This
post is a summary of the last couple of week’s activities.
1
- Post 16 described our first ride of 2016 with all 4 core TAT-2016 riders;
Mike, Steve, Terry and Woodrow. The next day I rode 123 miles solo in the same
general area as the day before. I wanted to meet some of my kayaking friends
who were running a river 50 miles north of Little Rock. I got there just as
they were getting ready to launch so had to take a lot of guff why I was riding
instead of kayaking on such a beautiful day; cold but sunny. I did use my
electric jacket liner and gloves today and they worked perfectly so I’m ready
for cold wx riding this year. On my way back home I decided to take a look at
the power line road we had passed the day before. I stopped on the pavement to
evaluate the moderate climb up to the top of a small hill where the road
disappeared and decided to give it a go. It looked solid enough considering the
heavy rains of the last few days. I made it to the top of the hill OK but then
saw a gate about 100 yards down the road with several muddy spots on the road.
The ground was saturated so I decided to ride to the gate and turn around. I
made it about half way and the bike decided to go a different direction; down!
It happened so fast I don’t really know what caused the decent but I remember
flying over the handlebars and skidding head first into the soft ground, pics
below. No injury and the new hand guards protected the left side of the bike
perfectly. Remember I had tested the right side the day before. I’m getting
pretty good at laying this bike down.
This
is when I realized that the bike was not going to be easy to get back up
considering the soft ground and slippery footing. I finally got the bike back
upright and that’s when I discovered that my new aluminum shift lever with the
spring loaded tip was bent almost 180 degrees backwards! That spring tip did a
great job protecting the lever – NOT. The bike was not going to be ridden the
last 30 miles home with the shift lever like that. I actually stood on the
lever and got it bent back towards the front enough to shift gears and that’s
how I rode it home. While trying to get the bike to set on the kick stand so I
could work on the shift lever I soon discovered the soft ground would not
support the bike. I had to start the engine and walk the bike another 50 feet
to semi-firm ground but still had to put a piece of wood under the kick stand
to fix shift lever plus get back on the bike. Lesson learned – on both AK1 and
AK2 I carried a round plastic pad (6”) to put under my kick stand on soft
ground. I have to find where I stored it at home because I’m carrying it on
TAT-2016 for sure.
The
Tank bag had departed the bike during the fall because it is held on only by magnets.
The same thing had happened earlier while meeting my kayaking friends when I
rode through a gully with steep sides. I had hit the bottom with some speed so
I could get up the other side and the tank bag flew off. I had to stop the
bike, get the bag and had similar issue with soft ground parking the bike and
getting back on. As a result of problems with my magnetic tank bag I ordered
today a strap down Giant Loop Fandango Pro tank bag. More on this later.
I
finally made it home with the CRF muddy, my clothes and boots muddy and even my
helmet muddy. As a side note, I do a lot of things in back country or
wilderness areas such as Mountain Biking, ATVs, dual-sport motorcycle riding,
white water kayaking and rafting. I take my SPOT with me whenever I’m doing
these activities and especially when solo like I was on this ride. I had
advised my wife I would be doing some off road riding and gave her a link to my
SPOT tracking web page on WWW.Spotwalla.com
so If I turned up missing, she would know where to look. I highly recommend
using a SPOT for adventure riding and Spotwalla is a more user friendly way to
post tracking maps based on the SPOT data.
2
– It’s interesting how many friends we have that would love to go on the
TAT-2016 ride with us. I had mentioned in an earlier post that one of our
co-workers Dale had bought a used KTM 530 and is tentatively going to hook up
on one or more of the legs of our trip. I had also mentioned that another
co-worker M&M was thinking about getting a bike to join in. Well M&M
just bought a used KTM 530 from a guy in Birmingham, AL and picked it up this
past week-end, pic below. There are a lot of significant others (wives and
girlfriends) that are not pleased with us for generating this crazy urge in their
husbands/boyfriends to go riding across the country on a dual-sport.
3
– We continue to get the bikes ready for the TAT. Steve and I helped Woodrow
add heated grips to his CRF a few days ago and install his Giant Loop Fandango
Pro tank. I decided to get the same bag after seeing how well it worked on his
CRF.
A
major enhancement was that we finally sprang for bike to bike intercoms for the
4 core riders. I already owned a dual set of Sena SMH-10 intercoms I used on
several large touring bikes so my wife and I could communicate on long rides.
We split the cost for another dual set so all four riders would be on a common
system. We have spent the last several days getting them installed in our
helmets and will use them for the first time on our next ride.
4
– On Saturday 16 Jan we four rode another section of the TAT from Beebe, AR to
south of I-40 close to Hazen, AR. The total ride was 137 miles with about half
of it on the TAT with the rest spent riding to/from the TAT starting from
Little Rock. Weather was pretty cold from med 30’s to low 40’s. We met at
Dunken Donut at 0930 with temperature just above freezing. In addition to the
core four, Dale was joining us on his KTM 530 but had stopped for fuel while we
waited at DD drinking coffee. After a long time we started looking for Dale
when he walked up without his bike. He had changed the oil the day before and
while fueling up saw that the oil plug was missing (top one where oil is
added). He figured he didn’t tighten it after adding oil. This put us behind
schedule while we put duct tape over the hole and drove the 2 miles to Steve’s
to leave Dales bike. We talked Dale into going with us but use Steve’s KLR 650
(Steve used his WR250R). Around 1030 we finally headed out with five bikes in
trail.
I
used this ride to try out my new Giant Loop bag and the tie down approach I
planned to use. This included having it set on top of my tool bag and 1 gal
RotoPax fuel container. Although it looks bulky it actually worked great. I
filled the GL with rain gear and other items plus every piece of cold weather
gear I had at home. I knew several of these guys would not be dressed for the
cold so wanted to have extra gear if they needed some. We stopped about 10
miles up the road to see how everyone was taking the cold. Dale’s face was
bright red since he had only a helmet and goggles with no face protection. He
used a spare balaclava while Terry use a heavier set of gloves then we hit the
road again.
Intercom
– I already knew that an intercom on long rides is a fantastic addition from my
AK1 and AK2 experiences. This was the first the other 3 core riders had used
one and everyone was very pleased with how much it added to the ride. Syncing
all 4 units is a bit of a pain and I’m sure we aren’t doing it exactly right since
occasionally one or more would drop off line.
As
we were nearing the end of the TAT section and crossing I-40 it was time to
fuel up both the bikes and the riders since it was after lunchtime. Several of
us were using our off road GPS units to follow the TAT but I also have my car
GPS mounted for finding gas and food. I put in Hazen, AR and it took us down
two different roads that ended with gates blocking our path. By then several of
us were getting low on fuel and it had started getting colder. I was the only
one carrying extra fuel but 1 gallon won’t go far for three bikes (all running
low). As we entered Hazen we found fuel but rode another 10 miles to get to a
place to eat; Nick’s.
Nick’s
was pretty full and everyone took notice of 5 cold and fully geared up riders
coming in to get warm and eat. It took two booths to hold our gear and have
room for us all to set down. I have always found it interesting how strangers
will start talking to riders who are obviously on some type of extended ride.
This happed over and over again on AK1 & 2 and did again on this ride.
Several folks talked to us as we stripped to eat asking where we were going,
etc. I guess they figured we must be
crazy riding in such cold weather just for fun.
From
Nick’s we still had 35 miles to get back home, the temperature was dropping and
the sun had not been seen all day. Everyone was cold except me because of my
electric jacket and gloves. I believe in buying the right gear rather than
freezing. I used this same gear on AK1 & 2 and it saved me several times
when the weather got cold and/or wet.
As
we pulled into traffic in North Little Rock, Terry and I got caught at a stop
light while the other three had not. When the light changed green, I gunned my
bike and the next thing I know I’m doing a full wheelie across the
intersection. Not exactly the perfect wheelie but I kept it under control and
finally got it back down safely. The extra weight in back of RotoPax fuel, GL
bag and tool bag made the front-end light and it came off the ground with not
much effort. I had noticed this earlier on some of the deep gravel roads on the
TAT section and is something I will have to remember in the future.
Total
ride was 137 miles in around 7 hours. Weather was COLD and cloudy but no rain
(40% forecasted). CRF ran great with plenty of power (remember the wheelie) and
the seat was comfortable. With the new tank bag coming any day now I should be
about done with all my bike mods. I will install new tires before the real
start of the TAT-2016 since the stock ones are showing some wear. I have 1871
miles on my CRF; not bad since I bought it only 6 months ago and 3 months of
that I had hand surgery and wore a cast. My hand feels strong with no ill
effects of this past ride and the original pain is gone. BTW, Woodrow went over
the 600-mile break-in for his CRF on this ride. Dale also commented that he was
glad he rode the KLR because the seat of his KTM would have been painful on this
long, cold ride. Dale also commented it was his first ever cold weather ride
since he lives in Florida.
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