hi yalll....been lurking for a while before i posted. in that time, (10 days) my new (for me) 92 dr wass tolen from my front yard. not a good start to my S america dakar trip, to leave nov 1.

so heres the meat...bought a 93 e start with only 2400 original miles, seems in great shape, in NJ. the seller is meeting me in PA tuesday with the bike at the airport and i going to drive it back to TX. Besides the obvious, anything I should look out for regarding the e start, or anything else. guy said he never rode it more than a mile at a time, so he thinks im nuts, and his 11yr old said i'm batman. a little of both, to be sure. wait til they see my blue hair!! at least i will be easy to spot @ the airport!!!

also, any route suggestions? anything i cant miss? driven lots of places and visited more, but never been in this area of my country.

thx yall...cant wait to get more inviolved here. actually been reading these boards for about 10 years now.

ez

Ez what airport are you leaving from and which direction are you headed ? Due west or the southern route ?

hi stat.....

heading from allentown international, from there kinda southwest, def not due west. thinking of heading for N carolina in the western section, and then cut across thru tennessee, on to arkansas, n texas from there.

i really need to be home by saturday, so my idea to take all backroads had to be shleved, but i will avoid most interstates when possible.

def open to ideas if you have any....been around the world too many times, and tonnes out west, but never took any time to explore these areas of my country. weird, i know. so again, any suggestions? is deals gap feasible?

take it easy

ez

btw, i will post up nightly as the trip progresses.

Maybe hit part of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and ride through Great Smokey National Park in Tennessee then east to Deals Gap. You only have a few days so you will need to iron butt yourself most of the way home.

Please be mindful to take the wet weather in consideration. I sent you an my email and house phone if you get stranded in Pennsylvania. I am an hour and a half north of Allentown.

All the best and since you are a traveler I have faith in you.

well lets just say people's version of "mint" vary drastically....for a condition report of this sad machine, see my thread under suzuki tech, titled "dr650 electric start"

as for the weather and route....i missed a pretty nasty one this afternoon that blew in near Gettysburg off of 15.

i got the bike about 2pm tuesday, and drove it to gettysburg, spent the night, and drove back 45miles north up 15 for new tires. see earlier mentioned thread...left mechanicsburg about 3p and ended up here, in moorefield WV. not too bad considering there is no functioning headlight as of now.

so far i drove 15 to frederick to catch 340W ( nice) to catch I66 for a link up to 55W. this route is highly scenic, little traffic, and so far real windy and hilly as well. a very rural scene. perfect. but the new tires suck a$$ and are waaay worse than the OEM 15 year dry rotted deathwings it was equiped with. these are some kenda somethings. never thought it would be such a trial to get D/S tires til i needed em!

so here i am in this town of nada eating my "sheetz" touch screen fastfood gas station food....who'da thunk i would experince the "next level" of fast food technilogy in rural W virginia!!

in the morning have a few parts to install, then keep on 55 to elkins, catch 219/250 to lewisburg. then I64 to beckley, 16, 10, to 52, to get 119 into kentucky. my goal is to hit 80, hal rogers parkway, most the way of KY. We'll see from there.

Bike is awesome, super comfy, 500m a day should be no sweat. i'll let you know tomorrow.