FODS WV 2016 - Picture Thread

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extrememarine

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Unpacking and drying stuff out - figured I'd toss the first picture up here.

Plenty more to sort through, along with a ton of GoPro video (Thanks Lee!! - I have to get my own one of these little gadgets now!!). We had an amazing weekend of riding some of West Virginia's finest - plenty of adventures had with stories and tales to be spun.

I will also be the first to this - I did drop the DRZ, while turning around; only once though, and unfortunately the GoPro footage of that suffered a technical glitch and is not usable now - bummer, right?

This is from Wednesday - Jim's DR650 and my DRZ staged while we get camp set up.

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Group photo - FODS WV 2016 (Thank you Wanda (Mrs DSBiker)!!

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Looks like you put a 21" front rim on it. Planning to ride it more off road than on?

Send me your kickstand and I'll lengthen it for you. :)

Wish I could have been there but lots of family stuff has been going on.

 
Yes - 21" Front / 18" Rear - still have the SM wheels as well to the street side of things - best of both worlds now. And WOW - what a difference in the rougher stuff!!

Family always has the priority, but maybe next year things will line up!!

Looks like you put a 21" front rim on it. Planning to ride it more off road than on?Send me your kickstand and I'll lengthen it for you.
smile.png


Wish I could have been there but lots of family stuff has been going on.
 
Thurs' dual sport crew at first butt break in Helvetia



Fri's dual sport crew in the 3 Forks of the Gauley





And some Snowflake fodder on the way home





FODS WV 2016 produced a lot of vivid memories. I look forward to seeing and hearing the re-telling of the tales!

 
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Fri's dual sport crew in the 3 Forks of the Gauley - The version with our fearless leader in it...

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Fri's dual sport crew in the 3 Forks of the Gauley

 
Looks like you put a 21" front rim on it. Planning to ride it more off road than on?Send me your kickstand and I'll lengthen it for you.
smile.png


Wish I could have been there but lots of family stuff has been going on.
We missed yer sorry butt! So...are cigars being passed around yet Gramps?

 
Looks like you put a 21" front rim on it. Planning to ride it more off road than on?Send me your kickstand and I'll lengthen it for you.
smile.png


Wish I could have been there but lots of family stuff has been going on.
We missed yer sorry butt! So...are cigars being passed around yet Gramps?
Yes!

Big ol healthy good lookin boy.
smile.png


The kids that live in east Asia are here visiting too. I'm having a hard time teaching the 3 year old boy how to use a fork and spoon. He's better with chop sticks!
uhoh.gif


 
Looks like you put a 21" front rim on it. Planning to ride it more off road than on?Send me your kickstand and I'll lengthen it for you.
smile.png


Wish I could have been there but lots of family stuff has been going on.
We missed yer sorry butt! So...are cigars being passed around yet Gramps?
Yes!

Big ol healthy good lookin boy.
smile.png


The kids that live in east Asia are here visiting too. I'm having a hard time teaching the 3 year old boy how to use a fork and spoon. He's better with chop sticks!
uhoh.gif
Outstanding! Congratulations!!!

 
I'll relate my faux pas as folks seemed to like the story. I had been following the GPS from Helvetia to the campground and it put me on a well graded dirt road called Zumbach, which became County 52, and I just found it's also named Silica Rd. No problem till passing several houses, then there was a steep short uphill left behind the last of them, and the road suddenly got much worse. My own fault for not turning around, as I know that in WV when this happens, the road goes from "maintained" to "unmaintained" and may literally have been washed out 20 years ago. Fun on the KTM 690 - not so much on a Tenere with a trailer.

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The trailer was doing OK and I was up on the pegs with slip sliding through the mud and steeper unmaintained sections. Basically I was just trying to keep the 3 wheel tracks out of the rain galleys and besides, the GPS said this was the road to follow, right? That's about the point I went through a set of puddles like hundreds before and the little 8" tire on the right hung up in a surprisingly deep one. This looks back, so it's on the left and doesn't look like much of a problem.

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The bike suddenly paused a second and then the tire popped up and free, like unleashing a spring. I knew this wasn't going to end well when the trailer came into my right peripheral vision. The Tenere went down on the left, the trailer pulled it back up again, and for a little I was riding backwards before the bike went down the second time. The Helite air vest popped as I came to a stop and the bike kept going with the trailer plopped up on it's side.

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No real damage beyond a slight ding in the tank, bent shifter, and bent license plate. Not something you think of when you set up a trailer is that when the bike was on its side, the orientation of the trailer tongue was straight up from the hitch. Fortunately, the trailer tongue has a swivel coupler and I credit that with the lack of trailer or hitch damage.

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The GPS at this point said that continuing on was the shorter way off the mountain. Being the idiot or glutton for punishment I am, I rickshaw the trailer past the next puddles and got everything back together. Remember that bit about roads being washed out? Another quarter mile up the road the drainage had left a rock wall and steps that would have been a minor challenge for the thumpers. This is the point I said F- this, I'm turning around.

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I rickshawed the trailer back through the worst of the muddy section and about this point it was less than a half hour to sunset. Having just passed a beautiful lonely spot on the ridge, that's where camp was for the night rather than riding in the dark. After a can of soup, went to sleep listening to tree frogs and woke to the song of cicadas. The next morning I retraced my steps to Helvetia, washed up everything at a car wash, and got to meet the others.

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btw - I've carried a SPOT tracker in my jacket for a couple of years, largely because Karen likes to follow along when she is not with me. I'm really thankful to have not been hurt, and even so, consider the tracker to have paid for itself on this one outing, since it gave me a way out if I really needed it.

 
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