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Adventure Quest - NW Arkansas May 23-24, 2009

Holy mackeral.... the "water crossing" pictures from the ride report that Scott linked to are insane! That's not a "water crossing" that's a RIVER crossing. :giveup:
 
Holy mackeral.... the "water crossing" pictures from the ride report that Scott linked to are insane! That's not a "water crossing" that's a RIVER crossing. :giveup:

:tab The ones from the first day were just creeks running high from the rain the previous night... 3" of rain :eek2: The second day was the actual river crossing. About midway across the current would start pushing the bike downstream and we had to point upstream and get on the gas... Otherwise you'd wind up in some nasty rocks :doh: One bike went under and another just stalled. We spent a little over an hour sunning on the rocks while a few guys worked on the worst bike. It was the perfect temperature, with a slight breeze, and clear blue skies... I was in no hurry for that bike to get running again :sleep:

:tab I can't wait to get back up there... :rider:
 
ok im in, reservation made, think I got a double non smoking
 
This looks fun, my WR250 is close to being plated and wanted to make sure there was enough good riding, not just dirt roads!

Do you think the 250 would be alright? What the heck, it will be alright if I say it's alright. lol

This might be possible....
 
It would be great on the dirt part of the ride. As long as the paved parts were 55mph or less then it would do just fine.
 
It would be great on the dirt part of the ride. As long as the paved parts were 55mph or less then it would do just fine.

Because of vibration or the motor wouldn't have much left above 55? Raise the front sprocket as you did, how much will that help?
 
I find that if I gear the bike for consistent speeds over 55mph, then first gear is too tall for good offroad riding. I think I'm running at 7k rpm at 60mph. The bike will rev to 13k and I don't mind reving some, but I just don't like running that high for a long time. So no long highway stretches for me.

So, not a vibration issue, that's fine, but a rpm issue.
 
Is there a charge or fee to go on this trip other than the normal, fuel, hotel food, etc?
 
I am booked for this trip, and it will be my first group trip. I will be bringing my plated KTM 450 XCW, which from the pictures/videos appears to be the proper choice (I also have a GS 1200). Looking forward to the trip.
 
I will be bringing my plated KTM 450 XCW, which from the pictures/videos appears to be the proper choice (I also have a GS 1200).

You bring up a great point.

Based on my limited experience and the information I've gathered from other riders that have ridden there, it appears there isn't much in the way of class 2 roads in northwest Arkansas. All the county and national forest gravel and dirt roads were basically class 1 and the unmaintained roads are class 3.

I'm riding my DRZ, not my Wee, because class 3 on an adventure bike is just too much work and not much fun.

Anyone planning on riding off-paved on one of the big adventure bikes should give some thought to this.

On the other hand, the pavement riding in NW Arkansas is not only superb but is destination worthy in its own right. And is a heck of a lot of fun on one of the adventure bikes.
 
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There are literally hundreds of miles of roads in NW Arkansas that look like this. Perfect for the wee's and heftier adv riders of the world.

100_0707.jpg


On the other hand, the less maintained stuff is a lot more fun on a small bike.

This and others are not very wee friendly! :eek2:

100_0684.jpg


Not warloop, but still enough to make you pucker.

100_0713.jpg
 
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:tab The route we did the first day of the trip I posted earlier in this thread would NOT be one you'd want to do on a Vstrom 650 or any of the other "Adventure" bikes. It was pretty rough even for the KLR 650's and XR 650's. There was this one guy on a little green two smoker that seemed to be having some real fun!! :lol2: The route we did for the second day had a few spots that would not be good for Stroms and other Adv bikes, but for the most part it was twisty versions of the first image in the above post.
 
Based on my recon several weeks ago, I've updated my recommendations as to the most appropriate type of bike to ride during this event. Below is the update I've posted on the first post.

Additionally I've come up with 6 routes for the groups to explore and have linked to them in .gpx format.

What should you ride? Your dual sport bike. Will there be routes suitable for both the big adventure bikes and the dual sport bikes? Not really, at least not in my limited experience. The non-paved roads in the area seem to consist of easy class 1 dirt / gravel roads and hard, rocky class 3 dirt roads. There isn't much class 2 riding. For this reason, if you want to ride off-pavement I recommend a dual sport bike, not one of the big adventure bikes. While you can ride an Adventure bike on class 3 it is a heck of a lot of work and not much fun, in my opinion. I'll be on my DRZ-400, not my Wee, for this very reason.

What if all I have is a big Adventure bike? Should I stay home? Well, you could stick to the pavement. Seriously, the paved roads in northwest Arkansas are world-class twisties and are destination worthy all by themselves. Or, if you don't mind riding class 1 dirt/gravel, then there are ample dirt roads to play on. But, if you want more of a challenge and are looking for class 2, then this isn't the ride for you.

My intent is not to discourage adventure bike riders from attending. It is simply to let you know that the non-paved stuff in this area is pretty much either easy or hard, with little moderately difficult (i.e. class 2) available.

Routes: I've planned 6 different routes for us to explore. I haven't ridden any of these routes yet, so this will be a ride of exploration. Here are the routes in .gpx format. Right click and save to your hard drive. When you open any of the routes, don't recalculate them. Quite a few of the roads are not on the map so I used direct routing (vs auto routing) on these routes. If your GPS recalculates the route you will most likely not display correctly. The 6 Routes
 
I take it you need a GPS to use for these routes or hook up with someone who has a GPS, correct?

Is this too difficult to print maps off and follow?
 
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