Pigs Can Fly

The 2003 Touratech-USA GPS Ride

Picture this: You go for a ride with 40 or so other fellow GS�ers and dual sport riders following the same route through state forests on fire roads and minor backcountry roads while not really bumping into anyone else other than you riding partner you started the trip with.

Well, this was the case on the weekend of July 19th when one of my colleagues and myself joined the annual Touratech-USA GPS ride.

The concept is quite simple, and boils down to a self guided tour. The kind folks at Touratech-USA in Seattle, WA plan and scout the route a couple of weeks before the actual event. To ensure that the road is passable with the big GS�s they do a test ride using their fully loaded Touratech R1150GS that carries a 41 liter petrol tank, Zega cases and all the camping gear required. The GPS route is made available via download from their website approximately 1 week prior to the event.

The route is made available in Garmin Mapsource format for use with Garmin GPS units and a text file version is available for users of other brands. Help is available in the format of a social gathering on the Friday night at the shop over a couple of cold ones.

You depart at your own leisure on the Saturday morning and meet up with all you�re fellow attendees that night in camp. The route covers a couple of hundred miles with a large percentage over minor and backcountry roads. The route is calculated in such a way that there is a fuel source within about 80 miles.

The past week was hectic at work so I ended up packing my gear and loading the bike on Saturday morning. I toyed around with the idea of having a fresh set of tires fitted prior to the ride but decided against it since I had left it too late and would have had to get the tires fitted on Saturday morning before starting which would have delayed our departure even further.

I met up with Hayo in Federal Way just north of Tacoma at about 10:30 am from where we left after he dropped a couple of movies off at the video store. We headed up highway 18 to Snoqualmie falls from where we would go further north on highway 203 before intercepting the GPS route just before Duvall on highway 203. At Monroe we stopped and I refueled the GS � not knowing how deep into the woods the route will take us (a 250kg bike loaded with camping gear is a bit heavy to push ;-))

We followed highway 2 from Monroe through Sultan, Gold Bar and turned off the main road at Index. From here we followed the road until we ended up on the forest service road snaking it�s way through the valley next to the North Fork Skykomish river. The road is marked as a 4WD trail on the map but in reality turned out to be a moderately easy dirt road � I guess it can get a bit messy if there is snow and stuff around, but the weather is great this time of the year and Saturday was a great day for riding.

The first section of backcountry roads turned out to be a great warm-up lap for what was about to follow. The road looped around and reconnected with highway 2 close to Skykomish. From here we headed further east on highway 2 through Scenic, up Stevens pas, past the ski resort finally turning off onto forest service road 6700 and into the Wenatchee National forest. Things were getting more and more interesting as we were moving along and I was progressively getting more comfortable with the big pig on the dirt roads (I�m used to riding an R100GSPD on dirt and was a bit apprehensive with the 19" front wheel on the 1150 but it turned out to be a non issue.) The road crawled up the mountainside through a couple of switchbacks with fairly good traction along the way. We were climbing higher into the Cascade mountains with every turn in the road with the scenery improving as we went along. Following the forest service roads we eventually popped out just north of Lake Wenatchee on route 207. From here we followed the paved road down to the town of Plain were we met up with a group of five F650 GS�s and one KLR 650. Everybody stopped for some refreshments and to take on water � it is important to stay properly hydrated in warm weather, and throwing the 1150 around takes a bit of work. Hayo refueled his Adventure since he did not refuel in Monroe as I did. From plain we would head off into one of the more difficult sections of the whole trip. The GS took the roads thus far in it�s stride without any hiccups.

From Plain we headed off into the forest again, following fire roads and back country roads. Life became interesting with the odd erosion retention ditch in the road the big pig became airborne on a few occasions. The roads ranged from fairly steep grades to almost flat as we climbed up and rode along the crest of the mountain passing through interesting spots like Chumstick mountain etc. After the first steep ascent we stopped for a rest, one of the 650�s was showing signs of overheating and we found that Hayo�s Adventure�s left-front indicator shook itself loose over the rough roads � this would be the first of a couple of stops to fix things. The group on the lighter single cylinder machines moved on while we fixed the indicator problem � we would see them again a bit later.

It became obvious after the first tough section that the standard Showa shock absorbers on the GS were not designed for this kind of punishment. Overall speed was not that high and I spent most of the time in 1st and 2nd gears as we climbed the mountain. The overheated suspension pretty much lost all of it�s dampening properties and the GS started to bottom out after every short flight with my boots scraping the ground on occasions. What I did not realize at the time was the that the right pannier was slowly destroying the floppy mudguard thingy on the back with every time the suspension bottomed out. At one stage I was flying along one of the roads on the crest like a mad banshee fresh out of hell, I hit a pothole with the rear wheel and heard a weird kinda "whack" noise. About 200 yards further on my brain kicked in and I decided to check and see if all�s still well�it wasn�t � the left system case decided it had enough and jumped ship when I hit the pothole � I tracked back to find the offending item in the middle of the road. I re-attached the bag and off I went again. About 3 miles down the road we met up with the singles again, they were waiting for us to see if we were still on our way and OK � we took a bit of a rest to give them time to move on and for the dust to settle.

After another 15 miles we caught up with the group again � the chap on the KLR had a puncture in his bike�s rear wheel and they were in process of fixing the problem. A 4 inch bolt was pulled from the rear wheel � the cause of the puncture. The bolt went all the way in and destroyed the tube so it was time for a new tube. While helping out we noticed that Hayo had lost his right side system case � time to go back and find it. It was getting late, and even with the late sunsets in summer we knew that we would be lucky if we would make it to camp before dark. We backtracked about 6 miles and found the offending system case. Unfortunately the case got damaged during it�s sudden introduction to the fairly rough fire trail. One of the mounting tabs that hook over the pannier frame broke off and it was impossible to mount the case in a normal fashion � we had to resort to the motorcyclists all purpose tool � Duct Tape. We put the case back on and taped it to the frame just to make sure it did not part company with the bike again.

As time went on the sun got closer and closer to the horizon � we had to put a bit of a push on things to try and make it out of the mountains before dark. Things went well until we were about two thirds of the way down before my GS decided to loose traction in a slow bend in the road, all of a sudden I was observing my GS sliding down the road while I was sliding down the road on my back � good thing there�s protective riding gear around or else I might have ended up removing road grit and stones from my rear end for a while. (Note to self�Tourance�s are no good on dirt after 13,000 miles � replace them when they�re worn)

The fall did not improve the health of the set of System cases I own. The right hand case and the Wunderlich crash bars took the brunt of the spill, the right hand side cylinder protection pad was also scuffed up pretty good. I would later find that the right hand pannier bracket had a crack two thirds of the way through � but the case held up without falling off for the rest of the trip. We had to navigate some sections that had been badly rutted by pickup trucks and horse trailers. We made it down to Cashmere on Interstate 90 by 8:30 pm. The rest of the group was waiting for us and we found out that not everyone made it through the badly rutted sections unscathed. One of the 650 riders got caught in one of the ruts and in an attempt to get out ended up crashing. Damage to the bike was limited to a dented Touratech pannier, a bent gear lever, broken front indicator and some bruised ribs. Other than that everyone was still ok to move on. The last section of dirt was close to 50 miles and kept us busy for quite a few hours.

Hayo and myself opted to refuel � the big-pigs are not light on fuel consumption when riding at a snails pace like this.

We filled up and headed off for the last dirt section to the camp at Haney Meadow. We followed the Mission creek out of Cashmere and road through apple orchards for a couple of miles before the paved road ended. Back on the forest service roads we had to deal with the dust of a pickup truck in front of us for a while � this made riding tough in the setting sun with the deep shadows in the valleys we were riding in now. Eventually the truck pulled over to let us pass. The sun was setting fast now, and the road conditions were deteriorating into minor tracks. We had to cover approximately another 15 miles in the dark. With no visual cues or references I had to blindly follow the GPS pointer on it�s route through the forest � we�d be in serious poop if the unit decided to crap out on as at this stage. The PIAA 910 driving lights came in quite handy in lighting up the path ahead with the narrow 110W beam produced by each unit. I made it to camp by about 10 pm and waited for Hayo to arrive � after 10 minutes I decided to have a cold beer, pitch my tent and then go and look for him if he still hasn�t arrived. (Did I mention that Hayo was just following with no GPS on his bike.). At this stage the rest of the riders were already settled in � being a bush camp there was no facilities, other than the comfort of the campfire. Unfortunately the late arrival did not leave a lot of time for introductions to my fellow NorthWest GS riders � that will have to happen at some stage.

I finished pitching the tent and finished off the cold beer � that went down nicely. Kitted back up and hit the road � backtracking the route I just came in on. After about 5 miles I found Hayo waiting next to the road � he lost sight of me and my dust and turned around just short of the camp � doubting the direction he was going in. It would be 11 pm before we made it back to camp and another cold beer again.

Dinner consisted of a leftover hotdog bun, some beef jerky (closest thing to biltong you can get over here) and a granola bar.

The next morning we rose somewhere between 6 and 7am. I had to meet my family in Leavenworth and would not be riding all of the sections mapped for Sunday. We left camp around 9am for a quick trip down Table mountain (not he one in Cape Town � not even close). It took us about 1 hour to cover the 30 or so miles down to Ellensburg using the forest service roads. The last section of which consisted of a very nice single lane paved road. From Ellensburg we parted ways with the rest of the group and headed up highway 97 to Leavenworth. The majority of the buildings in the town of Leavenworth is built in a Bavarian style, so you might feel that you�re in the Alps if you don�t listen to the folks around you speak.

We spent a couple of hours lounging around in Leavenworth before we tackled the 3.5 hour ride home.

All in all this was an excellent trip. I�m really happy with the GS�s performance � Pigs can fly � just make sure you have the right shocks in them.

Damage tally for the weekend:

• 1 very tired set of Metzeler Tourances � replaced with fresh ones.
  
• 1 pair system cases � replaced with Touratech Zega cases
  
• 1 Cylinder protection guard � old one still on � will look at the Stanton guards during my winter break.
  
• Some scrapes on the Wunderlich crashbars (heck � that�s why they�re there)
  
• 1 Destroyed floppy thingy on the rear (German mudguard) � I wanted to get rid of it anyway.
  
• And as a final surprise � some scrapes on the inside of the rear fender as the rear wheel scraped against it every time the bike bottomed out.

LODEWYK STEYN
Images to follow in a separate post.