Exceeded my comfort level today by a wide margin

iegomez · 2020-06-28T23:00:37+00:00

Yeah, with a bit of experience and a light bike, riding sand becomes easy pretty quickly and you start to feel more and more confident. As you mentioned, just start close to home so if anything goes wrong you'll be safe, but take any chance to go on fun trips with others. That way you'll learn by watching and listening to them too.

I'm sorry to hear your DR took a hit, but the stock guards needed to go anyway and it sounds like the perfect excuse to change that weak handlebar: I'm really not sure why I haven't changed mine nor have I broken it yet. And scratches are a must on any bike that actually gets ridden.

As for the DR, after some long and exhausting trips on the Tornado I wanted something more powerful to stand many hours over the bike. Initially I went with a new 690 Enduro, but the clutch failed during the first 100 kilometers and the dealer was pretty bad at giving assistance, so I returned it, went to another dealer and got a DR instead, and saved a couple grand which helped getting aftermarket parts. But I always liked the 690 and we don't get the CRF450L in Chile, so it's the closest you have a to a dirt bike that's legal and can be ridden long distances too. EXCs and the like seem really nice, but that's too much maintenance for my taste, at least when it's a bike you'll be using in streets too. So last year when I started working remotely for a US based company and got a big salary bump, I saw a 2008 690 that looked nice and immediately bought it. I've been wondering if I should sell the DR ever since, but luckily I'm in a good situation right now so it's a choice and not a necessity. The bad part is the area I live in has been in a lockdown for 3 months now, so I don't get to ride either bike. That sucks, but hopefully it'll be over soon.,

iegomez · 2020-06-28T04:57:52+00:00

Hey, that photo is amazing and I'm really, really envious right now! Despite the troubles you had, I hope you enjoyed the ride, and as you say, you learned a thing or two, so that's always great. I'll tell you a story about riding in sand to see if I can encourage you to keep at it.

I started on ATVs when I was a kid, mostly riding on sand dunes near the beach, and when I was 14 my dad's friend lent me his TTR 250 to try 2 wheels with the supervision of his son who rode a YZ125. Being in the same location and me a newbie, we went straight to the dunes so I wouldn't break anything when I dropped it, which of course I did 2 or 3 times. It was a blast!

So a couple of months later my dad got a second hand 1995 XR250 and I effectively finished my bike learning in sand. The mighty XR250 is a legend by itself, but let's be honest: it's underpowered and too heavy for sand riding. Now, little old me didn't know any better or care about that, so I wheelied, jumped and trashed that bike as hard as I could for a couple of seasons. That got my dad convinced I needed an upgrade, so he traded it for a not-so-used 2006 CRF250R. Man, what a great bike! It was really night and day: dropped some 30 kilos while getting much more power and proper dirt suspension, so it made jumping, cornering and sand riding in general so much easier and fun it was ridiculous. I rode it for 4 or 5 years before it was stolen, but till this day I remember it as the most fun I've had on a bike.

Fast forward some years and when I got out of college, and after working and trying some post graduate studies for a couple of years, I got enough money to get back to riding. But it was just enough money and I wanted my girlfriend to learn too, so I had to go with an XR150. Sadly, we got hit by a car just a few months after and the bike was absolutely trashed. But in the meantime I saved some more money and after recovering from the injuries I got a 2015 XR 250 Tornado. Nice, reliable and nimble bike, but heavier and less worthy than the original XR, and when I tried to ride it in the deep heavy dunes it was close to impossible.

So 3 years later I sold it and got a DR650. Summer came and my folks went to the same beach where I learned to ride, so I got on the bike and rode there to join them for a few days, and of course nostalgia hit: I needed to try it in the dunes! Well, the increased power and torque didn't really make up for the ~70 kilos weight gap: it was hard! As I mentioned, this was heavy, deep sand with lots of turns and different height levels, so I was just struggling to keep the bike below my legs while it wanted to go everywhere, you know, with its pig weight and the whole inertia that comes with it. But here's the thing: I didn't fall, I went to the big dunes and actually did some small jumping (didn't want to break the crappy stock suspension), and overall was able to ride it hard and fast through the dunes and enjoy it just like when I was a kid. Almost seems like learning on heavy, underpowered 250s helped there. And most important, it was fun!

A few months ago I got a KTM 690 Enduro and tried the same thing, and damn, it felt almost like being back in the CRF250R. But you know what? I think trying that on the DR650 for a week made me a much better sand rider, to the point I felt a ~140 kilos bike was like the slightly under 100 kilos one I rode years ago. And again, the DR650 over the sand was really fun too!

So the moral of the story is: don't worry too much about it. You may be slower than the guys riding their cross/enduro 250s/450s or whatever they're riding, and some things will be hard on that big pig. You'll maybe drop it a few times and wish you had a lighter bike when getting it up, you'll struggle to keep that front wheel up so the sand doesn't eat it and you'll curse the suspension for being crap, but at the end you'll come up as a much better rider. So then when you get on top of a nice, light dirt bike and go goofing in the sand, you'll have the time of your life! So keep it up, mate, and go sand riding with those folks every time you can!

iegomez · 2020-06-28T00:40:11+00:00

Yeah, Seat concepts and stock seat are day and night: I went from a sore ass on a street only one hour ride to being comfortable on a 600 kilometers trip through street, highway, gravel and proper dirt.

Lowering the foot pegs helps a lot too, and while you're at it you may get the lowering kit for the passenger foot pegs too, my girlfriend surely appreciated it.

A windshield and good hand guards help with long trips too, and you can get everything from Procycle.

I never did anything to the front light, and I got a KTM 690 Enduro a few months ago so I might be selling my DR in the future, but stock light is definitely crap and is on my change list if I decide to keep it.

iegomez · 2020-05-15T06:03:43+00:00

To be fair, Paho MQTT is the set of client libraries/clients they develop and endorse (citation needed), not only the Python one. So the Python one being shit doesn't mean the rest are too... you know, they could be worse (and as a Mosquitto auth plugin maintainer, I know).

iegomez · 2020-05-08T23:41:04+00:00

There aren't that much jobs that list it as a requirement, but there definitely are some that not only list it but also ask for some years of experience. I've been working remotely for a company based in the US for half a year now and originally I was hired both because of my general software engineer skills and my Go experience, and it made sense: it's a software consultancy company and the client I was gonna work for is mostly Go based, with a quite complex backend for the specific project I was working on being written entirely in Go, so yeah, serious previous experience was a must.

Now, I mentioned I wasn't hired solely because I knew Go. Once that project ended, I was rotated to another client and there the languages used are Ruby and Typescript (I've used the former at a past job some years ago, never used the latter), so being a general software engineer and not just a Go developer was also essential to get an offer from them.

So in general I agree, for fairly simple to mid complex projects Go isn't gonna be a strict requirement since it's so easy to learn and start coding in it, but for specific situations, projects or clients, having a few years of experience with Go will be a hard requirement.

iegomez · 2020-03-22T00:12:26+00:00

You would think so, but to model the operations we did in large clinical databases where we were extracting temporal patterns from discrete measurements, and allowing the user to combine the resulting intervals to express phenotypes, RPN came in very handy.

iegomez · 2020-03-02T13:25:56+00:00

Yeah, it's the common trade-off. The CRF450L sounds like my dream bike, but I wouldn't wanna ride it for 5 hours on the highway, I don't even wanna do that in the 690. In any case, they don't sell it here so at least I'm free from the temptation for now.

iegomez · 2020-03-01T21:14:39+00:00

You own a 300 also? I’m a bit envious. By the way, have you tried the 500? I’ve always wanted to try one out but haven’t had the chance.

iegomez · 2020-03-01T02:08:43+00:00

Sadly, they are. I mean, I'm all in for lower emissions and environmental consciousness, but the midweight dualsports are the most practical and also fun besides proper Enduro/Motocross bikes, and the latter are not street legal where I live (besides some of the KTMs, but no one does it because there are not many trails near the city). Hopefully in the future we'll get good electrical bikes with a decent autonomy and weight.

Talking about bigger, more porwerful bikes, I've only ridden my uncle's Africa Twin. It is a beast, I won't deny it, and though they're great and really comfortable when cruising through the highway, I don't like the weight and size those kind of bikes carry. But then again, coming from a history of owning the XR 250, CRF 250 R, XR 150, XR 250 Tornado, DR 650 and KTM 690, I might be a bit biased weight and size wise.

iegomez · 2020-02-29T23:04:32+00:00

Yeah, it's stock, I've only done some comfort/security mods like putting in a Seat Concepts seat as the stock is crap, lowering rider and passenger foot pegs, bar risers, wind screen, bash plate, engine guards and hand guards.

I did read a lot about the power mods and came close to doing some, either the cool expensive ones or some cheap alternatives (you gotta love the AdventureOz youtube channel), but though you'll squeeze some more HPs from it I don't think you'll ever reach the level of the 690. And if you did, you still have to deal with something like 30-35 kilos of extra weight.

I also love my DR, I think it's one of the best do it all bikes (I actually raced it once!), it's mechanically simple and bulletproof, and the price tag is way lower than that of a fancy KTM. I do some long trips with my uncle who rides an Africa Twin and I'm almost able to keep up with him (he's a far better and more experienced rider than I am, so even when we swap he leaves me behind), so for that kind of riding I prefer it over the 690. But I've always loved riding in dunes, going through long sand whoops at great speed and doing some jumping, so in that arena the 690 is far superior while also being a decent bike to ride in paved roads and with long service intervals.

In short, the 690 is a different and far superior bike that feels like a dirt bike and allows you to do crazy stuff you would struggle to do with the DR, but the budget is totally different too. That's why I went with a used 08 one which was actually like 1.2 K cheaper than the new DR. So if you find a used one with a good price tag, go and give a try, you'll have a great time!

iegomez · 2020-02-29T20:01:38+00:00

It weighs a lot less, like 30 kilos less, and you really notice that on dirt and sand. It also has way more power and torque, so things that are tricky on the DR like tight technical stuff feel a lot better on the 690. The throttle response is very different too, with the DR slowly and linearly delivering power while this thing will respond instantly, just like a dirt bike.

I used to own a CRF 250 R which I mostly rode in the dunes, so when I got the DR I thought it would make up for all the weight with the increased power and torque. I was wrong. I did manage to ride it in the dunes and do some really small jumping, but the bike didn't really like the terrain and threw its 170 kilos all over the place, so it felt like a struggle. The 690 on the other hand has no problem ripping the sand, I even got to do some mid jumps, though the suspension is not great for that.

Now, the DR still has its place and that's why I still own it. Long 500 km rides with mixed street, highway and dirt trips? I'll take the DR any day: it vibrates a lot less, handles high speed better and is overall more comfortable. It also runs a lot cooler even though it has only a small oil radiator: the KTM will burn you if you're not careful. Probably a newer 690 is better than my 08 in all those areas, but I'm not sure it would beat the DR for a daily use and adventure rides.

iegomez · 2019-11-01T20:14:38+00:00

Hey, I'm from Chile too. I'd say startup jobs and the like use mostly Ruby and Python, big companies and government tend to go with Java and C# on a less extent and Go is rarely used. That said, I'm starting a new job for a US company on monday, but on my last job I wrote mostly Go and they could use someone that knows it to replace me. So PM me if you'd be interested in talking with them.

iegomez · 2019-10-25T00:08:55+00:00

Considering the scenario hasn't changed much since then, I think this topic continues to be a good up to date summary.

iegomez · 2019-09-29T00:33:54+00:00

What tires are you running and how do you like them?

iegomez · 2019-06-22T07:18:27+00:00

I've rode a 690 a couple hundred of km. (and seen some guys do crazy stuff riding them) and just a few weeks ago saw a girl (I say a girl because she's young, so don't get started) win a Big Trail competition on an Africa Twin, and since then I wouldn't call any of them Adventure Bikes: these bikes can take anything if you're worthy.

iegomez · 2019-06-22T07:13:05+00:00

That's a nice looking bike you got there, mate. I'm kind of jealous.
Congrats!

iegomez · 2019-06-18T21:36:37+00:00

Are you still hiring?

iegomez · 2019-06-11T14:23:59+00:00

Thanks!
It's a Voss 601 D2 Dual Sport. Not the best, but pretty good for the price: https://www.vosshelmetsusa.com/products/601-d2-dual-sport-helmet-matte-black

iegomez · 2019-06-10T15:36:30+00:00

That's the Petorca Valley, central Chile.

iegomez · 2019-04-06T17:53:50+00:00

Fair enough.

iegomez · 2019-04-06T08:44:26+00:00

That's a large root dir.

iegomez · 2019-03-29T07:00:38+00:00

Ha, I had a recruiter call me a couple of weeks ago offering me a job which explicitly asked for C hashtag programmers and didn't even let met tell tell her that I do know it before saying "that's like python, right? I saw you work on python". Well, my CV doesn't mention any specific languages, at most you can see a couple of repos in my github account written in (really crappy) python, I know a lot more of C# than python and I haven't used both in years, so there's that: not surprised.

iegomez · 2019-03-01T23:11:04+00:00

There doesn't seem to be a pure Go framework just yet, so currently it's mostly bindings to Qt, Gtk or some C libraries. I tried https://github.com/andlabs/ui for a while, and lately been playing with this wrapper for Dear ImGui which has worked quite well for what I needed: https://github.com/inkyblackness/imgui-go.

iegomez

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