Well, I had my ADV cherry popped – I offer for your amusement……
I’ve had the 2010 V for about 8 months, and since added a couple thousand k on the odometer – all street, highway and twisties where possible. Been thinking about ADV touring, ala JDRocks, so experimented on about 150 miles of AZ (relatively) graded gravel. No tough stuff for fear of a painful and costly wreck, but got the bug for sure so decided to kit the bike out. I bolted on Givi crash bars, Barbusters and a set of Givi hard bags. Full gear head to toe. Wallet slimmer, but feeling good enough to try some “real” ADV riding. I know the Avon Trailriders aren’t up to the task of hard core bits, and this isn’t my first day on a bike, so cautiously good to go.
A buddy with a KLR and somewhat new to the tougher bits agreed to go for a kind of break-in ride on Sunday. He suggested the roads up around Seven Springs (all Forest Service). Being a little adventurous, I was looking for a little more, and found a route that started off the freeway on Table Mesa Rd which turns into FR41. A chat with the Ranger Station, “Well, those roads are washes and not well maintained, but they will get you to Seven Springs”. A more experienced soul might have taken that as some sort of caution. All I heard was, “blah, blah, blah, gravel road, blah, blah, blah”. Armed with this newfound confidence (others might call it oblivious stupidity), I pitch this ‘alternative route’ to my riding partner.
After a bit of convincing, KLR buddy agrees and off we go. Lots of liquids and calories on board as well as first aid/survival. Can’t be that bad, right?
About 5 miles of “Wow, this is cool!”, gives way to “what have we got ourselves into” when we come across the first stretch of ‘not well maintained’, which is where we look at each other and say, “what the hell, let’s give ‘er”. This is, after all ADVENTURE. *****s turn back, right? I ponder stopping for a pic, but phone’s in the bags. I can best describe this section as ‘a little tough’, with some wash-induced ruts and some loose rock on a gentle uphill into the mountains. We make it through that with very little drama, feeling pretty good about now.
A few more miles of some rough but very passable road, then we find ourselves on a pretty rocky and steep incline. There’s been lots of traffic through this, and a dirtbiker advised us, “This is about the worst of it – views are great at the top”. We make it about half way up the slope and I zig while the bike zags, and down I go at all of 2 MPH. All the protection does its job, and the bike and I are unharmed. I discover it’s quite difficult to pick up a bike on a slope tilting the wrong way. But I have this sense that the bike and I can both survive, and after a quick damage inspection, we’re rolling again. I’ve dropped the bike, we all survived, and I’m thinking, “piece of cake”.
We soon discover we should have asked dirtbike-guy how far the rocky slope continues, because it turned into about a mile. Both of us doing the occasional tip-over, but working hard and feeling like we need to move forward. We’re encountering several vehicles along the way, it’s hunting season, so we’re not concerned we’ll be stranded up here and worst case – we’re less than 15 miles from actual civilization. That 1-mile slope takes just over an hour as the rocks and ruts get bigger as the incline increases towards the top. We stop at one point to catch our breath and move off the road as a Surburban is coming down the hill, family wagon with kids in the back, mom in the front passenger seat with the “OMG” look on her face, dad determined to be brave as they go down this very rough grade at what seems like a foolish pace. We see they make it to the bottom of what will turn out to be the last ugly stretch for them, shrug, then back on task of getting up this freekin hill.
More coming, not sure how much text fits...
I’ve had the 2010 V for about 8 months, and since added a couple thousand k on the odometer – all street, highway and twisties where possible. Been thinking about ADV touring, ala JDRocks, so experimented on about 150 miles of AZ (relatively) graded gravel. No tough stuff for fear of a painful and costly wreck, but got the bug for sure so decided to kit the bike out. I bolted on Givi crash bars, Barbusters and a set of Givi hard bags. Full gear head to toe. Wallet slimmer, but feeling good enough to try some “real” ADV riding. I know the Avon Trailriders aren’t up to the task of hard core bits, and this isn’t my first day on a bike, so cautiously good to go.
A buddy with a KLR and somewhat new to the tougher bits agreed to go for a kind of break-in ride on Sunday. He suggested the roads up around Seven Springs (all Forest Service). Being a little adventurous, I was looking for a little more, and found a route that started off the freeway on Table Mesa Rd which turns into FR41. A chat with the Ranger Station, “Well, those roads are washes and not well maintained, but they will get you to Seven Springs”. A more experienced soul might have taken that as some sort of caution. All I heard was, “blah, blah, blah, gravel road, blah, blah, blah”. Armed with this newfound confidence (others might call it oblivious stupidity), I pitch this ‘alternative route’ to my riding partner.
After a bit of convincing, KLR buddy agrees and off we go. Lots of liquids and calories on board as well as first aid/survival. Can’t be that bad, right?
About 5 miles of “Wow, this is cool!”, gives way to “what have we got ourselves into” when we come across the first stretch of ‘not well maintained’, which is where we look at each other and say, “what the hell, let’s give ‘er”. This is, after all ADVENTURE. *****s turn back, right? I ponder stopping for a pic, but phone’s in the bags. I can best describe this section as ‘a little tough’, with some wash-induced ruts and some loose rock on a gentle uphill into the mountains. We make it through that with very little drama, feeling pretty good about now.
A few more miles of some rough but very passable road, then we find ourselves on a pretty rocky and steep incline. There’s been lots of traffic through this, and a dirtbiker advised us, “This is about the worst of it – views are great at the top”. We make it about half way up the slope and I zig while the bike zags, and down I go at all of 2 MPH. All the protection does its job, and the bike and I are unharmed. I discover it’s quite difficult to pick up a bike on a slope tilting the wrong way. But I have this sense that the bike and I can both survive, and after a quick damage inspection, we’re rolling again. I’ve dropped the bike, we all survived, and I’m thinking, “piece of cake”.
We soon discover we should have asked dirtbike-guy how far the rocky slope continues, because it turned into about a mile. Both of us doing the occasional tip-over, but working hard and feeling like we need to move forward. We’re encountering several vehicles along the way, it’s hunting season, so we’re not concerned we’ll be stranded up here and worst case – we’re less than 15 miles from actual civilization. That 1-mile slope takes just over an hour as the rocks and ruts get bigger as the incline increases towards the top. We stop at one point to catch our breath and move off the road as a Surburban is coming down the hill, family wagon with kids in the back, mom in the front passenger seat with the “OMG” look on her face, dad determined to be brave as they go down this very rough grade at what seems like a foolish pace. We see they make it to the bottom of what will turn out to be the last ugly stretch for them, shrug, then back on task of getting up this freekin hill.
More coming, not sure how much text fits...