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hey guys, ive been hitting up some seasonal roads lately
this is all fast paced dirt, some hard packed, some looser

with the hunting season upon us there is a lot more trafic and there are some nice deep ruts forming from the 4X4s out scoping and baiting

after a few good rains there are some nice deep mudholes
normally its as simple as cranking the throttle, lifting the front end and riding it out on the rear wheel but on these roads the speeds are too high and i cant pop the front end in 5th or 6th as easily

i tried just powering through a big puddle but that ending with a short flight over the front handle bars

any suggestions ?

Go around them.

Many years ago I found myself on the other side of a "puddle" with a bloddy nose and a chipped tooth. My bike was nose down in the middle of the puddle with just the seat and rear fender showing.

It has been very dry here lately and all the standing water is gone on the jeep trails. Some of those puddles are 3' deep. I'd break my neck trying to wheelie across some of those, and you can't tell when they are full of water.

Personally, I just lean back a bit as to not make the front end too light, have a nice line, and get it in third, maybe fourth. Almost as if readying the bike for a wheelie. The one time I tried just flying through a puddle, the bike decelerated much faster than I did. Over the bars I went. 5th and 6th gear puddles seems like either your hauling too much ass, or lugging the engine. I only way I feel comfortable going through water is having that powerband ready.

Also, standing up and high speed water can be a very wierd feeling...

newbbewb, that would be the preferred way to handle it but these roads were way to fast for that, i was consistantly in 5th or even 6th
i hit a few of them where i would gun the bike, see the puddle, hit the brakes, downshift, pop the front, gun it across, rinse and repeat but that get very tiring

so i was just wondering if there is a better way to do this
considering these are all basically 2 tracks it stands to reason that the center of the puddle is much shallower then the sides BUT as mentioned, you never know what is under the surface

on a side note, the part of my leg that hit the handlebars is turning all sorts of purple and blue

if your to lazy to downshift. either go around or learn to hydroplane :)

hbgod wrote:if your to lazy to downshift. either go around or learn to hydroplane :)

+1

If you know a wet spot is coming up then SLOW DOWN. If it catches you off guard then lean back to get the weight off the front tire and down shift and gun it.

If your in 5th to 6th then the trail must be pretty wide open so you should be able to see bad things coming. If they aren't that wide open then what the hell are you doing going that fast on public two way trails that some one could be coming toward you and not be able to see in time? That type of riding is part of what gives the sport a bad name.

In Diymirage's defense I believe the routes he is talking about here in Michigan are classified as "Two way traffic". ANY vehicle be it an ORV/Motorcycle/Snowmobile or simply a car, truck with an ORV sticker can travel on these two track sometimes pure sand routes. Many of them are even traveled by Logging and Gas trucks getting to the well and clear cut sites. I have to ride these "routes" to get to many trails. Fortunately I have survived them without incident. Yesterday was the closest call as I came upon a familiar "dip" ( read shallow in the road ) I noticed a metric **** ton of beer cans scattered around it. I went around said hole and parked. I got a long branch an prodded around in towards the middle to discover in had now become damn near waist high!
I just wrote it off as drunken downstate hunters bottoming out their vehicle and now have a new place to maybe get some high speed air when it dries out!

Why do you think that you have to hit then in 6 gear. If you don't know how deep It is try to go around it. And slow down ,your going to do something bad to your bike.

Hey tjg, this was out in the alegan woods ( that near you ?)

I dont "need" to hit them in 6th gear but thats the speed that was comfortable on the rest of the 2-track

diymirage- I had this issue over the weekend as well on 6th gear county roads. I was just basically shifting my weight back and trying to pull up on the bars a bit. If you're talking major sinkholes, then slowing down is probably in order.

that would work if I were in a lower gear and had the power to loft the front end, or if the sinkholes were shallower

the ones I encountered were much like the ones frenchie played with over the weekend

frenche200 wrote:After 12 years without a bike and some nice ride, I wanted to start the serious things...

It started well .. bucolic trails, ford crossings,... what fun!



then I try one last thing before go home .. and it has not gone ...

I'm near Lansing ,not sure we're your riding at ? Two years ago I did the same thing , to my crf450 ,it sucked. It took two quads to pull it out , I now stay way from mup holes.

near lansing?

GO GREEN

the main places I ride at are cedar creek and Evart but the woods I was referring too are pretty much dead west of you, maybe a tad to the south, close to the shore

not an official riding area but full of good seasonal roads for quick riding
not as adventurous as some other trials but definitely closer

I ride Baldwin , leota . Denton , i have rode cedar creek. Also like the U.P when I can get up there.

Well shoot, I'll play,
you see a big-ass mud hole coming up at a quick rate of speed...
2 things-
1 Slow down and ***** foot around it.
2 chop the throttle long enough to pick a line, drop 2 gears, stand up and grab the whole mother fuckin' handful of throttle the bike came with and hang on..
Your under 40, right?? Only works if you have nothing to lose.

tirebiter wrote:Well shoot, I'll play,
you see a big-ass mud hole coming up at a quick rate of speed...
2 things-
1 Slow down and ***** foot around it.
2 chop the throttle long enough to pick a line, drop 2 gears, stand up and grab the whole mother fuckin' handful of throttle the bike came with and hang on..
Your under 40, right?? Only works if you have nothing to lose.