ElliottM
Well-known member
I recently returned from my first attendance at the Rally in the Gorge event in Hood River, Oregon. While I am not going to provide a true ride report, per se, I thought I would share some of my feedback from attending and some photos of the event.
First, for those on the list who have ADD, like me, here are some bulleted highlights and lowlights:
Highs
The ride there
I live in the Wenatchee area of Washington state, which is very near to the geographic center of the state. The distance to the rally, going the most direct route, is about 236 miles. A friend of mine had told me about a road known as the Bickleton Highway, so I planned my route over that road, adding only about 11 miles in distance but about an hour in time. I left my house around 9am on Wednesday, so that I could beat some of the heat of the day (temps were going to hit the mid-90s for the day) and to get me to the event in time for a seminar on suspension setup.
The ride down to the event was wonderful. Traffic was light, and given the time of year there was a lot of crop harvesting going on, which made for some interesting sights and smells (fresh cut mint & hops, for example), and fortunately didn't add much in the way of equipment on the roads. Most of the ride isn't worth reporting, but the Bickleton Highway is worth mentioning. If you live in the NW, or will be traveling through the area, the Bickleton Highway is well worth a ride. A fair amount of it is straight or mildly curvy, but there are also some stretches with some wonderful curves to play on. The best part is the road is lightly traveled.
The event
Overview
I won't go into details on the event itself, as you can read more about it here if you aren't familiar with it. I will point out that the event is split into street (further split into sport and sport-touring) and adventure/dual sport riding. There was quite a mix of bikes there, with a few FJRs. It felt to me that the adventure bikes, and the content at the event itself, slightly edged the street bikes and content.
Seminars/Presentations
I attended three sessions - a suspension clinic, a vision techniques clinic (followed by a group ride), and a touring tips discussion. The suspension clinic, conducted by Jesse Murphy of Truitt Motorcycle Education, was quite good. Jesse started with the basics, discussing what the suspension does and why, and then got into suspension setup. He then led a hands-on exercise in measuring suspension sag on a bike, then the attendees were turned loose to measure their own bikes and make adjustments if needed, and possible. I recently upgraded to a GP suspension through a group buy, and went through the setup at the time, so I didn't do my bike, but I did help others with their bikes. Everyone seemed to benefit from, and enjoy, the clinic.
The vision techniques clinic was also led by Jesse Murphy, and the session was better than I expected. Without going into the details, Jesse discussed our central, fringe and peripheral vision, how we use them, and how they are important to our riding. He led us through some exercises using cones on the floor in the room, and I got more out of this session than I expected to. After the clinic, Jesse led the group on a fun ride to Lost Lake, OR, where we had lunch and discussed how we had put into practice what was discussed in the talk.
The last session I attended was on touring tips and tricks. I was disappointed in the session and didn't stick it out through the entire session. The presenter was the event organizer, who has written books on touring, and my expectations were high. He came in without any planned agenda or material and basically turned to the crowd to solicit tips and tricks. After listening to suggestions like staying hydrated, carrying a tire repair kit, etc. I gave up on the session. I probably should have stuck it out, but if you've made it this far you may remember that I mentioned my ADD up front.
I did not attend what were two of the highlights, I'm sure, at the event, including the featured speaker, Dr. Gregory Frazier, who was giving a talk on riding around the world. His presentation was at 8pm on Saturday, and I decided to head home early, leaving Saturday afternoon, instead of Sunday morning as planned, to spend some time with my wife.
Rides
For street bikes there were only two organized rides, the first being the run to Lost Lake, which was an extension of the vision techniques clinic, and the second being a "fun run" held Friday morning. Actually, now that I think about it, there was also an organized ride to the Grass Valley racetrack, but I did not join that ride. I also did not do the fun run, as I had planned my own ride to Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams for that day - more on that in a bit. As mentioned previously, I did join the group for the ride to Lost Lake on Thursday, which was a fun ride. Jesse Murphy led the ride, and while the pace wasn't extreme, it was spirited enough to have fun. At the event, printed high-level maps with descriptions were provided for a handful of suggested rides in the area for the street. One of the maps was for the ride to Lost Lake, including some suggested forest service roads as alternative routes back. During the stop at Lost Lake I joined up with two other riders, and we rode NF 18 and 16 back, stopping in Parkdale for a bite to eat. These were very fun roads to ride, although there were a few short sections that were gravel. Leaving Parkdale I split off from the other two riders and rode Cooper Spur Road. If you have ridden this road, you know that it is an awesome ride! It starts off benign enough leaving Parkdale, going straight through some orchards, with incredible views of Mt. Hood, but then it really delivers fun with some incredible curves. I had a blast on the road until I neared its terminus at Hwy 35, when I caught up with a slower moving truck and had no way to get around it. Fortunately there wasn't a huge amount of the road left, so I didn't miss out on too much fun.
Another suggested ride was to Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood. This ride suggestion included taking in Cooper Spur Road, plus other alternative routes. After finishing the Cooper Spur ride mentioned previously and hanging around at the event site for a while, I decided to ride up to Timberline Lodge, where I walked around a bit and took some photos. On the return trip I hit Cooper Spur Road once again, this time riding it in the reverse direction, and this time I did not get hung up behind any other vehicles. It was a blast and a fun way to wrap up the day.
I grew up in southwest Washington and lived there when Mt. St. Helens erupted, and even rode my motorcycle at the time (a Yamaha RD-350) up into the "red zone" on the day of the eruption, May 18, 1980. However, I moved away from the area and really haven't been back since then, so I decided to build my Friday ride around the suggested ride to the McClellan overlook and pick up some of the suggested rides for the return ride back. When I got to the McClellan overlook, I saw on the map there that I wasn't too far from some lava tube caves known as the Ape caves, so I headed to NF 90 to head to the caves. This turned out to be a very fun ride, without too much traffic, and the condition of the road was quite good - but that set me up for disappointment later. I visited the Ape caves, found out the temperature in the caves is a near constant 42 degrees F, so I visited the cave in full ATGATT mode (minus the helmet). When I left the caves, I had decided to follow NF 90 to Mt. Adams, visit a lake there, and then work my way back to the rally. This is where I got let down by the map I saw at the McClellan overlook, and by NF 90 itself. The rest of NF 90 wasn't in nearly as good condition going east as it was going west. There were several sections that were gravel (not on the map) and frost heaves and other bad spots in the road. On one corner, when I was riding fairly aggressively, I hit a patch that was like a washboard, which caused my rear tire to hop and I was unable to keep the bike in my lane. Fortunately there was no traffic, which I could see ahead of time, but it was still frustrating. I toned it down from there and dealt with the rough road the rest of the way to the turn off to the lake, which is where I found out that the map lied, and what was identified as a paved road was really a rock road, not gravel and not one I wanted to attempt. So I turned south, got some incredible views of Mt. Adams on the way back, and otherwise had a good remainder of the ride.
Miscellaneous
I thought I would add a few comments on other aspects of the event, in case it helps anyone who may consider going to this event in the future. The first comment is on the location of the event, which is the Hood River Fairgrounds. The views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams are incredible from the fairgrounds, and the fairgrounds are set in the area where there are many orchards, so the scenery is great. However, there aren't many services nearby, and this meant if you wanted to grab a bite to eat, you had to head out to find a meal. There were supposed to be food vendors on site, but in the end only one vendor showed up.
My biggest criticism is that there weren't enough ways provided to help socialize with one another and, especially, to organize rides. Attendees either camped at the fairgrounds or stayed elsewhere, such as in a hotel or B&B. So the attendees were scattered and ways to bring us together were needed. There was a hamburger dinner and mixer Thursday evening, which I missed as I was on a ride. I understand in previous years there was a beer garden at the event, where people tended to congregate, and something like that would have been very helpful.
The cornering clinic at Maryhill Loops Road
Woohoo! The highlight of the event for me. The clinic was held Saturday morning on said road and was conducted by Jesse Murphy, with help from about 4 or 5 facilitators. The road is closed to the public, which meant we were the only ones on the road, and we went as a group, with ample spacing, each way, so we were able to ride the width of the road. We did one round trip in first gear only, to get a feel for the road, then we did another round trip where we could shift out of first but the pace was still relaxed. The rest of the clinic was a mix of Jesse talking to us about delayed apexes, turn-in points, etc. and us getting a chance to work on our skills at speed. What a blast! I found out that my cornering skills weren't as bad as I thought, and despite the heft of the FJR (I had taken the saddlebags offs, however), the bike did quite well, and I was able to keep up (and in some cases go faster than) other riders with smaller bikes. We were riding more aggressively than I typically do on the streets, and this really accentuated one area where a farkled FJR drags a lot of bits. I have highways pegs which dragged, and the Wynpro Big-Foot kickstand pad, which dragged. Of course, the peg feelers dragged as well, and my big feet sticking off the pegs dragged. So there was a lot of wear on these parts, but the bigger issue was safety. On two occasions something caught in a left-hand corner while dragging (I think it was the Big-Foot on the kickstand) and upset the bike. The first time wasn't too bad, but the second time really threw the rear wheel off, and for a split-second I thought I was going to high-side it. I was able to get the bike back under control however, and I made sure to back off my aggressiveness in the corners for the rest of the clinic.
The lowlight of the clinic was a bonehead moment by me. After a roundtrip on the road we were lining up and shutting off our bikes, and I neglected to put the kickstand out all the way. I think it was compounded by the amount of material I had ground off the Wynpro Big-Foot. At any rate, I had my first tip-over on my bike, and of course did it in front of most of the group. Other riders jumped in and help me get the bike back upright, but it did put a couple scratches in the body panels and really scratched up the mirror. Anyone have a black left-hand mirror for an 08 for sale?
I am just glad that I had the foresight to take off the saddlebags.
WAAAM
The Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum (WAAAM) is located outside Hood River, and not too far away from the rally event site. Its focus is on airplanes, but it has quite a few interesting cars and some motorcycles as well. Probably the most interesting aspect is that all the planes are in working condition and are used periodically. A few planes from the exhibits were out being used when I visited, so it's great that the planes are used. This museum is well worth a visit if you are in the area.
The ride back
One day when I was in Hood River for lunch, I ran into a local, who is a big motorcycle enthusiast, and he told me about some of his favorite roads in the area to ride. One road he mentioned he likes is highway 142, which goes from highway 14 on the Washington side of the Columbia River gorge, up through Klickitat, and connects in Goldendale with the Bickleton highway. The rally ran through Sunday, but I decided to leave on Saturday after the cornering clinic. I checked out of my hotel and headed west to highway 142, which was a very pleasant and scenic ride. There was a bit of construction on the road, but it was a non-factor. Once I reached Goldendale, I rode the Bickleton highway home, again with very little traffic, and continued home on the reverse route that I took to the event. The only comment is that it was incredibly windy on Saturday, which made for some interesting times when meeting 18-wheelers, going around some bends, etc. Overall though it was a very pleasant ride home.
OK, inspired by MCATrophy, I have tried again to add the photos. Hopefully it worked this time.
Link to all the photos
First, for those on the list who have ADD, like me, here are some bulleted highlights and lowlights:
Highs
- Cornering clinic at Maryhill Loops Road
- The views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from the event site and many of the rides
- Cooper Spur Road from south of Parkdale to Oregon 35
- NF Road 90 west of Curvy Creek Road
- Bickleton Highway
- Suspension setup clinic
- Group ride to Lost Lake, OR
- NF 18 and NF 16 returning from Lost Lake
- WAAAM Air and Auto Museum in Hood River, OR
- The FJR is such an awesome bike
- NF Road 90 east of Curvy Creek Road
- Lack of food vendors at the Rally location
- No facilitation of organizing rides at the event
- Dragging too many hard bits on the FJR on Maryhill Loops Road in the cornering clinic
- My first drop of my FJR
The ride there
I live in the Wenatchee area of Washington state, which is very near to the geographic center of the state. The distance to the rally, going the most direct route, is about 236 miles. A friend of mine had told me about a road known as the Bickleton Highway, so I planned my route over that road, adding only about 11 miles in distance but about an hour in time. I left my house around 9am on Wednesday, so that I could beat some of the heat of the day (temps were going to hit the mid-90s for the day) and to get me to the event in time for a seminar on suspension setup.
The ride down to the event was wonderful. Traffic was light, and given the time of year there was a lot of crop harvesting going on, which made for some interesting sights and smells (fresh cut mint & hops, for example), and fortunately didn't add much in the way of equipment on the roads. Most of the ride isn't worth reporting, but the Bickleton Highway is worth mentioning. If you live in the NW, or will be traveling through the area, the Bickleton Highway is well worth a ride. A fair amount of it is straight or mildly curvy, but there are also some stretches with some wonderful curves to play on. The best part is the road is lightly traveled.
The event
Overview
I won't go into details on the event itself, as you can read more about it here if you aren't familiar with it. I will point out that the event is split into street (further split into sport and sport-touring) and adventure/dual sport riding. There was quite a mix of bikes there, with a few FJRs. It felt to me that the adventure bikes, and the content at the event itself, slightly edged the street bikes and content.
Seminars/Presentations
I attended three sessions - a suspension clinic, a vision techniques clinic (followed by a group ride), and a touring tips discussion. The suspension clinic, conducted by Jesse Murphy of Truitt Motorcycle Education, was quite good. Jesse started with the basics, discussing what the suspension does and why, and then got into suspension setup. He then led a hands-on exercise in measuring suspension sag on a bike, then the attendees were turned loose to measure their own bikes and make adjustments if needed, and possible. I recently upgraded to a GP suspension through a group buy, and went through the setup at the time, so I didn't do my bike, but I did help others with their bikes. Everyone seemed to benefit from, and enjoy, the clinic.
The vision techniques clinic was also led by Jesse Murphy, and the session was better than I expected. Without going into the details, Jesse discussed our central, fringe and peripheral vision, how we use them, and how they are important to our riding. He led us through some exercises using cones on the floor in the room, and I got more out of this session than I expected to. After the clinic, Jesse led the group on a fun ride to Lost Lake, OR, where we had lunch and discussed how we had put into practice what was discussed in the talk.
The last session I attended was on touring tips and tricks. I was disappointed in the session and didn't stick it out through the entire session. The presenter was the event organizer, who has written books on touring, and my expectations were high. He came in without any planned agenda or material and basically turned to the crowd to solicit tips and tricks. After listening to suggestions like staying hydrated, carrying a tire repair kit, etc. I gave up on the session. I probably should have stuck it out, but if you've made it this far you may remember that I mentioned my ADD up front.
I did not attend what were two of the highlights, I'm sure, at the event, including the featured speaker, Dr. Gregory Frazier, who was giving a talk on riding around the world. His presentation was at 8pm on Saturday, and I decided to head home early, leaving Saturday afternoon, instead of Sunday morning as planned, to spend some time with my wife.
Rides
For street bikes there were only two organized rides, the first being the run to Lost Lake, which was an extension of the vision techniques clinic, and the second being a "fun run" held Friday morning. Actually, now that I think about it, there was also an organized ride to the Grass Valley racetrack, but I did not join that ride. I also did not do the fun run, as I had planned my own ride to Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams for that day - more on that in a bit. As mentioned previously, I did join the group for the ride to Lost Lake on Thursday, which was a fun ride. Jesse Murphy led the ride, and while the pace wasn't extreme, it was spirited enough to have fun. At the event, printed high-level maps with descriptions were provided for a handful of suggested rides in the area for the street. One of the maps was for the ride to Lost Lake, including some suggested forest service roads as alternative routes back. During the stop at Lost Lake I joined up with two other riders, and we rode NF 18 and 16 back, stopping in Parkdale for a bite to eat. These were very fun roads to ride, although there were a few short sections that were gravel. Leaving Parkdale I split off from the other two riders and rode Cooper Spur Road. If you have ridden this road, you know that it is an awesome ride! It starts off benign enough leaving Parkdale, going straight through some orchards, with incredible views of Mt. Hood, but then it really delivers fun with some incredible curves. I had a blast on the road until I neared its terminus at Hwy 35, when I caught up with a slower moving truck and had no way to get around it. Fortunately there wasn't a huge amount of the road left, so I didn't miss out on too much fun.
Another suggested ride was to Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood. This ride suggestion included taking in Cooper Spur Road, plus other alternative routes. After finishing the Cooper Spur ride mentioned previously and hanging around at the event site for a while, I decided to ride up to Timberline Lodge, where I walked around a bit and took some photos. On the return trip I hit Cooper Spur Road once again, this time riding it in the reverse direction, and this time I did not get hung up behind any other vehicles. It was a blast and a fun way to wrap up the day.
I grew up in southwest Washington and lived there when Mt. St. Helens erupted, and even rode my motorcycle at the time (a Yamaha RD-350) up into the "red zone" on the day of the eruption, May 18, 1980. However, I moved away from the area and really haven't been back since then, so I decided to build my Friday ride around the suggested ride to the McClellan overlook and pick up some of the suggested rides for the return ride back. When I got to the McClellan overlook, I saw on the map there that I wasn't too far from some lava tube caves known as the Ape caves, so I headed to NF 90 to head to the caves. This turned out to be a very fun ride, without too much traffic, and the condition of the road was quite good - but that set me up for disappointment later. I visited the Ape caves, found out the temperature in the caves is a near constant 42 degrees F, so I visited the cave in full ATGATT mode (minus the helmet). When I left the caves, I had decided to follow NF 90 to Mt. Adams, visit a lake there, and then work my way back to the rally. This is where I got let down by the map I saw at the McClellan overlook, and by NF 90 itself. The rest of NF 90 wasn't in nearly as good condition going east as it was going west. There were several sections that were gravel (not on the map) and frost heaves and other bad spots in the road. On one corner, when I was riding fairly aggressively, I hit a patch that was like a washboard, which caused my rear tire to hop and I was unable to keep the bike in my lane. Fortunately there was no traffic, which I could see ahead of time, but it was still frustrating. I toned it down from there and dealt with the rough road the rest of the way to the turn off to the lake, which is where I found out that the map lied, and what was identified as a paved road was really a rock road, not gravel and not one I wanted to attempt. So I turned south, got some incredible views of Mt. Adams on the way back, and otherwise had a good remainder of the ride.
Miscellaneous
I thought I would add a few comments on other aspects of the event, in case it helps anyone who may consider going to this event in the future. The first comment is on the location of the event, which is the Hood River Fairgrounds. The views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams are incredible from the fairgrounds, and the fairgrounds are set in the area where there are many orchards, so the scenery is great. However, there aren't many services nearby, and this meant if you wanted to grab a bite to eat, you had to head out to find a meal. There were supposed to be food vendors on site, but in the end only one vendor showed up.
My biggest criticism is that there weren't enough ways provided to help socialize with one another and, especially, to organize rides. Attendees either camped at the fairgrounds or stayed elsewhere, such as in a hotel or B&B. So the attendees were scattered and ways to bring us together were needed. There was a hamburger dinner and mixer Thursday evening, which I missed as I was on a ride. I understand in previous years there was a beer garden at the event, where people tended to congregate, and something like that would have been very helpful.
The cornering clinic at Maryhill Loops Road
Woohoo! The highlight of the event for me. The clinic was held Saturday morning on said road and was conducted by Jesse Murphy, with help from about 4 or 5 facilitators. The road is closed to the public, which meant we were the only ones on the road, and we went as a group, with ample spacing, each way, so we were able to ride the width of the road. We did one round trip in first gear only, to get a feel for the road, then we did another round trip where we could shift out of first but the pace was still relaxed. The rest of the clinic was a mix of Jesse talking to us about delayed apexes, turn-in points, etc. and us getting a chance to work on our skills at speed. What a blast! I found out that my cornering skills weren't as bad as I thought, and despite the heft of the FJR (I had taken the saddlebags offs, however), the bike did quite well, and I was able to keep up (and in some cases go faster than) other riders with smaller bikes. We were riding more aggressively than I typically do on the streets, and this really accentuated one area where a farkled FJR drags a lot of bits. I have highways pegs which dragged, and the Wynpro Big-Foot kickstand pad, which dragged. Of course, the peg feelers dragged as well, and my big feet sticking off the pegs dragged. So there was a lot of wear on these parts, but the bigger issue was safety. On two occasions something caught in a left-hand corner while dragging (I think it was the Big-Foot on the kickstand) and upset the bike. The first time wasn't too bad, but the second time really threw the rear wheel off, and for a split-second I thought I was going to high-side it. I was able to get the bike back under control however, and I made sure to back off my aggressiveness in the corners for the rest of the clinic.
The lowlight of the clinic was a bonehead moment by me. After a roundtrip on the road we were lining up and shutting off our bikes, and I neglected to put the kickstand out all the way. I think it was compounded by the amount of material I had ground off the Wynpro Big-Foot. At any rate, I had my first tip-over on my bike, and of course did it in front of most of the group. Other riders jumped in and help me get the bike back upright, but it did put a couple scratches in the body panels and really scratched up the mirror. Anyone have a black left-hand mirror for an 08 for sale?
WAAAM
The Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum (WAAAM) is located outside Hood River, and not too far away from the rally event site. Its focus is on airplanes, but it has quite a few interesting cars and some motorcycles as well. Probably the most interesting aspect is that all the planes are in working condition and are used periodically. A few planes from the exhibits were out being used when I visited, so it's great that the planes are used. This museum is well worth a visit if you are in the area.
The ride back
One day when I was in Hood River for lunch, I ran into a local, who is a big motorcycle enthusiast, and he told me about some of his favorite roads in the area to ride. One road he mentioned he likes is highway 142, which goes from highway 14 on the Washington side of the Columbia River gorge, up through Klickitat, and connects in Goldendale with the Bickleton highway. The rally ran through Sunday, but I decided to leave on Saturday after the cornering clinic. I checked out of my hotel and headed west to highway 142, which was a very pleasant and scenic ride. There was a bit of construction on the road, but it was a non-factor. Once I reached Goldendale, I rode the Bickleton highway home, again with very little traffic, and continued home on the reverse route that I took to the event. The only comment is that it was incredibly windy on Saturday, which made for some interesting times when meeting 18-wheelers, going around some bends, etc. Overall though it was a very pleasant ride home.
OK, inspired by MCATrophy, I have tried again to add the photos. Hopefully it worked this time.
Link to all the photos
Last edited by a moderator:
