Tour of Idaho Challenge

[redpillar]

On Wednesday my riding buddy and I completed the Tour of Idaho challenge on our 2012 450 RRs. We are the 26th and 27th people to do it.
The only failure we had was my Shorai battery, (glad I had a kickstarter) and what turned out to be a broken wire in my fan harness. I did not bother to make that repair because even though we were running in 100 degree temps on slow single track for much of the time I had no overheating problems at all. Both bikes are more or less stock and we carried about 40 lbs of gear with us as we were unsupported. We were continuously amazed at the ability of these bikes. We encountered every kind of riding you can conjure up and they were easily up to the task. We ran MT43s on the back which proved themselves over and over again even in the sand dunes on Day 2. Our bikes took severe thrashings for 1500 miles over 9 riding days and never missed a beat..if you are interested, here is a link to information on this ride.

 

http://www.motorcyclejazz.com/TID.htm

 

http://www.motorcyclejazz.com/Tour_of_Idaho_Challenge.htm

 

I have reposted this from the what did you do to your Beta thread.

[redpillar]

This is a shot from half way through Day 1 which is one of the shortest but toughest days. It was 145 miles and took us about ten hours.

 

[JW1]

Appetite whetted.  Tell us more.......  There are 8 more days to detail, right?

[redpillar]

We used Giant loop productsto carry our gear. I have an original type and Dan has the Mojave. We also usd Ogio flight vests which have multiple pockets. Apart from ultra light sleeping pads and bivi bags we just packed minimal spares, tools, a couple of tubes each. We had rain jackets and Klim jerseys for riding into the night which we did a number of times. Spare socks, a shirt each and an ultra light stove and cup to make oatmeal for when we bivied, which we did three or four times in some interesting places. We carried the necessary extra fuel in 10 litre MSR Dromedary water bags which work well. 

[redpillar]

Appetite whetted.  Tell us more.......  There are 8 more days to detail, right?

 

I will see what I have for photos that make any sense and see if Dan has any and try to post them up. This ride defies a decent explanation because it is so long and has so many variations of terrain. You really can't imagine riding your bike on some of the trails that we crossed or some of the scenery and wild life that you meet. I think we had three or four days that were around 13 or so hours in the saddle. 

[Mckay]

I will see what I have for photos that make any sense and see if Dan has any and try to post them up. This ride defies a decent explanation because it is so long and has so many variations of terrain. You really can't imagine riding your bike on some of the trails that we crossed or some of the scenery and wild life that you meet. I think we had three or four days that were around 13 or so hours in the saddle. 

 

Monkey Butt, 

[Hafty]

Hell ya!!   So you guys made the roster?  That's cool.   Post more please. 

 

I love the MT 43.  I may go back to that tire after I wear this new one out.  The motoz tractionator endero I/T is just to unsteady of a feel in the rock and hard pack dirt here.

 

Those are some long days.  Did you read about the guy that ran it in 3 days... more than once.  What did you use for maps and reference etc. ?

[inspects]

Hmmm....I'm in.  Who wants to take me?  I'm wondering how expensive this would be if you are starting with no supplies.

*maybe i should start by asking what riding level are you guys?

[redpillar]

Hell ya!!   So you guys made the roster?  That's cool.   Post more please. 

 

I love the MT 43.  I may go back to that tire after I wear this new one out.  The motoz tractionator endero I/T is just to unsteady of a feel in the rock and hard pack dirt here.

 

Those are some long days.  Did you read about the guy that ran it in 3 days... more than once.  What did you use for maps and reference etc. ?

We did make the list, which should be up to around 45 or 50 by the end of the season out af over a thousand that have attempted it. I had a Tractionator I/T on the front which barely shows any wear the  43 is a bit better than half done but still grips like crazy. If you peruse the website you will get all the information you need about the ride. I usually post the GPX tracks on GPXchange around now. The trail changes year to year getting harder and harder each year. This year about 60 or so more miles of single track were added. There are some really hard ones, miles and miles of side hill single track some like fish butte with 80 or 100 feet of exposure on one side. I would say that the ATV trails and single track are evenly divided making up maybe 600 to 700 miles of the trail. The rest is narrow fire roads logging roads etc, with a minimal amount of pavement transfer sections. The big thing about it is that you have to take each trail in the context of a multiple 10 to 14 hour days so that you are also battling fatigue, and heat but in my case high altitudes where for the first three days I felt like I was literally gasping for air doing the easiest of things. You need to be able to navigate and map read to prevent getting lost, cause in some cases yu are way the hell out there, with no truck parked a little way away to come get you or to push your bike to if it breaks.  If you live near any of the trail just pick out a day a go and give it a shot. 

[redpillar]

Hmmm....I'm in.  Who wants to take me?  I'm wondering how expensive this would be if you are starting with no supplies.

*maybe i should start by asking what riding level are you guys?

 

The biggest thing is to bring as close to nothing as you can. Most guys that complete this bring only what they are riding in and maybe a spare set of socks and a shirt, plus spares etc. I had a Thermarest Neo Air mattress and a bivi bag with no sleeping bag but when we bivied at 10K we used  space blankets to try to stay warmer.  We knew that we would not make the towns/ hotels at the end of each day. We are not racers but have been riding for many years. I think the biggest things we had going for us is to not quit for any reason and the fact we were riding such great bikes, and for me I had a really strong and determined partner who picked my bike off me a few times when I would have been pinned under it still. This trail is not a light undertaking, as you will read on the website. Martin's description of the hazards of the trail are pretty well spot on. We decided to take our time and do it in around ten days instead of the prescribed 7 which for someone my age would have been a killer. 

[262 2stroke]

Looks like you guys had a great time

[ballisticexchris]

I really like your ride report. Doing it in 10 days sounds like a very smart choice. I can only dream of doing an adventure like that someday. I did a 5500 mile solo Western states street tour back in 09 when I was between jobs. I packed way too much. You did the smart thing by going as light as possible. If I ever undertake a ride even close to that, I will hit you up.

 

I assume that the key to completion is not hauling ass but just keep moving along at a decent comfortable pace? I can relate to gasping for air at elevation! 

[redpillar]

Looks like you guys had a great time

We certainly did. 

[redpillar]

I really like your ride report. Doing it in 10 days sounds like a very smart choice. I can only dream of doing an adventure like that someday. I did a 5500 mile solo Western states street tour back in 09 when I was between jobs. I packed way too much. You did the smart thing by going as light as possible. If I ever undertake a ride even close to that, I will hit you up.

 

I assume that the key to completion is not hauling ass but just keep moving along at a decent comfortable pace? I can relate to gasping for air at elevation! 

 

Thanks Chris, doing it in ten days was a necessity for me because at my age it would have killed me to do all that riding back to back. We took one whole day off about half way through. I am still recuperating, my hands don't work properly yet, and all my joints are achy still. Once I get DAn's photos I will post up some of his. There is a Tour of Idaho FB page that we use to check in and keep track of peoples progress when possible. I believe that you can look at it without being a member of the group.

[Mckay]

Thanks Chris, doing it in ten days was a necessity for me because at my age it would have killed me to do all that riding back to back. We took one whole day off about half way through. I am still recuperating, my hands don't work properly yet, and all my joints are achy still. Once I get DAn's photos I will post up some of his. There is a Tour of Idaho FB page that we use to check in and keep track of peoples progress when possible. I believe that you can look at it without being a member of the group.

 

link?

[redpillar]

Just go on Face Book and search for Tour of Idaho. There is also the web pages with links in the first post of this thread. 

[262 2stroke]

Sounds like I need to do this

[redpillar]

Sounds like I need to do this

You do!! I think Idaho is the only state that this ride would be possible land use wise. I think there are less than ten gates to go through in the whole 1500 miles. There are spectacular hill climbs. Some of the single track is downright heinous and relentless. There are miles of flowing single track, Martin has hotels and businesses on board all the way through the tour that will help you out if you need it. The scenery is stupendous, for the most part you can't believe you can ride through these places.

We saw moose, elk, deer, snakes, a badger in the desert running along just in front of me. We had a couple of herds of antelope go past us up on railroad ridge! We met pack horse trains out in the woods because a lot of the trails are horse trails. Give me a call if you want to talk about it.

[ifgator]

How big are your gas tanks? Or did you haul gas? My buddy did this last year and I think he had a 6 gallon tank on his KTM. Congrats on the ride and finish.

[redpillar]

How big are your gas tanks? Or did you haul gas? My buddy did this last year and I think he had a 6 gallon tank on his KTM. Congrats on the ride and finish.

We had Clark 3.8 gallon tanks. Which would carry us around 180 miles. We carried 8 litre MSR Dromedary water bags for extra fuel on two days. Our bikes are jetted for sea level and they both ran fine with no noticeable difference even though the average elevation was around 7k and we spent lots of time at 9 to 11k climbing steep single track with noticeable difference in throttle response.