HadesOmega
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
- Location
- San Jose
- Moto(s)
- Empulse TT (RIP),
ZR7 (Sold), DR650, KLR650, 750 Turbo, Light Bee MX, KLX140L
Super Cub
Redshift SM
- Name
- Merlin
Alright so I just got back on from the BARF Moab dirtbiking trip. It was a lotta fun and very challenging riding. It's a bucketlist ride like Baja was for me, so I'm grateful for being able to participate in this group trip. It was also very scenic, beautiful canyon landscape everywhere you go. That's the riding I like when your rewarded with a something nice to see. I decided to start my own thread about my Moab experience so I don't make the Moab thread all cluttered up and to show stuff from my point of view. For the most part I rode together with everyone except towards the end we split up into different groups and I went to ride other stuff.
So I had actually planned to go on this trip months ago when norcalslowpoke invited me but I must've forgot to tell him I wanted to go so I didn't check in with him until prior to the trip and everyone had kind of established a way to get there. We had rented a house which was great. It was great having a base to come back to and a shower at the end of long day riding. It was fun hanging out with everyone too. Plus there was wifi so I could post pictures and stuff.
Very interesting and helpful maps posted in the garage.
So one reason I've never gone to Moab is because its freakin far! Its like 1000 miles you literally cross three whole states to get there because the bay area is on the west side of California and moab is on the east side of Utah. So it's a very long drive. So I had to get there myself so I figured if I'm going myself I want to take my quad with me too. Poor thing sits in my driveway begs to be ridden. However one reason I never rode it was because it wasn't running right. I kinda had it with the carb so I replaced it with a zoomzoom carb which I heard good review of but from no throttle to like half throttle it would fall flat. Turns out I need to raise the needle and I got it running! So I took it and modified my harborfreight trailer with a rail so I could load my quad and my dirtbike on the trailer. Total win because I would be taking weight off the rear axle and putting it onto the trailer and I would have a sleeping area. Before I would always put the dirtbike on the trailer and put the quad inside the van. But this way if I get tired I just pull over somewhere and hop in the back of the van and take a nap. Worked out great! So that's how I planned to get there.
The Battlevan a 1991 Toyota Previa 5 speed manual with the newly modified Harbor Freight trailer. The first picture you see my awesome park job at a McDonald's in Utah. Almost a double parking but triple. So driving through higher elevation I notice at 4k feet and higher the van is much lower on horsepower, I wish I had the supercharged version of this van now or a V6. On carson pass and many of the Utah freeways I would have to shift it into 4th and even 3rd and floor it. Never overheated though that's good. California doesn't have too many places that are this high up. Not bad for a 230k miles 4 cylinder minivan!
The weapons I brought for the trails of Moab was my Kawasaki KLX140L and my Yamaha Warrior. The KLX140 is my little trail weapon. Its small and easy to handle and will climb almost anything. The warrior I brought for the easier to ride trails and atv trails, worked great for that.
This is my Kawasaki KLX140L. It has some modifications. The biggest being it has upsidedown KX100 forks and uprated springs. Before the trip I installed a brand new rear Kenda Trakmaster. I also installed a new clutch with stronger springs, this helped out massively as I could get it to wheelie easier and the clutch wouldn't slip anymore. Plus the pull was still light! Also I installed a Pro Circuit T4 full exhaust system and an Uni filter. This definitely woke it up but at the elevations of Moab it still felt like it was down on power. It kind of had a bog from off throttle to getting on the throttle. I'm assuming I had to play around with the needle, it was annoying but I just rode it like that. The bike definitely wasn't liking the slow speed stuff the mixture was so rich, the engine wanted to rev more it was choking on gasoline. I'm surprised what this little guy can do. Even though it has small wheels 19F 16R I was able to clear ledges and stuff with not much problem. I think I hit the bottom frame like less than a handful of times. I should probably replace the plastic skid plate with a more heavy duty one.
I got a lot of shit for bring this but I like to ride quads as well I like to drift them and do donuts =P. This is my Yamaha Warrior 350. It's a very reliable although clunky quad. Its more comfy to ride than most sport quads nowadays. Most quads nowadays feel like it wants to tip over very easily this one feels like your sitting in it rather than on top of it. Some say the warrior is a cross between a sport quad and a utility quad because it's a bit of a tank. It's got reverse which comes in handy but its still light enough where you can pick it up if you needed to. It's name is Wall-E given by the previously rider. She told me that she called it Wall-E because it looks like Wall-E from the Disney Animation WALL-E. So I just stuck with it. It has a Banshee rear shock and raptor 660 front shocks with front lowering blocks. Has a plastic skidplate also so you can glide over those rocks. It has an open airbox and ebay spark arrestor for power mods. I rolled it at StonyBARF last year and busted the throttle so I replace it with a Honda TRX250 throttle which is suppose to be lighter. Has a newer raptor clutch cable system to lighten the clutch pull also. Also I installed a Big Bear oil cooling block and a Oil cooler core you see on the front. The warrior has no oil or water cooling when the oil gets hot it makes the warrior hard to shift this aids in cooling. WALL-E did great, riding quads over rocks and stuff is really rough on the rider but it did ok and it rips through the sand also but the tires aren't ideal for it. It got stuck a couple times going over ledges, but it's not to hard to pick up and muscle around. Getting it up ledges is tough though. It ain't no dirtbike and doesn't have a lotta power compared to most quads.
So I have all the equipment assembled I just need to get there. This is the route I took from San Jose. It is the most direct route but you have to go over so many hills and your high elevation the van has trouble climbing most of this. I took 50 the loneliest highway. Indeed it was lonely. I lost all the pictures but they're just straight desert road for miles and miles.
This picture I took in the town of Austin. Not many places to get gas along the way. Fillup when you can.
The loneliest highway
Me driving for what seems like eternity.
Crossing in to Utah on 50, not much out here a gas station and a cafe.
So before actually going out there and riding you need to figure out where your going first right? Moab has tons of places to ride all with varying levels of difficulty. I arrived around midnight one of the last ones to show up next to LunchBox who arrived the next day his FJ09. The first thing I tried to do was get maps in town but everything was closed when I showed up. Luckily norcalsclowpoke had bought this book and while I intended to just follow everything I wanted to plan my own rides later on for riding the quad because I knew I'd want to do the easy stuff on the quad. This book helped me greatly in that. There are two versions a larger one and this smaller one. I'd say grab them both because the smaller one has more detailed maps. You can even use it to find the staging areas. He lists a GPS coordinate in the route chart (kinda like a rollchart) and you just plug the first one in on your GPS like a Garmin Nuvi or google maps on your phone and it'll tell you how to get there. Very handy book. Also what I do so I don't have to take the book with me is to take a picture of the trail your riding the map and the route chart with your camera or phone. Now the book is tailored to riding ATVs so the difficulties are kind of skewed. He rates them as green, blue, and red. I find on a dirtbike take one down a skill level for the most part. But some of them are kind of puzzling because I found that La Sal pass should have been a Red when it was a blue where Kane Creek should have been a blue but it was a red. It's all relative I guess.
Here is a sample of the map and route chart. Very handy. He even adds little notes on what to look for and places to watch out for.
There are other maps that help a lot also. I bought these when I left Moab but they come in handy. They sell all these in town. There is also a visitor center in town I highly suggest you go there first if it's open. They close at 7pm everyday and they have maps and books you can purchase. The people there know the area very well too. Many of the shops in downtown have them also. The rental places are very helpful also, I walked into this one place that rents motos, atvs, razrs, hummer tours, etc... and he gave me a free map of Kane Creek they had. Everyone in town is so nice and helpful.
So I had actually planned to go on this trip months ago when norcalslowpoke invited me but I must've forgot to tell him I wanted to go so I didn't check in with him until prior to the trip and everyone had kind of established a way to get there. We had rented a house which was great. It was great having a base to come back to and a shower at the end of long day riding. It was fun hanging out with everyone too. Plus there was wifi so I could post pictures and stuff.
Very interesting and helpful maps posted in the garage.
So one reason I've never gone to Moab is because its freakin far! Its like 1000 miles you literally cross three whole states to get there because the bay area is on the west side of California and moab is on the east side of Utah. So it's a very long drive. So I had to get there myself so I figured if I'm going myself I want to take my quad with me too. Poor thing sits in my driveway begs to be ridden. However one reason I never rode it was because it wasn't running right. I kinda had it with the carb so I replaced it with a zoomzoom carb which I heard good review of but from no throttle to like half throttle it would fall flat. Turns out I need to raise the needle and I got it running! So I took it and modified my harborfreight trailer with a rail so I could load my quad and my dirtbike on the trailer. Total win because I would be taking weight off the rear axle and putting it onto the trailer and I would have a sleeping area. Before I would always put the dirtbike on the trailer and put the quad inside the van. But this way if I get tired I just pull over somewhere and hop in the back of the van and take a nap. Worked out great! So that's how I planned to get there.
The Battlevan a 1991 Toyota Previa 5 speed manual with the newly modified Harbor Freight trailer. The first picture you see my awesome park job at a McDonald's in Utah. Almost a double parking but triple. So driving through higher elevation I notice at 4k feet and higher the van is much lower on horsepower, I wish I had the supercharged version of this van now or a V6. On carson pass and many of the Utah freeways I would have to shift it into 4th and even 3rd and floor it. Never overheated though that's good. California doesn't have too many places that are this high up. Not bad for a 230k miles 4 cylinder minivan!
The weapons I brought for the trails of Moab was my Kawasaki KLX140L and my Yamaha Warrior. The KLX140 is my little trail weapon. Its small and easy to handle and will climb almost anything. The warrior I brought for the easier to ride trails and atv trails, worked great for that.
This is my Kawasaki KLX140L. It has some modifications. The biggest being it has upsidedown KX100 forks and uprated springs. Before the trip I installed a brand new rear Kenda Trakmaster. I also installed a new clutch with stronger springs, this helped out massively as I could get it to wheelie easier and the clutch wouldn't slip anymore. Plus the pull was still light! Also I installed a Pro Circuit T4 full exhaust system and an Uni filter. This definitely woke it up but at the elevations of Moab it still felt like it was down on power. It kind of had a bog from off throttle to getting on the throttle. I'm assuming I had to play around with the needle, it was annoying but I just rode it like that. The bike definitely wasn't liking the slow speed stuff the mixture was so rich, the engine wanted to rev more it was choking on gasoline. I'm surprised what this little guy can do. Even though it has small wheels 19F 16R I was able to clear ledges and stuff with not much problem. I think I hit the bottom frame like less than a handful of times. I should probably replace the plastic skid plate with a more heavy duty one.
I got a lot of shit for bring this but I like to ride quads as well I like to drift them and do donuts =P. This is my Yamaha Warrior 350. It's a very reliable although clunky quad. Its more comfy to ride than most sport quads nowadays. Most quads nowadays feel like it wants to tip over very easily this one feels like your sitting in it rather than on top of it. Some say the warrior is a cross between a sport quad and a utility quad because it's a bit of a tank. It's got reverse which comes in handy but its still light enough where you can pick it up if you needed to. It's name is Wall-E given by the previously rider. She told me that she called it Wall-E because it looks like Wall-E from the Disney Animation WALL-E. So I just stuck with it. It has a Banshee rear shock and raptor 660 front shocks with front lowering blocks. Has a plastic skidplate also so you can glide over those rocks. It has an open airbox and ebay spark arrestor for power mods. I rolled it at StonyBARF last year and busted the throttle so I replace it with a Honda TRX250 throttle which is suppose to be lighter. Has a newer raptor clutch cable system to lighten the clutch pull also. Also I installed a Big Bear oil cooling block and a Oil cooler core you see on the front. The warrior has no oil or water cooling when the oil gets hot it makes the warrior hard to shift this aids in cooling. WALL-E did great, riding quads over rocks and stuff is really rough on the rider but it did ok and it rips through the sand also but the tires aren't ideal for it. It got stuck a couple times going over ledges, but it's not to hard to pick up and muscle around. Getting it up ledges is tough though. It ain't no dirtbike and doesn't have a lotta power compared to most quads.
So I have all the equipment assembled I just need to get there. This is the route I took from San Jose. It is the most direct route but you have to go over so many hills and your high elevation the van has trouble climbing most of this. I took 50 the loneliest highway. Indeed it was lonely. I lost all the pictures but they're just straight desert road for miles and miles.
This picture I took in the town of Austin. Not many places to get gas along the way. Fillup when you can.
The loneliest highway
Me driving for what seems like eternity.
Crossing in to Utah on 50, not much out here a gas station and a cafe.
So before actually going out there and riding you need to figure out where your going first right? Moab has tons of places to ride all with varying levels of difficulty. I arrived around midnight one of the last ones to show up next to LunchBox who arrived the next day his FJ09. The first thing I tried to do was get maps in town but everything was closed when I showed up. Luckily norcalsclowpoke had bought this book and while I intended to just follow everything I wanted to plan my own rides later on for riding the quad because I knew I'd want to do the easy stuff on the quad. This book helped me greatly in that. There are two versions a larger one and this smaller one. I'd say grab them both because the smaller one has more detailed maps. You can even use it to find the staging areas. He lists a GPS coordinate in the route chart (kinda like a rollchart) and you just plug the first one in on your GPS like a Garmin Nuvi or google maps on your phone and it'll tell you how to get there. Very handy book. Also what I do so I don't have to take the book with me is to take a picture of the trail your riding the map and the route chart with your camera or phone. Now the book is tailored to riding ATVs so the difficulties are kind of skewed. He rates them as green, blue, and red. I find on a dirtbike take one down a skill level for the most part. But some of them are kind of puzzling because I found that La Sal pass should have been a Red when it was a blue where Kane Creek should have been a blue but it was a red. It's all relative I guess.
Here is a sample of the map and route chart. Very handy. He even adds little notes on what to look for and places to watch out for.
There are other maps that help a lot also. I bought these when I left Moab but they come in handy. They sell all these in town. There is also a visitor center in town I highly suggest you go there first if it's open. They close at 7pm everyday and they have maps and books you can purchase. The people there know the area very well too. Many of the shops in downtown have them also. The rental places are very helpful also, I walked into this one place that rents motos, atvs, razrs, hummer tours, etc... and he gave me a free map of Kane Creek they had. Everyone in town is so nice and helpful.
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