SCRAMBLER SUMMER
2,334 miles on a
1964 Honda CL72 250cc Scrambler
From the Salt Flats of Utah to the Lost California Coast, time in Southern Oregon around Crater Lake, and on the smoky trails across Idaho - all on the way to 1,000
off-road miles waiting in Colorado…
For my 30th birthday this summer,
I planned to ride my 60 year old motorcycle across the western half of the United Sates, participating in a few different rides. The 2024 Southern Oregon TT, the TransAmerica Trail from Oregon to Colorado, and the main event being the Vintage 1000 Colorado.
We had a months time and adventure awaited.
THE ROAD WEST
We rented a truck in Atlanta, loaded up our scramblers. Myself and friend Ian were embarking together on the first leg of the journey out west. I on my ’64 Honda CL72, and he on his early 70s Triumph Bonneville 750. It was chromed out, had high pipes, custom lighting, far from stock. My 250 was mostly stock, only adding better footpegs and a mileage counter.
We gave ourselves 4 days to drive from Atlanta, GA to Ashland, OR. We made it to somewhere in Wyoming the first day of our drive, it went quicker than expected taking shifts driving. We decided to take a day off from driving with all the time we gained. We werent far from Salt Lake City, and only a few hours from the Bonneville Salt Flats. Having never seen them, it was an easy decision to unload the bikes and get some riding in. It was an other worldly experience, definitely a bucket list ride.
The flats were bright hot, sweaty, and salty. The actual consistency of the ground was a bit moist, our bikes were getting covered in salt, and whoever was in the rear was getting mouths full of salt. After some time on the flats we eventually loaded up and decided where to head to next. We realized we were only half a days drive from the California coast and still had time to spare, so our next destination was obvious.
We drove through the night and the next morning were in Northern California, riding over mountains next to giant redwoods alongside the Pacific Ocean. Ferndale, California. We were specifically around the “Lost Coast” a “forgotten” section of wilderness that sweeps through coastal alpine forests and took us right down along the water. You hit a handful of climate changes along the route, the views and roads are just as exhilarating. Its unmaintained, a careful eye is needed to differentiate potholes from shadows along the cliffs. From the beach we climbed back up over the mountains and ended with a ride through some giant Redwoods. It was a solid 100 mile day on the bikes, a proper shakedown - and we definitely shook some things loose.
We were now back on schedule and needed to be in Southern Oregon the next day. We drove up the coast and back over mountains eventually making it to Ashland, Oregon. Here we returned our pickup truck and would be on motorcycles for the remainder of the trip.
THE SOTT
The Southern Oregon TT (SOTT, started in 2019) is a road ride created to highlight vintage European and British single cylinder motorbikes 350cc and smaller. It was started by my good friend Mike Desalvo and shares a similar crowd with the Moto Melee ride in Nor Cal. The SOTT is is a three-day ride on some of the most amazing roads Southern Oregon has to offer. Total mileage for the event is 500 - 600 miles or about 170 - 200 miles per day. Benellis, Ducatis, BMWs, Matchless, Norton, BSA, galore! There are “tiers” to acceptable bikes, as long as the vibe and styling is on par, you’re allowed. Our scramblers looked the part and fit right in. Navigation can be done a number of ways, we elected for old style paper cue sheets and overview maps.
Day 1 on the SOTT was 237 miles of beautiful winding pavement through Oregon down into California and back. The first day had riding alongside the Klamath river through sweeping valleys, and by lunch we had climbed over passes to reveal a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta. Day 2 was 190 miles of even more exhilarating riding, filled with tiny roads adorned with giant trees. We rounded the Cascade-Siskiyou national monument and headed through Green Springs to make our day. Day 3 was 220 miles and pretty eventful. My bike kept spitting out the shift shaft seal, so I had to spend the morning tooling on it. I was about 10 miles from the start when I broke down, so I caught the support truck back to town to do a proper fix. By that time everyone had gone ahead of me and were on their ways to Crater Laker National Park. I felt confident in the bike and really wanted to visit Crater Lake. So - I spent the next 100 miles riding solo, catching up to everyone. My friends were waiting for me at the lake and hadn’t been waiting too long. I skipped lunch and a few scenic stops to make up time. But upon arriving, it was just about time to head back. We stared at the lake and laughed about the days events. We saddled up and descended the lake back south to finish out the three day ride.
THE TRANSAMERICA TRAIL
We were on “dirt bikes” after all, and we really wanted to ride some dirt. We had about a week between now and the start of our Vintage 1000 in Colorado. Our plan was to ride from Oregon as far East as we could towards Colorado Springs, on as much off-road as we could. We’d go for as long as much time as we’d have. After the SOTT we spent one day off in town wrenching. We tightened some bolts, welded some cracks, and packed our bags. Our friend Mike Desalvo was now joining us for the next two portions of our trip, on his ‘70s XT500.
Day 1 on the TAT ended up being 305 miles from Ashland to Prineville, OR. It was supposed to be about 100 miles less than that, but we encountered some road blocks, literally. And fires. One thing we didn’t account for was it being fire season. All of our routes were more or less through forests, and those forests were burning. The green trees were now gone. We had to do a lot of circumnavigating and circling back once we’d come across a road closed. We eventually found our ways out of the smoke and back onto trails. Our sections of dirt were incredible, they stretched on and on with vistas across the high desert. Even the paved sections we hop on provided exciting riding.
We weren’t sure what to expect with Day 2. We made loose goals for where we’d want to end up each day, but were now open to anything happening after the first days events. We made plans for a 140 mile day that mostly consisted of off-road miles. It was a great to start to our day with some exciting trails. We were around the Ochoco National Forest and as our day proceeded, things got smokier and smokier. We were eventually met with a giant plume of smoke over the horizon and came across some firefighters. We were only about 50 miles from our destination by this point, but unfortunately the forest became unnavigable - because it was on fire. We couldn’t proceed any further to our town on the other side and there were no other ways out or around. We determined that we would have to turnaround and double back to where we started our day. A tough pill to swallow, but we had no choices. We were literally at the gas station we had filled up nearly 7 hours prior - and we still had to make progress on the day. The next closest town was over 100 miles away, so that became our destination. We hopped on two lane highway, which by now was filled with smoke from area fires, and pounded pavement for the rest of the afternoon, bringing it to 263 mile day.
Day 3 rolled around and we had some decisions to make. We were running out of days to get to Colorado and were further than we had hoped to be by now due to all the fires putting us off course. If we could get to Boise, Idaho, we had a friend with a truck who volunteered to drive us down to Colorado. He too wanted to ride motorcycles then and there, so it worked out. We were 185 miles from Boise, an easy enough days ride on two lane highway. While dirt was no longer an option, we were avoiding interstates and at least taking any scenic by routes we could. But before we could even leave for the day, my bike wouldn’t start. Kicking it felt like it had no compression. Bumping it did nothing. It was so easy to kick through, it almost seemed as if my valves were being held open. And after removing my valve covers and inspecting them, I noticed that all 4 were stuck open. Pretty curious… but I blame it on the previous few days of pounding pavement throttle wide open. It had also been nearly 1,500 miles since the last adjustment and that’s about the service interval. After a quick adjustment, all four were back in spec and the bike was alive, first kick. We were off to Boise, the temperature was 106 degrees, and we were not cooling off as we rode, in fact the opposite. We eventually made it, exhausted and accomplished. We now had another 1.5 days to drive to Colorado Springs before beginning the last leg of our journey.
VINTAGE 1000 COLORADO
We arrived to Colorado Springs on a Sunday morning, leaving the rest of the day for some overhauling on the bikes. I changed my oil, rejetted my carburetors for higher altitude, new air filter, checked the valves, and tightened a few loose bolts. The Vintage 1000 was our main event. The next 5 days would be filled with epic terrain, beautiful scenery, and a challenging route for these old bikes. Majority of our route was to be off-road at high altitudes. Weather, elevation, rocks, mechanical failures - would all be on the agenda for the week. In addition to our spare parts and tools, we now had to pack tents and sleeping bags, as we’d be camping every night. All navigation was to be done by roll chart, hand written turn by turn directions, and counting your miles. One of the only mods I made to this bike was adding a trip mileage counter, specifically for this. Also I swapped better footpegs for off-road riding. You see a variety of bikes on this trip; Suzuki PE 175, Penton 175, Honda MR250, lots of XT/XL500s, Ian was still on his Triumph 750.
Day 1 in Colorado. By this point I had already done about 1,500 miles on my 1964 Honda CL72 250cc to get here. The bike was running well, but the rocky terrain and altitude would be the next factors. We’d be averaging elevations from 7-12,000ft. We had 200 miles to cover today so we quickly left town and hit dirt for nearly the entire day. From the get go my bike was thirsty for air and underpowered. Ah well, more time to enjoy the views. We covered a handful of different landscapes. Orange canyons, green alpine trees, canyons and rolling pastures. We dodged some rain on our way into camp for the night, just above the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
At the beginning of Day 2 we caught a glimpse of the Sand Dunes on our way down, the rain from the previous night was blocking our view. The weather was great so far, but we’d soon learn about Colorado and it’s daily afternoon rainstorms. We had 250 miles of ground to cover today as we headed further South and West towards Durango. Endless mountains and greenery. The trails we were on felt like paintings. Halfway through the day we crossed over some mountain passes and met rain on the other side. We had a couple little issues earlier that set us back on time, the rain was picking up heavy, and we were still a ways away from camp. We cut out our last section of dirt, which would’ve been a mudslide in this weather, and headed straight for our destination and arrived just before dark.
Day 3 was maybe my favorite day of the entire trip. Solely based off of the terrain and our location. It was a short day mileage wise, but our route for the day was challenging. If you asked me where my favorite place to ride adventure motorcycles in the states was, I’d probably answer the San Juan mountains. And that’s exactly where we were headed - for the Alpine Loop. Our day started rocky, literally, and continued to be such. We climbed out of Silverton towards Cinnamon Pass reaching altitudes of 12,600ft. The views were exhilarating, the terrain was demanding. My bike was gasping for air and so was I. Maybe some smaller carb jets and better airflow would’ve helped, but some pushes were all I needed to get to the top. To experience this on a 60 year old motorcycle was incredible. Going down was the easy part, we coasted through giant mountain landscapes, it felt otherworldly as we traversed to the other side of the range.
We headed into Lake City to set up camp, still with half of our day left. We had the option to go up and back to Engineer Pass, another 12,800ft peak, so I did. The terrain and altitude was again challenging, so much so, I made it about 95% of the way up before the last few switchbacks brought me to a stop. The bike was underpowered, dying for air, and I had been burning up my clutch trying to power it through. From there I just turned around down the mountain and enjoyed the views. I limped it back into town and to camp. I had new friction disks packed in my bag, so a quick clutch change before dark was on my nightly agenda.
We woke up one of the nicest views of the trip on Day 4. It was a field of tents overlooking sunrise in the valley we all camped in. We were all still riding the highs from yesterday. And now our day was off to a great start, with great weather, even more great riding, and great views. We had long stretches of dirt through high plains and along lakes for the first half of our day. We stopped for lunch at a hot spring reservoir and I quickly jumped in for a swim. The second half of our day of course involved rain. It also involved multiple other 12,000ft+ passes. In the rain. Hard to complain when we had cheeseburgers waiting for us in town as the sun finally came back out. We were descending upon our camp in Buena Vista, after 160 miles on the road for the day.
Day 5 was our last day in Colorado, our last day of riding on the Vintage 1000. Technically I’d been riding for about 15 days now on this trip, across California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah. I was exhausted by this point and looking forward to being home. But I was also looking forward to the last day riding, another 140 miles of gorgeous terrain as we made our way back towards Colorado Springs.
The threat of rain was high today and we knew it going in, but nothing we could do except ride. Our day started nice with sweeping mountains across ranch lands. We were 80 miles from the finish when my bike got stuck in first gear. Nothing I was doing was getting it out of first gear. I had to investigate further and see if it was fixable, so we pulled over for lunch and I started pulling my clutch side case where all the shifting stuff is. I noticed that 2 bolts holding the shift drum collar had started to back out and force the shift drum in place, stopping it from shifting. I pulled some pieces, tightened the screws, and an hour later we were back on the road.
By this time the rain had caught up with us. We were closing in on the finish with one last section of dirt to conquer, which was now half a mudslide because of the weather. We had about 20 miles left, we were descending the mountains through clouds, our visibility going in and out. I loved every second of it. You could see lightning and hear thunder, it felt like a movie.
We eventually made it back to pavement and the second we did, Tim’s bike quit. We spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure it out, but nothing gave. We broke out the tow rope and rolled into town for another incredible Vintage 1000.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Me and the bike finally made it back home to Georgia. After some TLC it starts first kick and gets me to the coffee shop every morning. October 2024 I plan to do 1000km on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico on this bike. Sand, rocky roads, and more sand is plan, as we trace similar routes to the current and past Baja 1000 races. Of course, I am also paying homage to the 1962 adventure on CL72s down in Baja by Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr.