2012 AMA Husqvarna Shenandoah 500 National 2-Day Dual Sport

[windyhill]

Great pics, looks like fun ride. Phil, glad your'e ok!

[Ovo]

Until a minor disaster struck. I was leading the group and blasting down a fireroad. Not sure how fast I was going, but fast enough that I was jumping these little bumps in the trail. Then one of the little bumps wasn't hardpack but loose mud. It slid my front wheel off to the right, while myself and the rest of the bike kept going straight. When the bike hit the ground and I didn't instantly wreck, I remember thinking to myself "holy crap, maybe I can save this".
The bike swapped from the right side over to the left side of the trail. I just barely kept it out of the trees, "oh man, I'm somehow gonna save this". However that extreme side of the trail, had some huge rocks. I smacked a couple of those and went down.
I took some hard hits to my right shoulder and arm. I firmly believe that my pressure suit was the only thing keeping me from broken bones. I slowly got up amazed that nothing was broken. Ron was nice enough to pick my bike up and move it to the side of the trail for me. The bike suffered some damage though. The throttle housing on the bar was totally smashed.
I was able to limp it 2 miles or so out to the road by pulling on the cable. The trail marshall at the hard road was able to do an amazing roadside fix w/ bale wire. He by passed the throttle housing and attached it straight to the twist grip! I finished the day w/ it like that.

FFS Ron's going to end up with a rock complex at this rate. Glad your gear dealt with the rocks!

Ha - After seeing that Bucho was fine, thats the first thing I said...I'm tired of seeing people wreck in front of me...LOL

It was a good time Saturday and of course hanging with this group of DAMN riders is just a DAMN fun time. After seeing the pictures of Sunday, I wished I would have stayed around and rode for a bit. But with out some decent rain gear, it just seem like it would be fun. But I'm going to do some research and find some before the Hammer rolls around.

I have some pictures, I hope to get them posted later tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone for a great weekend!

[the dude himself]

Dude, on your bike or cage?

I was loading a stump-grinder into my pickup to wrap up a large project before skipping town. Had just got the thing loaded and had one ramp in the truck, on resting on the ground when the asshat cut through the parking lot of the rental place to avoid a light. He ran over my foot and knocked me to the ground, then hit the ramp with the back tire - it kicked up and caught me in the kneecap. Didn't get the tag number.

DAMN! Sorry to hear that! I hope you heal well. You were asked about by several people including some random person at a stop in the woods.


~Patrick

Thanks - this was supposed to be my return to riding/last hurrah until probably mid-summer. Work is finally settling down and the boat is almost sail-able, and the kid is due November/December, so it'll be a good 4-6 months before I'm allowed to sneak away for a weekend. If there are any 1-day rides planned in the immediate area I'd be down once the knee heals.

[GearedUp]

Glad to see some of the DAMN riders got out sunday. I wasent planning on riding sunday till I went to the riders meeting. Changed my mind and switched to the KLR. Figured heated grips and electrics would be a plus if it rained hard. Did the whole sunday loup minus the hero section.. Never rained all that hard, but was real foggy up on top of the mountains. Left around 9am and was back by 3pm. Had a good time, but am a bit sore from riding such a heavy bike on the rocky roads.

[Bucho]

Good for you Gary. Glad you had some fun on Sunday.

[crofrog]

Final fix for the throttle -- it actually works by twisting the grip! (So well, it did it automatically if you turned the bars too far to the side.):

That's some old timer shit right there, someone has had some experience in the past! Its amazing.

[Firebolter]

It was a good ride! We had 2 pretty bad injuries on Saturday. Both ankles and 1 female and 1 male. Male rode it back once we got his bike up the rock hill. Female was carried out to the hospital just to be safe. Quite a few flat tires, 2 broken chains and a few sore shoulders from kissin' the dirt!

like most years, 1 guy hit the guard rail coming off the Knob on Sunday, wrang his bell, but he was okay and rode it back to camp.

I broke down my camp Saturday afternoon figuring it is easier when stuff is dry....slept in my truck Sat night. That foresight paid off!

Sorry I didn't make it over to the DAMN campsite. Once I got a shower, clean clothes and a beer, I rode my chair for the evening till I crashed........

[davej]

I was signed up two days but only made it Sunday, barely. On the way I had to round up 5 horses walking down the road in the dark. the LEOs were contacted by the horse owners once the sun came up (7 am) I was obviously late as I was still 2 hrs from Mt Solon. My buddy Tom told the organizers i was on my way so a guy was waiting for me when I arrived at 0920. way cool!

I hastily geared up and glommed on behind 2 unsuspecting marshals. They were cool and rode about my pace. One of them wiped out on the hairpin after the knob so i guess thats a tricky spot, especially in the fog. At one point the sweeps blew past me, one of them almost shooting off the left side of a right hander. yipes

I caught up to Tom at lunch and said hi to sam there. i didn't see phil, tho. One part was pretty cool as i was following a chick on a little Yammie. she was rockin it quite well until she hit reserve or had some kind of mechanical as all of us were overtaking some slower riders.

we skipped the hero section as i was kind of beat after riding the whole time without goggles because of the mist. Tom had a flat mid afternoon so we lost our marshal guides and had to follow ribbons from there on out. have to say the course was pretty well marked as we made it home without map and rollchart.

pretty fun but i was surprised to see how many people were leaving as i drove in. sorry i missed you guys

[Bucho]

Sorry I missed you Dave. I had a sick wife at home, so I boogied as soon as Sam and I did our abbreviated Sunday morning options ride.

[bonehead]

Well, I ended up down at the Campgrounds Thursday so I could spend a day doing nothing at all expect nothing. It worked out well. Geardedup stopped by and talked about some guys going out Thursday to spend a little time riding the local roads and such. It went well until one guy broke the case on his CRF450. Not good to break your bike before the ride even starts. Apparently the USA had three Case covers in stock, one in Rhode Islad and two out west. Not good at all. His buddy ended up bringing another bike for him to ride on the Shen500 with.
Friday My son, Sambo, drove his xr650l down to Camp from home. Later Geardedup, Sam and I went for a local 150mile ride. That was fun.
Later most of the DAMN riders started showing up and we all started getting dinner ready. Dinner was a combonation of Ken making Brautwurst, Kraut. Mrs. Wingfixer making her awesome corn and Souffle. And I served the Wifes chilli and corn bread. We always have WAY to much food. So all went to sleep with full bellies.
Friday my son and I got Tech over with. He was riding his CRE260 and I was on my new 2011 KTM450sixdays. He was nervous and couldnt sleep with a darn. He had no idea what to expect having never ridden off road much and never having ever been in a DS ride.
Saturday Geardedup took the lead with the group and we all headed out- Geardedup, Reedensteel, Phoo, Maker of Phoo(his dad), Sambo, Bumble, Myself and Kyler. What fun this was. Ken was providing guidance and assitance to whomever asked or needed it. Gearded up set a rather good pace for the bunch of rag tags. The day went well. No real issues with this group. bumble was giving it all and riding well. Sambo was doing well inspite of riding on an old wornout scorpian front tire.
We ended up coming up on the Bucho incident and I stayed with Bucho until he made it to lunch. While doing so I lost my son and couldn't find him. This made me nervous especially when all the DAMN riders were eating lunch and no sign of Sambo. So I headed back up the rode to where the section exited the trail and dumped out on the highway. Two groups drive by. The first was all dual sporters- No Sambo. The second looked like all crotch rockets about a dozen of them dong about 75. What, wait a minute, in the middle of the pack is Sambo on his 2 smoker passing them one by one. All I could do was laugh.
After lunch we all head up the trail and more fun was had by all. Lots of good riding and no flats, mechanical issues or anything.

That night we sat around the fire relaxing and having some good conversation - although rather heated and loud once someone brought up politics. Gotta love it.

Sunday, wwe packed up because we didnt have the gear (Balls) to tough it out in the rain. this my only regret. Not trying.

Thanks again to everyone. I really enjoyed all of this

Here are a few pics
Sambo and Gearedup on Friday ride



He looks way to relaxed


Riding Saturday
Sambo CRE260


Ken, Sambo adn Cory acting their age


The motley Saturday riders