TAT

[FarmerMike]

Anyone thought about tackling this ride? Trans-American trail from Tennessee to Oregon. I have a 2019 ktm 500 I was planning on doing it this year but looks to be pushed until 2023.

 

[Administrator]

Hit up Desert Steve! I know he had just done a huge ride a few years ago.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

I'd be interested but I'd need to get my XR250R prepped. It's been a quite a few years since she was road worthy but after San Felipe over the weekend I got the itch to get her going again.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

https://www.transamtrail.com/

for anyone interested in what the map would look like.

 

[FarmerMike]

That would be a long ride on a xr250! But be able to do it a lot faster then those bake adventure bikes with less falling over.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

For sure... Desert Steve did it going the opposite way on a 250. I think if the plan was to try and camp less it would make it easier.

Why kind of bike would you run on it?

 

[FarmerMike]

I think my ktm 500 is the best all around for it, small enough to not crash from being to heavy and strong enough to carry gear for lite camping. i was thinking camping every other day and hitting hotels on the other days. EFI bikes I think making the trip easier now too and not worry about jetting as much.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Yeah. My old roomy had an EFI bike and it always just ran. I think that is in my future if I ever really want to get after enduro riding again.

 

[PoorPetrie]

I haven't tried it and this is the 1st I've heard of it. It sounds like a badass trip!

 

[desert_steve]

A little late to the party, my bad.
I did it last yr on a beast of a bike, a 2019 WR250R. The original plan was to run it on my XR650R with my dad on his Husky 501, but he backed-out roughly 6 months before the planned "start date", so I started looking last minute for an electric start bike known for reliability (in case I crashed the XR and was too hurt/wounded/damaged to kick-start the piggy). While the WR wasnt my first choice, it performed admirably and Im not mad about taking it on the trip. I sunk some money into it to get it ready to rock for the trip and it did great.
All said and done it took me 30 days total from the time I left my front door, until the time I got back to it, and the WR odometer said we (project blue balls and I) threw down over 7k miles. I felt the best part(s) of the TAT was everything WEST of Arkansas, but thats just me. The east coast was boring AF IMO and a waste of knobby tires.

I started writing it up to post a ride report but never finished it due to a bunch of different reasons/excuses. Ill see if I cant start back on it and eventually get it posted up.

Anyways, your 500 will handle everything the TAT throws at it and then some. The only drawback (IMO) is that youll have to do a little more maintenance on it compared to the under-powered WR that I took.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

A little late to the party, my bad.
I did it last yr on a beast of a bike, a 2019 WR250R. The original plan was to run it on my XR650R with my dad on his Husky 501, but he backed-out roughly 6 months before the planned "start date", so I started looking last minute for an electric start bike known for reliability (in case I crashed the XR and was too hurt/wounded/damaged to kick-start the piggy). While the WR wasnt my first choice, it performed admirably and Im not mad about taking it on the trip. I sunk some money into it to get it ready to rock for the trip and it did great.
All said and done it took me 30 days total from the time I left my front door, until the time I got back to it, and the WR odometer said we (project blue balls and I) threw down over 7k miles. I felt the best part(s) of the TAT was everything WEST of Arkansas, but thats just me. The east coast was boring AF IMO and a waste of knobby tires.

I started writing it up to post a ride report but never finished it due to a bunch of different reasons/excuses. Ill see if I cant start back on it and eventually get it posted up.

Anyways, your 500 will handle everything the TAT throws at it and then some. The only drawback (IMO) is that youll have to do a little more maintenance on it compared to the under-powered WR that I took.

Make that write up happen dude! The people need it.