Okay,
I've been reading these forums for quite some time, and they largely influenced my decision to go with my gut and purchase a Hypermotard. I have had my hyper for about a month now. I bought mine used, it's an S model that had been wrecked (all cosmetic damage, no structural) and repaired to like new. It has a prior salvage title, but you'd never know it. It didn't bother me because it put it at a price that I could afford, and I really love the bike!
I ride the bike nearly every day, rain or shine (I keep a rainsuit strapped to the back) from my ranch about 40 miles west of Kansas City in the Kansas River Valley. I work as a product engineer in downtown Kansas City. It's a beautiful ride through the Eastern Kansas countryside until I get to the city limits. Eastern Kansas, contrary to what most think, is actually quite hilly and lush as the Missouri and Kansas Rivers come together here. We have beautiful, hardwood covered, rolling hills and an abundance of green! It also provides for gorgeous falls.
At any rate, I rode home yesterday. My ranch is about 3 miles of gravel road off of the main road. As per my routine, I pulled into our gate and down our gravel drive, past the horse barn to our carriage house (my shop and a guest apartment above.) I get home before my wife, and relieve our nanny who watches my 19 month old boy during the day. Before I go down to the house (another 100 yards or so) I feed the animals in the barn, three horses and a goat, and our three dogs and numerous barn cats.
Well, yesterday, I noticed while feeding the animals that our nanny's car wasn't there. I decided to go down to the house to see if she was indeed home. In the meantime, I was distracted and forgot to lock the horses into their stalls.
Well, my nanny had lent her car to her daughter for the day and was simply waiting for her to return. As I was greeting my son Rex, the nanny quietly brought to my attention that all three horses were now out of the barn. Well, normally that's no big deal. I'll quietly work my way back up the drive to the front gate, close it so they can't escape the property, and let them graze a while before eventually putting them back into the barn.
However, as I was walking past the now grazing three, one of them decides it's a great time to make a bee line out the gate and onto the road, and, with horses, what one does, they all do! Great! I immediately looked at my Yamaha YZ450F buried in my shop and thought, it's gonna take me a bit to get that thing out and warmed up. So, I hopped on the Hyper and out the gate I went.
Fortunately, the horses had only gone up and across the road onto my neighbors' very nicely mowed 8 acres! As I was going down the road, I saw all three of them in full stride gliding across this pasture. I turned into the pasture across a small drainage ditch and managed to cut them off at the end and turn them around. Then, flying across the pasture in full chase, I sent them back toward our ranch, all the while watching chunks of my neighbors sod flying toward me. I got them to the edge of my neighbors property and they paused for a breath. I had already grabbed a lead rope and had it coiled around my neck. I shut the bike off and slowly approached the oldest "Shiloh" in hopes he'd surrender now. Usually, if you can get a lead on one of them, the others will follow. However, they all took off in the opposite direction, across the same pasture form whence we just came. I quickly got back on the bike, fired it back up turned it around and really had to get on it to beat them to the end of the pasture. I mean, I'm talkin' that fine line between barely keepin' the back tire from spinning but trying to go as quickly as you can on very slick grass with the stock tires!! This wasn't easy! And, braking at the end and quickly turning around was even harder. Several times the front locked up briefly, but I never went down. I headed them off once more, turned them around again, and zig-zagged behind them while successfully making it onto the road this time headed in the right direction! When we got to our gate, they succumbed, entered and went straight back to the barn and into their stalls. I couldn't believe it! They were sweating hard, and frothing a bit, and breathing heavily! So was I!
I have to say, the Hyper pulled this off mightily! If it had off road tires, it would have been a breeze. I don't think it gets enough credit for it's off-road prowess! I never felt out of control, and, although the lack of traction was nerving, the feedback from the bike always let me know exactly where I stood.
The whole thing took about 10 minutes, but it could very well have taken all night, and with a much less successful outcome! I only wish I could have had a video of the whole thing! It surely would have been an instant success on YouTube!
Here are a few photos though that I took this morning before riding again to work. As you can see, the Hyper looks it's part. I also had to snap a few shots of the pasture where the wrangling took place! And, lastly, is an older shot of our ranch from the entry gate at the front of the property near the road where you turn in.
Wow! What a hoot!
T
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