- Joined
- Aug 5, 2010
- Messages
- 10
Howdy -
By way of introduction my name is Mike (probably guessed from the board handle). I'm a new dirt rider living up in Portland, Oregon. Been riding street bikes most of my life, but somehow ended up with four dirt bikes in the garage this summer - the latest being an 04 Husaberg FE 450 that I purchased from a local guy.
As I mentioned dirt riding is totally new to me, I've been on a Honda CRF 230F for the past few months, and decided I wanted to move up to a big boy bike, and I got the 450 with low usage (1190 miles 49.2 hours) for what I thought was a very fair price.
I have done all my riding so far up at Browns camp (an OHV area in a nearby state forest) - and basically do 80% single track 20% logging roads (only use the roads to connect to the trails). I intend on trying some high desert and cross country type stuff next summer, and moving into a bit of class C racing stuff for fun maybe as well - but who knows on that.
The terrain up at Browns is mostly (this time of year) hard pack single track with lots of exposed roots, large embedded rocks (not boulders - just big stones) and in the corners loose sharp gravel (from the maintenance folks).
I took the berg up there yesterday for a first go round - I rode about 2.5 hours on all the trails I'd been riding the 230 on to get a good comparison. Here's what I discovered.
- I was WAY faster on the logging roads. Now I know some of you cruise around at 70 MPH, but for me I hadn't really gone faster than about 25-30 and always felt the 230 was just going to slide out from under me - at 45 I felt like i was on my street bike (Triump Sprint ST), totally in control
- On the trail downhills I had a lot more control, and was able to move more quickly that I ever could before
- On the trail uphills a felt a bit more out of control than on the 230. I think mostly I was intimidated by the bike’s size – the seat height had me flailing my legs looking for the ground a few times when I felt things were going sideways (but my feet couldn’t find the ground, and I actually only went down once)
I had set a curfew checking in with the wife, and as the appointed time drew closer I felt like a kid out on a summer’s night having the time of his life, but knowing mom was going to call me in for supper at any minute – at one point I was back at the car ready to pack up and then decided I needed to hit one more trail ?
Look forward to many more good times, and interacting with the community on the site (I’ve already met Rick as I needed to put a side stand on the bike – apparently the last owner thought they weren’t necessary and took it off ?)
Mike
By way of introduction my name is Mike (probably guessed from the board handle). I'm a new dirt rider living up in Portland, Oregon. Been riding street bikes most of my life, but somehow ended up with four dirt bikes in the garage this summer - the latest being an 04 Husaberg FE 450 that I purchased from a local guy.
As I mentioned dirt riding is totally new to me, I've been on a Honda CRF 230F for the past few months, and decided I wanted to move up to a big boy bike, and I got the 450 with low usage (1190 miles 49.2 hours) for what I thought was a very fair price.
I have done all my riding so far up at Browns camp (an OHV area in a nearby state forest) - and basically do 80% single track 20% logging roads (only use the roads to connect to the trails). I intend on trying some high desert and cross country type stuff next summer, and moving into a bit of class C racing stuff for fun maybe as well - but who knows on that.
The terrain up at Browns is mostly (this time of year) hard pack single track with lots of exposed roots, large embedded rocks (not boulders - just big stones) and in the corners loose sharp gravel (from the maintenance folks).
I took the berg up there yesterday for a first go round - I rode about 2.5 hours on all the trails I'd been riding the 230 on to get a good comparison. Here's what I discovered.
- I was WAY faster on the logging roads. Now I know some of you cruise around at 70 MPH, but for me I hadn't really gone faster than about 25-30 and always felt the 230 was just going to slide out from under me - at 45 I felt like i was on my street bike (Triump Sprint ST), totally in control
- On the trail downhills I had a lot more control, and was able to move more quickly that I ever could before
- On the trail uphills a felt a bit more out of control than on the 230. I think mostly I was intimidated by the bike’s size – the seat height had me flailing my legs looking for the ground a few times when I felt things were going sideways (but my feet couldn’t find the ground, and I actually only went down once)
I had set a curfew checking in with the wife, and as the appointed time drew closer I felt like a kid out on a summer’s night having the time of his life, but knowing mom was going to call me in for supper at any minute – at one point I was back at the car ready to pack up and then decided I needed to hit one more trail ?
Look forward to many more good times, and interacting with the community on the site (I’ve already met Rick as I needed to put a side stand on the bike – apparently the last owner thought they weren’t necessary and took it off ?)
Mike
