Zubb

@Hawkins please start a thread on this if you get enough interest here. Sharing info on better bike-togrophy can be as much fun as any other aspect of bike life.

calling @Wierdrider to the bat line in 3 ... 2 ... This stuff is always fun (to me). It's always interesting to see what others use for different angles on bikes in scenery and how it looks "on film". Jim W took the poser shot of me in my profile, and has a great eye for action/light/etc. I have an insta360 that I don't use because .... editing. But would love to hang with some folks that have a useful workflow so that I can utilize the camera effectively and efficiently.

You've got it @Goofy Footer. That's my Adventure Bike Trail Rating System. Not to be confused with anything more sophisticated, intelligent, or accurate. I will however have to credit you with a heretofore unheard of new category. Zubb Death for the win!

Depends on the route.

I could be persuaded to truck out a grill and cooler. Anyone have a 10x10 pop up? Could also provide tunes, or if desired I'm sure I can find a Mariachi band. Uh-Oh. Starting to look like another camp out!

That all looks delicious! Not ridden that quadrant, always looked at it longingly from the highway at 85mph.

That's not a rumor. Pigs can fly. Bring me some beer money and I'll do it in my underwear.

Is it ok if I bring huckleberry moonshine instead?

Please start planning the 1st annual TNTMO 500.

Well if you gotta miss one, at least your plan B was awesome.

I carry the Green Chili Dynamic tow strap. It works as advertised and worth every penny when you need it.

OTB pants, I've torn open 2 brand new pairs of KLIM pants hooking them on the footpeg. Both pairs, on the first day I wore them. The embarrassment of falling over is gone, but the seamstress' repair of them, one with a new leg zipper lives on to remind me of my failures. While I prefer ITB (unless it's raining), I have learned with OTB to always always always tighten up those pant cuffs so they are snug to the boot! Bags - I have a 30* 850 fill down bag. It's quite compact packed. It was plenty warm enough in the low 40's saturday night. If it got much colder though I'd have needed to zip it all the way up and draw the collar in. Probably the first bag I've ever owned that I feel will match the temp rating very closely. And I always have a light puffy in my kit and when it gets horribly cold anytime, anywhere, the puffy comes out and works a treat in the bag as well. It's the Mosko Ektotherm, so it will also plug into the bike and heat me up during those weird random snow storms and rain storms over mountain passes. Ultimate variability without "adding" another piece of gear.

And thank you for the Marg's!! I have a friend that doesn't carry a jetboil. When asked why, he said look around you. There are 10 jetboils in camp! Personally I cannot let my access to coffee be dictated by anyone else.

I completely agree with your wife. I've been running the R80 for 2 years, a rough guess of 10,000 miles on BDR type riding and 20,000 miles on the luggage. It literally does make you forget it's back there, even over all those CO passes. Why would I try something else? Because to find anything at all in the side bags I have to pretty much pull the bag and dump it on the ground. It's super power is also it's weakness. Do that in the rain a couple times . . . . . ugh! Do it on tour helping others with frequent needs.... get's old fast. That's why I'm of a mind running the 25/25's on tour like Dusty and Tom do. But the R80 is proof that if weight is carried low and forward, it's affect on the bike is greatly minimized. That picture of you and your wife out living the dream is Epic!

It was my first camp trip with the Mosko 25/25's on a rack. I wanted to pack all gear except the tools inside, except for hydro flasks and fuel bottles. Also, test my 1 man superlight tent in the rain. The reckless80 setup rides a LOT better and I'll run that on personal trips. The 25/25 on a rack is much easier to get in and out of. I'll run that on tours as I'm often helping others with stuff. The 1 man tent is going back to REI !! I stayed dry enough, just realizing that I'm willing to pack a bigger tent for more "reasonable" space for a man my (tender) age. Minimizing the Pbottle, and leaving the chair at home leaves me a little empty space for everything. I hate overpacking the luggage. I'm looking at options for a collapsable Pee bottle. Dedicating 1 liter of space for an empty bottle is just too "expensive". Gatorade bottles do not work. They all have a small opening that I can't get the sausage into. Sidenote: For those that got up a couple of times and crawled out to pee in the rain. . . . now you know why I have a pee bottle. I forgot to bring my doormat! I always have a sort of mini-tarp in front of the tent zipper so I drag less dirt/sand into the tent with me. Riding gear: I've pretty much had it all through the years. Last year I went down the motocross rabbit hole and tried the Mosko Moto method of separate armor under a shell when needed. Particularly in light of all the desert riding I do. I'm done with it. I'm going to have a MoskoMoto sale and get rid of most of it, returning to a proper adventure riding suit. This means I'll probably also have to sell off my Garnae G12 boots! I love those boots! You just can't get Klim or BMW pants over the top of them. Since resale $$ is quite low on boots I may keep them and one pair of Mosko ITB pants for 90* + riding we have. So here's the thing. This always has been and always will be a journey. Our evolution through bikes and gear and camping gizmos is always changing. It's innate in most of us to want something just a little bit better. The most important thing to me is to just ride. Get off the web and out of the garage and put some miles on today. The worst thing you could do is to have a pristine bike and the fanciest gear, all without a dent or scratch on it. That setup belongs in your living room where you can look at it every evening and dream about "someday". Which would be awesome..... as long as you had a seasoned warrior waiting for you outside.

Am curious to hear if anyone discovered any pros or cons to their kit they want to change before they go on a larger adventure? luggage? clothing? tent / gear?

Thanks to everyone that can along and thank you @tntmo for organizing. had a great time with great people. after all that sausage going around I needed a ‘cleanse’ and hit the bar for a little baseball and Ahi Salad. I feel better already. 8-)

I wouldn’t touch Dobsons sausage with a 10’ pole.

We’ve drank all the margaritas and moonshine. Fires burning low, rain is picking up and we are all headed to our tents. g’night.

Yeh it's hard to find any kind of compression sack that's long and skinny, and compresses sideways. It's a huge gap in the gear supply chain in my opinion. I had to buy 7 compression sacks to finally find the one for my sleeping bag that fit my luggage perfectly. Sheesh!

I'm bringing a little warmth to share around camp too. It comes from Idaho by way of motorcycle. It is of course for medicinal purposes only, so I'll be asking you what ales you before pouring you a few sips. I also have a newer tent I've never used in the rain, so am looking to test it out properly.

Seems like it had been forever since Jim and I had got to ride together. At least a year I think. So I threw out the idea of going Friday, so we both cleared out the schedules and left my house about 9:30 or so in the rain. I warned him this would be my first "legitimate" ride off road since the clavicle repair, and the penalty he'd have to pay if he took me too far into the weeds would be he'd have to lift my bike. Fair enough. I really like Pine Valley. It's got enough character to the primary trail to give you something to do beside just gaze over the handlebars at the countryside. So I was surprised when just after we crossed the cattle guard he took a hard left into the bushes. In fact I had to skid to a stop and back up to follow the hidden track through the brush. OK, game on. We rode single track up in a clockwise loop back to the road and the further south took a hairpin right, onto another singletrack. As many of you know, the rolling track has just about all the fun components packed into a cow trail for miles and miles. Loose rock, embedded rock ledges, lots of ruts . . . in fact the primary trail itself is often a peg deep rut about the width of a couple rear tires or so. Keep your toes in boys and don't get sloppy. Seemingly endless numbers of blind sandy chicane like corners. Overhead high bushes that make it impossible to see more than a few yards, often less, especially in the corners. For me, first gear is too twitchy, 2nd gear smoothes things out and keeps you rolling up, over and through stuff. Just gotta stay focused to keep it in that narrow track. That 1250 motor is absolute magic at happily pulling you up the trail at the very bottom of second and third. Very few pics on this day as there isn't a lot of places to easily get a kickstand down. But I snapped a few where you could at least know you'll be able to start without spinning. Here's a low angle log hop. Jim was smart and put his right foot on the log (that's overhanging space). I on the other hand put my right foot down on the dirt just before it. Only to find it began falling away down the little cliff. This is never a good thing seeings how it doesn't take long for the bike to lean far enough that you need to abandon ship. The solution of course is often to just GO. So I did. And just ahead, finally, I nice spot to take the lid off, drink some water and catch up on the nitty gritty of what it was like for him in Albania last month. Pretty amazing to hear the backstory of what really went on that week at the Trophy. We climbed around on some rock.. snapped a couple pics... And rode until I was completely gassed. Mid afternoon we were stopped for water and 4 riders on 2 strokes came ripping up the trail that of course we were blocking. We hadn't seen another soul out there all day. The lead rider kills his engine and says "is that Duplease?" Turns out 3 of the 4 were riding Pro globally and the fourth just got back from 4 months of riding Idaho and Canada. so we had a great time talking and cooling off a bit. Later, out at the trailhead they were all sitting around there trucks and we spent another half hour of so just talking bikes and Idaho, and good moto stuff. Super nice guys. Jim and I hit Discanso Junction for lunch and then railed back to town so I could shower up and meet Barb with some friends for the evening. But just before going into the house I looked back saw this. I don't have many pics of the day, but I do have a reminder of just how tight the trail was with miles and miles of branch ducking, brush grabbing the handlebars, and scratching up the windscreen. Better the screen, than my arms and chest all day long. Good stuff! I'm pretty rusty, but can't wait to go back.

Regarding rain - Toms right. He’s done it all, seen it all. I’ve been around the block a few times myself and experience tells me rain in San Diego is pretty weak compared to the real world out there. I’m expecting a really good time.