Long Distance Ride - Strata Florida & Happy Valley

Pity there's no one following you behind with a GoPro, would like to see your body English steering that beast along the watery ruts, it's hard enough on an enduro bike, good effort:thumb2
 
Pity there's no one following you behind with a GoPro, would like to see your body English steering that beast along the watery ruts, it's hard enough on an enduro bike, good effort:thumb2

Yes I agree. A good trick with the GoPro is to use a pole. Can mount to the pannier rails horizontally overhanging the rear of the bike, and GoPro mounted on the end. A video selfie. One for next time. :-)
 
Cracked Sump

Almost forgot - if you are taking a BMW off road, then for goodness sake fit a decent bash plate. On this trip we had a chap with us on an 800GS with the standard mickey mouse plastic bash plate. He cracked his engine casing on Happy Valley; the rocks can be vicious there. AA Relay home to the NE of England. Bummer.

Super impressed with the AltRider bash plate I fitted to the 12. Seems to have taken the pounding very well so far. Solid piece of kit.

Hi Mike
Aye, lesson learned. Daft thing is I had been talking about fitting a better bash plate for a couple of years. Always the case eh? Actually discussed it the night before we did Happy Valley. Guess I cursed myself.! The factory one as Mike said is useless, made of hard plastic but had split. Hair line crack in the sump is being welded as I write. Good thing is access to sump is easy with engine still in frame, no need to even take off the down pipes. Will have it back on tomorrow ready for another meet on Saturday. (Along with a new after market sump plate!). Saturday is not trails this time, a road trip.
Cheers to all in the group for a great weekend. Lets do it again.
The Dude
 
Hi Mike
Aye, lesson learned. Daft thing is I had been talking about fitting a better bash plate for a couple of years. Always the case eh? Actually discussed it the night before we did Happy Valley. Guess I cursed myself.! The factory one as Mike said is useless, made of hard plastic but had split. Hair line crack in the sump is being welded as I write. Good thing is access to sump is easy with engine still in frame, no need to even take off the down pipes. Will have it back on tomorrow ready for another meet on Saturday. (Along with a new after market sump plate!). Saturday is not trails this time, a road trip.
Cheers to all in the group for a great weekend. Lets do it again.
The Dude

That is good news mate. I thought you might be in for a large bill !!! Did you use the AA in the end? Checkout the Altrider stuff, http://www.altrider.eu/product/category/filter_model/F-800-GS/fmid/11/cid/5/filter_make/bmw

feature-altrider-skid-plate-for-bmw-f-800-gs-.jpg
 
That is good news mate. I thought you might be in for a large bill !!! Did you use the AA in the end? Checkout the Altrider stuff, http://www.altrider.eu/product/category/filter_model/F-800-GS/fmid/11/cid/5/filter_make/bmw

feature-altrider-skid-plate-for-bmw-f-800-gs-.jpg

I feared a big bill but not the case. Local welder reckons £20. Gasket was hard to come by but tracked down a stock in a BMW Motorrad dealer in Norwich for £19. Got a sump guard from SW Motech who in the past supplied my engine bars that were excellent quality, so using them again. Around £150 I think it was.
AA were spot on. They had a local guy come out from Aberystwyth to get me out of the 'back of beyond' and to the M6, where the AA took over for relay home. Back home for midnight. Colin at trailrideswales as usual was most helpful.
Just to add to others comments. Well done with the fuel tanker, you handle it well, great pictures too. Will see if I can attach a wee clip I have of you wrestling it under than fallen tree.
 
I feared a big bill but not the case. Local welder reckons £20. Gasket was hard to come by but tracked down a stock in a BMW Motorrad dealer in Norwich for £19. Got a sump guard from SW Motech who in the past supplied my engine bars that were excellent quality, so using them again. Around £150 I think it was.
AA were spot on. They had a local guy come out from Aberystwyth to get me out of the 'back of beyond' and to the M6, where the AA took over for relay home. Back home for midnight. Colin at trailrideswales as usual was most helpful.
Just to add to others comments. Well done with the fuel tanker, you handle it well, great pictures too. Will see if I can attach a wee clip I have of you wrestling it under than fallen tree.

Wow - sounds like you have lucked out with the repair. Nice one. Good to hear the AA played ball and you got back in good order. Cheers for the comments; look forward to seeing more clips / pics.

M.
 
Wow - sounds like you have lucked out with the repair. Nice one. Good to hear the AA played ball and you got back in good order. Cheers for the comments; look forward to seeing more clips / pics.

M.

GS up and running again.
Excellent alloy welding job by a local guy.
Also done a filter/oil change seen as the oil change was half done whilst in Wales!
Bash plate has been promised for delivery tomorrow, so ready to do it again.
Happy days.
:cool:
 
GS up and running again.
Excellent alloy welding job by a local guy.
Also done a filter/oil change seen as the oil change was half done whilst in Wales!
Bash plate has been promised for delivery tomorrow, so ready to do it again.
Happy days.
:cool:

Excellent. Impressed you got onto it so quickly.
 


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