Kalkaska "B" Loop
Posted: June 24th, 2007, 8:56 pm
Just a another wonderful day of riding for myself, my son, and my damn good bro Benny. Of course I had to roll my fat ass outta bed this morning at 6 am to finish doing my favorite of all things dirtbike related, CHANGE TIRES! I don't know about you guys, but I personally can't stand it, and even though I love these Kenda Millvilles, they are the worse, IMO.
Nuff of that, thats get to the good stuff. Ben showed up to the house bout 10:30, and we ripped out my drive and on to the trail by 11. The subject of concern was fuel, Benny not thinkin he had enough for the 46 miles we had to cover. Turns out, he was right, that KX500 is a gas hog, but I think alot of it has to do with the fact that even though he's the big five oh, he's still an "A" class rider. Long story short, the district 8 open class champ like three times back in the early 80's. Yup, he can ride like the wind, and as usual, was waitin for us. Dunno how he does it, but its amazing. We ran it out to post 2, stopped for a shot or 2 of water and I got this bug up my ass to let my son take a hold of the 500 for a spell. Now Cody rides a KDX200, and I realised the error of my ways about 2 minutes after mounting that sucker. I had to wring its neck just to keep up! Gents, I'll tell you this.....You get a real appreciation of your big blocker when you climb on to something with 55-60% less displacement. Thank good it's set up for the tub of goo I am, as Cod had enough of that suspension after about 10 miles. Still, it was fun throwin that little shit around the single track like a 10 speed. Maybe I should do a CRF conversion!
We cruised the loop with only a couple bingles, Cody crashed about a minute after I gave him his bike back, musta been the lack of power he just had his mitts on, resulting in the need for me to go over to the bike shop tommorow and order him a new set of bark busters. Yea, the left side is TOAST!
Things weren't bad till we were on the inbound, bout 8 -10 miles out, and we come up on the Ben with an empty gas tank. Time to pull fuel lines and get an empty water bottle out. Bens clamps are on that hose so tight that unless you got some pliers, you aint gettin em off. I use the automotive type, just for such an emergency, and keep em just loose enough so that I can unscrew it with a coin. I gave Benny a bottle full, and thinking the Codys bike has that Exxon Valdez tank on it, took 2 bottles from his. Well..............About a mile out from the house, Cody's bike was dry, and then Ben's took its last drop a 1/4 mile later. Thanks to my stellar mileage(there's something to that DGN needle on the PWK guys!) I made it back to my place and had to crack the gas barrel and draw off a can full, throw em in the back of my Jeep and do a little 4WD off roading. It aint a real day I suppose without a bit of adversity.
Any ways, heres some video.
This is what some of our singletrack is like, these little drop offs that I have some fun with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOWiwFUfsE
Nuff of that, thats get to the good stuff. Ben showed up to the house bout 10:30, and we ripped out my drive and on to the trail by 11. The subject of concern was fuel, Benny not thinkin he had enough for the 46 miles we had to cover. Turns out, he was right, that KX500 is a gas hog, but I think alot of it has to do with the fact that even though he's the big five oh, he's still an "A" class rider. Long story short, the district 8 open class champ like three times back in the early 80's. Yup, he can ride like the wind, and as usual, was waitin for us. Dunno how he does it, but its amazing. We ran it out to post 2, stopped for a shot or 2 of water and I got this bug up my ass to let my son take a hold of the 500 for a spell. Now Cody rides a KDX200, and I realised the error of my ways about 2 minutes after mounting that sucker. I had to wring its neck just to keep up! Gents, I'll tell you this.....You get a real appreciation of your big blocker when you climb on to something with 55-60% less displacement. Thank good it's set up for the tub of goo I am, as Cod had enough of that suspension after about 10 miles. Still, it was fun throwin that little shit around the single track like a 10 speed. Maybe I should do a CRF conversion!
We cruised the loop with only a couple bingles, Cody crashed about a minute after I gave him his bike back, musta been the lack of power he just had his mitts on, resulting in the need for me to go over to the bike shop tommorow and order him a new set of bark busters. Yea, the left side is TOAST!
Things weren't bad till we were on the inbound, bout 8 -10 miles out, and we come up on the Ben with an empty gas tank. Time to pull fuel lines and get an empty water bottle out. Bens clamps are on that hose so tight that unless you got some pliers, you aint gettin em off. I use the automotive type, just for such an emergency, and keep em just loose enough so that I can unscrew it with a coin. I gave Benny a bottle full, and thinking the Codys bike has that Exxon Valdez tank on it, took 2 bottles from his. Well..............About a mile out from the house, Cody's bike was dry, and then Ben's took its last drop a 1/4 mile later. Thanks to my stellar mileage(there's something to that DGN needle on the PWK guys!) I made it back to my place and had to crack the gas barrel and draw off a can full, throw em in the back of my Jeep and do a little 4WD off roading. It aint a real day I suppose without a bit of adversity.
Any ways, heres some video.
This is what some of our singletrack is like, these little drop offs that I have some fun with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOWiwFUfsE
