It was rideable if you were fresh. Hog and I just went down a wash that was steep and filled with large boulders. We had to hike down a few times to make sure we could ride through. It will test your endurance. My arms tired out holding the camera up to video. <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="425" height="240" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/1550971639_qwcGPvs?width=425&height=240"></iframe>
So, to do the "Grand Rally" you need a big bike with long range that is stable in the fast stuff but magically turns into a tiny trials bike for the technical stuff I really do hope to get out there and try this out sometime over the next couple of years
Someone needs to develop a trials bike 4 gallon fuel tank for this stage and the one that follows it. In the following stage we go down a canyon that's worse than what's shown above. This GE image of that canyon doesn't show how bad it is. 40 years earlier, there was a road through it, but now it's only passable by horse or gnarly moto rider. Fortunately on this one we go DOWN rather than up.
There was another wash/canyon we went up that was a fair amount better, but still it managed to dislocate my dad's finger and bruise his ribs. He shortcutted back, but returned for the last day of riding. Roadbook comments: - LEFT off main road to corral - Through corral, open/close gate - Right, HP to wash at heading 277° - Right, up wash
What kind of a man rides KTM? Life is a lot more exciting when you are a KTM man. You like to haul ass on the fast stuff, because you are a KTM man. You like owning a high performance, race ready machine, because you are a KTM man. When you get into the stuff that makes a goat think twice, the KTM man realizes that an XR230 or a CT110 is a damn good adventure bike!
Fortunately it's not all goat trails. There's plenty of fun fast stuff. Here's what's coming in our next prerun...
I try hard to avoid putting them in because I don't like creating head-on rally traffic, and you can't have them in a real rally. But I bend my rule sometimes when there's something extraordinary at the end. That means it's either a fantastic view or a "you can get down there, but you might not be able to get back out". Either way it's a memorable spot that generates some fun discussions back in the bivouac. Yes it's an awesome very remote spot! While trying to get there, we were turned back several times due to fences blocking our way. But we eventually found a way through. That's where this photo was taken...
A ride on a trials bike that would require 4 gallons of gas makes me cry just thinking about it. I'm thinking of leaving a bike out at my in-laws place in Henderson to take advantage of all that great riding. Every time we go out to visit we end up staying around the house when I'm just itching to get out and enjoy the area.
The bike does not make the rider turn around - the rider makes the bike turn around. It's all about your abilty. There's no such thing as an XR230, anyway. For the rest of the ones who refuse to improve their ability and compromise on equipment, even KTM has addressed them: KTM Freeride
All the Dakar frenzy motivated me to layout some more rally routes and begin the roadbook writing process for these new routes. I'm starting the planning for another prerun, probably for late January. We'll spend about 3 days prerunning this new stuff. I put a lot more HP miles into this stage than normal. You can see some of it in the dunes parts of these Google Earth previews. This section runs right along the edge of the Grand Canyon. We tried to prerun this a while back but we were only half way when we bailed out due to darkness at around 9:00pm. We'll give it another shot this time out. Twisting through the hills beside the Grand Canyon: Great rock formations here: Cool roads crisscross all over this area. Great fun ahead! A side canyon that feeds the Grand Canyon:
