Pictures for post 18

TAT 2017 Post 18 07/26/17

Second day in Moab turned out to be fantastic after dealing with a problem with Terry’s KTM 690. High temperature was around 95 degrees with no rain.

As stated in my last post Terry’s ReKluse auto-clutch was not working correctly so we started troubleshooting it early in the morning. He actually got hold of ReKluse engineers and they help determine the problem. We did all we could to re-adjust the clutch, bleed the system and nothing improved its performance. Evidently the KTM has two types of clutch throw-out bearing push rods; one of hardened steel and one that is not hardened. At least that’s what ReKluse said. Terry’s push rod was slightly mushroomed on the end, which wouldn’t let the clutch disengage. ReKluse said they had seen this before and the only solution was to replace the push rod with a hardened steel version.

We spent the next few hours trying to find a push rod at every KTM dealer within 3 hours driving from Moab. No luck. We finally got the local KTM dealer to order one from KTM with overnight delivery for tomorrow. ReKluse said Terry could still use the bike with no damage but the clutch would act as a normal clutch.

By this time it was around 1 pm and we decided to try and get a ride in before we leave on the TAT tomorrow. In addition, it rained most of last night so we were concerned the trails would be washed out because there was running water on Moab Main Street and mud everywhere.

The Canyon Lands web site said that the Shafer Switch Backs on the east side were closed for road construction. In addition, the west side of White Rim Road was washed out by the recent rains. Our new friend Imu recommended we try to get to Canyon Lands White Rim Road via Potash Road and Shafer Trail. The web site was very confusing and even stated that the White Rim trails were closed. We decided to go as far as we could until stopped by the park cops.

We all left the motel at 1:30 pm, even Terry. The first 20 miles was on Potash Road, which is paved and ran beside the Colorado River in between huge canyon walls on both sides of the river. We eventually ran out of paved road at a big Potash manufacturing facility. You’ll have to research what Potash is if interested. The picture of the blue ponds shows how they get the Potash.

This road then became Shafer Road and ran into Canyon Lands National Park. We passed a closed road that led to the Switchbacks but the White Rim Road was open. We kept riding for almost 25 miles. Although it wasn’t 110 degrees it was still pretty hot and there is NO SHADE!! Take a hat!

The map shows how far we rode before several of the bikes where at half fuel and we were all getting pretty tired. This ride is beautiful and the section we rode not very technical. Matty our youngest rider had no problem with it. We stopped to take a lot of pictures and I’m only posting the best ones below. We finally got back to the motel around 6:30 after 89 miles on the road.

If you want to ride some fantastic trails then spend some time in Moab. I would come in the spring or fall because July is HOT! We lucked out and got here during a very unusual rain event from what the locals tell us.

We are all pretty tired. Everyone is heading to their rooms to do some packing for a 5:30 am meeting in the morning to continue on the TAT. I’m following as soon as I get this posted.

Plan for tomorrow:

1               We hope to be on the TAT by 6 to 6:30 am because we have around 200 miles to ride and it looks like a lot of desert on this stretch.

2               Michael and the support truck will stay in Moab until the overnight delivery of the push rod arrives.

3               He will then meet us at one of our intersections, probably one of the 2 times we cross I-70.

4               We all have enough fuel to ride the longest stretch of 140 miles even if we don’t hook up with the support truck.

5               Our destination for tomorrow night is a little town named Castle Dale, UT. One motel and who knows what food will be available since we will be getting there close to sundown.

More tomorrow night.

TAT 2017 Post 17 07/25/17

Our first day in Moab turned out to be better than we could have imagined. Rather than having 100-110+ temperatures and bright sun we had cool temperatures with occasional light rain and overcast most of the day. In addition, we met a great new friend, named Imu, at the motel that has ridden most of the trails in the Moab area and gave us a wealth of information and suggestions on the trails to ride.

The forecast was for moderate rain all day so we had decided to stay on the pavement and ride to the Arches National Park to see the sites. We geared up and left the motel around 7:30 am in occasional light rain. We rode to all the overlooks and even walked a few times and the moderate rain never came!

While riding to the last overlook in the park we had passed a gravel road that appeared worth investigating. The road is right by the Balanced Rock viewing area and is named Willow Flats Road. On our way out of the park we decided to take this road, which would eventually take us out of the park and end on highway 191. It turned out to be an excellent choice and we had a great ride over solid rock, packed sand, climbs/descents and even a couple of minor river crossings. I highly recommend this for a scenic and fun ride. It is not extremely difficult but had enough items to keep our group entertained.

Imu had recommended doing the Gemini Bridges Road off of highway 191. Only later did we realize that is the TAT northbound out of Moab. Shortly after leaving paved 191 we started to climb up the face of one of the plateaus on pretty steep and complex dirt 2-track. Plenty of solid rock climbs and other obstacles but our entire group made it to the top with no incidents. I can now state that I love my KTM 350 EXC-F. That bike had no problem with any terrain we encountered and it loves to chug along in 2^nd gear climbing rocks like a mountain goat.

On the top of the plateau, Gemini Bridges Road still has lots of action all the way to highway 313. At that point we planned to turn south to ride Long Canyon Road back down to the Colorado River then on Potash Road back to highway 191 and Moab. This plan worked until we came to the first descending switchback. Most of us had stopped at the top to take some spectacular pictures of a canyon spilling out to the Colorado River. Steve and Terry had started down the first incline to a very sharp turn to the right, which descended through a very narrow cut in the rock face. They rode back up to where we were still taking pictures and Steve said “Mike you aren’t going to want to ride this!” They describe what they saw around that bend and he was right. I could get a view of the trail from the top of the plateau and it was impressive. It was a very steep and narrow trail that had been washed out by heavy rain. In several places it looked like solid rock with a drop off at the bottom.

I stated that I wasn’t going down that trail and I would ride back around on highway to meet them at the bottom or at the motel. After lots of discussion, Woodrow, Matty and Jeff decided they were going with me. That left Steve and Terry who still wanted to give it a try but first they would hike down the trail for a better look. We watched them from the top while they scouted the descent all the way to the bottom, several hundred feet from where they left their bikes. They spent lots of time finding the best line and we at the top figured they would ride it all the way down.

They finally got back up to their bikes and then we could see that they were going to walk their bikes down the worse of the drop, which was to about halfway down. Terry was first to go by using his front break to control his bike while he walked it down some very steep rock faces. Steve had tied a strap to the back of Terry’s bike and walked behind providing additional drag to prevent the bike from getting away. They got it down to the area from which they could ride the rest and then went back up to get Steve’s bike. At this time we decided Steve and Terry would be ok and mounted our bikes for the 30-mile ride back to Moab on pavement. We hadn’t been at the motel more than 15 minutes and here comes Steve and Terry. They said after they walked the bikes down the worse section, the rest of the ride was not a problem and was in fact a beautiful ride along the Colorado River.

After looking the bikes over, we found the rear muffler mount bolt missing on Matty’s CRF. After searching all over town we were unable to find a replacement because the auto-parts and other hardware stores were closed by the time we started looking. They plan on getting to the store at 7:30 am tomorrow. That was the easy one to solve.

Terry’s KTM 690 has ReKluse auto-clutch problems. He had it installed just before we left Little Rock and didn’t have much time to give it a long test ride. The KTM won’t disengage the clutch at a full stop, which is how the ReKluse is supposed to work. Even normal operation of his clutch isn’t working right and he can’t get it into neutral most of the time. He plans on missing tomorrows ride so he can get it into the shop early if they will be able to take it.

We also learned today that the White Rim Trail is basically shut down due to washouts and Shaffer Trail being under construction. We are still not sure if we can get to the rim via Potash Road but we will give it a try. We are also going to try to get to Chicken Corners Trail based on input from Imu.

Our priority is to get all the bikes repaired in anticipation of heading out early Thursday morning on the TAT. We have a long 218-mile day on Thursday to Castle Dale. More tomorrow evening.