Dirt Biking in Idaho

Trip to the Chiropractor

2010-06-09T21:59:00.004-06:00

I made a trip to the chiropractor trying to figure out why my tail bone hurts so bad when I ride. I was told that possibly I have something out of line that is causing the pain. The chiropractor confirmed that something was out of line, but we'll see if it makes any difference. I put a softer foam on my seat, but within 15 minutes of riding I could hard handle the pain. I admit, I'm more of a 'sitter' than a 'stander' when I ride, old age partly, too tall to stand comfortably as it makes my back tired or with legs bent tires my legs.
I haven't had a chance to get on the bike again, but it seems that just sitting in general seems to be more comfortable. It would be great if that makes a real difference. A bit of discomfort is certainly normal, but excruciating pain totally takes the enjoyment out of the ride. Any one else suffer with this?

Rod

Tested in Moab, Great Decision

2010-04-25T19:33:00.013-06:00

Well I took my new ride to Moab, UT for the first ride of the season and decided it was a great choice. Between being about 30 lbs lighter and much more responsive it is a win, win deal. I could really feel the difference in weight and handling in the deep sand we rode in. The kind of sand that you need to get up to about 40 mph to get the bike to stop being so squirrelly.

I'm also really happy with my Acewell 3200 computer. The Vapor/Vector Temperature Sensor works great and so much neater install than what comes with the Acewell. Rather than having to cut the hose and clamp the sensor in line, you just screw it in the top of the radiator air bleed screw. Having a temperature senser made me realized that I needed to pick up the pace on some of my riding. On the second day I was feeling pretty tired and the bike started to over heat in the sand. By picking up speed the temperature dropped almost right away.
Moab was some great riding. I'd highly recommend it for those of you who haven't taken the trek. I am somewhat biased to Idaho mountains, but it was a nice change and great opportunity to ride before trails open in Idaho.

I mapped the rides on my website, check them out: Moab, 7 Mile Rim; Steel Bender and Fins & Things.

Rod

2010-03-19T15:55:00.012-06:00

Well, I decided to sell my 06 Suzuki DRZ400S.
It has been a good bike and I had a lot of fun on it. However it was a bit heavy for trail riding and I decided to shed 30 lbs and get the off street version.

A friend of mine decided to buy a new RMX450 and he sold me his 04 DRZ400E. It was in mint condition, looked like it just came off the showroom floor!
I put an Acewell 3200 digital speedometer/tach on it as it only had a trip odometer. I can tell it has quite a bit better power than the street version and I'm looking forward to taking it out for a ride.
I'm really looking forward to ridng again this summer. Let me know where you are planning to ride.

Rod

Time to Hit the Trails Again

2009-05-19T19:43:00.009-06:00

It seems like it has been a really long winter and a very slow summer in coming! Been on one ride up Blackrock, but looking for a good single track ride with a bit more elevation. A friend and I are to check out a ride up north in a place called Crooked Creek. Dave from Idaho Trail Riders turned us on to it. You can view his discription at Crooked Creek. Hope to have some good pics and video as well as gps data for you with in a few weeks.
Where are you riding around SE Idaho? What trails are open?

Rod

Seat Findings

2008-10-08T19:45:00.009-06:00

Now that I have had a few hours on the new seats here's my verdict: DRZ400 some improvement. V-Strom DL1000, significant improvement! I was able to put about 2300 miles on the V-Strom in July. They say it takes a 2000 to break the Corbin in and I believe it! I purchased a fleece to help the process for the long rides. Long for me is between 450 and 500 miles in a day. It wasn't pretty, but it was much better for me than the stock seat. I still would like a bit more of a cup in the back to take pressure of the tail bone, but like I said, it is a big improvement.
I had a chance to ride up through Yellowstone Park and over the Beartooth/Cook City highway to Roberts Idaho and then back over the Chief Joseph Highway on the way back. Later in the month I rode to Boise and then with my son, Mark, up to Highway 55 & 95 to Lewiston and down the Oregon side of Hells Canyon. EPIC! From Pocatello and back it was about 1300 miles over 4 days.
I rode about 50 miles the day and it did seem to be broke in better, but haven't ridden any long rides since.
On the DRZ400 I had a couple opportunities to ride 25-35 miles. I replaced the foam with a softer foam. (the foam pictured is the original foam) I added some padded bike shorts to the ride and between the two, fared significantly better.
Anybody else have any issue with uncomfortable seats?

New Friends from Indiana

2008-08-31T16:50:00.005-06:00

I had a chance to meet some new friends from Indiana. Phil had emailed me earlier in this spring and mentioned that they were coming after seeing my website. Unfortunately I had used up most of my vacation in July and was just coming back from a weekend away doing a wedding for my nephew back in Eastern Montana, so I didn't get a chance to ride with them. I did run up to where they were camping and talked dirt for a while. They also ride V Stroms so we had a lot in common.
I have had others talk about coming, but with the gas prices jumping the way they did Phil and Gary and the crew were the only ones to make it.
Thanks guys, it was great to meet you!

Summer is winding down, but some of the best ridin is yet to come

2008-08-30T09:56:00.007-06:00

In Pocatello we are already feeling the effects of Fall, with tempatures dropping to the mid 40's at night from time to time. I haven't gotten on my dirt bike for six weeks, too many distractions, I guess. But I am hoping to do some riding this Fall. With a bit of moisture and cooler tempatures the riding couldn't be much better. I love the spring, but then you have to contend with the snow in higher elevations.

How about you? Did you get any good rides this summer? Was my site of any help to you?

Did anyone get inspired to get a gps and follow a track or just track their own ride? What are your recommendations for a gps. I'm stuck on my Magellan 500 Explorist LE. It is realitively inexpensive, color screen, durable and reasonable battery life when you get the extended LiIon battery, about 7 hours or so. Even though Magellan has a horrible reputation for its customer service, once I got it figured out it seems to work well. However, the Explorist 500 may be discontinued as Magellan has come out with a new line up. (I haven't heard anything good about the Triton Series) I have seen the Explorist 500 as low as $138 without the battery. I think I paid $159 with the MapSend software. I purchased a LiIon battery separately. I got a RAM mount that works well.

New Seat

2008-07-07T22:46:00.009-06:00

I broke down and bought a gel seat for my DRZ400. After riding a few long rides this spring I decided that I had to do something as the stock seat was killing me. Maybe I don't ride aggressive enough, sitting too much, or I have a tender hinny, but it just isn't fun to be in such pain! I bought a gel seat from ridenow.com and rode with it up near Stanley. We just went about 22 miles the first day and I wasn't impressed with the comfort, even though we were on and off our bikes going over or around 20 logs. It took us 2 1/2 hours to ride 5 miles. Check out the Marten Lake ride. The next day we rode from Sunbeam, up Loon Creek Summit down to Diamond D Ranch, up to Pinyon Peak and back to Sunbeam. I was ready to give up riding by the time I was done. It was 100 miles, but it seemed that the gel seat was almost worse than the stock seat. It is nice and round compared to the square sides of the stock seat, but sure wasn't any more comfortable to me. I called them up and they said I could return it so I sent it back today. I did some surfing and came across a forum where I guy swore by gutsracing.com seat. You can order just the foam for about $65 including shipping in soft, medium or hard. When I called and talked to them they said that medium is like the stock seat. He also said that they get quite a few orders replacing gel seats. The challenge will be taking off the cover and installing the foam. I'll let you know how it works out when it comes.

Rod

The Ride of No Return

2008-07-03T08:18:00.013-06:00

It is day two and I am still recovering from the 'ride of no return'. This isn't the first time that I have taken a unknown trail that turned out not to be what I thought it was, but this certainly topped them all.
First I have a confession to make to my friends John & Gary, I had been warned by a ATVer that this was a wicked trail. However, being the optimist that I am, another rider told me it wasn't that bad. Looking at his bike and gear should have been a clue that he was into gnarly rides! As I said on my website the ride up to Garns Mtn was a sweet ride, a bit of a challenge but not bad at all. It all went south (literally) when we headed down into the jungle Burns Canyon. I wasn't sure where it was exactly, but as I mentioned in my last blog I had figured out a way to upload from a track I put on Google Earth that seemed to show a faint trail. Actually the trail we went on did not follow the track I had on my GPS. The track was pretty much of a straight shot down Burns Creek.
First we headed down to Castle Lake by passing a hint of a trail to the right, but ended up on a dead end. We came back and decided after finding a sign nailed to a fallen tree that this was indeed Burns Creek Trail. Heck, what would it hurt to check it out? It started of a bit wet, but not too bad. Then it started a steep decent and I was thinking, 'I hope I don't have to come back up this way!' We had already riden about 3 1/2 hours or so I was feeling a bit fatigued. Then after crossing Burns Creek to find a fallen log that we had to literally drag our bikes under and up a muddy incline confirmed that issue! By then John and Gary were beginning to question my tour guiding abilities. I realized that we were only about 10% down the canyon. It was a gnarly ride up the other side, going under fallen trees, trying to get traction up a trail with water running down. It took help getting over one root. At one point I misjudged a tree and got pulled off the back of my bike. I was the first to the next junction and laid down just to catch my breath.
We had a decision to make at that point. Gary was concerned his KTM 400 was going to run out of gas and it was overheating. Like a good trail guide I had left the Forest Service Map I had made a special trip to the Forest Service office that morning to pick up, in the van! Gary decided to walk down Burns Creek Trail to see if it was passable because there wasn't any sign of recent use. He came back with a 'good luck getting through there' report. So John headed up Slide Rock Trail towards Piney Peak. I was so fatigued that the climb to the first plateau was about all I could handle. With all of the stalling and starting Gary's bike's battery was dead and John came back with the report of more steep climbing. Fortunately, Gary had a kick starter on his bike. Gary couldn't get his bike to start and by then we were seriously considering the possibility of leaving the bikes and walking out before it got dark. The thought of trying to walk 6-8 miles in motorcycle boots didn't seem real appealing to me, not to mention how we would ever get the bikes out. Seeing that we didn't know where Slide Rock Trail ended up and Gary's bike over heating and having a dead battery we decided to take our chances going down Burns Creek Trail.
I accidently hit the shut off on my bike and so when I went to start it I thought my battery was dead as well and mnie doesn't have a kick starter! I had to push it quite a ways through some muddy level areas to find a place dry enough and steep enough to start it, but to no avail. It was then I realized the kill switch was off!
From there it was a matter of lifting the bikes over numerous trees and down some harrowing rocks and roots with 12-18" drops. I would have paid good money for a collapsible bow saw about then. We finally came back to Burns Creek and I was trying to figure out the best place to cross. To the left were large round rocks that looked like a good opportunity to dump the bike and get real wet. To the right looked smoother so I went that way. It looked smoother because it was a hole which almost buried my front wheel. Fortunately I had just gotten new boots and I was able to stand in the 14" water and lift my front wheel to the place I could ride across without getting wet. My old boots would get me wet riding through a mud puddle!
By then we were all out of water. We had large 100 oz hydration packs but had sweat a couple gallons of water by then. Did I mention we hadn't brought any mosquito spray and they were having us for lunch everytime we pulled off our helmets to drain the sweat out when we stopped to lifted our bikes over the many obstacles.
Legs were cramping and the creek water was looking taster all the time!
After crossing the Burns Creek we met with a daunting climb out the other side. I made it to the first switch back and had to just stop and rest. John and Gary assumed I had come to another obstacle and were thinking, will this ever end! However from there it was just a matter of riding it out as the trail had improved remarkably. Finally we hit where Trail 068 came in and the trail was obviously well traveled. That bolstered our spirits as it seemed the end was insight, however the lack of drinking water was taking its toll. Gary decided to fill his hydration pack with creek water and take his chances with giardia! Three miles later and about 30 minutes we came to some campers and I begged for some water, which they graciously gave.
All I can say was I was glad that I was with the guys I was with. You really discover the character of people in stressful situations. These guys remained postive without a word of accusation to my guiding abilities. I wouldn't choose to do it again for love nor money, but its fun to have the memory. Thanks John & Gary for a great time.

Converting GPS Data

2008-07-01T03:50:00.007-06:00

I have been trying to figure out a way to convert routes that I have created in Google Earth to MapSend so I could up load it to my Magellan GPS unit. I couldn't sleep last night so I had time to figured out.
It was quite a process! First I used GPS Visualizer to convert the Google Earth (kmz) file to a text file, which I pasted into Notepad. Then I exported a sample file from MapSend into Excel so I would have the right column headings. Then I pasted the Latitude and Longitudes in to the appropriate columns. Next I imported the Excel into Mapsend which gave me waypoints. Then I built a route using the waypoints as a guide. Next I saved the route to a file and uploaded it with my Magellan Explorist Conversion program. It seems to work when I selected 'view route no map'. It even warned me that I was more than 1/2 off of the route. (Since I am sitting in my easy chair and the ride will be from Kelly Canyon to Garns Mtn tomorrow.)
Has any one else tried uploading Google Earth data on to their GPS unit? Does anyone know of an easier way?

Web traffic/This is the time to ride!

2008-06-26T17:01:00.004-06:00

I have been encouraged with the amount of traffic I have been getting on the site recently. Last week was a peak of 784 views in one week. I decided to add some Google Ads to the site to see if it would be worth it to off set some of my costs. I'm not sure that it is, but I have tried to place them in such a way as to make them not too intrusive. I am considering putting a paypal link for donations, as it does take a lot of work to keep the site updated. I enjoy doing it, however, and it gives me another excuse to explore a new trail.
June is the time to ride with everything so green and lush and temperatures so nice. Although, this year there are a lot of areas that won’t be open until July, which should extend the green season.
For those of you who are not from around here, Pocatello is located on a high dessert area (4500 ft elevation) so the hills right around the city usually stays green for about two weeks. This year has been better. Once you get up in the mountains it stays green much longer.
I’m hoping to ride up to Garns Mountain this next week. I’m taking a couple weeks vacation and a friend said he would be up to going with me.
How has your riding been so far this year? Tell me about your adventures.

Rod

Blackrock is a great ride

2008-05-30T17:02:00.003-06:00

After living in Pocatello for almost 27 years I had never really discovered how much fun Blackrock area is to ride. There are over 30 miles of trails with a tremendous amount of variety; nice climbs and beautiful tree covered areas. I saw a cow moose and calf while I was riding last Monday. I didn't want to get on her bad side with the calf so I kept a bit of distance and beeped my horn a couple times to get her to move on. She was in no hurry, but finally walked far enough I felt safe to pass.
The only reason I went to Blackrock to ride is there isn't much else open with all the snow we got this spring. It turned out to be a great discovery, checking out new trails I hadn't been on.
If you haven't ridden it lately, this is a great time to do so. The rain has made it lush and green with minimal dust. Later in the year it gets pretty dusty. I'm trying to get a few more pics of the newly chartered trails that I rode on Memorial Day.
I was hoping to get a lot of riding this summer adding new trails, but with the prospect of building a house, that may not happen.
What are your favorite rides? Undiscovered treasures?

Any Trails open & Passable?

2008-05-14T20:57:00.004-06:00

Has anybody found some good riding besides the desert and Black Rock to ride? I'm looking for something around Pocatello that isn't too muddy.

Rod

Just Getting Started

2008-05-11T04:47:00.004-06:00

About six months ago I started a website posting information on trails that I had ridden in Eastern Idaho. It all started when I began searching the web for ideas of where to ride and found little information for trails in Eastern Idaho. Even the Forest Service maps where not that clearly marked and hard to follow the actual trails. So the idea came to me after purchasing a GPS unit with 3-D software that I could publish maps, GPS data, along with pictures to help fellow riders find the trails I had ridden and give them a sneak preview through the pictures.
It became so much fun that my rides started being more about documenting them than riding! I still enjoy riding, but it has added a greater sense of purpose to it all.
Along with that I have began to find some new friends all over the country who have an interested in riding. I'm hoping to meet some from Indiana and Kansas who are planning on coming to Idaho to ride this summer.
This brings us to, why add a blog site? The purpose of this site is to make my site, http://www.dirtbiketrailsidaho.com/, more interactive. I would have liked to have just added a blog to my site, but because of the limitations it was easier to just link to this one.
What do you most enjoy about riding dirt bikes? Are you interested in building your own website? What would you like to see added to my site? What are some trails you have ridden that you would recommend?
Anyway, I hope that you will add some comments so we can get some threads going.

Rod