EddieEarl

Vet rider in desperate times. Surprise September trip by the in-laws causes spontaneous instinctive reflect to FLEE TO BAJA. One small PROBLEM: This vet rider has ZERO Baja experience. Looking for a 3-5 day trip. HELP. Trip Dates: Week starting MON SEP 19. Don't make me head down there by myself ... I'll do it though. I'm desperate.

Temps were down Sunday so my brother and I got back in the saddle. Gorgeous day. 70 degrees. Clear skies. Slight breeze. Trucked out to Majors, road the dirt trail over to Hwy 80 (name of this trail??? Pine Mtn Rd???) then to Thing Valley. Just past the gate on Thing Valley we took a hard right to end up Cibbets Campground (name of this trail??? Fred Canyon???). Rode east one street along the 8 then headed north on La Posta Rd, back to Thing Valley, and finished with a couple cold Alpine Duet Ipa's @ the Pine House Tavern. GOOD TIMES.

Roger that - thanks, and will do!

Ok guys - help me out for a second. I know where Corral Canyon is, but where is Lark in comparison to that? And how about McCain? I get confused on where those 3 are at in relation to each other.

sweet - do you hit that up from Buckman or from La Posta rd?

Nice! Just might have to do that!

I've been working on single unit solution for a long time: comms, GPS, music. I think I may have found something that works for me. I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 in a rugged Otterbox Ram-mounted to my handlebars and it works flawlessly for Maps, GPS, Comms, and Music. I've been using an app called ViewRanger (VR) for a couple years and I absolutely love it. Highly recommend. Too many features to list, but the one big ones are pre-trip planning via the computer, and you can cache Satellite maps for offline use. Too many maps to list; my favorite are Google Hybrid street map / satellite, Google terrain, USA Topo with trails, and USGS plus trails. Great post-ride reports, with elevation, mileage, total time, and a slider which moves you along the ride. You can also insert photos/comments along the ride. Super easy to share and collaborate through VR's site, GPX download, or social media (it's very cool to upload the GPX file to Google Earth and then do the "Flyover" view ... it's like you're in a helicopter riding along the entire route). Oh yeah, one other VERY cool feature is called "Buddy Beacon" where you can track the location, progress, route of your buddies. Total cost? $20. No joke. $20 gets you their premium package. That is a one time cost. No brainer. Here's a cool little YouTube vid about it: For comms & music? The WIRELESS Sena SM-H10. It connects to your phone via blue tooth and the sound quality is fantastic. It pipes in your phone's playlist perfectly. I've taken phone calls while riding and it works great, too. It's easy to adjust volume with a big round dial type - toggle. And if you want to talk to your riding buddies just press the toggle ... and you don't need to PTT every time you want to say something. Just press once to open the comm channel and chat away ... then press once to close the channel when you're done. If you're listening to music and somebody opens the comms your music pauses automatically and when the comm channel is closed your music resumes. There's even a way to 'share' your music with other Sena listeners ... you can all be jamming to the same tunes on the trail. Cost? $150. Worth every penny. Anyway, just thought I'd share what's working. I'm down to one unit. No wires. And have GPS, maps, comms & music ... all from my handlebars. STOKED.

Great idea. There's also a great trail south of the Border Patrol compound. What's the name of that trail?

Great question. I know the Sena syncs to my own phone via BlueTooth, but I'm not 100% sure how the comm link is established between Sena units. I know Sena advertises a range of 900m (980 yards) so I don't think that's BlueTooth? Not sure. Maybe there's a little transceiver / receiver in the unit. When you originally "pair" the two Sena units together they say it's best to be really close - within 5 yards.

We'll meet you guys up there. Kick stands up around 9? And are you guys gonna ride big ADV bikes?

Nice work! Top of BM is a beauty. We're blessed that's so close.

Does anybody have any Big Bear tracks to share? Or any ideas on great routes, areas, locations, trails to ride up there? It'll be our first time in Big Bear ... 5 vet riders on bikes like a 450X, 500 EXC, XR650R. No big bikes. Fast, aggressive pace. We prefer flowy 2 track, or fast & flowy single track. We'd prefer to stay away from the super slow techy "trials riding" type stuff. I just bought the CA Trail Map data (CTM) and I'm using it on my Galaxy S6 with Locus Maps. The 'overlay/combo' of the Google Terrain map and the CTM data is insane. Loving it. Still trying to figure out how to program routes and/or cache maps for offline use. Thanks for the help, Troy

Absolutely. Would love to. In fact, I was going to record and send to Lee with CA Trail Map. That guy is freaking awesome. His data/trails are incredible and he's personally helped me get my system all set up after purchase. I'm now dialed in on my samsung S6 with Locus maps using cached Google Terrain and Satellite maps for offline use along with his transparent maps. Incredible setup. I also use ViewRanger which gives me a lot more functionality to pre-plan via the PC, but the data/trails available with CTM is beyond anything else. Since Lee doesn't have Mammoth trails yet I was going to record and send his way. Either way, whatever I track/record I'll share here for sure.

We're thinking about bringing up our toyboxes, or possibly even just trucking the bikes up and tenting it. Any good RV / Tent camp spots you could recommend? We don't mind trucking bikes to the trailhead each day to ride either. We're not the type of group who needs to camp way deep in the wilderness just to avoid every living soul, but we'd also prefer not to camp in downtown Mammoth. Camping just 'close enough' to town has its benefits ... like hot pizza, cold beer, and of course after being with dudes all day quite frankly its nice to see some cute female types ... nothing like hot mammoth ladies ... yoga pants are an extra. OK, I digress. Any great camp spots would be appreciated.

Not at all, brother. I appreciate the input. We've never been to BB. There's a group of about 5-7 of us that have a 4 day weekend blocked off to go ride. We just need to pick a spot. We thought about BB but between yours and other reports I read (including one from rider-planet which said BB was basically fully of rocks) as well as the fact that two of my buddies only have red sticker bikes, we really can't even do BB now (no red sticker from MAY-SEPT in BB). Mammoth is where we need to go ... more open, fast, flowy, and year round red stickers are good to go. Thx again for the input.

I keep hearing about how rocky BB is ... hmmm .... not liking that very much.

@ HotRod82 great intel - thx a ton for the input. I think we'll head a little farther north to stretch out our legs up in Mammoth.

Does anybody have any Big Bear tracks to share? Or any ideas on great routes, areas, locations, trails to ride up there? It'll be our first time heading up there ... 5 vet riders on bikes like a 450X, 500 EXC, XR650R. No big bikes. Fast, aggressive pace. We prefer flowy 2 track, or fast & flowy single track. We'd prefer to stay away from the super slow techy "trials riding" type stuff. I just bought the CA Trail Map and I'm using it on my Galaxy S6 with Locus Maps. The 'overlay/combo' of the Google Terrain map and the CTM data is insane. Loving it. Thanks for the help, Troy

I did a big 150 mile loop this weekend. Poway, through Eagle Peak to Majors, and then back. While at Saddlewood junction (I think that's it) I popped open the map using Locus maps and zoomed in quite a bit and the level of detail was awesome. I am super excited about this data.

Sweet little gizmo right there. Thx for sharing. Just ordered.

Look into Ram mounts. I have been super impressed with mine.

Took a week off and met a couple buddies in Moab. It was our third year. This year we hit up Hurrah Pass, Dubinky, White Wash, Enduro Loop, Crystal Geyser, Fins n Things, Rose Hill (nasty hill climb), and Onion Creek. Moab is so vast and besides incredible scenery and hundreds of miles moto-specific trails, there is such a variety of terrain. Hurrah Pass via Kane Creek - overlooking Colorado River L to R: buddy from Portland rides a '07 450 EXC-R. Buddy from Missoula rides a '10 Six Day 530 XC-W. I ride a '13 500 EXC. Dubinky South - mesa off Crystal Geyser Trail White Wash - overlooking wash and sand dunes below (small set of dunes, but super fun) Rose Hill - nasty hill climb just off Onion Creek, takes you to "Top of the World" jeep trail. Took us 90 mins to walk the bikes up. 2 guys on a tether. 1 guy walking beside his bike. Not fun. Tent camping for the week - epic. Arrived with a sore back (lifestyle). Went home pain free. Go figure. Being outside, working all day by being active, is better for your back than sitting inside all day on a computer. Who knew!? Met a few cowboys deep in the backcountry. Snapped this pic. Still love looking at it.

I took a slow 2nd gear digger / "tip-over" the other day and when I got back on my bike it felt like I was riding sideways. I figured the bars were bent so I gave it the old fashioned tire kick to straighten them out and finished the ride. When I got back home I gave the bike a once-over and noticed my front fender was really out of alignment ... I'd never noticed something like this before: I loosened up all 8 fork tube / triple clamp pinch bolts to re-align, but I still could NOT get the fender back straight. I took off the fender, examined it, and concluded it was NOT bent. I was stumped. I'm not mechanical engineer. Just a vet rider capable of common sense and able to turn a few wrenches. So, I asked myself, "What in the hell would be making this happen?" Then it hit me. THE FORK TUBE HEIGHT up in the triple clamp. I checked, and sure as shniggle they were REALLY uneven. Check it out. The left fork (only a small portion of the 2nd lobe was showing): The right fork (MUCH higher ... a little of the 3rd lobe was showing): I made both of them equal, torqued everything back to spec, and voila! Just thought I'd throw this post in here in case any other Orange riders run into the same issue. As I understand it, these KTM's (which I love BTW) have forks which can get "bound up" and twisted pretty easy. So, in the process of re-aligning don't forget to check the fork tube height in the triple clamp. Happy Trails, - Troy

When the map maker chimes in that is good enough for me! I am buying this app now! Thx!

George, thx for input. I keep hearing different things. KTM shop said 15 bottom and 10 top, and manual says 20 bottom and 15 top. I went with manual - do you think I'll be good?