Hawai'i

I need to head my own advice, I rode my 200 with a Dunlop 803 on various sections of this ride, Friday in Puna with lots of rain had no impact. The West side with a HWY blast from Kawaihae to Upolu at 60MPH in 88 Degrees + followed by a long dusty uphill and a bit more HWY sealed the deal. 15 Center knobs in a row as well as ones and twos all the way around got shedded, sorry to the guys behind me that had to dodge chunks of rubber!!!!




We got to ride on a huge private ranch climbing Grass Covered Cinder Cones and ducking up and down gulches like riding a Giant Snowboarding Halfpipe pretty awesome stuff! Fortunately there was enough rubber to make the climbs without issues, unfortunately there weren't enough knobs to sling cowpies very far....

Here are some shots from Gasser:

Saturday in Kapoho, did I mention it was raining? Super wet, it started raining after the first 45 minutes and never stopped. And of course since it was raining somebody needed to do a flat repair, we had a flat in the same section as the 2010 DS ride.



Kalualu on day one:




North Hawaii pasture land:



Bikes ready to ship back to Oahu:




Some Drama coming home on Mana / Keanakoulu Rd. (Just like 2010) Matt snapped his chain, a spare masterlink was installed and it snapped again a mile down the road. Big Joe used his Right Foot to push Matt 27 Miles back to Waimea, in the Dark, hitting 50 MPH in the process :eek1 and then called for the Chase Truck, meanwhile Steve is backtracking 25 miles on a borrowed quad with a tow strap and nobody is where they left them. We were multiple beers into it when everybody finally joined up in Hilo Saturday night.

Good Times!!!!

That tailgate looks pretty new!!!! Did you find yourself a truck?

Busted!!! '13 Tacoma Dual Cab.... I was set to get something else but then the Little Guy chimed in with his opinion..... Need a slightly used Dunlop 803????

You may want to try the Perelli MT43 (DOT trials tire), I was surprised how well it held up to all the lava/cinder/asphalt. I had about 2,100 miles on it when I started my Big Island ride and when I was pau it had about 2,900 miles and about 1/8" center tread left with no missing lugs. It made it through South Point, Road to the Sea, Mana Road and the other road above Mana without any problems. BTW, I had it on a WR290R.

Thanks Kevin, I may have to try the Italians next time around, especially if they come with a free calendar!!!

I worked a deal Saturday night to trade a new 606 for a new 803, that'd would be the 606 I should have spooned on before the ride but elected to leave in the shed.... In it's defense the 803 has been on the bike for pretty much the whole 25 hours I have on it which include a MK200 and 21 months of sitting. I got the 200 for riding singletrack and set it up as such, wrong tool for the DS job especially since there are a couple of other more capable bikes sitting in the shed.

Do you still have a bike on the Big Island? There will be some more DS rides coming up of the one day variety with more technical stuff and plans are already in the works for a big one in the summer.

Looks like good times for sure! When is the next ride?!

My bike is back on Oahu, we shipped 3 bikes over in a G van. We pretty much tried to copy the dual sport ride that was on here earlier with a few added routes. We will probably hit up Kauai in a few months, there is only so much riding you can do on Oahu. I do have a bike in Colorado and have been going there yearly for a good adventure ride, I think I will ride Idaho next summer.

[/COLOR Big Island Lava Butt 400

Aloha once an awhile Dual Sport riders and all time couch potatoes.

Friday Nov 23 2012 8:am, 17 Big Island Dual Sport Association riders, six from Oahu, clad in high tech off road armor riding gear, riding tricked out go anywhere over anything $10,000+ Dual Sport motorcycles leave from Hilo's Big Island Power Sports parking lot, off on day one's 215 mile section of BIDSA's Big Island's gnarly two day Lava Butt 400 dual sport ride, heading off to a 4WD dirt road that follows the coastline in the lower Puna area.

At one mile into dirt Beach Rd a downed tree with a lot of branches stops the riders as we watch Big Island Power Sports top mechanic Craig Good hack it away busting off half of his machete blade in doing so, but that didn't stop him, he wailed on a six inch limb like a butcher on steroids as we benchrace joked and unloaded early morning coffee D&A fluids in the bushes.

Within 15 minutes Craig did his blurring chop-chop magic to the road blocking tree and we were back on the gas for a few more miles popping out of a lush green fern and Mango tree lined dirt road as we turned maki down a cinder road that dead ended into a narrow trail through a short jungle zone that ended abruptly onto the stark black 1960 Kapoho lava flow, and on that flow is a very nasty rock & roll trail that disappears in some spots into gnarly "go faster than the crash" lava rock sections as it follows the coastlines edge, this being a pro off road rider section because of hundreds of tall rim bending tire flatting sharp square edge lava rock ledges and thousands of loose a'a' rock chunk's that will kick out the front wheel putting a rider down quickly for the "big hurt" if he's not hard on the gas skimming over'em at no fear speeds.

Half way through this 2+ mile section it started to rain making visibility through blurry fogged up goggles more of a challenge to ride this tire chewing, bike busting, body beating, trail from lava rock Hell.
(see my FB video)

When we finally popped out a the Kapoho Lighthouse one rider got a front flat tire and had to change it in the pouring rain, if that wasn't bad enough he pinched that new tube putting it in and and had do it all over again, lucky for him someone else had a new tube.

Back on the gas going down the Highway we headed towards Kalapana where we got on to a short coastline 1 mile section through an Ironwood forest that we had to wheelie over three challenging wet slippery logs at odd angles to go over and duck under a low fallen tree, then it opened up into a long sandy Hawaiian tropical beach laced with hundreds of coconut trees that we serpentine through leading to a short big roots infested trail up an out to the Highway as it began to rain hard again all the way to gas check #1 in Pahoa.

Leaving gas check #1 in the pouring rain we took a dirt road through a multi water puddled subdivision working our way up to Volcano where we did an unplanned pit stop at a Volcano Village tour Bus snack stop because Steve's KTM rear wheel bearings gave out and Wayne was near hypothermia shivering cold, we were all cold and soaked to the bone, I had to pull my boots off to pour out the water.

At this tourist Bus stop, old grey creaking wobbling perfumed tourist on their last vacation breath streamed out of a nice warm bus and they were just wide eyed blown away to see a bunch of wet laugh joking guy's riding muddy dirt bikes in the cold heavy rain…thinking who's that nuts to do that dangerous thing?…die hard pro Dual Sport off road riders, that's who!

Anyhow, a little warmed up and back on the Highway we revved the guts out out of our off road steeds to gas check #2 in sleepy Pahala town where we found the gas station was closed as thunder and lighting lit up a dark purple sky on the old upper sugar cain haul road we were going to take from Pahala to Naalehu looked nasty, this being a sign that the two cement flash flood river crossing may have fast moving deep water, so we took the wossy ride Highway to Naalehu to gas check #3 where the weather broke into sun shine.

All gassed up, off we went to fun section 3 on down Ka'alu'alu's rough 4WD 4 mile long dirt/rock road down to South Points coastline, at speed, brake sliding into the dirt berm edges and roosting out of the many rock infested turns as we hauled okole down the dense Haole Koa bush lined road hard on the gas clutch blipping to bunny hop over chunky tire flatting lava rock clusters.

When we got down to the coastline trails, we wicked up the speed more, roosting out of every sandy or dirt turn and getting air on any bump or rise…just having fun like a bunch of young wild horses feeling their oat's, my kind of cool off road reckless fun @ 71 years old…after all, the closer to death you are, the more alive you feel going faster than the crash.

So after 17 miles of letting it all hang out in the rock's and yellow dusty dirt heading towards the South Point windmill's we road sanely back up to the main Highway going to Ocean View to gas check #4 to get ready for the nastiest section of the Lava Butt 400.

This is the Maunka area of 6+ miles of radical coastline a'a', Pahoehoe, rounded sea rocks, and deep sand at the oceans edge where the trail just disappears in places into WTF? nasty seemingly unridable zones that look like dead end's…I've explored and punched my way through these lava rock maze's before on my KTM 200 and knew the way through to get to the rough unforgiving tire flatting Manuka Bay Rd that goes 6 mi up to get to the main Highway.

Ok, now let's reel back to gas check #4, as the Sun was getting lower to the horizon I said to the (snacking, laughing, joking, benchracing riders), dude's we got to get going we still got a bike and body killing coastline ride waiting ahead of us…dude's benchracing talk story time is pau, you don't want to spend the night down there all body buss up or a no go engine, we got to get on the gas now to beat the setting sun because it will be pure Hell riding out of the nasty square edge rock infested Manuka section in the dark!

I was the only one that knew this gnarly section, so I got hard on the gas trying to beat the setting sun leading the pack of riders down the long wide super dusty rock infested Road To The Sea, where we turned off on to a kick ass suspension sucking 4WD a'a' trail that began the ride from Hell+2, that eventually pounded Criag Bauer's forks to ridged uselessness and flattened Matt's front tire 5 miles away from the exit of Hell, he had to ride up nasty Maunka Rd on a flat tire to a cement slab a short distance from the Highway where he anxiously slipped in a new tube as the Sun was just 10 minutes from disappearing below the horizon plunging us into darkness.

I hauled okole up to the Highway before total darkness set in to where Wayne was supposed to be waiting, only to see his red tail light way down the road as he was headed 40+ miles to Kona to where we stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Resort for the night.

So off I go ringing the KTM piston beyond logic to catch Wayne on his 510 Husky but he did a few three car passe's and went out of sight as it got dark quickly as I then discovered that the rough Maunka section consumed my headlights wiring, so I had to ride 40 mi to Kona on a winding road in the pitch black night (ask me if that was fun?)

Early morning day two, leaving from Kona, we road the Queen K Highway to Kawihae and hooked up with Hilo's 808 Motocross officials Phil Oveland and Kelly Krall and some other Dual Sport riders, now there were 22 riders heading to Hawi to ride some dusty coastline dirt roads and then we high speed worked our way up for miles on a dusty lumpy bumpy narrow cow pasture fence line road up to Kahua Ranch where Pro MX rider Phil Oveland works and he took us on "his" trails and made us ride 4 miles of okole kicking off camber Cow pie tire spinning Cow trails high up on the steep sides of tall volcano Pu'u's (pasture grass covered cinder cones) this ride was like being in motorcycle heaven, having an up high blue Pacfic ocean view over electric green cow pastures with many volcanic Pu'u's that were dotted with black Angus cows, and deep rocky gulches, you can't buy this, you got to be an off road dual sport or MX rider and know Phil, who is one cool go the extra mile for you type guy…my kind of brother. Phil's famous quote is "Go fast take chances"

Next section was a loop from Waimea to Mud Lane to Waipi'O Valley and back to Waimea via Old Mamalahoa Hwy that goes through ranch land with beautiful looking electric green cow pastures.

Knowing that we would be getting back to Waimea late in the day for gas to take Mana Rd to go back home to Hilo, I opted out of that section at 1:30 pm taking Mana Rd to Saddle Rd in the light of day because my headlight was not working and I didn't want to take nasty rough, foggy, raining, cold 47 mile dirt Mana Rd and Saddle Rd home in the dark with no lights.

The 400 mile Lava Butt Mana Rd story that reads like a Chinese fire drill;

Mauna Kea 200 trail Boss Ed Ung was our chase truck driver with extra gas, he waited in the cold foggy/rainy/windy weather at Pu'u huluhulu for the riders to pop out of Mana Rd about 4:30 ETA, well at 5:30 pm dusk set in and only Anthony and Steve Lau were the first to pop out of foggy/rainy Mana Rd and reported that Matt had broke a chain 27 miles in, so Steve volunteers to ride Ed's Quad (he had on his chase truck trailer) with a tow rope in hand to go retrieve Matt, well Steve comes back an hour and half later and said Matt and Joe where not there at the spot he broke down at, so about a half an hour later Ed gets a cell phone call saying that Matt and Joe where back in Waimea with both bikes…come find out Grant had an extra Master link, being a cool go the extra mile riders friend, he put the link on thinking he fixed it, then he road off to get far ahead so he wouldn't dust out the other riders, also it was getting late and darkness was near setting in, so Matt gets all his riding gear back on, hit the starter button and only went about 20 feet and somehow the chain blew off again!…it's dark now, so Joe put his boot on the rear of Matt's swing arm and pushed him for 20+ miles on an up and down curvy pot holed dirt road at times up to 50 Mph plus Joe also had a rear flat tire that came off the rim when doing this!!!…If you know (big Superman built) Joe Edsmen you could see how he could pull off this heroic Superman stunt…"The real off road adventure's start when shit happens"

If you want to have a good time beating yourself up on challenging off road trails with a bunch of hard core laughing, joking Dual Sport dirt bike riders, don't miss Big Islands Dual Sport Association (BIDSA) next Two Day Lava Butt 400 ride or the World Class two day Mauna Kea 200 Enduro.

Go to> mk200.com to stay plugged into Big Island Motorcycle action.

Also go to Nelson Parker's> http://www.hawaiimotorhead.com/ for complete articles and photos of Big Islands custom/race car's, bike's, racing on all levels, and bike runs and rides, if it's got wheel's that turn, Nelson's the man who know who, what, where, and why you should know about it.

Aloha!

~Gasser~

I have to second the recommendation on the Pirelli MT43. The Dunlop 803 is made for a 148 pound trials bike, whereas the MT43 is purpose built for a full size bike. You won't get the same traction as a true trials tire (rubber compound is a little harder) but you'll still get better traction than a knobby (outside of mud) and a lot better tire life than a pure trials tire. The sidewall is stiff too to reduce the chance of pinch flats on heavier 4-stroke bikes (250s and 450s). I don't think you'll regret it. I keep the 803 on my 300 Raga and the MT43 on my WR450.

I know I don't live in Hawaii any longer but I still love following the ride reports of the Big Island crew!

- Ken

This is my trusty 09 KTM 200 a week before the Lava Butt 400 showing 10,422 miles on the odometer with the original top end and chain/sprockets> 45t rear…(my trick chain lube)…this bike kicked those big stupid top heavy 450's ass's on the Hwy (top end 90 mph) and in the gnarly lava rocks (Race Tech suspension)…it gets 60 mpg (JD jetting kit) @ 55 and 40+ mpg on tight demanding trails…I ride this bike from Hilo up to the top of Mauna Kea quite often just to eat a SubWay sandwich…the only glitch this bike ever had is the stock lighting stator went out and I replaced it with a Trail Tech 100 watt unit…I run a Tubliss tire set up never getting a flat no matter how bad the lava rock sections get because it takes speed to smooth out the square edge hits and when I do slam the many nasty sharp ledge's the tire stays full of air…we had to stop the Lava Butt 400 ride several times because of flats…this eats up time and you lose the riding rhythm it takes to go faster than the crash for long distances IMHO wisdom.

~Ride now die later~~~Gasser~

If I still lived in the islands the Husaberg FE300 would be on my short list. The WR450 would be sold off in a heartbeat.

I've had good success with the 803 on both my previous WR250F and on the 200XCW hitting the trails with 4 1/2 to 7 PSI with a Tubliss rear wheel so pinches aren't an issue, I used to run a Michelin on my Trials bike.
I just need to learn to listen to myself and switch out before a long and HWY heavy DS ride, I did in 2010, 2012 I talked about it.

KTM 300 XCs and XCWs are popular bikes around the islands but I have yet to see a Berg 300 though I was gone as they were making a name for themselves so there may be some about.

The Big Island is a great place to ride, just be careful when you're invited by Gasser to help him "Break in a new trail".....

Not sure about the next DS I need to defer to Gasser on the organized stuff, we generally ride trails every Sunday, but a lot of guys shipped their bikes to Oahu for the HnH in December (No way in Hell I could justify doing that so soon after coming home!) so probably nothing this weekend.

PM me if you're coming this way on a Sunday and we'll take you around.

Finally, someone rents dual sport bikes on the Big Island. Hawaiian Adventure Rentals. Great service, nice bikes!http://contour.com/videos/watch/makoles-point-12-1-12

Hello fellow ADV riders. I am going to be on Maui the first week of Feb and I was hoping to do some riding. Can anyone point me in the direction of a rental bike? I am a very experienced rider and I ride a KTM 950 Adv at home. I don't really care about the size of the bike it just has to be big enough to lug my 225 lbs around. I am really looking forward to seeing the island on two wheels. Thanks in advance for your help.

Aloha Cycleman! You might try Aloha Motorsports. I know they have a wee-strom available for rent. If I'm not mistaken, your only other options are a Harley or scoot on Maui. Hope that helps.

http://alohamotorsport.com/

This guy does dirt bike tours.

http://www.mauimotoadventures.com/

Wow! That's new! How they ride around island on non-street-legal dirt bikes? I'll check them out on next trip ... if they survive until that time.

Looks like they find a way...

https://www.facebook.com/MauiMotoAdventures/photos_stream

Been home for a month and decided to reclaim lost territory, while I was working overseas my mother built a dog palace in the corner of the stash joint. The dogs haven't used it since we built a lanai a.k.a. deck a few years back so it's no loss to them but mom wanted them off the lanai....

ADVriders MaunaKea, MauiDRZ, Sfront, and Idahosam have or do store bikes here to allow for the pop in and ride the big island adventures, problem was the K9s had too much space so I booted them and re-arranged things today so that there is more breathing room to pull bikes out or wrench on them.

There's room for a couple more now, rules are simple: No Whinning, if you use something replace it, DO NOT use gasoline to clean air filters (Gas Water Heater Located down here!!!), Remember your Combinations and Keys, DO NOT bitch about Craftsman Tools, Clean Up after Yourself. And when my mom asks you if you want something to eat you better take her up on it!!!



So if you need some place to store a bike in Hilo for a bit lemme know, I can probably hook you up as well as get you in on some serious trails!