- Week Shake Down Ride (prep for 2023 NEBDR run)

[Pdsmith505]

In the spirit of getting ready for the NEBDR later this month (read about it here), I decided it would be prudent to do an overnight shake down run (somewhat) locally to make sure the changes in gear, equipment, and luggage I've made since the last big ride all worked together well.

Turns out, it was big enough an adventure to write about it all on it's own.

Plan was to make a quick trip out from eastern VA to western VA and hit up some areas I've played in before. Notionally, hitting a lot of the same terrain with different gear should give me an accurate idea of how things have changed, yeah?

Well...

Getting the bike sprung for my weight and being able to easily adjust the preload for payload (pseudo-alliteration for the win!), really planted the bike. Felt like I was on rails the whole daggum time. Inspired a whole lot of confidence... but more on that later. Managed to see a couple historic sites, check out the new hammock tent thing, try out the new bags, use the tablet for navigation, all that good stuff.

So, lets get to the meat of it.

I took off out of Dahlgren, VA around noon and headed towards the Shenandoah Valley. On the way, and totally unplanned, I ran into the Chancellorsville battleground, and a local brewery that made an excellent light lager.

I passed through Orange, VA along the way as well and got excited when the map showed a "booster park". Orange is home to one of Aerojet's manufacturing facilities, so I figured there would be a booster or a rocket or two.
There was not. Everyone was disappointed.

But, back to riding. At Gordonsville, I decided to head north to the Massanutten Mountains and check out two forest roads there. Turns out I hadn't downloaded base maps to Gaia on my tablet (no cell service version) for that far north. Whoops. Still, that's what backups are for, so I slapped my phone into the vibration-dampening, wirelessly charging mount and charged forward. Along the way, found some neat campsites (one that I used) and a civil-war era iron furnace. There are OHV areas there with more spirited riding... but I hadn't paid the fee, and I didn't want to over do it, so I elected to not risk both things (trouble with the law, trouble with myself).

Getting done up in the northern section, it was getting to be time to set up camp. Ran back to the secluded spot I found (picture above) and got to work trying out the new hammock and getting some use out of the pruning saw I brought this time.

But... I'm out of images for this post... so...

 

[Pdsmith505]

Camp set up, I learned that unless it's already raining, or for sure going to rain, I'm not gonna deal with the rain tarp now that I'm using a Haven Hammock Tent. In fact, I'm going to keep it in the main top bag with all the other camping supplies. I have it in case it is raining when I set up, so my bed can stay dry and to provide a covered area for cooking or wrenching.

With that, I end day one on the note that it was redonkulously hot this weekend, leading to another lesson learned: if it's hot, just unpack the sleeping bag liner and leave the sleeping bag in the compression sack.

On to Day 2. Woke up, packed up camp, had coffee, got on the road. Headed down to a favorite area of mine in GW Natl... Big Levels. It's a high-clearance vehicle trail with some really great camping spots that most people can't get to. Really enjoy it.

This was where I really wanted to test out the new luggage and suspension upgrades... on a known challenging course that I have ran before with the old setup. The bike planted with proper suspension and less overall width on the luggage... I felt like a daggum mountain goat (which is not to say that I am an expert, just that I was really happy with how the bike handled my mediocre riding skills).

Going up...


Going back down to get my camera...


There are definitely better sections, but they are mostly long uphills consisting of almost entirely rought-cut babyheads. I just don't have the right camera to pick up that action.

Still, I was pretty excited, despite my Ronald McDonald goggles... one take away from this ride is that goggles are the bomb. More airflow into the helmet for hot days. Still have the visor for rain or high-speed noise reduction.

From here, I ran most of big levels and it's various off-shoots without incident. Even went down to the bottom of Kennedy Ridge and saw the "no motorized vehicles past here" sign. Wish I had brought a painted rock to leave on the sign post...

Next, I planned to go explore the southern parts of this section of GWNF... But... as I mentioned above, confidence was high due to the new suspension.

Too High.

Took a little whoop fast (before the water) without knowing the other side, planted the front in the mud wrong, and detoured off the trail.

In a bout of pure, un-adultered genious, I managed to make sure the bike hit the trees before I did. Definitely not just luck that I didn't die. The pictures don't do justice to how much stuff we went through... once again, the pruning saw was definitely worth its weight.

Here's where good photo evidence stops. Suffice to say, I was too busy working to make sure I didn't have to use the "oh shit button" on my Garmin.

After pulling the luggage off, finding out that the front brake didn't work anymore, and that the clutch was also completely hosed... I was able to get the bike back on the road. in the attempt, I started it a few times to try and walk it up the hill... that didn't work, still had to do a series of dead- and squat-like lifts on the front and back to walk the bike up the three feet of embankment. What starting it ad bumping it into gear (remember the clutch?) did do though, was drain the battery entirely.

Seriously, there was no juice left. It's probably time to replace the factory 2017 battery.

Fuck.

First thing first, triage on the damage.

• The front brake was restored by re-tightening the master cylinder banjo bolt. Thank god for small miracles.
• The clutch line was broken just before the clutch master. No repairing that.
• Various bits of sundry plastic misalignment, and one destroyed brush gaurd.
• Bottom part of my tablet mount died... sacrificing itself for the life of my tablet. It will be remembered.
• One broken mirror... but that happening while I was dragging the bike out, not parking it in the tress.

After I sorted things out, reloaded the luggage, and thought about life, I started pushing down the trail. About 100 feet at a time. Which, if you consider the mid-90 temperature and mid-90 humidity in conjunction with a fully loaded ktm 690 on a slight uphill, was actually pretty good.

Until the slight uphill became a slightly steeper uphill.

Fuck. This is the easy half of Big Levels...

Options to not using the "oh shit button" running out, I hiked down the trail a ways without the bike. About a thousand yards ahead, past another mud hole, I managed to find people.

And they had jumper cables.

And they agreed to help.

Joy.

Bike started, I let it run for a while just sitting there. Need that battery to get some kind of a charge on it, because from here on out, I was going to be practicing clutchless upshifts, downshifts, starts, and stops, for another 190 miles to get home.

Long story short... I made it home. Mostly on the interstate because I knew I wouldn't have stop signs or lights. But, at the end, in Dahlgren, I had to do some creative right and U turns to deal with the current status of the various stoplights on the surface streets without stopping.

 

[Pdsmith505]

So... of all the new stuff, what worked?

Parts:
Suspension - xTrig preload adjuster and the Slaven's recommended springs for my weight. Suspension isn't limiting my offroad riding anymore. Now it's all me. D'oh!
AdventureSpec Mini Tower - had to add 1" bar spacers to it's mount so I could still see the stock dash, but it held the Samsung Galaxy Active Tab 2 like a champ.
Ram Mount for Tablet - Tab Tight mount with locking screws. Has two tiny screws that are near impossible to access once mounted on the back (theft deterrence). Held the tablet solidly, then died so that the tablet may live. I'd rather the cheap part break.

Gear:
Suit - The ICON Raiden setup I have now is pretty solid. Decent price point for 'last year's model'. A little hot, but it's also solidly waterproof, and the pants have suspenders. Don't think I'll ever buy moto pants without suspenders again. Only gripe: I wish the pants had a mesh liner behind the laminated shell.
Goggles - with a quick strap setup, these are awesome in hot weather. When I wasn't using them, they lived on the back of my helmet without issue.
Luggage - The rackless Nelson Rigg Rigg Gear saddle bags sat atop my rack and rotopax tanks. Solidly starpped down, they didn't move, held what I needed, survived alot of shenanigans.

Equipment:
Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 2 - picked up off of amazon for a song. Ran Gaia pretty well, but bogged down on zooms greater than 5mi scale with the private property layer active. Should have spent the extra $50 to get one that took a sim card though.
Shower Hair Cap: Standard issue, adama brand from wallmart, clear plastic, hair cap. $1 for 15. The absolute best way to cover a tablet during rain to avoid water intrusion into the charging port.

Most Valuable Player:
Pruning Saw - This was the hero of the day. On previous rides, I was stymied by the small stature of my leatherman saw serveral times. So, this time, I decided to bring along my oldest, jankiest pruning saw. Didn't care if it fell off during the ride, didn't care if it broke. It was old. I wanted to see if having a pruning saw would make the difference. It did. It let me leave ready to go deadfall firewood for the next person to show up at my campsite. It also made the difference between having to hit the "oh shit button" or not.

What didn't work?

Parts:
Battery - Technically this is an old item, oh well. I'm pretty sure it's just past it's due date, but man it nearly killed the ride.

Gear:
PIllows - So, I bought an inflatable pillow, because my compressible pillow was taking up too much space. The inflatable pillow worked, don't get me wrong... but I forgot to also remove my compressible pillow from the pack. Could have organized better

 

[AKMedic]

Overall, You learned some stuff, so it was not a bad ride. Pruning saw....Never thought of that, good idea. Good luck