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Ride Reports |
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01/02/08 |
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The Right Way to Break in a Wee-Strom
For the past few years Uncle and I have taken a 3 day ride over Easter weekend. Unfortunately, on the Monday before our annual ride Uncle called with bad news. The rear shock on his BMW R100GSPD had broken and a replacement would take several weeks to procure. No Easter ride for Uncle. I managed to soldier on without him and did a 3 day, 1100 mile dual sport ride to Langtry and back, but Uncle was missed. Well, 2 weeks before Memorial Day weekend Uncle called me.
Uncle: Hey, Rich Rich: Hey Uncle, whatcha doin? Uncle: Nuttin Rich: Bike fixed? Uncle: Yep Rich: Whatcha doin over Memorial Day weekend? Uncle: Nuttin Rich: Why dontcha come on down to Austin so we can go ride? Uncle: That sounds good.
Woo Hoo! Time to Ride with Uncle.
Then, the weekend prior to his arrival, my phone rings.
Uncle: Hey, Rich Rich: Hey Uncle, what’s up? Uncle: Bikes broke. Rich: Broke? You just got it fixed. Uncle: Yeah, but it’s broke again. Dang bolt stripped on me, doggone it, mutter, curse, mutter, curse some more… Rich: Well, come on down anyway. You can ride my Fizzy (FZ1). I’ll ride the KLR. We will just have to stick to paved roads this year. Uncle: Okay and I can drop the Beemer off at Lone Star and they can fix it. I’ll be there on Wednesday.
On Wednesday after dropping the Beemer off at Lone Star, Uncle shows up at my place.
Uncle: Hey Rich Rich: Hey Uncle. How was the drive? Uncle: Okay Rich: Get the Beemer dropped off? Uncle: Yep Rich: They gonna have it fixed before our ride Saturday? Uncle: Didn’t say. Probably not.
Later on Wednesday afternoon, Uncle gives me a serious look.
Uncle: I think I’m gonna buy a new bike. Maybe one of those Wee-Stroms I been eyeing for the last year. Rich picks up phone, calls Woods Fun Center, gets Dogman on the phone. Rich: Still got those 2 Wee-Stroms? Dogman: Yep. One red, one blue. Rich: Uncle wants one. He’ll be by tomorrow to pick one up. Dogman: Okay, I'll take care of him.
On Thursday Uncle went to Woods and bought a blue Wee-Strom. Sweet!
Wee Strom and KLR, ready to go
Uncle on his new Wee Strom
We wouldn’t have to stick to paved roads during our ride after all. That’s good. There are some roads over near Junction that I have wanted to ride. I had read reports about a few of these roads by some fellow DSers. Some of the roads I hadn’t heard of anyone riding (though I’m sure somebody has, they just haven’t posted it). This was as good a time as any to go ride those roads and break in Uncle’s new Wee-Strom in the process.
Uncle and I left out of Austin early Saturday morning. We rode for 11 hours, covered 327 miles, discovered some fantastic dual sport roads, ate some delicious food, and stayed the night in Junction in the best $42 per night motel I’ve ever stayed in. Sunday we spent about 9 hours in the saddle, rode 270 miles, and ate more excellent food.
Instead of writing one of my typical chronological ride reports I thought I would simply report on the highlights of the trip, with special mention of the dual sport roads.
Usener Rd West of Fredericksburg on Hwy 290 is the north end of Usener Rd. It runs south to Hwy 2093. It’s paved its entire length, but is a typical fun hill country road.
Zemer-Ahrens Rd From Hwy 2093 take White Oak Rd south to Zemer-Ahrens Rd. My map says Zemer-Ahrens is unpaved, and while some parts of it are still unpaved, most parts are now paved. Still a fun road though. Here’s a shot of White Oak Rd before reaching Zemer-Ahrens. Gotta love those county roads out in the hill country.
Hackberry Road Hackberry Road runs between Hwy 41 and RR 335. We turned off Hwy 41 onto Hackberry and ran it south. It turned out to be a really fun road. I think it’s even better than the dual sport road that joins RR 3235 and RR2631 just to the south of Hackberry. I highly recommend this road to you the next time you are in the area. Camp Eagle is located on Hackberry Rd. They offer free rock climbing and mountain biking, which I thought was cool. We even saw several climbing ropes set up on a cliff as we rode through Camp Eagle. Here's the link to their web site – www.campeagle.org
First view of Hackberry Rd
Hackberry Rd runs through a valley, following the path of the Nueces River.
Uncle and the Nueces River
The southern end of Hackberry Rd, where it ends at RR 335, is not marked with a road sign. There is a big sign for Hackberry Ranch though.
We spotted some camels on RR 335 as we were headed south to Camp Wood
CR 380/353/350 - The Best DS Road not in Big Bend I first rode this road, which consists of Edwards county roads 380, 353, & 350, during my 2006 three day Easter ride (the one Uncle missed). It was such a good road that I wanted to ride it again and give Uncle an opportunity to ride it too. Grab CR 380 in Barksdale and run it west to CR 353. Run CR 353 north to CR 350 west.
CR 353 - Just a little ways further up the road, we turned left onto CR 350 and headed through the hills you see on the left side of this picture.
CR 350 – headed west. There are quite a few water crossings on 353 and 350.
CR 310 / White Mountain Road After passing through the hills on CR 350 you reach the intersection of CR 350 & CR 310 (also known as White Mountain Rd). You can continue west on CR 350 and eventually end up at Hwy 674. Or you can turn north / northeast onto CR 310 and you will be routed back to Hwy 55 just south of Rocksprings.
Taking a break at the intersection of CR 350 & CR 310
First bump gate on CR 310 after the intersection of 310 & 350
Old Junction Road We left Rocksprings headed north on Hwy 377. A few short miles up 377 we turned left (west) onto Hwy 2630, which is paved. At the end of Hwy 2630 the pavement ends and Old Junction Road begins. What a great road. Uncle voted it the 2nd best dual sport road not in Big Bend. It starts off 2 lanes wide and in good shape.
South Llano River from Old Junction Road
Then Old Junction Road gets smaller, rockier, and less traveled. The fun meter takes a strong turn up at this point. Don’t you love riding roads with grass growing in the center?
The further we went the less maintained the road became. Parts of it weren’t even rock/gravel, it was dirt with ruts from the last rain. It would likely be tough to pass through parts of it following a good rain shower.
It just kept getting better the further we went.
And even better. The road stayed like this until we reached pavement a short distance further. Four deer were stopped in the road watching as we approached. Three ran off before I could get the camera out. After I snapped this picture another 4-5 crossed at the same spot.
When we reached the end of Old Junction Road (and the end of the unpaved road) we turned left onto Bond Rd / Sutton CR 320 with the intention of taking it all the way into Sonora. Alas, it was not to be. A short distance up Bond Rd, we encountered a locked gate.
Kimble CR 260
Forced to backtrack on Bond Rd, we ran Sutton CR 314 north and worked our way to River Road. We took River Road east to Kimble CR 260, which was unpaved and very fun. Out here, when you want to go swimming you just drive your truck out into the river.
How to Recover from an 11 hour day of riding We stayed overnight in Junction at the Lazy T Motel. It was the best $42 per night motel I’ve stayed in.
Uncle in full recovery mode – cigar and Shiner bock
Rich in kick back mode
Putting the “lazy” in “Lazy T Motel”. Uncle begins phase 2 of rider recovery operations.
Day 2 – Kimble County Dual Sport Roads
Gotdurt recently wrote a ride report about some of the roads in Kimble County that at the time I had been wanting to ride for some time. http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9374
In fact, in the fall of 2005 I rode over to Junction one day on my KLR meaning to ride some of these roads, but time ran out before I could get them all in. I had been meaning to go back ever since but just hadn’t made it. Well, today was the day. I had plenty of time, the weather was great, Uncle was willing and eager, and the Wee-Strom was great.
Kimble CR 261
The first DS road on the list for Sunday was CR 261. CR 261 starts about 15 west of Junction near the town/community of Roosevelt and runs northwest up to Hwy 2597. The map says the southern part of CR 261 is unpaved and the northern end is paved. The map was right.
CR 261 is 2 lanes wide and nicely graveled. Not a particularly challenging road, but it makes up for it with some excellent scenery.
Kimble CR 2612 – One of 2 Crown Jewels
Prior to reaching pavement on the north end of CR 261 you can turn east onto CR 2612. My Roads of Texas Atlas labels this road as private, but the map is wrong. For the first 50 years this road was private, but Kimble County has recently made it a county road as part of their 911 system upgrade.
Intersection of CR 261 and CR 2612
CR 2612 turned out to be an awesome road!
GotDurt wrote about this road in his trip report posted on the Two Wheeled Texans forum and I confirm all that he said. Great road.
About 1/3 of the way, as we were going through one of the several gates on this road, we spotted a rancher on an ATV coming up behind us. I waited with the gate open so that if he wanted to pass through he wouldn’t have to open the gate. As he got close to us he indicated he was turning to follow the fence line and not going through the gate, so I closed and latched the gate. When he reached the fence he stopped his ATV and greeted us.
We spent about 10 minutes visiting with him. His name was Hoskey (not sure of the spelling) and he lived in the ranch house we had passed a ways back. He confirmed that this was indeed a county road, though he wasn’t all that happy about it. He told us his grandfather had originally built this road and that it hadn’t been graded in at least 28 years, a fact we would easily agree with considering the condition of the road up to that point. In recent years Kimble County had declared it to be a county road.
Hoskey and the other land owners adjoining the road got together and petitioned the county to return the road to “private” status but the county commissioner rejected the petition. Hoskey told us the commissioner has other plans for the road, involving having water well digging crews use it for ingress and regress to parts of the county so that it needed to remain public and open.
He asked us if we had been through here a few weeks back. After I told him it was our first time on this road he told us that a lone rider had passed through here, on bikes like ours, headed east to west. I suspect that rider was likely gotdurt from his trip through here in early May.
Then Hoskey told us that 15-20 Harley riders, all wearing colors, had passed through here in the last week or so. This really surprised me as I would not have expected this to be a road of choice for any road bike or cruiser. Sure, they could get through, but it couldn’t have been any fun. The worst thing was that the loud pipes on the Harleys scared the dickens out of Hoskey’s sheep and they ran off, busting down a fence in the process and getting off his ranch. It took Hoskey a while to re-gather his sheep and, understandably, left him pissed off.
The bottom line is that this is a county road. Hoskey is a good guy too. He was honest about it when he told us that it was a county road, though he pleasantly let us know that he really wished it weren’t. I can’t say I blame him considering the story of the Harleys. If you do ride through here, please make sure to close the gates and don’t spook the sheep.
One last shot of CR 2612
Kimble CR 214 – The Other Crown Jewel
Hoskey asked us where we were headed to and I told him Cleo. I grabbed my map and asked him about CR 214. CR 214 runs east west between Hwy 1674 and CR 210, providing a shortcut over to Hwy 291 and the community of Cleo. The map shows CR 214 to be private also, but Hoskey told us it was a county road just like 2612. His sister in law (or some similar relative) lives on 214 and he confirmed we could legally ride it. That’s what I wanted to hear.
CR 214 turned out to be just as fun as 2612.
Here is the west end of 214, at the intersection of 214 and Hwy 1674.
Another shot a little further down.
I didn’t take any other photos of 214. Just substitute the pics of 2612 and you will have a pretty good idea of what it was like.
The eastern end of CR 214 joins CR 210. Here’s what the intersection looks like, looking back west down CR 214.
Kimble CR 210
CR 210 was a pleasant DS road. Though unpaved, it’s 2 lanes wide and well maintained all the way east to Hwy 2291 at Cleo.
Unfortunately it appears the county is not going to let it stay unpaved. The road crew had Sunday off, but their handwork is evident from this shot.
Breaking in the Wee Strom the Hard Way
Up to this point, the Wee-Strom break in has consisted of putting the initial 600 miles on the engine and testing the suspension on the unpaved roads. Things took a turn for the worse at a little water crossing on CR 210 though.
If you’ve ridden across any of the many low water crossing in the hill country you can probably predict what I’m about to say. Experience has taught you that those crossings, especially the ones with concrete, have algae growing on them that is unbelievably slick. The slightest error on the rider’s part and the bike is going down.
Uncle made a rider error on one such crossing and rode in the middle of the bridge instead of on either the left or right tire track. The algae proved too much and Uncle and Wee-Strom went down. I ran back and helped him pick the bike up, we pushed it out of the water and then checked for damage.
You can clearly see the green algae on the bridge. Note how thick it is in the tire tracks, but is not evident in the center of the bridge.
The total damage was busted right front blinker, broken handlebar end, and scratched tank. No damage to Uncle. Some electrical tape made a field expedient fix for the blinker.
Wee-Strom battle scars. Note taped up blinker.
So, what's the best way to cross an algae covered bridge? I've tried several methods and here is what I've found works best for me. I approach the bridge with just enough momentum to coast all the way across the bridge and then simply pull my clutch in and let momentum roll me across the bridge - sort of like the way you take your foot of the gas pedal and coast across an elevated ice-covered bridge. By using momentum to roll across the bridge versus applying power that may cause the rear tire to spin out, I've found that algae covered crossings are a lot less nerve racking.
Spiller Lane
Our next target road was an unmarked on my map DS road that cut west to east from Hwy 2291 over to Hwy 83. After a little bit of searching we finally located it and it was named Spiller Lane.
This abandoned house was sitting at the intersection of Spiller Lane and Hwy 2291. Interesting looking place.
We rode west on Spiller Lane and discovered it was a fine DS road. A short distance up the lane, however, we made a wrong turn and got off track. The road we turned on was a great unpaved road headed out through the hills, but I finally figured out that it was a private road so we backtracked.
Once back on Spiller Lane we stopped at a ranch house to ask for directions. H.B. Spiller came out of the house as I was walking to the front door. He asked if we were lost. I explained the situation and showed him my map. He confirmed the road did indeed go all the way over to Hwy 83 but that there were 3 locked gates on the road. We visited with him a few minutes and then backtracked to Hwy 2291. Don’t put Spiller Lane on your itinerary when you ride through here since the gates are locked.
H.B. keeps a few animals around the place. This baby walked right up to us with no fear. I’m guessing it was looking for a handout.
The adults kept a little more distance than the brave little one.
Kimble County Roads 410, 322, 412, 470, 420 & Blue Mountain Rd Due east of Junction there is an area crisscrossed with unpaved county roads. I had previously ridden one of these roads (CR 320) but wanted to ride the others. Gotdurt had ridden through here recently and clearly liked these roads. I recall reading another ride report of this area, posted by Fly Fisher (one of the Central TX KLRista brigade :) ) if memory serves me correctly, but I couldn’t find the ride report. Anyway, now was my turn.
CR 412 was the most fun, in my opinion, but all of them are worth riding. I particularly liked the middle section of CR 410 too. Navigation is not too bad, but if you don’t have a GPS and you navigate by map like I do then you will want to pay close attention to the map as you wander through the area.
This is near the north end of CR 322, close to where it intersects with CR 320.
The house at the intersection of CR 322 and CR 320. They had a really big American flag flying out front, as can be seen in this pic. Very cool.
East of CR 322 the map shows a road running north/south. I recall from the ride report I couldn’t find that this road was great fun but was now a private road. There were no signs indicating a private road where it intersects with CR 320 so Uncle and I decided to chance it. Alas, a short distance later we confirmed it was a private road when we happened upon this locked gate. Too bad.
Looking back the way we had just come.
The intersection of CR 420 and Hwy 385 is marked as Blue Mountain Road. The intersection of CR 420 and CR 410 indicates CR 410 but doesn’t have a sign for either Blue Mountain Rd or CR 420.
The intersection of CR 410 and CR 322 is unmarked. There was a sign, at one time, but it’s gone now. Looking north down CR 322 at the intersection of 410 and 322.
Looking east down CR 410 from the same intersection. Very good road.
Headed south on CR 322. Or CR 410. Not sure where the road changes from 322 to 410 since it isn’t marked. Still a fun road though.
Looking south & uphill at CR 410 at the intersection of CR 410 and CR 412. We are down in a little valley and CR 410 climbs up out of it and the makes a turn to the west from here.
Looking east down CR 412, at the intersection of CR 410 and CR 412. Yes, that really is a road running back through those trees and next to that creek. CR 412 runs back through those trees, follows the creek through the valley, and then climbs out of the valley. This part is really great road!
Looking east down CR 412, at intersection of CR 412 and CR 470
Looking north down CR 420 / Blue Mountain Rd, at intersection of CR 420 and CR 470.
CR 470 road sign, at intersection of 470 and 420.
Food – Man’s gotta eat, right?
Breakfast at Engel’s Diner in Fredericksburg
The Rocksprings Restaurant advertise all 3 food groups on their outside wall – steak, Mexican, and BBQ.
This is restaurant that caters to hunters and fishermen. Note the art on the walls behind us.
Breakfast at Isaac’s Restaurant in Junction
Lunch at Mamacita’s Restaurant in Fredericksburg
The Wee-Strom, all broke in (and only slightly broken)
Well, the Wee-Strom is all broke in now. We put right at 600 miles on her during our 2 day ride.
I have to say I am mightily impressed with the Wee-Strom. Uncle was able to easily hang with the KLR, no matter how rough the unpaved road got. And on the paved road, he could have easily run off and left me with his extra horsepower.
I asked him how the Wee compared to his BMW R100GS Paris Dakar which he bought new way back when and has put 100,000 miles on. He thought the Wee actually handled the unpaved roads a little better than his GS. It was obvious that he really liked the Wee and that it was a better unpaved road bike than either of us anticipated. He does need to add a skip plate and some crash bars though.
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This site was last updated 01/02/08
