The Joust '95 GS Ride'n'Push

Article posted to the BMW-GS mailing list 8/14/95.

The only organized ride at this year's Joust was, naturally, a dirt ride. Attendees were:

myself (R80G/S)
DaVE Doudna (R100GS)
Paul Thompson (R100GS)
Kevin Tiene (R100GS)
David Mischel (R80G/S)
Bob Palin (KLR650)
Mike Lohemeyer (CB750)
Robert Kennedy (NightHawk 650)
Stan Malyshev (SR250)

The Forest Service roads to get to the Swamp Lake trail were an easy warmup, with a water crossing or two, taking us without incident to the Swamp Lake trail gate. The gate was open, though it had a Road Closed sign on it, and there was a wooden Forest Service sign next to it that said open, so we went ahead.

This trail got harder right away, but was still plenty passable. At first it was mostly downhill, with the hills covered with baseball-sized rocks, sometimes with a semi-clear dusty line on one side, nothing too steep. The first hill proved to be among the hardest, and Kevin's first experience with a rocky downhill resulted in a benign drop. Other parts of the trail got narrow and sandy, with boulders to navigate around. This whole time I was thinking, "Whee, this is fun!" No problemo. Downhill, easy.

Unfortunately, while Robert rides his Nighthawk like it's a GS, it just doesn't have the ground clearance, and he cracked its oilpan somewhere along a bendy smooth stretch punctuated by small boulders. He turned back right away, leaving a trail of oil drops, racing against time. We gave Paul Thompson and Stan a quart of oil and a tow rope and they went back with Robert.

Meantime, Bob Palin on the KLR650 had gone ahead to scout the route and reported that it was passable. A slight dip up ahead, but passable. This dip was a sandy 90-degree turn, and at the last minute I decided to go around this obstacle on the side of the trail, but not in time to avoid a tree, so dropped the bike instead. Mike on the CB750 chose a different way around this altogether and made it through vertically, as did everyone else.

Soon we came across a part of the trail covered with roots (a peg-stander) ending in a 90-degree turn across boulders, across a stream, a sharp rise ending in another 90-degree turn. DaVE went first and made it almost all the way across, but got stopped on the rise and had to be pushed out. Somehow the rest of us made it across, though none of it was pretty, only to find DaVE dropped on the next obstacle: another stream crossing with a slimy muddy uphill right after it.

After getting DaVE out of the mud, reason took over. It was 1:30, we hadn't gone more than a mile and half yet, and it was supposed to get harder. This was the Joust, we had dinner waiting for us, let's go back and pose, or find other dirt roads that we can actually ride. David Mischel and Bob Palin weren't having any problem, so decided to continue. DaVE, Mike (whose CB750 with no ground clearance was becoming a liability), myself (whose mind with no clearance was soon to become a liability!) and Kevin decided to turn around.

Everyone breezed back over the stream crossing except me -- I tried to set up the perfect line that I'd taken in, but in doing so, got too close and never had enough room to gain momentum. An important lesson there!! Sometimes momentum is more important than the right line. Enough momentum would have rendered the exact line unimportant.

DaVE and Kevin went on ahead while I rested and Mike waited with me. By now his bike's battery was too low to electric-start, so he was kickstarting his bike every time. I went on ahead, this time navigating the boulder-strewn trail with trepidation, since now it was uphill and I no longer had the impunity of the automatic momentum that gravity provides. Indeed, this trail suddenly got a lot harder uphill.

I pulled off to let some 4-wheelers go by (apparently doing trail maintenance) and to wait for Mike, who'd had problems with his bike stalling. Mike had to help me push my bike out of where I'd pulled over, and then when I started, I dropped it again in an easy place. Argh! Psyche-out!

Kevin and DaVE were waiting for us up ahead, before the section with the sandy dip where I'd had my first drop. We agreed to go around the dip, over some shale rocks on the side. Again, momentum was key here, since there was a rise in the rocks. Kevin and Mike got stuck and needed pushing; I made it past that but got bounced up and dropped it. Not again! Same old pattern: most of my drops are uphill, and after the hard part.

I went ahead, trying to regain some mental momentum and rhythm: I've ridden worse stuff than this before, what's wrong with me today? I made it as far as a long, loose, rocky uphill with a slight bend. Halfway up, I hit an embedded rock, lost momentum and dropped the bike to the right, against the hill. This time I was able to rotate it in such a way I could pick it up myself, but now I was in a place that was very difficult to get started from. I tried, but only dropped it again, and picked it up again, but by now I admitted that I'd just have to wait for help. DaVE showed up and helped push me out, but unfortunately that forced him to stop just before this stretch.

After DaVE pushed me out, I rode up ahead to just before our last big obstacle, then parked and came back to help. I could hear the revved-out CB750 engine as Kevin and DaVE pushed Mike up a dusty rise before the rocky uphill DaVE had just pushed me out of. While Mike rested, Kevin tried the hill, getting bounced to the side just about 10 feet before where I had, and dropped his GS on the left side, downhill, past the cylinder. His foot appeared trapped, and I struggled in a minor panic to budge the GS until DaVE showed up and freed him. It wasn't really that trapped but one doesn't always think to ask these things when a friend is under a motorcycle! This cost Kevin a mirror.

DaVE took over Kevin's bike and tried to get started, but it took two of us to push to get enough traction in the loose dirt and rocks. Mike made it without drops, but got stopped and needed pushing too. Finally, DaVE's turn -- had he not stopped to help me, he would have been able to tackle this without stopping. But he lost momentum too, and this time only had me to push. Push, roost & slide about 10 feet, bike stalls or slips back, stop. Push, roost & slide about 10 feet...etc.

Finally we were done with what had been a fairly simple stretch when we passed over it the first time. But now had the last obstacle to face: the first tough downhill where Kevin dropped, which was now a steep uphill right-hand 90-degreer up a loose rocky corridor, then another righthand 90-degreer to the long uphill, which had a clean line on the right. The left was just a big rocky rut.

The other problem was that by now we were all really tired. We were tired after getting across the stream where we'd turned around, but now, we were REALLY tired!

After a break, DaVE took Kevin's bike up this hill, but got stopped on the first section. Again, push, go about 10-20 feet, stop, push, push, push. An exhausting business that took about 10 minutes to finally get him past the toughest stuff and on his way to the top. Kevin and I helped Mike, who'd made it up the first part, the positioned his bike for the second part and made it up with only a few pushes.

Then the 4-wheelers we'd seen before showed up and told us they'd seen the other two motorcycles and that they were doing more pushing than riding and were on their way back. They also told us this trail was closed, didn't we notice the sign?

Sure enough, Bob and David showed up and said, "what are YOU guys still doing here?" They kindly informed us that we'd turned around where the easy part ended, and it got much worse when they went on. They both breezed through the last section that had taken so much out of us, which of course is the best way to do it :-). At least now they could help us push mine & DaVE's bike up this last hill!

I went next. I tried to get a running start, and made it up past the first section, around the 90 degree bend to the second section, and aimed for an embedded boulder thinking, that's solid, it has traction and is a perfect launching point for the clear line on the right. It was a launching point all right, and I dropped it right there. Bob rode his KLR650 up to where I'd dropped it, apparently confident that he could get started again, and with Kevin's help, pushed me out. More false starts, pushes, near-drops...finally, out of courtesy to my helpers, I let Bob take over and with a push or two, he rode Harley up to the top.

DaVE's bike took much of the same effort as Kevin's, and we got it up 10-20 feet at a time again. At one point we decided it would be less work to back the bike down to the clean line than to try to push it out of the rocky area that seemed to attract out-of-control GSs.

Bob, cavalier in his ability to get started midway up the hill, produced a nice roost show until he had to admit he needed pushing too. If he hadn't stopped to help me, he'd have made it up, but that stuff was deceptively loose and was very hard to get started on again. He was tempted to go back down and ride it again just to be sure he could, but Mike said if he needed any pushing, Bob was going to owe a whole lot of beers. Did I mention we were REALLY tired by now? Each bike took tremendous effort out of all of us.

Finally, David Mischel: he'd had no problems so far, so we said: show us how it's done, Dave! and waited for him at the top of the hill. Eventually, the passage of time and the sound of a revving boxer lured us down and we found him stuck in the first section. He was able to make good use of pushes and aggressively got going, so this time we only needed to push every 50 feet or so. After he got going on the last push, DaVE ran after him pushing all the way until David got enough traction to lose him.

We were all pooped. This was a LOT of work.

But now, we were off the hook! The rest of the trail was relatively easy, we all made it past the water crossing and arrived at the trailhead only to find a locked gate. Apparently the 4-wheelers were confident in our ability to get around it, which we did by riding through the woods. Of course I executed my usual formula: make it past the rise into the woods, the hard part, then drop the bike for no apparent reason.

The ride home was a blast: after all the pushing and hard riding, we all needed to indulge in throttle-twisting. Sections of gravel that had given me pause earlier I now couldn't get my G/S to go fast enough on. The pavement was especially sweet!

And how did Robert, Stan and Paul fare? Robert and Stan had their troubles on that same hill as we had, and needed pushing. Anyone who stopped needed pushing -- you either made it in one shot, or got pushed by two or three very hard-working riding buddies. Paul managed to ride it up under his own power, and that was with dropped bikes around him and the 4-wheelers behind him! Kudos to Paul for being the only one who made it up.

Paul was also the only one not to drop his bike all day. I win for most drops, as usual. This was only Kevin's 4th dirt ride, and he stuck it out with us, and I think he had a grand time, despite the work. This was not an easy ride! Robert made it all the way to the highway before he needed oil, but his bike had to be trailered back home.

While street bikes can usually make it on many GS rides, this time, the road really was too much. I truly believe it's the rider, not the ride, but even Robert's stunning talent couldn't make up for his Nighthawk's lack of ground clearance. I bottomed my G/S's centerstand many times, and when we got back, discovered that one of the hooks holding on the centerstand springs was bent, and the other was missing, along with one of the centerstand springs. Time for a centerstand bash plate!

Everyone is probably tired of hearing me harp on this, but I maintain yet again: downhill is easier! It took us three times as long to get back uphill as it had to get downhill. Most of the drops and problems (and ALL of the pushing!) occurred uphill. I understand that the fear of losing control on a downhill is a real thing, but to me, the fear of losing momentum on the uphills is greater -- especially since it happens a LOT more. It's not that I like downhill better, I just match my apprehension to the reality!

We made it back around 5pm, in plenty of time to buy some showers at a nearby ski resort, and spent the rest of the night wowing our various audiences with our escapades, the stories no doubt getting grander with every telling. But they were pretty grand to begin with.

Quote of the day, spoken by DaVE before we set out, to reassure apprehensive riders about the foreboding trail description:

"Just don't ride down anything you can't get back up."

heh.

noemi

>...This was only Kevin's 4th dirt ride, and he
>stuck it out with us, and I think he had a grand time, despite the
>work.  This was not an easy ride!

Well not really.  I'd been on dirt/gravel _ROADS_ 3 or 4 times before.  No
hills, rocks, mud, stream crossings, boulders, etc...

This was my FIRST dirt ride.

After my "benign drop" on the first rocky downhill, I wondered what I'd
gotten myself into.  I figured I was going to be a real burden to the
group.  As it turned out, I started to get the hang of it, and by the time
we decided to turn around, I was feeling fairly confident and was making it
through most obstacles with a minimum of fuss.

Streams are fun!

On the way back, I was still felt pretty good, but lost momentum on a
couple of uphills and had to work harder to get through.  I only needed a
push once, though (as far as I can remember!).  Mike (who is an excellent
rider) discovered the limits (weight, tires, ground clearance) of his CB750
and we all did a lot of pushing on the way back up.

By the time I got to the the next to the last hill, I was:
   - feeling confident, BUT
   - totally exhausted from riding and pushing,
   - hungry,
   - and not looking forward to the last steep rocky uphill.

When I dropped it on that hill, I decided that it would be wise to ask DaVE
to take it up the last hill.  I was just too tired.  I did penence for
relinquishing my mount by doing lots of pushing.  It took us over an hour
(and I think closer to 1.5) to get the 6 bikes up that last hill.

And yes, I had a grand time.

>Quote of the day, spoken by DaVE before we set out, to reassure
>apprehensive riders about the foreboding trail description:
>
>        "Just don't ride down anything you can't get back up."

My reply to DaVE was:

"How would I know?  I've never done this before!"

Now I know.

thanks to DaVE, Dave, noemi, Mike, and Bob for all their help and confidence,

-Kevin