Why did I do this ride? It began with a visit to the house from Bill & Susan Dragoo, wherein I discussed how I wanted to do a ride that was more fun than serious. Bill said he was co hosting a ride with Dusty of West38moto in July and August. I looked that up on the web site, dithered for a while, and then took the bait:
Off-road adventure/dual-sport motorcycle training, tours, and backcountry exploration
west38moto.com
I really enjoyed our diverse group we became friends over the days, enjoying each other's company and sharing in adventures. The vibe was always good, never tense, in the a dogmatic American tradition of, "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
You'll see on the web site group BDR rides by state. Under the state you will find the next one or more rides in various months. Ooh, pricey! But let me tell you, worth it for the solid support and the social aspects. I'll definitely sign up for others! The main benefit to the pay-for model is the reliable support vehicle and meals. The truck and trailer don't chase the group, but rather goes around and arrives well before the group at the day's destination, which can be up to 200 miles further along. As such we could all trust that whatever kit we'd offload from the bike daily would make it to the destination. Not having maximum kit and crap to have to carry on the bike each day was a BIG plus! I just carried some extra layers, water, the day's lunch (which we would each assemble daily at the support trailer), and my tools and tire stuff. Everything else? On the truck! I got a little carried away and confused about the truck returning to the start point, so on the ride back down Wyoming I was definitely obese on the kit! Though that worked out as we returned on paved roads (long day ride), that was a mistake foible I won't repeat:
On the website you will see slo-mo vids of Bill or Dusty drifting their R1250GSs on gravel roads, and we did our fair share of that. I swapped my 701 for Bill's R1250 one day and can attest to that bike being brilliant and addicting for that. I was amazed at how well those big bikes can handle the rougher terrain, with the mass and lower agility being made up for with a sort of 'plush plow right through' method.
The target skill level for the ride was beginner to intermediate with instruction along the way. For me 'too easy' but I wanted some of that to actually see terrain instead of only the beginning and end of sections because I was too busy trying not to die. It was great to get out and do something different, and get to see some great terrain in more than just a day or two ride at a time. I did encounter lots of sections requiring intense focus so I was happy.
Wyoming has some of the best gravel roads I've ever experienced, much from oil and gas field support. Some are literally 6 lanes across and seldom was there a cattleguard crossing that wasn't pretty smooth. As such the leaders could set a blistering pace at times, with much fun drifting. The leader would stop and wait at an intersection for the rest of the group to catch up. No problem with folks getting lost! The gravel road surfaces are not so prone to mucking out given the general soil type and gravel, with a fast pace still allowing some looking around at the immense rolling vistas. The skittery-ness from 'gravel balls' could be a bit nerve wracking, but the spinning gyros of the wheels and willingness to let the front end go where it wants had me relaxing after a learning period. We did do a lot of powdery 2 track as well, and those section would have been hell in rain! Thankfully it was almost all in the dry, and there was good dust discipline, with riders opening up a lot of space for the wind to blow the dust off the road much of the time. This was possible from good leader discipline, providing confidence a rider would not suddenly come upon a fork in the road with moto tracks heading off in both directions.
I'm glad I chose the August ride, as the July ride was hassled by rain, and - this surprised me - snow blocked access to the Bridger Peak 'expert' section! Our August ride was almost entirely dry. We were only sprinkled on and had one night camping with high straight winds. The southern expert section to an experienced off road guy on a smaller bike would be a fun and not very challenging ride, but for the lesser experienced folks, especially on the bigger bikes, it was in places sphincter puckering. Dusty did a great job in general of setting the group up with the challenging spots of the non-expert sections, and the expert sections were all volunteer with Dusty leading the rest of the group on the main routes.
As for the routes, Dusty generally follows the BDR gpx routes, but is very flexible in finding new routes and carefully bypassing areas that present with, say, a hellish mud experience, reducing risk of people getting hurt and machines being broken. With the good weather and smart route planning, there were still challenges for riders. Some were almost entirely new with such an experience, and also taken by the marketing to have a beginning experience on a land yacht of a bike. By the end of the ride, the voluntary drop-outs were about 1/4 of the riders. On the last day the willing participants doing the last and hardest expert section were three, two more experienced and one less experienced, but on a smaller bike, a 300L. I was one of the three, but was unable to complete the section due to one of the experienced riders being check mated by an early baby heads section, having a fall, with injury that allowed a return on the road, but nothing more technical. I had to ferry the big GS back down in stages, using the clutch as a rear brake with dead engine, to the gravel road, like the rest of the group, we road rode the final stage to a lodge.
Will edit later. All I have time for as I'm off for a day ride on the 701 today!
advbikes.com
