How far would you go?

[yamaha.dude]

Second in a series of posts to get a better feel for who we all are and what we all do in our dirtbiking adventures...

How far do you travel to ride? I can just get on the bike and ride to my destination, who else is lucky like that? Do you make a point of travelling to find new places to ride? Is getting away for a day or weekend to ride a thing you want to do more?

What about organised trail tours of areas, would you go off for a week or so and ride somewhere new?

Would you travel further if you had accomodation and backup for the trip, and a guide for new areas?

Let us all know...

David

[WR_Dave]

I guess I'd better reply to part 2. riding is anywhere from 10 mins (local moto track) to 2hrs away. We have 7 or 8 different riding areas and 90% of our rides are 6-8 hour day rides, a few times per summer we go camping together and then the riding areas are up to 6 hours away. I personally would go on the occasional riding holiday if I didn't have to spend a bunch of time looking for riding areas when I got there. If a TT'r wanted to guide fellow TTr's around his favorite areas it would make these sorts of trips more enjoyable. Again I hope this helps--WR Dave.

[BrandonW]

I am plated, and don't trailer anywhere (except when I am going elsewhere to ride in an organized event, i.e. hare scramble, enduro or poker run) and am very lucky to live in North Central Washington state. I live on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountians, and much of the area is open for motorized vehicle travel.

Trail closures are ever-present, but we still have alot of area that is available.

Buddys and I ride after work on short 50-100 mile loops; rides on the weekends can be anywhere from 100 miles up to 200 miles in a day; camping trips in the area are also done (we ride into the camping areas, not trailer to them) but the fuel is the limiting factor there.

As far as rides outside of the area, we consider a 100 mile radius from town to be our "hood", and we have not come even close to hitting all of the trails yet.

I have over 3,000 on my WZ (bought in March of this year) and clocked well over 10,000 on my XT600 that I had for the 3 years prior to the WZ.

As far as guided tours, I think that is well worth it. I know of a bunch of special areas here locally that somebody new to the area would never know about. I love to show others my stomping grounds. Conversely, when I run out of room here, I would be eager to have others who are familiar with their territory lead me around.

Sounds like a business opportunity to me.....

Want to ride North Central Washington? Let me know, and I have got gobs of places to show ya!

Around here, we can be off of the pavement and into the dirt less than 10 miles from the city limits.

How FAR would I go to ride? My girlfriend and I ALMOST modified our snowmobile trailer earlier this year so we could trailer our dirtbikes back to Michigan when we went back there to visit her family. But, we did not, so that does not count!

Brandon

[ August 30, 2002, 05:11 PM: Message edited by: BrandonW ]

[neWRiver]

I am not street legal, but I live in a rural area. I can get to some pretty good riding right from my house. There are also many good riding spots within 30 mins to an hour or so. We camp in the warmer months to get up into the forests and ride. Destinations anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. I've traveled a couple times out of state (8 to 12 hour drives). I've been riding my brains out since I got my WR just a year ago last spring. I also entered my first enduro last winter and plan to do more this coming season. I love it all!

I have to say that most of the riding I've done has been based on someone else knowing where to ride and leading me around. Organized events have also played a big role. I've met a ton of riders and everyone has there favorite spots. I make a point to try different areas and ride with different people as much as I can. The contacts I've made through our local club, another local riding forum, and TT have all provided me contacts to lots of riding buddies of all skill levels. I am learning a lot and having a ball. ?

[Dodger]

I'll travel up to 6 hours away for a 2 day weekend, drive Fri night, ride Sat and Sun morning. Moab is just that far from me ? , I love it.

I can hop on and ride to trails, but it's minimum of 20 miles, my tires hate that. But I've still have it great, load up in the Tacoma, and 30 minutes later I'm starting my ride at 8,000 feet. Weekends offer a plethora of options, most within 2 hours drive or less.

We also do day rides, Winter Park is easily accessable to Boulder folks, it's only 40+ miles from Nederland, over the divide by Needles Eye, and down to Winter Park. Breck is also available for a ride, but making it over to Breckenridge and back in a day is tough.

Peace

Dodger

[RLucky82]

My closest ride is over an hour away and there is three more about 2 hours away and then there is Wane Nat. Forest about 4 hours away. I used to be able to ride right across the street from my house but that has all been filled in with DEVELOPMENT ? ...lets see, the tree huggers have no problem leveling trees for thier houses villages and towns!

I would love to take one of those many tour rides that have sprung up in the past few years and explore the western United States.

[ August 30, 2002, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: RLucky82 ]

[yamaha.dude]

We have the local MX track just over the river, except for the 2 miles of public road, even my son could just ride there, but if the river is up over the weir, then we have to load up and trailer, about 15mins of driving, almost doing a big circle to almost get back to my place... the farmers get rather annoyed when we ride or 4WD across their fields... LOL

I have a number of State forests that are great riding, one 15 mins away (Pine Creek), a few an hour or so (Littabella, Watalgan), but riding to any of the other that are 2 or 3 hours away is just a drag, you chew your tyres up, use all your fuel... better to trailer to them and then if you are too tired from riding to ride home, you can just put the car on cruise and relax a bit on the way home... some music etc, esp. if it getting dark or is wet... no reason to make a long day even longer...

I too would like to do one of the organised trail tours, lots of places I haven't been to yet, and they supply bikes as well, so that is a good chance to ride other bikes and realise how good your own bike is setup... ?

David

[ August 30, 2002, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: yamaha.dude ]

[evl2evil]

I live in a rural area and have about 7 acre's of my own land.I have a track on it that my boy's and i play on.Alot of the people around here ride either bike's or quad's so there's plenty of trail's close by just have to hit a few side road's here an there.I'm also 15min's away from Wayne National Forest(southerntrailhead's)and a 1 hr. away from the wayne forest trailhead's near Nelsonville.I travel to Texas sometime's to meet up with a friend i have down there to ride at Red River.On weekend's that i'm not racing we try to hit different area's nearby.I go to Daniel Boone state forrest in Kentucky and Hatfield an McCoy trail's in West Virginia but some of the best riding is just 15 mins. away in Wayne National Forrest.

[ August 30, 2002, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: evl2evil ]

[huskyrider]

I'm very fortunate to live in SE Texas where we have year round riding.

I can ride across the street, cross the creek if it hasn't rained recently, and ride on a 2500 acre piece of property legally. All I have to do is maintain trails for the owner, for his deer leases, and stay off weekends during hunting season. The property next to it is over 4000 acres and is owned by the developer of our neighborhood. Needless to say this is private property and is posted as "NO TRESPASSING". On occasion it's been a very good thing I know every trail on their land. As a student in the early 70's we had free roam of all 26000 acres before the development became very successful, as of last weekend they began surveying this land for roads and lot dividing.

I've seen this happen since I was in Jr. High. Within a year, roads will be concreted and within 2 there will be new houses and residents.

We have a track 5 minutes from the house with Supercross, Motocross and Beginners tracks.

There are 4 other Motocross tracks within a half hours drive.

20 miles north is a Nat'l forest with over 150,000 acres of riding. 100 miles east is another big Nat'l forest which I like better than the one closer to my house.

I've always loved riding and try to take a riding vacation every couple of years.

Last year it was a week with rented Harley's on the big island of Hawaii for my oldest boy's graduation present.

Next year I'd like to go to Australia for a ride on a KTM trailtours outing. They look like they've really got their act together. Bike rentals, food & lodging, fuel and even some nonriding activities all included. If its to much coin I'll probably look west towards Utah, Colorado, or Baja for an outfitter which will provide the same.

I took my family to Australia for vacation a few years ago and really had a great time. The folks there were not only super but were also very pro American.

[banffboy]

My riding areas are 1-2 hrs away. I live in the oldest Canadian National Park so just starting my bike in the driveway make a lot of people nervous ? There is a lot of camping where we ride so sometimes it's a day ride or a weekend. Our riding areas consist of single track/double track/old roads/ and what we call seismic cut lines. The areas we ride in have been seismic surveyed and well mapped. You can ride for hours in the majestice back drop of the Canadian Rockies. I feel very fortunate to have these areas available to ride at.

We usually will do a couple of longer trips everyear. This spring I went to Moab for the first time. Of course it was awesome, it took us 24hrs from Alberta to get there. We also ride in BC quite a bit, usually Kamloops or Kocanusa. I have also gone to Silver Country (Wallace) Idaho on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend for the last couple of year. Hope to see Lewichris there this year

[OverHillInOhio]

The riding areas I have used the most are 4 hours away: Wayne National Forest at Nelsonville and Perry State Forest just north and east from there. There is not really any good riding close to me in NW Ohio. I have ridden also in Daniel Boone Nat. Forest in Ky (Exit 49!) and this summer had a ride around Red Bird Trail which was about more than my out-of-shape 55-yr old body could handle. The farthest I have gone is to Colorado to ride the Alpine Loop on a dual-sported XR600. Great ride! Great Scenery! Hope to do something like that again sometime. When I first started trail riding on my 1969 Honda CL350, we rode the Lake Hope area in southern Ohio. Now there is a small riding area (Richland Furnace?) in that general region, but I haven't been there in years. There was a time when I would ride my plated dual-sport bike to some small riding areas that were within 15 minutes of us, but those areas have long since been eliminated. Now I always trailer my bikes (or maybe take the lid off the Supercrew to haul the WR in the back)

[ September 02, 2002, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: OverHillInOhio ]

[jonesy1]

I can ride to the trails from my house and that is where I do most of my riding. We will load up and go just about anywhere for good riding with friends. We drove 130 miles on Saturday to ride and are planning a trip to Northern Idaho next spring which is about 500 miles one way. A good day of riding is usually between 40 and 140 miles of trails on old mining roads/trails.