DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

My last post here was a bit over a year ago when I bought the KLR and started getting it ready for the TAT. Did the trip and have hundreds of photos and a few scars (or is it the other way around) to prove it:





Our ride report and a lot more photos are up on ADVrider:
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/m ... t.1077645/

For this year's ride, my small group is going to try to ride from North Georgia to the Maine Coast with as much off the pavement as possible. There's a few people that have tried it and posted some of their efforts but it's sketchy at best so I'm taking on the challenge to try to stitch together a route from a bunch of different sources. While I'm working on that (any tips are appreciated) I'll be testing out my new fat dirt bike out in Virginia/WVa/Western MD this spring to see if I can take this bikapotomus to all the places I took my KLR:



The jury's out for now on the GS - 19" front wheel, 80lbs heavier than the KLR, fat old rider - and the only thing I've kinda-sorta confirmed is that it's no harder to pick up from a dirt nap than my KLR. I've got all the protection parts on it now and just waiting on a set of knobs for it so I'll be back out in your neck of the woods in the next month to see if I'm up to the task. If I can ride this beast around in, say, the Peters Mill/Taskers Gap area without needing an extraction, I may look to swap out of my KLR into more of a real dual sport/enduro to be able to join you guys on more challenging single tracks.

Very cool Twist. Haven't started yet, but I'll check out your adv ride report.
At the moment w/ a young kid/family, I don't feel I can disappear for a long adv trip like that. I'm more of a gnarly single track guy. But in the future, I look forward to more dualsport/advriding.

Yeah, us ADV guys seem to be more gray beards than flat bellies and I'm really blessed to be healthy enough (and retired enough) to be able to do it. What's more amazing is that I know 3 other guys that do this with me every year and we're gone from 10 - 20 days on these trips. Last year we did the TAT in two phases: two weeks in June and another two weeks in September to finish it. We get away once a year on those epic rides but those guys are in Atlanta and I'm in Annapolis so I'm looking for more opportunities to get off the pavement near home for a day or two at a time as well. Camping is fine with me and I'll pretty much roll with whatever doesn't kill me as long as there's an opportunity to embellish and lie about it later to those that weren't there.

Bonehead and I rode to Goose Bay and had a blast. I also rode to Radisson, QC (James Bay) with my brother, equally a blast.

I love adventure riding.

Are you looking for long weeks rides also? I am going to March Moto Madness with a few local wackos on big bikes if you want to ride along.

Pretty cool Twist, I enjoyed reading the whole ride report.
I think its awesome that your group of 4 buddies are able to make schedules work and do epic rides like this each year.
I absolutely agree with your decisions to "cut the course". It would be great to ride every inch of the TAT and spend a few extra days riding Moab and other choice spots but few people have the time to do that. I had some friends who hiked the Appalachian Trail a few years ago. I totally respect thier dedication to hike every inch of it but they would get downright upset about anyone who skipped even a tiny little bit while going back and forth into towns for supplies and stuff. I kinda felt they needed to just worry about themselves. I have a hard enough time taking off for a week to go riding. Its pretty much inconceivable to me, the idea of taking SIX MONTHS off to go hiking.

For all of you being relative offroad noobs Im pretty impressed and give you all props. Especially riding KLRs and having them loaded down with gear. And you were the smart one who ran a knobby on the front. I can believe your buddies didnt crash more with the stock front tire.

I have read an ADV rr about the Kentucky Adventure trail. Looks like it can be done in 7 days including hauling down there and back. Though Ill be on a lighter DR650 with minimal gear (hotelling it), but plan on riding all the "hero options". Im sure I can find a DAMN crew to do it with me.

IN!!

YUP!

bonehead wrote:Are you looking for long weeks rides also? I am going to March Moto Madness with a few local wackos on big bikes if you want to ride along.

By the time I started looking at the GS Giants events and found the MMM, I'd already made plans to travel that don't get me back home until that weekend. I really appreciated the offer to ride along and would love to do it next time around.

Bucho, thanks for the kind words on the RR. I'm still pinching myself that we were actually out there on that ride in some of the places we went. I'd be up for something like the Kentucky Trail and was going to try to get our into Hatfield/McCoy this spring as well - maybe a 2 - 3 day trip. I'm also looking to explore north into PA so I'm looking at rides up around Michaux and up into the Allegheny hills as well. Any thoughts about that area?

Bucho wrote:I have a hard enough time taking off for a week to go riding. Its pretty much inconceivable to me, the idea of taking SIX MONTHS off to go hiking.

People that ride the entire route take take 4 - 5 weeks to do that. I can't imagine being away from home and family and responsibilities that long. I think I lot of people don't do things like this because of that and that's why I wrote about how we broke it up and make it work by doing a couple of week and a half to two week stints on the trail and skipped what we had to to make it work. There is just nothing else like the zone I get in to when I've been gone several days on a ride and can't remember what I would have been doing if I was at home. It's like a brain reboot.