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2014 Around the Bend - a "Super" Ride in Big Bend

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I have one of those and broke the plastic screw the first time I used it. I guess I need to buy a new plastic screw.

What was it that Cade used on Old Ore Road? Rocks?
 
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I have one of those and broke the plastic screw the first time I used it. I guess I need to buy a new plastic screw.

What was it that Cade used on Old Ore Road? Rocks?

Yep. But he was using the rocks to open the casing to make it easier to remove/reinstall the tube. The Beadbuddy holds the bead down in the channel to make it easier to stretch the far side over the rim. Both types of Beadbuddies work, but I just hold it down in the channel with my knees since I am wearing knee/shinguards anyway.
 
Thanks! Someone said Beemer Bob found it but if you did, thanks!

Actually your plate was found by Howard (vrod here I believe) he was not riding, but had the black jeep that parked next to my room at the El Dorado.

As far as the tail / plate, (the one found by Bob and Nadeem can be seen in the video below at the minute 5:40) I brought it when you left it. It seems the owner is not on TWTEX, I got the name and address and I sent him a letter asking him if he wants it back to contact me by email.... We will see.
 
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1x lumber (3/4") works great as well.

I am sure it would work to hold the case open, but it might slip if used to hold the bead down in the channel. That's why the bead buddies either clamp to the rim, trail BB, or lock to the spokes, big BB.
 
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Note: In the above photo, the Desert Challenge Track is selected and displayed. The direction of the track, which can be changed, is in the direction this year's ride occurred, counter clockwise.

I'm usually behind the times, so most are probably way ahead of my epiphany

Richard sent out .gpx files for both the Desert Challenge and the Adventure Challenge.

I sent them to my Garmin 62 via Basecamp.

What I wasn't keen on is that Basecamp sent them as routes, not tracks.

Routes are dependent on the mapset in your unit, tracks are not, and can also operate off a topo.

What I didn't also realize is that Basecamp can convert routes to tracks and I think, vice-versa. I could have, and should have, made sure what I sent to the GPS was a track. As it stood, I was using straightline plotting, and trying to figure out how to fix it on the fly. Perhaps others have no problems with routes instead of tracks, but I sure did.

Note: Basecamp can also reverse the route/track (as can most GPS units).

Ergo, you can see my renamed "Desert Challenge" .gpx files and their corresponding symbols in the above photo at the red arrow.

Like with tires, there are smarter people reading this than I, but suffice to say I'm inching nearer to "Basecamp Savvy"

Reading a ton after returning from this year's Desert Challenge, the cognoscenti, at least from what I can find, seem to agree - tracks are better off-road.

I still need to get better in this
department.




I also have a 62 and I had just got it the week before uncles and when I used it on the desert challenge I used the route and it was just on the "as the crow flys" setting to each waypoint so it wasn't doing me much justice but it wasn't a big deal because I was riding in a group with a leader already so no big deal until I got separated from my group and I got lost big time and ended up riding the rest of the challenge by myself on the trusty Klr on ore road which was sketchy to say the least. With that being said I figured out how to change my navigational status on the adventure challenge and led my group on Saturday using the tour cycling setting. At one point in Marfa it did keep trying to send me to Texas ice and cold storage I'm guessing one of the waypoints which was annoying but once we started on 2180 I think the road was it was working proficiently again. So that was my gps experience.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The track to route to Zumo conversion didn't work well for me so I ended up doing paper and following 4JRanch over parts of the route. I spent a lot of time in the park as a kid so being lost was never a problem. One of the nice things about riding the National Park is the lack of roads, not so for the Terlingua Ranch section we visited.
 
Following a gps route does give a lot more information, such as time/distance to next turn, etc. But tracks are completely reliable. the only time tracks change is when you are drawing them on the computer. A lot of guys that run Montanas, run the track under the route. That way if the route deviates or if you detour off the route, you still have the track as reference. I use only tracks, trying to use routes would more than double my setup time. The only time I use routes is gps generated. If I need to leave the track, like to give accurate distance to gas, etc.
 
Uncle's Around the Bend - the numbers.

I thought that maybe you guys might be interested in some statistics about Uncle's rally.

Attendance at the various rallies I put on each year began to decline around 2010 - 2011. The first few years of Uncle's rally usually about 150 riders showed up but by 2012 attendance had declined to about 70 riders and I was debating whether to continue organizing the rally on a yearly basis. It seemed to me that the dual sport community was letting me know that they wanted something new.

In 2013 we added the desert challenge to the mix and attendance increased to about 100 riders, with 50 of those participating in the challenge. This year we repeated the desert challenge and added the adventure challenge and ended up with 147 total rally registered riders, of which about 92 signed up to participate in one or both challenge events.

Desert Challenge - 55 riders
Adventure Challenge - 19 riders
Both challenge events - 18 riders

A large majority of riders participating in the challenge events completed the course. I don't have the numbers in front of me but while not all finished most did.
 
The Desert Challenge

I was really looking forward to riding both challenge events this year. I wasn't exactly sure if I had the stamina to do both - life has gotten in the way of my training regimen this past year - but I was eager to try.

Initially there 7 in the group I was riding with so we made a decision to divide into 2 smaller groups. I mostly rode with Milton, Tricepilot Bob, and Ed, but our groups were fluid and naturally changed throughout the day based on desired riding speeds and personal preferences.

I grabbed photos whenever the opportunity presented itself. In other cases I created an opportunity to get a few photos. I'm only posting a few of the photos I took - if you would like to see all of them here is the link. Feel free to download, share, print, etc any of the pictures.

Chris
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Milton
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As soon as we arrived at Old Maverick Road Bob's KTM immediately broke...
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...actually the KTM was fine, it was the giant loop that need a bit of repair. A few minutes later we were on our way.

After a nice warm-up on Old Maverick Road and a nature break at the start of River Road, we were ready for the serious stuff. 10 miles or so of sand on River Road either improved your sand riding skills or exhausted you from having to pick up your bike time and time again.

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More to follow...
 

TP your map above shows a different route coming out of TR than Richard's Desert Challenge map. Yours shows crossing 118 and taking a dirt road instead of turning left on 118 and taking pavement down to North County Road. We saw a small group taking your route but thought they were wrong so followed Richard's route instead. Does that connect to NC Rd as shown?

Another topic:
Did anybody else have issues with the gasoline at the Study Butte Alon pump? We had 3 of 4 bikes from our group with minor issues that I think were caused by the premium gas there. Tanks were very low the morning of the Desert Challenge I know because later that day pumps had a "out of gas" sign and a tanker truck was there filling them up just past noon.

_
 
^

That's not a GPS route/track that's just a quick Snagit capture with my hand drawn line of the "basic idea" of this year's route.

For a super accurate depiction of the ride, here is Desert Challenge as depicted via Garmin's Basecamp:

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After a nice warm-up on Old Maverick Road and a nature break at the start of River Road, we were ready for the serious stuff. 10 miles or so of sand on River Road either improved your sand riding skills or exhausted you from having to pick up your bike time and time again.

That sand was taxing. But if not for the sand I wouldn't have met these guys from El Paso. Stopped to help Kevin pick his bike up and spent the rest of the weekend riding with him and his buddy Sam. Great guys, we had a lot of fun together.

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Big grins, and hard laughs with new and old friends. That is what Uncles Big Bend Rally is all about. Great photo!
 
The riders who rode the Adventure Challenge made their turn around in Marfa.

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To first time Marfa visitors, perhaps it appeared as just a windswept, dusty, forgotten Texas town.

Think again:

LINK
 
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After leaving Marfa and riding down Pinto Canyon Road, Miltonian had his turn with a flat tire. No worries, Richard, Ed29, and Woody were there to lend a hand:

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^ Our man Woody with a big smile :clap:

Ed29 revealed that a "brand new" spare front tube produced as a candidate for the repair had actually dry rotted in storage :eek2:

I have that tube now in the Mad Scientist Tire Academy Museum along with my ground-down tire spoon from my rear tire. :lol2:

This is a great reminder to always check the viability of your spare tubes as well as viability of things like glue for patches.

Another team fix for a flat and we were all back in the right direction heading for Terlingua.
 
This is a great reminder to always check the viability of your spare tubes as well as viability of things like glue for patches.

This is a great reminder. I had a flat on my Wing this week. Thankfully found at the house. I went through 4 of my bikes looking for a tube of glue that was good. I tried 5 tubes of unopened glue and none were any good.

Didn't think about tubes I guess I better pull them out check them also.
 
This is a great reminder. I had a flat on my Wing this week. Thankfully found at the house. I went through 4 of my bikes looking for a tube of glue that was good. I tried 5 tubes of unopened glue and none were any good.

Didn't think about tubes I guess I better pull them out check them also.

I think Im going to pull the spare out of that front fender carrier and check it. I understand they will will wear out in the front fender carriers from friction, I guess coating them with baby powder in the carrier is a good practice.
 
Didn't think about tubes I guess I better pull them out check them also.

I think Im going to pull the spare out of that front fender carrier and check it. I understand they will will wear out in the front fender carriers from friction, I guess coating them with baby powder in the carrier is a good practice.

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Here is the actual tube Ed29 gave me after the Adventure Challenge for the Mad Scientist Tire Academy Museum. This was supposed to be a tube for Milton's front tire, but as you can see, dry rot, seam separation, or whatever you want to call it, rendered this tube useless.

What if it was the only tube available? :eek2: Patch kit, sure. Hey! is the glue tube dry too? :eek2:

Keep in mind, this was a stored, "brand new" tube! :eek2:

There are many techniques - but I'm currently using this:

(1) Examine each spare before the ride
(2) Douse each tube with talcum powder
(3) Wrap in Saran Wrap. This preserves the talc so the tube will be less prone to kink in the tire carcass when installed, and also help with friction prevention when being carried around as a spare on the bike.

I took a front spare and a rear spare on the ride (plus patches etc.), and as for this year's Uncle's Ride, I took 2 extra spares for each tire in the truck out there in case I needed to replenish the bike stock or loan to someone else.
 
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Uncle's Around the Bend - the numbers.

I thought that maybe you guys might be interested in some statistics about Uncle's rally.

Desert Challenge - 55 riders
Adventure Challenge - 19 riders
Both challenge events - 18 riders

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I thought the idea of the Superman award for completing both challenge events was a novel idea.

I've already had a nice IPA from the tap room where my son works in mine :sun:
 
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I thought the idea of the Superman award for completing both challenge events was a novel idea.

These would come in very handy on a Backcountry Discovery Route ride filled with your favorite libation(of course, no operation of motor vehicles following....)
 
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