June 24 & 25: Dualsport Glade Top Trail, Ava, MO

[JasonK94Z]

Looked like it was a lot of fun!

Wonder how much that repair bill is gonna be to get that hole replaced?

[ajayhawkfan]

Sounds like you had a good time. Sorry to hear about the leak.

Remember: Treat a BMW Adventure bike like a fine woman whereas you can treat a KLR like a $2 hooker.

[JasonK94Z]

Sounds like you had a good time. Sorry to hear about the leak.

Remember: Treat a BMW Adventure bike like a fine woman whereas you can treat a KLR like a $2 hooker.

Cough, cough...because a KLR can handle the abuse.

[reddof]

Looked like it was a lot of fun!

Wonder how much that repair bill is gonna be to get that hole replaced?

I have a new oil pan on order. With the gasket, it's about $300. I think I can repair the skid plate otherwise double that.

I also think that the hole can be fixed, so I am going to keep it as a spare (possibly even having that area reinforced).

Being new to this bike, I honestly never considered that the bike couldn't do it and was starting to get comfortable on the trails. I will be picking better lines next time.

[troy]

Sounds like you had a good time. Sorry to hear about the leak.

Remember: Treat a BMW Adventure bike like a fine woman whereas you can treat a KLR like a $2 hooker.

Cough, cough...because a KLR can handle the abuse.

When this happened, my thought was, wow--he was probably in first gear and didn't hit all that hard, relatively speaking. I beat the crap out of my KLR skid plate. I even took some hard hits on the Vstrom's joke of a skid plate. I never had an issue.

In this case, the rubber mounting (designed to let the skid plate take abuse without transferring the force to the engine case) combined with the weld that broke--which allowed the skid plate to flex backwards, combined with the poor design of the front mounting bracket--all added up to this minor disaster.

I think reddof and I agree that a simple modification so that the bracket has a curled down metal edge instead of flat with corners would have allowed the skid plate to glance off instead of dig into the engine bottom cover. If the weld had not broken, this may have been prevented--not sure.

If you carry epoxy and have another rider able to go get some oil for you, the good news is that this problem does not have to mean spending the night on the trail. An aluminum welder should be able to repair the damage.

There are aftermarket skid plates that look to be a safer design, but they all have their drawbacks. I wonder if the OEM heavy plastic skid plate would have actually faired better!

[jasoomian]

Yes, Troy does pretty good at this sort of thing. Always has a nice route, interesting mix of roads, and not a bad guy to hang out with for a couple of days. I think he could earn some side money leading riders on little adventures. Thanks again.

You know, http://www.getlost.com has a nice ring to it, don't you think? And, it's available. I'd hop on that.

Good to see all of you again, as well - if I didn't say thanks to Michael after helping me right the bike after I hit that log - I'll do it now.

And nice to meet Dave. Hell of a nice guy, even though his family was worried we were going to try and kill him in the woods. Hats off to Dave who came back to check on me after I got separated from the group after I had a small 'off.' Riding that thick gravel on a fully loaded bike was a bit of an experience.

All in all; I was glad to be able help. I think a free dinner was worth the price of a 2 hour drive to get parts When I was packing all that stuff on Thursday, I kept telling myself there wasn't a point because a.) The tools are extremely heavy and awkward to pack, b.) I really didn't want to take the top case which would be necessary if the side cases were packed with everything else, and c.) I'll only be riding the trails for a few hours, what's the worse that can happen.

Troy tells me he was getting a bit worried about where I had gone for so long. I hope the route below belittles his worries a bit, but, damn that BBQ in CedarCreek was awesome!

A little Google Maps route of Operation Save Michael.

Although after seeing Short Hollow Road, which in retrospect was neither short, nor a road - I was convinced again that you folks were trying to kill me. I'm glad I didn't go down any further, because I first mistook Michael's 'warning not to take his same line' as 'be sure and take this line through the rocks.'

In hindsight, I am glad I brought them - not only did it reinforce my desire to bring them again, it also let me know what bits to add to my tool-bag, which, is always being modified to find what works and what is just pure weight:

• Good Tow Rope
  Cleaning Rags
  Better pliers
  Some sort of Binary epoxy (light and, as we found out, comes in handy), or JB Weld, etc.
  Extra quart of oil (I ended up needing a bit of a top-off in Harrison)

While the Glade Top Trail was a bit disappointing, the rest of the roads, leading up to and beyond Glade Top, were absolutely fabulous. HWY 125 was just fun to ride. As was 160 and the ride from Bolivar to Ava. Even on a Saturday, there just wasn't a lot of traffic. Great roads to ride.

Definitely worth the price of admission.

[troy]

I figured there was no way getlost.com was available, and I was right. Lack of a website does not mean the domain is available.
http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domai ... id=GoDaddy

Thanks for the thanks and kind words! I think reddof is still feeling bad about "ruining" our ride. It's all part of the adventure, and in a sick way, I enjoyed the challenge and the experience his misfortune brought.

Jasoomian really is the hero in this episode. He had tools we needed to get the skid plate off and he went on the 60 mile journey to get oil and epoxy. He sacrificed his own route and hotel plans for Saturday evening to help reddof get back on the road.

I agree with the lessons learned. I'll be creating a list of additional tools I need to add to my kit when on the F800. I also found out that my old tie down strap worked great as a tow rope until it broke. I could not get it to hold a knot--it kept magically sliding apart. (Note that I am not a Boyscout, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express a few weeks ago.)

[JasonK94Z]

Does BMW or preferably aftermarket make an aluminum bash plate? Surely that would be better right?

Like this one: http://www.farklefab.com/ Looks like it could take a beating.

[reddof]

Does BMW or preferably aftermarket make an aluminum bash plate? Surely that would be better right?

Like this one: http://www.farklefab.com/ Looks like it could take a beating.

Yeah they do make one, and that's what I have on the bike. The problem is that it mounts directly to the oil pan rather than the frame... there is no frame to mount to. I hit it hard enough to break a weld, bend the plate, and push part of the mounting bracket through the oil pan. It it was mounted in a different way then it would not have happened. I will try to get some pictures posted with the damage and highlight what I believe to be the problem.

[jasoomian]

I figured there was no way getlost.com was available, and I was right. Lack of a website does not mean the domain is available.
http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domai ... id=GoDaddy

Thanks for the thanks and kind words! I think reddof is still feeling bad about "ruining" our ride. It's all part of the adventure, and in a sick way, I enjoyed the challenge and the experience his misfortune brought.

Jasoomian really is the hero in this episode. He had tools we needed to get the skid plate off and he went on the 60 mile journey to get oil and epoxy. He sacrificed his own route and hotel plans for Saturday evening to help reddof get back on the road.

I agree with the lessons learned. I'll be creating a list of additional tools I need to add to my kit when on the F800. I also found out that my old tie down strap worked great as a tow rope until it broke. I could not get it to hold a knot--it kept magically sliding apart. (Note that I am not a Boyscout, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express a few weeks ago.)

Squatters are truly ruining all the fun. So, getlost.com isn't available. I'm sure getlostwithtroy.com IS. And, since I just did a whois on getlostwithtroy.com, I am sure it's in the process of being registered by some squatter as we speak.

Hero is a word that gets thrown a lot and it's a pretty strong word, but, if you insist on using it - I really won't complain. But, I suspect it belongs to the random stranger willing to help out another random stranger by inviting someone he met ten minutes earlier into his home - all for some epoxy.

I've said it before, I'm in it for the journey, not the destination. I enjoy the camaraderie of riding with other people. So, cancelling a hotel and having to re-route myself a bit was, in all honesty, the least I could do to help a fellow rider. Besides, this version of the story, where you have to field strip your bike in the middle of the forest (trust me, that part of the story was quite the hit at work today), is much more memorable than barreling down a random twisty highway. Fun it's own right, but, you always do that. If you tried to tell me about that one curve on that one road, I doubt I'd remember it specifically. But, I do remember trying to push redoff's bike up a jeep trail. That I remember in glaring detail.

Think about your ride from KC to Bolivar - you guys talked about that one road (where it looked like it would end and you had to do a little river crossing) very fondly, and it was just one small part of your trip. It wasn't planned, it wasn't accounted for - it just showed up. And I like that about traveling by motorcycle. redoff's mishap was the same. Just another part of the journey.

One I'd gladly take again. Except for Short Hollow Road. At least on the Strom.