Durty Dabbers Dual Sport > me

Went out to the Durty Dabbers AMA National Dual Sport in NW Pennsylvania this weekend. Its a 2-day event that requires plated bikes and each day was promised to be 100+ miles of 'bad roads'. 'Road' is subjective I guess... In any event, its really 2 events in one: the BMW Adventure series follows the fire roads and cool pavement for big bikes, and the main route is for idiots like me on dual sports with hard options for the guys with plated dirt bikes who want a 'real' challenge.

In any event, it was just under 200 miles from my house to the event site so I made a phone call to another local who was headed up and...



Yup, trailered up. No way I was going to beat myself up in the woods for two days and wear myself out riding 5+ hours up and back before and after the event too.

The event itself is a fundraiser for the local fire department, so they actually had a pretty nice base of operations for us. Showers, indoor bathrooms, food, free beer!, etc. Junior (truck/DR650 owner) and I arrived well after dark and setup our individual tents. Mine the next morning:


Yup, a bivy sack in a sea of trailers. :lol: I don't have a real tent, just the hennessy hammock and this, and since I couldn't find trees to hang from the night before I got to sleep on the ground. All in all not too bad and I slept pretty well.


Saturday pt 1




Waiting around the pavilion for the rider's meeting.


Just a few of the DAMN guys


I have no idea how this guy didn't sweat to death riding his R80G/S out there... and I know he at least did the first hard climb on the main course.


Lots of orange out there


Some cool vintage bikes too, out being used as originally intended.


Into the woods!


I don't have any pictures of the first hill climb because there was no freaking way I was going to be able to stop. Its a several mile climb up a creek bed filled with rocks, wet roots, rocks, fallen branches, hardpack with loose gravel, and more loose rocks. Did I mention rocks?

On the second woods section, short stretch where we stopped for a rider who dropped to get moved out of the way...


oh wait that was me we were waiting for. I was fighting my tires and the bike all day, it absolutely hated the rocks and ledges. Every time my front wheel would hit it would kick sideways, then the rear would hit and usually kick the opposite way just as the front hit another rock. Arm pump and lack of talent caught up and I dropped it... and bent the shifter. Bad. Tip of the shifter was pointed at my foot peg bad. Fortunately it bend back without breaking... no other damage, lets ride!

More of the DAMN riders




The first little break and pavement/fire road connector after the second woods section.




Back under way onto some (in hindsight) fun rocky roads that alternated between two track and wide rocky/gravel road. Resting and waiting at a bend in the road for another DAMN guy that fell.






Trying out one of the fancy buttons on the camera, the multi-image capture. Didn't work too well as the guys slowed down a lot for the turn, but I hope to have fun with it in the future.




First gas stop of the day, we're about 30 miles in with 70 to go...

That looked like an incredible weekend! Great pics and fun (besides the tires being ornery); what better way to spend a weekend. Beats doing accounting.

Saturday Part 2 or this is where I stopped having fun Saturday.

Shortly after the gas stop we're back into the forest roads and soon enough back into the woods. Many of the 'roads' were actually either closed trails, long closed access roads, or like this one, part of a designated system for plated 4x4's and bikes. It was mostly two track with long stretches of three track, the third being a path worn in the center by bikes to bypass some of the crap on the edges. The ruts were kinda deep in places, especially around transitions from two to three, and it was lousy with embedded and mostly buried rocks, lumps, hidden whoops, roots, etc. Still fighting my tires (IRC VE-39 front, Kenda Trakmaster II K760), I lost it coming through a rough section and...






...hit a fucking tree. No idea how fast I was going, probably 25-35mph. Bike got twisted sideways and just ran straight into the hill and was stopped by the tree, hit right on the very end of the fender and slammed to a stop, slamming me ass and back first into the hill. No damage to me beyond a nice bruise on my hip even with hip pads and some general soreness. The bike...







Eh, cosmetic damage. Looks like a real dirt bike now. Ride on! Well not really. That second crash really spooked me and I was riding timidly, if not outright scared, for the rest of the day. I did NOT want a repeat in case the bike or I wasn't as lucky the next time.

Waiting for another DAMN guy who fell (not me this time).



Made my first adjustment here by dropping tire pressures front and back from 22/18 to 18/16. Seemed to help a little with getting the front end to bike but not much help out back. I was still pogo'ing on every big rock hit and whipping the ass end side to side constantly.



Ken, the DAMN leader, waits for the rest of the Riders to catch up.


Finally... LUNCH!


Well, snacks anyways. This was right about 60 miles in, plenty of free water, soda, chips, cookies, bananas, and other snacky foods for the hungry and tired bikers.

The BMW guy was still trucking along!


There was one last rocky loose section that lasted about 5 miles, then cleared up into a halfway decent gravel road leading to this overlook:







After that, it was back to the beginning of the course where we went down the creek bed we rode out to start the ride. Final tally on miles was around 100 miles by my guestimation based on the horribly inaccurate odometer, including a gas stop at the end for me.

Absolutely thrased:


Time for a cold shower, hot food and plenty of free beer! I also found a place to hang my hammock so I slept like a baby all night crashing just after dark. Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

Sunday would be different, I hoped...

9 of us came down to the dual sport ride from the Rochester NY area, 2 of us on Wr250r's. We met Skierd just after the riders meeting, good to meet a fellow wrr rider.
We started day 1 heading up the first alternate route, it always delights me to get around full blow off road bikes in the tough sections. I was running a clapped out Kenda triple on the front and a brand new Michlien Trial's tire on the rear. That tire was majic on that slippery/wet creekbed section. Skiered had advised I would like 12lbs in the tire but I stuck with 15 as planned. All went well for our group as we continued doing the alternate routes. Just before lunch Chuck (drz400) endoed just at the end of Alternate#3, no more alternates for Chuck. We hit the snack bar (did you know they have m&m cookies) and our Dr. Simmons (dr650) attended to Chucks hand.
Up to this point the entire group had been doing all the Hero sections, we decited that Chuck, Paul and Ken would accompany Chuck on the main rt and the rest of us would continue riding the alt routes. The section immediatly after lunch was my best ride of the day, my bike was running good and I loved that section of trail.
Alt #5 was a different story, I have riden enduros enough to know cars parked at the entry to a section was not a good sign. Also meeting a string of bikes coming back down did not bolster my confidence. All of the sudden we came upon a string of waiting bikes. I got off an looked at was bascilly a trials section, steep, slippery, rocky complete with a big ledge. We waited in line while a couple guys tried and failed and a couple just turned around. First of the crew Tim (KTM456) went, he made it look easy and was gone. Next up Brock (Husky310w/recluse) not as pretty but he made it. Andy (wr450recluse) tried and didn't make it. My turn, I tried it but didn't take the right line, back down the hill for me. The rest didn't even want to try. I did see a guy with a old wr 2 stroke clean it while I was turning around. Regrop and the rest of the day was a blast!
Day # 2 started with a threatening sky, The first alternate route of the day had another shitslide you had to climb before you even get out of the parling lot, still stinging from the failure of the day before I smoked right up it. We had split the group there were few that did not want to do the ALT and were going to regroup at the first gas stop, unfortunatly I never made it !
As we came to the creek crossing I was dreading the water, I have made it through it twice before but not without trouble. Andy, Rick and Tim get through. Brock tries and goes completely underwater, they pull him out. Now my turn, into the water O go, going good almost to the other side and I hit an underwater rock and endoed into the water. My bike and myself completey submerged. They haul me out and I start trying to get it running. It was running when it went under and had filled the cylinder with water. With the help of the crack Dirty Daubers pit crew my bike was comming apart, plug out and it shoots 20 ft of water out when we hit the starter, tipped it up and got the water out of the pipe. We got it cranking but the tipover switch was full of water and shorted out. My day was ended, loaded my bike in a Dauber rescue vehicle and drank their beer with them the rest of the afternoon! Thanks!
Great time and I love my bike more every time I ride it!
Skierd, when you were advising us on tire pressure I stayed with 15 and it hooked great, My buddy Tim went back and lowered his to 12 and guess what? Pinch flat!
Kenner, how did the weekend go from your prospective?

Swarty

Really? A guy in our group was running a Michelin at 6psi and another on the Pirelli MT43 at 8psi and no issues. Luck of the rocks?, sucks, sorry about that. Any time I ran my pirelli over 12psi it would just slip and spin horses for courses I guess.

We got lost in the ATV park and missed the big creek crossing. Did play around in the open area of the park for a while though, that was fun.

Excellent ! ...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

Trashed ? I dunno....

Clear eyes, no blood. Looks like you could have done the course backwards. AT NIGHT ! * laugh *

sunday Sunday SUNDAY!

I forgot to bring up the part I liked about saturday, the long single track section after the fourth hero section split off from the main trail. Lots of hidden whoops, just enough room to move around, places to rest in between the mayhem. Almost got my mojo back before the rocks returned... c'est la vie.

Sunday dawned cool and cloudy with a "50/50 chance of rain" according to the organizers. Of course that turned to 100% after the first transit out of camp... fun roads though!


Up DeHaas road to the ATV area instead of the alternate for the hill climb... somewhere we missed the correct turn as a group and ended up halfway through the ATV section of the course without realizing it. Figuring out where the hell we were and how to get to where we needed to be...


Earlier in the day, before setting out, I softened my front forks by 3 clicks to get a little more compliance in the rocks. It helped a little, but not as much as I hoped. Sitting at the top here, I decided to air down to the minimum recommended pressures in an effort to make my tires bite and actually give traction. 15psi front, 15psi rear, and all of a sudden I could actually STEER! And get on the throttle without the bike sliding all over the place! WOOOHOO!!

And it was none too soon. The rains came back and the ATV section was a rocky muddy mess and with the bike finally working my mojo started coming back and I had a frickin blast though there, my favorite part of the course. There were some really snotty hills that I was surprised to find myself tractoring up no problem that I would have died on the day before.

Unfortunately we got lost and didn't make the big creek crossing, I guess we'll have to go back next year.

Leaving the ATV area back into the state forest, more mud, loam, and of course rocks. Waiting at a creek crossing:



That one was pretty long as it had you going up the creek for about 20 yards before the road came out. There were several more rocky hill climb (on several of which I stalled halfway up for various reason but got back going without being too much of a road block...) and a long stretch of fire roads that eventually wound its way back to the lunch stop for the day at the town's fire hall. We did do the one small alternate section that went along a snowmobile trail for maybe a mile, but that was the only hero section I did. Next year...

Lunch!



A common sight this weekend:


My man on the GS was still kickin!




Drool...


Lunch was a spaghetti with meatballs provided by the fire hall and was DAMN tasty after a hard 70 miles that morning. Nom nom nom...

Time to head back to camp, about 30 miles away through the woods. The first 8 miles or so was a twisty paved road up to this overlook:




Simply breathtaking...






Not so breathtaking...


Out of the parking lot and onto the best DAMN road of the whole event. Full of fun little whoops, jumps, wide enough to really get on it and mess around and really really plain ol' FUN! Then the road ended and turned into a loose rocky and wet two track downhill from the summit of the mountain to the valley below. Of course there was a tree across the road... Junior on the mule taking it in stride:





Looking down the hill, one of the easier spots.


It was another 10-15 miles of that kind of road that wound its way down the mountain. Near the end I went wide through a muddy switch back and stuff the bike one last time into a bank and bend the bars...

On the road back to camp


Just some DAMN guy


Tired and sore, back at the trailer, ready for the 3.5 hour tow home...


Till next weekend...

Great Job on the pic's, did you see any critters? I ran over a black snake and a bunch of guy's in the ATV area got to see a big timber rattler. Bunch of guy's stopped my buddy amoung them, guy went in the woods to heed the call of nature and came back out screaming. Men being men they had to go back and observe the snake, big guy!

Swarty

nice ride & great pics.. Big group rides look like fun, but i've never been on one.. I imagine the logistics of everybody riding would be a nightmare. But i know a lot of the California rider clubs have hundreds turn out for big rides.

Looks like you got into some pretty nasty stuff.. mashed up the bike a bit, too. ..glad you came out ok.. bikes are easier to fix. All the trees & mud are cool.. we don't get many miles of that out here!

During my lunch today I typed up a summary of my weekend....and then lost it as I was trying to upload a photo..... no time now to re-do.....oh well.......I'll just summarize by saying it was my first event like it but it wont be my last! Kudos to the Durty Dabbers ....Planning and pulling off an event like that takes TONS of hard work and I can't thank eveyone involved enough. Good to meet you Skierd and nice job with your photo journal ...you captured the weekend nicely.....enjoy your summer WR travels and maybe we'll run into you at Mill Hall next year. Swarty...thanks for making your camper availabe for post ride showers and for teaching me a trick or 2 about riding (although I might ask someone else to show me how to get accross creek crossings). As for my 2008 WR250R.....it was perfection all weekend!

Just noticed this report. DD2010 edition was definitely a good ride. On Sunday we switched between the adv and ds routes, and did the ds route saturday. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, though this looked familar:

There's a bunch of ADV members in that pic. The TKC80 those guys are patching belonged to an F800GS that one of my group was riding(guy in the blue t-shirt, STBob) - picked up a nail somewhere in the two miles between the gas stop and the lunch stop . The KLR belongs to GearedUp, who is standing behind it, and the RXV550 hiding behind him to the left belongs to the guy wearing the camelbak(Redpower). My WR² is just above the guy kneeling in front of the bucket, I was probably wandering around looking at some of the hardware. Caught us at at good moment , you did.

I did Sundays ride. It's was ok too much street and dirt roads or me tho. What trails they did give us did not have as much rocks as we see in the riding I do in JT and High Mt... Or lost trails...

Sunday was a lot easier than Saturday. I thought the ride back from the lunch stop was just about perfect though, fast twisties up the mountain to the overlook, good fire roads and two track going down to the picnic grounds. It was plenty rocky enough for me both days. C'est la vie, the Michaux Dual Sport is this weekend and I can't wait!

I'll be in PA play`n in the rocks this weekend. I was doing to do Hancock but I can find a lot tuffer trails for free and money is low LOL