Ed95Pont

Member
Dec 24, 2002
23
0
The weekend started out on the wrong foot.Trailer promblems led to renting a trailer.

We got their friday night around 11 and got checked into the Forest Hills inn.Graet place ,cheap clean, Amarican owned.I felt fine with the bikes locked to the trailer and the stair case.

Saturday morning me and my wife hit Paragon.We came here together looking for somewhere to get her some ridding expeirence. The spots I ride at home are pretty tough terrain and not the kind of spot to hang around in.(legal?)

I get here bike warmend up we are all geared up It is about 35 degrees out I figure It will be a very slow day with no chance of sweating so I have long johns on under my gear. Her bike is idling.I kick mine.Fires up then dies.Kick about 30 times in am sweating like a #####.Fouled plug first one in 4 months. I change it fires up and we are on our way.

So here we are, It is her 4th time riding on pipey kx 100. She had a tough time. I dont know my way around but have a nice colered map. On the way down the access rode to the staging area she tells me this rode is pretty rocky. I think it might be a long day. We go up and down the coal road a few times and around Rubicon lake. She is doing great ,getting comfortable, smilling. I dont see the big open pit area at the back of the staging area. We spend some time in the staging area doing some drills.

We decide to hit some trails. I figure green begginer We will start with valley rode # 11. It says 2wd.Yea o.k. We head back to the parking lot and talk to the staff to make sure I have the right trail. He tells me their is a go around but when I get to the top to go left.so we head back She makes it to the tree after the brook.I ride here bike upthe rest off the way.Walk down and ride her up on my bike. I am sweating again.

We are on top of the world. I take us right not left. O boy Lots of rocks. Not begginner rocks Rocks that are bashing my skid plate. Looking back we are on Blue barry # 42 or around it anyway,but we are both determined to get to the haul road. She is doing great but having a tough time. The bike is geared to high for this and her skill level. About 1hour later and lots of walking and riding 2 bikes by me we are at the haul rode. I am sweating again.

We take a break at the and enjoy the spring.laugh at the poor map or our lack of ability to follew it.

We figure it is after lunch,lets ride the haul rode to the turtle road and go to the truck. The turttle is green. It surely should be better than the trail 11. We just took a wrong turn.

Oh boy # 2 The big one. We are at the bottem of turtle hill she looks at me and says I am not going up that. I tell her then we will have to go back to the rocks we just rode through. She gets her corage up and gasses it up on the tank on the pipe. Wow can she ride,Rocks spitting out leting the bike take its own line not fighting it, working it. Before the day is out we will be riding 3rd gear single track. Then she stops,I ride up to her and ask why she stoped. I can tell she is scared to death. She tells me how this is not fun.I tell her she hit everything perfect and did great. Mind you we are only 1/4 of the way up,but if you stop this is not a bad spot to stop. I give her a good pep talk and she is off. First gear on the pipe spitting rocks gets about 30 yards up it is pretty steep hear,she gets off to the right side of the trail into some good dirt gets traction and hangs on for the ride. The front of the bike is 5 foot in the air jumps over half the trail back to the left and she goes flying. She hit hard,It was a pretty nasty getoff into a pile of rocks, they hurt. I race up to her, I feel terrible this is no place for her. Bad choice of a bike, man I feel bad.

She has had enough and I dont blame her.I takes another hour to get up the hill me riding one then walking back down for the other. (I am sweating again) She wont get on the back of my bike afraid we are going to fall. I finally get her on the back and we get to the top with out any promblems. We ride back to the truck. She tells me to go out with the guys that are parked next to us.

Adventure # 2

I go out with to guys, ying and yang. One brand new crf450 and one brand new yzf 450.You know the type if they could have found an atk 700 they would have bought them

Dont ask me were we road it was fairlly short ride.We are on some quad type trails.After the crf falls for the 10th time,he asks me what size bike mine is. It must at least be a 400 because it is pretty fast.I figure maybe I am setting too quick a pace and slow it down some.(I am chuckling now as I type this) yang on the yzf rides into me 5 times going into corners.My bike slides around in muddy corners enough without the flywheel weight in it.I do not need any help ,thank you.The last time was a quick left in the mud He hit me right behind the foot peg, when he decided to go straight instead of turn.I told them I had better be getting back to the truck, they agreed and Then I blasted the hell out of their and never saw them again.


Day 2 Sunday

My wife decided to stay at the room and let me go ride with the guys.I had called home and had my son put a post up looking for a riding buddy.Redwing Ds responded and said he would be their.

I dont see him and it is a little after 9 am.Their are no lone bikes to ride with so I take off with some quads and bikes.One big happy familly. Complete with junior on the cr80r with sneakers. We ride around but stop every 1/4 mile . The quads just do what they want riding off the trail everywhere down the streams ect. The 16 year old daughters are f-ing this and f-ing that. At every intersection they all head in different derections. I am riding around like a nut trying to keep them together,when they seperate. And I am voted the officiall trail guide since I have been her before. I am just waiting for the beer to come out. I have got to get away from these people. I get my chance,The two fathers on the bikes loose the whole group (and their kids). I find them but the group is gone. They ask me to get them back to the parking area. I punish them by setting a very fast pace through some very rocky stuff. One guy asks to take a break.Nope cant do it. I am late to meet a buddy at the parking lot.lets go

The day gets good

I get back to the parking lot.Jim (Redwing DS) is their. But his kx is broke. I offer my wifes kx100. He agrees. I meet Scooter from her on the board. Me Jim and 2 guys parked next to jim take off for a great ride.one on an 520 exc and a fast guy on a yzf 250. My wifes bike is smoking so bad you cant see anything through it on the coal road. Remember it idled through the whole day before. Jim quicklly clears it out. And it is just a great day. We rode pretty hard . I did not want to set to fast a pace with Jim on the punny bike. You just cant ride it fast through anything technical but Jim did a great job

About halfway through the ride We were stop and I pulled my clutch in and master cylinder parts landed on the ground. That is not good. We went back to the truck tryied to fix it .Could not I thought about calling it a day but was having to much fun. We went back out for another 2 hour ride with no clutch. I only stalled a coplle of times. After a while it was not a big deal. I think I actually carried more speed threw the tight corners with out the clutch . I would let the front and back of the bike slid until it hit something to get traction on be it a root, a rock, a burm, the trunk of a tree. Kind of a controled slide. Plus I was much more presice with my back brake (a lot of pumping). But my gearbox cant be happy with me I beat the #### out of it. But it was well worth it

Riding around sunday without my wife I explored most of the park. Though I did not ride everytrail,(It is to big to hit everyone in a weekend). I found plenty of begginer freindlly riding. It is out their you just need to know how to get to it and not take any wrong turns.

Before my Wife returns her kx is going to go threw a change.Lower gearing,Flywheel weight,Porting for lowend and maybe a throttle stop.

But I am looking foward to heading back with the kids son or just myself to ride with the guys.

ED
 

CaptainObvious

Formally known as RV6Junkie
Damn Yankees
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 8, 2000
3,331
1
Nice ride report Ed. I'm hoping to get there in November. I'll post a thread when I know the date.
 

Treejumper

2 wheeled idiot
Damn Yankees
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Sep 9, 2000
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Sorry Ed but i had to laugh all the way through your post. :) Considering i've been there and done or see someone do most of what you posted it just was too funny not to laugh. Especially when you say what trail your heading on and (I) know what is coming up ahead of you. All in all your wife did real well considering where she rode. There are some nicer trails on the lower right half of the park (bottom of turtle) but no matter what way you go you have either Turtle or Valley road to travel.

Also loved the Ying and Yang comments. We had a Ying or was it a Yang tag along on one of our morning rides along with a quad guy. Wearing sweat pants and sneakers on a bike. I would of bet money he was going to snap his ankle before the day was out. Kept dumping it on ever rock he found and managing to put his foot between the rock and the bike everytime. :| I was glad we ditched them on the single track as their quad buddy couldnt follow.

Jim does pretty good riding bikes that arent made for Paragon. :thumb: If you think he did good on the KX100 you should of seen him on his 650!

Anyways i hope your wife still had a good time overall and still wants to ride a bike. Hope you can make the November ride (once a date is picked) so i can meet you. :cool:
 
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Ed95Pont

Member
Dec 24, 2002
23
0
Chucke

Saturday afternoon she said this dirtbike stuff is not for her. Sunday she felt like she just wanted to sit it out. Now she is ready to get back on but wants flat no rocks for a while.

Like I said I did find plenty of begginer riding for here. I think the best way to go for us is valley in and out. It is not that big a hill to ride both bikes up. Once on top If I just stayed left we would have been fine. If you follow the exit signs from the haul road all that is suttible riding for here. We could ride all around the first pipeline lots of trails their that quicklly loop around back to the pipeline. Plus then you can cruise down to the mine loop around, go down to the spring.(She did a short step hill thier that is confidence builder for a begginer)Back to the first pipe line Ect. Ect. But again a day of exploring on my own really helped me know my way around.

Ying and Yang were both great guys,Just a little clueless.But the familly on day 2 was straight out Deliverance.

What a nice Guy Jim is .He called my wife yesterday to thank her for the bike use.Talked to her for while. It sure is nice to meet good people out on the rode.

Looking foward to a ride with all you guys

ED
 

NRB

Member
May 4, 2003
32
0
Ed,

I feel for you guy, I ride up at Paragon with my wife and she has a YZ-125 which is a little tall for her. The next time I see you up there I'll map out a good beginner friendly route, it does involve going up Valley Rd. but according to Scooter there is a bypass around the worst of the rocks.
 

JasonJ

Member
Jun 15, 2001
1,150
1
Maybe we can do another 2 day deal in November here some time and we can take the beginners out one day and just go out and rip Paragon the next day. We can take the beginners out on the other side where it is much flatter and less rocks, lots of coal roads and pits ect. My girlfriend is a beginner too and likes the flatter roads and trails and there is plenty to see also.
 

RedWingDS

Member
Sep 23, 2003
70
0
hey i remember that ride :D

my molars are still loose from that little KickAss i mean KX100 . rear end was stable , cant say that for the front end. WoW im lucky i still have wrists !!!
no travel what so ever but the bike was still fun to ride , sure as hell beats turning around and going home. and better then sitting in the parking lot putting on the VooDoo hex on any one like Scooter who rode close to my KX250. the 250 needed a top end but i was hoping to get through the rest of the season.

well guess what there have been a couple of rides since then and the last time i was testing before i headed back up to the rock fest i mean paragon i blew it up right across the street from my house :)
not fun pushing a bike on paved roads let alone paragon but ill post that ride soon. i owe JasonJ a ride report from last weekend anyway.

Ram Air Ed or Super Duty Ed was way nice to let me ride the wifes bike , nothing like being trusted to ride someone else's bike when you have known them for ummm all of 3 minutes.
didnt want to ride it as i didnt want to break anything, but i was told to beat the piss out of it since it was going to get a overhaul over the winter. but i couldnt do it even if i was ordered to by catain chaos.felt like it was more like a pat on the back to give it the old paragon try. as Ed really wanted to ride and solo is not the way to go at rockgon.

kudos to Ed and Wifie, wifie is no stranger to speed either she runs 1320 feet pretty quick from what i hear in what else but a Ponti F-body.

later on found out it was Ed's birthday and that he had been wanting to ride so bad he traveled from Conneticut just to spend time with crap i forgot her name. pulling an all niter right now 6am

the guys who parked next to me were also way cool as well. traveled from NY, Kitchen Sink Joe and Morse Code Mike as i call them.( i have a nickname for everyone if they dont come equiped with one before hand;))
these cats were way prepared, KTM 520, YZ250F and good ol' trusty reliable XR600piggy as back up. i love the oinkers snort snort . and the BRP 600's are a decent amount lighter then my trusty steed porker XR650L- the L is for love seat. but the 600 was left on the stage coach

so i geared up on the KX100 putted over to the sign in trailer with my helmet on real tight, not cause i was safety consious but being 5`9 i didnt want to many to see my face , although very greatfull as i said to be on a bike at all period. lucky for me the cute sign in girl recognized me even while trying to be ingoneto. woo hoo i bet i was lookin`sporty on my new ride. (old Scooter has a nice shot of me on the mean green machine, good ol'Scooter always there when ya need him)

we headed out party of 3 and a 1/2 me being the .5 of the group. and to a louie down to one of the main trails into the park. you know the one well traveled right hand drop up the bottle neck jeep trail passing the singletrack since we were happy riding and not getting to crazy.

our NY guys tried some lateral kick stand stuff to warm up with but soon there after had it all under control.did some hill climbs and shot the poop here and there while getting to know each other a bit more.

about 2 or so hours into riding i suggested we stop to make sure we knew what trail we were on and to get an idea of where to go next. just at that time
super duty ed said " hey i dont have a clutch " ???
sure you do ed its right there ! thought the 2stroke smoke was getting to him but nope he was correct no clutch , looking down on the ground there sat the parts spring and all from the ChaChing $$$$$ hydro clutch. bet ed wished he had a cable setup this day. ;)

so he gathered his goodies and said F it lets ride , good attitude eddie boy.
went to the lot and fueled up or bellies and bike bellies and ol'ed wrenched a bit only to have no luck. scratching the head and wieghing the cost of things he said with a mighty sigh "lets ride on" good deal im ready. ring ding ding ding. back out we go.

just stay a good 6 foot or so from the Gas Gas 200 cause with the R's up and no clutch she was spitting like party girl on a busy night.

kitchen sink joe and morse code mike sure looked like they were having fun , being joe's first time in anything like paragon :) .

well without knowing the names of the trails or even caring to look we basically took lots of the same trails as the sept 19th ride. you all remember that ride right ??? yeah yeah i know im a little late with the report hush up.

well thats all your getting out of me for now and as i said before i thank Ram Air Ed for the opportunity to ride and Joe and Mike for being Joe and Mike.

till next time this is Red off to sleep for oh say 3 hours

"dirt biking good clean fun"
 

RedWingDS

Member
Sep 23, 2003
70
0
almost forgot thanks for the at a boy guys , not everyone is lucky enough to see me pretending to be superman on the XR650L while you sissy's ride those light weight bikes :)

now known as the man of steel from my last outing with the SPERMC enduro boy's. as i said ill be posting that ride in oh say ....... another month or so lol

good peoples you all are good peoples !!!

ok im done now ciao
Red
"dirt biking good clean fun"

redwingds@msn.com
 
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