McCain - w/challenge - w/tech - w/lost n found

[MacDuncan 131]

4 of us planned a Big Bear trip for last Tuesday to ride and camp a couple days, and then it fell apart. Grrr, had a lot of "no gos" in the last few months given all that has taken place, so we jumped to a back-up plan.  3 of us decided to ride McCain last Friday.  Leave San Diego at 6 am, ride McCain "kick stands up" at 7:30.  Separate cars for social distancing, and we planned to each have our own picnic bench under the oak tree   for 6 foot distance . It was warm by 7:30 am, so desert gear only. We were the only vehicles there, which I like because of all of the blind corners when weaving through the shrubbery.

I am often guilty of over-packing gear, mostly because I like to ride far into remote areas, and often alone, so this time, knowing McCain has tight corners and some steep little rock sections, and we wouldn't be too far from the truck, and 3 of us, I decided to leave my tool bag in the truck so my 525 could ride a little lighter...., as the tools weigh about 15 lbs on the back of bike.

We rode about 3 hours, it was glorious, never more than about 30 yards apart, nice breeze to clear dust quickly, we took turns leading even though none of us ever really knew where we were going......  just winding around through rock and brush and turning whenever, and where ever.  We eventually exited the single track to the big road and zipped back to the trucks as we had our ride "fix" and we were gonna head home. As we rested, we changed plans because we were sharing how nice the riding was, and because we were still the only trucks there...... lets do another 30-40 minutes.    It was around 11:00, warming up to the 90's, but a nice breeze still.

As we left on round 2, we hit more technical stuff, but none of us is much more than a casual rider, so the steeper technical stuff was putting us beyond our ability, but we were hanging in there, occasionally helping each other lift bikes out of bushes and ditches. 

 

Then ......

my buddy's bike started running terribly and gas started randomly pouring from overflow hose, it seemed like a stuck float or???, his bike stalled regularly and often, sometimes in very bad spots. He had to re-start it about 20-30 times, and eventually it wouldn't start, and then the battery went dead.  In my saddle bags, I had with me some casual straps, but It was too steep and rocky to tow from where we were.  So 2 of us would ride about 20 yds ahead, park, take off all gear, and walk back to muscle out and drag and lift the bike from each ravine, then gear up, ride ahead, ungear, etc... . It seemed hotter then (Note to self, always carry a ball cap/sun hat for when the helmet is off!).  So, for about an hour, ....... all gear on, ride 20 yds, all gear off, wrestle with a bike, rest under a shrubbery, repeat.....  It seemed like it was going ok, as good as that could go.... but then, .....  my battery went dead!  Heck, it was a Ytz7s, and only 18 months old.   Could it be because I only rode it a couple miles every 2 weeks for the last 4 months, even though I had put it on a battery tender every 2-3 weeks??  heck, each time I started it in the last 4 months it started in one second. So, was the battery actually done after 18 months, or did I drain it from starting so often back in the shrubbery, or was it due to my cooling fan seemed to be on the whole time going 2-3 mph in 95 degree heat, or did I forget to turn key off and headlight stayed on during one of our bike wrestling sessions, or did the stator get too hot and didn't recharge the battery (if that's even a thing)???  I didn't know, but now we had 2 dead bikes and the trail was still not smooth. I could walk over to the trucks and get my toolbox, maybe a couple miles, maybe a couple hours, to get jump starter, but heck, I had a kick starter.  

True confessions story for sure....  I had never kick started my bike since owning it, because there seemed to be something very funky about it when I bought it used (which is why I often carry a mini charger). Half way through the kickstart rotation, the kicker hits the right foot peg.  I have looked at that many times and wondered what has created that scenario, but still don't know.  And at that moment, I was paying the price for not finding out why. So we left the blue bike, and muscled out my bike to a small area where we could strap it to the only bike running and bump start it.  I got it going using 3rd and 4th gear and looking for rocks to get the rear tire on to add friction to get the motor rotating, but my bike couldn't be turned off from that moment on without having to bump start it again. It is often quite hard to find neutral with the bike running, but did find it enough to help with the other bike.  I also rode ahead a couple times to find smoother trails, actually away from the truck, a little more westward, and then going north paralleling the windmill ridge, but a little nerve racking that if I stalled, it would make things worse being apart. I was trying to be alert to the "dumb" things that we might do in this scenario, and avoid them, but we likely had done some already....   Luckily, I bought a couple radios for my buds last year, and told them that they had to pay me for the radios to ride with me    and that paid off, we had some communications, and randomly even cell service, but not to be counted on.....  but neither one of them thought that they could take my GPSMap 78 and go to truck and find the way back, but I could. With my bike idling while I helped muscle other bike, it started to overheat, and the strap I had brought to tow with began to break regularly and therefore, was getting shorter and shorter....... 

So I decided to go solo to get to truck, hopeful not to stall the bike, to get truck, trailer, water, and bigger rope, etc.... As I left them, I tried to make very clear tracks from my bike's tires so it was clear which way I went and that they should follow that line.  I made it to the truck, loaded all, and headed back.  Radioed my buddy when I got to the single track, and he then left 3rd member where easily findable, still along the tracks that I had purposefully left with my tires spinning at intersections.  We met, and he took the new water, rope, charger, etc... back to our 3rd rider and towed him out to truck.  I had the AC in the truck running full at that time, so I put my buddy in truck with water as he looked a bit heat exhausted, I then told the running bike rider to get to his truck and hydrate, and I then loaded the broke bike and headed back to oak tree.

Still the only trucks at the Oak tree.  So much for a 30-40 minute extra spin, as it was hours later now.

We got back to our individual picnic benches and laughed at ourselves, as we certainly broke social distance protocol working side by side muscling bikes out of ravines, and it was hard, and hot, and we should have had more tools, and had hats, and we made mistakes, but maybe not too many, but it was a mini adventure, and we hopefully learned a lesson or 2.  And, likely better there than at Big Bear.

Now looking forward to the next adventure    , after I check out my charging system of course, even though I may just have a dead battery (and yep, the 18 month old warrant expired one day ago, go figure  :) That evening, still unable to start bike, my battery read 11.8 volts. I put it on battery tender expecting it to remain red, but it charged by the morning to 12.5, the bike started, and during running, it only read 12.8 (although I was expecting a 14 volt reading). I wasn't able to find a web site that stated clearly how much voltage should be seen with bike running and bike reved up. I would have thought 13's and 14's, but some sites state that the 07 525 has a very low recharge system that would only read high 12's.  So I have more research to do (or C&D does   )

Oh, and the lost n found item, we found a bike stand for a dirt only bike likely (small metal triangle), in case one of our sdar buds lost one there. 

Cheers. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr.JAJA 380]

And I sought that I had an Adventure. Did someone got killed, NO, Good Adventure.

[dirt dame 559]

Yes, sounds about right.  I have had mostly mild misadventures out at McCain since it opened back up.  Out of shape, and the summer heat conspired to make a lot of my rides shorter than I planned.  A couple were less than 13 miles.  My tool belt fell off during a later ride...had to go back the following morning to find it.  The last time I was out there, I needed to drink more water than I anticipated, and consequently ran out, and had to shortcut back to the car for some nice cold Powerade.  The trick is to know your limits and when to not push on,  and to carry lots of tools and communication devices.

[ADV Bum 205]

Sounds like an adventure for sure. Nice to have people with good attitudes to go through it with.  Seems like you were very prepared. I do notice one thing you need to add to your gear, a CAMERA!  I was telling my wife yesterday about the ride I went on a week a go with people I did not know.  At the meeting point some people did not want to shake hands as they were scared of the VIrus.  All that hesitation went out the window when we were helping each other up, through and over obstacles. 

Good luck with the charging system. I have read that the older KTM's charging system was weak and needed to be upgraded.

Thank you for the write up.  Glad it all worked out!

[Ken S 164]

I’ve towed several bikes out of Mc Cain the last few years. 
Always an adventure