| Dear Blue
Ridge Racing,
I thought you might enjoy hearing about one of my
riding adventures that involved your products. On a recent ride
in Tellico, NC I had the opportunity to help drag my riding buddy’s
bike from what appeared to be an easy stream crossing. Although
the water was moving briskly, it was crystal clear and looked like
a manageable 1 1/2 to 2 foot deep crossing. And it was, if you took
the right line. Well, we both screwed it up. The clear water gave
us a false since of security and we both found ourselves crotch
deep in 45 degree water trying to navigate over 18 inch boulders.
Eventually, gravity kicked in and a swimming we went. At first my
biggest concern was if anyone else was watching. That was soon followed
by my fears that I would never be able to find my clackers again.
Did I mention the water was cold?
After wrestling a KTM 520 and a Yamaha 450 from
the icy waters, with the help of the tow strap included in the kit,
we were faced with several challenges, hydro-lock and a cracked
clutch cover. The Yamaha sucked 450cc of water into the cylinder
and as the bike fell over one of the boulders cracked the side cover.
The carb, air box, and exhaust where also completely full of water.
As we were 15 miles from the truck and had to ascend several thousand
feet back over a number of mountains, we had only one option. Purge
and repair.

Just like most off-road riders and racers, we both
have massive tool boxes in our toy cluttered garages, and we even
carry a well stocked tool box in the truck. In the 35 years I have
been riding and racing motorcycles I have put together countless
emergency tool kits, rolled, stuffed, wedged, and packed in any
and everything I could buy or make. I have always had to compromise
on what I could pack because the self-rolled kits simply were too
heavy, too bulky, and uncomfortable. Not to mention that they were
never convenient to use as I would have to dump everything on the
ground and pick through the pieces in the dirt.
Recently I had the good fortune to find Blue Ridge
Racing Products on a late night surfing expedition. My first thought
was here we go again, another crappy mouse trap ill-conceived in
the minds of tool geeks who would need training wheels to ride a
motorcycle and with no clue about our world or our needs. A one
size fits all approach. You know, “it slices, it dices, and
makes julienne fries” only to find out the Popeeler wasn’t
much better than a rock and a stick for fixing broken motorcycles
miles from your truck. For years I have always wished someone would
take the same approach to survival gear for motorcycle riders that
high quality mountaineering innovators have for adventure trekkers
and mountain climbers. Much to my surprise, finally, you did.
My buddy stood looking at his drowned blue rat wondering
how in the heck we were going to dismantle it and make it run again
using the stock tool kit that he had augmented with and a hand full
of extra tools. As an added bonus, the side case was weeping a fare
amount of oil. Fortunately, I recently purchased a stage 2 kit from
you. I broke it out, draped it across the rear fender and we had
everything we needed to get the job done neatly packaged and laid
out as if we were working from our tool boxes in the garage. We
laid the bike on its side to move the oil away from the side cover,
scuffed it up with a “soft” rock, wiped it clean, mixed
up some quick steel and smeared on a patch. Although I have fixed
many things with quick steel, I never thought to include it in my
riding gear. The patch dried nicely in just a few minutes and the
leak was fixed. After standing the bike on its tail to drain the
exhaust, in less than 5 minutes we had the bike stripped down to
the frame, spark plug out, carb off, and pumping water out. We used
the high powered waterproof lighter to dry the plug and the float
bowl, then reassembled the bike and in short order we had “fire
in the whole”. We could not have done it any faster if we
had been standing in our shops at home. We even used the handy flat
rolled duct tape to seal up the air box better as we had several
more stream crossings to navigate on the way back to the truck.
We had calculated our ride to end just before dark
and with little room to spare. If we had not been prepared with
your stage 2, right down to the quick steel, we would have been
forced to abandon the bike and ride double back to the truck, only
to make the 6 hour round trip home and back the next day. If he
had been riding alone he would have spent the night walking those
15 miles in the dark, in wet cloths and riding boots, and in temperatures
dropping below freezing. Not a good way to end the weekend.
Thanks for delivering what you advertise. Hope you
enjoy the photos.
Cheers,
JB
PS: The case repair is still holding up 12 rides
later.
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