OSO LOCO!! KTM 990s attack Colorado, Utah, and the best of the TAT

Oso Loco
[o'so lo'co] <---- don't forget - these links are clickable
noun: "crazy bear"





Also:





As in, "oh-so loco" - extremely crazy.
Also, extremely stupid.
Extremely extreme?






After we did the Baja Wan-Thousand, Bartek couldn't stop talking about his ultimate dream ride - Colorado.



Beautiful Colorado.
Oh, he has been dreaming about visiting this place for many years.
With the gorgeous mountains, the fantastic colors, the incredible riding...
Some day, maybe some day, his dream would come true...
Wouldn't it be great to do a group ride to Colorado? hint hint.




Well, crap.
Who could say "No" to this face?







Colorado con the Baja WanKers? We were on that like Bartek on a taco!
Pretty soon it grew to include the guys from the V2R ride...
Whew. This was going to be big.


The pressure! This ride cannot suck.







Neither one of us enjoys planning, so it was a painful month.
I searched ride reports and websites for interesting new places and figured out where to stay,
while Matt sorted through tracks and maps to connect everything together.
With a large group, it seemed prudent to have a real plan.
I even made motel reservations in advance!




We were planning to camp as well, so everyone was carrying full luggage.
(Especially us, the overloaded schoolbus. )




Even with 1 extra person it's hard to accomplish what we usually do on our solo rides.
Keeping a group of 6 bikes (7 riders) on track was going to be tough.




After the first week of wrestling with Norman J. Delorman, the interwebs, and Topo 9,
we took a break from planning.
Now, it was time for the important stuff - what about the stickers?



Matt has always wanted to make stickers for our rides.
This was the perfect opportunity.



First, the artwork...






"Taco Tour" didn't even make sense - we were pretty sure no one was going to eat tacos on this ride, but it made us laugh.
Chances were, there were going to be a couple of taco'd rims at least.
Those count, right?




A little fiddling with photoshop, an email to the art guy at 123 stickers, and...
Voilà!




"What's that potato doing on a motorcycle?"

Next time we should probably spend more than a hour on the design, but whatever...

Stickers are awesome!!




A lot more fun than trip planning, that's for sure.





The riders:

El Bartek. Bartek 990/Smartek 1000.
Mr. Banana Grabber was going to be living the dream...
2011 KTM adv 990R







Scott. Goggles Pizano was getting his "do-over" - Woooo!
not quite a 990, but his 950 SE - cheater! - is close enough.







From the V2R -
Ceasar was re-christened Osito ("little bear") for this ride.
KTMADV is the nicest guy around and has a hookup for everything.
Look at that shiny 2007 990! We've got a lot of work to do...







Radek (rburkat). Better known as "The Canimal"
he's so great to ride with, but is such a bad influence...
With Radek along for the tour, we knew our group was in for some Adventure with a capital "A"...
2010 990 R







Also joining us was Lica (licascurtu).
We met Lica on Mad Radek's Canadian Lunacy Tour, and had reconnected over the summer as he and his girlfriend returned from their South American tour.
2007 990 with new S suspension







Lica has got to be the most enthusiastic rider we know...
he can't even contain his joy of riding and periodically lets out primal screams -












Oh yeah, also on the ride - us Wans...
Gopher and Julie





Heh heh.



I mean, Matt and Kelly (BigWan and LittleWan)
and our trusty steed, the 2007 990 S







The ride:
The meat of the ride was from Reno to Reno, about 13 days and 3000 miles.
Nevada, Utah, Colorado and back - trying to do as much dirt as possible.
With some of the group being from British Columbia, and Scott being from Reno, etc. - everyone's mileage varied.


For BigWan and I, it ended up being about 16 days and 3500 miles.
OK - crappy crayon map of our route for the map nerds:



(Hmm, I see I screwed up my first map - we went through Reno both ways.
oh well. you get the idea. )





Note - I made these *clickable links* - they will bring you to the correct page, but you might have to scroll down to find the right post...
A quick rundown of the ride highlights -

We did a buttload of Colorado passes - including Black Bear Pass, Schofield Pass and Pearl pass
Tin Cup pass, Imogene pass and Engineer pass (the "hard" way)
a trip to Taylor Park for a sampling of single track and a visit to American Flag Mountain


Moab - including Lockhart Basin/Hurrah Pass, Slickrock, Hell's Revenge/Hell's Gate and Amasa Back Trail



and, some of our favorite spots from the Trans America Trail or TAT: hancock and tomichi passes
the Alpine loop + nearby passes (cinnamon, california, hurricane, corkscrew, red mountain, ophir, etc.)
Black Dragon Wash, Eagle Canyon and Cat Canyon
Monticello UT, via The Willow Divide Trail (Sam's "FUN, FUN, FUN" road)
a black diamond section of the Paiute Trail
and, the "five miles of sand and singletrack" near Baker, NV

And last, but not least, (spoiler alert!) - the report finale: 990s on the Rubicon Trail




A sampling of what's to come...






¿Listos? Ready?

Osos, attack!
http://cdn.hark.com/swfs/player_fb.swf?pid=djlkjjxxsr
(you can click on that link for the sound bite - the embed no longer works)




P.S. there's a mini-mini Ride Report - 2 up on the LAB2V - at the very end...


.

You really know how to do a ride report! Subbed!

YES!!!

I missed the Baja and V2R reports, but I am in on day 1 for this one.

IN! Going to be good.

Yes, finally another Wan report - it is about time. I was actually spending my time working.

Bring it!

Yes sir looks freakin awesome

well this sucks......all them ugly KTM's and not one BMW...sounds like a train wreck to me.....I can't watch.....:eek1

...I'm on board.

You had me at "Wan" !






jordan

Pop a Top pop a Top!

Wantastic! BigWan, LittleWan, the soon to be Wanned, size of the crowd makes no difference to me. I'm in again!

You snuck in again and I missed you all again, well I am IN and for sure will have lots of smiles as I follow this group and you two WANS on this awesome RR.

MY Congrats on a great RR ahead of time

gale

Count me in now that I have a driver!

Can't wait!

What a helluva start! Exceptional even for you, Kelly. Looking forward to the rest.

I'm in!

In on the ground floor for once!

In. Bring it!

John