# Michigan dual sporters post up!!!



## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

I got myself a Honda XR650L last year and have to say of all the bikes I've owned over the last 23 years, it is the one that is the funnest.

I already know "Intheriver" has a bike like mine and we have talked about getting together to ride the Big O this year. That trail was made for our big heavy beasts and he needs to see the great Motorcycle only trails we have on the West side of the state.

Would any of you be interested in getting together this year, once or more to do a day of riding? The Big O is 72 miles long......but with my big heavy bike, I usually skip the section that is ATV(the upper North part) 

I'm also now a member of the Great Lake Dual Sporters and they have some pretty awsome rides lined up for 2009. Plated bikes only and they have strict exhaust restrictions.


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

DTG,

Hope you like your new bike! My son and I both bought XR650R's and converted them to dual sports last year. We agree that the Big Red Pigs are one of the best bikes that we've owned! I'm disappointed that they quit making the R version. 

We live in the south east but have a cabin that is located very close to GLDS. We haven't joined yet but are thinking about it! You may enjoy this if you haven't found it already www.thumpertalk.com

Have fun and be safe!


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## tdf (Feb 10, 2006)

Got one. DR350SE, 70MPG's. Nice bike. I drive it into work during the summer. 

D


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Quad, I was all over TT before I went with the BRP. Lots of knowledge on that site.

You should look into joining up with GLDS, it's only $10/yr and you'll have access to a ton of GPS downloaded trails.


TDF, one of the guys I ride with has a DR350 and he rocks that thing. He stripped it down to the frame over the winter and swapped out the forks for a pair of USD's!!! I'm anxious to see how he likes those USD's on the trails.


So would either of you be up for a ride on the Big O this Summer?

GLDS have an awsome ride up in Newberry in June or July that I heard is a whole lot of fun, nothing but Dual sports and hundreds of miles of trails.


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

DTG,

Yeah, we plan on joining the club this spring, but we plan on driving over and paying our dues in person. My son has some of their trail maps strung up all over the basement wall plus a hole book assembled with them. 

Not too sure about making it over there. We have so much up where we are at base camp that we just start extending our trips to further distances. I also like to stick to two tracks and dirt roads as oppose to sandy single track riding? Is the Big O a single track trail? 

I rode the Tin Cup trail years ago when I was a teenager.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Quadd4 said:


> DTG,
> 
> Yeah, we plan on joining the club this spring, but we plan on driving over and paying our dues in person. My son has some of their trail maps strung up all over the basement wall plus a hole book assembled with them.
> 
> ...


The Big O is a little bit of everything and not too much of any one thing. If I can do it anyone can.....I HATE sand, and LOVE the Big O. It's some two track, some single track a few whoops, some sand, lots of dirt, some gravel roads, some paved roads. It has enough of everything to keep it interesting and not enough to get you frustrated.


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## InTheRiver (May 15, 2006)

DTG! I'm ready to ride this year! I should be able to get weekends off. Just give me a heads up when you get a ride planned or if your going to be out riding.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

InTheRiver said:


> DTG! I'm ready to ride this year! I should be able to get weekends off. Just give me a heads up when you get a ride planned or if your going to be out riding.


I'm chomping at thebit here. I just got my suspension reworked for my tubbyness and really want to see it in action on the trails. I'm waiting for all the snow and ice to clear out of all the shaded spots. Should be ready to ride in a couple of weeks.

I just picked up a single place trailer over the weekend, my 42 yr old butt just can't handle the all day rides in the saddle


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

dtg said:


> The Big O is a little bit of everything and not too much of any one thing. If I can do it anyone can.....I HATE sand, and LOVE the Big O. It's some two track, some single track a few whoops, some sand, lots of dirt, some gravel roads, some paved roads. It has enough of everything to keep it interesting and not enough to get you frustrated.


I'm with you on the sand! Sounds like a pretty good trail. Is there any hills to climb? That's the one thing that my son hasn't experienced much of, is hills. I remember the west side being a little hilly. Maybe we may make a trip. Later in the summer may be better, we have walleye and turkey season to contend with through April.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

There's a couple of smaller hills, nothing gigantic or too treacherous. There's one nice longer one if you go counterclockwise, another sandy one if you go off the Big O and onto the Whitecloud trail loop. so yeah, there's a couple of hills, but nothing that is too imtimidating. I just started riding off road last year and started doing it with the biggest heaviest most trail worthy beast of them all, so if I can do it, the kids will have a walk in the park.

I went in Octover of last year and there were a couple of trees down, some that were smaller and can be crossed fairly easily, about 8-10" around, others had to be gone around....too many branches. I'm sure with the winter we've had, there's many more trees down now.

We really should get together for the Big O, it'd be a fun ride for sure. I know it pretty well now, plus I'm getting a GArmin 60Csx in the mail tomorrow and will be downloading the GLDS maps.


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

DTG,

We have the Garmin 60CsX also. Its a very nice GPS and has worked great so far. Look into a RAM mount for it. They make a handle bar mount that works really well. I'll take a few pics tonight and post them up soon. 

With all the rain and snow this year, hows the area around the Big O? Our place in Gladwin sits really low and in the spring we face lots of water over the roads.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

2000 BMW F 650 GS. I discovered there is little point in keeping the GPS on a bar mount, it will either get beaten by branches, fall off over jumps, or whatever. Besides, you can't reafd the darn thing without stopping anyhow. It's a lot safer in a pocket.
But my Garmin Emap did somehow survive all the banging around till I figured out it wasn't going to work.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Quadd4 said:


> DTG,
> 
> We have the Garmin 60CsX also. Its a very nice GPS and has worked great so far. Look into a RAM mount for it. They make a handle bar mount that works really well. I'll take a few pics tonight and post them up soon.
> 
> With all the rain and snow this year, hows the area around the Big O? Our place in Gladwin sits really low and in the spring we face lots of water over the roads.


My 60Csx was sitting on the deck when I got home Ive already been playing with it. It looks very limited as far as side roads go, so maybe I need to get the mapsource cd loaded up on it. I got a 2gig card with it too and am anxious to load up all the Vmapping trial info. I've already got the Ram handlebar ball mount for my Lowrance ifinder, now I just need to get the 60Csx cradle and hardwire kit. My iFinder chewed through the 4 AA's before the end of each day, so I'm going to tap into the Xr's battery on this one. 


ESOX, believe me, I've fallen plenty on my XR650L and my Lowrance never once suffered the wrath of the woods. I angle the setup toward the center of the bars and if I fall, it never even sees the ground. I'd have to loop out for any bar mounted gps to get damaged. I've only broken a stock mirror out, the mount stay put, but the mirror busted right out. I don't fall as much anymore


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Quadd4 said:


> DTG,
> 
> We have the Garmin 60CsX also. Its a very nice GPS and has worked great so far. Look into a RAM mount for it. They make a handle bar mount that works really well. I'll take a few pics tonight and post them up soon.
> 
> With all the rain and snow this year, hows the area around the Big O? Our place in Gladwin sits really low and in the spring we face lots of water over the roads.


Well, last night I spent quite a bit of time attmempting to download all the MI ORV trails from Vmapping. I accomplished the transfer, but the trails are just lines and not brightly colored like the site shows they should be. What the heck did I do wrong? I didn't load up Mapsourse on the unit, because Vmapping said you can directly download their maps to the unit without it. I've got the display detail setting on most, but it still comes up as little lines.


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## DetroitIron (Dec 4, 2003)

I have a XR250R, punched out to a 300, courtesy of thumper racing. Running a "sicass" dual sport kit I had installed last summer. Had the boys in blue sign off on all my road legal equipment, I am now a legal eagle as of last summer. 

I had a blast dual sporting this honda XR around. I'm not taking it out on any highways, mostly 45-50 mph top speed roads. However, when I find some "secret spots", this thing is light enough when I get off road I have a absolute blast with it!! Its also very quiet, which I like. 

Dual sporting is a blast!!


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

DetroitIron said:


> Dual sporting is a blast!!


 When my son was 12 we bought a pair of Yamaha TTR 225's and started riding the motorsports trails up north. I was so sick of riding sand that 1 trip a year was about all I could stand. When he turned 16, we got his motorcycle endorsment and made the bikes road legal. From that point on, we couldn't get enough. Then we bought those big ol XR650's and it brought it up another notch. Way too much fun! Can't wait!


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

I'm actually contemplating riding up to the Big O this Saturday. I'm waiting for a Bike Shoe wheel chock for my trailer to arrive, otherwise I'd definitely be trailering it up to ride. But I always have a hard time comitting when I have to actually ride an hour and a half on that thing up and back again. I've got it geared low for the trails, so riding it up and back is a slow deal and painful on the buttocks.

I got the Garmin all loaded up with the Vmapping trails today, yeaaaahhhH!!!!! Now just waiting for the RAM cradle.


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

Here are those pics of the RAM mount for the 60CsX. 


























I know this isn't on the XR650's. Its on my sons new single track machine. It only needs a DOT front knobby and a horn to be MI legal!!! Have fun if you "go for the O" this weekend.

Here are our two XR650R's. My son has the desert tank and mine is a stocker. The KTM is a 300cc 2 smoker that my son bought and he is turning it into a street legal trail machine.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

That Katopom 300 2 smoker looks nice. I wish I could afford that 300XCW(e) it looks like it would be one hell of a fun tight and twisty bike.

Looks like my bike shoe should arrive tomorrow, so if I got time to install it, I'll be riding the Big O by noon tomorrow. Yeeeeehaaaaaa!!!!!


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## smokepants (Dec 4, 2006)

I have a DR350SE and love it. I only have one guy to ride with but we still get out quite a bit. I wish I knew some other people around here with some, it would be fun to go out with a group. Dual Sports are great, when you get off the trails you hit the pavement and go home. No hassle with loading and trailers.

Neil.


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## Quadd4 (Jan 15, 2005)

ya same here so far its just e and my son. But lets see some pictures of these dual sports!!!!!!


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Here's mine, I'm waiting for some warm sunny weather before I put the Acerbis 5.8 tank on. It needs to be somewhat malleable to fit over the tank pins. I'm not shearing them off like the instructions say. I'll be hard wiring my Garmin 60Csx soon as well.


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

Rode the Big O last Saturday solo. It was a nice warm day and I got on the trail close to noon. Lots of trees down, a couple were right around a corner, which made me pucker as I came within a foot of one before stopping. Most were easy to get around, some took quite a bit of manuevering with the huge beast. I had something kick up hard off the underbelly of the beast, killing the motor. After a few minutes of dinking around I discovered that it knocked the spring off of the kickstand, tripping the switch there, killing the engine. I was fortunate enough to find it about 20-30' back on the loose sandy trail and with some effort, got it back on and rolled on.

I rode from the 32nd st. lot to just West of the Ruby creek gas station before filling up and taking mostly streets back to the trail that heads North back to the parking lot. I only ran into one group of three along the way and the trails were in decent shape.

Here is a stop I took just south adn a little west of the fuel stop.







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