Northwest Concours Rally - 2019

**Daboo** · 06-12-19

I've been blessed in the past year to have access to two other non-BMW motorcycle communities and I just became part of a third. In May, I went to the Kawasaki Concours Owners Group (COG) Bun Cooler Rally. It's over in Kamiah, ID. The people there are great and the rides in that area are fantastic. If you're looking for a great ride both for the scenery and the road, go from Kamiah to Elk City. It's fantastic.

Anyway, there I met up with a local rider, Steve, who invited me to come along to the Northwest Concours Rally. It's sponsored by the Kawasaki Concours 14 / 1400GTR Enthusiasts, a FB group. So on June 1st, Steve and I headed north to meet up with the organizer, Scott, and his buddies from British Columbia.

Here's the route we took over the course of the following week.

This is from the highway heading north to the North Cascades Highway. We could've saved a few hours by heading directly across on I-90, but the ride is worth doing for any excuse. I like this section because it just seems so peaceful.

This is along the Columbia River, as we headed to The Dalles in Oregon on the first day.

The roads Scott picked were "inefficient".

In other words, if you were in a car and wanted to get from Point A to Point B, you wouldn't pick these roads. They were full of twists and turns, and elevation changes. This is a pretty shot next to the Deschutes River. Many of the roads though were tree lined and did not have good scenery. But what they lacked in scenery, they more than made up for in hours and hours and hours of motorcycling nirvana.

I think this is called Monument Rock. It's part of the John Day Fossil Beds park.

This was from one of the last really challenging ride days. What you can't see here, is the strong gusting winds. It bothered the other riders on their Concours C14s and the one rider on a ST1300 far less. But to me, it felt like someone just gave you a hard shove, just when you were leaned over into a turn.It was a bit unnerving. In the mid-right side, you can see the road where we'll be at shortly.

I recorded all the 7 days of riding. Here's a short segment of that one portion. The video is not as clear as I'd like. The rear camera on the Halocam dash camera was sharp and clear, so I'm thinking I just needed to clean the front camera lens.

Overall, I'm still just as enamoured with my F800GT as I was before. It is all day comfortable. The other riders on their C14s would be extremely fast in the mornings. But after lunch, they slowed down noticeably. I think it is just a result of manhandling almost 700 lbs of motorcycle. The C14 is an incredible bike, but that weight takes its toll. In the afternoons, I was still feeling fairly fresh.

I also felt like the F800GT was "the little engine that could".

It had just over half the engine size and horsepower, but was able to keep up with some extremely powerful bikes anyway. The "secret" for me, was to quit riding in the lower rpm ranges as I normally do and just explore the upper portion of the tach. Second and third gear were my friends with the steep hills and sharp corners we were riding on. And surprisingly to me, the one small portion of the rpm band that had some vibration before...lost it. The engine feels smooth all the way through the tach now.

I'm packing this afternoon to head over to Seven Bays, WA on Roosevelt Lake to meet up with some riders from the ST-Owners group. Another group of riders who like to ride hard and party at the end of the day.

Chris