Back into ADV riding...

[rtadlock]

Hi all, 

I spent a few years riding a 990 ADV and had a ton of fun.  I had a thread on another forum where I posted my ride reports, so I figured I'd start another here.  It's nice to just have a running thread of my reports IMO.  Anyway, I live in the mountains of Colorado and I mostly ride off road as I can ride trails right from my house.  A good portion of the time, I'm on my 300 XCW, but this last month I've been on my T7 a fair bit:

 

 

Saw a fox this day: 

 

Shared album - Robert Tadlock - Google Photos

 

 

 

 

 I bought the bike and the next weekend I hit Kokopelli's Trail on the Western edge of Colorado and going into UT:

The trail (the OHV route is slightly different than the mountain bike route): 

 

Kokopelli's Trail | Bureau of Land Management

I didn't take too many pictures, as I've ridden the trail a number of times on a dirt bike and once on my mountain bike.  But here's a good one:

 

The stock skid plate didn't put up much of a fight:

 

 

 

 

Either did the side stand switch:

 

 

Anyway, I fixed the switch on the trail and soldered the wires together when I got home.  I already had a skid plate on order, so I put that on when I got home too:

 

Anyway, lots more to follow, so stay tuned!

 

 

[rtadlock]

So I ordered a number of parts of my bike including:

• Camel ADV skid
• HDB hand guards
• Rival Components foot pegs
• Yamaha seat rack
• Rally raid racks
• Camel ADV tidy tail
• LED blinkers
• Home made 3d printed GPS mount
• Hepco & Becker center stand

After installing everything:

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife and I decided to go for a quick overnighter by our house.  She has a 1974 CT 90 ADV bike that I recently totally refreshed:

 

We headed up a double track from our house and hit a forest service road and a few miles later, we were at a sweet little spot we like to hit a few times a summer:

 

 

While we were setting up, my wife was showing me how the schnozzle works on the bag for flowing up her sleeping pad:
 

 

 

I'd say it works pretty well honestly....

 

Also, my wife had hip surgery in November to repair an injury and isn't supposed to be riding, so don't tell her Dr!..   Also, don't tell them I bet her she couldn't ride the little CT over the logs in camp:



All in all a great evening:

 

 

Stay tuned for more day tripping....and also almost 10 years ago now, I road all over BC and then did the Northern half of the CDT/GDR and stopped in Steamboat, CO:
 

 

I'm planning on finishing the southern half this summer. 

[RIDER GUIDER]

Awesome  -  the lil Honda is epic

[rtadlock]

Man, we both love that Honda.  Almost 50 years old and runs like a top.  I'm ripping around town doing errands on it a few times a week.  I bought it for $700 and replaced some seals, new chain and sprocket, new brakes, new cables, etc.  Starts on the first kick every time and has a giant rack that my wife can bring me home from the bar on when I've had a few too many....

Few more pictures for those that are interested:

[Spuzvica]

What led blinkers are those? Could you post a link to them?

[JayD]

I laughed pretty good at that uphill-slide-run down in the video looked like an awesome trip!

[rtadlock]

1 hour ago, Spuzvica said:

What led blinkers are those? Could you post a link to them?

 

They are TST industries.  I used the ones for the MT07.  They have OEM wiring harnesses too, so it was all plug and play - 

2021+ Yamaha MT-07 Product List | TST Industries

---

Find the parts and accessories you need to upgrade your 2021+ Yamaha MT-07 at TST Industries. Industry exclusive items that you'll only find here.

I found the link on these forums somewhere.  I also used a relay from Camel ADV to make them blink at a normal speed.

Rob

[rtadlock]

Getting ready for my CDT trip in July.  Decided to sew my own panniers:

 

Updates to follow....

[smurph]

You and your wife have a lot of fun - it's awesome to see that! And I love that old Honda.... i may have to start looking for one! Cheers! 

[rtadlock]

On 6/25/2021 at 5:50 PM, smurph said:

You and your wife have a lot of fun - it's awesome to see that! And I love that old Honda.... i may have to start looking for one! Cheers! 

I love having a wife that rides and has a passion for it.  She's the one that convinced me to move to a 2-stroke trail bike!

[rtadlock]

Mostly finished with my panniers.  I used some heavy vinyl for the base and some lighter weight for the sides:

 

 

 

 

I also made a few kidney shaped dry bags with heat sealable nylon:

 

 

 

 

I'm planning on using my Wolfman duffel up top:

 

 

I need to add some finishing trim and I'll likely add an internal strap to the buckets to make sure my tools are fully captive.  I'm going to do a full test pack and camp as soon as I can.  I've been mostly doing road riding the last few weeks, but I want some whoops to test these bags out...

We're doing the CDT south last week of July.  Should be perfect temps.... I need to put my knobbies on, put the center stand on, change the oil, and I should be ready.

[rtadlock]

Well, I've pretty much done everything to the bike that I'm planning on doing for the up coming ride, which is happening the week of July 26th.  I had just over 600 miles on it, so I changed the oil and filter and then did a few other things like:

1. Install the hepco becker center stand:

 

It fit well with my Camel ADV ski plate:

 

But my chain was making contact with it when folded up:

 

 

Given I put my first 600 on the bike, the chain has stretched and was a bit out of spec, so I adjusted it.  It didn't hit, but it was still pretty close, so I decided to modify the stand and put an adjuster in.  I removed the rubber stopper from the supplied bracket and tapped it:

 

Then I took an old exhaust bolt from the 990 and used it as the adjuster:

 

The rubber boot I had in my spare parts, so I tossed it on.  The bolt is behind the chain, even though it looks like it would interfere in this picture, it won't.  Then I just wrapped the stand with some silicon tape to make a bumper.  Now I can adjust the bolt if my chain starts making contact and then get the chain back in spec if I find it's out of spec.

Anyway, didn't have time to sew a tank bag, so I got a Giant Loop bag:





Then I swapped out the stock tires for some knobbies:

 

I balanced them with some spoke weights.

I have a few things to tidy up on my saddle bags, then I'm going to load it all up and do ride with an over-nighter to test everything out.  Should be able to start posting some riding pictures soon.

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by rtadlock
Spelling error

[rtadlock]

This was the last weekend I had to prep my bike before I ride the bottom half of the CDT.   I've been too busy riding the small bike since a bunch of single track opened on the 15th:

 

 

Anyway, I really wanted to get some time in with the panniers I sewed so I packed my them with the stuff I'll have in them for the trip and got about 50 miles of testing in.  We did a bunch of forest service roads and a quick blast down the highway to make sure everything handled the wind:

 

 

 

 

 

I put some spots to lash things into the pannier with voile straps and my tools and tubes didn't move, even blitzing over rocky FS roads:

 

 

All in all, I'm happy with what I managed to create for a V1.  We'll see how they hold up and how I like them at the end of 8 or 9 days of riding...   The roads we were riding just opened back up as there is an active fire bring just south of town.  Got a few pictures of some of the burn area:

 

 

Hoping they can get this thing fully contained before the snow flies....

 

Anyway, after the ride, we changed the oil on the 990, and I had to find another solution for a rubber stopper on my center stand:

 

 

Used an old MTB tire and some hose clamps:

 

 

 

 

We're leaving Friday for the trip.  Plan is to take the bikes down to the border in a truck and then ride back to Steamboat, CO, which is where I left off from the northern  half of the trip.  Maybe I'll post up my gear and you can all tell me what I'm missing....

[rtadlock]

Well, we're off tomorrow!  We're taking the bikes down in the back of a truck so we can get down there as fast as possible to spend as much time on the trails as we can.  Plan is to camp as much as we can and explore as much as possible.  Got all my gear together today and test packed.  Here's before and after:

 

 

And here is my main riding gear (minus boots, which are in the garage with the bike):

 

 

Three things not pictured above that are in the back pack or on the bike: water bladder, front tube, and quarter wave antenna for my HT.

 

I'm bringing my nice point and shoot, so hope to have some good pictures to share when I get back.  

 

Rob

 

[Landshark]

26 minutes ago, rtadlock said:

Well, we're off tomorrow!  We're taking the bikes down in the back of a truck so we can get down there as fast as possible to spend as much time on the trails as we can.  Plan is to camp as much as we can and explore as much as possible.  Got all my gear together today and test packed.  Here's before and after:

 

 

And here is my main riding gear (minus boots, which are in the garage with the bike):

 

 

Three things not pictured above that are in the back pack or on the bike: water bladder, front tube, and quarter wave antenna for my HT.

 

I'm bringing my nice point and shoot, so hope to have some good pictures to share when I get back.  

 

Rob

 

 

Be sure to snap a pic of the bikes in the back of said truck.  The nice thing about trucking the bike to the camp spot is you can pack more "make me comfortable" stuff so your trip is more memorable.  Enjoy then tell us all about it.

 

[rtadlock]

12 minutes ago, Landshark said:

 

Be sure to snap a pic of the bikes in the back of said truck.  The nice thing about trucking the bike to the camp spot is you can pack more "make me comfortable" stuff so your trip is more memorable.  Enjoy then tell us all about it.

 

 

We're just trucking the bikes down to NM and dropping the truck and then riding back to Colorado from there, so still going pretty light, but I'll get some pictures in the truck for sure....

[rtadlock]

Well, we made it!  Been back for over a week now, but I've been trying to get caught up from work.  You know what they say, no good vacation goes unpunished....anyway, I finally gathered up the pictures that we have so I'll mostly let them doing the talking.  

 

Day 1:

 

We loaded our bikes into a 10ft UHaul and headed south.  We wanted to spend as much time on the trail as possible, so we left here Friday afternoon round 3 and drove to Albuquerque:

 

This was pretty much as the entire drive down:

 

It rained the entire drive down and we didn't get to ABQ till about 1am.  We had lined up a hotel and  grabbed a few beers at the last gas stop though, so we still had a beer before we went to bed.  It's vacation and all....

 

 

 

Next morning we finished the drive to Deming, NM, where we unloaded the bikes and dropped the truck:

 

 

Our truck didn't have a ramp, but it was pretty strait forward to just roll them out using the low step:

 

 

 

We changed clothes in the back of the truck, and dropped the box with a few bits of old rope into their dumpster.  Bikes we ready and we set off....for lunch:

 

[rtadlock]

End of Day 1, start of Day 2:

 

We found some great Mexican food for lunch and did a last minute talk through of gear and then we jumped on I-10 and headed for the trail.  It immediately started raining really hard (which was the theme of the trip), but at least it wasn't hot.  We pulled off at the exit for Antelope Wells to regroup:

 

Our plan was to just jump on the trail where it hits I-10 since that's where the dirt is and we'd heard that you can't get to the actual border fence right now since it's closed.  The rain confirmed we didn't want to pound the 60 miles of pavement down to the border, so we jumped on the trail and let the big dogs eat.  it's amazing how much ground you can cover on these bikes.  It's rained most of the way to Silver City, so we didn't stop much for pictures.  Luckily it was the type of dirt/sand that wasn't muddy, so we just pushed through.  We covered the 60 miles to Silver City in 1:32 mins and were happy to get there and get out of the rain:

 

 

We had lunch and a few beers and checked the weather:

 

 

Would you believe, more rain?   We decided to grab a hotel and hang out here for the night.  We ran into a number of other bikers who had been waiting a few days in Silver City, as they'd heard the next section was really muddy.  We hung out with them for a bit before heading to a brewery in town.  On the way back, that's when Chris told me he "had a gift for the trip".  I knew he was a fan of Top Gear, so I figured the gift would be a model sail boat I'd have to carry on my bike for the rest of the trip or something....turns out, it was even better:

 

 

My wife named my T700, Lilith since she's my "dark haired therapist", so I decided to name the cat Fraiser....

 

We loaded up and said bye to the crew that was headed out same as us, and we were back on the road:
 

 

 

 

[rtadlock]

Day 2:

I think we got on the road around 9.  It was sunny and we were hoping things would start to dry out.  You hit a bit of pavement out of Silver City, but it's a nice warm up:

 

 

When we hit the dirt, it was perfect.  Tacky AF!  This is when I started really pushing the T7 for the first time.  During the KoKo trip, I was on break in, and I had just changed the oil before this trip, so I really hadn't had a chance to feel it out proper.  I gotta say, this bike is fantastic!  The motor is nowhere near as exciting as the 990, but I feel like it's so damn precise that if I had matching suspension, I'm probably faster on the T7.  It hooks up so damn hard and the motor is so smooth that you're carrying a ton of speed before you even realize it.  Anyway, it was probably two hours of hero dirt and perfect temps:

 

 

Fraiser was loving this Shet!  Look at that tail:

 

 

But then, we hit maybe a 20 yard patch of moist dirt, not even really mud, but just not dry enough.  Chris had long ago ripped his low fender off in the mud and replaced it with a high fender, so he didn't even notice the dirt, but the T700 did:

 

 

 

I tried to get the mud out, tried to power through, and I even got off the bike and wondered "why the F, do they put these stupid ass low fenders on 'adventure bike'".  I called Chris on the radio, and he circled back.  Meanwhile, I took my fender off:

 

 

Once I got the fender off, I had no problem.  The mud shed and we rode a quarter mile ahead so I could put it back on:

 

 

 

 

Anyway, fender back on and no worse for the wear, we were back at it.  This next section of trail was really green and rocky and had some fantastic views.  I think we saw one lone bike packer the entire day:

 

 

 

 

 

The only tip over of the trip came when Chris leaned over to spit some grainy water out and lost his balance:

 

 

 

I really enjoyed this section:

 

 

 

We damn near ran out of gas as we pulled over right before Reserve to split the gallon of gas we were carrying with us.  I ended up going about 20 miles with the last bar on my fuel gauge.  I don't know how far I can go, but felt like I was on fumes.  We gassed up and ate in Reserve (it was raining like hell so we didn't get pictures), and then we got back on the road and then trail.  We ended up setting up camp near the Mangas Mountain look out:

 

 

Luckily it had stopped raining, so we set up a few lines to dry our clothes:

 

 

 

 

[rtadlock]

Day 3:

 

On day two, we found a Garmin InReach near our camp and it still had charge.  I text the last number that the person talking with ah and she got back to me and told me she was coming to meet the hikers in Silver City the following day.  I told her I'd text again when I got cell service.  Which was Pie Town:

 

 

We dropped the InReach behind this sign:

 

 

The next day, we got confirmation that the InReach was picked up!  Banked some karma points there.

 

While eating pie, Mr. Pie told us the road north was really wet....like lakes of water.  Here's Mr Pie spitting facts:

 

Turns out, he wasn't pulling our leg:

 

I was on the edge of the road and I'd bet the middle was 3 or 4 feet deep.  Just on the other side of this first pond was a Toyota Dolphin completely buried!  I would have gotten a picture, but I had my throttle WFO to get through all the mud and water....

 

 

[rtadlock]

It turned out to be water crossings for most of the rest of the day:

 

 

There were go arounds pretty much burned in as it's been a raining season.  Anyway, the bikes saw a lot of water and mud this day (which we didn't realize would be a problem in the future).  After the water came the forest again:

 

 

I really liked this section.  No one around, no dust thanks to the moisture, and cool temps.  One thing that caught me off guard was coming around the corner to see this big dog in the road:

 

I always tell my wife that these guys don't really exist above 7k feet, but this was at 9k feet according to my GPS!  I'd say he was 4 feet long and really full:

 

We didn't hang around to upset this guy too much.... we did see a few mountain bikers less than a mile down the road, and we let them know there was a snake sun bathing in the middle of the road....I didn't read about anyone getting bit by a snake, so I'm assuming they made it by him....

 

Once riding again, we were making good progress, but then the problems started....

[rtadlock]

Anyway, we motored on and put in a huge day.  Over 300 miles with over 200 on dirt!  We were pretty tired, but grabbed some beers in town and setup camp just at dark:

 

 

The rain finally let up, so we were able to enjoy beers and argue about who's bike is better for some hours....

 

Sun was out in the AM.  Was nice to have coffee and just let the sun dry some stuff out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got out on the road around 9 again....

[rtadlock]

Day 4 is where we ran into trouble.  The KTM started to sputter and the voltage climbed up to 16v!  We pulled over to look at it and the bike died.....just in time for the rain to move back in.  We climbed under the tarp and just stood there and laughed:

 

 

 

While we were waiting, the bike electrical system came back to life.  At this point we figured there was some kind of short and thought about setting up the tarp.  Instead we decided to see if we could ride it out of the rain and then try and work on it.  That plan worked but we just got out of the rain when the bike died again:

 

 

So we took it apart to have a look:

 

 

While Chris did that I drained the water from my tank  bag:

 

And walked around and found mushrooms:

 

Chris traced the problem to the regulator/rectifier, but we couldn't be 100%.  We got the bike running again and decided we'd ride down to Abiquiu and slab it to Sante Fe to try and get parts....

 

The bike ran pretty poorly, but we made it to Sante Fe and got a hotel.  We just parked the bikes and showered and look for beer.  We Uber'd to a old town and found beer and a concert in the park:

 

 

The next day, we worked on the bike....

[transalper]

Entertaining ride report with dramatic foreshadowing! Looking forward to the next installments.

 

[And nice sewing BTW]

[rtadlock]

9 hours ago, transalper said:

Entertaining ride report with dramatic foreshadowing! Looking forward to the next installments.

 

[And nice sewing BTW]

 

Thanks!   I'm not a great writer, but I do what I can I guess.  And as for sewing, thanks.  I taught myself to sew using Youtube a few years ago and then started making bags for bike frames for bikepacking.  I've got a healthy little side business sewing bags and making alterations and stuff now.  The panniers worked out great and I plan on talking about that a bit.