I got it today. I found a crf450 for sale at a buddies shop yesterday. He knows the history and it was at a smoking price. I don't make purchases over $1k without sleeping on it first (I've found it saves a lot of buyers remorse.) so I went out a few hours later and had a couple of beers, went home and slept them off. I got a call this morning from my buddy saying he needs to do the brakes on his truck and wanted to use my garage (e.g. wants me to do it, since he sucks at turning a wrench.) ...

I caged it to my brothers house in far far far west Texas. I got pretty lucky, the day I rolled in the temperature dropped below freezing. I assumed we'd be stuck in doors bored out of our minds. Turkey day was the next day, so the chance of getting of the couch was damn slim. The next day, they called for a high of 60. We thought about it, talked about it, and around noon we were all about it. Loaded up his quad and dirt bike and headed to one of his favorite riding spots.

...

After a mild summer, I've been expecting a "harsh" winter (for texas...) I think it's already shaping up as there's a freeze warning issued for tonight. More than a month before winter and it's going to freeze in south freakin Texas?! Hopefully it's just temporary and won't hang around. While my commute is short, it can be fun if I take the right route.

I was hoping this cold shit would hold out for a couple of weeks, I was hoping to hop on the 9er and haul ass out...

So I'm putting in as many miles as my ass can stand these days. Unfortunately I've gotten back in to the bad habit of rolling on to my stomach while I sleep. This jacks me up pretty bad. I'm stiff from head to hips when I wake up. Anyway, post shower and stretch I hop on the 9er and heat out. As usual I do mental coin tosses on which direction to go next (ever seen a 3 sided coin?)

I ended up going north (beats driving through town to head south!) and ended up in New Braunfels,...

After replacing the fork seals, per the factory service manual, I have been pretty much happy with the bike with the 15w vs 10w oil, but things still felt a bit soft to me. I turned an adjuster here or there and tightened up the front a bit and loosened up the rear to make it handle and feel better to me. Alas, the front end just seemed like it was really soft. In hind sight (as I'm working on the bike) I never bothered to reset the front to factory settings. Holy crap, how did I ever ride this...