Chad

You never cease to impress, VIC! I've been jones'n to ride and might be able to get out this weekend. Been laid up for 6 weeks now. Blew up my thumb at McCain. Snapped my left DP right in half. I'll spare you the "wet" pics. Rather depressing... Always great to hear the fellow SDAR'ers are out there gettin' it done! Safe Rides!

Nicely done VIC! I'm always in awe...

Posted videos from Days 1 & 2 on my original post. http://dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.php?/topic/15612-another-moab-2013/page__view__findpost__p__150846 Some Photos below: Here's what's left of my tire after ONLY three days of riding. I should have taken a before pic, but didn't think of it. I can tell you that the nobs were at least three times the size of what is left here. I did some research before and the general consensus was NOT to put on new rubber before going... I think I agree with that, provided you have at least 1/2 the tread left on your tire. After the casing on Golden Crack, here's what my skid plate looked like... Once home, and after a bit of "blacksmithing"... To give you and idea of the force of impact, here's the mounting bracket after impact... Those were closed eyeholes! Here's how one transports a busted skidplate... The unfortunate Razor on "Z Turn"... Snack stop... Another snack stop...

Day 2 Vids: As noted, Day 2 was spent at the White Wash Sand Dunes near Green River... Dead Cow Wash is an awesome run... Apparently I got a little tired toward the end of this clip! :blush:/> The Tubes is more fun than Dead Cow... Cool narrow run with some water fun! We stopped at this step down/puddle to have a little fun... This is Steve and I havin' a splash. (Phone vid quality is not great). Here's the same run from my helment cam...

Had a great three days in Moab, UT last Thurs., Fri. and Sat (April 25th, 26thand 27th). On the heels of Spaugh and his crew, but did not have the opportunity to meet up. AND we did not endeavor to tackle 5MOH… Mad props to that group! Me and three buddies from CO organize an annual trip and spend 3 solid days riding. You cannot beat Moab for trail riding (or dual sporting, I would imagine). If you have never been, I highly recommend you plan a trip. Plenty to ride for all skill levels and plenty to do in addition to riding. Great food in town and great people. We have planned our trip to coincide with the annual classic car show in town. It's an awesome little bonus to have dinner in town after a day of riding and watch some really bitchin' cars cruise by. On to the trip… I left San Diego just before 8am Wed. 11 hours of driving straight through and I was in our rented townhome. (BTW, Vacation Rentals By Owner "VRBO" is a great way to find great accommodationsin Moab. Also plenty of camping available.) I drove the speed limit most every mile of the trip. 70-75 mph average speed limit with a few decent runs of 80 mph in UT. I was in my F-250 with no trailer, bike in the bed. Probably have to add a solid 3-4 hours if you are pulling a trailer (Spaugh?). The rides… Three days of nearly perfect weather! If anything, it was 5 degrees too warm, but no complaints at all. Sun out, nice breezes and beautiful clear views! Day 1: We started the day with a warm up run on Slick Rock Bike Trail. Fun rolling ups and downs on slick rock. From there, ran over to Hell's Revenge and had some fun on Hell's Gate. A few more technical obstacles there. We then loaded up the bikes and drove over to Moab Rim Trail. We hadn't ridden this one before and weren'tsure what we were in for. Right off the bat we hit a technical spot called the "Z Turn." Basically an uphill Z with a significant stepup transition between each leg of the Z. We struggled a bit, but made it up. One of a group of Razor's wasn't so lucky. A little to off camber and they were over in an instant. No one was hurt thankfully. Righted and on its way (DOWN the trail) in amatter of 15 minutes. The rest ofthe trail was probably low to mid-intermediate ride with 4-5 high-intermediate technical obstacles. We (or perhaps I shouldsay I) were pretty spent on the way down and we each had a couple of spills. Nothing too painful. Day 2: On Day 2 our plan included driving down to an area outside of Green River called White Wash Sand Dunes. It took about an hour to get there from Moab. LOTS of sand. Plenty of slick rock. But another fantastic place to spend a dayriding. We rode a couple of well known spots (Dead Cow Wash, the Tubes) and then got a bit lost out off of Red Rock Trail, I believe. We were able to find the trail again pretty easily. We rode a bit of Mary's Trail and then headed back to our staging area. Day 3: Day 3 we spent out on Poison Spider, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim trails. We do this ride every year and really enjoyit. We started out at the trail head along the Colorado River off the 279. We rode up and around Poison Spider loop. Then headed out Golden Spike/Gold Bar Rim to Gemini Bridges. Stopped at an overlook for a snack along theway. Then another stop at Golden Crack. The Golden Crack stop was unplanned… I jumped the crack and cased the bike RIDICULOUSLY hard! Blew my skid plate off the bottom of the frame. The force of the impact blew the front bracket screws through the eyeholes of the bracket! Also put a 90 degree bend in the back of the skid plate. Luckily, a favorable bend in the skid plate, a couple of snap clips on my backpack and a couple of small bungies from my buddy and we were on our way. (And thank you to a kind Razor driver when quick wrenched the bracket from the skid plate to make it easier to carry.) Plenty o ftechnical obstacles of varying degrees of difficulty on Golden Spike. There are bypasses on a few of them, but I'dsay you'd probably want to be a solid intermediate to make it all the way out to Gemini Bridges. Also, a number of sections with soft, "fun," bike swallowing sand! VERDICT… The consensus was this was our best trip yet! Fitting I guess for a 5 year anniversary (for some of us). We rode hard (for us) and were wiped out atthe end of each day. But we enjoyed every minute of it! (OK, give or take15-20 mins of rants, F-bombs and general frustration sprinkled throughout the weekend!) We did apoor job of tracking mileage. Nobody paid attention… Likely because we knew we were just going to ride all day and had nothing else planned. I'd say we rode a solid 5-6 hours each day. Bikes all made it through with no major injuries or malfunctions. My skid plate separation was probably the worst that happened. Bodies were all intact at the end… Just a lot of sore muscles. Big highlight was sipping on ice cold beer from New Belgium brewery after each ride! Thanks Monte for bringing 6 growlers of very fine brew! Equipment… The CO boys were each on new two strokes this year. Two '13 KTM 300s (an XC and XC-W) and a '13 Husaberg TE 300. I was on my '12 KTM 350 XCF-W, mostly struggling to keep up with those guys in the sand! My second year on this bike in Moab. Performed like a champ and what a difference a year of saddle time makes in getting comfortable with a ride!! But honestly, I drooled a little bit watching those 300s! The two KTMs had Rekluses. They swear by them. Specially on the technical stuff. I have yet to ride a bike with a Rekluse, so I cannot comment on way or the other. But personally, I can buy a lot of other bike related crap I don't need with $800! (heh heh…) I don't mind stalling and falling over (a lot). I ran the Neutech Tubliss system in the rear for the first time. Was favorably impressed with it. No issues during the 3 days. I started at 9 psi Day 1 and had 9 psi at the end of the day on Day 3. Did not have to add air at all. PROOF… We didn't take many opportunities for action photos/vids, but there were a few. I also had my helmet cam running as long as it would each day. I will add some vids and additional commentary soon... Enjoy all…. Get to Moab if you can!

Day 1 Vids: Here's Monte working his way up the "Z Turn" on Moab Rim Trail. This is where the Razor did not fair so well... My climb up Hell's Gate. Get's a little slippery with a little sand on the rubber. Typically stick right to it. Glad I didn't completely bungle it given all the spectators at the top! My riding right hand for over 40 years... His thoughts on making a run up Hell's Gate. (Apologize for any offensive language.) He blew right up after filming this... Here's Monte and Franco coming down Z Turn. Just another perspective on the step ups/downs. More to come...

Thanks Vic... It was a great time! Next time I'll have to drag you along... If nothing else, to drive part of the way! Looking forward to a redemption ride soon...

Agreed... We definitely avoid the Jeep Week. Car Show weekend was not too bad. Most of the bustle is in town. There was a lot of activity on the trails on Sat., but wasn't too jammed up. Most times we could slip around the jeep/4WD traffic without issue. I would think that would not be true during Jeep Week...

Bear with me as I get this photo/vid technology figured out...

Great pics! Looks like perfect Moab weather and you are having a blast! I get on the road early tomorrow. Hope to be pulling in to Moab by sundown... Happy Trails!

I played hookie from work and SICVIC and I got out for a mid-week ride on Thurs and had ablast. We staged at PV cul de sac and made our way over to Corral for a warm up. From 4 corners, we ran Bill's [used to be] single track over to Bobcat. Then down 9 to 2 and over to Corral campground. From there we decided to give 3A arun. SICVIC showed me the joys of 3A… and showed me the sorrows of 3A! Thanks SICVIC for the patience and walking the lines with me. Here's SICVIC showing me the clean lines and how "easy" it is… Here's me showing how easy it isn't… I left most of my energy on 3A, unfortunately. Made the rest of the ride somewhat tough, but still great fun. We ran 3A down to 5 to the fire road. Caught 4 to Ranger, Ranger to 11, 11 to CC campground. I ran 6 over to Bobcat, while VIC ran 7/6 over. Bill's back to 4Corners and down Kernan and up back over the hill. We stopped at the helo pad and VIC showed me a bit more of the SICKNESS. Here he is dropping off what I think is an underground water hold. I was a great morning ride… I think we logged almost 50 miles. I was shot. I think SICVIC had a hundred more in him! Thanks again,VIC! A great Thursday…

Wanted to give a quick head's up to ya'all. SICVIC mentioned this in a recent write up as well... We came across a fat, 4 foot+ rattler on Ranger yesterday. He chose to post up in the middle of the trail at a spot where most would either slow considerably to navigate the rocks, or even potentially get hung up. Our lead rider had time to stop and keep about 4 feet betweem himself and the snake. Ol' boy was a bit aggravated, but moved on without incident ('cept perhaps some skidmarks that were NOT on the dirt!). Saw a couple of other harmless snakes on the trail as well. Dirt Dame came across one as well on her ride Friday (not at Corral). They are out all around! Reminder to KEEP AWARE! Specially in the nooks and crannies of the rock formations where you might get hung up. Also, noted signage around Corral notifying that certain roads and trails may be "affected" or closed due to a mountain bike race on May 18th and 19th. Safe riding!

I stumbled across this one awhile back... Watch it at least once a week! If this doesn't make you want to ride, not sure what would... Nice post! :good:/>

I'll be riding with two others Sunday am. Rally 8am at PV Cul de Sac. Will likely show the other two the way over to Corral and maybe explore off the fire road a bit. Not real familiar with that side of the mountain, other than the fire road. Should be relatively tame (but hopefully not boring) ride. Anyone is welcome to join us. If someone wants to show us some trails on the PV side, that would be great. Will be in a black F-250. Two KTMs and a KLX.

I told him to stop, but he was determined to get it right!! :heh:/>

Thought I would share this vid as a reminder to keep aware of your surroundings when riding... This was about a month or so back during a morning ride at McCain/Lark. Sorry I'm not familiar enough with the area to tell you exactly where it was, but we were making a run up from the fence line that borders the south(?) edge of the OHV (fence borders a ranch, I believe). We were headed up a narrow little run-off type wash when out of nowhere my roommate was abruptly unseated from his bike. Altho the tree remains were right down in the wash, I was tough to see the protruding branch that caught him. Luckily, he was wearing full upper body armor type protection, so plastic took the brunt of the blow. But it's easy to see where this could have been much, much worse. Even with the armor, he had a pretty serious bruise and some shoulder pain for a couple of days. I apologize for the over use of slo-mo... Was still figuring out how to use the editing software, and we were getting a good laugh at watching him getting bounced in slo-mo. Stay safe friends!

Yeah... Probably one of those instances where you'd see it 99% of the time, but there's that one time you just miss it. It was our first time up that ravine. Guaranteed he won't ever miss it again!!

bikeslut... 7 am is pretty early for us coming from the coast... Will probably make our way from the PV Cul de Sac to Corral starting at 8, so we'll keep an eye out for you. Two KTMs (350 & 525) and a KLX 300. Wave us down if you see us. If anyone is interested in a little later ride, myself and two others will be at Pine Valley Cul de Sac around 8. Plan to show them the way over to Corral to help them get more familiar with the area. Likely a relatively non-technical ride this time out, but not opposed to twistin' the throttle a bit... Will probably ride for 2-2.5 hours. I'm in a black F-250. Chad

Hey SICVIC, I'm in! Not sure I've got 80 miles in me, but we typically spend most of our rides on the more technical parts of Corral (with some breather runs thrown in...), and I could stand to up my game a bit. Biggest issue for me is i'm typically a M-F 8-6 desk jockey (not complaining... too much. Just a simple truth), so we do most of our riding on the weekends. I am not opposed to playing hookie though! I'll see if I can find a hookie day here in the next couple of weeks. I'll give you a good 3-4 days notice and we'll see if we can work something out... Your reputation in the forums preceeds you... I'm willing to take my place as a SICVIC-tim! Happy trails! Chad P.S. Altho the Boss has the weekends, you and any other SDAR brothers and sisters are welcome to join us on our weekend rides... No "Bro-Clique" here. I just need to be more active here in the forums.

Thanks for the tip, Bagstr... Gonna give this a try.

I'm not sure what a DROOLER is, but it sounds a bit derogatory. Do we speak of our fellow SDAR compadres this way? I thought this website was for men and women who share a mutual love of riding and mutual respect for one another? Crusty, I was one of the two who "met" you on our way up Kernan on Saturday. My roommate was the lead. I can assure you and everyone else that we were riding at a very reasonable speed, and in a cautious manner. We too have had more than one occurrence with on-coming traffic at Corral (Kernan specifically). I do not think you were riding in any unsafe manner yourself. From my perspective, what occurred was a result of very unfortunate timing on what is best described as a blind turn going both directions. Even more unfortunate was the significant downhill you were facing as part of the turn. To speak to CL300CAPT's question of whether we stopped... Yes we did. I immediately put my bike down to assist Crusty, if needed. I assure you, his fall was scary and I was concerned. Over the bars in that scary, slow motion manner and landed close to directly on his helmet. Crusty was up quickly and very aware. I looked directly into his eyes to assess his condition. I would say a little shaken, but seemed in good shape. I picked up his bike so it would stop leaking fuel and held it for him for a couple of minutes while he did a bit of a self check. We asked him a couple of times if he felt he was ok. Outside of his concern for his throttle, he indicated he was all good and appeared to be fine. We made sure we were confident he was in good condition before we continued on. My roommate and I are both cautious and respectful riders at Corral, McCain and everywhere else we ride. The safety of ourselves and other riders on the trial always takes precedence over balls out, berm blowing riding. I understand your frustration at having to ride back to Pine Valley cul-de-sac with a stuck throttle. That truly does suck. That's not necessarily a cake walk with a perfectly functioning throttle. Happy to hear you made it without further incident. And I really feel bad that the three of us "met" in such an unfortunate manner. I sincerely hope you are unharmed by the end-over, and look forward to a possible opportunity to go the same direction and share a good ride in the future. Godspeed... Chad

We had an awesome day at Corral on Sunday... Was a little wet, but that was most of the fun! Started our ride about 8:45 and it was surprisingly warm (Truck therm showed 35, but had to be warmer - rode comfortably in only a thermal longsleeve and jersey). We staged where Kernan crosses Morena Stokes Valley Road and rode Kernan up to Four Corners. Single track from FC to Bobcat; 1 to Ranger; Ranger to 11, 11 to CC Camp Ground; 6 to Bobcat; 9 (Sodbuster) to 8 to 1, back to FC and Kernan back down. Done by 11. Sombrero's Mexican on the way home! Only passed two jeeps on 11 and three 3-wheelers on Kernan coming down. Very surprised we didn't see any other two-wheeled vehicles. Trying to pare down some video footage to show how amazing the morning was... Here's a link to video footage I posted on YouTube...

Hey Crusty... Myself +2 will be at Lark Saturday a.m. Plan is to leave Pacific Beach around 6:45-7:00 a.m., arrive Lark about 8. Looking for opportunities to meet and ride with other SDAR members. We are all pretty good riders (at least we think so. :)/>/> ). Can ride most of Lark without issue - at least what we know of (have logged 6-7 rides out there, all relatively close to the main staging area). Would enjoy the opportunity to ride the area with someone more familiar with what's available out there. We typically ride until 11-12 and head back in. If other interest here puts you at Lark on Saturday, would like to meet up and join you for awhile if the timing works! Just let me know your timing/rally point plans... Thanks! Chad

I rode McCain on Sunday and found a two way radio on the picnic table by the big tree and restroom. Got there about 7:30am so was likely left on Saturday. Reply here or PM me with a description and we'll figure out a way to get it back to you... I posted the same in the Open Discussion forum.

No knobs... Must not be yours. ;)/> This one is black and silver, has two buttons on the front, "Audiovox" printed on the front... But unless I get an ACCURATE description, I won't be able to release it. :heh:/> It's certainly no high dollar model, but thought I might try to get it back to whomever lost it.