Dirt ride over Sierras to Hwy 20 via Henness Pass Rd

[RichVee4]

Don't think the last link worked.  Google maps and I have issues.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/39.5243546,-120.0127618/Emerald+Pools/@39.491742,-120.4060937,15z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-120.2941345!2d39.4896701!3s0x809bfb1c2d058b8f:0x9f6a6691edf80c93!1m5!1m1!1s0x0:0x50818ece5c69de77!2m2!1d-120.657949!2d39.318828!3e2

[GreenMachine]

Sometimes it's just easier to make a word the link, like here.  Works well when the string of characters is a mile long.

See the SSA page on how to do it quite easily here.

BTW, that route is much shorter and very different from the first one.  Is that so the bikes can make the distance?  I was thinking based on the first route map that if it wasn't too much trouble and there was a way, we could just ride into Sierra City for fuel, probably twice on the ride to/from.

The shorter ride you have here might be doable by poor ol' me, but I'm not positive at this point.  Looks like an adventurous ride.

[RichVee4]

Thanks for the instructions, I will check it out.  The map must have worked if you saw the route, one way distance 57 miles.  Route hasn't changed, first map just showed entire Henness route to Nevada City, which was never on the agenda.   We will turn south after Bowman Lake and head toward Hwy 20.  

SL and I are going to do a pre ride and since I have an odometer I can pace the distance.  We will ride 50 miles (25 out and back which is almost the distance to our destination) and measure his fuel consumption.  Riding a fire road at ~25mph is pretty ideal for mileage, I think you'll be surprised.    Hwy speeds are what will kill your mileage.

Right now I am planning to have Monica bring my 5 gal fuel tank down to meet us that I will probably put about 4.5 gal into to minimize chance of spillage on the car ride there.  Once we do our check we will see how much fuel we need for the return trip.   Dub, if you ride the tiger assuming you could do this route twice without a problem.  My friend had a desert tank also so between him and I wont need much if any.  

GM, if you want to check your mileage you can join SL and I went we go out.  

[GreenMachine]

You know the adventurous side of me finds the full Henness Pass route more appealing.  That would just be cool to do.  Maybe for the Fall.  Often think it would be a hoot to ride up into the area north of hwy 49 into Cal Ida and visit the Devil's post pile between there and La Porte.

I'm pretty sure the 450 can do 100 miles, maybe even 120.  Unlike the road bike though, it's difficult to establish fuel consumption with the terrain we've ridden so far.  Only way to find out is to do some distance runs.

That Monica is going to deserve the best of Mother's Day gifts or attention after shadowing your ride group.  What an unglamorous job.  Way to go Monica!

[dub]

Dub, if you ride the tiger assuming you could do this route twice without a problem.

Yeah, I'll have lots to spare. I could bring a siphon to share some in case we get in a tight spot.

[RichVee4]

That Monica is going to deserve the best of Mother's Day gifts or attention after shadowing your ride group.

Yea, I need to be really nice to her next few weeks or we will be walking home over the sierras starving, that scenario sounds vaguely familiar!  

[GreenMachine]

I'll bring a knife just in case.

[RichVee4]

All I have to be is faster than SL..   I talked with two dealers in town and they both said the NV OHV tag is good for CA so I am happy with that and ready to do some riding.

[slmoto]

Good news, I got the rear sprocket today. Bad news I took it out for a test run up Peavine and may have killed the engine.

After I installed the sprocket it was being a bitch to start, pretty typical for this bike but even more of a pain in the ass than usual. I go and get a new spark plug and was able to get it started, still not all that easy. It's been sitting for a month or more so I thought I'd go do a test run up Peavine and maybe clear it out and see if it would get back to normal. When I get unloaded I had a really hard time starting it again but finally got it going. It was going good at first, then about half way up when I'd give it gas it'd sputter and cut power, it did this on and off for a bit. I look down and there is white smoke shooting out the front of the engine through the skit plate. I hit the kill switch and it sounds like a fan is going but I don't have a fan, I guess it was just the hiss of whatever was shooting out. I didn't even try and restart, I just coasted back down to the truck, which is the exact reason I use Peavine to test it out in case anything does goes wrong I can coast back down. Fluids and air filter were all clean and topped off and I was trying to take it easy for the most part, I was just on a fire road nothing crazy.

I'm too tired and bummed to look into it tonight but from the initial looks of things I'm most likely not going to be able to make this trip. Even if I do get it running again in time I don't think I'll have enough time to build my confidence in it's reliability to head out on a longer trip like this. Really disappointed, I was looking forward to doing a ride like this.

Have fun guys and be safe. If anything changes and I'm able to go I'll let you know but as of now it looks like I'm out.

[RichVee4]

That should be easy to figure out what happened once it cools down and hopefully not serious.  Better to find out now close to home and lucky you could coast back to the truck.  Sounds like a coolant leak maybe by the water pump or something.    Maybe it was starting to overheat causing the power loss.   I can still do a shorter ride before the trip if you are able to fix it and want to test it out.  If not, we will miss you.     

[dub]

Just bring your gixxer.

[slmoto]

Just bring your gixxer.

That would also solve my questionable gas range issue.

[dub]

I'm not even joking.

From all the research I have done on Henness Pass Rd, it can easily be done on any street bike.

You wouldn't be the first to take your street bike off the pavement...

[slmoto]

I don't doubt that it could be done and that I could even handle it myself but to be honest I'd like to keep it looking pretty for as long as I can. Over that distance I could see potentially sliding out at least once on it, dropping it, tearing up my fairings. I had an old R6 prior to this bike that was already pretty beat up when I got it, I wish I had kept it instead of selling it and turned it into something like this:
http://derestricted.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gsxr-ondirt.jpg

I may be back in on this ride anyway, on my dirt bike. GM was over watching the MotoGP races yesterday and in between races he helped me dial in the fuel/air screw on the carb and it's starting much easier now. We also looked into what happened from last time I rode, it looks like it just overheated and started spraying fluid out the overflow hose but the hose was behind the skid plate so when it sprayed out it went all over and made it look like the whole bottom end blew up at the time. I cleaned off some build up on the rad. cap for a better seal and took it out for a few hours yesterday with no issues. I'm going to do another test up Peavine in the next couple days and see how it does. If it's okay, I'll keep riding as much as possible prior to this ride to see if it's reliable.

I had left it running longer than usual prior to taking off up Peavine when I had the overheating issue so I'm hoping that is what caused it to overheat, I'll see how it goes and make the decision in the next couple weeks based on how it performs in the mean time.

[dub]

Why is that you think you would crash? Crashes don't just happen spontaneously, you will be sitting on the bike manipulating the controls. Just make sure your inputs to those controls don't require more traction than is available and you wont crash.