My little desert ride

[troy]

Hey guys! I just wanted to share my little desert ride with you. Turns out somebody was video recording my ride. This is the raw video he captured of me.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RPYyFtedzg[/youtube]

[Savage]

Good job Troy! I'm proud of you, you're getting smarter every day as evidenced by the fact that you finally went green.

[troy]

Good job Troy! I'm proud of you, you're getting smarter every day as evidenced by the fact that you finally went green.

I flew out there so I rented a bike. That was the only piece of crap I could get.

[Savage]

Good job Troy! I'm proud of you, you're getting smarter every day as evidenced by the fact that you finally went green.

I flew out there so I rented a bike. That was the only piece of crap I could rent because all the other crap needed maintenance.

[Rusty Jug]

Somebody has to ride green, we can't all ride Honda, we need mechanics to keep up on their skills, to much down time and they loose there edge

Neat video !

[katbeanz]

I think somebody might have spent too much time in the desert sun.

Cool stuff, it's my second favorite desert vid..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HdlYVKBUVE[/youtube]

[Rusty Jug]

Dean, that clip was 26 years ago! There might be a few on here that still had diapers on! LOL!

[katbeanz]

Troy, Navaho has some nice pics up in ArkRR's. Your name was mentioned, I'd like to know what kind of photo processing he does.

http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... count=6498

[troy]

Troy, Navaho has some nice pics up in ArkRR's. Your name was mentioned, I'd like to know what kind of photo processing he does.

http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... count=6498

Thanks for the heads up, Dean! I posted a follow-up.
http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... count=6504

Of course then I had to go back and re-read my ride report. MAN, WHAT A GREAT TIME THAT WAS!
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=785990

[kendall_smith]

I just read through your Stupid Things Faster for the second time. That ride looked like it was a BLAST! Just out of curiosity (I can't remember if I'd asked you this or not) were you guys just riding the big bikes to see if you could do it?

I guess what I'm really asking is if it would be a good route on the smaller bikes. It doesn't appear that you guys did much pavement, so it may lend itself more to the little bikes. As you know, I don't have a big bike and it definitely won't be in the budget anytime soon. I'd love to do this ride sometime though!

[troy]

I just read through your Stupid Things Faster for the second time. That ride looked like it was a BLAST! Just out of curiosity (I can't remember if I'd asked you this or not) were you guys just riding the big bikes to see if you could do it?

I guess what I'm really asking is if it would be a good route on the smaller bikes. It doesn't appear that you guys did much pavement, so it may lend itself more to the little bikes. As you know, I don't have a big bike and it definitely won't be in the budget anytime soon. I'd love to do this ride sometime though!

That ride was VERY appropriate for a light-weight dualsport. There are very few folks I know personally who would have followed me through some of that stuff on anything bigger than a DRZ400. (While my riding skill has much improved over the last 6 years, I think it also has to do with the fact that I really LIKE the challenge and find joy in the struggle...or in overcoming the difficult obstacles on whatever machine I'm riding. The deeper I go the higher my adrenaline rises!)

If you were to do exactly the route we did those 3 days, you'd find yourself pounding 37 miles of pavement in one sitting on your small bike and perhaps not enjoy it as much as we did on the big bikes. We stayed in Jasper--which we really enjoyed, but it's 20 to 40 miles from Jasper into the great "roads" we enjoyed. You can take gravel most all the way, but then you take so long with those round-trip miles that you run out of time to do what you came for. The great news, as you know, is that the pavement miles are also about as good as it gets anywhere. You simply can't find a bad dualsport road down there.

Why did we take big bikes? We really wanted to for one thing. The plan was to really cover a lot of miles to gain intel for future rides both on big and small bikes. Neither of us expected the routes to be as rugged as they were. These were "roads" after all. None of that was ATV trail except one small branch we explored for 10 minutes. We had such a great time. We did not regret being on the big bikes at all.

That area could produce a great route option for the next RideForum 3 day dualsport. There are cabins to rent that are closer to the sweet spots, but I'd miss my Ozark Cafe $2.99 breakfast.

[kendall_smith]

If you were to do exactly the route we did those 3 days, you'd find yourself pounding 37 miles of pavement in one sitting on your small bike and perhaps not enjoy it as much as we did on the big bikes.

Ah-a! That's the answer I was after. 37 miles of asphalt isn't ideal, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for the DRZ.

Why did we take big bikes? We really wanted to for one thing. The plan was to really cover a lot of miles to gain intel for future rides both on big and small bikes. Neither of us expected the routes to be as rugged as they were. These were "roads" after all. None of that was ATV trail except one small branch we explored for 10 minutes. We had such a great time. We did not regret being on the big bikes at all.

I'd love to have a big bike to join in the fun, but it may be a few years before I can justify it. Unfortunately, if I were to get one, I have a feeling that my FZ-1 would get very little use and be hard to justify keeping. I promised Alissa that I would keep it forever as one of the stipulations to get it! Long story, but it has to do with selling my '01 that I ended up wishing I would have never gotten rid of.

That area could produce a great route option for the next RideForum 3 day dualsport. There are cabins to rent that are closer to the sweet spots, but I'd miss my Ozark Cafe $2.99 breakfast.

Sounds like a great idea to me! We should get busy planning it this winter when there's nothing else to do!

[MacWildcat]

I flew out there so I rented a bike. That was the only piece of crap I could get.

Troy at least you didn't rent Kaw's biggest piece of crap - the KLR. There would have been 1.5 seconds of wallowing in the sand followed by 15 minutes of the you attempting to dislodge yourself from a ton of farkled lead!

Your big bike ride route based out of Jasper has been something I have been thinking about too. Really neat area and the ride to any destination from Jasper is going to be worthwhile.

[Savage]

Yeah only a complete idiot or an excellent rider would ride a KLR in those conditions. Take your pic

[MacWildcat]

Sometimes they are the same person!

On our Arkansas Hillbilly rides we have some guys that are expert riders on KLRs. I always wonder how much more spectacular they would have been on a different bike. Probably have become bored with the awesome bikes and looking to add more danger to their riding experience.