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Fall Color Tour 2008

Joined
May 29, 2005
Messages
5,793
Reaction score
1,514
Location
Out Riding
First Name
Rich
Last Name
Simmons
Hmmm... starting the after report two days before we leave??? Are you ready to be there already?

Checklist:
1) Bike loaded..........Check
2) Gear packed........Check
3) camera...............Check
4) cash..................Check
5) tools/oil..............Check
6) good nights sleep..yeah right!

See ya up there!
 
We are here. Got in a nice 80 mile ride before dark after getting to Clarksville:






 
Good first afternoon ride! I could take all day stopping for pictures on the loop we buzzed Thursday. We passed hundreds of photogenic spots. The guys keep telling me that I ain't seen nothing yet!

teaser:

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Last I saw Dail he was doped up on pain meds and walking around. I'll let someone braver than I fill you in on his grand entrance to the pizza party.

Pics from Saturday's ride:

Ed's (droppingmyKLR) seat decided to catch fire.
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Actually, it was the warmth of the morning sun sublimating the frost (yes, frost) on the seat.

Tom (great guy from Oklahoma) fixing his tire. Nobody knows why it went flat, the old tube still held air. Must be an Okie thang. :shrug:
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I could wax poetic about the forest like some love-sick moron, but I'll let the pictures explain why I ride dualsport.
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Scot's carb rebuild to repair a stuck float. Didn't work, so Scot wisely chose to head back to the hotel from Catulpa. We had a little excitement when Scot couldn't find the float pin. Dail reasoned the pin fell through a little hole in the side cover and actually found the pin in the grass. Funny how the really old guys know things like that. Wonder how he learned? :duck:
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For the first time I noticed Dail's TW has a different rear tire than mine.
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I'd sure like to have a rear tire like Dail's. T-dub would be dangerous with a more aggressive rear tire.

I guess firearm safety isn't a big deal in Arkansas, where people ride the public highways in 4-wheelers with rifles slung under their shoulders.

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The scene in front of the Cafe.
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Ed29 did amazingly well in the mud considering he was on Gripsters. Another couple of feet and he would have cleared this hole.
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Rich demonstrates the proper way to cross really slick stuff. What was odd was the rear tire would simply spin, but would not dig in very much, and the ground was flat. More like ice than mud.
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I'll post the videos of the right way and the wrong way to deal with a mudhole that swallowed a KLR up to the taillight once they finish uploading.

Dail received the Flying Biker Monkey award from the caring wives of Don (piglet) and Rich (Simmons01) for what was regaled by the witnesses as a Superman-like flight from the seat of his motorcycle down an Ozark mountain, or something like that.
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My one day in the Ozarks was worth 748 miles of driving there and back.
 
Day 1

Thursday was half spent just getting to Arkansas. By 3:00 in the afternoon everyone that was expected for that day was there, settled into rooms, and geared up for a warm up ride.

Shortly into the gravel Scott's old KLR died as if the kill switch had been tripped. It would crank, but had no spark.

Roadside repairs commenced.

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The trouble was isolated to a connector feeding the ignition system under the tank. The old plastic was not staying together, it was backing out. Some tape and zip ties held it closed for the duration. There were enough experts working on it, so I stayed out of the way.

We covered about 80 miles, mostly without stopping. the late start and the issue had us strapped for daylight and we did not want to risk the deer filled roads after sunset. Dead deer were strewn all over the sides of the roads up there. I have never seen anything like that before.

While stopped for the break down my tire got a thorough inspection by a local.

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It was gone before we rolled.

One stop we did make was at this old building.

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At first we were not sure if it was an old church, school house, store, or whatever. The cemetery next door makes me think it was a church at one time or other. The image of the building on the cemetery sign was the big clue that the dense dual sporters needed.

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More to come on the next two days of riding.
 
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for letting me tag along, it had to be one of the best rides I have been on. Good riding & great people, it doesn't get any better than that.

Tom
 
:rider: Great weekend and my bike never hit the ground this whole weekend. Dail made it home and was in amazingly good spirits. Thanks Mikeal for driving again. I only regret that the weekend is over. I cannot wait until next year. I will bring a disk with pictures this tuesday for all the riders. :rider:
 
Day 2

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I really enjoy riding in the mountains. It is such a treat to enjoy the roads and the vistas.

Day two got under way with a small delay in rolling. There were nine of us in the group. We did not quite meet the kickstands up goal of 9:00AM.

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We started off with blacktop ribbons, leading to Horse Head Lake, where we jumped off on the gravel county road.

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At least the road started as gravel. Once out behind the lake it deteriorated to a rough two track, which was a blast. Coming out of the woods it was washed out and lots of fun.

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That is the actual 'road' right there.

The other Ed in the group had a flat shortly after leaving the lake.

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The day was awesome for riding with temperatures in the low 60s and lots of dirt and gravel switchbacks going up the mountains.

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Thirty minutes after flat number one the other Ed had flat number two.

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We tore up the blacktop twisties on the Pig Trail heading for lunch at Turner Bend.

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More great roads were flogged after lunch, along with a stop at the top of Black Mountain.

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Nine riders, ten hours in the saddle, 160 miles covered, and no bad mishaps.
Now that is a good day's riding. We topped it off with a visit to a highly recommended Mexican food joint. What we learned is that Arkla-Mex is not the same as Tex-Mex!

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This is the only photo I took on the trip. I guess the ridding was so good I forgot about the camera. This is Horse Head Lake early Friday morning. Just before we crossed the stream at the head of the lake and headed down the first single track.
 
Day 3

Third and final ride day of the Arkansas trip. More riders joined us today so we decided to split into two groups. One group of riders would go off in search of the knarly stuff while the newer and/or older riders would go off looking to avoid the knarly stuff. Made perfect sense.... Mikeal had led us on his BMW the other two days and decided that he was tired, and going to lead the old, slow guys.

Our leader had a unique sense of direction. We made a few U-turns, the first coming only 4.6 miles from the parking lot. ;-)

Oh well, it was part of the fun.

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Once in the woods all was good, and the wrong turns just meant extra miles of fun. Some of the locals were not thrilled to see us roll up to their shack in the woods. I did not stop for pictures of those folks... one could almost hear the banjos deuling it out.

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Tom from Oklahoma was afflicted with the flat tire on this day.

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We could not find a reason for his flat... the tube held air once it was out of the tire, and there were no objects impaling the tire or tube.

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Tom put his new tube in anyway to be safe and packed this one away for a bathtub test after he got home... Wise man!

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Gravity claimed a couple of bikes on this downhill section. the photo does not show the steepness ( they never do) and there are loose rocks under those leaves.

Ken got the bright idea to ride back up on his T-Dub...

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He made it less than half way up and lost traction. Even the fat tire and small bike combination was not making it up this hill today!

Off to Catalpa for lunch and pie.

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The special was roasted pork, mashed taters and gravy, pinto beans, and cole slaw for seven bucks. It was outstanding!

Of course this particular Saturday was IPRD, so for dessert we had....

Pie..... apple caramel pecan pie ala mode.....

From this:

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to this:

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in no time at all... It was as good as it looks too.

After lunch we helped Scott with a carb issue on his KLR, but it would only limp along, so he decide to head for the hotel instead of the woods.

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That is me crash testing my KLR, photo courtesy of Rich...... that hill I got tossed down was pretty steep. I was glad the bike stayed on top. Ken said all he saw going down the hill was helmet and boots and helmet and boots... you get the idea.

This interesting plate was on the front of a Chevy truck....

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And the owner of this Ford must know a thing or two about fixing DS bikes too.... or Stroms.....

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Many miles of county roads like this filled the afternoon, along with some more bikes bouncing off the ground.

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There were a few mud holes too. Gripsters do not do well in mud.... Duh!

As the sun was setting we made it back to pavement and put layers on for the fast, cool ride back down the twisty road.

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Once back to town we got word that Dail had fallen in some rocks and hurt himself. Riders stayed with him while Mikeal rode back for a truck to extract Dail and his bike. Pizza was ordered in and we ate in the breakfast area of the lobby, drank some wine, and recounted the tales of glory of the last few days.

I am already wanting to return and explore some more.
 
Great pics, Ed. Last time we were there I don't think we even saw the sun a couple of days. We spent a lot of time riding in fog so thick visibility kept speeds down to 20mph.
 
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