Well who doesn’t hate that dorkie rear fender that they put on the SE version of the DR?!?!?! The Dirt model looks so much cooler without it.
Three bolts under the fender pull it off, plus a little snip snip of the license plate light. Now thats better!
What to do about the license plate though. Well you could just bolt it right to the fender, but that bugs me. So with a little bit of .080 aluminum, a little bit of cutting and bending and there’s a simple license plate holder. Check it out.
On my last trip into the woods I was caryying to much crap on my back and it got to be a real pain after a couple of hours. So I decided I needed a better tail rack so I could get stuff off my back and onto the bike. There were some nice ones to purchase, but it was either wait 4 weeks or buy one for a DRZ/DR650 and modify it. Forget that, I got myself a little bit of steel and used the existing rear tail frame as the basis for a rack.
It’s not as pretty as the CNC cut aluminum ones, but it sure works great. When you build yours you can adjust to suit your needs. I put holes in the top so I could attach my wolfman toolkit.
To do this, you’ll need a welder, a grinder and a hacksaw. If you dont know how to weld, find a buddy, or hunt someone down in your neighbourhood. There are lots of people who have welders who LOVE projects like this. Really.
You will need the following material:
2′ of 3/4″ thin wall steel tubing
2′ of 1″ x 1/8″ steel flat bar
3′ of 1/4″ steel rod
6 pack of beer for the neighbour with the welder
Here is the bare DR350 rear frame
First cut off the signal lights
Cut up two pieces of the 1″ tubing to the width of the rack. These will go across the fender.
<
Cut up four pieces of the 1″ flat bar. You will have to cut one end on an angle to mate with the steel subframe on the bike as shown.
Here is where it gets tricky, welding it together. Here is what I did:
Bend up some 1/4″ rod into semi circles and weld them on for your tie downs.
Weld on the flat bars on top:
Weld on a little bit of rod onto the sides:
Clean it up with a wire brush…
and paint it! It ain’t a pretty thing – but it works!
Trapp Mtn, is just another unexciting bump located in the Sooke hills. However, it was a good opportunity to test out riding the dirt bike for the approach then putting on the runners for a hike. (this is supposedly what I bought the bike for in the first place!).
Access: I gained access to the logging roads from the gate off Clarke Road, off Otter point place. The gate was unlocked. The ATV routes around the gate have been freshly ditched. You can slide your bike under the gate though. Glad I went on a Sunday, there was active logging in a number of areas along the way.
Ride Time: about 4hrs round trip from the gate at Clarke Rd. 45 mins on the Dirt Bike to get to the trail head; couple hours to go up and down the mountain.
Difficulty: Easy to moderate dirt bike ride – Logging road approach, and then a bunch of bumping around on an old rocky forest service road. Easy hike up an overgrown old road to the col, then up a trail – a little bit of hands on. No cliffs or anything like that.
Now if you are a good trials rider, you will probably find the overgrown road up to the trail a snap. If you are a real good trials rider you mike the challenge of the actual hiking trail to the summit. I am neither, so I just hiked those parts.
GPS File: Trapp Mtn.gpx
The reclusive 4 stroke animal hidden in the woods. (click on pictures to view larger)
The trail that leads down to Camp Barnard. Nice bridge, I wouldn’t want to try to get the bike across that.
The ho-hum summit of Trapp Mtn.
I am 6’2″ tall (1.88m). When I stand on my DR350, I have to hunch over to grab the bars. I already have bar risers, but its not enough. Some guys lower the foot pegs by using brackets, that’s fine, but the brackets make the footpegs lower than the skid plate. I don’t want that. So I built some foot peg mounts from scratch.
To do this you will need access to a metal cutting bandsaw (although a sawzall with a metal blade will work), plus access to a welder and a drill press.
Click on any of the pictures to see a larger image.
For raw material I used:
1″ x 3/16″ flat steel – for the base to be bolted to the frame
1-1/4″ x 1/8″ wall square tubing – to be used for the bracket to hold the claw footrest
1″ round stock – to be used to offset the base from the frame
Here is the stock cut to size. The length of the flat bars (base) were measured against the exiting foot pegs. The round stock was cut about 3/8″. For the RHS peg I also cut and extra round stock about 1″ long because that footpeg sticks out further.
A rough idea how it will go together. The square tube will make up the brackets for the claw footrests.
The round stock will offset the base from the frame.
Here is the base, with the round stock offsets welded on and ground down. Starting to look real.
Oh, an action shot…
Here is the base all drilled out, ready for the brackets.
Here are the brackets that will hold the claw footrests. I cut one side off the square tube, then cut an angle. They just need holes for the footrest pins, and they are ready to be welded to the bases. WARNING: when you weld the brackets to the bases make sure you leave enough room for the bolts to be inserted into the base.
Here is the LHS footpeg assembly after welding on the bracket and painting. Its ready to mount the claw foot platform and mount on the bike.
Here is the RHS footpeg assembly mounted on the bike. NOTE: if you look closely the RHS footpeg assembly has an extra 1″ of round stock spacer between the based on the fottrest bracket. This is because the original RHS footpeg sticks out about 1″ further than the LHS. This is about 1-1/4″ lower than the stock model.
(click on any of the pictures to see a larger image)
Went out for a ride. It is GREAT. I feel WAY more comfortable. I am surprised. Good modification.
April 21, 2011
The Casner Trail is a rough road that was used to maintain the power lines along the Casner mountain ridge. In some places this is really a narrow ridge, just wide enough for a a double track.
I did a loop, starting as FSR525 on the 89 highway. Up the FSR525C, then to the start of the Casner trail. After the ridge run, got onto FSR538, to hit the 89 highway again About 40km north though). Back through Sedona, gas up and them back to camp.
Ride Time: 4hrs round trip from 89A up Casner, then back around through Sedona
Difficulty:Difficult, rocky, steep with lots of exposure. Sometimes all of this at once. Bring a barf bag for a couple of the sections.
Map:
GPS File: Casner Trail.gpx
See Also:
Fed Gov info on Casner Trail: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/red_rock/casner-mtn-tr.shtml
Map of Sedona Area: http://www.beartoothpublishing.com/sedona.php
Fire road 525C with a view of Casner mountain
The Forest Service roads up top on the Mesa. Nice place. The maps didn’t really match the roads, so I just kept heading east on the nicest road.
Video of the roads approaching Casner mountain
The first part of the Casner Trail: switchbacks, exposed roads, riding along the ridge road.
At 2:30 it starts bumping up the switchbacks.
At 7:00 it shows the ridge road in all its glory.
At 12:00 is the nasty crap. It was basically a double track with a drop to either side. It was so steep I could not stop. It was very rocky. I could not ride it fast for fear of missing my line and bumping off the road and down into the canyon. I basically had to keep the engine revs up, feather the clutch and straddle walk it up the hill. Puke.
At 1:00 a nice view of more ridge road
At 3:40 an “airy” getting around the gate
April 20, 2011
After pissing a day away in the Hayfield Draw sand trap (&*%*$&!!!#@), I got a great map from the Forest Service. It showed nice old roads and even rated them. This one piqued my interest. A ride from Cottonwood up a washed out road up Mt Mingus, then a highway ride down through Jerome.
The road up to the summit was locked. Some dudes from APS came by opened the gate, but would not let me in. No biggy.
The old road starts at the end of Mingus Road in Cottonwood.
Difficulty:Moderate. Some quite rocky sections that would slow down a jeep.
Map:
GPS File: Mount Mingus.gpx
See Also:
The Verde Valley OHV Map – from the forest service
There is also a Sedona Hiking Map – which may be of some use
Here is an example of a “nice” part of the road leading up Mt Mingus. It gets a little rougher… (he he)
Here is a view of the highway leading down into Jerome
Here is the hillside town of Jerome
April 13, 2011
I did a loop along the #2 trail, then onto the Kokopelli trail. After a bit I went under the interstate and looped back to the parking area. This is fun dirt bike/exploration. Trails specifically for motorcycles and mtn bikes. Beautiful scenery.
Map:
GPS File: Rabbit Valley.gpx
See Also: The Latitude 40 Map: http://latitude40maps.com/fgj.html
Here is the Rabbit Valley #2 single track trail. Mostly pretty easy, a couple of moderate sections.
The Castle Rocks Campground
The Rim Trail. Some dude posted a video on YouTube, showing his dirt bike tumbling off this canyon. Ouch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLuuWhK559A
A sample of the nice, fun riding in the rabbit valley area.
April 8, 2011
The Shafer – Long Canyon loop is a great ride, extremely scenic, with a nice feeling of remoteness.
There are basically two backroads, combined with highways in between to form a loop:
(1) Shafer Road
Shafer road starts at the potash plant at the end of highway 279. The road then meanders up to the middle bench below Dead Horse State Park, and above the Colorado river. It then goes into Canyonlands National park and does a series of switchbacks up to the Mesa. Then you are at the top of the Mesa.
(2) Long Canyon
Mostly an easy jeep trail with an interesting feature at Pucker pass.
Ride Time: 4hrs round trip from Moab on a dirt bike
Difficulty: easy jeep track with a few rocks here and there. Cliff exposure along the switchbacks and along the White Canyon edge. It’d be hard to fit a full size truck through the rock at Pucker pass, but it might work. Watch the video to get an idea.
Map: 
GPS File: Shafer Long Canyon.gpx
See Also:Bureau of Land Management – Shafer – Long Canyon Jeep Trail
Here is a picture of the Shafer Road switchbacks (click for a larger image)
Video of the ride out to the potash plant and the Shafer road along the bench:
Video of the Shafer road switchbacks
Video of the White Canyon Rim road
Video of Long Canyon and Pucker Pass
April 6, 2011
Gemini Bridges is a busy place, lots of jeeps and ATVs. It is a nice spot though. Two bridges over a huge cavern.
Ride Time: 2hrs round trip from 191 on a dirt bike. Access is about 20 mins from Moab.
Difficulty: easy jeep track with a few rocks here and there, bit of sand
Map: 
GPS File: Gemini Bridges.gpx
See Also: Bureau of Land Management – Gemini Bridges
This is a view from the highway. If you look carefully, you can see the road cut up the side of the bluff (click for a larger image)
And here is a view of the highway from the road on the bluff (click for a larger image)
Here is a scenic sandy road into Gemini Bridges (click for a larger image)
This is the view from a top of gemini bridges, showing bull canyon. You can ride close to this area, but then you have to hike in a bit (click for a larger image)
Mar 28, 2011
After a few attempts, finally found access to the Tugwell mainline, via an ATV trail off Anderson Road. Didn’t quite make it up to the lake, as there was too much snow, but a fun ride anyways.
Map: 
Ride Time: 2-3hrs round trip
Difficulty: logging roads and fire roads. A couple of shallow creek crossings. Little bumpy in spots (some “B” sections).
GPS File: Tugwell Lake.gpx
Here is the sneaky squirrel access from Andreson onto Tugwell Main:
a little bumping around…
and the “speedbump” and creek crossing:
