isde97

I'm thinkin' I can't embed video direct from contour's site, or I can't figure it out. Anyway, here is a bit o video... http://contour.com/stories/sandstone-cnyn-1

Epic day, excellent conditions and perfect weather. This was my first time to Anza Borrego, and the bar has been set pretty high. The 990 is way better with the new legs. If a miracle occurs, I may have some video to share. Thanks to Bagstr for organizing, and klxguy for helping me pick the big girl up when I dropped it (more than once).

Well, maybe I will make it. Give the new legs a test and all. Or maybe I will go elsewhere, I was thinking of Warner Springs-Anza-Idyllwild, if someone else is interested at this late notice. Or maybe I will go to work on the finest riding day of the year, in which case I should admit failure and sell all my bikes as I clearly don't deserve them.

I went out to pick up my lunch today, and I wasn't sure what I was doing at work, or why I returned. I think tomorrow is supposed to be like today. Can you categorize the route? First gear singletrack isn't going to cut it on the 990, 4WD roads I can do. I just got the suspension converted to S spec and revalved, and it feels like it can take a hit, now. I am itching to go ride. I am also going to need to ride out from Carlsbad, unless someone has a trailer that will take the 990.

If a minor miracle occurs, I will be going. So, if someone wanted to 'pool and ride on the same minute together, that could happen. In the longer range forecast, the D36 WFO Enduro in Stonyford is 14 NOV. I was in the club and laid this one out for a long time, so now I get to ride it. Conditions are uncertain, it could be hot and dusty, it could snow. It will probably be somewhere in between. If it rains in the 2 days preceding the event, it will be really good. I will probably leave the Friday before, return Monday. Yes, it is a bit of a haul. There is always time for work. (immunization against those who want to go, but are saying 'I have to work.') MattW KTM 990 YZ250F for these events

JimBob, formerly cruisin' the autobahn? Dayum, our paths cross again. MattW KTM 990 (still have my 95VFR ex twin twingle)

I rode some of the roads/trails up there on my way to the USGP. Should be fun. My daughter, who is 8 BTW, has only ridden with me a couple of times and never for more than maybe 30 minutes. When I mentioned to my wife I was thinking about riding out to Julian, my wife's eyes just about popped out. Needless to say, Pinnacles isn't in the cards for such a trip, have fun. Of course, when I ask my daughter how long of a ride she wants to go on, she thinks for a sec and says "24 hours". She is more ambitious than me right now.

So, where is Pinnacles? I was thinking about 2-upping with my daughter, but it sounds like a bit of a haul (we would be riding from home).

I am going to have to add to this in bits and pieces.... 1850 miles in 8 days, and Saturday and Sunday was just going back and forth to the track. I started the trip with a brand new TKC 80, it has about 1mm of knobby left in the center. Weather could not have been better, it was really mild. As it happens, the toughest place to find dirt roads is North of Paso Robles, most of the land is in private hands. The best chance for next year will be Clear Creek, depending on its closure status. The Big Bear - Paso Robles section was 400 miles, with a lot of dirt. When it wasn't dirt, it was typically Angeles Crest/ Cerro Noreste, some of the finest motorcycle roads you could ever expect. I rode across Carizzo Plain about 5 in the afternoon, it was an amazing ride. A lot of the paved roads I took were roads that a dirt bike was really good on- narrow, potholed, and uneven. There was still a lot of roads that being able to cruise at 70-80 was very nice. I dropped the big girl once, when I was sightseeing when I should have been paying attention to what I was doing. a 500 lb dirt bike is HEAVY. I had just got a Contour camera prior to the trip. I still need some setup skills, and the goggle strap mount doesn't cut it for off road. I should still be able to sorta demo some of the ride. I actually had the camera on when I fell. I had to sacrifice a bunch of the route close to home; I ended up leaving fairly late Tues, and a change in plans had me still in Buellton yesterday morning. I ended up exploring some of the Los Padres near Santa Barbara for much of the day yesterday, which was great. It would be even better if some of the roads weren't closed in a way so you could make a through route, instead of riding until you got to a locked gate. I resolved after last year to not end up in Malibu and need to ride slab for two+ hours to get home. So I ended up in Moorpark at 7pm and needed to slab for 2.5+ hours to get home. Never again (I bravely say). If you got questions, ask away. I am glossing over a lot. I am working a Google Earth file, it should have my plans and what I actually did.

One of my fist vids, I have a way to go before I don't completely suck. <embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://contour.com/videoPlayer/VPlayerBasic.swf?customPlaylistURL=http://contour.com/xspf/node/101019/v3&autostart=false' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' height='360' width='640'></embed> If I fail at embedding (good chance), here is the link: http://contour.com/video/elkhorn

I haven't camped at the track since it went from $15 for the weekend to $100/night. It is easier to just get a hotel for about the same price. Attached is a G-earth file of the trip. You may have to move the time slider a bit to get the tracks to show up, I don't know why it does this. I have been through California Valley a bunch of times, I had never realized it is an unsuccessful planned community. I don't have a suitable camera (I may have to fix this), but the Panaromio pictures are better than what I could take anyway. I will post up some ride video later, but y'all need to keep your expectations low, as I am an obvious beginner and it shows. Hmm, file is too big. I will have to figure out how to trim it to get down to size. Stay tuned. EDIT: got it trimmed. This is actually a .kmz file, but the forum won't allow that. Change the extension to .kmz and you should be good to go. 2010 USGP trip.txt

Looking for other riders going to MotoGP at Laguna Seca July 23-25. Here is the General itinerary: July 20 Carlsbad-Big Bear, via Ramona, Warner Springs, Anza. July 21 Big Bear - Paso Robles, via Angeles Crest, Lake Hughes, Carizzo Plain July 22 layover in Paso Robles to visit Hearst Castle with Family (traveling in parallel) July 23 Paso Robles - Laguna Seca, currently planning on going through Parkfield, but this may change. 24,25 USGP 26 Salinas- Santa Maria, via Hollister, Parkfield, Pozo 27 Santa Maria- Ojai, exploring Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Barbara area. 28 Ojai- Carlsbad, probably back through Angeles NF and Idylwild. There might be a dirt road or two along the way. EDIT: if I can figure out attachments, this one contains URLs for google maps of the various legs. Laguna_route.txt

Bumpin' this back up to see if there are any takers. I just got my bike back together after about 2 months (basically, I suck). In spite of my effort to get a lot of preparation done ahead of time, a lot is coming down to the last minute. For instance, I am going to need a welder to help me modify OEM KTM racks to accept Pelican cases from Caribou, which use HB racks. HB makes the racks for KTM, but their racks are slightly different. I am completely making this up as I go along, but I am interested in doing a shakedown ride this weekend, probably Saturday. Ramona/Warner Springs/ Palomar Truck Trail is what I am thinking, but I may be open for something else. MattW KTM 990

Leaving Carlsbad around 9, going through Vista, Bonsall, Fallbrook, Cleveland NF. Returning via Hemet, Anza, Warner Springs, Ramona. This is contingent on me confirming that I will be swapping for a loaner seat while they work on mine. I haven't worked out the Google map correction factor yet, I am hoping to be home by 4:30.

I've done the Monterey-SD ride in 1 day several times, last time was 3 years ago. Never again without a good reason, too many good roads that have to be bypassed to do that. A background theme for this ride is 'San Andreas', if you look, you can see that a lot of the route is in close proximity to the fault line. This is more by accident than design, at some point I noticed the parallel.

If you check out the text file in the first post, you can see goggle map urls that you can paste into your browser and see the current proposal. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Dirt roads where possible/practicable, I would guess 30-40% dirt. I think the routes work out to near 1000 miles each way.

The wife and kids are leaving Wednesday and we will meet up in Paso Robles, do Heartst Castle, then continue on up to Monterey. After the GP, they will be continuing on to visit my wife's family while I travel home. Hooking up for part of the ride would be great. I have done similar rides in the past on a street bike, and this is a good time. I am really looking forward to a DS take on it. A pseudo theme is going to be San Andreas, since much of the route is right on top of the faultline. MattW KTM 990

I am looking at a Sunday AM ride, I am thinking Ramona-Palomar exploring. I need to give the new bike an off road shakedown, but in addition to being unable to reliably plan this far in advance, I am still recovering from a (non motorcycle related) fall that may keep me off the bike. If something like this or in the vicinity works out, I hope to join some folks.

So.... as a past big fan of the Dakar, I have wanted one of the KTM adventure bikes since they came out, but couldn't figure out how I would ride it.... I have been riding since I was 8, I think, raced motocross in high school, was mostly confined to a streetbike in college (RD400- still have it). Started racing off road after doing my time, and got pretty serious about it for about 10 years. I set up an enduro in Norcal for a long time, before moving to SD about 6 years ago. I have been mainly commuting since then, with the occasional D37 (and sometimes D36) enduro, I can still threaten the top 10, if I am having a good day and others aren't. but my serious competitive days are behind me. My Dual Sport experience to this point are two DS rides I have done in NorCal, that I borrowed bikes to do. The one bike trip a year I have been doing recently is to go to Laguna Seca for MotoGP (I like to say I have been to every USGP for the last 40 years), and after last year, I swore I would not do it again with my FJ1200 in its current state. 3 weeks ago, I looked at the FJ and realized if I did everything to it I wanted, I still wouldn't be satisfied. There are a lot of marginally paved and dirt roads between here and Monterey, and similar roads exist nearby. So, I had a mission that the KTM could fulfill. Two other incidents put me over the edge: a couple of years ago, I was riding my FJ on a sporty road where the FJ was good, and had someone on an Adventure come up and pass me. I could have hung with him if I had been willing to ride harder, which I wasn't, and he wasn't riding any harder than me. This reinforced the knowledge that dirtbikes can go really fast on real roads real easy. The other incident occurred last January at a D37 enduro, and If you are familiar with Riceless950 (Brent) from the ADVrider forums, he was out there and finished two loops. I would not have dreamed of riding the trails we were riding on that bike, and he made it through OK. That made me realize that the KTM adventure was a way better dirtbike than I had been giving it credit for. So I picked up a 2007 Adventure last week, and it has me motivated to ride in an unexpected and pleasant way. If a miracle occurs, I would like to start giving it an off road shakedown Sunday AM near Ramona, but there is maybe a 20% chance of that happening. As I hinted, the upcoming USGP prompted the purchase, so an upcoming planned ride is probably in order. It is going to be something like 4 days up (including a day layover in Paso Robles) and 3 days back. So that is in the works. I should probably not be doing this at 1 in the morning.. MattW 2007 KTM 990 adv