Some guys from our local riding group host an annual 3-day ADV ride which has grown quite large in the last couple of years. It's called the
Adventure Bike Gathering
This year we had almost 200 riders show up from all over the north-west, from Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Washington state.
Being from around the area, we attend every year, but decided to take the big bikes out this time round to give them a workout.
If you're local and you show up to the Gathering more than twice, you pretty much get roped into leading a ride. For one of the rides, I asked Kelly, one of the ride leaders, who the sweep was.
"You are!", he replied.
LOL Okay. I am slow AF so it makes sense to stick me in the back anyway...
For this weekend, we're also trying out our street-biased adventure tires to assess their dirt performance. Neda's Norden comes stock with Pirelli Scorpion Rally STRs and I've just put on some Dunlop Trailmax Mission for this season. Far from knobbies!
We've got about 13 riders in our group, most of them are 690s, three 890s including Neda's bike, a KLR, a WR250, a CRF450L, an F800GS, I thought I was going to be the phattest bike in the group - nope, there was a 1190 with a 30L tank conversion. Yikes!
The route for this day is through the Monashees, a very scenic ride through the mountain range between Vernon and Revelstoke.
It's been a long, hot and dry summer. We've had our fair share of wildfires this season and the ground is super-dusty. Because I'm all the way in the back, I'm covered in dirt and I have to wipe my visor often to be able to see the trail in front of me.
LOL at Neda's roostache
Nice mix of dual track, single track, good elevation changes, a bit of mud, grass, ruts and lots of dust!
The best tracks are always near powerlines!
You have to be super-tall to ride an Adventure bike. Or super-short... that works too. LOL!
The 1190 guy took a 30L tank from a Super Adventure S and grafted it onto his SAR. It was soo phat!
He had trouble making it up some of the hill climbs, so it became a group effort to get the Big Pig up and over. Fook, that thing was heavy!
Some amazing scenic views from the trails!
So how did the big bikes do?
Normally we ride our 500cc enduros on rides like this, and these bikes are a lot heavier and slower. But they are sooo comfortable on the connecting roads between trails. The trail heads are about 75 kms of asphalt from our front door, so it was nice having a couch to sit on while commuting there and back.
Neda's Norden is the better dirt bike. The fuel tank is mounted under the engine and having all that weight down low makes it much more nimble than my big GS. I noticed that she had to use way less body input on her turns whereas I had to counter-weight my bike a lot more, especially in the switchbacks.
The 890 is such an impressive platform.
Tires are different story. Her Pirellis suck. Bad. No grip in the slippery stuff, both front and rear. She was running 10 psi under the factory recommended street pressures and I was only running 5 psi under, but my Trailmax's still manage to hook up well in all terrain. It's no knobby but for true on and off-road dual-usage, I think it's a pretty good option. We'll definitely switch her Rally STRs out for the Dunlops on her next tire change.
Her Expedition has more than 2 inches additional ground clearance over my GS, and I was hitting my skid plate on large rocks when the shocks were under heavy compression. It has me wondering whether I should have opted for the Sport Suspension from the R1250GS Adventure, which has. 2" more travel front and rear than the stock GS. I may go this route the next time I buy another Adventure bike.
At the end of each day's ride, we all meet up at the local bar in town to bench race, lie about how fast we were on the trails and make fun of our new riding buddies who wrapped their bikes around trees or rode off into ditches!
Good times! Can't wait for next year's rally!!!
