July Wyoming Moto Weekend
14 Jul 2009, written by moto 6 CommentsA wet June kept many plans at bay for a proper summer moto trip, but our crew finally got one together in mid-July, starting from Park City, Utah, and venturing up into Wyoming and Idaho. I’m always a little scrambled when we do these trips, trying to get the gear ready for the agreed upon roll-out time. Darth always seems to have his stuff ready to go. This time was no different. With a rather new BMW F800 GS under me which was fresh off its 600 mile break-in service (had it done the morning of departure), my plan was to strap all my gear on the back of the bike in a dry bag. Get home from work, throw the gear in the bag, and strap it on the back. Which normally works fine, but isn’t nearly as convenient as packing all your stuff the night before in boxes. On our first dirt road out of Coalville, Utah, at the top of Chalk Creek Canyon, one of the straps let loose, and I had to stop and redo the whole thing. Would have been easier to take my time and do it right the first time, and would have been a lot easier to throw all my gear the night before into side-mounted boxes. Oh well. The debate will continue over costs vs. convenience, adding weight to the bike vs. keeping it as light and nimble as possible. You get clarity on these issues after a weekend away from civilization. I’ll probably get some boxes. Check out some of the photos below. More can be found on our Flickr page, as well as Darth’s Shutterfly. We welcomed two new members to the crew on this trip, and nearly had a third who was ready to go Thursday night before departure, but canceled early Friday morning. Maybe the photos below will give you guys a taste of why you need to make it on the next one!
Dave’s KLR Test Ride Video
26 Jun 2009, written by moto 1 CommentsAfter Dave sought and attained the necessary approval to proceed with his plan to acquire a dualsport motorcycle (for tips on how to do this, read How To Convince Your Wife To Let You Get A Motorcycle), we planned a half day ride for Father’s Day to get Dave out on a test ride of another friend’s Kawasaki KLR. It’s a tangled web. This video pretty much tells the story:
Last Day of May Mudfest
31 May 2009, written by moto 0 CommentsA small posse made up of myself, Nato and Ben attempted to loop from Heber, Utah, up into the Uinta mountains. We motored up Center Street towards the dirt, and saw two big moose crossing the street right by the LDS church. Cars were off to the side of the road, people taking pictures, moose taking their sweet time. Not sure what I would have done if they came in our direction, we were only about 20 feet back. I think I would have layed the bike down in the road and jumped in the creek. Ever see two moose jump over a fence? Breathtaking. We didn’t get very far up the canyon before we encountered some snow patches. The first few were no problem, as some trucks loaded with ATVs had cut some nice deep tire ruts. Just get your wheels in the tracks and juice it. Eventually, we hit a nasty section where the snow was deep and as far as the eye could see, and it was pretty muddy too. The little KTM I was riding squirted through the mud just fine, but the BMW and the KLR looked like they were trying to burrow into the mud with even the slightest amount of throttle. It will be a few weeks of warm weather before we’ll be getting into the mountains thataway.
