NCbub's Hot Springs Ride To Hell

[NCbub]

This didn't start out as the Ride To Hell, but appears to be the new name of the ride as given by KV and Imostro


Got a call last week from Cat12. He set up a great loop for a dirt and twistie ride for the Hot Springs Rally. Saturday morning we had 7 takers.

Myself on a DL1000, Cat12 on a 1200GS, Steve on a 950 KTM, Rick on a 950 KTM, TBone on a GS, JFR on a 1200GS, and SCmedic on a DL650.

(I call him SCmedic because for the life of me I can't remember his handle)


We had 230 miles to go, 50 dirt and 180 of the greatest tweisty stuff know to this area. We headed out at 9:30 am, what we thought was more then enough time to finish. As you will see not everything always goes as planned.

About mile 24 on the ride we had our first problem. Comming from dirt to pavement TBone grabbed a little to much front brake. Cat12 said it was one of the hardest face plants he had seen. And we do meant face -plant.


TBone borke a few things on his bike but the worst was the fuel line going to the right jug. When he starts his bike it shoots gas a good 8 feet in the air, which I thought was pretty cool. His helmet also took a beating.


A real face plant



Looking over the damage, Rick, JFR and TBone



Since hecould not ride it we had to get a tow. MsNCbubwife to the rescue. About 40 mins later help arrived.


How many ADV Riders does it take to strap a bike down?



A few I guess



Did Steve bend my wife's tail gate?



We take it to my house to see if we can get TBone back on the road.



More in a min.

[TomN]

Wow that flip face helmet was toasted

[commo_soulja]

[Suppermotodd]

I think you Need A big truck for all those Pigs!

[NCbub]

on the road to repair.




About a 20 min ride back to my place.








Back at my place Steve does his magic!



It took longer to fix his helmet then his bike.
BTW you can never have enough duct tape my new motto











I hada couple extra helmets but nothing that would come close to fitting TBone.


Steves handy work


My handy work








TBone is ready to roll again!




Will get somemore out in a bit.

[NCbub]

TBone's bike is back to running, and he's ok. And if you ask me we made his helmet better then new


Back on the road. 1st Gas stop

Lunch in Brunsville, NC Who knew Steve's brother was a chef. So of course we had to get our pics made with him.



From left to Right, NCbub, Cat12, JFR, Steve's Brother, SCmedic, TBone, Rick and Steve




Try telling a cute lil 17 year old waitress why we are about to do what we are about to do



And if that wasn't enough two days camping was to much for TBone



We were starting to think this was our day. Nice weather, good food, some really great roads, one little biff but the TBone was fine. Man was all that about to change.

[Meathead]

Tbone's a tough mofo. I've seen a four-wheeler land on him from at least 17.5 feet, with nary a scratch.



Tbone, Michelle's glad you're ok. She was ready to jump in the truck and come rescue you.

[ilmostro]

[COS]It's Rick, not Randy[/COS]

[NCbub]

This post will be wordy with only a few pics, I hope when Steve makes it home safe from the Rally he can fill in the gaps and post his pics of the ride.

After lunch we head west to pick up 19W that will take us from Burnsville to Erwin TN. This is a really great road to ride. An the ride we stop often to let everyone catch up and change ride leaders. We hit 19W and rode for 20 miles and stopped at Ramseytown to regroup. We headed out with Steve in the lead followed by myself, JFR, Rick, Cat12 then SCmedic. From Ramseytown to to the end of 19W is about 40 miles ending at 352 in Flag Pond TN.

Steve and I are moving along at a brisk pace when Rick catches us about the TN line. Rick rides very well and has no problems running in my shadow all the way to 352. We all park at an old store there and wait for the rest of the group.

One by one they roll in with SCmedic being the last. He was always bringing up the rear which was good because everyone should ride their own ride, but one was missing. We waited about 10 mins but no JFR.

19W is a nice road but it's either a rock wall on one side or a drop to the river on the other. IF SCmedic did see JFR when he came thru then that means he is on the river side

About this time FreakinRT rolled up, which was good we had another one to help search. SCmedic and Rick stayed at the store incase he took a wrong trun and showed up there.

Steve, Cat12, Freak and myself started back up 19W. We rode slow back up 19W looking for any sign of JFR. The drop offs were anywhere from 10 to 110 feet down to the creek. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack.

We made it back to the TN, NC line with no sign of him. Freak truned around there to make sure we didn't miss anything. Steve took off to search from the turn off to Huntdale all the way back to Rasmeytown. Cat12 took the Huntdale road just incase JFR took a trun there. I work my way to the bridge at Huntdale and stay put so I can either catch Steve on his way back or Cat12 returning from Huntdale.

I'm starting to get the f%$*^ing sick feeling in my stomach. We have been searching about an hour or so at this point. It's hard to search over the road in most of this area. Overgrown and deep in most parts. Another 20 mins passed as I waited at the Huntdale cut off. and I hear Steves KTM in the distance.

Thank God he has JFR with him. He had indeed gone off the road and down into the creek. He was fine forthe most part buthis bike had some problems. He was able to ride it but the list of things wrong or broken was long.

FJR said he hadn't stopped rolling in the creek when he heard the last bike go past. Steve has all the pics of the crash location.

I must say it was damn nice to see JFR roll up.


I was telling Cat12 before the ride that was the best looking GS I had seen.



He had more problems then duct tape could fix but at least he was ok!

All in all we made it back to Hot Springs safe without any other problems. Steve's pics will fill in a bunch of areas I've left out.

[NCbub]

Originally Posted by ilmostro

[COS]It's Rick, not Randy[/COS]

sometimes I'm eat up with the stupid. Sorry Rick does that mean I have to edit the whole post????

[NCbub]

I fixed it starfish

[Meathead]

Sonuvabitch one upped me on the Hot Springs creek biffing.




Glad he's ok. Bikes can be fixed.

[rcompton]

Damn, sorry to hear about that one, Tbone.... I know you are tougher than a $2 steak, but that bike was so virgin!

And JFR, that was a sweet bike as well. Glad to hear everyone is, so far, accounted for and in one piece!

[Steverino]

Ok let's start with the Tbifferino...or Cbone, your choice.

Ugly get off and the dude hit the ground like a ton of bricks, good to see him hop right up...

Worst of the damage:



A proud moment in rednecktech egineering



Custom helmet





Cbone sends his love...



Glad we got the big lug on the road again!

now the really scary part.

I have never been on a ride where we lost a rider, I mean really lost a rider. That road is a really bad on to lose one on too. Like Dan said, the feeling is your gut is indescribeable and the thoughts running through your head are sickening.

I remember when I first noticed Rick behind Dan and I and kept heading back over the way we came and was ready to go back to the bridge where we had last been together. It was not far from there that I saw the first clue...

I could see tire tracks off the side of the road and heading down to the river. Not clean nice ones, ones that indicate the bike was in some kind of slide and not tracking. I hopped off the bike and left it in the road. I could see something had gone in and there was so much of the laurel mashed flat that I began to think it was a car that had gone off. But there was no bike and no JFR...I followed the path of mashed vegetation until it came to the bank of the river and there I saw the most amazingly relieving sight. Tire tracks heading somewhere and they were TKC 80's. I knew then that he was alright(with in reason) and that he had made it out. I wished I would have taken photos of the tracks, but when I saw them I climbed back up the bank and was going to get on my bike and start looking. It did not take long. I walked five feet down the road and saw him standing on the side of the road in someone's driveway working on his bike. Great sight I promise you.

Where he went off.





He had help and I will let him fill in the details, but these dudes helped him get out of the river bed and across someone's yard and back up to the road.



The lucky bastidge himself...



Over his shoulder is where he went in.

Glad his is OK and what a freaking relief, enjoyed the ride in spite of the "excitement" and the rain...



And here is to the ride captain from hell...



Thanks for the ride Dewayne, we'll have to do it again real soon.

[PhilSpace]

Damn Bub, weren't you a little hard on the beaver?

I'm glad Tbone is OK, his pancakes rock, he needs to stick around