A few years ago I relocated to Suffield, Ct. Suffield is a beautiful town on the Ct River. Sharing a border with Massachusetts, Suffield is a farming town with tobacco as the key crop. My house is 35 miles from the host facility, yet I planned on bringing the Sprinter, Casita, three bikes and spending the weekend on site.
There were many appealing reasons to do this. The ride had been moved from a private (and primitive) back yard to a kids camp and the Saturday dinner was going to be on-site. In the pre-ride materials they mentioned camping and I felt this would be a good one to stay over for. I also wanted my wife to come over and while we’ve tent camped across the country a few times together, nothing says come on over like a memory foam mattress and private facilities in a water tight egg; I also had the Honda 250 in the van for her to enjoy on Sunday.
The site was advertised as opening at noon. Being close I planned on arriving shortly after, setting up and going for a ride, perhaps back to Suffield if necessary to work for a few hours. I arrived as it started to rain and was greeted by registration czar Dave Seften who directed me to a perfectly wonderful spot.
Any plans to go for a ride were put on hold as the rain increased. I decided to take a nap and fell asleep giggling at the rain. The BBA is never short on mud and deep water, after all it’s late May in the Berkshires however this spring has been particularly wet and we were being taunted with even more water the day before the ride.
Sometimes setting up a ride means taking one for the team. Registration Czar Dave Seften discovered how deep is too deep on this scouting run. D. Seften photo.
One of the many things that made this weekend so great was rides that started on the property as well as some loop trails. With 350 acres there were some great options. The Trail Boss had set up some arrowed routes that also showed how they were graded, i.e. Hero II, Hero III etc. This was announced in advance and gave everyone a great opportunity to get a feel for what to expect. The challenge loop also started on the property and as Dave said at the riders meeting if you get to pavement after starting here that’s the spot to figure out if you want to keep on the challenge route as it just gets harder. I did not know this Friday afternoon.
I got dressed and decided to explore. Down the hill in the back was a pond and over there in the woods was a chapel; I rode around both. While over by the chapel I saw what looked like a deer run with a single tire track. It was an easy choice, circle the chapel again or see what’s up there. Up there won and I was rewarded by finding some arrows which I followed.
I will admit to uttering “F me” a few times under my breath along with a good chuckle at the reminder that the BBA is no dealer day ride. I wasn’t at all prepared; I was way over dressed and sweating hard which guarantees my glasses will be fogged up so I couldn’t see so well either, yet it was great fun working the big bike over the wet and slimy rocks, roots and mud. I was happy to find the road and used it to find my way back to camp for typical Friday night fun. Big thanks to the BTR member at the grill for dinner.
Saturday morning came early; my alarm went off for the first time at 04:30. The two Daves had the equipment and a plan for producing coffee but they were a little thin on labor. Ironically I don’t drink coffee but I’ve been making it at rallies for almost 20 years so I offered to take care of it. The proper equipment was provided by the camp, however their big coffee pot is definitely a very high mileage unit. I’ll laugh off a complaint the brew is too strong but too weak is a cut to the gut and Saturdays batch was weak. Pendulum swing hard the other way Sunday, reports were you could almost chew it.
Let’s Ride Bikes!!
Saturday dawned as a picture perfect day for just about anything and I was very excited. My friend Drew was on his way over from New York. We rode the BBA together a few years ago and I was looking forward to doing it again. He arrived with his buddy Scott on a first year BMW 1100GS which means it’s just about 24 years old. We attended the riders meeting to get some critical information.
Trail Boss Dave Boiano providing key information at the riders meeting.
Photo by Rob Schobert
After the riders meeting we had a quick conversation and decided that we would do the intermediate route with all the hero sections. This looked to be as close to the “traditional” roll chart BBA of years past; the challenge looked like a ton of work on GSes and the Explorer route had too much pavement. Like Goldilocks I felt the middle choice would be just right.
The ride was absolutely fantastic. We loved a Hero section that had markers in the GPX file for an HIII hill, a wet rocky downhill and mud. How much mud must there be to be worthy of a waypoint? Join us next year and find out or ask the Registration Czar. As Drew and Scott rode out that morning they informed me they needed gas. Following the route files I saw marked gas off the trail which turned out to be the Blandford rest area off I-90 with a note to “go around the gate” to get gas. We fueled up and it was requested that we stop for coffee.
There is no way I will enter a truck stop for a rest on a ride like this, especially in the Berkshires where fancy food is in almost every town. We agreed to continue. A few minutes later I chuckled as I zoomed out the map and saw marked gas right on the route in another few miles; the truck stop visit was unnecessary but interesting. Especially for the eastbound tourists getting gas.
We continued on having a truly epic experience. Part of why I love this ride is it’s one of the very few rides where I know the HP2 will be put to the test. Most rides that are big bike friendly scale it to the BMW GS with the telever front end. It’s a fantastic system, amazing on the street and even though the total travel is generous for dirt, the actual travel of the shock and spring is much less which can become an issue in hard off road riding. KTM’s have big, beefy (and long) springs up front and a long piston in the back and I am pretty confident that 99% of the big bikes owned by Berkshire Trail Riders members are orange. <bias alert> The HP2 is the BMW that can go head to head with the big KTM’s and come out on top. < /bias alert>
We found Drew his coffee which turned into an early stop for lunch. Drew revealed he was running on fumes as he attended a Friday night game at Yankee Stadium, stayed in the city late, got a few hours sleep and then came out for the ride. I have no sympathy because I live in New England and every good New England boy knows the Yankees Suck.
After lunch we were out again just having a ball. We came up on a big group, probably almost a dozen riders. We got to an intersection and the advantage of knowing which way to go allowed me to pass; Drew and Scott filtered up to the front at the next stop sign and once again we were off.
As I popped out of the woods I discovered a large group of riders working their way across two sets of train tracks. The crossing was marked and probably active at one time but any improvements or lumber for a proper crossing had been removed and was in a pile next to the tracks. Given the primitive nature of the crossing I thought it must be an error so I rode down the east side a bit only to determine that the crossing was indeed on the route.
The group ahead was pretty casual and they were using lumber from the pile to made a bridge over the rails. I think they needed the lumber as some of their bikes didn’t have the clearance ours did or perhaps they didn’t have experience manhandling big bikes over obstacles. Regardless they all made it across.
The big group was leaving and I dismounted to work my HP2 across the tracks. I get off the tracks, put the bike on the stand and then hear the whistle. Drew and Scott heard the train while I was working my way across and held back.
The Great Northern, out of Cheyenne, from Sea to Shining Sea.
A post event conversation with the Trail Boss revealed there will be some internal discussions about how this ended up on the route. I will say that we got Drew’s GS Rally and Scott’s oil head over the tracks as a team and set a pace that would qualify us for the GS Trophy.
With the adventure of crossing the tracks behind us we continued on. Mud, rocks, hills and descents we were having a ball.
Right up until Drew’s bike broke.
It was a rock. More like a pebble. It came up, possibly from my tire and left a little telltale mark on Drew’s right crashbar as it traveled upward on a perfect trajectory for his throttle connector on the right grip; snapping it off and putting the bike into limp mode.
I suppose at some point I’ll be old and cranky enough to take this moment to launch a diatribe on fly by wire throttles, traction control and computers without which some modern bikes would be uncontrollable by us mere mortals. I’ll hold off because the alternative is the moto equivalent of groundhog day where we’re all stuck riding the same airhead and fiddling with carbs and crappy electrics for the rest of our days. I sure do find a bike like the HP2 to be the best of both worlds.
With Drew’s bike in limp mode (essentially fast idle with no throttle control) we started back to camp which according to my GPS was only 32 miles away. 32 miles. Might as well as been Mars as after 30 minutes we had covered not quite five miles. Basic math indicated that happy hour, dinner, date night and perhaps even the bonfire were in jeopardy at this pace so I found a spot for us to chat. We decided that Drew and Scott would stay in place, try to fix the connector and see if they could get the bike better while I tagged the location as a waypoint (Drew’s mechanical) and started back for the Sprinter. This proved to be a good plan. They were able to repair the connector but without a reset tool they could not clear the fault and the bike remained in limp mode.
Once in the Sprinter I head Drew making calls to coordinate the rescue of him and his bike. I pointed out I had an extra slot in the van and I live near a MAX BMW store which is where he goes for service. After a few random turns and circling the Big Y parking lot by I-90 we came up with a plan.
Remember Scott? He followed all our gyrations in the Sprinter. We stopped and Drew explained his plan.
Rob’s gonna take my bike and I’m going to ride home on this roll of paper towel.
End of part two
Part one