Sand and Snow

[MikeB60]

Had to go to the office on Thursday and Friday. It's about a two-hour drive with lots of options for a decent ride.  I was on the GS and decided to include about 20 miles of dirt.  Did a little exploring on a dirt road I hadn't been on before.  It's a county road and they had just graded it.  Really fun until I encountered a deep patch of sand and bam the GS decided to take a nap spitting me off in the process. @roadscholar warned me before about that sand stuff but I always enjoy learning the hard way!

 

Deep sand makes a soft landing but my Klim air bag vest deployed.  Don't know why I thought it would deflate on its own but it definitely didn't and quickly got annoying.  The neck roll works well couldn't raise my head enough to unstrap my helmet until I took it off.  It's a great piece of kit I went down with the bike and the vest inflated before I hit the ground. 

 

Next I learned that a GS is quite heavy when it's sleeping on the crash bar.  The cylinder head had dug into the sand which made the situation worse.  So I'm here in the middle of nowhere Georgia with 600 pounds of motorcycle on its side. 

 

 

My son who is strong as a bull and quite resourceful just had surgery and can't lift anything. Needless to say he was no help although he did call me a dumb ass while laughing at my predicament!  Finally got a hold of my son in law who agreed to come to assist.

 

Couldn't get any traction in the sand to pull the bike up with my legs, facing away from the bike with my butt against the seat.  Decided to pull the bike towards te ditch to get a better angle.  After a lot of digging and pulling I was able to get the wheels in the ditch and finally got the bike upright.  Called the son in law and told him to turn around I was rolling again.  Let DyAnne know I finally got the bike upright and was on the way home and got a decent ass chewing in the process! Riding Motorcycles is an adventure definitely had one yesterday! Oh yeah here is the Alabama snow and my gas stop.

 

[roadscholar]

Nice adventure Mike, we’ve got a guy in our Adv/DS club that likes to say, but you didn’t die, right : ) Learning the hard way is the only way to learn to ride in sand, it def takes practice. You’ve heard it before, stand on the pegs, mild crouch (the attack position), loose on the bars, and look out ahead,, easier said than done because it’s all counterintuitive. Helps to lower the tire pressure to 8 or 10 lbs too but that’s kind of inconvenient unless you’re going to be in it for awhile. The rest is positive attitude, just gotta say WTH and attack, once you’re past the mental barrier it’s kinda fun. Love to see people take the big bikes offroad, it’s a whole other world waiting to be discovered.

 

Nice thing about a GS is they don’t lay flat on the ground, gives you a 25-30 degree headstart for lifting them. Glad you found that ditch, there’s usually a way to maneuver one into a position where you can pick it up but even so, some guys carry a long ratchet strap to tie off to something if they’re riding solo a lot. Dropping a bike riding offroad is common, it’s why they’re built to take it.

[longjohn]

2 hours ago, MikeB60 said:

Had to go to the office on Thursday and Friday. It's about a two-hour drive with lots of options for a decent ride.  I was on the GS and decided to include about 20 miles of dirt.  Did a little exploring on a dirt road I hadn't been on before.  It's a county road and they had just graded it.  Really fun until I encountered a deep patch of sand and bam the GS decided to take a nap spitting me off in the process. @roadscholar warned me before about that sand stuff but I always enjoy learning the hard way!

 

Deep sand makes a soft landing but my Klim air bag vest deployed.  Don't know why I thought it would deflate on its own but it definitely didn't and quickly got annoying.  The neck roll works well couldn't raise my head enough to unstrap my helmet until I took it off.  It's a great piece of kit I went down with the bike and the vest inflated before I hit the ground. 

 

Next I learned that a GS is quite heavy when it's sleeping on the crash bar.  The cylinder head had dug into the sand which made the situation worse.  So I'm here in the middle of nowhere Georgia with 600 pounds of motorcycle on its side. 

 

 

My son who is strong as a bull and quite resourceful just had surgery and can't lift anything. Needless to say he was no help although he did call me a dumb ass while laughing at my predicament!  Finally got a hold of my son in law who agreed to come to assist.

 

Couldn't get any traction in the sand to pull the bike up with my legs, facing away from the bike with my butt against the seat.  Decided to pull the bike towards te ditch to get a better angle.  After a lot of digging and pulling I was able to get the wheels in the ditch and finally got the bike upright.  Called the son in law and told him to turn around I was rolling again.  Let DyAnne know I finally got the bike upright and was on the way home and got a decent ass chewing in the process! Riding Motorcycles is an adventure definitely had one yesterday! Oh yeah here is the Alabama snow and my gas stop.

 

Was there lots of smoke when you started it back yup?

[MikeB60]

28 minutes ago, longjohn said:

Was there lots of smoke when you started it back yup?

That was a concern of mine.  The bike was on its side for 2 hours. I wanted to get it up and wait a bit before starting it but that wasn't feasible.  So screw it hit the go button and it cranked up not a bit of smoke!

[TEWKS]

A snippet of Bill’s wisdom…. “If a ride takes place without any adversity, it’s not really an adventure.” And you’ll tend not to remember very much of it. I find that very true. 

 

Glad ya got it rolling again, Mike! 

[MichiganBob]

In my 50+ years of riding in all conditions, be it mud, snow, ice, rain, wind, water ... I found sand to be the most difficult to develop a good feel for (and that was on much lighter, smaller bikes like Can Am's and Hodaka''s). When I moved from New Hampshire and Enduro riding to Utah and desert racing, I have to relearn everything.

 

So what are the lessons learned MikeB60? I can't see that you did anything wrong, just stumbled onto a tough patch of road.

[MikeB60]

8 minutes ago, MichiganBob said:

So what are the lessons learned MikeB60? I can't see that you did anything wrong, just stumbled onto a tough patch of road

Oh I definitely caused this! First I should have expected to run into sand.  Patches of sand are not uncommon and when they run the road grader it loosens it up if that makes since.  I was going too fast for my skill level thinking wow this is nice at the point where I hit the deep stuff. Definitely overconfident. Needed to get of the seat as Bill mentioned and I'm fairly certain that I went for the front brake as well. I almost made it through but that was just luck and momentum.

[MichiganBob]

Well that's one heck of an honest appraisal. Glad it worked out in the end with no damage to you or your fine looking ride and a solid lesson learned. 

[Scott9999]

7 hours ago, roadscholar said:

You’ve heard it before, stand on the pegs, mild crouch (the attack position), loose on the bars, and look out ahead,, easier said than done because it’s all counterintuitive. Helps to lower the tire pressure to 8 or 10 lbs too but that’s kind of inconvenient unless you’re going to be in it for awhile.

 

... and keep up your momentum, don't let the bike slow or bog down, i.e. power through it.  Plus, keep your weight back on the bike, so the front tire doesn't dig in.

 

It's been over a decade since I've been in the sand, some of it like talcum powder, back in the California deserts.  That was on a bike half the weight, though.  However, the principles are the same.  I had gotten into the dirt unexpectedly on the old hexhead RT, and the "dirt bike" instincts instantly came back to me, i.e. same problem same solution. 

 

They say that there are two kinds of riders, those who have fallen and those who are about to.  I'll add a third.  Those who ride the kind of bikes SO THAT they have the OPPORTUNITY to fall, pick back up, and fall again!  Falling on a GS is kind of it's "natural off-road state".  Built for it.  Youi can't go where ya really wanna go on one of those thingys, without incurring the occasional fall.   So, @MikeB60, that little spill simply means that you're doing it right!  😁👍🍻  Next time, you'll be able avoid it.

 

I'd say it's time for you to take a morning, and do some deep sand/dirt training, just like the very-slow-riding "parking lot training" for the street bike owners.   (But, maybe bring a buddy or two to help ya out with the Beemer GS resurrection issue. 😏)  Don't let it beat you or scare ya into submission.  MASTER IT!