TAT-2016 Post 39 - Thursday 23 June 2016

It’s been almost a month since my last post so thought I would provide an update of our Leg-2 planning status; AR-OK Border to Lake City, CO (1153 miles). We’ve got most of the planning completed and are just finishing up with any bike mods left undone and final shuttle details. I will provide a lot of minute details that may not be of interest to the reader unless they are contemplating doing the TAT or some other adventure ride in the future. I have to admit that I probably over plan but I hate being surprised when out in the wilderness and not being prepared to handle most unforeseen situations.

Leg-2 starts the evening of 2 August around 6 pm after everyone is off work. The bikes will have been loaded on the trailer the weekend before. We expect to complete Leg-2 on 12 August. Details of the day by day plan are provided later in this blog.

Rider details

Five riders (plus 1 support truck driver):

1    .    Mike – 2015 Honda CRF250L

2    .    Woodrow – 2015 Honda CRF250L

3    .    Jeff – 2008 Yamaha WR250R

4    .    Terry – 2016 KTM590 with about 400 miles on odometer

5    .    Steve – Yamaha WR250R (2008 model I think)

6    .    Marty – Driving our support truck with trailer

TAT Section

We will picked up the TAT at the Arkansas/Oklahoma Border. As of now, three of us (Mike, Terry, Woodrow) have ridden from the east coast (Charleston, SC) to the AR/OK border in several different rides (about 1800 miles). The longest (1431 miles) being Leg-1 completed in March of this year. We skipped a section in Mississippi due to cold WX and injuries but will grab it sometime in the future. All the rest have been on the TAT using Sam Correro maps and associated GPS files.

http://www.transamtrail.com/

The map below shows how far we have currently ridden since we decided to make this ride in Oct 2015. It includes the March 2016 Leg-1 and several shorter rides to get all of AR completed as practice.

The map below shows our next section to be accomplished this coming August 2016; Leg-2.

The map below shows both Leg 1 and 2 after our Aug ride. We will have ridden more than half of the coast to coast trip in 2016.

We are doing something different on Leg-2 that is not normally done. We are going in reverse, west to east. There are several reasons for this but the primary one is that since we live in Arkansas, we can always get sections of the TAT that are close to home by doing short 2-3 day rides. The sections further away require lots of advance planning including the shuttle to/from the start and end points. In addition, we really want to have a few days in CO to ride some of the local passes and the only way we can ensure that happens is by starting from CO and then riding back towards AR. If for some reason we have to abort the ride in OK on the way back, we can always get that section later. BTW Sam clearly states on his web page that the TAT should be ridden east to west and that is primarily if you are using his roll chart maps. We aren’t using the roll charts but we are using his paper maps and GPS files and they work either way.

One other point I would like to stress. On Leg-1 we clearly expected to make more miles per day than we actually did. This was another reason we skipped MS, we ran out of time. I have lots of riding history now and it works out to 14 to 20 mph average. This is from start in the morning to stopping at night so includes rest stops, snacks/lunch, water breaks, break downs, wrecks, ride off the mountain, hitting dogs, etc. This means a 150 day is about 8-10 hrs riding. I know others make 200 miles a day or more but this has been our average so I’ve used it for planning for future legs. WX hasn’t been a problem up to now but it can certainly slow you down. There is another big point if you are moteling rather than camping; there aren’t many motels along the TAT so on several occasions the selection of stopping point wasn’t due to rider fatigue but to where the motel was located. I say this so you can understand the next section.

Leg-2 Planning

As I did on Leg-1 I have prepared a spreadsheet with all the Leg-2 details. I used this to determine where we would stop each day (motels) and possible fuel locations. I also used this to determine the support truck route and hook-up spots. Our initial plan was that we would only meet up with the support truck each night at the motel but after doing this chart, it became evident we could make the ride even more enjoyable. The actual highway miles for the support truck between motels was at most 3 hours and in some cases 1 or 2 hours. This meant a lot of boring time for the support driver in an area of the country not filled with lots of entertainment; Oklahoma panhandle for example. To better support the riders and to give the support driver more of a part of the action, we will meet the support truck at every point where the support truck highway route and the TAT tract crosses. There are lots of benefits to this approach, the main one being we can carry much less gear on the bikes and we will have cold drinks and food at the hook up points. In addition, we plan on having the support driver fill several 5 gal fuel tanks at each motel stop and we will top off the bikes from these tanks rather than have to find fuel stops between the motels. I won’t have to carry my RotoPax on Leg-2 except on one long ride through New Mexico. The spreadsheet is provided below with explanations below the chart:

Spreadsheet details

First the notes at the bottom explain the plan for the overall trip. This is a repeat of the chart notes:

Day 1-2 (2-3 Aug) – Shuttle to Lake City, CO. First night at Oklahoma City where we will pick up Jeff who will drive down from Tulsa. His bike will already be loaded on the trailer. The next morning we drive the rest of the way to Lake City, CO. The support truck only has 5 seats so the riders will all ride in the truck while the support driver will fly into Gunnison, CO a few days later.

Day 3-4 (4-5 Aug) – Local rides in CO to include Engineer and Cinnamon passes. In the evening we will drive the 100 miles round trip to Gunnison to pick up the support driver.

Day 5-11 (6-12 Aug) – TAT ride back to AR.

Column descriptions:

Ride Day – Days 1 through 7 of the TAT ride back to AR.

Total Day – Includes the shuttle, local riding and TAT ride days.

SAM – This is a number I assigned to the Sam Correro paper maps starting with the first map at Andrews, NC all the way to Oregon. It makes it easier for me to organize the maps in sequence.

State – This is actually the name Sam has assigned his paper maps. Sam starts over with number 1 at the eastern side of each state; i.e. OK 1-16 then NM 1-2 then CO 1 through 5.

Feature – A town, city, mountain pass or major highway found on the Sam paper maps.

Mile – This is the confusing part to explain. Sam starts over with mile 1 at each states eastern border. He marks key junctions, motels, fuel, features, etc. on his paper maps with the miles from the eastern border of the state. He also on several occasions resets the number to correct for route changes he has made. This does make it hard to figure out until you study his maps for a while.

Dist – This is the miles between features. I usually used the Sam Mile figure to come up with this number but sometimes had to eyeball an estimate. It is still pretty accurate and is good enough for this planning.

Accum – the accumulated miles from the start at Lake City, CO to AR/OK border.

Notes – This marks the location of motels, fuel and even where SAM reset the miles on his paper maps. Sam usually notes on the maps where motels and fuel can be found but on a few cases I actually Googled the towns not marked to see if there were motels. This is the case at Boise City, OK. I needed a motel at Boise City to shorten a day’s ride to under 200 miles.

Miles – I probably should rename this since I already have a Mile column. It is the distance between planned motel stops; shortest 122 TAT miles, longest 196 TAT miles.

Gas Miles – Distance between fuel availability. If we do as planned we will refuel at motel stops and then from the support truck between motels.

Dirt Miles – The TAT track miles the riders will experience.

Shuttle Miles – the highway miles that the support truck will drive between motels and hook-ups.

Time – Support truck driving times between motels and hook-ups. As can be seen, it will take the riders all day to get from motel to motel but the support truck only has a few hours drive on the highway.

Notes:

The ride through New Mexico (ride day 3) appears to be the longest on this Leg with no motels, fuel or any other form of civilization. It is also not close to the highway being used by the support truck. This will be the one section where we will have to carry extra fuel for the smaller tank bikes; i.e. CRF250Ls and one of the WR250Rs. The KTM and other WR have larger tanks and should be OK.

Weather

We expect HOT and hopefully dry weather for this section! We picked the August dates mostly due to the schedules of several projects at work for which most of the riders are responsible. In addition, we wanted to make sure the CO passes were free of snow which narrowed the window to June to August. We have all ridden in AR in hot Wx so we do have the appropriate riding gear but it doesn’t make it any more enjoyable.

Communication

We will communicate with the support truck via cell-phone where that is available. There are lots of the TAT not in cell coverage so we have implemented a back-up plan. Two of the riders have SPOT locators; Mike and Jeff. The support driver can track our location via dedicated web pages on SpotWalla. I will post the Spotwalla link in a later post for those who want to follow our ride. He will have to be within cell coverage to use a portable wifi we will also be using but since he will be on highways and towns, we expect he should have good coverage. I will also assign one of my SPOT help buttons to a message directed to the support driver’s cell stating we need help but it’s not an emergency; i.e. broken bike or minor injury. He will be able to find us using the Lat/Long provided in the SPOT message. I will still have the 911 SPOT capability for real emergencies.

Miscellaneous

Tires - I’ve ordered new tires for both mine and Woodrow’s CRFs; Dunlop D606 both front and rear. I installed new D606’s at the start of Leg-1 and was very pleased with their overall performance on both pavement and dirt. Jeff is installing the same on his WR250R. Terry only has 400 miles on his KTM so his stock tires will be used. Steve hasn’t said what his plans are. I know there are lots of opinions on tires for the TAT so only state that I use the D606’s based on lots of good reviews and that they last a reasonably long time even while riding highways.

Bike Mods – Most of our bikes are already equipped after riding Leg-1. I have added a tool tube on the left side and will use it on Leg-2. I also added the FMF muffler and header since Leg-1; love it. Terry has added items to his new KTM to include rear rack and skid plate. I WON’T be caring any of Terry’s gear this time as I did recently on the AR-OK ride a few weeks ago. Jeff has been buying parts for his bike trying to catch up since he wasn’t on Leg-1. He just added some riding lights that will surely blind the rest of us if he turns then on in a group situation.

Future

I’ve already started looking at Leg-3; Lake City, CO to Port Orford, OR (about 2450 miles). This is already a long post so will give you details of Leg-3 in a future post. It will clearly be a step-up from Legs 1 and 2.

39 days till Leg-2 launch!!