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Prewitt Ridge redux..

Cabrito

Cabrito

cabrón
Joined
Jun 11, 2010
Location
415
Moto(s)
Big Orange, Medium Blue (red blood), & Sm Red one
Name
Michael G
BARF perks
AMA #: 2820219
My friend liked my ride report from the Baja Shakedown so much he asked me to take him there on his GSA... No problemo... :ride

430ish miles again... This time I take my KLR and do it Adventure Bike style... Who needs a dirt bike with knobbies anyway... :cool

This time around there was a long slog down the 101 for about 60 miles I could have done without, but we were running late.. :thumbdown



Breakfast at Alices.. Lot's of nice cars there..







Alices to Summit / Loma Prieta / Mt Madonna was quick and fun.. First piss break and remove some layers.. Bikes are nice and clean for now...


..
 
After our long slog down 101 to San Ardo we picked up Lockwood/San Ardo Road towards Williams Hill BLM area..




Panzer Meister the GSA was loving it on these smooth fast dirt roads.. So was I!





Just outside Jolon we see this fire plum to the south.. Fires are a real problem right now..


When we get to Ft Hunter Liggett it's 113°!!! WTF!!




Panzer Meister riding up to the tank






We headed up to Prewitt to escape the heat..


Up on the ridge I scouted a site, but there wasn't anything flat at this nice spot for two tents.


Nice view though.


More KLR pr0n..


 
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:laughing

KLR Porn. Where's SFMCJohn for this? :teeth

I want to do this route. Looks way, way fun. Nice pics, too. :ride
 
Nice I really wanted to go with you but I didn't wanna get my KLR dirty =P
 
two wheel tramp said:
:laughing

KLR Porn. Where's SFMCJohn for this? :teeth

I want to do this route. Looks way, way fun. Nice pics, too. :ride
Click to expand...

Thanks TWT, the better route would be to take 25 instead of 101 though..

HadesOmega said:
Nice I really wanted to go with you but I didn't wanna get my KLR dirty =P
Click to expand...

I totally understand Merlin.. KLR's hate dirt... :teeth

But wait.. the fun is just beginning for the Panzer Meister GSA...

After my buddy helps me turn around my KLR I ride back up to the top of the ridge and wait for him.




Here he comes ripping up the hill..






Totally confident!




Right up until...

Boom! He was going up the hill, but now his bike is pointed down the hill???



Now I know why GSA rider brings KLR rider along...




We had to drag the thing until it was pointed down hill so we could stand it up. He had me stand on the rear wheel and grab the frame while he lifted it up by the handlebars... This technique would come in handy tomorrow..
 
ouch that awesome power of the R1200 must have been its undoing haha. I've sort of helped pick up a R1200GS before and watched people pick one up it's a beast.

That second to the last picture makes it look like a monster hillclimb. Nice and silty too!
 
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After getting the GSA upright we’re dirty, sweaty, and ready for a break so we grab the same camp site I was at a few weeks ago with Saltwater and Haaank.. The damn flies are as bad as ever, but this time I brought bug spray. It helps quite a bit, but they are still annoying as hell…

I ride over to the site without my helmet and the KLR is making a hissing/shushing sound. I’m pretty sure I just got a flat tire and ride into the site, but when I kill the engine the hissing sound is gone.. Uh-oh..

I bust out my Delorme InReach and iPhone and send a text to my friend Tom a real KLRista guru.. I ask what sound his KLR made before his engine went boom. We exchanged several texts troubleshooting it. He also gets me an update on Hwy One and tells me it’s currently open. Fires around Big Sur closed it later on Sunday. The Delorme unit is priceless when you end up using it like this.

The first thing we do when we get to the campsite is enjoy some libations and discuss the day’s events




I’m trying out my UltraLite Cot with the bug net addition. This thing rocks!




Sunset on the Ridge.




When I went to bed I was thinking about the KLR. We discussed taking the quickest route home and all the variables that could happen should my engine give up and die… All the sudden it hits me that when I was riding it without a helmet I was hearing stuff I never hear with my helmet and ear plugs in. It’s probably been sounding like this all along. Could even just be the engine noise reverberating off the bash plate.. Still, given the fact that the Highway One might be closed we stick to plan B and take the quickest route back. We missed riding south on the Coast Road that has some awesome smooth dirt.. Oh well…

KLR all packed up in the morning to head out..





Next up is the GSA needs to get back up that silty hill…. Uh-huh, sure… No Problemo!
 
Great write up Cabrito! Can't wait to see how it ends! Just FYI the metal skid plate on my xrr makes that bike sound like the engines about to explode. Freaked me out enough in Baja I went back to the plastic one.
 
Great write up so far Micheal. I have the same experience with my skid plate too so I just make sure I have my earplugs in and forget about it. The silt up there is no joke, its deep and you cant see a thing when your following someone. It makes it really exciting.:laughing Looking forward to the next installment.
 
For me it is the 5.8 gallon tank. When I started running low on fuel in Baja last year the engine started to sound like it was going to come apart, but I had to keep going. The big empty tank amplified the mechanical sounds. When I filled it, the sound went back to normal, but it did scare me again this year.

Next year I'll ignore it, and it will go full KTM on me. :rolleyes
 
Love the pics. Did Prewitt Ridge in my camper. Flys can be BAD:thumbdown, Had a great view for less than one minute and then the fog came up the ridge. Looking forward to the rest of your report.
 
Thanks for all the comments everyone..

I thought at first that maybe the Panzer Meister might have been following me too close up the silt hill because that's what it looked like in his video.. Merlin got me thinking though that maybe that beast is just too much in the power department.. Which brings me to this...


We pack up and head out.. I let the GSA go first so that he doesn't have me as a distraction, no dust to obscure his view, and he can get a good head of steam.. I thought maybe he didn't have enough speed yesterday.. So he goes chugging up the hill and is basically out of site, but we're connected with our Sena headsets via Bluetooth.

I hear him grunting on the way up and then... Oh Shit!! and nothing..
Me: did you go down?
Him: Yep
Me: are you okay?
Him: Yep, you can ride up now and help me..
Me: what side of the road are you on?
Him: I'm not.... I'm off the road in the bushes..

I ride up and and park real quick, and sure as shit he's in the bushes..











Another round of me standing on his rear wheel and grabbing the frame while he lifts it up with the handlebars... This works really well by the way.

He's able to ride it out from there.





Now I'm not sure, but I think this time he had too much throttle.. He said the rear dropped into a rut that changed his trajectory and he launched it up off the road.
This time it breaks his turn signal and munches the pannier even more than yesterday. It also broke some mounts to his windshield.




I'm feeling pretty bad about all this because I don't recall this section being a problem on the XR, and it's no problem on the KLR either :ride

Yesterday he broke his mirror, and his bark buster.. At this point the repairs might cost as much as a whole KLR! :teeth
 
Leo_jb said:
I'm always looking for something lighter, but still comfy. Love this set-up! Must weigh less than a pound, maybe two? Sweet!

Nice Baja sticker on the back of your pannier btw!
Click to expand...

Yeah Leo it was a nice setup for sure. The cot is awesome, and with the bug net it's super sweet! It's not that light though. The cot is 3.1lbs the bug net is 1lb 6oz - A bit heavy for me to pack to Baja.. I was thinking though that the bug net thing could totally work as a stand alone thing if needed.




That sticker looks good on my KLR don't it? Thank you btw..
 
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Yeah my KLR makes a lot of noises I just tell myself hey it's a KLR not a ferrari. =P
 
Once we get the Panzer Meister up and running we're set to head out... I wait for him to motor up to where I'm waiting..



Here he comes..





Heading down Naciamento Furggeson road to the coast all we can see is the marine layer..



The coast looks like this for a lot of our ride home.





To Recap:
430ish miles
Temp swings from 53° at the coast to 113° at the tank in Ft Hunter Liggett..
The poor GSA suffered a broken mirror, turn signal, fairing, barkbuster, and pannier..
The KLR made it home without a problem... Amazing bike.. It just won't quit.

Big Sur smelled like smoke from the fire.. We saw many, many fire fighting vehicles and personnel.

fin..
 
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