I bought a Suzuki Van Van 200, a fat tired 200cc bike much on the order of a TW-200 but a little more road oriented. I haven't ridden for about 20 yrs and it was road bikes and choppers back then. I'm loving this for the SW. It is really at home on the sand and gravel roads here. 90 miles to the gallon is a real biggie and saving the wear and tear on my van. I can haul the bike to where I want to hunt and then spend a few days hunting and use the van for base camp.
I tricked out the bike with a GPS, power port, large rack, equipment box(Dewalt tool box), spare fuel (Rotopax clone) and I was in the pawn shop the other day and they had a Polaris hard scabbard that mounted easily on the bike.
I've been doing some riding/scouting to get used to it but today was my first hunt on it, it was cool this morning, upper 30's an I had to return to the house and add my heavy coat and chaps but it was a comfortable ride after that it was only fifteen miles out to where I wanted to hunt.
The first stand was a blank as was the second. Stand three was a charm, a really nice looking large male came in to about 20 yards. I am packing the 12ga/5.6x50R Mag combo gun and 1 1/4oz of Copper BB's dropped him right there. Skinning was a little tough as there wasn't anything taller than me there, but one of the bushes was pretty stout it was more of a horizontal skinning rather than vertical.
The next stand I pulled off the trail and heard a branch scrapping the fender. Looking down here was a mazinita branch stuck to the tire with a couple big old thorns imbedded in the tire. I had tire spoon, patch kit and inflator in the equipment box but haven't added the allen wrenches to pull the front wheel yet. So I booked it back home before the tire went totally flat.
Tomorrow I'll pull the wheel and patch the tire and be ready for next week.
I'll add pics of the bike tomorrow, I'm not good with phones, I'm still trying to find it. I used it a couple days ago so it can't be too far.
I tricked out the bike with a GPS, power port, large rack, equipment box(Dewalt tool box), spare fuel (Rotopax clone) and I was in the pawn shop the other day and they had a Polaris hard scabbard that mounted easily on the bike.
I've been doing some riding/scouting to get used to it but today was my first hunt on it, it was cool this morning, upper 30's an I had to return to the house and add my heavy coat and chaps but it was a comfortable ride after that it was only fifteen miles out to where I wanted to hunt.
The first stand was a blank as was the second. Stand three was a charm, a really nice looking large male came in to about 20 yards. I am packing the 12ga/5.6x50R Mag combo gun and 1 1/4oz of Copper BB's dropped him right there. Skinning was a little tough as there wasn't anything taller than me there, but one of the bushes was pretty stout it was more of a horizontal skinning rather than vertical.
The next stand I pulled off the trail and heard a branch scrapping the fender. Looking down here was a mazinita branch stuck to the tire with a couple big old thorns imbedded in the tire. I had tire spoon, patch kit and inflator in the equipment box but haven't added the allen wrenches to pull the front wheel yet. So I booked it back home before the tire went totally flat.
Tomorrow I'll pull the wheel and patch the tire and be ready for next week.
I'll add pics of the bike tomorrow, I'm not good with phones, I'm still trying to find it. I used it a couple days ago so it can't be too far.
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