Went to the 5th annual Dual Sport Ride in Clayton Oklahoma. Located in the Kiamichi mountains in S.E. Okla. I took the KLR650 and the KX500. Had about 65 people and 50/55 bikes. 3 main rides left out at 9:30 Sat. morning. Easy ride, lots of pavement and some fire roads. Medium ride, steep rocky trail straight out of the state park, lots of single track with technical, steep rocky areas and lots of high speed fire roads. And the He-man ride, no pavement all double and single track very technical and some fire road at very high speed. Having never been to this event and riding the KLR I chose the medium ride. Had a great time, but the KLR is a hand full compared to the KX. We all met up at 1:00 for lunch in Pickens, you know between Clebit and Battiest. This place is so backwoods I worried about the locals killing me and my bike getting raped. Early Sunday morning we started getting light rain. The area needed it real bad. Most people left that morning. Only one ride left out and it was pavement and low speed fire road. I got the KX fired up and 4 of us went on the K road. 3 miles of State Highway to get to the start of our ride. I got between 2 KLR's and hoped no cops would spot me. We made it to the trail head as it started to sprinkle. The K5 performed great compared to the KLR. I hate to say it but I did crash the KX. The good news is I had the helmet camera on and it was running. It was very low speed, steep and rocky. The front wheel washed out from under me and I just fell over, bruised my left elbow and the bike fell on the pipe. The over priced e-line carbon fiber pipe protector worked saving the FMF Gnarly from getting bashed in. Maybe it's not so over priced since it did it's job well. This area is so big you must have a guide with a GPS or you will get lost. Our leader knew the area and had a GPS and we still went down some very long roads that turned out to be a dead-ends. I would suggest this meet to anyone who likes motorbikes. There were some people on touring bikes that went on there own rides but hung out at night around the camp fires. This area offers any kind of riding you might like. From winding State Highway scenic routes, trails that are too easy, hill climb areas, and areas that are too dangerous.
See you there next year,
Danger
