TN Dirt Devil Ride - Friday, April 17th

[KevinB]

For anyone interested in a dual-sport ride, a coupe of us will be doing a slightly modified Tennessee Dirt Devil route this Friday, April 17th (basically same route as Glenn's Camp 'N Ride last summer).

Starting point will be the Walmart in Hohenwald, TN...

https://goo.gl/maps/Z7uxEioL5ekvx7XSA

Meet / unload @ 8:30am...KSU @ 9am. 

Route is @ 3.5 hours / 80 miles before lunch / gas (lunch will probably be at the gas station due to circumstances). Approx. 3 hours / 60 miles back to the vehicles.

This route is mostly big bike friendly. There's several low creek crossings, less than 6" deep...if the water is high there's one that might be @ 12" deep. All are hard, rocky bottom. There's one more challenging section that's got a little bit of off-road gnarly to it and a deeper creek crossing...it can be bypassed by bigger bikes.

[mixfixdave]

Just 2 hours from me...what bikes are you guys riding?  Don't want to slow you down but if you hear a Harley coming...



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[KevinB]

I'll be on a KTM 450 and my buddy will be on a KTM 1290 Super Adv.

[mixfixdave]

I'll be on a KTM 450 and my buddy will be on a KTM 1290 Super Adv.

Here's your buddy breaking in that 790 Super Adventure...

https://youtu.be/EdhTrofJIUE

[mixfixdave]

And some more photos...



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[mixfixdave]

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[mixfixdave]

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[mixfixdave]

Here is our gpx track from today...

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/hYQ6nFYv4nrqwkEHvEVVQd80


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[KevinB]

Thanks for coming out Dave (aka Steve), good to meet you!

Dave took that Buellysses everywhere the dirt bikes went.

And thanks for keeping us on track! (my GPS decided to start smoking crack and went berserk...the first leg of the route, it tried to route via straight lines between waypoints. The next legs of the route it added random waypoints on unrelated roads and kept trying to route us two or three directions at one time).

My buddy Tim was supposed to show up with his KTM 1290SA...but apparently he had an extra unwanted Harley in the garage and decided to trade it yesterday for a new KTM 790 Adventure R Rally (one of 500 on the planet). Washed the showroom smell off pretty quick.

Odo showed a total of 170 miles for the day. The creeks were a little higher than usual due to the rain this past...made some of the crossings challenging,  but not impossible. Except one...the crossing on Old Mill Creek Rd. was concerningly deep. Add in the loose rocky bottom that acted like quicksand, and we decided to backtrack a tad. (note the abandoned Mitsubishi in Dave's pic)

Perfect weather, scenery and company...can't ask for a better day on two wheels.

Fresh off the showroom...

[KevinB]

[Fencejumper09]

Looks like a good time! Hopefully I will get up there for my birthday again this year!

[Nice Goat]

...Except one...the crossing on Old Mill Creek Rd. was concerningly deep. Add in the loose rocky bottom that acted like quicksand, and we decided to backtrack a tad...

I wonder if that underwater log is still there...?  Just up the hill from that crossing is the 1/4 mile mud field also.  With all of the rain recently, that would've been a mess!

[KevinB]

I wonder if that underwater log is still there...?  Just up the hill from that crossing is the 1/4 mile mud field also.  With all of the rain recently, that would've been a mess!

The water was pretty clear, didn't see the log.

A stock Ram 4x4 came through while we were there and didn't have any problems...but he didn't have to worry about falling over and sucking water into a cylinder.

[gulfcoaster]

I keep coming back to this thread and drooling over that 790 rally.  Only disappointment is they stuck with the Karoo 3's even on the rally version.

[KevinB]

I keep coming back to this thread and drooling over that 790 rally.  Only disappointment is they stuck with the Karoo 3's even on the rally version.

That was his complaint yesterday too. Seems like an odd tire spec for that bike.