Now, if you're still reading and convinced that you're going to do this, there are some things that I recommend you bring along and do to prepare for your adventure.
- Permission from the land owner. Should you need his tractor to retrieve your bike, it would go over much better if he knew you were there in the first place. It's also beneficial that he's not running a corn combine or other mechanized machinery that will chop you to bits.
- Lots of friends. You will want friends riding in front. They will help you navigate the tough parts. If they can't make it through, you have no chance. Find another way. You will need friends behind. This is primarily so you don't get stranded as all the other, experienced, mentally balanced, riders leave you in their dust. Most everyone will want to ride behind you as it will give them the best vantage point for their GoPro videos.
- A winch. A 750# bike stuck a mile from the nearest pavement will quickly drain everyone's energy and patience. Have a plan for this.
- ATGATT. It's really likely that you're going to face plant, so you might as well put every thing on.
- First aid kit and splints. If you have to ask, please go back and chat with your mental health professional again.
- Crash bars. I'm not talking about the wimpy little single BMW engine guard, I'm talking front and back Wunderlicht crash bars.
- A sense of humor.
- No fear of falling, being laughed at and potentially hearing about it at every gathering for the rest of your life.
So, the GS Giants were putting on a rally this weekend and I was invited along. We were going to hit Destination Daytona first and then head out and meet some serious off road riders. The thought was that I'd hang with these guys as long as I could, grab some pavement and meet them at the next land mark with an address and a nice cold sweet tea. That isn't exactly how it turned out. They have this idea of a roll chart and it doesn't have addresses on it. Landmarks are hard to come by.
There was a difference of opinion as to how hard the "easy" route was and someone even speculated that it could be done 2 up. Another router planner couldn't believe I would try it on a K16 and thought I was BSing him. After about 5 minutes of "no seriously, I'm riding a K1600GT," he told me I wouldn't make it.
The next morning, we all met. There must have been 60 or more bikes. We went over the rules and were off. It worked out that there were some folks that really were a bit apprehensive and wanted to stay with our group. We were happy to have them along. There were about 7 of us in our little group.
As I said before, I have no experience in the dirt; but, reasoned that the challenge was to go fast enough to keep forward motion; but, not so fast that my Road Pilots would lose traction. I also reasoned that I should probably look far ahead and not worry about the ruts and tracks; be loose in the elbows and let the bike find it's way. That proved to be a good strategy. Finding that sweet spot wasn't hard. When the rear end breaks loose, you know you need to gently get off the throttle and not grab the brake; lest one wants to high side the bike. The trick is to keep your balance while the bike is finding it's way. The whole side ways slipping motion isn't all that foreign. It sort of feels like riding on a rear tire that is going flat.
At some point, I got the bike sideways; but, I never stopped and managed to pull out of it. The rear end came around to the right, I turned the handlebars all the way to the right, just like taking a rear wheel drive car out of a skid, and got off the throttle. I was focused more on balance. At some point I got a bit anxious and put my left leg down at which point, the bike swung back around and my leg almost went under the hard case on the left. I quickly learned that I need to resist that urge and keep my feet on the pegs at all times. I got a bit more than a half mile of this before I retired to hard pavement. I had learned a lot and continuing would simply be pressing the good luck I was having so far. Half a mile of this is quite a bit!
I dealt with 2 types of off road - one was the aforementioned farmers field and the other was a hard dirt surface. Actually, the hard dirt surface presents challenges of it's own. After going through 2.5 - 3" of powder like soil, you would think that hard dirt would be easy. It's not. The first thing you realize is that you're likely to bleed a lot more if you go down on this stuff. It looks very hard and foreboding; whereas a farmers field with all that soft soil seems more like it would be landing on a stack of firm pillows. I was also traveling faster, which means less reaction time. Mostly, I was doing about 25 mph on the hard surface and very relaxed. What I didn't like about it was when I hit some rut, tire track or whatever else and I'd get a shot of adrenaline. When that happens, grip tightens and so do the arms and legs - exactly what you don't need. I don't know yet how to train that out; except maybe to ride in the dirt a lot more.
At lunch, I learned that you shouldn't use the front brake off road. This might have been useful information to have before I started riding.
I have to say that I feel much more confident on this bike on dirt roads than ever before. Clearly, the bike wasn't made for this type of riding. I didn't get stuck or fall at all. I'm pretty confident that I know the traction limitations of this bike pretty clearly now and have even learned some techniques for dealing with bad terrain. That said, I don't recommend that anyone do this. I think you can get the same, and better, experience taking an off road course on a suitable motorcycle. The end result of all this is that I had a great time and will probably be starting a second blog in the next year - bobs-R1200GS.blogspot.com. Maybe I better try to register that now!
Sorry, no pics or vids yet. I was way too busy to turn on my own GoPro. If I find someone in the group that has good video, I'll post it here.
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