Hawg Ty with new drive belt break in ride

#1
I took the Hawk Ty with the new Bondo drive belt on a 12 mile ride. The leaves are a day or two from changing as a very cold front moves in tonight.
I wanted to ride one more time in warm weather in case the belt failed and hand to be replace with a back-up drive belt.
I went to my old stand-by riding area, Oak Flats. There are a few hundred miles of trails and open areas to ride.
I deviated off the normal trails and rode in meadows and pine needle flats along with areas covered with fallen and rotting tree branches.
There would be a lot of speed changes and steep climbs and descents.
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I started in an old logging area
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i followed the tracks of the logging tractors for a few miles.
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I crossed over the "normal" trail and started to climb up the mountain.
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I rode thought the pine forest for awhile as I crossed the summit of the mountain.
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Of course there are always rock fields.
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As I climb I ride past some of the hard wood trees.
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Loose rocks and soil gave the new drive belt a good work out.
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The real work out is the rotting tree branches on a slope allowing the rear tire to slip and spin with the belt grabbing the TAV as torque was applied or lost.
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I almost crashed the bike here. There was a slight sudden rise of the trail that paralleled a deep rut. As I gunned the engine to climb the rise, the rear tire rolled over and tried to go into the rut. I fought hard and won in the end. I came very close to going over the handlebars had I slid into the rut. ofo10.JPG
A few mile up the trail I found a nice area climbing even higher up the side of the mountain.
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The trail closed in on itself providing some fun riding as the tree limbs touched thee handle bars.
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I was heading out of the National Park area and driving towards the Albuquerque Open Space Area.
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I was in the hardwood forest now and the ride was really fun.
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And then, the County throws a wrench in the gear box. NO MOTOR DRIVEN VEHICLES ALLOWED. I had to turn around and re-trace the last two miles back to the ride-able trails.
End of part one of two.
 
#2
Part two of two:
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I found a spur from others who had to turn around as well and followed it.
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The by-pass turned out to be fun.
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The trail opened up into a very nice area.
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It lead to an open area with no real trails., just a layer of pine needles. A nice smooth ride through the pine trees.
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After a mile or so of pine needles, the area merged back into the trail system.
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I started to head back to the trailer. The belt was doing well pulling the bike through the forest.
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and low-and-behold I ran into my wife who decided to walk the trails where I was riding.
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I had been riding for a few hours by now and we parted as I headed back to the car and home.
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I found another large field with no paths or trails to ride through. With the fat,low pressure tires on my bike, I leave no real foot-print behind and don't feel too bad about being of the so called "beaten-path"
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I found the pavement leading to my car parked a mile or so down this road.
It had been a good ride the last day before the cold sets in.
End of part two.
 
#4
The belt is 1/2" longer which does slip a little to get the bike moving. It shows no wear after 12 miles of hard riding. The new belt seems to do well on the steep hill climbs. My engine Does still have a governor on it as I must have 100% dependability when I ride in the boonies. Many times I'm tens of miles from any help with no cell service. So the engine must always run no matter what.
The weather is going south tonight and drop into the 20's which is not normal for us. Our friends to the north are going to get clobbered tonight with possible feet of snow!
I may go out and see how the bike works in the sub-freezing cold. The county just cut a new fire road/power lines over my mountain a mile from my house. I may try to climb the mountain to see if the new belt will power my butt up a very steep climb.
 
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