THE BULLDOG DUALSPORT EVENT 2002

INTRO

Here is my account of the first ever running of the Bulldog Dualsport Event. Which took place out of Willamina Oregon. The ride was put on by Ray C, Dan M, and the Applegate RoughRiders Club.

 

Well it's the 18th of August, and time for the Bulldog d/s ride, 7:00am has arrived, and the participants ready themselves for the event. This ride would be well supported by a vast range of different bkes. From a Harley Davidison, to BMW's.

 

Ken, and Micheal, readying their GS's

 

There was a good showing from the Portland PDXGS BMW Club, and they had come to boogie, and boogie they did. Ed, the clubs founder, and fearless leader was pretty pumped and really looking forward to riding in his first d/s event.

 

Ed, the PDXGS Club's main man.

 

After a good informative riders meeting by Ray, it was time to head out onto the course. Once again I was teamed up with George F, from Medford, and Jim L, from Eugene, and this time we had an addition, that being Bob, from Washington State riding his tricked out Harley Davidson ..... Way Cool !!!

 

Bob's, dualsporting Harley.


 

As with most events, the start was along pavement to some pretty niffty high speed gravel sections. There was a slight early morning nip in the air, announcing to us all that fall wasn't too far away, and the end of this years dualsporting event season.

Our group had gotten a pretty good start on the main pack, which helped to keep the dust down. We were covering ground pretty quickly, and just gobbling up the miles through Gopher Valley. Not too much further into the course we encountered our first trail for the day, a sweet piece of single track, well groomed, but still holding some of the exciting elements that make a trail fun to ride. This happened to be a loop trail, so if you didn't pay attention to your roll chart, you could have re-run the same section time and time again, until a little light came on in your head, saying "Hmm, this trail looks really familar".


 

Taking a beather after trail one. Left to right, Patrick, Micheal, Bob, Jim, and George.

 

Rest break over and it's back into the saddle, for some more gravel roads and trails.

Now owning a light weight DR350, and appreciating that less weight equals less work, I couldn't but help wonder how the big GS's were doing on the trails, theres a massive difference in how these bikes handle off road, and the old aim, point, throttle and hang on method is thrown out the door when your sitting on top of one of these super tankers.
So giving credit where credit is due, the GS riders did an outsatnding job, tackling the whole "B" course, and finishing it too.

 

Patrick, coming down a trail on his GS.

 

Same trail different rider.

 

This had been a good mornings ride, that had meandered us through the forest, across some pretty cool trails.

Tom N, from NW Tour & Trails.
 

 

 

Tom N, had asked me to get a photo of him doing a front wheel stopping wheelie, it looked pretty cool I must admit, but alas, my camera doesn't respond as quickly as I'd like, and I only caught him entering the stop and then here (above) asking if I got the shot !!! .... the answer is above Tom :-) sorry.
 
 

 

 

Check Point Time.

RC, and Dan, had come up with some neat ideas for check points at thier event. The one that really grabbed everyones attention, was when RC, rode his bike to a spot along the main course, took off his rear wheel, laid it on the floor and pretended to be fixing a flat tire.

Well if you stopped to ask the stranded rider if they needed help, Ray would turn around with a grin on his face, and ask you for your points card, so he could give you 10 bonus points, and if you had a flat repair kit of any kind with you, then you recieved another 10 bonus points. For any riders that didn't stop to see if they could help, then they got zero bonus points, ... sadly a few riders did pass without offering assistance.

 

 

 

 

The plank run, check point. Trying to ride along five planks connected together isn't easy, and the further you went the narrower the planks got. I was just happy to be travelling in the right direction.
 

 

 

Another good check point was the last one. Here a piece of paper was placed under your bike to check for dripping oil, you also had all your lights checked to see if they were working correctly, your horn was checked, and if you didn't have two view mirrors you lost points. I thought that was a really cool idea for a check point, but then I found out I lost points because my horn didn't work and, I only had one mirror. Serves me right, and a good way to make sure people are road worthy for these events.

 

 

 

 

A camera is like a magnet to George, he just can't resist getting in the way :-)