As 2008 comes to a close, one of my resolutions for 2009 is to get out and ride more, I am sure than many of you have the same thoughts. As a way to get the juices flowing on plans for "09", how about a recap from you guys on your favorite ride or rides of "08". It doesn't have to be a race, or even in the dirt, as many of us do a decent amount of street or dual sport rides.
For me, the Parade of Pentons during the 40/10 anniversary event was my personal highlight for 2008. Being as we can't do that ride again, my next favorite ride was riding the Marienville Trail in the Allegehney National Forest in the early summer. Half the fun is just traveling to and from the trail head with the gang that included my son Chad, son-in-law Dave and a couple of others. There are two loops that we ride, the ATV trail is an easier loop that is about 15 miles and the Motorcycle loop is about 25 miles of some very interesting and somewhat technical trails. A pass is required to ride the trails, a one day pass is available for $10.00. The trail system starts out just north of Marienville, PA and I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance you take in these trails.
We also rode the Rocky Gap trail of about 22 miles on the same trip, the Rocky Gap trail head is about an easy hour away from the Marienville trail head, the same pass is valid at Rocky Gap.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/allegheny/recreation/atv_trails/
Paul
Ok, Trail Boss - what's the date for our ride at Marionville????
Hey, all kidding aside, the only way to get a ride in is to just do it. How about it, Poggers? How 'bout we just pick a date, and anyone who shows up, shows up. Let's do it!
Ted,
You missed the part about telling us about your best ride of "08" :)
Have you ever ridden Marienville?
Paul
My best ride this year was with my sons. They both are "rocket" riders and I was "test riding" a bike I had been working on. We put in about a 100 mile loop on a very nice summer evening. We had to dodge a couple of thunderstorms but it was the first time my sons and I all went out on a street ride together. Definately a nice ride.[8D]
Paul,
I gotta agree with you. My best ride of the year was definately the ride through the streets of Amherst to the Penton homestead.
My best ride of the year was a training ride last January getting ready for Baja. It was a day of play racing with my best buddy running up and down the beach dodging fallen trees at Keystone Lake in Tulsa Oklahoma. I think it is called Motorcycle Island. It was an all day blast wallowing in the sand and whooshing in the water passing back and forth on a 60 degree blissful Winter day.
Larry P
The best ride of (08)?...................[:p]
I do remember one:
two old farts, a Penton
Thanks for the Ride, it was worth, every minute.
http://cone.viawest.net/users/dkwracer/savetwo/
Tom Brosius
For me it was the Ohio Valley BSA Club's Spring Reliability Run in eastern Ohio. I rode w/ my brother in law and the ride was perhaps 50-odd miles of some very pretty single-track, double-track and country road riding, including 6 or so creek crossings. I ran out of gas so my bro in law towed me to a gas station w/ his Ossa (I was on a Bultaco for this one). Got to meet Ohio Ted and Al Buehner. I hope to ride it this year w/ a KTM or Penton.
Second best was a short 10-miler w my brother (on my Frontera) and bro in law on his Ossa, me on my Harescrambler up from Ligonier and over Chestnut Ridge in Pa and back. My brother hadn't been on a dirt/dual purpose bike in 30 years and really loved it. Looking forward to ISDTRR this year and hopefully more.
Happy New Year. John
click here to see Mars attack)
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0208/images/marsattacks.jpg
To watch the best parts of Mars Attacks!, click here (9 mins long):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp3llVQh__Q
That's an easy one for me. 5 days of dirt riding on my KTM 400 EXC in central Utah. We rode areas from Salina to Big Rock Candy Mt. Utah is so dirt bike friendly, we would just ride out of the motel parking lot we spent the night at, ride a 100 mile loop, and do a different loop the next day.
Every turn brought a different view. When you would start up a hill (or down) it might go for 5 miles or more. Wild life was abundant. We saw elk, deer, antelope, ect.. All I can think about is doing it again.
Also this year I have put in a bunch of 50-75 mile days on my KTM 640 adventure. Just ride it out of the drive way and 5 miles from home I can start hitting Mississippi River levee roads and the trails and forest service roads of the Shawnee Natiol Forest. One of the best things about doing this is that my wife likes to do it too on her XT 225. No hauling, no entry fees, no gate fees, just ride and grin :D
Dennis Jones
My favorite "08" riding. I live 3 miles from about 150 acres of outstanding riding property. My friend, a former KTM/Husky dealer, developed his private property into some of the best woods riding and MX grass track available in Indiana, If we are real good that day, the surrounding neighbors allow us to enter their adjoining property and ride several more acres of techinical trails and creek crossings. Any weekend, I can fire up my street legal "08" TE 250 Husky and ride over to the property, join my friends, ride for 2-3 hours and then ride home without a hitch. This year, I plan on taking my "76" Penton GS 400 over for some woods practice and also my "78" 390 Husky Auto for some fun on the grass track and sand. God Bless great friends!
Quotequote:Originally posted by Paul Danik
As 2008 comes to a close, one of my resolutions for 2009 is to get out and ride more, I am sure than many of you have the same thoughts. As a way to get the juices flowing on plans for "09", how about a recap from you guys on your favorite ride or rides of "08". It doesn't have to be a race, or even in the dirt, as many of us do a decent amount of street or dual sport rides.
For me, the Parade of Pentons during the 40/10 anniversary event was my personal highlight for 2008. Being as we can't do that ride again, my next favorite ride was riding the Marienville Trail in the Allegehney National Forest in the early summer. Half the fun is just traveling to and from the trail head with the gang that included my son Chad, son-in-law Dave and a couple of others. There are two loops that we ride, the ATV trail is an easier loop that is about 15 miles and the Motorcycle loop is about 25 miles of some very interesting and somewhat technical trails. A pass is required to ride the trails, a one day pass is available for $10.00. The trail system starts out just north of Marienville, PA and I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance you take in these trails.
We also rode the Rocky Gap trail of about 22 miles on the same trip, the Rocky Gap trail head is about an easy hour away from the Marienville trail head, the same pass is valid at Rocky Gap.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/allegheny/recreation/atv_trails/
Paul
ISDT-RR ride in Tulsa Oklahoma.
(http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5297/tulsa08166bx6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Helmut"Speedy"Clasen
Ontario Canada
http://speedy_c.tripod.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/vindurospeedy
2 x Sachs MC-GS 250-7A
1 x Hercules 350-7A 77
2 x Hercules 250-7A 76
Zuendapp 125 GS 72-73
My favorite ride was the 1 weekend I road my Harley with Dee up into Evans Notch in the white moutain national forest !!
The other 38 weekends I spent either racing, riding, wrenching or washing...or driving there. [8D]
Raymond
Down East Pentons
mine was, riding the isdt rr with my oldest son.it had been a long time since we have been able ride together
dennis l.brown
Hi all,
2008 brought several great rides for me. First on my list was the ISDT RR out at the Zink Ranch. It was great to actually finish the event this year after disappointing day two DNF's at New Blaine and Park Hills the previous two years. In second place for 2008 was a ride aboard my 1986 Suzuki RG500 in the Ride-Em-Don't-Hide-Em bike show during VMD at Mid Ohio. Never got the bike higher than second gear the whole 50 miles but it was alot of fun being out there with all those other great looking machines. And number three on my list for 2008 occured during the Penton 40th celebration in Amherst. The parade was great fun but just not as much fun as the demo ride I took on the new KTM RC8. Can you say raw horsepower ??? Can't wait to see what this year will bring. Happy New Year to all !!
Dave McCullough
P.S. Paul, Marienville is a great place to ride. I did the entire bike loop back in late May 2007 aboard Bob's Jackpiner. Bob cheated that day because he was riding his KDX220. That uphill rock garden section really pounded me.
Here is a note we did to the Dixie Dual Sport members last spring.
It was easier to copy it that try and write down the whole thing again :).
As it turned out it was the only Ride we got to go to so it was the best for 08. I hope it make you folks chuckle a bit. It seemed like I had a black cloud following me around that week :D
Here goes,
We finished up restoring a 125 Sachs A/5 engine to use in my bike for trail rides and things like the BB. Built from 3 engines all in less than new condition .
Thur. night got the last bits installed and fired it up and things looked and sounded good. New bearings and seals and found some new crank half's, rod kit and put together a new crank assembly.
So, put on 10 miles in short rides to check the jetting and make sure things were good to go.
Rode the bike 15 miles down to the camp grounds Fri. night to get my package and do the Tec. inspection so Sat morning would be just a show and go.
Here things started to go a bit a miss [:0] .
Got to the camp grounds a bit late and missed the check in. ( this is my first DDS event now remember ). Found out how the refueling would be handled though and that was worth the ride. Figured I could just do it all in the morning and headed home. In route home 2 of the parts decided not to work and play well with the others [B)] chuckle chuckle!. Worked on the engine till 11:30 and and had to quit. The neighbors did not share the same excitement and enthusiasm I had for the Sat ride [:I]hard to believe i know but true . So Sat morning I drive the car down and think I can get the ride info and head home and fix the bike and still make at least some of Sat. ride and all of Sundays. Signed the release form and found out I need to run the bike through Tech. before I would get my package. Oh Boy! back to the house. Found the offending parts and replaced the top end buy 11:30. Rode back to the campgrounds hoping someone would be there to do Tech. and give me the package with the directions . Everyone was on the trail. Ok back to the house and lets think this thing through.
Sipping tea and thinking. Ok 3 of us were planning on a ride together. 2 are on the trail now. Tried there cell #'s and no go on contacting them.Ok Ok now what?
. Come on now think we are not going to miss this ride!
Last gas stop is Olustee 20 miles down US 90. I could Ride the bike down 90 and hope I catch them as they pass through. That means running 40 - 45 mph on the new 125 bore and piston , no faster or you could seize it . Its worth a try John.
Head out 90 varying the speed and using the enricher choke ever 3 mins. or so to play safe and make it to Olustee.
Make it to Olustee and who is at the pumps ready to head back ?
Its Larry
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k55/FlaDrz/75.jpg)
and Rick.
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k55/FlaDrz/72.jpg)
What timing. ( thanks Lord ) [:p]
So I followed them for the rest of Sat and Sunday ( i don't have a route sheet holder chuckle chuckle remember its my first DDS event ). Realized I had my sneakers on and no boots when I got to Olustee , so I picked my way back to the camp grounds with some care! chuckle chuckle!
The bike ran like a new one both days. They are good engines if you put them back to spec. Last about 2 full enduro seasons with just replacing one set of rings at end of season 1.
Sunday we finished the break in and on the trails we were using we were getting about 50 miles per gallon. That was good news also. 2.5 gallon tank. I can run about 55mph on the road sustained with out shorting the engine life. 64 Mph top end geared for the trail so it would work for most dual sport events. Thats as long as we don't hit any steep hills. I could keep up with most of the folks.
Met a few of the DDS members and had a great time. Rode with one fellow from SA that was a good trail partner.
Tim helped me with the package and info on Sat night ( Thanks Tim you were a blessing )
Hope to have the pleasure of doing this again soon. Thanks to everyone who helped put this ride on. Its one I will remember with fondness.
John D.
It was a fun ride and the Dual Sport folks did like the old bike.Not near as much fun as the RR would have been though.
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k55/FlaDrz/oldBike73.jpg)
[:p]
John D.
__________________
John D.
Okay well 2008's gone so lets start on 2009 favorite rides. my favorite ride for 2009 was this past Sunday when my bro's and I road 60 miles on ice and snow covered trails. it was a balmy 24f in the morning when we left and then got all the way up to a sweaty 32f by early after noon !!! I've never been so out of control and sideways on a motorcycle in years !!!
It even got more treacherous as the screws started coming out of the rear tire.
man what a memorable ride that was [8D]
Raymond
Down East Pentons