2023 REBOUND……….Maybe?

Now that I have 2 hands/arms again maybe we can get 2023 rolling and log some miles!  Jeez!

  Last time I checked in was right after a low speed tip over on the KLR 650 while preparing to make a Baja run.  Worst Day Ever!  I was riding along minding my own business when I heard this loud Gawd Awful clang from the sound of my aluminum skid plate hitting a large rock.  Just about the time it took for me to think, “Wow that was a loud…….” My head and shoulder were hitting the deck, sideways. Down immediately, no tumble, no dissipation of energy just immediate impact!

I just laid there not moving, mostly because it hurt, but to make an evaluation of what happened and if I was injured. As I did an inventory of myself and checked to see that I could move feet, arms and any part of my body that wasn’t pinned by the bike I thought boy that hurt but I think I am ok.

My riding partners came over to help pick me and the bike up because I was in no hurry to move until the pain subsided. When we finally got up and going I was pretty sure I had a significant bruise on my right foot and my right shoulder would be sore for a few days. So we fired up our bikes and away we went to finish the ride. We visited the town of Oatman and then stopped in another small town called Golden Shores for lunch.  After lunch we rode the final 45 miles home on the hiway, as I was pretty sore by then.

It was Saturday and there was going to be a Supercross on TV in a couple of hours.  When I got home and hobbled in the garage, Cheryl says I think we should go get X-Rays. I agreed but said I thought my foot was just “sufficiently bruised” and my shoulder was a bit sore so it could wait till after we watched the races. Sounded like a good idea at the time! So we watched the races and by the end of the evening I had gotten a little bit stiff.  So I thought why not wait until Sunday morning and go for X-Rays! It won’t be any more broke tomorrow than it is right now, right?  My idea was that no one would be in the ER on Sunday morning so it should go much easier, sounds logical right?

Sunday morning off to the ER and X-Rays. The foot was a no brainer, even I could see the broken bone with the separation, so much for my sufficiently bruised theory.  But the shoulder would require a CT scan to see more detail of what appeared to be a break at the end of the shoulder. With referrals in hand I get the required pics and the bad news that the shoulder should have a few screws put in to insure proper healing. I told the doc lets “Git ‘er Done!”.  I got riding to do and this is slowing me down. Doc is not a fan of motorcycles by the way. But he was a good sport and said he would do the surgery as soon as possible.

Fast forward about almost 10 weeks and I get out of a sling and start rehab on the shoulder. This was maybe the longest 10 weeks of my life because my right foot and my right shoulder were incapacitated.  That made me unable to go for walks, shoot, bicycle, wrench in the garage or pretty much anything that required standing or using 2 hands. I watched a lot of tv and way too much news, because now I may have to go on meds for hypertension after watching that much news!

I did spend too much time on the computer which resulted in me spending too much money on toys.  Oh, did I mention I have a new 2023 KTM 450 xcfw now? Since I got injured a week before my 65^th b-day I am calling this my MEDI-Care bike. Obviously geared toward rehabilitation.  I have been on the bike several times to work on break-in and setup. Have it almost perfected with SBB suspension and all the necessary aftermarket accessories. As soon as I can find a tank big enough I can take it out on a Real Ride instead of these girly rehab rides.

#33

‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.  Explore, Dream, Discover.’

Baja Adv Ride 2023………Almost

I was riding along……….and then I wasn’t!  Had a planned trip in March with a group of buddies, some of whom had never been down to Baja. Three of us were out on a shake down ride when I tipped over at low speed on my KLR 650.  It is also known as Mad Max because of the set up and appearance, that is another story!

David, Gunner and #33 were out Adventure riding and while moving along at a leisurely pace on a rocky 2 track jeep type road I heard the very loud “Clang” of a rock hitting my aluminum skid plate.   Just about the time I heard that clang my body and helmet hit the ground!  I have never crashed so fast at low speed in my life! Unbelievable that a KLR could even move that fast! I would have bet against it.  It happened so quick and I was caught completely off guard so my foot was under the bike, my shoulder and head both hit the ground before I knew I had crashed.

David and Gunner were a bit ahead and saw me on the ground. When they returned I had not even begun to stand up, the pain in the foot and the shoulder were too high on the pain scale. I was waiting for it to subside and to do a little self-evaluation before moving. They were nice enough to lift the bike while I continued to sit and wait until I felt the need to stand and check the bike over. Amazing enough nothing was damaged on the bike, I was expecting bent handlebars at the least from the impact I had taken. Once I collected myself and we got ourselves back on the trail to finish the ride and head for lunch I had the feeling something was wrong with my foot and not too sure about the shoulder. The impact to the helmet had left a couple of good gashes from the rocks and had rung my bell pretty good. So from experience, I am sad to say, I was fairly sure I had a mild concussion. Also I self-diagnosed my right foot as ‘sufficiently bruised’. The shoulder I told myself since I could hold the handle bars and work the front brake and throttle it was probably just bruised.  My self-diagnosis worked perfectly because we continued on, explored a while longer before we stopped for lunch.  Then we rode home.

 

Everything began to stiffen up so of course I went in for X-Rays.  The foot was a no brainer, even I could read that x-ray and see the single broken bone.  The shoulder was not as easy since I have broken the collar bones a couple of times the x-rays of my shoulders quite often scare the x-ray technicians until they speak to me. They are not sure if their equipment is screwed up, I am in need of immediate life support or if I really function everyday with what they see on the film. Lol.   I think the young man started to panic for a minute until I started laughing and he relaxed! He asked me if I had a full range of motion with it and I showed him I functioned just fine for a geezer.

The next week or two will be spent on doctor appointments and CT scans to see if any surgery will be required for anything.  Hopefully I am lucky enough for them to tell me to just sit down and shut up on the couch for a couple of weeks.  I can hardly wait to find out.   Happy Birthday to me!

#33

‘A brook would lose its song if you took away the rocks’

Welcome 2023

As we roll into a new year we were lucky enough to have a couple of “newbies” join us on our first Taco Ride of the year. Newbies in the fact that they were first timers on our Taco Ride, not first time riders.  Then there were the regulars, Saint Mark, Bruce the Bomber, Recon Don and #33.

Zach and Rudy were the first timers and we were pleasantly surprised that they rode quite well, this means less babysitting for us! Lol.   As a bonus Zach likes to bring along his video camera and does quite well taking videos and an even better job of editing them!  This young man is quite talented in more ways than one. Impressive!  Most of us Geezer riders on our rides have neither the skills, ability nor knowledge the younger guys do to put this stuff together like the Zac Attack did. Thank You Zach!

Our ride started out on moderate trails to see how the boyz rode to evaluate where we should direct our ride.  It became apparent very quickly we could do most of our normal route only bypassing the most aggressive sections that are reserved for the hammer heads.

The 2023 moto gods had been good to us with rain fall and there was some traction with virtually no dust anywhere we rode. Almost perfect conditions for our first ride of the year.  The ride was so perfect Saint Mark must have thought we needed to take a break to enjoy it just a little longer, so he pulled over to fix a rear flat. We were scattered over a couple of miles but messages were relayed and everyone took a break while Mark fixed the flat and we were back on our way.  More trails, then lunch!

It seems to be that our lunch stop gets longer and longer as the B.S. gets bigger and bigger! The older we get the faster we were! Lol!!!  Also more often than not we are meeting people we know or strangers in side by sides at the lunch stop now and swapping stories. Life is Good!

We headed out after lunch and rode more single track into sand washes, then into a new hidden section we had just brushed out and cleared with some sections of rock climbs that required stacking a few rocks to get up a rock face here and there. Low speed technical stuff that requires a bit of skill to negotiate. 

Since we messed around so long at lunch and it was getting later in the day we start to return via a higher speed return route of two track roads and washes that run our speed averages up to over twice what we had done on our way out. We made a stop or two and the newbies are shaking their arms and rubbing the forearms and hands out. I think the Geezers may have taken them to their limits!  I don’t know the boyz exact ages but I know neither of them is worried about being in the Vet class any time soon!

The first Taco Ride of 2023 and everyone gets home with no injuries, one flat tire and everyone was smiling when they said their good byes, can’t ask for more than that to start the New Year!

#33

‘It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined’

Havasu 500?

                                                                     Three Amigos and #33

Thanksgiving is over and I had to think back a couple of weeks to my last ride with a group of friends that make me truly Thankful.  It started out as a wanna be backpack style Baja ride without all the drama of border crossings, money exchange, language barriers and gathering logistics.

I invited three solid guys, well two and Recon to go on the trip to make it easy on myself as I seem to end up being the coordinator, trip planner, spare parts guy, spare gas guy with the monster fuel tank and cheer leader, lol.

I made good choices! Bruce ‘The Bomber’, Don aka ‘Recon’, Buck of SBB Suspension fame aka ‘Buckmeister’ and me/#33.  We met up at my house with a projected start time of 0800 hrs.  Since it was a small group and all Great guys it was just a target time. I never intended this trip to be everything set in stone to the minute, always takes the fun out of it if someone tries to run it like that.  Lo and behold everyone was excited and early. Perfect! I was thinking we were going to be kick stands up at 0800, Wow.  Dumbass……. What about safety briefing, pictures, etc.  Lucky for me Mrs. Buckmeister and Mrs. #33 said we had to all get in the group photo.  Thanks Marcie and Cheryl for reminding me.

Once we got our roll on we made some pretty good time just meandering out of town and heading out into the desert bound for our first night stay in a small town called Salome.  That was until we stopped for one of our first on the trail pics of a giant spider placed in the desert by most likely Jeepers.  That’s when Recon says, ‘I am leaking a little gas’.  Fuel injected bike so it should not be leaking any gas!  18 miles in and I am already crossing my fingers, lol. The Buckmeister our resident mechanic on the trip takes a look and doesn’t seem too concerned.  Maybe overflow from the tank because we started out topped off.  So because it is early in our trip we decide to investigate because we are still only 45 minutes in and can return for any parts or even another fuel tank if necessary. Bomber, Buck and Recon begin to disassemble Recons bike while I stay out of the way, too many cooks spoil the soup thinking.

They get the tank off and Buckmeister discovers that after running the fuel tank on many thousands of miles of trail riding it has developed a wear spot where the rubber mounting grommet rubs the tank. Just beginning to leak, hmmm. Now Recon has to decide, ride and take his chances, go back to get a stock tank or attempt to patch it and see what shakes out over the next four days.  Hey we are still in the USA and not stuck in Baja so let’s patch and roll. We can always call for a rescue ride.  Recon decides to Live on the Edge (LOTE) we begin to siphon gas into the other bikes to drop his fuel level then patch with our always ready Qwik Steel putty.  Repair complete and we are back on the trail without seeing any leaks, so far.

We took a route I rarely use because there is a water crossing I am never sure of the depth and I ride a lot alone so I usually don’t risk it.

When we get there it seems to be low enough to attempt, so I wade in knowing that if I get stuck or drown out the others HAVE to rescue me because they don’t know the route! Lol. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but not so dumb as to not have a contingency plan.  The fellas were that contingency plan! Viola! No problem the water is no more than foot peg deep at the deepest spot.  Once I got across and stopped I realized what a great spot to take a break, have a snack as it was now almost mid-day. We had covered enough miles now to put the gas from our bikes back into Recon’s bike. The low spot in the creek worked well for lowering his bike to siphon.

Back on the trail and we made our way to Salome via Cottonwood pass, maybe 3000 ft. elevation. I had only been over it once a few years ago so I was finding it again as we went. I forgot it was like an Endurocross on the way up. Lots of rocks and boulders on the climb. I thought it was perfect. When we got to the top a couple of the boyz commented on how rocky is was. I live in the area so I almost didn’t notice. 

It was cooling off and the breeze was coming up as we reached the top, quick stop for pics and nature break and we were on our way down to Salome. The motel was new to me as I had never stayed there before. That is always a gamble! It turned out to be a great little place, Stanford Inn, with a restaurant and bar. Good thing because there is nothing else close enough to walk to. The restaurant closed at 2pm but the lady said we could order food in the bar.  The lady checking us in was a very nice woman, I am not used to that whenever I arrive on off road bikes. Friendly and helpful. She gave us our two rooms and she must have known our group! The rooms were theme rooms and assignment was perfect. Buckmeister and #33 got the MOTO room, I kid you not! It had everything moto as décor. Awesome.

Recon and Bomber got the Cowboy décor room, Buck and I were cracking up and quickly said it looked a little too Brokeback Mountainish for us, Just sayin’.  They were nice rooms and had the connecting door so it became an oversize double suite. It was lucky for us because our satellite for TV was not working, so we could listen to whatever Recon and Bomber were watching.  Ahh, almost like Baja.

Day 2 we were leaving with slight mist/rain in the air heading back over Tank Pass. It had rained overnight and gave the desert a decent soaking, how lucky for us. The dust had been put on hold for a while. Day 2 ride was going to be perfect, great roads, sand washes and a few sights along the way. Recon’s tank was holding so we covered some ground to Wikkieup for food and fuel. Our buddy Montana John rode his dual sport XR 650L over to meet us for lunch, since it is only about 180-mile round trip for him. Lucky for Recon because he borrowed a sweatshirt from M.J. with our overcast drizzly day being cooler than expected. He probably owes M.J. lunch!  We burned from lunch and headed into the Hualapai mtn range. More elevation meant more cold weather. Very fun riding and commute with sights, jeep roads and old abandoned ranches, mines and such. We stopped at the Borianna mine to see the Koi or Oversize Goldfish whatever they are. Those fish are always there and I have no idea why they survive at a pond near an abandoned mine. As we progressed in elevation to about 7000 ft. it got colder. Then we hit the snow. It was getting late in the day so my idea of exploring the canyons down one side of the Hualapai range to the old Mansion got scrapped as we got short on time and colder by the minute. The shortest route to the Lodge at the top of the mountain had the most snow! We rode on a snow covered two track with no tracks, fresh fallen snow. Beautiful in pics but miserable on our lightly protected fingers.  When we finally got to the lodge and were about to head downhill toward the motel I stopped to ask if anyone wanted to go into the lodge to warm up for a minute. Immediately everyone was in agreement and I was relieved I was not the only girlie man in the group.  We stopped and had a cup of hot chocolate, mostly so we could hang around inside and wrap our fingers around a hot mug of something! With our fingers slightly thawed we headed downhill to our motel in Kingman. It was chosen due to the historic nature and the proximity to a steakhouse!

The man at check in was happy to see us and loves to give a speech when you check in, which was nice but with everyone standing inside to get out of the cold he surmises he had an eager audience. He didn’t realize no one wanted to wait outside in the cold.  So I tried to be patient and attentive while he droned on, he really did have some good info but not enough to keep the cold boyz behind me paying attention. I heard the fellas start to talk behind me and the man quit speaking until they stopped and payed attention. I found it quite amusing because it happened a couple of times. Funny!  We got our keys and headed to our rooms eager for a hot shower.  The shower was not hot, not warm, but it wasn’t cold. The only one to man up was Buck. He REALLY must have wanted a shower! I could only muster a sponge bath, but I am a cold weather sissy.  We had dinner at a nice steakhouse, Dambar & Steak House.

Day 3 had us headed over to Laughlin, Nevada.  It was very cold that morning and no one was in a hurry to roll in mid-30-degree weather. So we took our time meandered down the street for gas, pics and a nice long breakfast while it warmed up. Good plan, but when we finally got going it was still not much into the 50-degree range. Once we got into the off road part for the day it was fantastic! It was like the water truck had been on all the trails in front of us. It was so much fun we could have just stayed in those hills and explored all day with perfect traction. The views were exceptional from the peaks and we did some exploring. We came across the infamous Panty Tree and after the Bomber’s Pole Dance we were on our way to Christmas tree pass. Scenic ride and return on some singletrack trail to the designated riding area with miles of canyons and trails on ridges and many sand washes. We made it to our motel in Laughlin and everyone was ready for that HOT shower! I tried to run the hot water out but started to shrivel up, so I gave up.  Then on to dinner.  That turned into a comedy!  No one wanted to pick the eating place so we meandered down the boulevard, in cold night air while discussing where to eat.  After walking up and back we ended up eating in the Motel casino where we were staying!  Good thing I like these guys or I would have ditched them for making me walk out in the cold. Did I mention I am a cold weather sissy?  Good restaurant in the casino with food maybe 100 yds. away.  After dinner Recon and I decided to LOTE and stopped at a slot machine, we walked away with $10 extra to split between us!  Living On The Edge!

Day 4 had us up and headed home on our final day because Buck still had to drive home to make a wedding the next day. So we took the shortest route home by dirt roads, 2 lane back road and dirt trails all mixed in.  We stopped in Golden shores at a nice small restaurant for breakfast and for the Bomber to get a cup of coffee. The only coffee drinker in the group.  No hurry and a nice leisurely pace to get home.  As we entered Havasu the Bomber peeled off and headed for the trailerhood. Then as we neared my house Recon peeled off and headed for home with a wave. Buckmeister and I rolled into the Garage Mahal and were met with cheers and smiling faces from Marcie and Cheryl. Oh yeah and I had to wait while they got finish line photos!  This just might be better than Baja!

After getting news that our buddy Doug aka ‘Senor Kirby’ was in the hospital with vertigo complications we thought the Havasu 500 may be renamed the “Senor Kirby 500” and become an annual event.  Let’s hope so!

‘it’s not about the ride, it’s the people you ride with’

#33

More Vacation for #33