On July 19th my friend and I left Seattle to ride the Continental Divide from Roosville, MT to Antelope, NM. 5419 miles and 20 days later we are home. The section from Seattle to Roosville was 516 miles , then 2433 miles down the Continental Divide and finally 2470 miles back to Seattle. Of course the CD section being mostly dirt was the best. Before I share some of the pictures of the trip I want to comment about my setup I made to the Terra before leaving, two bike failures I had, as well as some changes I am making having completed the trip. I'm 5'9" with a 29" inseam so the bike is lowered 1 1/2"so I can almost flatfoot it. Other changes: 2"Rox handlebar risers Husky skid pan (it took a major hit and saved the left side engine case) AltRider crash bars (also did the job on 3 drops/slide-outs) TourTech pannier racks Ortlieb panniers Wolfman tank and tailbags 15 tooth counter sprocket (more about that later) TourTech hand guards And finally if you look closely you will see a TourTech rear brake reservoir cover. Not that I think it will do a lot of good in a laydown but there has been a lot of comments about the cap on the reservoir coming loose or even falling off. The TourTech cover applies enough pressure on the cap to prevent that.
Ok now for the "failures". The first one was no big deal. The rear brake switch failed "ON" so a simple clip of the lead wire fixed that. Still have the front brake switch so all is good. The other failure was the left fork seal started leaking. Because this happened near the end on the Continental Divide section and there wasn't going to be to much more rough/technical dirt riding but mainly road riding home it wasn't a major problem. If it happened earlier on the CD I would have had to do something about it. It was kinda like riding in a car with blown shocks, sort of bouncy. The day it started leaking it was hot (upper 90's), very dusty and we had just finished a long long downhill section of a jeep trail with lots of washouts embedded boulders and roots so the seals got a major workout. The front and rear suspension was bottoming out a lot. I also now have what looks like tire marks on the forward underside of the rear fender. A big thank you to Bill at Bills Motorcycle Plus shop in Salem. I stopped there on my way back to Seattle and he replaced the fork seals and brake switch under warrantee for me even though I purchased the bike from another dealer near Seattle. Bill you are the best.
OK, now for changes to further improve my ride. But first I want to say that the Terra is great for this type of adventure. The engine ran great in spite of the very hot weather, high elevations and the extra 65-70 pounds of gear on it. It never missed a beat and pulled hard even climbing Indiana Pass at 11,910 feet. I never was wishing for more HP, the big thumper just keeps on pulling. First off I have replaced the seat with a Concepts replacement seat. A couple hours on the original seat was never a problem for me and I thought it would be fine. But sit on it for 6 to 8 hours a day, day after day and your back side will start to complain. Next because of the higher loads on the bike with camping gear and etc. I had the shock preload adjusted and Bill's shop put 10wt oil in the forks when he replaced the seals. I believe the original fork oil was 5wt. I had changed the original counter sprocket from a 16 to a 15 tooth sprocket which was good for the CD part of the trip. On the return trip via the highway I was wishing I had the 16 tooth sprocket on it. The difference is about 300 to 400 RPMs. The 15 tooth at 70 to 72 MPH is close to 4800 to 5000 RPMs which again after 6 to 8 hours the engine vibration gets to you. Where with the stock 16 tooth sprocket the 70 to 72 MPH is about 4400 to 4500 RPMs which close the engines sweet spot and much easier on the hands, feet, etc. after a long day. It's an easy swap to do so next time I'll bring both.
OK, Enough chit chat it's time for some Bike and trail Porn. This was a constant reminder/warning throughout Montana and Wyoming. About 20 miles south of the Canadian border we finally hit the dirt, we were on our way. A nice winding wavy forest road through the mountains. The tree damage was due to the pine beetle infestation. About 70 miles south of Eureka we reached Red Meadow Lake. It had a nice campground but the day was still young and we had more miles to cover.
View attachment 30107 Park Lake campground located about 25 miles south of Helena, MT. Our food, etc. in a bag, hanging in a tree. The info we got said even stuff like toothpaste should be away from our campsite in the food bag. Me thinks that with all these critters around there was better meals for the bears than our friggin toothpaste.
On dirt roads like this we could really haul ass and roll out the miles. Our shortest day covered around 125 miles but some days with lots of this we would rack up close to 300 miles. After the last high plains section we came in small community/town of Dell, MT. Our usual routine was to hit the road early around 6am and hopefully find a place for breakfast around mid-morning. This morning we found the Calf-A, an old converted schoolhouse. Funky little place with great food.
I believe we crossed over 15 or 16 passes on the Continental Divide. Red Rock Pass put us into Idaho.
A hugh portion of the CD is open range so we had to always use caution when rounding a curve or clearing a crest the road. A Mexican standoff. We met up with another rider who had been waiting at this bridge for over a half an hour. There was a bull head down, standing his ground. He was not going to allow us to come near his "Ladies". We had to wait a long time before they and then he finally moved on. Aspens in the south area of Wyoming.
Marshall Pass at 10,842 feet. As I mentioned earlier with the computer and fuel injection the TR650 never missed a beat at these elevations.
Finally we're in New Mexico. We had to bypass some of the CD trail in New Mexico because of the heavy rains that were washing out sections of the trail. I'll be RV"ing in Arizona and New Mexico this coming winter so will be able to ride what we missed at that time. The temps will be much more bearable then also. A couple pics on the Hopi reservation in Arizona on the way back home.
It's a long trip and every state has something different to offer. The Terra is a great bike to do it with.
