You can pretty much stay in 2nd gear the whole time, unless you're gonna go fast enough for 3rd. Drop to first on the downhills for the engine brake. The Tuareg does great lugging in 2nd and you won't accidentally whiskey throttle if you hit a bump, though sometimes you'll need to feather the clutch. It's much more controlled. I love the quick shifter for riding off-road. Going between 1st & 2nd gear while not needing to use the clutch is really nice. I like to stand on the pegs (make sure you remove the rubber inserts) almost the entire time when off-road. It allows the bike to move under you and give you a lot more control. I'm not sure you need to air down much or at all for the hard packed trails. If you like airing down, you can get a rechargeable compressor so you can air back up for the ride home. I always carry one with some plugs in the event of a flat. You're doing great and will get a little better every time you get out on the trails. Looks like a really fun area and not to difficult for improving!
Very nice, thanks for all the tips. I don’t have the quick shifter installed, but do quick up-shift all the time. I might look into a small portable compressor that can work off the USB port on the bike. I even thought of bringing an old bike hand pump or a large CO2 canister.
Not sure if you decided on a recovery system, but SOT Pulleys makes a super lightweight pulley system that's pretty impressive. Youd need some form of pole or something if theres no trees, but might be an idea for your DIY project.
I will admit I've been riding ADV's for nearly 25yrs and find that as I'm getting older I still need to learn stuff particularly refining my technique even though I've come down from the gs's and ktm's to a Tuareg 660. You could checkout Bret Tkacs ADV who gives good clear advice. Wish I had areas like yours close to home or even in same county. Like your posts. One thing I've always been told is speed is your friend ( in most cases ) but then it's a head thing, going what you perceive as quick in a tricky situation but I'm getting there ( at 74 ) pity I didn't start with offroad stuff 50 yrs ago instead or as well as road bikes. Cheers, more time on the dirt definitely helps. Aitch
74? You still have plenty of years my friend. Yeah, I’ve checked out Bret T’s videos. You ever notice how he never shows his head/hair? He’s figured out how to take off his helmet and put on his hat like a magic trick, quite impressive…
Thanks for posting this, I’m thinking about checking it out. It would take an hour and a half to get there and I’ve avoided these parks because I assumed they were mostly enduro focused. I have the same tires you bought and have never aired them down - with the exception of the front which loses air by itself (this is somewhat common based on my post on the AF1Racing forum). My sense is that the tire compound is quite hard on these tires and wasn’t certain what benefit I would see- so this will be interesting to track. The two BDR sections I looked at were over 100miles long and I can tell you that for my first attempt on Section 5 on a smaller bike, I was pretty much done after 25 miles, so I heartily recommend finding part of a section you can do as your first try, or find a section with an easy out in the middle. The other element to consider is navigation. I was riding my KLX and my cell phone died because I didn’t have a power cord set up. That is easily remedied but you’ll want some way to store maps because cell service will not be present. On a side note, I had downloaded the BDR maps to GAIA and for section 5 they identified roads by a name (i.e. Lemon Creek). Once I got on the route I never saw a name - just numbers, and many forest roads aren’t identified at all, so you’ll want to have your route downloaded and be tracking your position real-time or plan to make stops. I need to get the navigation worked out ( phone or dedicated gps) and get some reckless luggage.
If you go this weekend, you might see me there. I'm planning on installing my tires and hitting MetCalf again either Sat or Sun depending on how well the tire install goes. I ordered the Garmin Montana 700i for my navigation, so hopefully, that'll solve the issue of "directions." Your advice is duly noted and truly appreciated. I think I air downed too much last ride, I think the consensus is around 28 lbs. for both front and rear? I'm trying to figure out a way to get friends to go camping in Downieville while I do a section of NorCal BDR that ends in that area, or do little mini sections of it. That way, they can haul all my camping gear with food while I just ride with minimal gear, e.g., water, tools, etc. Brilliant idea if I say so myself, I just need to find some friends...
@@ocdmoto I’m heading back up to Tahoe on Saturday, so maybe another time. I run 29psi front and rear so pretty much stick to spec. I’d like to hear about your experience with the Garmin unit, so far I’ve been using my phone on a Quadlock mount and I do the same with my “Me-bikes” (mountain and gravel) . On that aside, there’s an awesome mountain bike trail that starts at Packer Lake Saddle (elev 7,000 ft) that drops down to Downieville (just below 3,000) - that gave my thighs a workout! Section 5 of the BDR goes through the same elevation change in the reverse direction so that should be interesting!
Ha! I've been doing Downieville every summer on my mtb for over ten years, it's epic indeed. I'll do a "review" on the Garmin and the Motoz T GPS on this channel, gotta add some variety to my content.
