As Xmas approaches and my 79  DT175mx restoration is heading towards completion, I am reminded of this time two years ago.

​​​​​​Christmas day 2019 was the day my 97 Honda VFR750 resto was completed, all apart from a missing gear lever rubber.

There are only a handful of bikes out of many that I immediately regretted selling, the biggest regret being when I traded in my VFR750 bought new in 97, for a CBR1100xx super blackbird in 99.  Regretted it within 10 miles.  Swore I'd get another one day and bring it back to showroom condition as my old one was.

Then there is the DT.  Bought new in April 80 and traded in two months later for a road bike as my riding buddies sold their trailies and bought roadbikes to go to bike rallies on.  The DT was the last in a long line of off roaders.
  That little DT left a lasting impression and 40 years later....  Only this time it won't be thrashed across pit stacks and down muddy dirt tracks.

Completed VFR Christmas day 2019

 
Took the noisy one out today on the local roads before hitting some trails on the CT1-C.

That version of the VFR 750 is where Honda made the best bikes. A true landmark motorcycle . They haven't built a better bike since then and that's a lovely example.

It's looking pretty Pete.

October made us think of skiing, but it warmed right back up this November on the California/Oregon border, it's been tough work getting the XT250 out as well as the two '72s. Checked out a semi local OHV area which has ~14 miles of ATV (but not side by side) width trails, sandy clay dirt, pretty fun, not my typical outing. 

It ended up being a 30 mile loop between dirt roads from the car and the OHV trails, 5,318' of climbing. Had to stop a few time for the TS185 to cool off. It just runs hot, over 350 all the time. I've tried a cooler plug and jetting so rich it bogs, still runs the same temps. Had to pull over three times during the climbs to cool off when it hit 400f. 


A few days later, dirt roads to an old mine that pulled over $900,000 in gold out of the earth around the turn of the century. Not much left standing these days. 

Great views though. 28 miles and 5,646' of climbing. Never saw temps over 368 and it ran like a charm, stays around 300 most of the time. Suspension and ergonomics are not as good for me as the TS185 but the engine has a much broader torque range.
 

I do envy our US cousins for all that open land to ride on.  We have very few places to ride on our small, overcrowded island and those places are dwindling further.

As a teenager with a AT3 field bike, I had a large pit stack (coal mine spoil heaps), an old abandoned railway that went for miles and a quarry within bike pushing distance of home.

None of them have survived the property developers wallet. 

We're really spoiled out west (when it's not burning), though it's been slowly trending to less riding area, we still have thousands of miles of old logging roads and a fair amount of clandestine single track.

studded up some junk tires with some screws and went for a rip today! 
 

Wow looks like fun I remember riding in the snow on my HT1 when I was a kid we didn’t much snow probably 2 inches 

Boy that brings back memories. We would load up our tires with sheet metal screws and ride on the frozen lake. Used to give the snowmobiles a good run for their money.