OK....here goes......
Last weekend was a blast. I got to meet Mohave and his buddy Scott and let me tell ya, these two are some fine gentlemen. I met up with them in the small town of Ridgecrest Ca and we had the luxury of riding straight from Mohave's house.....thats always a plus when you can ride without transporting your bike for an hour. I am not to familiar with the area we rode however I will have Mohave post up details once I'm done with this post.
I do know that we rode through alot of desert style terrain and Its been a LONG time since I've ridden that type of riding. Lots of fun. We rode through and past a few old mines and stopped at an old mining cabin. I'm starting to feel good again on the bike, my dirt legs are starting to come back to me after years of pavement riding. For this type of riding I re-geared the beast.....I was running 14/45 and upped the counter shaft 1 tooth for 15/45. Even though this is quite a jump in gearing the bike seems to love it. The "Flying M" motor has enough heart to pull and lug that gearing though anything I threw at it.....Not to mention that in most situations instead of the rear wheel exploding into violent wheel spin, it now hooks, torques and drives......almost like a 4 stroke but better
. The bike is a whole new bike with this gearing, the suspension works better and the bike just overall is just better.....I think I am keeping this gearing. We began our ride about 2pm and rode until about 5:30pm covering an estimated 50 miles of desert whoops, canyons, sand washes and overall fun trails with the occasional stop to sight see. We followed it up with an awsome evening of beer and grill prepped chilli dogs. A big thanks to Mohave for the excellent hospitality and for being an excellent trail guide........and hopefully a good story teller so that he can post up and fill the gaps that I have left.
Hey look, an ATK sandwich......
Mohave and USMC 500......always good to meet good people...
Mohave had me take a picture of this well that he says is NEVER dry.....Pretty cool
Always great to ride new areas and different types of terrain....I recommend this place!!
One of our stops, old miners cabin
I think I need to build my own place out here
This is the fireplace inside the cabin.....the former tenant was sure creative....
Back at the house, our two noble steeds taking a breather......awsome machines
Our next story takes place the very next day just about 30 minutes south of Ridgecrest.......I met up with some of my former co-workers for a ride that began at Dove Springs. My buddy Mike was on his KTM 450 and my buddie Kim was on his Suzuki LTZ450 quad. Our ride took us through some fire roads and finally to the climb up to McIvers cabin. This riding was the oppisite of the riding that was done on Saturday. Very tight and technical. I kept the tall 15/45 gearing for this ride and again, the "Flying M" motor had no issues lugging and pulling this gearing. If anything, the bike was much more controlled and smoother with this gearing combo. Mike is a former long time expert MX racer and long time rider. He and I had a blast dicing it up on the way to the cabin. Kim fell back a bit on his quad as the trails were very rocky and tight.......much harder on a quad but we stopped and waited patiently for him at frequent intervals.....My type of riding, various skill levels, group rides and nobody gets left behind. At the cabin the peacefull silence is overwhelming. People that hike the Pacific Crest Trail stop and camp at this cabin once in a while so there is always canned food left behind as a courtisy to the next group. There is also a log book that you can sign in on as a record of your visit. We hung out for a bit before we started back......as we were mounting up another group of rider showed up and one of them was on a kx500.....imagine that.....the open two strokes are not dead!!....On the way back we came across another group of riders on the trail.....one of the riders was on a cr500af....again....open two strokes are NOT DEAD!!...The pace was quicker on the way back. Mike and I were having some good battles going through the whooped out fire roads and high speed sweeping turns.........OK NOW PAY ATTENTION BOYS AND GIRLS......
Mike and I are on a straight fire road cruising in top gear.....he drops to 4th and cracks the throttle, I was in 5th and I roll on the throttle......my enemy is wheel spin so right off the bat mike slightly pulls half a bike length on me....but then.....my back tire and "traction" find each other and forward I go pulling and pulling harder and faster.....I let off after a 30 second stint and let Mike catch up. We came to a stop and his eyes are wide open and tells me "holy s**t dude, that was like a meteor shower of hell off your back tire!!..........We took off again and when another straight wide section came up I finally had the chance to open her up......5th gear pinned, 15/45, steering dampner set and I don't know how fast I was going but seat of the pants I had to have at least hit 100mph........I need a gps to get an accurate number but I know that I was moving!! We got back to the trucks and with the IMS 3.6 gallon tank full when I left, I had 1 gallon of fuel left. This is definitly a ride that I would like to go back on with some of you kxriders.......
Ready to hit the trail....
I think this man made tank is supplied by mountain run off.....it was full of water......but it was green.
Halfway up the mountain we can across this hiking trail....not for bikes but maybe I'll come back and do some hiking someday.
Here is our stop at the enterance of that hiking trail......I gotta tell you, that promoto kickstand is one of the best things I have done to this bike.....Thanks again Shlepy, you're the best buddy!!
Our arrival at the cabin and the beautiful sight of a dirty K5 taking a breather....
Hanging outside the cabin with Mike.....sorry about the sour look on my face.....sun was in my eyes.
McIver's cabin.....far from everything stressful back home.....piece of history
My buddy Kim signing the logbook....
KXRIDERS.com has officially visited and placed its mark on McIver's cabin!! Who else wants in??
Here you have about a quarter century difference in technology sharing a ride together
So that is "USMC 500's double ride weekend.......I plan on having many more to come.....who wants in? I would be out today but work has not allowed
......maybe next weekend.
Of course after everyride comes the "after ride clean up tear down"...hahahaha
And here she is all cleaned up and ready for another ride!!!
For those of you who have never heard this bike and would like to hear it and see it run, you can find the youtube clips here......
http://www.kxriders.com/forums/index.php/topic,10571.msg90138.html#msg90138
