Talladega Dirt Skyway - Sunday, Mar. 4th

[Nice Goat]

Had an awesome time riding today.

[terryrussell1]

Hate I missed this. Bike was all packed up and ready to go, but When I woke up this morning I felt sick and it hasn't gone away.  Woe is me. Looks like a great time. Next time hopefully soon I'll get out and ride with y'all again.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[KevinB]

Great ride!

[kylepeterson]

well that was a lotta fun ! i rarely ride the drz anymore, and forgot just how capable and FUN a bike it is to slide around on.

so much to do in talledega :-)

the elevation profile is from one short road (but very fun) road we covered.


fly the route on google earth (see the kmz) if you like, or do it one better and go play on your bike !

[jrobinson]

Kyle looks a lot more excited than Kevin. lol

[KevinB]

Kyle looks a lot more excited than Kevin. lol

I'm not used to waking up at 4am...I was still asleep. My brain wasn't processing things in real-time yet. At the moment shown above, I was still thinking "Why is Glenn standing against the window holding his phone sideways??".  :)

[jrobinson]

The little kid in the background was thinking the same thing.

[Mulley]

You're making me miss dualsporting. It was such a great day for it.

[KevinB]

The previous owner of my 640 had it set up for single track (must be a masochist), with a 50t rear sprocket and soft-terrain tires. I've already re-geared it, and did my part yesterday to hasten a change to more dual-sport oriented tires.

Burned 1/2" - 3/4" worth of knobs off yesterday in 180 miles...

[Nice Goat]

Our track is attached.

We got started about 7:45 AM and arrived back in Piedmont at exactly 5:00 PM.  We covered 180 miles total, but we were only moving for 5 hr 20 min.  Average speed overall was 33.7 mph.

The dirt portion of CR 500 was dry, i.e., no mud, but there was a fair amount of fresh deep gravel.  We averaged 32 mph on this portion.

The first part of 600-2 coming south from Adams Gap to Clairmont Gap, was also dry with some fresh gravel.  This segment was five (5) miles long, and we averaged 31 mph on this segment.

The second part of 600-2, from Clairmont Gap to Talladega Creek, was rocky with a few deep mud holes.  All of the mud holes were easy to go around except one.  All three of us were slipping and sliding and doing seat and peg gymnastics to keep from falling over.  As the elevation started to decrease, there were ruts in the road that were easily 2-1/2 to 3 feet deep.  It was ridiculous.  One mistake and the rut would swallow your bike.  It is obvious that they are not maintaining this road.  Anyway, this segment was also five (5) miles long, and we averaged 15 mph on this segment.

The first part of 600-1, from Hwy 77 to Sherman Cliffs (33.27485, -086.08585), is also smooth and dry with a bit of gravel.  This segment was 7.3 miles long, and we averaged 30 mph on this segment.

The second part of 600-1, from Sherman Cliffs to Hwy 77, has some areas with sand and some other areas that are much more rocky than 600-2.  The good news is that there were no bike-swallowing ruts, and the 5-6 mud holes were all easy to ride around.  There is one rocky area which feels almost like steps; you really need to maintain your momentum and pick a good line.  This segment was 6.6 miles long, and we averaged 20 mph.

We got to the end where 600-1 dumps into Hwy. 148 east of Sylacauga, and immediately did a U-turn and headed back north on the same road.  This time we averaged 19 mph on the southern segment, stopped for one hour at Sherman Cliffs for some photos and snacks, and averaged 29 mph on the northern segment.

For several reasons, we elected to skip the rutted southern segment of 600-2.  We bypassed it and jumped back on at Clairmont Gap.  This time we averaged 32 mph on the northern segment of 600-2.

Not going to talk about our average speeds on 281...

The last segment we started on CR500 again, but this time, near Coleman Campground, we turned onto CR540 instead.  This was the most scenic road, in my opinion.  It looked like it had not been traveled by anybody in weeks.  Lots of curves and a few single lane bridges.  This segment was 24 miles long and we averaged 28 mph.

[jrou111]

Did anyone run out of gas?  ;)

[KevinB]

Glenn is obviously a meticulous planner and calculator,  practiced excellent fuel management and had precisely the amount of fuel required.

If the route would have been 30 feet longer, he would have been SOL.

[Fencejumper09]

Kyle must have gotten laid Saturday night! Look at that grin!

Hate that I missed it but didn't back into town until 1 pm Sunday.

I was thinking about the fun y'all were probably having when I drove by Talladega. Did y'all see a forest fire? Looked like one was burning south of Anniston.

[Nice Goat]

Yeah, so the data analysis is above.  Here is what I learned from riding with Kevin and Kyle yesterday.

• Getting up at 4:00 AM sucks.  Getting up that early and driving 1-1/2 hours to Piedmont sucks worse.
• The Smokehouse Platter at Huddle House is awesome.  You don't have to wait if you ask a friend to order for you before you arrive.
• The wrist strap on a GoPro remote will not stretch over your 4-season ADV jacket.
• It takes two bungees and two web straps to hold a 10-pound tool roll on your seat.
• The float bowl on a KTM sounds like a full steel drum chorus when you bang on it with boxed end wrenches.
• In a battle between a loaded KTM 640 Adventure and a comical state trooper, the KTM will win.
• Kyle is still faster than me in the dirt, even though he was riding on motard wheels and nearly bald Pilot Powers.
• When Kyle lets his hair grow, he is one sexy bitch.
• Kyle is so fast, the wind resistance stripped the threads off the bolts holding on his skid plate.
• Kevin wants to be a commercial realtor when he retires from the state.  He's already learned the insiders' language.  He plans to sell police substations in Meridian.
• Kyle can predict the future.  Somehow he knew that somebody at Cheaha store would drop their 900-pound chrome touring rig.
• Andy Capp's Hot Fries are the best, because they are shaped like french fries but they taste like pork rinds.
• Harley guys love it when a dirty dual sport rider walks up unannounced/uninvited handing out stickers.
• It doesn't do any good to install a translucent gas tank if you are not going to monitor your fuel level.
• Cheese dip is better when there is a pool of butter on top.
• Mexican restaurants should not employ gringas, because they don't understand our Spanish (and they're not as hot).

[Nice Goat]

..Did y'all see a forest fire? Looked like one was burning south of Anniston.

Yes, we smelled smoke and saw the haze south of the interstate.

After dinner in Piedmont, we smelled a different kind of smoke ... either electrical or a burning meth lab.