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2021 ET450 ride reports
- Thread starter RollingJ
- Start date
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MotoTex
0
Hey Joel, I appreciate your invite, and it looks like everyone on the Piney Woods Pig Wrestling team had fun. 
More than a little relieved that I had a prior commitment
, as otherwise I might still be extracting a greased Tiger from some East Texas pothole had I not have been helping with a mountain bike race instead.
More than a little relieved that I had a prior commitment
, as otherwise I might still be extracting a greased Tiger from some East Texas pothole had I not have been helping with a mountain bike race instead.
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
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- 3,605
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- 1,509
- Location
- Lake Charles, La
- First Name
- Joel
- Last Name
- Sims
I was well aware of the potential for a wet ride, but to be quite honest the roads were much wetter and the mud holes were much more plentiful than I had anticipated. It was a beautiful, grueling, dirty thing. It was truly epic.
Day One
I ended up riding with MuddMissile, Stingray, DannyBoy, Dustycajunsr, and DLDR, and it was a good crew. It's cool when a group gels, and we did. I ended up leading so I stayed out of the little dust that was kicked up, and I kept a pretty good pace. Waiting at corners was kept to a minimum, but I swear these guys have to pee more than my wife on a road trip.
I was set on riding as much of the track as I could. When we got to 2565 it got a little dicey, but I wanted to power through. I cross-rutted and fell softly in water somewhere along here. The crew thought better of it so we agreed to meet on the other side of the re-route. I made it to where I thought they would be (I do love this little stretch of road) and as they hadn't shown up after I changed my gloves, I circled around the route I thought they had taken. I didn't find them. I called Scott and the group was a little ways down the track and waiting at the next gas station. Oops. I took off down the track and had the pleasure of riding 2565 a second time! It wasn't long before I was gassing up and we were back on the route.
Before long we came to a long stretch of deep clay that had stopped the groups ahead of us. Again, after consulting my group, I throttled through and we met down the road. That one was just about keeping balance and momentum and not touching the clutch. These are the reasons I love a featherweight bike! To heck with comfort!
By the time we met up I had fallen softly again in water. It rinsed the mud from my right side and added some to my left. I only had one set of gloves remaining. I would have to be careful from here on out. Ha!
We came to a washed out bridge and there was a path around. I picked a line and went for it, only to have my front tire bury itself in a hole. I sort of fell over, but my gloves stayed dry. I was fine with that outcome. A new line was picked and the crew powered though.
We ate at a BBQ spot in Hemphill and it was very good. As soon as we were done we scooted on down the road.
The things that can slow down a ride are thus: Bad or very slow riders, too many riders, mechanicals, and injuries. We had good riders that kept a decent pace, in the right quantity, and no injuries, but...
I'm not sure exactly where it happened, but MuddMissile had a rear flat from a nail. We all got to work and we were on the road in less than 30 minutes, but almost at the next corner the new tube failed. We never figured out what caused this one, but the tools flew out, the tire thoroughly checked with a rag, and a new tube was installed. Edwin had used his spare 18" tube so Scott pulled out his spare and donated it to the cause. This tube was not ready for it's moment in the limelight and we could not get the bead to seat. In hindsight I believe that the pump was not latched onto the stem properly, but that was not to time to figure it out. I whipped out my rear spare and we got to work. A short time later we were back on the road. This tube split on the spoke side in under an hour, so we got to work and gave our only remaining tube, the one with stagefright, a second chance at stardom. It did it's job splendidly, quietly, and under the radar. After four flats we had a winner, but our time table was blown.
At the last tube change Dustycajunsr notified us that he had switched to reserve 20 miles earlier. I offered fuel from the buxom bosom of my beautiful mistress, but he declined. At that point he onloaded the 32oz of spare fuel he was carrying. Approaching the last section before Center, I recommended that he should skip this section of dirt and slab it to the closest gas station and we would meet him there. I wish I hadn't. Did I mention that his phone was dead and the charger not working? Jerome took of one way and we took off another. When we got to Center and filled up he was nowhere to be seen. I tried to call him but it went to voicemail. He lives close by, in Garrison, so I thought he might have skipped home. I called his wife and she hadn't heard from him but knew that he planned to stop at his house.
By now it was 6pm. The group remaining decided to slab to Rusk to enjoy dinner and beer, but I'm a stubborn coot and wanted to ride the rest of the route. While it looked like I would finish too late for dinner, I have good lights, don't mind riding by myself, and know a little bit about riding in the dark. We said our 'see you laters' and I started burning the track into the ground.
A few miles down the road Jerome's wife called and I answered on my headset. He had run out of gas on the way to Center. She was going to pick him up. He was safe but I felt like a jerk. If we had stayed together I would siphoned some of my gas on the side of the road and saved the day. I'm sorry I suggested splitting up with that potential hanging over his head. Lesson learned.
For the last hundred miles I had cranked up the speed, racing nothing but the sun. The sun won with 30 miles left to go. My lights came on and I slowed down, but I rode every foot of the first day's track and arrived at the hotel at 9:10pm.
Food and a couple beers was followed immediately by a shower and sleep.
Day one was in the books.
Day One
I ended up riding with MuddMissile, Stingray, DannyBoy, Dustycajunsr, and DLDR, and it was a good crew. It's cool when a group gels, and we did. I ended up leading so I stayed out of the little dust that was kicked up, and I kept a pretty good pace. Waiting at corners was kept to a minimum, but I swear these guys have to pee more than my wife on a road trip.
I was set on riding as much of the track as I could. When we got to 2565 it got a little dicey, but I wanted to power through. I cross-rutted and fell softly in water somewhere along here. The crew thought better of it so we agreed to meet on the other side of the re-route. I made it to where I thought they would be (I do love this little stretch of road) and as they hadn't shown up after I changed my gloves, I circled around the route I thought they had taken. I didn't find them. I called Scott and the group was a little ways down the track and waiting at the next gas station. Oops. I took off down the track and had the pleasure of riding 2565 a second time! It wasn't long before I was gassing up and we were back on the route.
Before long we came to a long stretch of deep clay that had stopped the groups ahead of us. Again, after consulting my group, I throttled through and we met down the road. That one was just about keeping balance and momentum and not touching the clutch. These are the reasons I love a featherweight bike! To heck with comfort!
By the time we met up I had fallen softly again in water. It rinsed the mud from my right side and added some to my left. I only had one set of gloves remaining. I would have to be careful from here on out. Ha!
We came to a washed out bridge and there was a path around. I picked a line and went for it, only to have my front tire bury itself in a hole. I sort of fell over, but my gloves stayed dry. I was fine with that outcome. A new line was picked and the crew powered though.
We ate at a BBQ spot in Hemphill and it was very good. As soon as we were done we scooted on down the road.
The things that can slow down a ride are thus: Bad or very slow riders, too many riders, mechanicals, and injuries. We had good riders that kept a decent pace, in the right quantity, and no injuries, but...
I'm not sure exactly where it happened, but MuddMissile had a rear flat from a nail. We all got to work and we were on the road in less than 30 minutes, but almost at the next corner the new tube failed. We never figured out what caused this one, but the tools flew out, the tire thoroughly checked with a rag, and a new tube was installed. Edwin had used his spare 18" tube so Scott pulled out his spare and donated it to the cause. This tube was not ready for it's moment in the limelight and we could not get the bead to seat. In hindsight I believe that the pump was not latched onto the stem properly, but that was not to time to figure it out. I whipped out my rear spare and we got to work. A short time later we were back on the road. This tube split on the spoke side in under an hour, so we got to work and gave our only remaining tube, the one with stagefright, a second chance at stardom. It did it's job splendidly, quietly, and under the radar. After four flats we had a winner, but our time table was blown.
At the last tube change Dustycajunsr notified us that he had switched to reserve 20 miles earlier. I offered fuel from the buxom bosom of my beautiful mistress, but he declined. At that point he onloaded the 32oz of spare fuel he was carrying. Approaching the last section before Center, I recommended that he should skip this section of dirt and slab it to the closest gas station and we would meet him there. I wish I hadn't. Did I mention that his phone was dead and the charger not working? Jerome took of one way and we took off another. When we got to Center and filled up he was nowhere to be seen. I tried to call him but it went to voicemail. He lives close by, in Garrison, so I thought he might have skipped home. I called his wife and she hadn't heard from him but knew that he planned to stop at his house.
By now it was 6pm. The group remaining decided to slab to Rusk to enjoy dinner and beer, but I'm a stubborn coot and wanted to ride the rest of the route. While it looked like I would finish too late for dinner, I have good lights, don't mind riding by myself, and know a little bit about riding in the dark. We said our 'see you laters' and I started burning the track into the ground.
A few miles down the road Jerome's wife called and I answered on my headset. He had run out of gas on the way to Center. She was going to pick him up. He was safe but I felt like a jerk. If we had stayed together I would siphoned some of my gas on the side of the road and saved the day. I'm sorry I suggested splitting up with that potential hanging over his head. Lesson learned.
For the last hundred miles I had cranked up the speed, racing nothing but the sun. The sun won with 30 miles left to go. My lights came on and I slowed down, but I rode every foot of the first day's track and arrived at the hotel at 9:10pm.
Food and a couple beers was followed immediately by a shower and sleep.
Day one was in the books.
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Trailtime, thanks for sharing the video. I always assume you Brits know how to handle wet weather, but good ol' East Texas gumbo is a monster of a different kind. Hats off; you did real well! It's obvious you know how to ride at speed. Is that your only bike right now? As Joel said, a smaller/lighter (450/500) type DS would have made it even more fun, but looks like you did great anyway. Wish I could have joined you guys, but in a way, I'm also kind of glad I didn't, lol. I might try it again when it dries up a bit more.
Thanks yes that’s my only ride right now and I have no complaints at all about that! Day 2 was quite a bit more interesting and I’ll post as soon as I get done. Btw I agree the mud here sticks like nothing we have in the UK. There is some special Texas sauce in it for sure
BTW: Joel, or anyone else who finished it, if you did something else than the routes/tracks I posted in the GPS section, please be sure to update it so we can keep this ride going for anyone else who wants to do it. Thanks.
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I'll be doing that in a bit!
To help the cause of verified tracks, I need the location of the rutted clay road everybody turned around at so I can add a way point. I forgot to mark it.
Edit: I'd also be interested in a copy of the track that anyone else rode. There are a number of route options and I'd like to see what you did. Feel free to pm me.
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DLDR
0
Awesome! Thanks for posting video.
Great riding with y'all.
Retiredtosoon
what 0
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Another great video Casper now I know I miss a good ride, but now I can see the GPS and it not a blur
Great vids! I'm starting to think I didn't give you guys the best tracks after all, LOL!! Just a quick safety tip also: Be careful about the extreme sides of freshly graded roads. Sometimes there are actually ditches there, but when the road grader passes through, it pushes a level surface over them, tempting you to think it's solid... but it's not! Swinging out at speed to avoid something in the road, and suddenly your front wheel breaks through and dives into the hidden ditch... well, you can imagine what happens next!
Glad the op went well and hope to ride with you again soon!
That’s good advice and there’s lots like that to catch you out. The tracks were actually great and it’s cool that people like yourself put these together so the rest of us can benefit. The only reason I kept going the wrong way is I was enjoying the ride too much and not paying attention where I was going! It was an awesome route thanks!
Here's another thing to look out for, I call them "ghost puddles". Just your plain old every day run of the mill puddle except it's not. Instead of only being inches deep, it's a foot or more. I hit one at speed Sunday chasing Caspar, and Pat had front row center riding behind me. My front went over it with no problem but my rear dropped in and hit HARD. The result was the closest thing to an endo that I've had in years, the backend came up and I rode the front wheel for a bit. Got my attention! Oh and Pat said I emptied that puddle...
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Similar to the problem Rydah mentioned, we were doing the ET200 (smaller version of the same thing) and there was a water hole that covered most of the sandy road. Rider in front of me went through the water on the left side and I noticed there was room to miss the water all together if I went a little more to the left. It looked like the rest of the road where it wasn't covered by water. Well, evidently from people blowing through the waterhole, enough sand was blown up over the small side ditch to make it look like part of the road; at least until my front wheel tried to roll over it. The front wheel broke through, stopped, back end came up, I rolled over the bars, and landed on my back in the mud hole. Fortunately, I wasn't going too fast when it happened and I was laughing at myself while lying there in the mud hole. Felt really out of place at the Lone Star Cafe (it's called something else now) in Comesneal for lunch, sitting there half covered in mud while everyone else had just got out of church and was in their Sunday-best.
Last edited:
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Day Two.
Out group was down to four. Myself, Stingray, Dannyboy and DLDR. Dustycajunsr was home and MuddMissile decided to skip back to Dallas to avoid most of the impending rain, since we were at the northern-most point of the track.
We rolled out around 9 and I went the wrong way or just plain missed the first few corners on the track. I got it together and the day turned out to be a great one. There was water to be crossed early in the day, but the bottom was solid and no one had any problems.
We made great time and leap-frogged the other group a few times. The weather was perfect, the sand was grippy, and the dust was down. The groups were close enough that when we stopped to assess a crossing everybody got to watch.
Eventually we came to an impasse. Just before we reached 287 there was water covering the road for as far as we could see. It was at least a quarter mile to the curve, and I'd bet it was wet around the bend as well. We backtracked to pavement and along the way passed the information to the groups right behind us. Our group re-routed back to the track after the water, and the big bike group called it a day and slabbed it.
The last dirt section, south of 287 on the spur track to Livingston, is a section I have never been able to ride in all the years I've been doing this track. It is forest company land and gates tend to be closed, but they were open that day and we just ripped it up. Ruts, bumps, water-bar jumps, and a nice creek crossing at the end rounded out the day.
I had one splash of rain before I made it back to the truck, and then I got soaked as I was finishing loading the bike.
Thank you to everyone that came along for the ride. In my opinion the conditions were perfectly imperfect, and I hope to ride the track again soon. Maybe I'll see you out there!
The first track below is what I actually ran, unedited with wrong turns and all. The second track includes the section that we could not ride on the second day, but I'm calling it a verified track because I've ridden it numerous times in the past.
GPX viewer
GPX viewer
Out group was down to four. Myself, Stingray, Dannyboy and DLDR. Dustycajunsr was home and MuddMissile decided to skip back to Dallas to avoid most of the impending rain, since we were at the northern-most point of the track.
We rolled out around 9 and I went the wrong way or just plain missed the first few corners on the track. I got it together and the day turned out to be a great one. There was water to be crossed early in the day, but the bottom was solid and no one had any problems.
We made great time and leap-frogged the other group a few times. The weather was perfect, the sand was grippy, and the dust was down. The groups were close enough that when we stopped to assess a crossing everybody got to watch.
Eventually we came to an impasse. Just before we reached 287 there was water covering the road for as far as we could see. It was at least a quarter mile to the curve, and I'd bet it was wet around the bend as well. We backtracked to pavement and along the way passed the information to the groups right behind us. Our group re-routed back to the track after the water, and the big bike group called it a day and slabbed it.
The last dirt section, south of 287 on the spur track to Livingston, is a section I have never been able to ride in all the years I've been doing this track. It is forest company land and gates tend to be closed, but they were open that day and we just ripped it up. Ruts, bumps, water-bar jumps, and a nice creek crossing at the end rounded out the day.
I had one splash of rain before I made it back to the truck, and then I got soaked as I was finishing loading the bike.
Thank you to everyone that came along for the ride. In my opinion the conditions were perfectly imperfect, and I hope to ride the track again soon. Maybe I'll see you out there!
The first track below is what I actually ran, unedited with wrong turns and all. The second track includes the section that we could not ride on the second day, but I'm calling it a verified track because I've ridden it numerous times in the past.
GPX viewer
GPX viewer
Nice write up. Sounds like we missed out on quite a bit on the big bikes that you guys were able to cover. It will be fun to go back in drier conditions
Hey, Joel. Not sure why, but your "unedited" file opens fine, your "verified" does not. Both download okay.
PP186515
Forum Supporter
For those interested in the next East Texas 450, there is one scheduled for November 6 & 7, 2021. Hope to see you there.
www.twtex.com
East Texas 450 – Nov 6 and 7, 2021
Who: Drop-in riders. What: East Texas 450 Where: Day 1: Livingston Walmart to Center Day 2: Center Walmart to Livingston When: November 6 and 7, 2021. Arrive by 0700, first kickstands up by 0715. Why: Fun adventure route, good times, and fun people. How: This is an informal ride with...