Four core riders started this adventure in 2016 and all four finished it this month; Mike, Terry, Steve and Woody. We picked up a few extra riders in some of the sections including my son Jeff and Woody's son Matty. Now they want to go back and ride the sections they missed so maybe I'll get to do some of it over again.
Quite an adventure indeed. I've enjoyed your reports from bike preparation through trail descriptions. If you told us of each participant's riding experience before riding the TAT, direct me to that post. Since dust was so prevalent, did you have a way to clean your air filters each day?
ReplyDeleteDust is a big problem with multiple riders. I rode most of the time at the back since I had all the safety gear. I had a new filter installed before starting but didn't service it until the end. It was dirty but no dust got to the engine and the bike never faltered. My bad and I would recommend checking it after a long day in the dust.
ReplyDeleteThe four core riders had various experience:
Mike (Me) rode bikes all my life
Steve rode bikes his whole life
Terry rode bikes in his youth but not for many years
Woodrow never rode a bike until he bought his for the TAT. He watched youtube videos and we took him out multiple times to get him some experience. He's the one who had the most issues and even cracked his leg on leg-1.
For some of the later legs we again took new riders but they all did ok event though the Rocky Mountains. We were all riding lite dual sports and that helps. They would not have been able to ride a heavy bike out west. Taking new riders is not a great idea but with practice and riding conservatively, it can be done.