This bike is awesome!

Yesterday was an adventure! Heavy winds again and travelled 90 mi. East of Tonopah to go to Project Faultless. I got within 1.5 mi. Of it and hit wash out I wasn’t comfortable attempting solo. It was about 2-3’ deep with rapid running water and another 2’ vertical coming out the other side. It looks tame in the pictures but wasn’t and I could see the bike getting stuck, or submerged on its side, or something terrible. I looked up and down for another place to cross and couldn’t find one.

Then I went back and tried to go to the Lunar Crater, but 3 mi. From that I noticed the dirt road turned grey suddenly and I found myself in deep sand and dropped the bike! It was going to happen at some point. I managed to get the fully loaded cow upright and walked it out in 1st gear. Took a break and drank a lot of water…was glad I had everything I needed to survive a few days if I was stuck there.

Then I rode back to Tonopah and south to Beatty to look for Burros. Saw one in the 90 mi. In between but haven’t seen any in town. Heading to Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley today and will do some exploring. Then tomorrow I need to start heading home…snow is an issue in E. OR again so may super slab it up to Weed, CA. And then decide how I’m routing home from there.

Nevada is absolutely epic to explore on this bike…the winds day after day are fatiguing though.

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days! A lot happened and I was one tired rider. I pretty much just rode, ate and slept.

So after my desert escapades I returned through Tonopah and headed South to Beatty, NV where I spent the night at the Atomic Inn for $78/nt and was a pretty sweet budget Hotel. They told me some famous ADV rider named Ely stays there, but not sure who he is. I walked around Beatty looking for Burros but couldn’t find one. The only food in town was a place called Happy Burro Chili and Beer, and their Chili was outstanding!

I decided I was tired of getting beat up by the epic wind in NV and headed for Death Valley after a short stop at the Rhyolite Ghost Town which was pretty cool and weird. Then headed to Bad Water where the wind was probably gusting 50mph AGAIN. Some other riders there tipped me off to the “Artists Pallete” 7 mi one-way single lane road and it was pretty incredible. I spent the night at Stovepipe Wells and met a lot of other riders there including a guy on a massively overpacked DR650 riding from LA to Montreal - so baller!

I departed the next morning at sunrise and finally after 4 days of non-stop wind it abated. I rode CA 178 on the advice of other riders I’d met in Death Valley and found a burro standing out in the China Lake Naval Weapons Facility just hanging out in the road. I continued up to Lake Isabella where the wind picked up again and down an incredible canyon to Bakersfield, and then decided to super-slab it north on I5 to Willows, CA just north of Sacremento where I spent the night after a 600mi. Slog. I loved using the cruise control on I5, but then it failed…I think others’ are having this problem as well (more below), and the only thing that gets it working again is a full power off/on.

Woke up and decided I was going to try to make it home and sleep in my bed. I knew it was going to be cold, but weather looked decent albeit a little rain in the Gorge once I was almost home. The wind was nominal and I made good time up the 5 to Weed where I refueled and cut the “Grip Puppies” off that I’d installed for this trip. I have mixed feelings about over grips, but they really cut down the effectiveness of the heated grips and I needed the heat.

I had a gorgeous ride on 97 up to Klamath Falls where I passed under a sign stating “Winter Driving Conditions”. I ignorantly thought someone just left the message on all the time. Then a few miles north of Klamath Falls it started snowing a bit…but the temp was still 40F so I continued on. Long story short, it snowed like hell from there to Sunriver…and the temp got as low as 34F. I put the bike in rain mode and took it very easy. The deal I made with myself was that if the snow started sticking I would do a U-turn and go find a hotel. It never stuck, and at Bend it turned to rain and warmed back up into the 40’s and rained on me the rest of the way home. My Klim Gore-Tex Pro top to bottom and gloves surprisingly kept me completely dry! So impressed with that gear. Hand warmers on Max made all the difference too.

Take-aways from 2300mi. On the Norden:

• This bike is a fantastic traveling machine - I love the engine and the gearing as is
• The ride modes are great and really increase overall safety IMO
• The cruise control is amazing, but it obviously has a software bug that I hope is addressed. I also notice a bright yellow flash on the screen, like what you get with low fuel or service notification, ever so briefly when using the turn signals - seems like there are software bugs for sure.
• I began missing more shifts when using the speed shifter later into my trip. I did not have it reprogrammed at the 600mi. Service, so thinking that needs to be done possibly. I like the speed shifter, but sorta have mixed feelings about it overall
• Mosko gear - worth every penny, however broke a buckle on Day 2 on my Reckless 80. I think the key is to adjust the cams and then connect them, vs. reefing on the straps once connected. They sent spares so I assume they break a lot, but of course I failed to bring them along. It was one strap on the beaver tails and the other two were enough to get through the rest of the trip.
• Hotel shower caps make an excellent rain cover for the Mosko No-mini tank bag. I love that bag, but did wish I had something a little larger for travel
• I brought too much stuff…should’ve made some hard decisions and left some stuff at home. Bringing my drone seemed like a good idea but I was unable to fly it at all based on the winds
• Earpeace MotoPro earplugs are great
• Zumo XT is a nice peace of gear, however a couple of times it had locations wrong, but they were pretty obscure. In general I love it.
• Sena 50R is generally an annoying POS. Frequently, randomly disconnects and requires a full reboot again. I have it paired to the XT and my phone. XT voices are loud, music is too quiet - I have the mixer setting on the XT set to full volume for all sources. Maybe I have a configuration issue so was going to contact Sena. When it works it’s nice, but highly unreliable and the random disconnects are disappointing. For the money it should just work better out of the box. The buttons are absolutely NOT glove friendly as advertised.
• Nexx Wed 2 helmet is great. The only issue I had was in the snow storm where the Pinlock visor was fogging (so much for Pinlock working well) and I had to open the top vent and then the helmet interior got wet, but I needed to see.