• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

2018 CDR take 2

Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
3,337
Reaction score
395
Location
Princeton, Texas
First Name
Gary
Last Name
Waugh
Well 4 years ago, my wife, myself and a good friend from England rode the CDR from Canada to mexico and had a few issues (One engine threw a conrod, the rider later fell on anther bike and broke his wrist) and electrical gremlins, but we completed the CDR and had a great time. My wife and I decided we wanted to do it again, but in the opposite direction, so my youngest daughter (18) and my brother from england decided they wanted to join us. My brother arrived sunday, so we decided we would just take an easy ride on Monday and get him use to riding on the wrong side of the road, we turned on the gas and it just poured out of the carburettor. we decided he would ride my bike and I would take the super tenere for the day ride. On getting home we pulled the carb apart and found the float valve completely jammed with crappy ethanol deposits from the fuel (The bike had been standing 2 months. we cleaned all the junk out and the bike started and ran like a champ, but the battery was dead so $65 for a new battery. we took it for another ride tuesday to check all was good (it was!!), then wednesday we fitted new tyres to the 4 bikes, cleaned the air filters, changed the engine and gearbox oil and got everything ready for the 2 week ride to Canada. Thursday morning with much excitement we started all 4 bikes and drove to the gas station to fill up. we will ride for 2 days from Dallas to Cloudcroft in New Mexico, then turn north and ride the dirt trails all the way to the Canadian border, we will not be crossing into Canada. So 2 hours into the ride and the first CRF450 (with the new battery) is having electrical problems, all the lights work when the engine is running, but the battery only shows 6 volts and the GPS connected to the battery wont work. we spend 30 minutes removing the seat and checking the electrics, but without a wiring diagram, we cant do much (I suspect the brand new battery is faulty) but we wont know until we can get to a garage Friday.. So we press on, then the GPS on my wifes bike shuts down, we don't need it for the minute so we continue and around 2:00pm find a restaurant to eat lunch. had a nice little snack and then press on, about 30 minutes later my bike is weaving all over the road, we pull over and the back tyre is completely flat (a puncture!!). It has obviously been flat for a while and the rim and tyre are so hot that after I touch them I have a large blister on my finger!! We change the inner tube and then notice a bolt has dropped out of my daughters bike, it holds the rear subframe of the CRF250X to the main frame, but we cant find a single auto parts shop in Post (Texas) that has metric bolts, so we hope we can find a shop tomorrow that has some bolts!! So we are on day one, riding on regular rads (nothng difficult and all 4 bikes have problems!! we found that the wire connecting my wifes GPS to the bike battery had broken, so her GPS now works, my back tyre is fine, so 2 of 4 bikes are fixed and 2 need some attention on Friday when we find a large town with an auto parts shop!! God knows what will go wrong when we start riding on the dirt in 2 days time!! Still we are all in good spirits and enjoying the ride. I will try and post a few pictures!!

Also wanted to give a massive shout out to Mikey Bell Helmet Moore, He offered a couple of Bell helmets at the Redneck Ramble and my daughter was lucky enough to win one, Mike has been great getting the size and colors that she wanted and bringing it to us. Bell seems to have a good range of helmets and I can highly recommend Mikey if you are in the market for a new helmet!! Find him on facebook.
 
A few pics from day 1, my daughter with her new helmet, then my brother, my wife and then all 3 of them plus my bike. The last one is of us fixing the puncture on my bike, no idea why its upside down, the original appears to be correct on my PC and I can find no way to rotate it on this post.

Gary
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0618.JPG
    IMG_0618.JPG
    37.9 KB · Views: 294
  • IMG_0620.JPG
    IMG_0620.JPG
    36.9 KB · Views: 286
  • IMG_0622.JPG
    IMG_0622.JPG
    34.2 KB · Views: 300
  • IMG_0627.JPG
    IMG_0627.JPG
    34.3 KB · Views: 296
  • image1.JPG
    image1.JPG
    166.8 KB · Views: 312
Last edited:
Best to get all of the gremlins worked out right off the bat! I am a couple of hours south of you in Midland if you need to borrow any 450X (mine is 05) or 230F (mine is 06) parts to get things squared away. I could most likely meet half way. Shoot me a PM if needed.

Good luck!
 
Watching this one. I’m not sure if you remember, but I have your tracks from the last time. I am planning on next summer with my son.

I hope you get those bugs sorted quickly.
 
Hope you guys have a great trip. Now my overdue visit to your house will have the added bonus of hearing a great story
 
Thanks everyone, well day 2 went a bit better than day 1, we managed to find some bolts to re-attach the subframe and rack of the 250x. we rechecked the electrics and could not find any fault with the charging system, so we think the new battery has failed after 4 hours of use. we swapped it over to my CRF and then everything works perfectly on my brothers bike, it is being charged but now my bike has no electrics!! We found that there is a honda dealer in Roswell, where we will stop for lunch so I will try too get a new battery there. we hit the road at 10:00am after checking all the electrics, buying the bolts for the 250 and checking oil, coolant and all bolts where tight.

We had a lovely ride to Roswell, no wind and great roads but a lot of tar seals, just as we pulled into Roswell my bike started moving a lot, YES another bloody puncture, 2 in 2 days!! we pulled the tyre completely from the rim and checked inside the tyre and the rim for anything that might be causing the puncture. we didnt find anything, so put another new inner tube in the back wheel and continued to DQ for lunch, the hamburger and ice cream was very welcome. then we headed to Champion motorsports to se if they have a new battery for my bike!! They did, so we swapped the battery, got our picture taken with an alien and had a great hour or so talking with everyone there. then we got back on the 380 and headed for our end point Carrizozo, the scenery was beautiful and the road was great, we arrived at 6:00pm all saddle sore and sunburnt, but having had a great day!!

Tomorrow should see the start of the dirt riding!! Hope to get more photos and use my drone to get some areal pictures of the ride!!

Gary
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2740.JPG
    IMG_2740.JPG
    146.7 KB · Views: 308
  • IMG_2736.JPG
    IMG_2736.JPG
    130.8 KB · Views: 292
  • IMG_2731.JPG
    IMG_2731.JPG
    141.9 KB · Views: 312
Last edited:
Thanks for sharing, sounds like a great ride


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Hey that was me on the tenere you guys talked to in pie town today. I'm camping in the forest tonight just north of grants. Amazing I still have internet up here. Think that will change once we hit Colo.
 
Last edited:
Hi Triman, it was great meeting you, we stopped in El Morro national park saturday night but had no internet or GSM reception, so couldn't post an update.. Where are you now?
We met two more guys riding the CDR today (on a KTM and a triumph) and had a few minutes talking with them. Weather was great but quite a lot of lose sand in places made for some bowel control tests!! Fortunately we had no spills and 2 whole days without a puncture!! The scenery is just amazing. I tried getting my drone to follow us and film but unfortunately it is not capable of going at 30mph and maintaining its height so after about 100 yards it hit the ground!! Didn't damage anything but it seems we con only use it to sit in a static place and film us as we ride past or through an obstacle!! Rather than end up with tons of video I put the go-pro into photo mode and just took a picture every minute.

The ride has been beautiful and we have met some great people, even those who know nothing about the CDR ride were all friendly and wanted to talk to us and hear about the ride.. Saturday we had some light rain and the sand turned into the slippiest mud I have ever ridden in, I think ICE has more grip than this mud, it was terrible. Fortunately after about 10 miles it ended and normal service resumed.. we got to see some amazing sights in El Morro and walked to the top of the monument, a good 2 hour walk, but lovely views.

No mechanical issues so far, no crashes and great scenery, what more could you ask for?

We have now arrived at Cuba in New Mexico and will stop here for the night, the two riders we met earlier today said they might stop here, so we will go and look for them.. So far we are having a great time and remembering why we love to ride Dual Sport.. Cant wait to get a bit further north for the cooler temps!!
 
Hi Triman, it was great meeting you, we stopped in El Morro national park saturday night but had no internet or GSM reception, so couldn't post an update.. Where are you now?
We met two more guys riding the CDR today (on a KTM and a triumph) and had a few minutes talking with them. Weather was great but quite a lot of lose sand in places made for some bowel control tests!! Fortunately we had no spills and 2 whole days without a puncture!! The scenery is just amazing. I tried getting my drone to follow us and film but unfortunately it is not capable of going at 30mph and maintaining its height so after about 100 yards it hit the ground!! Didn't damage anything but it seems we con only use it to sit in a static place and film us as we ride past or through an obstacle!! Rather than end up with tons of video I put the go-pro into photo mode and just took a picture every minute.

The ride has been beautiful and we have met some great people, even those who know nothing about the CDR ride were all friendly and wanted to talk to us and hear about the ride.. Saturday we had some light rain and the sand turned into the slippiest mud I have ever ridden in, I think ICE has more grip than this mud, it was terrible. Fortunately after about 10 miles it ended and normal service resumed.. we got to see some amazing sights in El Morro and walked to the top of the monument, a good 2 hour walk, but lovely views.

No mechanical issues so far, no crashes and great scenery, what more could you ask for?

We have now arrived at Cuba in New Mexico and will stop here for the night, the two riders we met earlier today said they might stop here, so we will go and look for them.. So far we are having a great time and remembering why we love to ride Dual Sport.. Cant wait to get a bit further north for the cooler temps!!
 

Attachments

  • G0030145 (Medium).jpg
    G0030145 (Medium).jpg
    40.3 KB · Views: 270
  • G0030163 (Medium).jpg
    G0030163 (Medium).jpg
    25.2 KB · Views: 269
  • G0030246 (Medium).jpg
    G0030246 (Medium).jpg
    34.4 KB · Views: 269
  • G0030248 (Medium).jpg
    G0030248 (Medium).jpg
    39.5 KB · Views: 255
  • G0030249 (Medium).jpg
    G0030249 (Medium).jpg
    36.5 KB · Views: 265
just a few more pics from today!! We managed to miss all the bad weather and are relaxing in a motel in Cuba, NM no fine cigars!!
 

Attachments

  • G0040319 (Medium).jpg
    G0040319 (Medium).jpg
    25 KB · Views: 264
  • G0040295 (Medium).jpg
    G0040295 (Medium).jpg
    28.4 KB · Views: 273
  • G0040287 (Medium).jpg
    G0040287 (Medium).jpg
    19.4 KB · Views: 265
  • G0040269 (Medium).jpg
    G0040269 (Medium).jpg
    28.9 KB · Views: 260
I'm in del Norte right now headed north. Santa Fe was closed right outside Cuba as well as the Carson. Had to route around them. Talked to a guy cycling the CDR and he said he thought the santa Fe may reopen today.

Not sure if y'all will see this but if so you might wanna check thier status and/or just head straight for chama.

Beautiful in Colo. I'll post up if there's any problems ahead when I get service
 
Hey Thrasherg, Triman. 3 of us are doing CDR starting Wednesday from Rawlins WY. We probably won't go into Canada either, but brought passports just in case. We will come back south via IDBDR. We will probably be ahead of you as you still have CO. You guys ride safe. If we come across anything we think you need to be aware of will try and post on this thread when we have service. Our bikes are DRZ 434, DR and KLX 250.
 
Thanks TxTiger and Triman, we had to route around 30 miles of national forest as it was closed due to high fire risk, but the rest was open, we had a fantastic day and just arrived in Colorado. The scenery was amazing, I will definitely be coming back to NM again. we met several cyclist riding the CDR today and stopped to talk with them. we had one climb towards the end of the ride, where we rode about 4 miles climbing all the time and the trail was nothing but large boulders and rocks (9 inches or more in size) I was amazed that not one person fell and we all rode it from the bottom to the top without having to stop. we picked up a puncture around midday on my brothers front wheel, so that was a good reason to have lunch. I will post more pictures once I get home and can have a clear out, but added a few from today. the first 2 days have been easy riding just hot (except for the really slippery mud!) but today was a lot more technical but great fun. we are averaging about 35mph (with food stops, fuel stops and mechanical issues (Punctures)).

Everyone should try this ride at least once in there life..

Gary
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0677.JPG
    IMG_0677.JPG
    154.5 KB · Views: 283
  • IMG_0679.JPG
    IMG_0679.JPG
    183 KB · Views: 299
  • IMG_0673.JPG
    IMG_0673.JPG
    149.4 KB · Views: 266
  • IMG_0669.JPG
    IMG_0669.JPG
    152.6 KB · Views: 286
  • IMG_0672.JPG
    IMG_0672.JPG
    140.5 KB · Views: 270
Last edited:
I'm in Breck this morn. I'm following cannonshot track from over on advrider. Not sure if y'all are following the same one, think theres several difficulty levels, but the track I'm following has been great. Not a cloud in the sky in Colo.

And thanks txtiger. I may not be too far behind you
 
Thanks for the RR. I thought the best part of the CDR was between Grants and Cuba where you are so far from anything, you might as well be on the moon. Pie Town is great if you get there before everything closes. Horse Springs has some gas at an unmanned "station" but they only take credit cards. Are you guys camping, glamping or hoteling?
 
well the gods are still angry with us, guy picked up a nail in the middle of no where (El Norte) how it ever got there I dont know, and then a bit later I got a puncture in my frnt wheel, that makes 5 punctures in 6 days riding!! Think I will have to go and dance naked around the bikes to try and appease the puncture gods!! We left Antonito at 8:30 am (was a bit fresh) but had a lovely ride, cant believe the number of vehicles that we met on the dirt roads (at least 9 vehicles) in the first hour, but then we had a fairly clean run without any issues or other vehicles. We passed a group of 3 riders clearly riding the CDR in the opposite direction, but no one stopped to chat. I loved new mexico scenery, and Colorado is also beautiful, but so much greener then NM!! It was a long day today (250 miles), arriving in Salidas at 6:00pm this evening with a few stops for gas and punctures and a quick snack at a gas station. still averaging 45mpg from each bike, so managing 150 miles to a tank, havent needed to use the emergency jerry cans yet!!

Met 3 guys on KTM Adventures going on the opposite direction, loaded with gear, they stopped to get gas where we were stopped, but never said a word and didn't even acknowledge our wave to say hello!! we went over 2 passes, one was 10,500 feet and the other was 11,700 but there was no plaque or name on the highest one, just our GPS's showing the altitude.. really enjoying ourselves, met another lady riding the CDR in the same direction as us on a bicycle, and she was talking about all the diversions in NM due to the fire risk. I am far too lazy to do this on a bicycle but I can understand the feeling of success if you complete it.

will post tomorrow from State bridge!!

Gary
 

Attachments

  • G0010392 (Medium).jpg
    G0010392 (Medium).jpg
    39.7 KB · Views: 256
  • G0010390 (Medium).jpg
    G0010390 (Medium).jpg
    43.6 KB · Views: 255
  • G0010377 (Medium).jpg
    G0010377 (Medium).jpg
    43.1 KB · Views: 260
  • G0010371 (Medium).jpg
    G0010371 (Medium).jpg
    28.2 KB · Views: 273
  • G0010352 (Medium).jpg
    G0010352 (Medium).jpg
    29.3 KB · Views: 268
Last edited:
Well it has come to an end, the morning started well, lovely weather, but about 20 miles of the trail was closed due to forest fires, loads of fire helicopters buzzing around, but we where able to pick the trail up after the fire and carried on up to Weston Pass (11,921 feet), where we met a huge group of riders riding the COBDR. we had a great time talking to them and then started the easy ride down, I guess we werent paying attention as its an easy trail and they are grading it and there are great piles of gravel all over the place. unfortunately we went into a sharp bend and the gravel was about 5 inches deep and Rebeccas went in and lost the front end (it slid wide and she went down) and she broke her left arm midway between her shoulder and elbow. we where able to splint it where she was but she was in tremendous pain. fortunately there was a jeep coming down and they agreed to take her 8 miles to the nearest hospital where they x-rayed her arm and fitted a splint. Sylvie followed the jeep to the hospital and my brother and i got the 3 bikes (his, mine and rebeccas) down out of the mountain. Rode 2 bikes down, then my brother climbed on my bike and we rode back up (2 up on my bike) and then he rode rebeccas bike down whilst I followed on mine. Rebecca got discharged from the hospital and we have checked into a local hospital (we are in Leadville, CO) and tomorrow morning we will collect a U-haul and a hire car and all 4 of us will head home as she cant ride with a broken arm!! We made half the trip and the only problems where all the punctures!! Hopefully we can come back to Leadville next year (when Rebecca has healed) and carry on with the ride to Canada. We have 2 days in the U-Haul to get home and then I will sort out the pictures and post a few more on here!!

Gary
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0700.jpg
    IMG_0700.jpg
    165.8 KB · Views: 274
  • IMG_0697.jpg
    IMG_0697.jpg
    158.2 KB · Views: 271
  • IMG_0699.jpg
    IMG_0699.jpg
    161 KB · Views: 261
Well it has come to an end, the morning started well, lovely weather, but about 20 miles of the trail was closed due to forest fires, loads of fire helicopters buzzing around, but we where able to pick the trail up after the fire and carried on up to Weston Pass (11,921 feet), where we met a huge group of riders riding the COBDR. we had a great time talking to them and then started the easy ride down, I guess we werent paying attention as its an easy trail and they are grading it and there are great piles of gravel all over the place. unfortunately we went into a sharp bend and the gravel was about 5 inches deep and Rebeccas went in and lost the front end (it slid wide and she went down) and she broke her left arm midway between her shoulder and elbow. we where able to splint it where she was but she was in tremendous pain. fortunately there was a jeep coming down and they agreed to take her 8 miles to the nearest hospital where they x-rayed her arm and fitted a splint. Sylvie followed the jeep to the hospital and my brother and i got the 3 bikes (his, mine and rebeccas) down out of the mountain. Rode 2 bikes down, then my brother climbed on my bike and we rode back up (2 up on my bike) and then he rode rebeccas bike down whilst I followed on mine. Rebecca got discharged from the hospital and we have checked into a local hospital (we are in Leadville, CO) and tomorrow morning we will collect a U-haul and a hire car and all 4 of us will head home as she cant ride with a broken arm!! We made half the trip and the only problems where all the punctures!! Hopefully we can come back to Leadville next year (when Rebecca has healed) and carry on with the ride to Canada. We have 2 days in the U-Haul to get home and then I will sort out the pictures and post a few more on here!!

Gary
Man that stinks for all of you especially Rebecca.
 
I lived in the area. If you can, take her to Summit hospital ( just north of Breckinridge) . Great orthopedics and places to stay, rent uhaul , etc.
 
Back
Top