28 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com
more interes ng. Road width decreased as the grade
increased. We passed dozens of side forest roads,
most of which are dead ends. It really makes you ap-
preciate how much work goes into laying out routes.
About 90 minutes in, we came across another group
that was dealing with that oh-so-rare and undesir-
able dual flats situa on on an 890.
It's in the guide's code to not pass by such situa ons,
and we spent the be er part of an hour ge ng this
KTM 890 trail-worthy. Mul ple a empts at plugging
and refilling the tubeless res were unsuccessful,
and it was determined that it was me for this rig to
go through the some mes controversial, and some-
mes painful, transi on from tubeless to tubed. A
half dozen riders worked on this effort, with twice
that many watching and wai ng to help. Once the
process began, it was probably less than 20 minutes
before both wheels were back on the bike, fully
inflated.
As we resumed our ride, I fell in one or two bikes
behind Taylor Robert, and what a hoot it was watch-
ing him play on the KTM 1390 like it was a 125.
Bunny hopping trail obstacles and running big loops
up embankments like a puppy that got let out of the
house a er two days stuck in the garage. One of our
group headed back to base a er taking a digger at
trail pace and tweaking his forks. That was probably
a good call since the trail surface got significantly
rougher a er that point, and we climbed up a lot of
loose rock to the Montana border on the con nen-
tal divide.
