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Good question. Whichever one is stock (I don't recall which color it is) is the one I have been using.

Glad you enjoy them. They’re a great way for me to re-live my rides as well.

You’re giving me too much credit for restraint 😀

Yeah….wasn’t my best moment or language when that happened 😀 I heard him rev his motor right at the top of the hill as we were descending to the finish chicane. I’m all for enduro etiquette and it works both ways but I wasn’t going to completely come to a stop that close to the finish. I moved to the right of the trail and then went high in the left turn just before the final descent to give him a lane both times. When he didn’t take it, I just went for the finish line because at that point and in that spot I was still racing too. It was kind of a D move to take out the finish chute but hey, that’s racing 😀

@@ridewithmike962 You were very restrained. Nice ride! I am definitely doing this next year!

Thanks Cole! It was great seeing you out there as well. You were ripping. The Over 50 expert clue was the biggest expert class.

I was in the Over 50 Expert class but due to signing up literally last minute, I was the last row of Experts (row 23).

Thank you. First real race since my injury last Fall and it felt really good, even though I'm not 100%

I’m glad you enjoyed the whole series. It’s been almost 4 years already and I still think about this experience every day. It was such a great time and cool adventure.

I run 50:1 Lucas Oil. On this TBI, I had just been running the stock map for the first year. I recently had it remapped, but that was just to make sure I was current since KTM had come out with a few updates.

We used Baofeng short-wave radios that were reprogrammed to use a GMRS channel. We used headsets in our helmets with a push to talk button on the bars. They were wired which was a bit of a pain because you had to plug in every time you got on and off the bike, but we intentionally chose these over the many bluetooth options because the range is exponentially better and we wanted to be able to ride out of each other's dust.

We have those radios already so that’s good. How did you program them and what bar mounted push to talk button did you use?

@@caputo116 we used these from PlanetHeadset, but there are a lot of options out there. www.planetheadset.com/Snowcom.php

Thank you I’ll keep looking.

Chainsaws became a requirement the past two years. In 2020 it was not a requirement although we all carried Silky Saws and used them. The Tour is no longer “official” although the route still exists if you want to try it.

Chainsaws became a requirement the past two years. In 2020 it was not a requirement although we all carried Silky Saws and used them. The Tour is no longer “official” although the route still exists if you want to try it.

@@ridewithmike962 I literally just found out that it didn’t exist anymore. I’m very upset about this I really wanted to try it. How would I go about looking into the unofficial ride?

@@caputo116 I believe the waypoints can still be downloaded from motorcyclejazz.com

I’m running about 140 psi. I r also since I my forks revalved by MotoXperts in Spanish Fork Utah.

250's are the best :)

Glad you had a good time. Racing is addicting :)

Glad you enjoyed it. It was one of my all-time favorite rides/experiences and I think about it often.

We're very fortunate to have more open space for longer courses, but unfortunately it's becoming more and more challenging for clubs to host races on public lands. We weren't able to practice the loop since that's not feasible given the length. However, this is an open public riding area so I've ridden most of the trails in the past.

Nice riding! That was a lot of fun. After you got around me the last time in one of those washes, you just started to slowly pull away from me until I couldn't see you. Nice job!

Thank you! It was awesome seeing the Great White Rhino just before heading down Ft. Pierce Wash.

I had my two other sons with me but Josh was home taking care of his wife and newborn daughter. He wished he could have been with us but was obviously taking care of higher priorities 🙂

Mike rides a 250 xc.

This is a '23 KTM 250 XC (TBI)

That is the transponder we were using for team racing. Rather than the standard sticker-type that you put on your helmet visor, team racing requires you to physically move the transponder from one bike to the other when you switch riders (assuming you're riding different bikes). My brother was riding his Beta on Loop 2 so when I came in from Loop 1 I pulled that off my bar pad and handed it to him. .

Thanks Cole. You shot off that start like a rocketship!!!! I didn't even realize it was you until I watched my GoPro and I was like "Wow"!

We were using Baofeng radios with a wired push to talk button on the bars. It was a bit of a pain to be wired, but the range is exponentially better than bluetooth devices for this type of ride where we could ride separated and out of the dust when needed.

@@ridewithmike962 Thanks, I typically have a radio with me and would like to know more about this, can you post more info or a link to piecing it together?

We used the Baofeng UV-82 radios. They're readily available for cheap on Amazon. They're technically short-wave radios (so not "legal" without a short wave license) but you can hack them to use just a regular GRMS channel, but they use the higher power of the radio. This is what all my buddies and I use for regular trail riding, but we don't use the wired push to talk connectors on our bars. We just put the radios in a pocket of our KLIM vests and then have the small handheld mic clipped to the front. For the Tour, the only thing we did different was to buy some in-helmet speakers with a push to talk button on the bars which made it easier to communicate while riding and did not require stopping (whereas the way we use them when just "regular" trail riding, is that you pretty much just use them when you're stopped and need to communicate something to the larger group. Lots of videos on TH-cam about how to re-program them. It's been several years since I did it so I don't remember all the details, but I remember it involved a USB cable connected through my laptop (that came with the radio) to re-program them.

@@ridewithmike962thx, I'm a ham, so I'm familiar with them, just wondering if you were using another ng special, thanks!