TAT the hard way - 2up on a 950

update from Matt:
What about the bike, you ask?
Right after the crash in the ditch, the most obvious sign of damage was that the fairings and console seemed closer to the triple clamps. This was making it difficult to turn with lots of rubbing. I was able to convince the speedo subframe to go back into position without too much trouble. Next, after riding about 50 yards we realized we had some pretty serious contact between the front tire and something. I assumed we must have bent the forks. Later, I spun the upper fork tubes 180 degrees and the rubbing decreased. They're bent. We were able to continue the trip, experiencing tire rubbing only during heavy braking or really rough areas.

After making it home I was able to take a good look and did not like what I found.



Here is a close-up of the stake through my heart.


I'm starting to think about fuel injection, if you know what I mean.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Awesome report! Was a great read! Hopefully my wife will be up for that kind of adventure when we can get out and start riding together...

Sorry to see that snapped frame pic... That sucks big time... But look on the bright side... at least now you can get a new bike! Yay!

Shhh...keep your voice down (matt might hear you)

junker! hilarious!

unfortunately, that's the frame. and there doesn't seem to be a single 950/990 frame in the US at the moment.

It should be repairable since the damage is in the straight sections - if it's done properly (i.e.: sleeved). AFAIK, the KTM frame is just steel tube. There should be a lot of tube expertise out there in Cali - think buggy/rock crawler shops....

agree with sailwa66, but make sure that when you get it welded the geometry is right. There's a motorcycle frame company that does chassis geometry but for the life of me I can't remember what they're called.

Frameman in sacramento, have heard great things about him. Nice ride report guys, Matt I think I rode with you at one of GCDSR outings. Nothing like getting passed on the singletrack of Georgetown by a big fella on an adventure twin.

Is a new frame THAT expensive? In my experience,a new frame is surprisingly cheap in UK. I realise it's a bit of work to replace all the bits but i think it's what i'd do.

Fuel injection? Nah,not for me!!

Heh, matt loves to pass - hope he wasn't too pushy
Thanks for the ref. for Frameman - matt called and got some info. seems like a great shop. We're mulling it over...

BLUE(UK) - it's not that a frame is too expensive, we simply can't find one here in the US. Matt has been calling around and everyone is out of stock of 950 and 990 frames with no e.t.a. I think he was almost looking forward to replacing the frame, up to his elbows in ktm parts...

There's a guy in Berkeley you could talk to also - Dennis at Norman Racing Group. They do auto and moto stuff - steel tube space frames, custom headers, repairs, etc. Dennis has fixed a lot of stuff for me and he does great work at very reasonable rates.

Fantastic ride report guys!

Having done the TAT myself and struggling on a KLR you guys get even more props!

Been off-line for a few days so only just read 'the end'

Had to laugh - thought when you asked "Matt what do I want for my BD?" that you were going to say Topo GPS!! lol.

Really great report. Hope you and the bike mend well.

Uber respect.

Reading it out loud....

Here's some kind of TAT summary/wrap up. A little rambling, sorry.

Distance from Trinidad, CO to Port Orford, OR: aprox. 2735 miles
that includes our extracurricular riding (Slickrock, Arches Nat'l Park, Canyonlands loop, Preston to Ely and back, checking out every dead end in Oregon, etc.).

Number of days on the TAT: 12 (11 riding days, plus one rest day in Battle Mountain, NV)

Average miles per day: 248.6
Average speed per day: 28-32 mph (daily averages according to the GPS. These numbers seem low, but they include all stops and breaks throughout the day - when our speed was zero)

Number of flats: zero!
Number of crashes: 2
Number of get-offs: 4, maybe 5 if we had one in that silt on potash road

We wore the sh*t out of the tires!








What we brought:

Not much.


In the tank bag:
- the day's TAT maps and upcoming roll chart, AAA state map if we had one.
- moto com intercom and ipod
- my small journal + pen
- small water and snacks (granola bars, nuts, dried fruit)
- extra batteries/SD card for camera
- SPOT locator, set to send breadcrumbs
- cell phone and charger, turned off (rarely used - only to call motels in town)
- my glasses and contact lens stuff
- swiss army knife and leatherman tool
- 2 spoons and 2 forks
- handiwipes and napkins and emergency toilet paper
- freshette *


In the wolfman bag:
- 2 tubes, front and rear (heavy duty)
- large can of chain lube
- 10 oz of oil
- small solar charger for battery (KTM battery can easily get drained if you get caught in deep sand. Lesson learned the hard way in baja)
- 2 nalgene bottles with water
- more granola bars, almonds, dried fruit
- the rest of the maps and roll charts
- small first aid kit (bandaids, gauze, tape, neosporin, vicodin and motrin, maybe an ace bandage)
- small ziplock of laundry soap for sink laundry
- giant pack of baby wipes and sleeping bag liner that we forgot to unpack when we decided not to camp
- soldering iron purchased in Kanab, UT to fix the intercom. was also used to plastic weld the kolpin, though unsuccessfully.
- clothing and sandals
- toiletries bag

Clothing and sandals:
In addition to riding gear, we each had:
- 3 quick dry shirts (I had 1 lt. cotton tee shirt for town)
- 3 quick dry undies
- 3 pair socks
- bathing suit/swim trunks
- 1 pair shorts (matt) or capris (me) for town
- 1 pair sandals
- 1 brimmed hat (in case the bike broke down in the desert)

Toiletries - super basic and put together before we decided not to camp
- toothbrushes and toothpaste
- dental floss
- soap
- shampoo
- deodorant
- razors
- gold bond powder (really used the hell out of this stuff when it was hot)
- pepto tablets (leftover from mexico)
- advil
- earplugs

On the bike:
- matt's everyday bike stuff - tire irons, mini compressor, tools, etc...
- 2 MORE tubes in the fairings (front and back tubes, heavy duty)
- kolpin gas cans - usually empty. Maybe one gallon of gas in the good (non-leaky) can.
- fire extinguisher (for entertainment purposes only)
- extra fuel pump zip-tied to the crash bars
- compass, I mean, GPS
- roll chart holder
- north face hydration backpack was bungeed on top of the wolfman bag
- we carried a little extra water in the desert, either inside the bag or strapped on top

On us:
- helmet (Arai XD for matt. Shoei - TZ-R for me)
- Olympia AST touring jacket (in my jacket - wallet, more contact lens stuff, chapstick, camera, kleenex)
- Olympia AST touring pants (in matt's pants - wallet)
- boots (tech 3 for matt, some kind of alpinestars waterproof touring boot for me)
- summer gloves (dirt gloves for me)
- bike shorts - I was happy to have them when matt was washing my pants in the stream (and taking pictures!)

We brought the insulated liners for our jackets and pants but never used them. Mailed them home from Salida, CO.
We were really happy with the Olympia gear. We were always pretty comfortable, even when the temps were over 100F. They were a little warm when we were in Death Valley, but it was 128F, so nothing would have felt cool. The gear was also great in the rain and hail, which we had plenty of.

I think that's just about it. Wow, looks like a lot when it's all written out.

What we would leave at home next time:
- 1 quick dry shirt each (only needed 2 each)
- my cotton tee for town
- kolpin gas cans
- Olympia insulated liners
- giant pack of baby wipes and sleeping bag liner

* Oh, one more thing. Since there seem to be some wives/girlfriends reading...Ladies, if you're doing the TAT, especially camping, you need one of these: freshette (you guys/men/dudes do not want to look. trust me.)



You had to look anyway, didn't you?




What we wish we had done differently:

1) bring a better, more durable camera and take more pictures.
It would have been nice to have a camera that was waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof. Maybe one of those Olympus Stylus dealies. There were times when I wanted to take photos but didn't dare because it was raining too hard or was too dusty. Also, the camera was in my jacket pocket for both crashes. Luckily, when we fell in the hole, I landed on the left side of my ribs and the camera was on the right side. I am not a natural photographer; I love to just watch the road when we're riding and I really had to force myself to take snaps. Now, I'm happy to have all the pics and I wish I had more.

2) I guess we could have brought a better GPS with topos. maybe.
I know, I know, after all that bitching and complaining about our POS GPS... But, we've done plenty of navigating with GPS (sailing) and following the roll charts is so much more fun! Matt and I were talking about it and we still would have used the roll charts as our main source of information. We liked the scavenger hunt feel of it and Matt really wanted to make things more challenging for himself as a rider. Even when it turned out poorly
It would have been nice to be able to turn to a GPS chart (or maybe forest and BLM maps) on some of those super-horrible days, to save ourselves HOURS of frustration and homicidal rage. But, half an hour - 45 minutes of hunting around for stuff... that's okay. I think even more than a better GPS, we would have liked to have some freaking waypoints for NV and OR. Even our crap GPS can find waypoints. Sigh.
Looking back now, it just makes it all the more satisfying that we actually finished the damn trail.

3) that being said, we could have done without meeting Randal and his septic test holes. Oh well. I'm okay with it. Matt's having a hard time right now, but he'll live. I just hope Randal fills those holes, soon (he told us that he lets kids ride their quads in that field).


I found a few more photos that I didn't use earlier.
This was from Matt's favorite day of the TAT - Day 6: Salina, UT to Ely, NV. Included that little sandy/single track section in the trees.
Coincidentally, I'll bet this was our highest average speed day, too We were FLYING all day. It was a blast.






My favorite day was Day 2: Salida, CO to Lake City, CO.

Loved those rocky roads and the rich green mountains. I was so stoked to be doing Hancock Pass






and Tomichi Pass!






The first part of Day 3: Lake City, CO to Ophir, CO was a close second favorite. Okay, maybe it's a tie...
American Basin


California Gulch


Lake Como


Wildflowers



more colorado...


















------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the reminder. I had him do some magnesium welding in the past. forgot until now.
Hey, I've been reading your RR/blog and I'm wondering if you were able to rig up a gas prefilter. Did you ever find a fix for that problem?
matt

Never used a filter on the trip. The available solutions (panty hose, coffee filter) were impractical or ineffective. Next time I'll take a couple of these.

This would be more effective, but is bulky.


To put it into terms Kelly can understand, it's kind of like the difference between the freshette and this. (I think Nina has some of those in the glove box of the truck.)

hey, you weren't supposed to look at that! (but the amazon reviews for the p-mate were hi-larious! )
Back on topic (ahem), we've used a similar funnel for diesel (baja filter). Too bad they don't make anything smaller than the Mr. Funnel F1.
kelly

What a blast it has been reading this RR. I am blown away that you guys rode two up on the TAT and especially the very difficult sections. I doubt I will every ride very much of the trail and here you guys rode it two up. I salute you!

Wow, just finished your incredible ride report and you two are amazing - two up on the TAT on a monster sized bike! My hats off to you both. My two dream rides are the TAT and the Continental Divide - here I am wondering how hard it would be to do the TAT on my DR650 and you guys do it on a 950 two up! Simply amazing.

How are both of your injuries healing? That sinkhole incident looked bad.