Oregon to Utah to Whitehorse

[pnwrider]

Oregon to Utah to Whitehorse on an S10, Part 1:

After finishing up all the last minute things that come with being a grad student at the end of the term, I took off for the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route, UTBDR.

We left from Eugene Oregon with 6 bikes and a full size dodge as a chase truck. It was a good assortment of bikes:
My Super Tenere,
KTM 990
BMW 1200gsa
BMW 1150gsa
BMW 800gs
KLR 650.

We headed down through Oregon and into Nevada where we meet up with one more KLR. He called me an hour before we were going to meet with a flat tire on the side of I80, Here is what we found when we went to his location.

After getting the tire fixed we headed on towards UT, but after only about 100 miles the newly joined KLR died due to an issue that we were not able to diagnose, so he decided that it would be best to load up the bike in the back of the truck and got taken back to Reno where he lives. This was the first problem of many.

After meeting back up with the truck we took Highway 50 across Nevada and into UT, about at the border the F800 decided that it wanted to stop working. After a few tries we found that it was the fuel pump controller which had stopped working and after a little improvising we hotwired the fuel pump to a cigarette lighter plug so that anytime it was plugged in the bike would run and we were off.

We got to the start of the trail in Mexican hat on the fourth day and quickly set to changing tires for the trail. I rode with the stock Tourances to UT and put on a set of K60s. I was hoping for something a little more aggressive but did not want to buy 2 sets of tire and wanted the K60s for the trip to Whitehorse.

Tire Changing

The begging of the fifth day we started the UTBDR:
After just a few miles in the F800 which was still had the fuel pumped jumped would not start after stopping for a water brake on the side of the trail. This time it said that the immobilizer key system was not able to read the key and therefore was not allowing the bike to start. There was nothing we could do about this so it was into the back of the truck for the F800.

And we countined on.

The trail started out real fast and smooth but soon through out a few challenges. Here was the first:

The 1150 ended up getting sideways in the loose sand and crashed pretty hard breaking a turn signal but overall handed it good. In this same spot the KLR, not the one that went back home but the one that started in Eugene, came into the same stuff and crashed. This ended with a bloody/ broken nose. The KLR guy went into the truck and the F800 guy, who’s bike is still in the back of the truck finished the day on the KLR.

After this day we were all tired but looking forward to the rest of the trip, to be continued...
-Ryan

 

[Venture]

MORE PLEASE!! ::012::

 

[HoebSTer]

Awesome start to a trip report!!! Keep it coming!!!

 

[tomatocity]

Please... Don't... Stop... Please Don't Stop ::012::

 

[Twisties]

IN... ::008::

 

[GrahamD]

Damn.

Carnage!

I'm IN. ;D

 

[eemsreno]

Wow looks like the Super Tenere might be the only one to finish the ride, Keep it coming.

 

[pnwrider]

Part 2 coming to you from Dave’s RV in Vanderhoof BC:

So after the first day on the trail a few of the riders decided to head up the road to Moab where they would meet up with parts for the 800 and spend a day recuperating.

This left only three of us to continue on the route, myself on the S10, My brother on the 1200, and a friend on the 990. Today would be section 2 of the UTBDR which goes from Monticello to Moab. There are 2 ways on the map to complete this section, one which goes into the La Sal Mountains and the other through Lockhart Basin, the latter being marked as experts only.

We of course decided to take on Lockhart. All started out well, the road was fast and smooth but this did not last long. We soon ended up hitting deeper and deeper sand. At first this was fun, we were cruising right along letting the bike do the work. After a few miles of this the fun was starting to wear off. The fun of battling the sand was almost completely gone when we got to a dead end and realized that most all of the sand that we had just go through was for nothing and we would have to travel 3 or 4 miles back down the same blasted road in order to get back on the trail. It was this trip back that really got to us. It was a little cooler then the day before but 95 degrees F is still way too hot for riding 500+ lb bikes in the sand.

I had the most trouble on this section, I am not sure if it was just the fact that the other 2 bikes had true knobbies where I had K60's or if the front end of the S10 is just a little heavier, or just experience and natural talent.

After this happened a couple times, and then laying the bike on its side, and sliding it to more solid ground I was shot. But little did we know we were just getting started.

After getting back on the main trail we soon found that where there was sand before there was now rock. Over all I must say that the Tenere suspension handled the rocks with ease. I was moving, and almost able to keep up with the 990, well maybe not quite... But even though the suspension was great the ground clearance was not. Much of the trail consisted of stair steps both up and down and even at a crawl I had to be real choosy in order to get the bike down with not sliding on its belly, sometimes it was unavoidable. I found that overall I was so tired that I did not take near enough photos but the following will have to do.

After a few hours of this I was getting a good feeling for what the bike could make it over without problem and what I would need to take real slow. So just as everything was going well and I was moving right along on a fairly flat section of road my front tire ran over a rock. No big deal right? It was just a small rock, rectangular in shape about 5in wide and 12in long.

I do not have a picture of the rock but I do of the damage it caused. The rock was hit just right so that one end bounced up to catch on the bottom of my touratch skid plate wail the other end dug a hold into the dirt. This cause the front of the bike to jump into the air and the rock to be smashed into the case through the skid plate.

This was not a big enough hit to throw me off but I was instantly worried about the damage. I pulled over and seen oil coming out of the bottom. We quickly took off the skid plate to find out the source of the oil and then laid the bike on its side, putting the damage up to stop any more oil to drain out.
I then used some hand sanitizer to clean up the damaged area and applied some JB Weld stick. The patch was hard within an hour and we were back on the trail.

Notice the bent oil filter, it was smashed by the skid plate.

From here we continued on down the trail though I was much more cautious of free rocks. After about 9 hours on the trail we made it into Moab. The next day I knew I would need to take a full assessment of the damage but I was sure thankful for the JB Weld, to have cold water and a hot meal.

More to be continued…
-Ryan

 

[~TABASCO~]

Great RR !!! Keep it up !!!!! ::26::

 

[Karson]

That's some gnarly stuff for a adventure bike! Love it! The last pics reinforce the need for a "bomb-proof" skid plate if you plan on any off-roading.

 

[Venture]

Jaxon, ship that man one of your bash plates, will ya? >

JB Weld to the rescue, I love it! Great report and keep it coming.

Also, I hate sand, even with knobbies. I tense up which makes it all the worse...

 

[pnwrider]

Well, I made it to Whitehorse, but I guess that is getting ahead of myself.

My laptop battery is about dead and I am tired, so the rest of the story will have to wait until later...

I just looked at Jaxon's plate attached to Rem's bike, man that thing is stout! I might have to go that route, it makes the one I have look like aluminum foil.

-Ryan

 

[EricV]

Well, I made it to Whitehorse, but I guess that is getting ahead of myself.

My laptop battery is about dead and I am tired, so the rest of the story will have to wait until later...

I just looked at Jaxon's plate attached to Rem's bike, man that thing is stout! I might have to go that route, it makes the one I have look like aluminum foil.

-Ryan

Great ride report, I look forward to reading the rest! ::008:: For that kind of hit, Jaxon's skid plate is probably the best. The Rumbux has the advantage of the steel tube frame along the bottom, but that was a hard hit with a loose rock, no telling how any skid plate thinner than Jaxon's would have fared. Makes me want to look into offering a stainless steel skid plate upgrade for the hard core guys like you that take those expert marked routes.

 

[MotorcopBBQ]

Great ride report. Shame you guys have having just bad luck. Keep it coming
::003::

 

[Twisties]

Oh Ryan, Calling Ryan.... ::017::

 

[twinrider]

Just scratched the Touratech skid plate off my list.... ::025::