What a ride

Well I made it home no problems eh. 11 hours straight through 5PM arrival, Can't wait till next one . Time for bed . Hope to hear everyone made it ok. Jeff

I am back as well. Made the 9.5 hour drive in 7.5 hours 8O . This was a trip of a lifetime. Truly epic. Never seen so many Bergs in one place before. We owned Moab.
Will post more tomorrow. Good day ehhhh!!

Finally made it home. It only took 14 hrs and 915 miles to get here.

For those of you who were unable to make it to Moab this year, you missed out on a real good time.

It was a pleasure meeting the real faces behind the web site names everyone has.

Taffy was a lot of fun to talk to and fit the personality behind his writing style.

Fryguy was awesome and ready to tell you a story about anything.

Splat, thank you for taking on the leaders role.

Bobzilla - now here is a great guy. He and his friend Neil show up for the ride and go out with a small group in the afternoon on the first day. Bob's friend Neil crashes hard and ends up in the hospital with 6 broken ribs, a punctured lung and a cracked collar bone. Bob made every effort to see to it that Neil was a comfortable as he could be when he returned to the camp ground after being discharged from the local hospital.

Bob, I have to also thank you for leading our small group ride on Saturday. I think I can safely speak for everyone in that group and say that we all enjoyed that ride to Gemini Bridges and Bulldog Canyon.
Bob, have a beer on us!

Charles, I won't tell anyone about the "crash".

Mike - I hope your knees feel better soon.

JoeUSA - I hope you had a good time. Sorry you had to leave early.

Json, it was nice meeting you. Enjoy the bike!

Mark, Brian and the rest you guys, it was a pleasure meeting all of you. Take care of yourselves and hopefully we can do this again in the near future.

I'm sure there will be many tall tales told of our adventures while in Moab. Hopefully these stories will entice more of you to come to the next Force Ride.

Mike

Tuts and I got back to 'Vegas and saw to it that Charles and Json made it to the airport for their flight home. What a trip! What a group of guys!
I can't wait to see the photos and I can't wait to do it again.
Dez

hi all;
it was a great time for sure.
i havent laughed so much in years. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
truly an event.
the riding was great too.
for those that didnt make it, you really missed out.
thanks to all for the hospitality and friendship. :grouphug:
more later.
tuts :devil:
ps...2 json..."soo big" :cheers:

I made it, 13hrs, 747 miles with gusting head winds. The 50 mph gusts with hail 20 miles from home wore me and the truck out.

The ride was awesome!!!!!!! The Friday ride was amazing. How many stream crossings can you cram into a ride. I can't wait to see the pictures from Saturdays ride, the arches and ledges were way too cool.

Many thanks to everyone. What a great bunch of guys!! A special thanks to Taffy for all the help, both on the trail and off. Your a big hearted guy and the trip wouldn't have been the same without you.

Now it's time for the east coast guys to get together and try to make us jealous

Yahl say Huhhh!

We made it back safely, the return trip was uneventful, dry and fast; quite unlike the trip down which included many wet salt/sand covered miles of hilly driving.

The people we met were great and Fridays ride was awesome. The terrain was quite different from the high desert I have been riding for so many years. I have never seen so many stream crossings, powder soft sand, tight turns, and rock formations.

The ride time was 3.4 hours, and only 32 miles, but it took most of the day because of all the stops. I was the slowest, and fell more in that ride than I have in the last 20 years of riding. I want to thank Splat and Taffy for riding my bike down some rock steps and fording a couple of deep stream crossings I was afraid to make.

I had some serious leg cramps Friday night that started to bother me while getting ready for Saturdays ride so I called it quits. Now I know what to work on to really get ready for next years 'Force Ride'..

Berger showed me his Berg, which has been lowered, and I will probably do that to my 04 550 to help out with my 30" inseam.

Json, you did great, especially for someone who hasn't ridden a bike in years. I hope you enjoy your Berg.

Hope to see all of you and others that couldn't make this trip, next year.

By the way, I found the front brake pads encrested with sand (the pad grooves filled with sand also) and some scoring of the disc. I recommend we all check out the brakes, exp if you have the OEM front pads and ventilated disc..

Wheel bearing, swing arm, and head stock bearing repacking takes place today.

Foot note: Repacked the front wheel bearings, and checked under the fork wipers, no water in either place. Decided not to check the other bearings, I had repacked everything when the bike was new 32 hours ago.

Foot Note 2:

I felt guilty the following day so I checked the rear wheel, and found the dust wiper on the seals had worn from fine dirt and had allowed moisture to enter and condense on the ID of the spacer tube between the two bearings. The seals on the bearings were OK so I just had to dry the tube assembly, pop the bearing seals and regrease them with water proof grease. I am waiting for the outside seals from Motoxotica.

I had been riding in the very wet and muddy desert (780 miles) prior to my Moab trip, so thats where the seal damage must have taken place

Joe

WOW! sounds like everyone (well except Bob's friend) hand a great time. I will be there next year i am sure. envy is the word of the day.....

We left on Sunday morning and made it back to San Diego in 13 hours.

The terrain in Moab is mostly technical riding well suited for a trials bike. The West sides huge canyons and steep assents up the canyons is both breathtaking and scary as hell. One wrong move and you could be taking a 5000 foot flying leap. I took my wife and 12 year old son and made a family vacation out of it. We attempted to try to all go on a "Force Ride" with the group and had to turn back after a short period of time. The trail ran down the middle of a stream and my wifes YFZ 450 quad could not make it. We learned very quickly that this bike is not suited for Moab's West side at all. All the quads that we saw were big four wheel drive behemoths. The four wheel drive is absolutely necessary to pull you up and over large rocks.

The East side is much easier to navigate and does not have the ledges of death 8O that the West side does. We spent the whole day Saturday there and found some great trails and fireroads to explore that are not listed in the "trails book" we purchased.

It was great to actually meet some of the people that populate the UHE. To see so many Bergs in one place was cool. Taffy came all the way from England and Fryguy from Canada.

More bloody tall tales will certainly be posted ehh.

After driving and flying all night, we arrived back to the land of trees at around 9:30 am this morning. Man, what a blast! This was like riding on the moon for a couple of east coasters. Who would have thought you could blast through a dry riverbed at 45mph running over rocks the size of a gear bags. (Thanks Tuts for sharing your thoughts on quantum physics, the String theory and how they relate to successfully riding a big bore Berg over the gnarly stuff.) :wink:

The only thing better than the riding...well almost... was hanging out w/ such a fantastic groups of folks.

To Des...Thanks for the hospitality and for being such a great Host.


To Berger...I knew I was going to like you..thanks buddy, for everything.


To Team Canada..Thanks for the Pilsner. Eh?


To JoeUSA.. for giving all of us young guys inspiration..you were awesome.

To Bob...Thanks for leading a fantastic ride on the last day, and the great chili.


To Ossaman... Mum's the word 8O .


To Taffy...Thanks for making the trip over..you have gained a number of new friends.


To BK..Thanks for giving me someone to duel with on those riverbeds.


To everybody else who made this ride such a special event.


And last but not least..Tuts, Thank you for showing me how to win friends and influence people...


Regards,

Charles

that was a hoot, even tho i have an orange bike. now that the alcohol is leaving my system and i'm surrounded by native english-speakers, i think the canadian accent is fading, eh?

i'm not really sure why taffy is driving headlong into this rock. anyone know if any of the bikes he borrowed have 'd-shaped' front wheels now?

Nice meeting you all, guys.

Ken and I had a nice time. I'll see if I'll add some blue to my yellow-colored bike. I think my kid will remain a Japanese guy, he just likes those blue bikes (he really is 15 for those who doubted).

Berger: sorry, we could not "haul @ss" with you all the way to Phoenix, we had to stop for Tacos in Tuba City.

I hope Splat, his family and Taffy had a good and safe ride home.

Sounds like it was a great ride,if those photos dont make everyone want to get on a bike and be there next year I dont know what it would take.How about a Moab gallery when everyone has there photos ready?

It was sure great meeting all of you guys. I hope you all enjoyed your time in Utah. It would be great if we could make this a annual event!
Mike [OSSAMAN] thanks for the help.

Mark [EuroEnduro]

nsman said:

Sounds like it was a great ride,if those photos dont make everyone want to get on a bike and be there next year I dont know what it would take.How about a Moab gallery when everyone has there photos ready?

Click to expand...

My wife has collected pictures from everyone and is making a slide show and video on dvd and cd

later in the week, we will get a list of who wants a copy.

I don't want to overload json's server with 800 pictures and video. the bandwidth would be overwhelming and expensive for him

Well, where does one start to tell a story that involves 46.54 hrs of driving time and 4115 km!!!

It never seems to amaze me of the melding pot of people that are involved with motorcycles. The UHE has been brought to us by Jason and to attend the Force ride was a testiment to the passion of motorcyclists. (I hope my words come out properly.)

I loved every minute of the event, the chili (thanks Bobzilla), the stories (thanks schwim, my tear ducts will never be the same), the smack talk (tuts, your pyramid awaits you), and of course the riding (thanks Velo for the awesome trail guides), the mortality (thanks to Taffy for showing us on the last day that things will always go wrong when one is within a couple miles of home, pics to follow from my fellow canuck, he's ok, he's still young enough for it to grow back), the location (thanks splat for choosing Moab, a very beautiful place on Earth), and the generosity (thanks to Ken for rewarding Jason for creating a fine community).

Thank you Brett for the mugs.

Velo, the wheels are still round!!!

Taffy, thanks for contributing to the commonwealth and for all the laughs.

More to come when I recover from the sleep deprivation and the anitfreeze disappears.

Take care all and thank you for the great time

fryguy

Well it took two days to get home since Neil was sore as hell. We stopped in Wendover for the night and had a steak and a few cold ones. Good night rest. I think the room at the Peppermill was just a " little bit " bigger than the cabin. Got Neil settled in to home and unloaded the bikes. Got all the "500lbs" of junk I travel with put away and hooked the bikes up to the tenders.

A little voice somewhere said " try the berg , try the berg " so gas was still on pulled the choke out and kick................. ONCE and it starts. Let it run for a while in the back yard get good and hot then around the neighbor hood and back in the yard getting real hot and still running.. Go figure. The only berg that **** itself out there and it must have been a dirty carb and I dislodged the junk or else it was water from running through the puddles... What ever

The ride in Moab

Neil ( I think we should call him ONE LUNG here on the site) and I arrive a day early cause we couldn't stand work one more day and when we pull in we find our buddy John already there. Dump our stuff in the luxurious suite, grab a beer and head to John's. John had been there waiting for us for 8 days and going crazy blah blah blah he cant stop talking. Off to bed we go thinking of riding through the park the next morning.

Wake up and start a pot of coffee and John is ready to go. SLOW DOWN JOHN. This is vacation. A nice cuppa and then some guy in a Toyota truck with a ktm shows up about 9 am. We meet Brendan. He drove all night in a truck with no radio. Blah blah blah he don't shut up either. I want to ride the bikes through the park since we are all plated but ... NNNNOOOOO John wants to take the truck so Neil , Brendan, and I pile in Johns truck and off to the park. They never stoped hearing me bitch about having to walk... If God wanted us to walk he wouldn't have made gas. We saw some cool stuff but I think it would have been better on the bikes. Back to camp eat drink sit around the fire and shoot the **** while more show up. Brendan is swaying and not talking as much now... I think he has been up for 48 hours. I'm not sure of the order due to the brew but I think we met BK, Splat ,"The Canadians", Ossman and Taffy. Plans were made to ride the next day in an area that Splat new of called soverion trail. Good night Marie.

Splat is ready to go at 7 am and the rest of us are climbing out of bed about 8 and he thinks we are going to ride at 9... he's got another think coming..... I think by the end of the trip he knew we were never going to be ready on time EVER. We go to the trail head about 8 miles from camp and TOO COOL... right off good sand and some fast stuff I'm thinking easy and I can sight see and might even get bored. Was I ever WRONG. about 1 mile in we get to some rocky single track and then some of that slick rock and were mostly in 2 gear a few small step ups to get us going and a couple of good hills all of a sudden were on the moon. As far as you can see smooth , grippy , rock. Splat says " wanna play on the slick rock?" Oh hell yea we all go here and there like a bunch of kids but soon find that it is easy to get lost with no reference points on the slick rock if you get out of site you might have a hard time finding your way back. After playing wa while off we go again with Splat's son RIPPING man can that kid ride. You racer's better watch, out he'll be kicking your butt in about two years. Anyway with him ripping he misses a turn and we are on a big road and with all the HUSTOSTRONE pretty soon Taffy and I are going about 70mph when we come to a gate. Splat says wrong way so around we turn and then is when it happened..... My on and off love affair was about to go off again. To make a long story short every body got to see my poor wrenching skills as I took the carb apart and cleaned it ( I thought, remember the beginning of the post ?) got it all back together and then found I forgot the main jet. Soooo every body got to watch me struggle with the wrenches again. Well at least one berg had to die on this trip so I got it over on the first day and we had no more bike troubles until Fryguy's stator at the end. Sorry to Splat for letting his son hear some rather foul language as you might expect I was not a happy camper having One Lung tow me home.

Home we go. Neil, Taffy, and I have a quick bite and Splat takes us to Gemini Bridges. Off we go and I get in front with I think one of TC's (The Canadian's). Ripping, no dust, sliding corners bounce off some rocks drift some sand washes around a corner up the hill and an intersection so we wait..... and wait.... and wait... somebody says one guy went down so I turn around and find my good friend Neil on the ground and not doing too well. He cant breath and says he broke his collar bone. Cowboy up boy I say and ride it home so off we go. He is doing good on the bike but when we get to camp and get in the truck he's done. He lasted as long as he had to and now the pain is brutal. Hospital is convenient and the staff is friendly. I think they see motorcycles as a guaranteed source of income.A half dozen x rays and a couple of ct scans and they tell me Neil will have to stay the night. Broken ribs 2 through 6, broken collarbone, bad bruise on hip ( black last night already and about the size of a football ), spot on his brain ( maybe that is good now we know he has one) and a punctured lung. The neck is starting to swell before I leave the hospital. They are going to keep him over night. See I told you a source of income. Meanwhile back at the camp everyone asks about him and helps me forget my buddy is in the hospital. I'm being selfish now and think I better ride tomorrow morning before they let him out cause we will for sure cut this trip short. Velo is going to take us on a easy morning ride.

Were doing good today as we are ready to go about 10 and I think Splat is thinking he is making progress. Off to I don't know what you call it but it is at " Hole in the Rock ". We split into two groups fast guys like Velosapiens, TC's, Corona, Taffy, Brendan and a few others. I am told I should join this group. I'm fat and old I say but they say go forth young man and off we go. Coolest trail of the trip I think right off down a creek and then single track remember wait at the corners is what I heard at the trail meeting. Well it turned into a goat rope right off. The real fast part is gone and some of the fast guys in the slow group is catching the slow guys in the fast group and we are in the coolest canyon I have ever been in. Who cares if were lost this **** is good. Stair step ups up and down 100 creek crossings some with seat deep holes ( I'm sure some one will tell a story about that) trees so thick you have to put your head below your tank to get under and by now Splat's son is herding us slow guys like a sheep dog. John gets a flat and fixes it in 8 minutes flat. I love ridding with an old guy, he has skills. If you ever get a flat with him along just fumble for a minute and he will push you out of the way and change it for you. I think someone else will tell another story about that. Well we finally catch up to the fast guys and they tell us that was the easy part and now the steps get tall. How tall I ask? Well not too tall but allot of them. Some decide to take the road back but I decide to take my merry band of followers ( dumb ***** ) back the way we came. The canyon was just too cool. I think it was Lefrog, his son, John and I. We soon ran into Splat, Jason, Charles, Berger and Bk coming the way we already came getting lost in the thick trees. We talk briefly and leave and as I am passing Berger I notice he is wringing out an air filter. Hummmmmm can you say deep hole. Shortly after I found we have gained a rider and BK is with us. Now I find out that Bk is a racer deep down and wants to push me in the sand and creek crossings. Of course I have to show my ass and crash in front of him in the creek, get up blast away and he has no chance of keeping up until I try and jump the creek, hit a rock, bounce across the creek and end up in a tree. I had to pull the bike down with the back wheel. On we go up the canyon and it gets cooler the farther we go. Now we remember some big steps so we heard of a trail around them ...best part of the trail and we are trying to pass some jeeps at the same time as they go up the steps. We stop and take too many pictures and the jeeps beat us to the last big step. We wait for a while for a chick in a cherokee to get up and decide to go with her in the way. Charge it I say and I am the first but not the last to crash. With each others help we make it back to the parking area. Bk and I take the road back and stop to see Neil. The nurse says take him home and I ask if I can take him on the bike and she looks at me funny but says ok. I get him back to camp and with the help of Vicodan, Percodan and some Sam Adams he's doing ok.

To be continued.

hello lads

been home about two hours now and i'm about to hit a wall and will be a sleep soon. 1pm or not i need a quick kip!

had a big get off on the last day when 'team commonwealth' were out riding. a fantastic four days riding and due to splat's commitment; we got to see the grand canyon on the way home. we stayed 5 hours.

i'm falling asleep as we speak....

Bobzilla, I hope Neil heals quick.