TAT Round Trip Thoughts

I am home now just one day after completing a round trip Trans America Trail trip, from Houston, to Tennessee, to Oregon, and back to Houston. No pics here, but there is a thread over at ADVRider (Another DRZ does the TAT) that has the complete blog. This may or may not be the right place for this but the moderators will surely let me know if it's not! As I made my way home I had many thoughts about the trip and thought I would share some of them. I'll group my thoughts, but otherwise they are random and written as they pop into mind.

Personal: I'm 64 as of a couple of days ago, and an ex off road racer and enduro competor, although that was way back! With over 8000 miles for the trip I held up pretty well and suffered only one bruise on my leg from the one fall I took while underway (got crossed up in a rut at about 25 mph). A rock found one of the few places not protected by pads. My one goal was to complete this trip without a single spill, but alas that was a pipe dream! There were three of us on this trip, another R2 and a bored out DRZ 400. Two of us were 63 and one was 46.

The Trail: Sams route charts were very good and there were only a few places where we had to really scratch our head and take a guess as to which way to go. I used the roll charts almost exclusively although one of us had put the info into his GPS. While the GPS helped at times, I found the roll charts much more exact but we did have to fall back on the GPS to pick up the trail from time to time when re-routing for various reasons. That didn't happen often though. No ride report can convey what you are going to see and ride on this trip. You just have to do it. We didn't ride fast, took several rest days, and each of us had to take a day for repairs, waiting on parts, etc., but none of us had really major problems. We took 36 days going all the way across. We really did take it easy on the gravel with no, or little, sliding around the corners, etc. I think the fastest we ran on good gravel roads was 55 or 60, and a big bike could have hit 100 at many places, although I wouldn't advise it! Most trails we ran at 30 but some were down in the teens and mid twenties. To make the miles necessary to complete the "day" one has to get up early and ride pretty hard most of the time. We seldom did the former, and even less often the latter. I motel'd it most of the time, but did camp half a dozen times or so. My partners prefered to camp more often and did, sometimes in spitting distance of lodging. My personal preference was for a bed and bath in the evening, and the opportunity to wash my sox, underwear, etc. for the next days ride. You can do it either way. Gas was never a problem and it was something that we didn't have to worry about. It's a great experience to cross the country this way.

Gear: I used Klim gear and was very happy with it. Pants and Jacket were Klim Traverse and I can't say enough good things about this outfit. I thought it might be too hot, but not so. The pants have great ventilation and even at 110 plus I was fine. Same with the jacket, which I wore when it was cold, or very hot on the pavement ride back. My jersey would get just a bit damp under the coat but the venting kept me very comfortable and insulated from the intense heat. Raising a visor felt like someone putting a hair dryer at my face, but visor down and jacket zipped, it's all good. We had little rain, but what we had didn't get thru the gear at all. My Arai XD (the new one) was a God Send! I took goggles but never used them, mainly as I was up front most of the time. The flip down shield was used most of the time and it would have been most uncomfortable without it. For boots, take some that are waterproof! I didn't and was sorry. It's the wrong place to pinch pennies. I used Gaerne enduro style boots (not the MX versions) and they were supremely comfortable for riding and for walking. They do leak easily though, even though I used seam seal and waterproofing cream on them before the trip. I think next time I'd spring for Sidi Adventure GoreTex boots, and tape them to my pants for the deep water. Several times I was in over my boots, and they take two days to dry out, if your feet aren't in there. Riding in wet boots all day is not a fun thing to do, and my feet took a beating that way. There was a lot of rain this year out west, and we had a lot of water to deal with. For all of the trail I wore Underarmor Heat Gear with Axo Air Cage over. The Air Cage did it's job well, but was pretty much toast at the end of the ride as the straps connecting various pads had pulled loose. Rather than ship it home and try to make repairs I just circular filed it on the Oregon Coast.

The Bike: Wonderful! I wanted something that I could pick up, even loaded, and the R2 filled the bill. Among the mods were a Safari 3.7 gal tank and that was plenty. I kept if full of fuel when ever possible to avoid the dreaded fuel pump failure, and was successful that way. Mine is a 2008, and had a llittle over 2000 miles of trail riding on the clock when I started. Now it's over 10,000. The seat was a Seat Concepts buy, and 1 inch lower than stock. The link was adjusted down another inch so at 5' 9.5" I could just touch my toes on level ground with 3.5" of sag. My suspension was fully Race Tech modified and they did a fantastic job. Much better than stock. My bags were Wolfman, with Cordura side bags and Dry Duffel (medium) on the tail rack. Wolfman tank bag and auxilary bag up front above the head light. I tied a few things to the back of the bag with straps and nylon cordage for quick access. I ran a 13/47 gearing for this trip, and if I did it again I would go to 49 on the rear. In several places, especially up California Pass, it required every horse the bike had to make it to the top. I never stopped or had a problem, but I was wide open in first and just barely able to keep chugging near the top. Additionally, the 49 would make 3rd gear useable in many places, whereas the 47 required me to stay in 2nd and buzz the motor. Better yet would be the Athena 290 kit. Maybe just a few more horses with the FMF header and can would have helped, but I ran the motor completely stock. I got 60 mpg and better in the mountains and at elevation, and 50 mpg on the interstate coming home. The bike is still tall though, and except for two instances, every fall I took was at a stop or at very slow speeds where I could not dab. My legs just wouldn't reach! I learned not to try to make tight turn arounds on rough ground, as in a narrow road with depressed tracks. In those cases I would dismount and make a walking three point turn. That's little embarassing but after a couple of hard falls I submitted to gravity. Before leaving I welded an enlarged pad to the kickstand foot and it was very helpful! My chain was a DID Gold X-ring and I never had to even adjust it during the trip! I did wear out a countershaft sprocket, and changed to a spare at Moab. I had saved my stock Trail Wings and used them from Houston to Tennessee and on to Batesville AR, where I went to a D606. My used 606 front went from Houston to La Vita, CO (NM?), where I put on a new 606 front. My rear 606 went to Moab where it was replaced. When I got to the coast the tires were all still good, but I changed to Kenda 761's for the pavement ride home. That was 2400 miles, and I did it in 4 days, riding 65 most of the time with a 45 tooth rear sprocket, installed with the new Kendas. The Kendas barely show any wear after the ride back, and gave me a nice smooth quiet ride. That's it for now but if any questions or comments I would be pleased to respond!

Ken

I'm subscribed to your ADV RR and looking forward to your thoughts on this forum.

Thanks for the info and thoughts. Just this weekend my brother threw it out that we should ride the TAT next summer. Sounds like the planning begins now! I will have to decide if I will ride the WRR or the KLR. I think the WRR because I like it much better in loose sand. And I understand there is a good bit of sand on the route.

Can you post the link to you ride report ???

bsheet2 wrote:

Thanks for the info and thoughts. Just this weekend my brother threw it out that we should ride the TAT next summer. Sounds like the planning begins now! I will have to decide if I will ride the WRR or the KLR. I think the WRR because I like it much better in loose sand. And I understand there is a good bit of sand on the route.

I did it on a KLR and in hindsight, now that I have a WRR, I'd go with the WRR if I did it again, no question about it. Basically I could not pick up the KLR by myself and it is very heavy compared to the WRR. I can pick up the WRR. In addition, the WRR is much easier to ride in sand and half the ride is sand the year we went. I used D606 tires for the entire trip. The roar of the knobbies was painful at times. Now I use IRC 50/50 tires and I'm much happier. I took the KLR to Baja with the IRC's and it was much better, even in the sand.

As always lay out everything you plan to take and estimate your costs. Then eliminate about half the stuff and double the money.

Watch out for the deep, deep silt in northern Nevada.

Have fun.

Good input. Thanks!

The link to the adv ride report is http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=696855 The WR was a great bike for the ride, although our newish rider member was thankful for the extra horse power of the DRZ and I'm sure it helped him a lot in some places. It was the end of the ride before he was able to pick it up by himself though, and picking it up was required quite a bit. Once you get into Utah and beyond, I would want as close to a full knobbie as you can get as it helps in the sand. We actually missed the deepest sand by accident as an intense storm made us bypass one section and we missed the turn into the canyons where the sand lurks. There is a good bit of sand and it is here and there along the way. Not as much as I expected though. The worst part of the trip for us was Black Dragon Canyon as we were the first thru there after the heavy water flow washed out much of the trail. The folks who followed us, five Canadians on a range of bikes, including some KLR's, made it thru but felt it was hard. They followed our tracks and used our route thru and over the larger obstacles. We had to walk the canyon in large part to determine the best path thru. Once that was done, you could just ride thru even though there was a lot of rock hopping involved. If you are not confident in your ability to deal with large rock gardens, don't go in there. A good rider will be fine and will not have nearly the challenge that we had. Keep your load as LIGHT as possible. I would be very tempted to just leave the camping gear behind next time, and in fact I would, and call ahead for room reservations where ever possible. Use a satellite phone where no cell? My duffel had camping gear and not much else, and was the top heavy part of the rig. I carried a two man Marmot tent, a synthetic sleeping bag in a compression sack, and an Exped Synmat 9 inflatable pad. I'd go with a one man tent and a smaller pad with a down bag next time if camping a lot. That would save a few pounds. The Exped was very comfortable, and the tent roomy though.

Another thing I didn't mention was that two of us used the Tubliss system. I've had it on my bike for two years now and it has been flawless. You need a tire pump that will get to 110 psi though, and a Road Morph bicycle pump will do the trick. I had just one puncture on the ride, in my rear tire, and I plugged it with black strings. It leaked very slowly over the day, probably because the tire carcass is so thin. I wore out the tire that way with no issues. Not enough pressure was lost to affect anything during the day. My riding buddy had a long nail puncture both his tire and his tubliss so we put in an inner tube until Moab. He also had the other Tubliss inner tube fail, I think due to a manufacturing error. Both were replaced in Moab by Moab Powersports, a great place by the way. He had no more problems. I really like the Tubliss system but did carry front and rear tubes just in case. Tubliss, by the way, provided the replacements gratis, shipping them to Moab to be there when we arrived. Knowing that I could plug a tire in a couple of minutes and be on the way was a great comfort, and getting a nail long enough to puncture both tire and the system is not going to happen often.

In my saddle bags I carried my tool kit, a Jet Boil, small Gerber/Fiskar hatchet, minimal clothes in a dry sack, and my maps in a dry sack. Also in there were my toilet kit, empty collabsable water container, chain oil, and a pair of pants and long sleeve jersey for street wear at the end of the day. Sandals were strapped on the back of the dry duffel. The jacket was back there too, rolled up in a bath towel. The towel was used over my inflatable pillow when camping and made it a lot more comfortable. When the towel got dirty it could just be turned clean side up. You can probably see all of that in the adv pics.

blaisew, I am in Houston as well. Would like to get your input on various things as I prepare though the year if you don't mind.

Maybe we could do a ride one weekend if you are around. I have a pretty dencent route up through Grimes county and SAm Houston National Forest. Mainly gravel roads and forest serivice roads. Get ongravel just east of Navasota. Could do a bit of single track in SHNF if you you have a sticker.

bsheet2, sure, we could do that. PM on the way.