Strat's OR BDR Ride Report

[stratslingr77]

I don't know if George got a trailer...he didn't have one on this trip.

Oh, and I forgot to mention "The Luge" on the run in to Newberry Crater. Narrow two-track of woops in hero dirt for several flowy miles in an OHV park...what a blast on the big bikes!

 

[stratslingr77]

Tuesday, July 4

Another early morning start. Almost immediately, we found ourselves in twisty, flowy 2-track winding through the forest. But it wasn't regular 2-track--each track was worn down into a soft, rounded rut, so it was almost like riding single track. You just had to relax your grip on the bars and let the front end do its thing. It was beautiful and it was fun!

After a couple of hours of that, we rolled into Sun River where we stopped for gas and a real breakfast. Sun River is the start of section 4, which has an alternate route due to a closure on Road 16. There's some dirt leading into Bend but then, a lot of paved sections into Sisters, where section 5 starts.

We did manage to support a local small business, though...and it gave George a chance to re-address his tower which had come loose again.

Somewhere between Bend and Sisters

 

[stratslingr77]

We picked up section 5 at Sisters and pretty quickly found ourselves on very soft dirt.

A little ways in, we took a short (and silty) detour to Dugout Lake where we stopped for a lunch break.

The mosquitoes ensured we didn't linger too long and we were soon back on the trail. Did I mention it was really soft and silty?

George went down a couple of times and the last time, he tweaked his knee. At that point, he decided he'd had enough. He told us he enjoyed the camping, the scenery, and the company, but he had not been enjoying the riding from the outset. He felt he was holding us back, so we rode with him to the nearest pavement, which was just a few miles away.

After George parted ways, Monte and I resumed section 5. Pretty soon, Mt. Washington came into view...

The trail was still silty, but on the run into Big Lake, we saw added elements of climbs, rocks, and woops, in addition to the silt...and after riding silt for the past several hours, I was getting pretty tired and I guess my nerves were a little frayed. At one point, the front end broke loose in the silt and then the rear end followed...I tensed up and the bike ended up going into the berm on the right side of the road and through a bush, before hitting a log and coming to an abrupt halt. I, of course, continued in motion until my own abrupt halt with the ground.

I dusted myself off and Monte helped me right my bike--I was fine. The bike sustained damage to the fairing and front fender--nothing money can't fix. A more immediate concern was my front brakes had apparently taken air into the line while the bike was partially upsidedown and we're effectively useless. Fuck.

Big Lake was nearby so we continued there and stopped to assess the situation. It was 3:30, I was hot, tired, and my nerves were shot from the challenging ride the last several hours. This had been my most challenging day of the trip. Amazingly, there were a few open campsites left at Big Lake considering it was July 4th, so we called it a day.

The view from our campsite:

And our July 4th fireworks display

 

[budman]

Some beautiful scenery.

Bummer on the fall and the brakes. Hope that gets sorted!

 

[stratslingr77]

Wednesday, July 5

Another day, another early start. The mosquitoes were out in force this morning, so I ate my oatmeal while walking a lap around the campground. Then I grabbed my coffee and walked another few laps while drinking my coffee. This was necessary to avoid being mobbed by clouds of angry mosquitoes who would descend upon you the moment you stopped moving.

Overnight, I strapped my front brake lever back to the bars and had tapped on the brake lines periodically to work out the air bubbles. It wasn't a great fix, but I was able to get my brakes to grab after a squeeze or two and we're on dirt, so mostly rear brake anyway, right? Let's roll!

The trail started off in similar fashion to the way it ended yesterday: silty. But several miles on, and further down in elevation, the terrain started to change and became firmer. There were also several short pavement stretches. Before long, we were in hard pack gravel roads and I could relax a little.

The vegetation became denser as we crossed into the western slope of the Cascades and we came upon Tule Lake, a perfect opportunity for some pictures and a break.

A short while later, we pulled into Detroit where we stopped for gas and provisions.

That was the end of section 5.

 

[stratslingr77]

Section 6 begins in Detroit and ends in Government Camp. This was far and away my favorite section of the BDR and Monte agreed. It was perfect for big ADV bikes--fast gravel, flowing 2 track with good traction, narrow 2 track in dense forest, mountain views, lakes, and a handful of fun, twisty pavement sections.

Around a 90 degree right turn and Mt. Hood suddenly popped into view. There happened to be a guy parked at that corner in his truck and he agreed to take this picture of us.

We took the detour out to Olallie Lake, which was fast, fun gravel and stopped at the lake for lunch and to splash cool water on our faces to wash away the dust and grit. It was heavenly!

We pulled into Government Camp in the early afternoon and gassed up, then rode up to Timberline Lodge for food, wrapping up section 6.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Somewhere between Bend and Sisters

love this pic …

 

[stratslingr77]

It was around 3:30 and section 7 is approximately 85 miles. I have a good friend who works for Mosko Moto and he urged us to get to White Salmon tonight --we could stay at Mosko's "Bates Mototel.". (https://moskomoto.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260801555910-Bates-Mototel)

Anyway, we decided to push on and complete the last section today... because nothing bad ever happens when you try for "one last thing" at the end, right?

Right.

30 minutes later...

A piece of wood (of all things) penetrated the knob on my back tire (my wife has jokes about this). The Africa Twin has tubes, but I'm practiced at tire changes and we were back on the trail in about 40 minutes.

Then, there was Bennett Pass. I didn't take pictures. The riding was rocky and technical, with some steep clubs, big ruts, big rocks, and some exposed hillsides. It was fun, but challenging, especially at the end of what had already been a pretty long day.

I bottomed out on a rock and my bike stalled and would not start back up. Then I saw pieces of my kickstand sensor laying in the dirt, crushed by the rock I had just hit. We had to jumper the wires to the sensor in order to create an electrical bypass and allow my bike to start. Kickstand sensors are stupid on off-road motorcyles--if you haven't already done so, address this in your garage so you don't have to do it trailside. Thank God Monte is mechanically inclined --I'm not sure I would've figured that out on my own.

Further down the trail with a steep rut on the downhill side, I was hugging the left track and I hit a large rock or log with my left pannier, tearing it off and breaking the mounting hardware on the bag. There was a guy following in a Jeep who offered to take my bag to the end of that section of trail, which was helpful.

At the next intersection, it looked like we were through the worst of it. I strapped my bag back on with extra voile straps and Rok straps and we continued down flowy dirt roads as the light slowly faded into a beautiful evening.

A little ways later, and we found ourselves rolling into Hood River.

It was pretty late when we got into Mosko's campground. I celebrated with a cigar and chatted with fellow travelers, finally passing out on a couch around midnight.

 

[stratslingr77]

Thursday, July 6

Holy shit, we rode 2 1/2 sections yesterday! We slept in and puttered around when we finally did get up. Mosko has a pretty cool thing going with the Bates Mototel.

Today was a day to take care of a few things, like my front brakes and my broken pannier. I broke the horseshoe shaped mounting bracket on the bag yesterday on Bennett Pass... luckily, I was 5 minutes away from Mosko Moto's shop

I also suffered a broken exhaust hangar from the pounding on Bennett Pass

Jason at Mosko (and my brother from another mother) squared me away at Mosko...he had a spare part for my bag and they have a shop in the back of the store with a lift, tools, and a brake bleeding kit. A couple of hours later, my bag was fixed and my front brakes bled so we hit the road, aiming for the coast and cooler weather. Unfortunately, once we started rolling, my brakes became spongy again so we found a shop in Gresham and let them take a look at my bike while we ate lunch at the food truck pavilion across the street. Turns out, I have a bent front rotor and they didn't have parts on hand so I had to take it easy and increase my following distance.

After grinding through Portland traffic through the suburbs for an hour and a half in 100⁰ heat (no splitting or filtering, remember?), we finally broke through the morass and got closer to the coast. Within an hour, the temperature had dropped down to 65⁰ as we cruised into Newport.

We got to Rogue Nation just in time for them to close so we got steaks elsewhere in town and set up camp at the nearby South Beach State Park.

This campsite is so civilized, it's barely camping, what with its clean bathrooms and hot running water. Super polite campers too. No generators, parties, or loud music. Same at Big Lake the other night. It was a large campground with lots of power boats and Side by Sides, yet everyone was quiet and respectful. Not a single firework despite it being July 4th.

 

[stratslingr77]

Friday, July 7

A mellow, uneventful day riding down the Oregon coast with temps in the low 60s.

Except, first, a flat tire for Monte as we pulled out of camp.

Crossing back into California

We tentatively planned to camp at Clam Beach County Park near McKinleyville but when we pulled in, it was sketchy as fuck so we kept going and decided just to hotel it in Fortuna and hit up Eel River Brewing Company for dinner.

 

[stratslingr77]

Saturday, July 8

Last leg to home, and a quick detour through Avenue of the Giants before grinding 101 back to the Bay.

And home...

Lots of cleanup to do on the bike, and a few parts to order.

 

[Spitfire44]

Awesome report. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. As with any good adventure it had its challenges.

 

[MTERK]

Great pictures Strat! loved following this! Looks like all the snow was gone by the time you went through too.

I am planning on doing this in the fall and now I know all the nice spots to stop!

And you got through with only a couple of broken parts! No broken body parts!!!

Good job!!

 

[budman]

Right on...!! Good stuff.

The Ave of the Giants pic is outstanding.

 

[stratslingr77]

Lucky stroke of luck on the gas!!

Bet those burgers tasted good....!

The burgers were AMAZING! As for the gas, yeah that worked out great too. I've ridden in rural Oregon for three consecutive summers now and in each trip, I can cite examples of amazing hospitality and generosity from the fine folks there.

Loving it but getting very jealous that I was not there!

Waiting to see if the snow has finally melted in the higher elevations!!

Not a bit of snow on the entire route!

Some beautiful scenery.

Bummer on the fall and the brakes. Hope that gets sorted!

Yeah, that fall is not going to be cheap...

Great pictures Strat! loved following this! Looks like all the snow was gone by the time you went through too.

I am planning on doing this in the fall and now I know all the nice spots to stop!

And you got through with only a couple of broken parts! No broken body parts!!!

Good job!!

Thanks! No broken body parts is definitely a good thing!

Right on...!! Good stuff.

The Ave of the Giants pic is outstanding.

Thanks! It should probably go in the "Bikes on Location" thread

 

[SFMCjohn]

wonderful pics and ride report ... would you recommend the OR BDR to someone who does not enjoy having to pick their bike up? getting the impression there's some tough riding for adventure bikes?

does heading out to do the OR BDR a second time on your Africa Twin seem like something you'd want to do?

anyway, here's my vote for a 'bikes on location" pic:

 

[kneedraggeroldy]

Thanks for putting together the report and the riding of the general area throughout. Really enjoyed it! Makes me want to do some ADV rides before I get too old

 

[stratslingr77]

wonderful pics and ride report ... would you recommend the OR BDR to someone who does not enjoy having to pick their bike up? getting the impression there's some tough riding for adventure bikes?

does heading out to do the OR BDR a second time on your Africa Twin seem like something you'd want to do?

anyway, here's my vote for a 'bikes on location" pic:

Some loaded questions, John...

I think my answer would differ from Mr. Bananachunks...he had to pick his bike up several times and he made it clear he wasn't enjoying the riding. I enjoyed the riding very much, although section 5 was admittedly very challenging for me with all the silt.

The Africa Twin handled this ride like an absolute champ. The issues I did have to deal with on the bike were related to the rider's poor line choice and other skill shortcomings, not so much the bike. That said, the Africa Twin needs to go on a diet and it has a lot of tech nannies that are potential fail points. Monte rode his T7...IMHO, THAT is the bike to have and one may well find a home in my garage. One bike NOT on my interest list is the Touareg. Great on paper, but we both know Mr. Bananachunks' experience with the 660...and a couple of things with that bike I observed on this trip= NO THANKS.

A few other thoughts on gear/equipment choices:

Tires:
I ran Motoz Tractionator Adventure rear/Dual Venture front tires. They started the trip with 0 miles and were wobbly as all get-out on the freeway above 75 mph that first day. Once they got scrubbed in, they're rock solid on pavement. And they were fantastic in the dirt, sand and rocks.

Luggage:
I run Mosko Moto Backcountry 35 panniers and they're fantastic. Except on this trip. They stick out too far and the right bag took a beating from the sagebrush on section 1 while riding in the right track. The left bag got knocked off by a log or rock, hugging the left track on section 7. Looking at the picture above, you can see how far out my bags stick out compared to Monte's. I think a rackless setup like Monte's Tusk set or George's Reckless 80 is the way to go on a route like this.

Riding gear:
I wore a Klim Baja S4 suit and it was great. Fully mesh to allow venting and it allowed the breeze in. It was hot for most of the route. I also have a Mosko Moto Ectotherm heated jacket which was great for around camp at night and on our cool ride down the coast.

Boots:
I wore Gaerne Fastback Enduros, which are built like MX boots with a lot of support and plastic armor. I think these are necessary for terrain like this. I mentioned earlier in my ride report meeting up with a trio from Reno in Plush...one of the riders in that group dropped his Africa Twin on his leg the next day and broke his leg, ending his trip. He wasn't wearing MX boots and I suspect if he had, his leg would've been fine.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Some loaded questions, John...

ha, a pun "loaded" ... def hate trying to pick up my loaded KLR.

no, seriously--I'd heard the OR BDR was tough--so it was kind of off my list of things to try by myself, and that was just confirmed by hearing about you guys dropping your adv bikes in various places along the way.

I had totally assumed that Mr bananachunks was going to be doing this on his Husky, and was surprised when I saw pics of his 660.

agree about the T7 being a cool bike for the kind of riding I like to do, and also for the reminder about the importance of real boots.

my Aerostich/Sidi Combat touring boots don't really owe me anything, anymore, and are basically just work-boot protection. time to upgrade.

thanks for the wonderful ride report!

 

[stratslingr77]

I personally would not ride the OR BDR solo. But that's just me.