The pine barren was very interesting. You literally driving on the road, and trails are just on the side of you, you can turn in any where anytime. We took quite a few route. With the bike fully loaded minus only the tent , The bike was a bit of struggle to work with. Our homemade windshield worked okay on the way up, and I was contemplating on fashioning some kind of support as the sticky comes off semi frequently over 65 mph. I rode into a puddle and it literally just got stuck. I stood up and walked off the bike and took a picture. It took all three of us to pull it out. Lesson 1 - don't ride into a mud ditch, its not a jeep. A lesson I had to learn again. Second thing I noticed was that I needed a quick access side stand plate. I made one homemade, but honestly it just sucks. Two can be had on ebay for less than 6 dollars, so I bought one later on. On this occasion on the sad, I used one of my mirrors to make sure the bike doesn't sink, but it was a totally pain to stand the bike up and then get on while balancing it.
Later on, I was being the hero and rode through a thin mud strip and I slid over 40 ft. No injury, but the box was tweaked. We were able to bend it back. I added a few more tools to my tool bag list, after finding out what tools I needed for the fix. All it all, it was definitely worth the experience. I'm also sold on the hard case, because of the case, my leg did not even hit the ground or have any injuries.
