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Sand Practice meetup

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kubotamiketx said:
New Mexico has some great sand sections!!! Check out the video below, starting at about 5:30. I love sand riding, I am a big fan of giving the bike its freedom to wag front or back, but this was intense. I kept trying to find a better line, but never did. Edwin is the guy in front of me and did a great job of bead blasting my new face shield. We were in the 50 to 60 MPH zone.

(783) GH010588 - YouTube
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Nice riding. Looks like it varied from not too deep to maybe a few inches deep based on how much the bike in front was moving around.

I'm always a bit afraid to get that close to someone in front. I do it, but it scares me some.

I understand you were likely doing it to keep out of the dust. I do it some as well but it really takes some trust in their riding and your ability to shut it down and avoid them if things go wrong.
 
This is off Googlemaps. As you can see its pretty big open sand all over. The address is 1927 Gulf Pump Rd, Crosby, TX 77532

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sandman said:
3 Palms on a weekday would be an option too. Let me know ... my Drz400 with bald tires would be handful but really good practice - dual sport guys ride together as a group on the tracks.

Today I will be on my YZ with sand tires —— almost like cheating.
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I would be up for 3 Palms. I have never been there but its pretty close to Xtreme 4x4. Extreme 4x4 however it going to be bigger , wider trails though because they allow anything including Monster Trucks to show up. Last I went 3 years ago, it was $20 per person.
 
2WheelNut said:
Nice riding. Looks like it varied from not too deep to maybe a few inches deep based on how much the bike in front was moving around.

I'm always a bit afraid to get that close to someone in front. I do it, but it scares me some.

I understand you were likely doing it to keep out of the dust. I do it some as well but it really takes some trust in their riding and your ability to shut it down and avoid them if things go wrong.
Click to expand...
This was the first time I had ever ridden with Edwin, but he and I just clicked together. He is an excellent rider, we traded places like this for a couple of days. I think it was the second day, he and I had been running like this for a couple of hours, I was on the left, he was in front on the right side, when all of the sudden there was a gentle roller going up just like we had done many times that morning, the road took surprising right turn on the downhill side just so you couldn't see it till it was too late. He tried and tried to maintain his line but forces of nature were causing him to drift into my line. I didn't want to use him for traction so I was drifting to the left when I noticed a very steep bank on the other side of the wash with a huge lip on it just off the side of the road. I drifted as far as I could trying to balance the benefit of not hitting Edwin (who's front end had washed out so he was heading for a nice inside laydown) and a pile of rocks right were I was heading. I grabbed some throttle to lighten the front end, crashed into the bank but somehow the mighty KTM compensated for my momentary lapse of judgement and came out the other side still upright.

Edwin picked himself up, and we went back up to the rise to warn the others who were closing in on us. We stopped for a bit to survey the various skid marks matching them up to the key memories frozen in each of our heads.

I found a short video clip of the post event. It doesn't come close to showing what it felt like when it happened.

Wow, this is causing me to remember what a fun trip that was...

 
I think @ 10:50 and 13:11 of this video were my first times dealing with sand:


I'm not sure if I've been in it since.
 
Now, I haven't been there in an offroad enthusiast capacity, but I have been to Crosby a couple of times and it always struck me as an incredibly dangerous place. Nobody was wearing protection, no teven helmets. Tons of bro'd out UTV's with people wearing cutoffs and flipflops just flying around everywhere, and everyone was drunk.

I even saw a pregnant chick drinking while I was there. In a bikini. Barefoot. Can't make this stuff up.

I was there for concerts though, so the normal "weekday" might be completely different, but who knows. It was enough to convince me that I didn't need to go there ever again.
 
Well until you said something I was only going for the sand, but now I will be sure to have a helmet cam too.
 
Head into the Davy Crockett NF and you will find lots of forest roads with sand :thumb:

The area North of Huntsville and West of Trinty/Lovelady has lots of sandy roads as well, but they are working fast and furious to dump CHUNKY gravel on all of them. By Chunky I mean several inches in diameter or more! Eventually, they get a somewhat hard packed road surface.

There is a road I like to run between Lovelady and Crockett that has a good bit of sand.

I generally ride my 1200 GS on all of it without too much trouble. It really is all about technique. I learned sand riding on an 02 BMW R1150 GS originally. It was HEAVY. However, once I got the hang of it, I found it harder to ride my KLR 650 in the sand than the GS :shrug: My KTM 530 EXC is better.

The hardest thing about sand is learning to stay RELAXED on the bike and let it move around. Most people tense up when they feel the front end start to wander around, but that is usually just the bike trying to remain stable. Fighting it makes the bike less stable and usually puts you on the ground or causes you to expend a LOT of energy in a hurry. I hold on to the grip just hard enough to maintain throttle control and keep my weight off my arms. I squeeze the gas tank between my legs and I am ALWAYS standing.

Getting started from a stop is actually easier if you start in second gear and slip the clutch. This way you aren't trying to fiddle with changing gears right away.

The biggest challenge is turning on the tight 90 degree corners that are so common with roads that follow property lines.
 
misterk said:
I never fiddle with gears [emoji23] dct is magical

Here is some sand riding...

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Lol. Reminds.me.of that section we did when we left Glenn's a.couple years ago. Fully loaded on my GSA with a dry clutch was way tough.

It was.my first time on sand on a big bike. Think I crashed twice before we got out of there.
 
kubotamiketx said:
New Mexico has some great sand sections!!! Check out the video below, starting at about 5:30. I love sand riding, I am a big fan of giving the bike its freedom to wag front or back, but this was intense. I kept trying to find a better line, but never did. Edwin is the guy in front of me and did a great job of bead blasting my new face shield. We were in the 50 to 60 MPH zone.

(783) GH010588 - YouTube
Click to expand...
Saw that bike dance a couple times on that vid. Like SRV sang, "walking the tight rope".
 
Wondering how many folks run a Fat front tire? I have found it really helps in sand. Especially on the big bikes. I use it on all my bikes in the summer.
The only downside is it likes to run up the side of the trail if it gets rutted.
 
Well I am in and out, got slammed with work all of a sudden and now Christmas is coming up. This last weekend was a wash cuz of all the rain. I will be watching for the next good weather, and maybe we can get in some sand practice somewhere after Christmas.

I upgraded my tires to Contentinal TKC 80 in the front and Shinko 805 Big Blocks for the rear. I do like the Shinko big block. Its probably the best compromise for something that is like paddles for the sand but is still a 50/50 tire.
 
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stephensatt said:
I upgraded my tires to Contentinal TKC 80 in the front and Shinko 805 Big Blocks for the rear. I do like the Shinko big block. Its probably the best compromise for something that is like paddles for the sand but is still a 50/50 tire.
Click to expand...

This is what I have been running on my 1200 GS for a long time now. It just works. I have tried other tires and I keep coming back to these. They don't last more than about 2500-3500 miles at best for me, but at my current rate of riding, that could be a year :doh: The only down side to that 805 rear is that it will side slip in places where the TKC 80 rear would hold. This is because the blocks are not staggered on the 805. If you know this, it is not a big deal. If you find it out while riding on an off camber surface, it can cause a bit of puckering... DAMHIK!

I just removed a Mitas E07+. It came apart before it even got down to the wear bar. The rubber was flaking off in chunks. This was with most of my riding being solo, luggage free, mostly dirt/gravel/sand, and at legal speeds.
 
Tourmeister said:
This is what I have been running on my 1200 GS for a long time now. It just works. I have tried other tires and I keep coming back to these. They don't last more than about 2500-3500 miles at best for me, but at my current rate of riding, that could be a year :doh: The only down side to that 805 rear is that it will side slip in places where the TKC 80 rear would hold. This is because the blocks are not staggered on the 805. If you know this, it is not a big deal. If you find it out while riding on an off camber surface, it can cause a bit of puckering... DAMHIK!

I just removed a Mitas E07+. It came apart before it even got down to the wear bar. The rubber was flaking off in chunks. This was with most of my riding being solo, luggage free, mostly dirt/gravel/sand, and at legal speeds.
Click to expand...

I've had the same sliding experience with the 805. I haven't bought another. Not bad, but I prefer more lateral traction.

That's an interesting story about the Mitas. Kinda disappointing. I've ridden with a few folks that have them add I haven't seen that issue before. I haven't gotten any milage reports though. From what I've read, it's it's than the old style E07.

I'm still having good luck with my Motoz GPS. Almost 7000 miles on it and I imagine it'll be good for 8000. Still no noticable loss of performance. It's a compromise tire, but it's done well. I got plenty of drive in sand when I've had it out there, though it wasn't on a beach or dune. I have another one waiting for when this one is done.

Paired with the GPS rear, I've been running a TKC80 front. It has 250 more miles on it than the rear. I'll replace it with the rear, though it might be able to go s little longer. Not worth pushing it. I dislike having a squirrelly front end.
 
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Hmm, well that answered that , the 805 does slip some on pavement in curves and its my first set of offroad tires ever, and I just thought, well thats the trade-off, not as sure footed on pavement. I couldn't get TKC80 in the size I needed via short notice for the rear tire and I had to setup that bike in a week after I got it for the Redneck Ramble. I had to have the tires 2-day shipped from JP Cycles and they have a guy there who is a OFF-ROAD adventure tech and he recommended "block" style tires. He said that those provide the best results in a 50/50 tire. As far as lasting goes, I just don't worry about that anymore and go with a grippy softer tire that only lasts 5k miles at most. I don't ride off road more than 2k miles a year and I would rather have the "grip" vs longevity.
 
Interesting.

I have run the 805 rear on my 1200 GSs (three of them) VERY aggressively on pavement in Arkansas, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, North & South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and of course in Texas. by aggressive, I mean full lean to the point of scraping bits and max throttle coming out of corners, even two up with luggage. The types of pavement vary wildly among those states. I have never had it slip on dry pavement alone. The only slip I've ever noticed was a slight wiggle while crossing tar snakes, but all tires will do that. Even in the rain, it has been just as good as any other tires I've ever run on pavement. Now, the Shinko 705... different story altogether. That slipped even under moderate riding on dry pavement.
 
Agreed. I'm always surprised at how grippy knobby (TKC80, Shinko 804/5, Anakee Wild) tires are.

The only slip I've ever had on them was near track day pace and it was just a tiny bit of movement to let me know I needed to back off a fuzz.

On the otherhand, the knobs will flex a little while cornering and that's a feeling that needs to be learned/adjusted to over time. Different from a slip.
 
2WheelNut said:
Lol. Reminds.me.of that section we did when we left Glenn's a.couple years ago. Fully loaded on my GSA with a dry clutch was way tough.

It was.my first time on sand on a big bike. Think I crashed twice before we got out of there.
Click to expand...

And it was like 100 degrees and 100% humidity
 
Tourmeister said:
I just removed a Mitas E07+. It came apart before it even got down to the wear bar. The rubber was flaking off in chunks. This was with most of my riding being solo, luggage free, mostly dirt/gravel/sand, and at legal speeds.
Click to expand...

I had the same experience with the mission rear, at 8000 miles I was close to wear bars and the tire was coming apart in chunks.
 
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