Dual Sporting the Free State 2016

[klaviator]

After a few years of conflicts keeping me from this event I finally made it to a Dual Sporting the Free State.  Having enjoyed all the other rides I have made that Al put on, I expected that this would be a blast as well.  I was not disappointed.  I took a bunch of pics.  To do this event justice I thought I'd do a full ride report.

Since the ride from my house to the campground in the Bankhead Forest was not a very exciting ride it was an easy decision to drive my truck.  It was nice to be able to bring a large cooler and my full size camping gear.

When I got there I drove past the campground as did everybody else.  I did see it and went a bit down the road and turned around.  Al and Joey were already there.  I unloaded, set up my tent and then we hung out.



Eventually a few more people showed up and Al and Melony started cooking.



We could have fed two or three times as many people.  Then we hung out around a pretty pathetic campfire and solved all the world's problems.



It got a little chilly that night but it was good to be out camping.

The next morning Al and Melony cooked up 10 pounds of bacon, some pancakes and biscuits.  We had a great breakfast and more riders showed up.

Looks like a good story being told here:



Then it was time to ride.  We got on a dead end trail that led to the river. 



.



.



Then I took off before the group to set up and get some pics.  I figured a big mud hole would make a good pic.  So I set up far enough form the hole that I didn't think I'd get splashed:



But I didn't think about that puddle right next to me :o

The first rider splashed me pretty good so I moved to a different and missed one or two riders.



.



I saw a rider approaching the mud hole veer off the trail and heard a crash.  A few seconds later he backed up and continued on :o



I was really surprised.  It was Tony on his KLR.  As he came by I asked if he was OK.  He replied " I am, the bike isn't and then continued on.



More riders.



.



What's a V Strom doing on this muddy trail???



Steve going around another mud hole.



And Johnny going through it.

[klaviator]

A minute or two later I caught up to everyone since they had stopped.  It was time to get out the zip ties and fix the KLR.



Tony "admiring the handiwork.  maybe he thought if he tilted hi head the bike would look straight ???



Parts:



And off we went.  I was amazed that not only was Tony OK but the bike could continue the ride.

It wasn't too long before everyone was stopped again.  This time it was our fearless leader who had a flat.

Al unbolted his top case which was metal and used it for a stand for his bike and took off the rear wheel.



We found this huge nail in the tire:



I happened  to have a 17" tube and Steve had an air compressor.  We used the sidestand from the heaviest bike in the group, a Vstrom 650 to break the bead of the Shinko 244 rear tire.

Airing it back up:



Stole this pic off of facebook:

[klaviator]

Then we continued on.  This was another dead end trail down to the river.  This trail was my favorite part of the ride.  It was downhill, narrow and pretty rutted out. 

Got a selfie by the river:



Johnny was also enjoying the view.

[Al Goodwin]

EXCELLENT pictures, thanks for the report, I'm looking forward to more.

Glad you could finally make it.

[klaviator]

EXCELLENT pictures, thanks for the report, I'm looking forward to more.

Glad you could finally make it.

Thanks Al.  After I got home I offloaded, took a shower and then was so tired I took a nap.  It took a while to start working on this.  I guess I'm just getting old.  It will probably be tomorrow before I finish this.  I still have a bunch of pics to post.

[VWCarlos]

Awesome pics! Looks like it was a good time... I guess I need to start looking for a dual sport bike.

[SlowRoad]

Looks like a good time.  I was going to take the boys down to the river on the dead end trail yesterday, but a large mud hole with a high center somewhat changed my plans and didn't leave us enough time.  It was perfect weather this weekend.  Glad y'all had a good time.

[Chuck A.]

Stopped by the camp Saturday afternoon but no one was around. Looks like a good time was had.

[klaviator]

Stopped by the camp Saturday afternoon but no one was around. Looks like a good time was had.

Chuck, you should of joined us on the ride.  We know you can dual sport that Vulcan, I have proof. ;)

[griff]

We weren't able to make it over Saturday morning but we still wanted to camp and ride Flint Creek. Being that we were taking dirt only bikes we loaded everything up in the truck.  It was a tight fit with all the camping gear as well.



We got over there just after the dual sport ride returned. We setup camp and cooked out. Sam built a campfire which wasn't a small task with no readily available firewood.

The next morning we(Becks, and Fencejumper) hauled the bikes over to flint creek. Mrs. Beck was going to ride Sam's spare bike. After firing it up, it was making some awful noises from the top end of the motor. We started working on it for a few minutes in the parking lot. I figured out I need a 10mm allen in my tool kit. I thought it had jumped time. I had fired it up at our house before loading it without an issues. We gave up on it and Mrs. Beck headed back to camp. While this was going on, Beck tried to be helpful and get my bike warmed up along with his. I didn't know and started it as if it was cold. This of course led to it being flooded. We ended up having to change a spark plug on my KLX before we could go ride. Thankfully I had a spark one.



Sam came around a corner and didn't avoid the mud hole. It had a sticky clay bottom.



We were having to much fun riding for me to get any more pictures.

[klaviator]

We ended up at Chef Troy's talk of the town for lunch where everyone had a great lunch.



Then it was off for some more riding.  We rode a combination of paved and dirt roads.  Some of the paved roads were narrow, rough and twisty.  Perfect for a dual sport or adventure bike.  We stopped at one spot that had a nice hill climb.  Actually, it looked more like a spot for Trails riding since the "hill" was closer to a vertical rock face.  Only 2 riders were brave enough to climb it.  Here's some pics of fencejumper doing it on his KTM.

I was a little late with this pic.



He made it up then dropped it.



.



.



.



.



I cropped this pic to get a better closup of bike and rider.



This was cool to watch and very impressive but David is a young guy on a KTM.  How about an old guy on a KLR with over 80,000 miles on it???



.



The same two pics after cropping.  Which pics do ya'll like better?



.



Then it was more riding until we stopped in Winston.



.



I asked Al what the story was behind this building across the street and he said:  "It's little, it's old and it's made of rock."

[klaviator]

After Winston it was 40 or so miles back to the campground.  Despite the recent rains it was still pretty dusty.  My total mileage for the day was 173 miles. 

We made it back to the camp where we found more people and another tent set up.  It was Beck with wife, kids and dogs.  Not too much later Griff and Sam showed up with a truckload of bikes.  they had come to camp and ride the Flint Creek trails the next day. 

It was good that Sam showed up.  Her true calling is Combustion Engineer ( I didn't want to say Pyromaniac).  She made sure we didn't have to settle for the pathetic campfire we had the previous night.  Despite being told there wasn't any wood around, she found some.



We still had plenty of food left so we had another sausage fest in addition too burgers and dogs.  Then  it was another interesting night around the campfire.  I'm really glad that I decided to camp rather than just riding over for the day.  It's a big part of the experience and really gives you a chance to get to know the other riders that just doesn't happen on the ride itself.

It was another chilly night for this time of year in Alabama with temps in the 40s.  Next morning we managed to get a fire going with leftover scraps of wood.  Al heated up the leftover bacon and pancakes and we had another good breakfast.

Then we hung out a while.  eventually some of the riders headed off for Flint creek.  The rest of us slowly packed up and headed home.

Some pics from Sunday morning.



.



.



This is how the wood was gathered, one worker and five supervisors



It was a great event.  I'm really glad I was able to make it this year.  Thanks Al for putting this on.  It was great riding with everyone and really great getting to know some of you who camped out.  I'm looking forward to next year's ride.

[Guidedawg]

Great report and pics!  Thanks for sharing with those of us neither brave nor skilled enough to enjoy :)

[klaviator]

I cropped and blew up a few pics just because I could and I thought they looked cool.



.



I think this one came out the best:

[Al Goodwin]

GREAT report Winn, thanks.....Glad you finallyg ot to ride the "Free State"...