...in the words of "St John the Younger", "Yermo is an expensive friend". :-)For several hours this afternoon, I had the pleasure of doing something I've not done in an amount of time that I'd prefer not to express in detail: I spend several hours on what we used to call back in the day an "enduro".Yermo very kindy lent me his DR650 for a familiarization ride. We did a somewhat modified "power of left" (an ancient old loop going back to our college days), and then through a bit of Howard and Montgomery counties on the way back.So I had braced myself for a "back to the 70s" kind of riding experience. Surprisingly (or not?) what I got was not exactly that, though there were certainly elements of it.First off, despite the soft, long travel suspension and the 90/10 dual sport tires, the bike was very stable and planted in turns. I couldn't detect any kind of frame flex as one might have expected back in the day with such a bike.The engine was very smooth for a thumper (single) and the engine had plenty of torque--enough to lighten up the front end any time a healthy dose of throttle was applied. I did notice the torque was more peaky than my usual ride, but honestly, that made the ride more fun.The riding position took a bit to get used to as it's far more upright than the K13, but once I got accustomed to that, I began to understand how wide a range a seating positions were available. It also became clear that it would be no trouble at all to do some serious miles on the bike. A trip down to the gap in a day would certainly be doable.All in all, it was a very pleasant experience which has left me with a very positive opinion of the DR. And of course we stayed only on paved roads, so I'll have to try out the "dirt" part of the bike's dual sport capabilities another day ;-)

It was a good day for a ride.

The DR650 really is much more fun than one would think.

And, of course, since I was riding a street bike, we kept it completely on pavement at all times as shown by the fact there's no mud or dirt on my bike at all. (After today, I did find myself thinking that rshaug might be on to something with his dirt repelling theory ....)
Now I just need to get Yun Lung Yang to ride it ...