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3 minutes and 5,000 miles of fun -- a must watch

October 2, 2022 I must say we have fallen in love with Colorado... Our time exploring Colorado is coming to an end. We've been here just over 2 months, put on about 2800 miles (4506 km) just in Colorado, saw many spectacular sights, rode so many mountain passes both paved and unpaved that I lost track, crossed the Continental Divide numerous times, miles of awesome twisty roads, met tons of people, stayed with some old friends and made many new friends, stayed with a few Bunk a Biker hosts and other hosts who we met thru mutual friends and became friends with every single one of our hosts. We did 15 of the 24 best routes of Colorado shown on the Butler Maps Colorado road map, and some of the mountain passes we did, many were from 10,000 to over 12,000 feet in elevation (3048 to over 3658 meters). It has been an amazing time here exploring this beautiful state, it's hard to leave but winter is coming and we have more adventures ahead of us as we head to warmer climates in Mexico and continue working our way thru Central America on the way to tip of South America and back, which should be about a 2 year round trip. Please check out our trip report on SDAR (which is currently a few months behind) or my page Randy Lazar or our Rad 'n Doc Travel the World page on Facebook for upcoming and recent updates. I will save the photos for later.

The Day in Anza Borrego South ( Carrizo Wash South Dec. 18 ) turned out to be a productive day setting up the bike's suspension. I had it pretty close to good, but I learned some good limits and how to get the best feel for my needs. George at Suspension 101 in Alpine got me set up with the correct springs back when I first got the bike. Since then he has done good work servicing the units and giving advice. The clickers were always straight forward and I have been comfortable with that for awhile. The Turning Feel has been the Holy Grail. Again, I have had it close but being unschooled with the finer elements I knew there was more to being the best it could be. Jimmy Lewis always says these KTMs are tunable, well then let's tune the thing. George advised me to get the Rider Sag to 112mm for my PDS '16, so that is where I have been. The manual gives a range of 105-115mm. Turns out That is a really big change in feel on the bike. I will give my feeling about the forks later. KTM gives no hint of what's going on there. With George's springs for my weight and the clickers, the bike tracks well and controlled in a straight line. I used the South Carrizo Road as the Test Facility as it has a nice mix of tight sandy turns and open DG type uneven straights. About 3 miles, I would guess one way. My technique was to systematically run up and back the same track with various settings and compare results. Run one @ 112 mm Rider Sag - Run two @ one full turn of the spring compression ring less R. Sag - Run Three @ one full turn more compression from the 112mm. After Santa visits, I will have one of those fancy sag measuring devices. At that time I will report back. To me the measurement is secondary to the actual feel when riding. The starting point of 112mm was pretty good in that I felt comfortable with the front end stability and could carve a controlled line. Still,,, I was feeling a little push wide or inside dive in some conditions. It's just a feel thing, I really didn't know if it could be better.Run two the rear sag was one full turn softer.and I immediately felt a more lazy unresponsive turn character. Stable but slow. So back the other way for Run Three with one full turn more compression from the 112mm starting point. Now the character was hyper sharp and fast reaction. Maybe appropriate for a track, but not the Dual Sport riding I do. The feel was not comfortable enough for me, nervous. The shock adjustment ring has 12 lobes for a complete turn. easy to figure 1/2 and quarter turns. The forth Run, I backed the compression off to 6 lobes or one half turn more compression from the starting 112mm. Each of these adjustments resulted in noticeable change in the feel. run four produced an improved result from my starting point. Confident, responsive turning action with a stable feel. Emotionally, I felt the confidence build as I got closer to the mark. Someone must be able to explain the physics of what sag adjustments are doing to alter the bike, but that someone is not me. Riding along I was trying hard to come up with a visualization to explain how the changes affect the tracking; Sharp knife / Dull knife; narrow water ski / wide water ski. Would think the angle of the fork changes a touch. This morning I think it could simply be the balance between more or less pressure on the front tire. There certainly is a gyroscopic energy going on when the bike and rider is in motion. The Carve of the turning line can a wide push or a grabby dive to the inside. A nice cut through a turn without that inside "grabbyness" is a powerful tool. In the end I felt that I had learned what character direction the Rider Sag changes were going to produce. That is a big learn for me! I will get the actual Rider Sag number later. As a side note: The traction conditions where pretty ideal for this exercise, damp sand and Dry DG soils. I managed to find some muddy conditions, but stayed mostly away from that. My next Learn will be what direction to go when the sand drys out and gets deep again. At least I know more about the dynamics. After I felt the rear was as good as it could be, I turned my attention to the forks. They are marked with two rings at the top. I have run both, lately running two rings out with the 112mm rear setting. I ran the test route with both and had the best result with two rings out of the top. One ring was heading back into the lazy zone. All this testing took me over three hours and 28 miles on the test road. Something I could never have done with a group of riders. Once I was content with the settings, I took 50 minutes to run up Arroyo Seco del Diablo and across the Tapiado Cut-across trail to the Tapiado overlook and back. Dynamics were great! Bagstr Whale Peak near Arroyo Tapiado

Excellent edit. Those Street bikes have nothing on the 500.

The run down East Grade was memorable. An 8/10ths clip on a 500KTM with full knobs and 10psi (running Tubeliss). @shutterrev and I both stopped bottom because we were smelling something like burning rubber. Sometimes stupid things just happen

This is a good small tent for riding, only thing is the pegs are a bit weak, I upgraded the pegs. https://www.hykeandbyke.com/products/yosemite-2p-backpacking-tent

Nice. I see you're in East County - have you ridden Otay? I highly recommend this restaurant for their BLT for lunch while on a ride out there. They load it to the moon with real bacon. (they have healthier options as well). It's a nice small family business. https://www.yelp.com/biz/bravo-cafe-and-yogurt-spring-valley If you want beers and burgers this is a classic right in Jamul as well. I've gone here after a ride for dinner a few times. Another small family business. https://www.yelp.com/biz/brodys-burgers-and-beer-jamul?osq=brody's+burgers

Ok since there were no takers, and we have people committed to going I will throw this out there one more time. Sunday the 16th as the day for the meetup for the tec/packing day if people are interested Those with luggage maybe bring it with so people can get tips on mounting options and ideas etc. The BBQ will not be running this time unless someone brings stuff then the grill is available for their use.

Oh I understand your abbreviation, I'm asking what the heck are the ingredients. Is it dried veggie or cauliflower with seasoning? I'm a fan of a good BLT and am down to try this!

There was less caution tape and signery than there has been, so it’s possible - TBH I didn’t even check, it’s been closed so long - but I will say that for a vegan joint, their BLT/Club sandwich with the ‘facon’ is 🫡🤙🏻🙏

Sounds like an awesome day. Is Mothers open now??

Great job Bagstr I plead with some to play with the sag and clickers. Want to learn fast just go wholesale and close a clicker just to see what it does and then you can put it right back. Just write down the clickers before you start so you can return them. Keep in mind Bagstr needs a certain amount of sag for his weight and where he rides the bike for optimum performance. BP619 is tall so when he is riding he automatically rides further to the back of the bike. Add to that some girth, all muscle of course, to the equation and he will have a lot more weight rearward. So to steer he may need a bit less sag to keep the bike steering when he is crushing the rear end. Then consider where the forks are in the triples. Adjusting those is nearly identical to sag changes. Get a sag base line before you go. If you are serious I suggest standing on the pegs, balls of your feet, hands at your side, balanced. When sitting just an inch forward or back and it will change your sag considerably but standing you get the same same each time. The sag will not be the same as sitting but that does not matter as long as you have the baseline and then test. It could show 107mm and for you standing it may be optimum and steering well it is correct for you. Sag numbers are suggestions so when you see or hear a sag number remember it is a ball park always, until you test for yourself. A large rider sits further back what happens to sag then? A 200lb midget would if setting sag sitting may have a lower sag number than a tall 160lb rider. We should do a clinic at McCains or Ocotillo? I would do it free just kick me some gas money, but I would want to get Noah on board to help out. He is a master at dial in. We have learned much together. Would have to compensate Noah though as he is doing some training and teaching these days. Business is business. We did a dial in day a few years back and I was overwhelmed and was unable to give individualized attention desired, so the numbers would have to add up if anyone at all is interested.