Green Ridge report
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:16 pm
I headed out to Green Ridge today to meet up with my very good friend Dennys (DP) who recently got himself a Yamaha YZ 250 F. DP road races and trains by riding mini supermoto indoors in the winter. He has been wanting to get something off road capable so he could further his training repertoire (any excuse for another bike ). We met up at lower Mertens parking area and started off for a lap. GR continues to do quite a bit of trail grooming and the section from 1/2 way between Mertens and the turn around to climb the ridge is all freshly graded with new water bars. Really freshly graded; there were hardly even any tracks in the dirt! The new Dunlop on the rear of my 520 sucks and it wasn't giving me any confidence. It breaks loose at the slightest amount of lean angle, where the previous Kenda Millville hooked up in an awesome way. Sorry to get OT, but the Dunlop wasn't good on the fresh grading. Our next encounter with trail maintenance was the rocky section after the fast run up the ridge. They have been filling in the rock section with tons of loose rocks, many the size of bricks and cinderblocks. This made for an interesting choice; nasty, jagged, exposed bedrock, or nasty loose, big and chunky rocks. Everywhere else was dry and dusty. After a long rest and some RockStar imbibement, we went out for another lap. I slowed the rebound and compression 4 clicks each on the rear and this calmed things down and helped the new tire work a little more predictibly. The RockStar was doing its job and my confidence and the pace was soaring. DP was all smiles. We swapped bikes at the upper Mertens junction and I got to try out the YZF. It is a very sweet bike and it worked pretty well around Green Ridge. The close ratio 4 speed was the biggest limitation on it for trail riding IMO. I had a good run on it and we swapped back at the 15 Mile Creek trail head, aka the start of the fun section. Back on the 520, the KTM showed me again just what an awesome bike it is; supremely torquey with a very serious top end to boot. It has excellent stability and sublime suspension. Maybe too sublime, but it sure soaks up everything!
We did that lap in about 1/2 to 1/3 of the time we did the first! We were rocking! Then the thunder started to rumble and we took cover in my truck. I don't think I have had a ride yet this year where it wasn't wet to some degree. It finally stopped raining and DP talked me into one more lap, in the wet. To my surprise, the rain made most of the trail better and more rideable. This was my favorite lap, and we pretty much railed it. DP tucked the front entering one of the bermed out turns, but he was fine. I got silly and almost looped the 520 when I gave it a bit too much wheelying a puddle. I couldn't get the front back down and almost wheelied right off into the woods. DP thought I did it all on purpose. (I think I carried the front thru about 3 puddles straight (not even close to on purpose ).
We left about 8 pm. Green Ridge was beautiful as always. We all but had the place to ourselves today. Tough to beat that.
We did that lap in about 1/2 to 1/3 of the time we did the first! We were rocking! Then the thunder started to rumble and we took cover in my truck. I don't think I have had a ride yet this year where it wasn't wet to some degree. It finally stopped raining and DP talked me into one more lap, in the wet. To my surprise, the rain made most of the trail better and more rideable. This was my favorite lap, and we pretty much railed it. DP tucked the front entering one of the bermed out turns, but he was fine. I got silly and almost looped the 520 when I gave it a bit too much wheelying a puddle. I couldn't get the front back down and almost wheelied right off into the woods. DP thought I did it all on purpose. (I think I carried the front thru about 3 puddles straight (not even close to on purpose ).
We left about 8 pm. Green Ridge was beautiful as always. We all but had the place to ourselves today. Tough to beat that.