TAT-2020 Post-02 28Mar2019

Although we are still in the early planning phase of our TAT 2020 adventure, a few significant things have happened that are worth putting in a update to my Blog.

I’ve started hearing from the possible participants and here is the current status:

4X4s:

1                    Mike and Liz in our 2006 Jeep Wrangler – confirmed

2                    Marty and Barb in his newly purchased Suzuki Samurai (more on this later) – confirmed

3                    Ashleigh and Marc – 50/50 – Not sure of their availability until we firm up the TAT dates

4                    Terry and Donna – Undecided but looking for a used 4X4

Dual Sports:

1                    Jeff on KTM 350 EXC-F – confirmed (more later)

2                    Woodrow on Honda CRF250L – confirmed

3                    Maty on Honda CRF250L – confirmed

4                    Rob on a Yamaha WR250R – 80% confirmed (more later)

5                    Stan on a Yamaha WR250R – 80% confirmed (more later)

6                    Jason  on a Yamaha WR250R – Declined due to work conflicts

7                    Darrel on a Honda Africa Twin – No input and no commitment

Participant details:

Mike’s 2006 Jeep Wrangler – Those that know me understand that I can’t stop from upgrading my adventure vehicles. “Buy high and sell low” is a tattoo I need on my forehead, at least that’s what Liz says anyway. So far I’ve added a better front bumper with a 9,500 lb. winch and LED auxiliary lights. I’ve also added a tow point on my rear bumper. I’ve relocated the high-lift jack onto the hood and procured several items for my recover bag; i.e. snachblock winch pulley, several heavy straps including one long tow strap, winch cable safety blanket, portable shovel, wheel lift strap to use with high lift jack and a base pad for the high lift jack. I also found that my OEM barrel jack would not work so found some replacement parts. I believe in being prepared even though I hope I don’t need to use any or most of this gear. I’ve also had the suspension inspected and found some areas that need to be fixed and will accomplish those fixes in the near future. Lastly I’ve had the 6-speed manual transmission jump out of reverse several times and after talking to an expert, he says it may be the shift linkage hitting the floor pan since it does have a 4” lift kit installed. He will fix it or worse case rebuild the transmission before our TAT trip. I love driving this thing even though it is a rough ride for sure. (picture below)

Jeff – As I stated in my earlier blogs, Jeff now has my KTM 350 EXC-F which I used on the Rocky Mountain to Oregon TAT ride last year. Although this is a great bike it cannot carry any heavy load on the rear due to the lite frame structure. As a result, I’ve told Jeff to sell the KTM and buy the bike he wants to use on the TAT 2020 ride. He is once again looking at Yamaha WR250Rs so he may be changing bikes before we depart.

Jeff has been a member of several WR250R forums for a few years and as a result made friends with two potential TAT riders, Rob and Stan. They had been reading my Blog and also had planned on a TAT 2020 ride and asked if we could join up. We are working out the details on how and when this would work but it appears to be possible.

Rob – He’s Canadian but currently living in Delaware. He has ridden a number of different trails on his WR250R and has lots of hands-on maintenance experience. He’ll ride his WR from home to our starting point with details to be firmed up as the logistics matures.

Stan – He lives in Chicago area and also has a WR250R. He and Rob have ridden trails together and plan on anther ride this coming summer. Not a lot of detail for Stan at this time or how he will hook up with the rest of the group.

Marty and Barb 4X4 – I was pretty sure Marty would be enthusiastic about joining our TAT 2020 group based on how much he enjoyed driving our TAT 2016-18 support truck. He quickly started looking for a vehicle and settled on a 1990 Suzuki Samurai with a 1995 1.6L motor out of a sidekick. He wasted no time in buying this vehicle and bringing it home (picture below). Marty has his own engine rebuild business and plans on fine tuning his Samurai this coming Summer in anticipation of a May 2020 TAT run. He’s rebuilt numerous classic cars so I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

Ashleigh and Marc want to participate but Marc’s work schedule may interfere. They already own a newer Jeep Wrangler so are ready to go if the schedule works out. (Picture below)

Trip Details:

On our TAT 2016-18 ride we used the Sam maps and GPS tracks the whole way. There are a few spots where we had to deviate primarily due to closed roads and bridges. We never had any issue on the East side (east of Rockies) with the track going into private property. As we made our ride I also captured our track on my Garmin GPS. I’ve recently gone back to my TAT 2016-18 track and removed the sections that were miles that we had to back track or detour so that it now is one continuous track that should be pretty accurate. It follows the Sam track about 95% but removes the delays we had on the first run.

Since I already had the motels identified from TAT 2016-18 I just reviewed how well they worked last time and made only minor adjustments for where we will stop each night.

I recently discussed with Jeff how this trip will proceed during each days ride. We found that the dual-sports work best with smaller numbers of riders; 3 to 4 in a group. This was primarily due to the range of the intercoms and the trouble we had with the early version of the Sena Bluetooth intercoms trying to connect multiple units. The Sena 30K Mesh eliminated most of the connection issues we had on the early rides. Even so, the riders spread out quickly and it was hard to maintain continuity with large groups because they are line-of-site intercoms. The final number of dual-sport riders will determine the way we break down the groups or keep them all together.

As for the 4X4s mixing it up with the dual-sports. This has not been decided yet but I do not expect that the 4X4s will just follow closely behind the dual-sports. Jeff and I discussed several options to include the 4X4s taking the lead and stopping at any hazards like water crossings and waiting for the dual-sports to cross; in case of a dropped bike and need to change wet clothes. The other option is for the 4X4s to depart maybe 30 min after the dual-sports and we would then be able to support any bikes that break down or the need to change clothes by coming up from behind. I expect that the late departure will be selected since it lets us have breakfast and not have to rush in the early morning.

I’m still unsure just how fast we will be able to go in the 4X4s compared to the dual-sports. We may find that the two stay pretty close to each other but worse case is we will all meet at the motel at the end of each days ride. If a dual-sport does need support, he will know we are only a short distance behind.

Since this is not a 100% dual-sport run on the TAT and I know it is a touchy issue with some dual-sport riders when 4X4s use the TAT, I don’t plan on posting every update on the multiple TAT blogs like I did on our 2016-18 TAT ride. There will surly be updates as we fine tune our trip but if you are interested in staying up to date then save this link and check back occasionally. I will post at least one update a month until we get closer to launch. About a month out from launch I will post all updates to the TAT sites since the dual-sports will be more involved plus post every day while on the trail with pictures.

Ride Safe everyone