Hi there, I'm a new Connie 10 owner and a relatively new rider (2+ years), starting from a 250 Nighthawk, then onto a CX500 (still have the old couch too) and recently purchased my C10! My girlfriend and I were out looking for geocaches (
http://www.geocaching.com) and those that know, understand that sometimes it can get a little rural. I had been riding it for about two weeks and had ridden dubs on it already so no surprises there. Riding DIRT on the other hand probably was my literal downfall.
It happened as we began to roll down a light grade on a humped dirt road with mixed hard pack and soft dust and I was doing my best to avoid the soft stuff. Interestingly, what lead to the drop was trying to climb the middle hump and the front wheel lost side traction and washed out from under me. We were easily less than 5 mph and my girlfriend hopped right off and was not hurt at all. Bike revved a bit but I hit the kill immediately. I knew how to pick up a downed bike easily so I took a deep breath and got it shiny side up again without much hassle. A cursory review showed that there was no bad damage as we went down super slow, but the bag on the side that went down popped the retainer clip, yanking all the screws from their holes. Thankfully the antler remained intact and I was able to bungie it down for the ride home. I felt a little ashamed, mostly for attempting dirt with a) a roadbike and b) a passenger. But since nothing was broken that cant be fixed (a bit of epoxy and good as new!) I chalk it up to a learning experience.
