JDE
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I recently had the pleasure of riding in an event put on by Family Off-Road Adventures - Yosemite Dual Sport Adventure 2011.
On Friday last week, a co-worker, a friend of his he had just made and I rode out to Buckmeadows for the event. My co-worker Jason and I stayed a at local hotel and his new friend Drew camped out at a nearby campground. Registration for the event took place Friday evening so we left from my house in Stockton a little after noon. Made good time riding to the site. Got all checked in the the hotel and then registered for the event. Then we rode to the campsite to help Drew set up his tent. After that we went to the restaurant by the hotel for some dinner and beers, the three of us plus one more guy that was at the same campsite as Drew for the event.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
After dinner we went back to the hotel which is literally at the end of the parking lot for the restaurant and began to unload the bikes. While pulling the luggage off of my bike. I unfortunately took off the heaviest pannier which was on the sidestand side of the bike. Also unfortunately it was dark and I couldn't see that my sidestand was on a tree root. So, when I took the left pannier off, my bike began to tip over. When it went down with a crash my top box hit another bike, a Tiger 800 and it started to go down hitting a KTM1190 next to it. CRAP!!! Luckily Jason, caught the Tiger 800 and stopped it from going all the way down and taking the KTM with it. I put my pannier down and helped right up the Tiger. Then we picked mine up off the ground and parked it somewhere more stable. The Tiger broke it's brake level at the weak point where it's designed to break. So, although it was damaged the owner was still able to ride the next day. That was my biggest fear at the moment, was that I might have caused someone else to not be able to ride during the event before it even started. After things calmed down and I surveyed the damage on mine. I would be able to ride still, but before I could head home on Sunday I would have to figure out how to secure my top box. Since the plastic adapter plate was destroyed in the drop. Also the metal mounts got bent up a bit.
Here's some pics of the mount the next morning just before the event started.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Saturday morning we get up have some breakfast at the place next to the hotel and by buddy Jason's bike starts kind of sluggish, like the battery wasn't happy with the cool morning. But it start's.
Here's some pic's at the pre-ride meeting on Saturday. Had a little safety briefing of sorts and then we headed out.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
So, after the safety spiel. We were off! Went down the road a little ways and then hit the dirt. We were doing pretty good for a while Jason on his BMW650GS, Drew on his BMW1200GS and me on my NC700X and about 100 other riders!
Didn't take too long until we got to the first creek crossing and BAM! Jason's 650GS just died. Remember how it was difficult to start? His battery just lost a cell as the best it would put out was only 9volts. So, we pushed it out of the creek so the other bikes could get by and started to try and get it going.
Battery Trouble by jde95tln, on Flickr
Jason happened to have a Fluke meter with him. He can't help it, he does electrical stuff for a living. We, troubleshot it the best we could even had a rider show up with one of those lithium ion battery jump starters. That got it started, but you had to rev the crap out of the bike to keep it going. All the while the dash is throwing trouble codes left and right, RPMs are reading all over the RPM range. So, that was the end of his ride. We waited for the sweep bikes to show up and radio the sweep truck to pick him and his bike up. The people putting on this event are a great group of folks/family (hence the name). They got the truck in front of his bike, put down a ramp and about 3-4 of us pushed it up the ramp and secured his bike in the back of the truck.
After that is when I started filming with my video camera. The audio is horrible, and I don't really have much editing skill or any software for it. I may try and use YouTube's version at some point. Just haven't had the time.
So first video is after Jason got his bike in the truck and we carried on. Drew on his 1200GS and Justin the guy from the campground who also had a 1200GS left me in the dust and I was trying to catch up to someone, as I didn't really know where I was going. I was following Jason with his GPS on his phone before he broke down. I just followed the tracks as best I could and used my phone for GPS as best I could.
[video=youtube_share;KH240W9i-rA]https://youtu.be/KH240W9i-rA[/video]
The second video here, is when I finally caught up to Drew and Justin. They had stopped with some other guys who were staying with a guys who went down and broke some ribs. Didn't know this at the time but it's the guy hugging his top box near the end of the video.
[video=youtube_share;BtqlWUbMWQo]https://youtu.be/BtqlWUbMWQo[/video]
So, after catching up to the guys we went on in a group of 3 while the others waited with the injured guy until he got picked up by the sweep truck and taken to the hospital. The next video will probably get the most views if I'm upfront about me eating it in this one. Got caught in a rut. To the right was a long drop and I got a little nervous, wanted to go left, but the bike said NO! If you watch closely in the upper left corner you will see my helmet as I roll down the hill a little bit. Thankfully I didn't get hurt at all, but my skid plate and my left pannier took a bad hit. The, pannier was only hanging by 2 of the 4 mounting points. Luckily I was able to get it back on and continue. Oh, and even though the audio is horrible there may be some obscene language that you can make out why I see my pannier hanging off the bike.
[video=youtube_share;qvBs5RPEMCY]https://youtu.be/qvBs5RPEMCY[/video]
On Friday last week, a co-worker, a friend of his he had just made and I rode out to Buckmeadows for the event. My co-worker Jason and I stayed a at local hotel and his new friend Drew camped out at a nearby campground. Registration for the event took place Friday evening so we left from my house in Stockton a little after noon. Made good time riding to the site. Got all checked in the the hotel and then registered for the event. Then we rode to the campsite to help Drew set up his tent. After that we went to the restaurant by the hotel for some dinner and beers, the three of us plus one more guy that was at the same campsite as Drew for the event.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
After dinner we went back to the hotel which is literally at the end of the parking lot for the restaurant and began to unload the bikes. While pulling the luggage off of my bike. I unfortunately took off the heaviest pannier which was on the sidestand side of the bike. Also unfortunately it was dark and I couldn't see that my sidestand was on a tree root. So, when I took the left pannier off, my bike began to tip over. When it went down with a crash my top box hit another bike, a Tiger 800 and it started to go down hitting a KTM1190 next to it. CRAP!!! Luckily Jason, caught the Tiger 800 and stopped it from going all the way down and taking the KTM with it. I put my pannier down and helped right up the Tiger. Then we picked mine up off the ground and parked it somewhere more stable. The Tiger broke it's brake level at the weak point where it's designed to break. So, although it was damaged the owner was still able to ride the next day. That was my biggest fear at the moment, was that I might have caused someone else to not be able to ride during the event before it even started. After things calmed down and I surveyed the damage on mine. I would be able to ride still, but before I could head home on Sunday I would have to figure out how to secure my top box. Since the plastic adapter plate was destroyed in the drop. Also the metal mounts got bent up a bit.
Here's some pics of the mount the next morning just before the event started.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Saturday morning we get up have some breakfast at the place next to the hotel and by buddy Jason's bike starts kind of sluggish, like the battery wasn't happy with the cool morning. But it start's.
Here's some pic's at the pre-ride meeting on Saturday. Had a little safety briefing of sorts and then we headed out.
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
Yosemite trip by jde95tln, on Flickr
So, after the safety spiel. We were off! Went down the road a little ways and then hit the dirt. We were doing pretty good for a while Jason on his BMW650GS, Drew on his BMW1200GS and me on my NC700X and about 100 other riders!
Didn't take too long until we got to the first creek crossing and BAM! Jason's 650GS just died. Remember how it was difficult to start? His battery just lost a cell as the best it would put out was only 9volts. So, we pushed it out of the creek so the other bikes could get by and started to try and get it going.
Battery Trouble by jde95tln, on Flickr
Jason happened to have a Fluke meter with him. He can't help it, he does electrical stuff for a living. We, troubleshot it the best we could even had a rider show up with one of those lithium ion battery jump starters. That got it started, but you had to rev the crap out of the bike to keep it going. All the while the dash is throwing trouble codes left and right, RPMs are reading all over the RPM range. So, that was the end of his ride. We waited for the sweep bikes to show up and radio the sweep truck to pick him and his bike up. The people putting on this event are a great group of folks/family (hence the name). They got the truck in front of his bike, put down a ramp and about 3-4 of us pushed it up the ramp and secured his bike in the back of the truck.
After that is when I started filming with my video camera. The audio is horrible, and I don't really have much editing skill or any software for it. I may try and use YouTube's version at some point. Just haven't had the time.
So first video is after Jason got his bike in the truck and we carried on. Drew on his 1200GS and Justin the guy from the campground who also had a 1200GS left me in the dust and I was trying to catch up to someone, as I didn't really know where I was going. I was following Jason with his GPS on his phone before he broke down. I just followed the tracks as best I could and used my phone for GPS as best I could.
[video=youtube_share;KH240W9i-rA]https://youtu.be/KH240W9i-rA[/video]
The second video here, is when I finally caught up to Drew and Justin. They had stopped with some other guys who were staying with a guys who went down and broke some ribs. Didn't know this at the time but it's the guy hugging his top box near the end of the video.
[video=youtube_share;BtqlWUbMWQo]https://youtu.be/BtqlWUbMWQo[/video]
So, after catching up to the guys we went on in a group of 3 while the others waited with the injured guy until he got picked up by the sweep truck and taken to the hospital. The next video will probably get the most views if I'm upfront about me eating it in this one. Got caught in a rut. To the right was a long drop and I got a little nervous, wanted to go left, but the bike said NO! If you watch closely in the upper left corner you will see my helmet as I roll down the hill a little bit. Thankfully I didn't get hurt at all, but my skid plate and my left pannier took a bad hit. The, pannier was only hanging by 2 of the 4 mounting points. Luckily I was able to get it back on and continue. Oh, and even though the audio is horrible there may be some obscene language that you can make out why I see my pannier hanging off the bike.
[video=youtube_share;qvBs5RPEMCY]https://youtu.be/qvBs5RPEMCY[/video]
