88 miles of snow and fun!

[*mike68*]

Rode from 730 till midnight and covered 88 miles of snomobile trails. It was unbelievable. You could do anything you want. Wheelies, jumps and rail corners. I am a little sore today, but it was worth it. I was gonna post last night when for you west coast guys, but I fell asleep in the dog bed while petting the dogs.

Mike

[Indy_WR450]

Sounds like you got rid of months of pent up frustration from the long winter we had this year. The snow should melt soon. I picked up my bike on Jan 30th. I had it ripping thru 6" of snow on a gravel road the next day. Froze my ass off even with my winter ski suit on. ?

[beezer]

It must have been cold out.

How do you stay warm.

[Indy_WR450]

The adrenalin of a new bike helps. I was wearing a full face street helmet, full winter ski suit, snowmobile boots and gloves. It was not enough. The bike needs heated grips and heated seat below freezing (just kidding). I guess thats why they have snowmobiles for us to ride in the winter months.

[Fryboy]

Damn Indy!

Quite a bit of mods you have done to your new bike. Very impressive. Must be hard on the wallet with all that snow heh? ?

Fryboy

[*mike68*]

It was warm last night, 15degF. I wear thermal underwear under all my regular riding gear, a winter coat, regular riding gloves and a neck warmer. I was very warm and sweating at times. Past winter I did 400 miles of winter riding, the year before 700, and this year a skimpy 300. This year was the year to breal 1000, but I didn't have the time. I'll have to make it up this summer.

Mike

[Indy_WR450]

Yeah it hits the wallet hard but I was planning all the mods and ordered most of the parts last November. I am glad I did because it gave me time to mod it out while there was snow on the ground. I hear a lot of the guys have flooded Yamaha and many of the parts are on back order. I just got ahead of most members. I try and make my bike last four years. That way the mod costs are not bad when you consider some guys buy a bike every 1 or 2 years. My last bike was a YZ250 and I got 4 years out of it with only 3 top ends. I am still debating on the exhaust system. I like the Thunder Alley pipe the YZ guys are running but they have not confirmed if they can get it to 96 db. Got to go ride. ?

[mdr001]

thats cool !!! about 140 k/m . i have been riding my

xr 650 r all winter on my oval track on the lake. recieved

my wr 450 late january and have been riding it in the snow.

the fun will begin at the end of march when the snow mobile

trails close. for those who have never experienced it. it

is MIND BLOWING !!!! my wr is all studed up and ready to GO!

Quebec, where we ride it all!!!

[Indy_WR450]

Yeah us canadians know how to make the best of the winter. But I have been down in Indy for 10 years now and I spent a weekend in Ottawa in February when it was really warm out -40 degrees (either scale is the same) We couldn't go out anywhere. I do not miss those extreme winters. Maybe you will have ice all summer to race on?

[*mike68*]

mdr001,

It is nice to hear someone feels the same about winter riding. I don't wait for the trails to close, I poach them in the evening instead. It's a wild ride and I wish more people around me did it.

Indy,

Nothing wrong with -40 ? . Brrrrrrrrrrr

[mcarp]

Mike-

Good to see your sewing machine also doubles as a snowrunner ? Glad you are still poaching, er, riding the winter trails at night! See ya!

[Math]

Hey mike!!!

There you talk! The Wr in the snow IS fun!

Do you run studded tires? We had a lot of fun last year without studs...

[*mike68*]

Math,

I always run studs. They open the door for much better wheelies, hook up, cornering and flat out ripping speeds. The winter riding I've been doing is guarnteed to be faster than dirt. Not on the holeshot, but maintained speeds and in some cases even cornering.

MCARP,

Nice to hear from you. A little bird told me you sold the WR for a asphalt rig. This true??

[Pete_Z]

*mike68*, if you don't mind I'd like to add my 2 cents in here for just a minute. People - PLEASE check what the local situation is before you ride snowmobile trails at any time of the year! If I'm not mistaken most snowmobile trails in *mike68*'s neck of the woods are multi-use and riding a dirtbike or ATV on them is not unheard of. From what I know *mike68* is an upstanding citizen and wouldn't do anything to damage the reputation of our sport or anyone else's. If you take to the snowmobile trails most anywhere else however, you will be doing us (collectively) and snowmobilers a great disservice.

In Ontario,and I imagine most Canadian provinces and Northern U.S. States, riding wheeled vehicles on the snowmobile trails during the winter is strictly forbidden. You will most likely get caught by the police, trail wardens or groomer operators, none of which will show you any mercy whatsoever.

Even more importantly DO NOT ride the snowmobile trails once the snow is gone until you know what the status of the trail is. Many trails utilize public lands and riding them in the summer is O.K., but, and this is a big but, lots of the snowmobile trails are also on private land. The snowmobile clubs work very hard to secure permission from private landowners to run the trail across thier property. The clubs carry huge and costly insurance policies to protect themselves and the landowners in the event of an accident. Keeping this in mind the landowners give permission (sometimes reluctantly) for the land to be used for a snowmobile trail only. For the privledge of using these properties the clubs will host landowner appreciation banquets and dances, and will often help out the landowners with drainage or access issues, ususally at quite an expense to the club.

Then someone comes along and starts riding the trail in the summer on a bike or ATV. After all, it is a trail - right? Lots of guys don't even realize that they are doing anything wrong. Most of them are snowmobilers too, that's how they know where the trail is. The landowner sees them or sooner or later finds evidence of thier passage. In the summer there is very little indication in the bush that a busy snowmobile trail existed only several months prior. Dirtbikes and ATVs leave a more definite trail, and some people just freak-out. Angry phone calls are made to the cops and club executives. The case is made that if there were no snowmobile trail, then likely no-one would have been riding on the property in the warm weather. Simple solution - no more snowmobile access allowed. No more trail. I've seen it happen, for this very reason, and it SUCKS. ? Sometimes entire sections of trail have to be abandoned because there is no alternate route. Countless man hours and dollars spent on developing that snowmobile trail wasted, and for what? Something so stupid and totally preventable.

Everyone just PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE, find out what the scoop is on that trail before you ride it. If you don't know, don't go. Don't risk ruining it for the sledders, we're all on the same side after all.

If you haven't guessed yet, I do quite a bit of snowmobiling every winter, and I'll have to admit that my sled's a two-smoke. You see, so far all the four-stroke sleds are crap, but I'm sure that'll change in a few years. Oh - and no, haven't forgotten about Yamaha's wonderous RX-Ton, also crap - sorry, I just had to add that in there.

Peace Eh - P.Z.

[*mike68*]

Uh..eerrrr. ooohh. Hmmmmmmmm. ?

Pete,

Gotta be straight with you. I am moving to Maine and all the winter riding is ilegal for ATV's. I am still going to ride them. Not all the riding is legal in NH either. I do understand where the sled owners are comming from. I try to ride around their best days and times. I don't ride during the day or weekends. I don't ride after fresh snow. I ride when conditions and time permit. When trails are frozen solid are the only times I ride. I don't condone my activities, but I am not willing to buy a sled or sit on the couch all winter. I will, however, promise to NEVER winter ride in Canada. Sorry to dissapiont you Pete. I hope we can still go riding sometime.

Mike

[Math]

I'm from Québec and I think the comment of Pete makes sense.

Personnally, I ride the snowmobile trails in late march and april when temperature rises above 0 celcius deg and when trails are about close. I admit that I've never checked whether or not the trails were still open for snowmobiles before jumpin in but I've never met anybody with a snowmobile while doing it so I guess nothing I did had dramatic consequences...

I will check before riding there this year...

[Bamster]

In Ontario they don't take kindly to riding any wheeled vehicles on snowmobile trails.

The ATVers have their own trails.

Math, I think I asked this befor but I don't remember what you said. Where do you ride? I'm only an hour away from Montreal in eastern Ontario. Always looking for new places to ride.

[Pete_Z]

Well, now we see the dark side of *mike68*! ? Actually I'm not too anal about people selectively roostin' the sled trails. Heck, I've even done it myself during a low snow season. In fact I'm sure that at one time or another we've all ridden somewhere that we really shouldn't have. If you ride the snowmobile trails when they are open, then you get what you deserve if you get caught. The real big problem (up here) is the off-season use in sensitive areas.

I don't see any problem with getting together for a ride someday. Time and logistics are more of a hurdle than anyone's opinion on snowmobile trail use and/or abuse!

Peace Eh - P.Z.

[Polar_Bus]

I was able to do a total of about 100 mi. in southern NH a few weeks ago, and I must say even though I have the "chick" version of the WRF, I had a blast! I studded a set of IRC VE37's and hit the trails, and the lake, a studded bike is something every rider needs to experience. It feels no different in the snowmobile trails than moist sand. It gets real tricky in looser non packed snow, I piled a few times going off the trail. On ice tyou have traction comparable to asphalt!

Rich K.