Dual Sport Adventure Riding Club Capitol Forest Jun 9, 2024

Overview

Shawn's meetup description

Meet up at 9:30am in Capitol forest at "Rock Candy Mountain" parking lot.
We will ride C & B Line thru Capitol forest to hwy 12. Then we will ride back thru Capitol forest via E Line ending up where we started.
Estimated 3+ hrs ride. This ride is est 75 miles. Only 6 miles of street legal pavement! :)
We may stop at Oakville for lunch if the group decides to do that.
You can trailer or truck your bike since there is a large parking lot to park. FYI: A "Discover Pass" is needed to park @ Capitol Forest Rock Candy Mountain parking lot.
This ride will be big bike friendly, no challenging areas.
Please don't be late! Kickstands up at 9:30am.

The Ride North

I got up at 6:00am with the goal of leaving by 7. Made coffee, packed my bag, and got suited up.

This is my first long ride on the new Ténéré (only ~50 miles on the bike so far).
It rides reasonably well on the highway, but not especially comfortable like the Multistrada or Africa Twin, but a LOT better than the KLX 230S. Mileage at highway speed (70mph) is disappointing, seems like 44--48 mpg.
Range is good, but I did fuel up right before reaching the meetup.

Attendees

Shawn (the ride organizer) on his KTM 690
Shawn's brother on a KTM 1290
Chris Uhlik on his new Tènèrè 700 (blue and bone stock)
Robert Appling on his new Tènèrè 700 (grey and all farkled up)
David B. on a new KLX 300 (black)
Jesse Ruth on his Tiger 800
Joe Calhoun on his trusty 1999 DR350
Stephen B Husky

The whole day, from Vancouver to Capitol Forest to Kent and Back (680km 422 miles)

Ride Log

Time	Minutes	km	kph avg	Comment
7:08am	9.9	Leaving home in Vancouver
7:18am	53.1	98 km	111
8:16am	0.1	Toutle River Rest Area on I-5
8:16am	47.5	82 km	104	Toutle River Rest Area on I-5
9:05am	0.2	Gassing up the bike at Arco
9:06am	10.6	16 km	90
9:26am	11.3	Rider's meeting
9:38am	39.6	30 km	45
10:19am	15.0	map
10:34am	41.8	39 km	56
11:17am	0.1	map
11:17am	0.9	0 km	31
11:21am	22.8	Oakville lunch stop
11:44am	4.2	5 km	74
11:50am	0.1	map
11:50am	11.0	10 km	55
12:03pm	0.5	Taking pictures
12:03pm	44.9	33 km	44	Taking pictures
12:51pm	0.1	map
12:51pm	10.2	8 km	50
1:20pm	7.4	Back at Rock Candy trail head parking
1:28pm	76.7	94 km	74
2:45pm	14.4	Daniel's place in Kent
2:59pm	6.1	2 km	23
3:07pm	81.4	Olive Tree Mediterranean Restaurant with Daniel
4:29pm	5.3	2 km	24
4:38pm	5.7	Daniel's place in Kent
4:47pm	0.1	map
4:47pm	6.2	5 km	46
4:56pm	0.2	Gassing up before heading back down I-5
4:56pm	47.2	75 km	96	Gassing up before heading back down I-5
5:45pm	1.1	Costco bathroom break at Trosper, Tumwater/Olympia
5:46pm	0.1	0 km	14
5:50pm	14.0	Costco gas
6:04pm	36.8	64 km	104
6:48pm	0.1	Putting on warmer clothes at the Hwy 505 exit
6:48pm	43.8	82 km	112	Putting on warmer clothes at the Hwy 505 exit
7:37pm	0.1	Gee Creek Rest Area
7:55pm		back home in Vancouver 13 hrs later

12h47m	9h25m moving	679 km	72.1 kph	74% moving, 202 minutes of breaks

The Dual Sport Adventure Riders' Club Ride (125km, 78 miles of dirt)

Visiting Daniel in Kent WA

I met Daniel in Romania on the TransAlpina and today he is only a 1 hr drive from my ride. Rode over (traffic!) and met him for lunch before driving 3hrs back to Vancouver.

Final thoughts

Well, I'm really impressed with the Ténéré 700. It got 64 mpg ridden aggressively in the dirt and averaged more like 50+ for the day including the freeway. It was OK splitting lanes to Kent and not too bad for the freeway droning. The throttle spring is strong and the tire noise is a lot, but 2 hours is not too terrible.

Setting ABS for dirt is kind of yuck. You have to do in thru menu settings, but those only work while stopped, and it resets back to default when you stop the engine.

One skills problem I had was locking the back tire in the dirt and killing the engine with ABS off. I need to practice coordinated use of throttle, clutch, and rear brake in challenging riding conditions like downhill, on round gravel, into a turn, while standing up. I still have trouble shifting gears while standing.

I love riding with these guys. The pace is excellent. Shawn always has a great attitude. The guys are good at sticking together as a group, but not riding too hard to keep up.

Seeing Daniel again was also really nice. I hope he gets back to Romania without financial ruin and we get to ride together again. Maybe Norway?