Zubb

Thanks Dave.

That could have saved me $thousands over a lifetime of custom ski boots.

And now we've totally hijacked Padu's thread. I'll do a ride report as I'm able... back home now.

Padu. This is your best work yet. Felt like I was riding that wash with you. I would encourage our readers to watch this on their big computer screen and not their phones. It’s pretty immersive that way.

Perhaps.

I woke up at Kern Valley campground this morning to 35* and ice warnings on my dash! edit: Doh!! I wrote this at the end of a very long hot ride day and was trying to catch up/burn through a weeks messages. I woke up at Kennedy Meadows campground not Kernville. Apologies.

I just went thru there Sunday. Camped north of there a ways. Am now near Yosemite and continuing north. Every Lake every where and every river is busting over its seams. It is truly an exceptional time to be riding the Sierras.

If I take the luggage off, can I join the small bike group?

Fun video edit. Looks like someone was talking about how his foot got twisted out in a fall at 1:58. Hope there were no sprains involved.

I love places like that. It’s interesting to try to imagine what living there might have been like. cool pics Mimi. Thanks for sharing.

That is BIG country!

Siri auto corrected the ---- out of my post above. I apologize profusely as I head in to my third most wonderful old-fashioned in all of San Diego County. Happy Saturday evening to you my friend.

Ride the old Lewiston Grade. It is a spectacular little track down the hill. IMG_2125.dng check out Deary and Boville ID. Great roads. From Boville ride dirt to Elk River. Gorgeous. Rides all over the Palouse are scenic and lonely. Watch for deer. I mean it! from Lewiston ride through Asotin Wa toward and over Rattlesnake grade. You’ll never forget it. On to Enterprise and Joseph Oregon. or from Lewiston to Grangeville then to Elk City and back when the road literally ends. or head for Wallace ID. An amazing little piece of history. Then ride the old rail beds that have now been turned into bicycle, you TV and motorcycle trails through many old train tunnels, the trail name escapes me at the moment, as I am two whiskeys in. And I grew up in that area, just riding the wheels off our old motorcycles. So I don’t always remember the names anyway. The trail through the train, tunnels, and over the railroad trestle’s is epic and memorable. Unfortunately, we do not have the whole summer to spend up their writing. There is so much to do and so much to see in North Idaho, where it is impossible to pick to unfortunately you do not have the whole summer to spend up there riding. There is so much to do and so much to see in North Idaho but it is impossible to pick out just a few good gems. I am quite biased towards the glory, and splendor of Idaho. I’m sure that is because my veins flow rich with huckleberry syrup and blackbear poop. It will be up to you to decide how much time you dare take away from the relatives up there to bask in this moto Nirvana. if your Moto time is extremely limited, just head south and east, and you literally can’t go wrong.

Grrrrr! I hate it when this happens. Based on generally positive reviews here, I bought the maps with lifetime upgrades. Watched all the vids from CATM on YouTube. I can't get the maps to be recognized by MapInstall or MapManager. "no unlocked maps found" is the response on my desktop. I haven't received any email response to my question from CATM so am reaching out to my moto family here. I have an Apple desktop running the latest OS. This is where the problem starts. If I can get past this, then I'll load it to the Garmin NavV (similar to Garmin Zumo). Can anyone using CATM give me a walk through on what I'm missing here?

Nice right up!

Oh no! Glad you stole a ride though. Godspeed with the healing.

That’s cool. I’ve seen a little of their stuff online. I’d love to attend that but will be away then.

Adam (my son) was getting stir crazy after a few weeks of Sabbatical, so he decided to burn some free air miles and come down for a quick visit. I picked him up at the airport and we headed straight to the hot tub with a couple of Old Fashions and stayed up way too late catching up on "the latest". We would motel it one night, and camp the second night. The ride-plan was to ride some ADV bike routes I'd not done yet, starting with what I call @Mr.JAJA's track from Ramona to Big Bear. I bypassed some for the sake of time and miles as needed. So we hot footed it up Wildcat Canyon, Old Julian to Santa Ysabel, and on to Warner springs where we put it in dirt-mode at the Indian Flats turn off. I love this track, from there to Anza. It's scenic, fun and has a lot of playfulness to it. Both the old broken pavement and the white dirt trail have about a hundred wheelies built into them. These should not be wasted! Occasionally there's an area here and there where you can wander a bit and explore. North of the crossroad we ran into about 7 or so honest dirt bikers and stopped for a chat. They were part of the Flying Monkey gang out of Temecula. Good folks. I've ridden with them a couple times in the past. One fella on an orange bike warned me twice that the road ahead was in pretty bad shape and had roughed him up a little. I let him know that I ride it 6 or 8 times a year. In hind sight I should've said I'd heard there was a Starbucks up here and needed an Iced Carmel Macchiato. But I usually think of something cute to say long after the moment's past. This was going to be a sort of dirt shake down test for my sorta healed up leg. Any goof ball can gimp his bike around the street, but I needed to see how dirt worthy the leg/ankle/foot was. And . . . . . . sure enough, I took a heavy dab in a tight sand corner and yelped like a whipped coyote. Holy schmokes that stung. Thought I might have really boogered things up again so we took a scenic break for awhile and then moseyed forward to a great breakfast burrito in Anza. I got robbed of a LOT of great adventures last summer by a stupid broken clavicle. And I NEEDED to make sure I didn't have a repeat this summer. So over a smokin' hot sauced breakfast burrito I decided no more dirt. We would stay on the roads and just tour where there was very little risk of furthering the mornings setback. Udo's track would have to wait. Next stop Idyllwild. Off we went. And I gotta say, if you're bored riding pavement from Anza to Idyllwild, you're either on the wrong bike or you're just doing it wrong. Sometimes sight seeing mode is just fine. Of course the Pines-to-Palms highway all the way over to the 10 is just dreamy. Both visually and sweeping all those turns. There's something magical when you ride the perfect line, at the perfect speed, getting slung through and out the end of the turn only to line up for the next one. Left right, left, right, .... I love the dance. We were blessed with little to no traffic on this road and pretty much the whole trip. Figured we roll through Joshua Tree backwards, going south to northwest on our way to Big Bear. I purposely didn't take much for pics here as we could have lost the day to it here alone. If you've been, you know. If you haven't, you must. Of course Pioneer town was sitting smack in our path, so, there's that. All this was new to Adam, and was a reminder to me of how much cool stuff we are surrounded by in So Cal. This looked like a good spot to take a break, so we did. After a few songs from the live band and an appy at the bar, we toured onward and made the counter clockwise loop through Johnson Valley to Big Bear for the night. We checked in and then wandered the village for a cold beer and a great dinner. All in all a great day of riding, sight seeing, telling stories over the Cardo's for about 350 miles. Adam remarked that it felt so good to just soak up "the joy of riding". For the last 2 years he's been training daily for the GS Trophy and hasn't really gone out to just ride. This was going to turn into three days of really good medicine for both of us. To be continued . . .

A new day dawned and we hit the free breakfast bar, loaded the bikes and headed south. We'd go look at Bombay Beach and the oddities there before scooting back to San Diego in time to deep clean the bikes and get Adam to the airport. On our way south along the Sea I pulled into a camp area just to look and see if the shore conditions were similar to yesterdays quicksand.... or perhaps better called quick mud. We thought about shore lining it down to Bombay again but decided, hey- it's the last day lets just have fun and roll home before his flight leaves. But first, . . . We did have a delay of game penalty though. I literally cannot remember how many years it's been since I've had or seen a flat on a tubeless tire. It was hissing away while I pulled my kit and was actually looking forward to using the Neeley plugs I'd been carrying forever. The stick broke so I pushed it in the tire, jammed the "worm" in the hole, twisted 1.5 turns and pulled it out till the tool was clear, and cut the worm. Motopump made short work of the rest. Spit test showed no leaking. ... and, off we go. We pulled into Bombay Beach just as the Ski Inn was opening up. I'd had a better plan yesterday... to get there about 5pm and crack some cold brews .... but you know how that ended. So we ordered a pitcher of Ice Tea and just enjoyed the "ambience" of the place. The owner was super cool and we tied to guess the dollar value of walls and ceiling. I'm saying $75k, but am smart enough not to wager on it. We rode the streets of town and then popped out to the beach. It's pretty funky in a cool way and we enjoyed the art and weirdness of it. Due to time of day we opted to skip Salvation Mountain and set coordinates for home. But we did need some belly fuel and hit up a local favorite in Ocotillo. When you want to make some miles . . . you gotta love our CA freeway speeds. Point and shoot, and flow with the left lane than commonly approaches triple digits. Time on the road together is what it's all about. Neither one of us could bring ourselves to be disappointed in my slow to heal ligaments. We just did what we always like to do which is to have a plan and then do whatever we feel like along the way. We washed and parked the bikes again and Barb joined us at the Brigantine near the airport for a proper send off to Adam. GOOD TIMES! Back home now I'm finishing a complete maintenance and putting on the street wheels, getting ready for another type of adventure. That one, at end of July is . . . . To be Continued.

The highway from Borrego to Salton Sea is spectacular in its own way. The desert. Particularly the Anza Borrego desert has it's own personality and I love it. I was telling Adam about what happens when the desert floods and creates rivers across the flats, and you get the huge "dips" in the road that are difficult to see at speed, unless you are familiar with the area. Like, Faunts Point. And how the flash flood rivers can leave massive sand rock and debris fields behind, quite hidden from view when you're ripping along down the road until . . . . bam. There's the dip, and it's full of desert. And your dead, if you're not paying attention. Sometimes people die for reasons unknown to the passerby. As we passed Inspiration Wash, there was a pickup truck that had left the road and rolled multiple times, left upside down on the side. Police, lights and yellow tape all over the place. Appeared to be single vehicle, and it didn't leave a lot of hope the driver was ok. Further on the Great Wash starts to appear along both sides of the road and the scene gets weird (in a good way). We descended toward the sea and Adam was just chomping to ride some of the sand and mud hills. So we pulled into what looked like an ORV area and he rode the hills for a little bit. I was not about to go there and risk further aggravating my throbbing ankle. I also warned him .... dude, you drop the bike back in there and you're on your own. The Cardo's don't work past the nearest hill, and it would take me considerable time, even if I knew you were down in some mess, to get there and help with a bike rescue. He was fine. He just needed to scratch the itch a little bit since he never gets to ride this stuff back home. We rolled around the north end of the Sea with a plan to ride south beside the rail road tracks just to get of pavement "a little". And then to keep things a little weird, thought to pop over to the beach and ride it south, if practical, to Bombay Beach and the Ski Inn. Caveat: I had never ridden the beach there but was aware it's not a normal beach. It's a bit Mad Max by comparison, trashy, smelly, and different at best. So I thought we'd take a look. And besides. A good friend of mine had rode it, so . . . what could go wrong? Especially since we'd pretty much put all the unexpected adventures for the day behind us. We found what we thought was an appropriate spot to jump onto the beach and I quickly found a deep soft sand barrier to getting to the firmer stuff near the water. Adam drifted through it just fine and was on a reasonably firm "path". I told him I really didn't feel good about the dune crossing in front of me, seeings how I couldn't even walk properly with the gimpy leg. So he said I'll be right over, and he cut a straight line for me. As soon as he turned to cross the crusty dried (looking) swamp, both wheels went instantly to the axle. And then it kept sinking. Holy cow I couldn't believe my eyes! He'd broken through the crust and the bike sunk like a rock into some weird mucky equivalent of Tarzan Quick Sand. Adam jumped off and went almost to his knees, struggling to pull his boots out. The bike sunk to its jugs and then rested there. Once we determined we weren't going to lose the bike to the bowels of the earth. . . we started laughing! I hobbled my way around there and we stripped off most of our sweaty gear, drank some much needed water, and employed some problem solving skills for a new to us situation. The usual tricks of dropping the bike, pulling the rear out of the hole and trying to motor forward a foot before repeating . . . no joy. The front wheel just sat there with the axle below muck level. If you dug out the front, it would just sink deeper. It was all pretty hilarious to us since we'd never really seen this kind of problem before. What we needed was a crane. . Well there's always something to do, and we eventually exhausted all the good ideas, and began to drag the bike sideways an inch at a time toward the less mucky ground. No pics though as we had more important things on hand. We decided not to ride the beach anymore LOL. So upon getting out, we found some shade and finished out water and candy bar supply while re inflating the tires. (Part of our escape techniques was to flat all the tires). We inflated the tires, inspected the bike for any apparent damage, and I got stung on the neck by a bee. By now the shadows were getting long and frankly, I didn't know what kind of caustic slime might be in the muck stuck in all the bikes crevices. So we nixed Bombay and headed back north to find a car wash and get that chit off the bike before it baked on. Plus we were too low on fuel to carry out plan A. We pulled into a 7-11 in a place called "MERCY" to grab a couple gatorades and bottles of water. As we pulled in it was apparent this wasn't a nice place. But Adam stayed with the bikes while I went in to get the drinks. Hmmm . . . armed guard inside the door. Bullet proof glass in front of the cashiers . . . sketchy guy #1 on one side of the store, #2 in another corner. My gut said turn around and leave. My throat said more gatorade please. I had left my helmet on and we were still connected with Cardo's, and I got back to the bikes soon enough. I had just thrown the drinks quickly in a side bag when sketchy guy #2 comes out the front door and starts whistling to some guys about 50' away and pointing at us. We hit the red buttons, and he started waiving his arms and whistling louder. It was not a good situation. By now we had two goals for the rest of the day. #1. Find a carwash and get that sh*t off the bikes. #2. Find a hotel with a pool and a hot tub. Getting closer to the 10 and La Quinta, we found a carwash and spent all our beer money on quarters. That stuff was already setting up like concrete. Note: we had to stop a couple times after leaving the Sea to pick crap off the wheels as the seriously unbalanced them to the point of feeling dangerous! That whole corridor from Salton Sea up to the 10 is pretty sketchy. I'm told by those who would know, every cartel and gang in the US is set up in that area. So. . . just keep your eyes open. We found a great hotel with a massive pool and hot tub. Had tacos and equally massive margaritas, soaked a bit and hit the hay after a very memorable day. To be continued...

WARNING: Graphic road kill pics ahead. . . . . . With all the dirt, and desert, and trails, and Baja enduro type riding I (we all) do, it's easy to forget how nice it is to just roll some country roads. There is no "game-on!" stuff or high concentration "pick a line, and get it right!" stuff. That's all fantastic and why many of us ride off road as there's a certain excitement, focus and quick problem solving that comes with riding knobbies. We were having a great time. It's fun to take your ride buddy, especially if it's your son and roll him through your own back yard, exposing him to stuff we take for granted. His riding life use to be pretty much all mountain terrain. Washington. Idaho. Colorado. In the last 2 years he's had a few trips to the southwest, specifically for exposure to SAND. This spring he iron butted to the PHX area to spend a couple days with a 2018 GS Trophy winner, just running sand on his GS. They both then rode to Yuma and met up with Duplease (2023 GS Trophy team USA) to focus on riding stupid sh*t. A mixture of trials riding skills and a little moto-X stuff. Adam is a quick study and has some natural ability. He also got to learn that day how to use a Z pulley rescue system LOL! Now back to our story. Coffee and donuts in Idyllwild, which has been adopted as Adams favorite California Town. We rolled on towards Borrego and pulled into Lake Hemet just because I hadn't been there in several years. Poser pic... We got back on the road heading east and set the cruise control at 70. As we neared the glider port just west of Warner Springs, my eye caught a "twitch" of something in the tall brown grass on the left side of the road. That twitch was Wile E. Coyote second guessing himself. Had he just bolted, he'd have probably make it across with just a slap on the tail. But that extra milasecond of thought led to a poor decision and he bolted. It happened so close and so fast I knew braking was absolutely futile, as I wouldn't even be able to scrub speed. My thought was to just ensure I was absolutely vertical and balanced. I don't know that I was able to adjust anything but that's where my head was. I was also in process of whacking the throttle to lighten or raise the front. In hindsight, this was the same instinct I had 20 years ago when I hit a white tail in Montana. I hit it right in front of the hind legs. (This is the least grotesque pic of the victum) The poor little dog spun off in circles behind me, with a broken spine and disemboweled. He was dead instantly. The bike immediately went into a tank slapper and as I was already in the throttle (100%)and it came out quickly and I was able to return to the "scene". There was a lot of Holy Sh*t going back and forth in the comms for a few minutes. I inspected the front wheel fully expecting to find a big whump in the rim, but dang those Woody's wheels are tough as snot. I'll inspect it on the balancer this week when I do a tire change, but am sure I got out of this with gear intact. We rolled on. Adam rolled over a snake near to top of Montezuma (accidentally). I told him that didn't count. I wagered lunch that it would be 13 degrees hotter at the bottom of the grade. I've ridden Montezuma a hundred times and it never disappoints. Especially when . . . . no traffic. It was good to get back on the edge of the tires as we dropped toward Borrego. But lunch was on me. It was 22 degrees hotter in town than it was at the top. Mmmmmmmm! Burgers and air conditioning for the win. I had to take our tourist by the dragon of course so he could have his own dragon pic. Fortunately they had the wire down so we could ride right up. And then off to Salton Sea for yet even more unexpected adventures. To be continued...

It’s not as smooth as Otay Mtn or Marron Valley. Maybe in retrospect it’s Zubb level 2. ?

Maybe? You should run it on your 990 first. There are a few hairpin uphill turns with embedded rock, ruts and small ledges. I’m not sure how a hack would fare on them. Reasonably easy for 2 wheels to pick a line through.

Friday... Woke up. Loaded up. And did a few minutes of full lock turns just to keep "tuned up". Adam is fully tuned up on these. He can stop the bike in the circle at 3, 6, 9 and 12 oclock, and track stand, then switch to full lock the other direction and do the same, without ever putting a foot down. For kicks he does it on a slope. Show off! We headed down the front side of Black Bear towards Idyllwild this morning planning to camp overnight near Bombay and do a little hot springing. The road as you know is spectacular. Traffic was mercifully light so got to enjoy the bikes a bit. We were riding in cold but crystal clear air with the sun shine down on the top of the clouds that had filled in the valleys below. It's one of those moments that you slow down for a bit and just drink in the beauty and wonder of flying between the clouds and the sun. Layer after layer of mountains stretched to the horizon separated by the soft white cottony clouds in between. We sat and stared for quite awhile. Crossing the 10, we rode back up to Idyllwild for a coffee and donut .... 'cause, why not. I couldn't think of a better spot to do that. After chatting with the locals for a bit, I thought I'd show Adam the view from the parking lot at Humber Park. The view of Tahquitz Rock is pretty awesome. There were lots of climbers there of course all loading up their packs and gear and hitting the trail. Brought back our memories of doing the same when he was a teenager. Those were good days and fun memories. A couple women on road bicycles stopped to talk with us and of course were asking about where we ride these things. They almost insisted we go ride Black Mountain trail up to Boulder Creek campground and the Black Mtn group campground. So I agreed to tempt fate and risk the battered hoof. I'd always wanted to explore this road and campsites but had never taken the time when I was in the area. The dirt road up there is just wonderful! Plenty of ruts and embedded rock, a few ledges and some mud here and there, but nothing that a Zubb level 1 rider couldn't do with a little focus on a big bike. It is on my absolutely must do moto-camping list now! We rolled back down to the pavement and headed back through Idyllwild to Borrego for lunch. Neither of us knowing about the excitement we would encounter just before we hit Warner Springs.... To be continued again...

I think the reason you are such a fantastic mechanic is because you have to be. 🤷‍♂️😁😱😉