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ajayhawkfan wrote:This is sounding like a trip to make just for dinner.

But then we would expect you to follow us through the OHV area ... Not sure I want to see a beautiful BMW R in there! Not sure you want to see your beautiful BMW in there!

KC and Tracy,
BTW, the OHV areas may be mudfests. Randolph doesn't dry out very quickly down at the bottom, and that is where most of the trails head off. No worries as I have some gravel routes loaded.

Go back to my original post if you want an updated Garmin / GPX file.

safiri wrote:But then we would expect you to follow us through the OHV area ... Not sure I want to see a beautiful BMW R in there! Not sure you want to see your beautiful BMW in there!

NO NO NO NO NO! I'm not going in there.

I guess I will have to stick to my original plans and go turkey hunting.

Ok, I may be a question mark. I cant get the bike started. Rode it to work this morning and came home. Washed it up. I have been wanting to raise the needle in the carb one notch as it has been running a little lean according to everything I have been reading so I took the top off the carb and raised the needle. This is a pretty simple job on the XRR. Well I have been kicking it for the last 2 1/2 hours. Nothing. Nadda, wont even catch. Im not going to go all the way up there with it not starting. I will try again in the morning and see. It has started on evey second kick since I have brough it home so dont know what the deal is.

T

Hayden wrote:Ok, I may be a question mark. I cant get the bike started. Rode it to work this morning and came home. Washed it up. I have been wanting to raise the needle in the carb one notch as it has been running a little lean according to everything I have been reading so I took the top off the carb and raised the needle. This is a pretty simple job on the XRR. Well I have been kicking it for the last 2 1/2 hours. Nothing. Nadda, wont even catch. Im not going to go all the way up there with it not starting. I will try again in the morning and see. It has started on evey second kick since I have brough it home so dont know what the deal is.

T

Never fear, I just threw in my tow strap. Bring the 640 Adv instead.

With all the rain we've had, it will definately be a mudfest on the trails. This really bums me out 'cause there is a reason I run 90 off-road/10 on tires!!! Mike, I know you probably don't want to re-schedule and I don't either. I really need a break so just camping, relaxing and riding gravel will be good enough for me if that's what it comes to.
Trace is still having troubles w/ the XRR and is talking about not coming up until Sat. ---if at all. I would prefer to come up early Sat. morning myself. Maybe I can cruise out and help him get that bike running and we will see you in the morning??

KC

Rule 1: Don't mess with a bike that is running a day before the trip.

Rule 2: Once baby arrives in a household, time off is limited. My spouse and 3 MO are away this weekend, so this is it.

Rule 3: Crap happens.

With that latter one in mind, let's plan on meeting Saturday morning, somewhere. Single day or camp out as well?

I am game for Manhattan or the Flint Hills. If the Flint Hills, perhaps Cassoday?

Day trip or weekend?

safiri wrote:Rule 1: Don't mess with a bike that is running a day before the trip.

Rule 2: Once baby arrives in a household, time off is limited. My spouse and 3 MO are away this weekend, so this is it.

Rule 3: Crap happens.

With that latter one in mind, let's plan on meeting Saturday morning, somewhere. Single day or camp out as well?

I am game for Manhattan or the Flint Hills. If the Flint Hills, perhaps Cassoday?

Day trip or weekend?

Dang Hayden!!! Just pull another bike our to the stable dude and ride. That 640 Adventure would be my choice...

Safiri might be camping all by himself this weekend but just think no diapers to change!!!!!! Wish I could be there.

Daryl

I would go but I'm going to go check out an old KTM Saturday

With all of the rain I am leaning toward moving this ride to the flint hills ... no dust and no / little mud. The dirt around Manhattan turns to gumbo when wet, and it is very wet.

We've had a lot of rain here...I wonder how much they've had over in Junction City (Milford Lake). School Creek ORV there is very rocky in most places and does well with rain. But if it has rained a lot for 2 or 3 days, it will be a mess, too.

Great weekend to do a long Flint Hills ride...but I know KC's panties get in a wad if he has to ride his DRZ more than 100 miles.

I can go out to our trails here in Manhattan on a Saturday around noon and they are so sloppy wet I won't even go down into the "bowl" because I know I wouldn't get back out.
If quite a few quads show up during the day it will be plenty dry to ride on around 5pm.
Or then Sunday it's just perfect except for a few mudholes.

troy wrote:We've had a lot of rain here...I wonder how much they've had over in Junction City (Milford Lake). School Creek ORV there is very rocky in most places and does well with rain. But if it has rained a lot for 2 or 3 days, it will be a mess, too.

Great weekend to do a long Flint Hills ride...but I know KC's panties get in a wad if he has to ride his DRZ more than 100 miles.

Ha, Ha, you very funny!
I was running 14/48 gearing which makes the DRZ a hill climbing machine. I bought a new 15 for the front so I can cruise 65 again....but you are right, my panties still get a little scrunchy over long stretches of pavement. Where's my 640 Adventure at?? There used to be a pretty nice one down in New Mexico I could buy.

Tracy, KC, and I (Mike) are meeting at the cafe in Cassoday at 9 am. We will eat and then ride. And ride, and ride, and ride.

This is now a gravel ride.

From Cassoday back to Cassoday was 172 miles of wonderful riding led by Tracy. Tracy had reconnoitered the area over the past several months so he had great knowledge of the best [worst] roads to travel.

Here is a page of pictures and two videos:
http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/Motorc ... 070428.htm

Breakfast at the Cassoday cafe took nearly forever ... at least 45 minutes. The food was good, the ham was more of a ham steak (3/4" inch thick and big in the other dimensions as well).

From Cassoday we headed south and west, eventually arriving in Beaumont from the east via abondoned railroad right of way. [not sure of legality of doing that ...]. We all enjoyed desert at the Beaumont Hotel / Cafe (black raspberry cobble ala mode and peach cobbler ala mode)

From the cafe we headed south to the the wind farm and then east and north to Piedmont. More abandoned railroad brought us to Severy. Then backroads to Cassoday.

Several stream crossings were part of the route.

Avg moving speed: 38.5 mph
Moving time: 4:28
Stopped time: 2:30 (including desert in Beaumont)

Tracy and KC then rode back to Wichita, whereas I loaded up the trailer and drove back to Overland Park.

The only fall of the day was me, at Cassoday, after loading up, when I tripped over the tongue of my trailer while trying to step over it. My knee pads protected my knees in the resulting fall, but my hand got a bit banged up. I guess Daryl was with us in spirit. (And the fall happened at a gas station!)

Made it home at 7:30 mike. 347 miles for me. WOW what a day. Thanks for coming down and thanks to KC for joining us. It was a great day. Soooo much to explore out there. Took some familiar roads and found a few new ones. My route keeps getting bigger and bigger.


T

Thanks for sharing the photos and videos! What a great day to ride. Sorry I missed out.

Are you telling me that Kyle did 300 or so miles in one day on his DRZ400?!

Great photos and vids. That looked like a lot of fun.

Regarding abandoned RR tracks: In most cases once RR tracks are abandoned they revert back to the land owner. The exception is when they are "banked". If "banked" the control goes to the state. Either way it is trespassing and if caught you would have a little explaining to do.

ajayhawkfan wrote:Great photos and vids. That looked like a lot of fun.

Regarding abandoned RR tracks: In most cases once RR tracks are abandoned they revert back to the land owner. The exception is when they are "banked". If "banked" the control goes to the state. Either way it is trespassing and if caught you would have a little explaining to do.

Kinda what I figured ... Pushed the idea a bit as lots of the area is open range with public roads crossing private land ... at least that was going to be my claim. No signs and no purple paint anywhere. Too bad if the ROW is not being banked as the area is beautiful. Once gone, those corridors are not coming back.

What a GREAT ride!! I needed that big time. My hat is off to Trace for finding some of the best min. maintenance roads in Kansas. Here is a link to the few photos I managed to get. Hey, when you're doing 60mph+ on some pretty extreme terrain(for the Flint Hills anyway), you don't have time for photo ops!....I loved it though!

http://picasaweb.google.com/wolf.kyle/CassodyRide07

safiri wrote: Kinda what I figured ... Pushed the idea a bit as lots of the area is open range with public roads crossing private land ... at least that was going to be my claim. No signs and no purple paint anywhere. Too bad if the ROW is not being banked as the area is beautiful. Once gone, those corridors are not coming back.

If they revert back to the land owner they are lost. However when "banked" most become hiking trails. Examples are the KATY Trail in MO, The Prairie Spirit Trail between Ottawa and Iola, Kansas and a new one near Council Grove, KS