Scott's Dual Sport Ride - July 2nd.

[iDood]

This is a short one, but it's better than nothing at all...

Length: 351 miles (about 120 on dirt)
Riders: The Two-wheeled Texans
Weather: over 100 degrees... lovely.

Scott hosted a little dual-sport ride this weekend. I decided, 'why not', so I left the house this morning at 7:00 to head to Huntsville and meet Scott and whoever else showed up at his house.

Of course, I stopped at McDonalds and had breakfast, but I made it to Scott’s at about 8:45.

It didn’t take long for all of the crew to show up… there were 8 of us total—one 1150 GS, me on my 650GS, a Dakar, and the rest were lighter XRs and DRs. I'm sorry I do not remember everyone's name (I've always sucked at that), but in addition to Scott, there were Steves and Bills and a Will...

Of course, my motorcycle was the only one with street tires on it. Everyone else had knobbies, but that’s what I had, so that’s what I rode on.

We got on road about 9:30 and within a few minutes, we were on dirt. Most of the roads were gravel, but there were some places where the sand was a ***** with my Tourances.

Stand up, knees bent slightly, and as 38 Special said, "hold on loosely but don't let go... if you cling too tightly, you're going to loose control."

We ended up in the woods a few times which was also nice:

But at the slower speeds, it go ugly hot really quick. And, I forgot my Camelbak... Scott didn't forget his:

Scott led us all day down one road after another:

But, we needed several breaks to simply hydrate:

Will on the Dakar seemed to be having a good time, but like me, I can only assume wielding the heavy thing around wore him out too:

Dust. There was dust everywhere. I had it from head-to-toe even though I was covered in ATGATT. I'm pretty sure my chain was unhappy with me at this point:

Anyway, it was good to have another F650 out there with me:

And once again, we stopped for something to drink:

Sorry there are not more or better pictures, but we spent the day riding... not really taking pictures.

Things I learned today:

Going 70 mph on dirt roads on Tourances is a bit challenging... knobbies would have been better

In addition to knobbies, I need the following: Handlebar risers, Foot peg relocation kit, Proper hand guards

I need another job to pay for all of the things I "need"

Riding in the woods with a heat index of 111 degrees is not too pleasant

Never forget the Camelbak ever again

120 miles of dirt roads is dirty

If you put a DR on it's side when it's out of gas (to move the gas from one side of the tank to the other), you can go about 6-8 miles at 50+ mph

Next time, LEAD!

... and like I said... it was much better in person, but we didn't stop much for photo ops...

... also, sorry I couldn't make the picnic... I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful time!

 

[Squeaky]

Great ride report! All along I was wishing I could be there with you guys, but looking back now on that hot, humid day..... I'm glad I was taking it easy and being lazy.

Good to hear that everyone came out Ok (although dusty) and that there were no serious mechanical issues. Didn't at least one part fall of Will's bike?

 

[Tourmeister]

Well, I had a blast. I was WHOOPED afterwards from the heat though, despite draining the Camel-Bak several times. I think I should have eaten more before the ride. The dilemma is that if I eat a big breakfast, I feel like crud while riding. If I eat light, I feel like crud after the ride, hehe. Need to get me some high energy buzz food to eat before the ride

I'll post up a few pics later after dinner.

 

[iDood]

Scott... thanks for taking us on your route. Looking forward to riding with you a lot more in the future.

Also looking forward to your pictures.

Thanks again!

 

[Texas T]

The dilemma is that if I eat a big breakfast, I feel like crud while riding. If I eat light, I feel like crud after the ride, hehe. Need to get me some high energy buzz food to eat before the ride

Bananas!

 

[Squeaky]

Bananas!

...or a banana boat to get all the other crud out of your system

 

[dower]

This ride wore me out. The second half of the day was a struggle. Worth every bit of it.

I emptied a 3 liter camelbak, twice and only went to the woods for 'relief' one time. That's a whole lot of sweating.

 

[TwistedFate]

Route----------------

Scott,

Where did you guys ride? Sam Houston? Lemme know!

Thanks,
DJ

 

[Tourmeister]

Dean, It is pretty much all county roads. We started out heading East Towards Lake Livingston. There are a lot of fun roads North of Hwy 150 and South of US 190. LOTS of sand in that area though! Then we cut over I-45 and ran around the area North of Hwy 30 and FM 1696. We stopped in Bedias for a break and then headed West towards Carlos. There are a bunch of gravel/dirt roads that criss-cross FM 3090. After that, the heat got the best of us and we made a bee line for Lake Conro via the paved roads. I don't really have a special route, I just line up the county roads as the mood hits me and depending on the time available for the ride. I posted the GPS route in the original ride notice thread.

 

[iDood]

I'll post up a few pics later after dinner.

Is it after dinner yet?

 

[Tourmeister]

The Crew shows up about 8:45am-ish.

Some of the critters that chased the GS all day...

Will's F650 Dakar, Steve's XR650R and Matthew's XR650L

Another XR650R, a DRZ400S and an XR400R

Not shown is Bill's F650GS and of course, the Big Pig...

We headed out East towards Lake Livingston on some gravel county roads and then down into the Sam Houston National Forest. I had not planned on riding any trails but we wound up on some questionable tracks... You can see those pics on Bill's (iDood) post above Then it was on to the sand The dust clouds were incredible. Visibility was nonexistent. The lighter bikes blew past me as I could only do about 30-40mph and they were wanting to float along at a relaxed 60mph or so... I manage to get through the sand without any drops, but there were some tense moments Then we hit some fun whoops and caught some mild air before heading into more sand. When most of the really deep sand was over, we stopped for a break.

I think the locals are trying to tell the county maintenance guys something :scratch

After the break we were off an running again. We crested a small rise and the road made a sharp ninety to the left. I was expecting it and slowed to about 10-15mph. The road here is broken pavement covered with sand and gravel. When I started feeding in the power, the back end swapped places with the front end before I even realized I had lost traction!! I heard that unmistakable grinding sound as the bike is sliding. Meanwhile I am sliding in the sand on my butt backwards away from the bike for a few feet. When I come to a stop the momentum carries my head over backwards and I smack the pavement. Ouch! It was a very light tap, barely even made a mark on the helmet, but later that evening my neck muscles were stiff and sore!! Sunday they were even worse. Tonight (Tues) they are back to normal. We got the bike up and got moving again.

At the next road I waved the fast guys on and hung to the back. They vanished into a swirling cloud of dust, a repeating theme throughout the day. We catch up to them and then they take off again, Matthew and Tim leading the way. I hang back to let the dust settle! Nearing our next turn, I spot flashing lights through the dust Surely not!!?? I pulled up nice and slow to find Matthew and Tim speaking with a DPS officer :scratch Then they shook their heads and pointed at me I pulled up next to his window and off they go... It seems the officer was lost and trying to find his way to FM 1375 so he could continue chasing someone I got him heading the right way and he zoomed off in a swirling cloud of dust... Have I mentioned the swirling clouds of dust??

We headed on into New Waverly to find Tim and Matthew waiting for us and then stopped for a break to refill the camel-baks. It was not even noon yet and already the day had turned into a scorcher! During this stop, Steve "XR650Rocketman" and I swap bikes. He ran me through the kickstart routine and I showed him how to disable the ABS on the GS, then we were off to do some paved miles to get to the next section of dirt. I forgot to put my earplugs in and it drives me nuts. The upside is that the exhaust note on Steve's XR was sweet Once back on the gravel and dirt, it takes no time at all for me to get comfy with the handling of the XR I can see why this bike is so well liked! It is just so easy to ride!

We run another twenty minutes or so on various backroads before stopping to regroup. Steve has never really done much street riding in his 42 years of riding. He has done a lot of racing on dirt. Seems he is really taken with the 1150 GS. I wonder how he would like the 1200GS!? I must say he seemed to ride it really fast with no problems... I should have gotten behind him to watch instead of leading on the XR... DOH! Bill from Tomball on the DRZ was needing gas so we made a slight route change and ran down FM 149 to Montgomery for a fill up. I didn't even notice Bill on the DRZ and Bill on the F650 were not with us when we pulled into the station... While we are standing around chatting, he walks up pushing his bike Almost made it...

I swapped back to the GS and then we took off back to the North to get back on the route. We started working out way back towards Hwy 30 and then hit a bunch of dirt county roads North of Hwy 30 before dropping out on FM 1696. At one point we came up on a huge truck and trailer rig that was taking up the whole road. Behind him was a Schwann's delivery truck trying to get around him!!?? Needless to say, that wasn't happening any time soon We stopped at 1696 for a quick break. At this point, Steve on the XR650R from College Station had to head back to Huntsville early so he could make a date with his wife.

Matthew, and Tim coming up behind him

Waiting for the rest of the gang at the end of Scales Ranch Rd.

Will "Dower" on his Dakar 650GS

Taking a break and getting the dust out of our eyes...

We said goodbye to Steve and then got back to the business at hand, getting dirty! We did a great loop up North of 1696 and then headed West towards Bedias to do another loop. We eventually caught up to Matthew in Bedias waiting for us at a little gas station. 105 F in the shade... :

This was at the gas stop... a wee bit of a fixxer upper?

It was about 3:00pm and we were cooking! After ice cream and drinks, Bill on the F650 had to bail and head for home, and then there were six... well five... Matthew took off ahead of us again Every corner I came up to I could see perfectly what line he had taken and when he was on the gas coming out, hehe. He is definitely a dirt squid

We headed West again working our way over towards Carlos. The straight sections of roads were fun and fast! We were normally running 60-70mph and then sliding up to the corners where I wanted to be doing maybe 10-15mph in the loose sand. The dirt bikes wanted to be going a wee bit faster hehe. Nonetheless, any faster and the pig wanted to wallow! Sure enough, I dipped into one sharp corner and the front started plowing in the sand. I picked it up with the throttle and the back end started sliding while I was climbing up all over the dash trying to keep the front end planted. It worked for a few seconds and then the front end hit another sand berm and dug in forcing the already spinning rear to come around on me. I stood up, walked over and killed the engine. Not sure why the GS doesn't have a tip over kill switch :scratch Or maybe it does and mine is broken Someone walked over to help me get the bike righted and we were off again. Three drops in one day... I remember a time when I managed four drops in 45 minutes and one that I could not extricate the bike from without some wire cutters and machettes...

We headed Weston Hwy 30 from Carlos and then hit some fun gravel roads that eventually drop out onto FM 3090. We ran a short bit of the fun part of 3090 and then doubled back to Anderson on some more of the dirt roads in the area. Originally, the plan was to hit some dirt stuff North of FM 149 between Anderson and Richards. At this point it was pushing 4:00pm and I was fading fast because of the heat. I am hydrated, but my body temp was just getting to high. My concentration and energy had left me. I had no idea how far ahead of us Matthew woudl go before stopping, but if it was the next town, I would not likely make that without another drop. So I just cut the route short and we ran pavement all the way back to Lake Conroe to Wes's home for the after ride picnic on the lake. That last 45 minutes or so was brutal for me. Once at the party, I stripped off the riding gear and soaked in the lake for several hours to cool off. That made me feel MUCH better.

The route was around 240 miles. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with everyone else, eating burgers, swimming, and generally goofing off until the evening when the fireworks got started. Here are the pics from Wes's place:

Tim, Heidi, Linda and Steve

Squeaky dipping the Princess

She's not sure what to make of the hot tub...

It would seem she is not fond of going under... hehe.

Mommy makes all things better!

Kevin Graulty and Hairsmith

Kent "kocook" Cook refusing to smile for the camera, hehe.

Steve "Desmo", Stephanie "Sassy" and Paul "Scratch"

Dave "Cagiva549" and Paul "Paul1484"?

Daryl "Vessmech", Howard "Mapmaker" and Ron "BeemerDude"

Lauren "Alag" Howard

Backside of the house

And that is all!

Had a great time!! Can't wait to do another big gathering.

 

[Tourmeister]

I know Bill and I weren't the only ones taking pictures... Surely someone else has some

 

[XR650Rocketman]

Even though I was on the ride it was still great to read your report Scott....Some guys have a knack for writing interesting trip reports.....I have a tendecy to not even stop to take pictures....Just living for the moment I guess...
As you mentioned I really enjoyed riding your GS......Oh to have those brakes and that smooth power delivery on my XR.....What you failed to mention was your instant ability to run my XR in excess of 90 MPH off the pavement...As fastmontr reported "Scott must have had thing pegged a couple of times"....Anyway you looked good doing it so we could tell you were enjoying it....
This being my first outing with TWT I didn't know what to expect but I'll know next time....The main thing I learned was that I should turn off any GPS on anyone else bike that I may get to ride. That way I won't get a hard time when the GPS records a max speed of 110 mph through the dirt roads....Honestly Scott it just felt so great in the dirt!!!!!

I did take 3 pictures.....they are exactly the same as some of the ones already posted...

I'm finally navigating my newbie self around the TWT forum, and really enjoying it......Riding motorcycles is a great equalizer.....Nobody cares much about anything but bikes and riding....You got to love it...

see y'all.

 

[Tourmeister]

Hmmm... I don't recall doing 90 on your bike :scratch Must be a busted speedo The XR felt great right out of the box, even in the dirt. I should have snagged some time on Matthew's XR650L, but at the pace he was running, I probably would have never seen the GS again Glad you had a great time, I look forward to riding with you guys again!

 

[Sleepy Weasel]

Re: Route----------------

Scott,

Where did you guys ride? Sam Houston? Lemme know!

Thanks,
DJ

Everytime I open a thread where you've posted, I get this darn little pop-up, and it seems to have something to do with where you hosted your avatar.
(http://www.msnusers.com/ae67cogr27g9cinh44iatorvf3/files/Pictures/towlie.jpg)
You know, I'd be more than happy to host your avatar image for you if it would make that dang thing go away.

 

[gotdurt]

Hmmm... I don't recall doing 90 on your bike :scratch Must be a busted speedo The XR felt great right out of the box, even in the dirt.

Hmmmm.... this time you don't have the excuse of "no speedo" eh? I remember seeing 110 on GS while trying to keep up with Scott on my NX.... and he claimed it wasn't pinned

 

[fastmonstr]

I know Bill and I weren't the only ones taking pictures... Surely someone else has some

Sorry I took off and left the group. I am allergic to dust

I enjoyed the ride, even though the last 100 miles were by myself. It turned into an endurance ride for me. I kept thinking to myself, the sooner I finish, the sooner I can jump into the lake.

I filled my 3 liter Camelbak 3 times!

 

[Tourmeister]

15 years went by in the blink of an eye...

 

[Dao]

i recognize matthew & steve & linda. I've lost track of them over the yrs, but they're my amsa club family back in the mid 2000's when me & my two boys started riding dirtbikes.

 

[Tourmeister]

Matthew is active on FB. He's big into golfing with his kids. I've not seen him in person though since perhaps this ride!

 

[sandman]

Great thread. The posts from older members brings back some memories.

 

[Tourmeister]

The baby in the hot tub is my oldest daughter. I don't think she was even one year old yet at the time. She is now 16 and driving

 

[Irishcoffee]

The baby in the hot tub is my oldest daughter. I don't think she was even one year old yet at the time. She is now 16 and driving

I just stumbled across this thread and it suddenly dawned on me who the beautiful little baby girl in the pool is. And where she is now,,,,,amazing and awesome!!! For any of you wondering, check out Tourmeister's current "there comes a time" thread in this forum.