Shakedown

The COBDR Shakedown run left  Livermore CA  headed through Napa Valley, Calistoga and West Lake County (Clear Lake) then off in to the hills (cow mountain area) over the hills and down in to Fouts Springs/ Stonyford area and we camped out in the Bear creek campground for the night as a mid-way point of a 400mile trip

The idea for this trip was to shake out any obvious problems with Gear or Bikes before taking on the over 3,000 mile trip next month, and it did just that!

This trip provided about 10% or 40miles of dirt within the 400mile trip and gave us a clear look at how our gear, packing and riding skills might hold up to the larger trip of  about 20% dirt or700 miles of dirt within a 3,000 mile trip.

So what did we discover?

 hear is the short list:

1. One bike was missing its tool kit
2. We need a tow strap
3. We all need water poof phone case's
4. We need Dry bags for everything (camera equipment was not in a dry bag)
5. Communication systems are a bit limited to number of riders ( I will explain more latter)
6. Everyone needs a check list for packing

On to the fun stuff:

First order of business was to meet up with my Brother in Livermore, Randy who did meet up with us first thing will be leaving later and meet up with us in camp.

Next we meet up with Jeff and Joanna for coffee and a quick (20min) communications sync session.

We lost connectivity as soon as we left the parking lot, so hear we are again on the side of the freeway working on the process again, this time we downloaded the manual and spent 30min getting it right….

Lunch in Calistoga and I think we have the communications down, (turn off all other electronics or disable their blue tooth capability and don’t pass someone using Bluetooth!?!!

Calistoga is an interesting place, most people seem to be there for wedding and or bridal showers , we met a few in quite a rush to get food and rush of to a wedding, others getting the first food down after a long day bridal shower/wine tasting event. 

We ran in to one gentleman in Calistoga  who after seeing our bikes told us of his lifelong dream to set out on a motorcycle and ride through the mountains of Colorado. “hay that’s just what we are doing next month” you could see the aww in his eyes… it would have been great to talk to this guy longer and see if we could talk him in to chasing his dream. His reason for defeat of his dream, was also many peoples dream in itself,  a large family spanning over two decades of age differences in children, I think he is leading a productive/reproductive life for Sure, and you got to respect that!!!

We are on are way after a great lunch and find are way over cobb mountain and on to the west side of Clear lake it’s a gorgeous ride, I have yet to down load the video of the ride, I’m hoping I have some good footage of this road.

Our next stop was an unexpected creek crossing, after about 14 miles of dirt road we expected to be at camp but after 12 miles we found this creek crossing!

The 2013 GS went first (to set up the camera) next was the Duck, they swim right?

Not this one:

After that the BMW F650 was across without a hitch, and the 05 R1200 GS after that, digging some holes on the opposite bank, yea that’s me digging a bit, a bit more momentum would have been worked in my favor!

We spent the next hour drying out the Ducati draining water from the cylinders did the trick and she spat out the remaining water to breath fire once again!!!

I'm looking a little to Happy to watch water escape from the removed spark plug hole!

working to get the remaining water out of the Duck

Much later Randy came through the same crossing after dark, stalled in far end, restarted and was on his way, what a trooper!

Camp was set up, that night stories told and some mental list made for the upcoming weeks of preparation before the big trip.

The next morning we take the group shot (missing three from the group on this ride)

With about 25 to 30 miles of dirt road out to the other side of the mountains we get a few photos and much more off road experience for those that have not ridden off road before, everyone is doing great and absolutely loving it!

Next up:

Communication systems:

New Tires:
Final preparations: