Float trip to Eureka Springs

The ever popular dual sport ride to Eureka Springs, AR is going on this weekend. Hosted by some dual sporters out of Kansas, this trip has always been a blast in the past. This year promises to be a wet one, however. My wife Kay and I had planned to ride up on Thursday afternoon, but monsoon rains convinced Kay to stay home. I thought I would brave the elements and did get out and ride a couple of hours, but after running errands around OKC in the deluge, I decided my nice warm comfortable bed would be better than a good soaking. I also learned that my waterproof gloves and rain jacket were not so waterproof after all. The gloves lasted two miles, while the jacket was a bit better, lasting a couple of hours before starting to feel damp. My BMW pants and boots worked flawlessly as in the past, keeping the wet out. I plan to try again tomorrow with a different jacket and gloves.

Dual Sport sales show largest increase

I stopped by Performance Cycles in OKC this past week and chatted with Richard Meadors, the general manager. He pointed me to an article from the Motorcycle Industry Council, a manufacturer's trade group, that says dual sport motorcycle sales had the largest increase of all segments in 2006, a whopping 23% growth increase from 2005! Compare this to total motorcycle sales which were up 3.7%. The actual number of dual sport motorcycles sold is small in comparison to other models, but it looks like other people are discovering what we already know - dual sport rocks!