| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
Some friends and I are planning a dual sport trip to the UP in Michigan around Memorial day. I can't wait. It will probably be 4 days of riding. We have access to a house near the far northern tip (Eagle Harbor). We will trailer up from Ohio to there and make that our base. But then what? I'll looking for some advice from locals or people that have done this before. The Routes: We are looking for just about all off road, but figure we will be stuck with some on road to do it. A grand loop of multi days with camping would be the most adventurous, but would present some interesting obstacles for schlepping gear and would make the stakes pretty high for injury to man or machine... instead of "how do we get back to the trailer today" it is "the trip just ended". Little loops (and by little I am thinking 50 to 200 miles) seem more logical, but perhaps less "adventurous". I'd vote for little loops but others going like the idea of a big loop. All of us are flexible. Any thoughts? Then the bikes. I'd love to run my KDX-200... it would be great for this stuff. Here in Ohio, to it's credit, you can pretty much get a plate for anything with a VIN and a Title (both of which I have). That gets you a plate, but no promises. If I were then to take that plated bike out on the street and a cop saw it, he would rightfully ticket me for no headlight, no tail light, no signals, no mirrors, etc. In MI, from what I hear, you can take off road vehicles with no plate along the right shoulder at 25 mph or less. That would be nice to connect trails or avoid loading up a trailer to just go 5 miles from lodging to trail head. When you get that far, does anyone actually give a rats ass about street legal or not? As far as I can tell, the line between public roads and private (but open) trails is really squishy. One kind of trickles off into the other. I can borrow an XR-650 (the big red pig) if I want too, but the KDX would be more fun. Either run it as is as an off road vehicle (cheapest and easiest), or with insurance and Ohio plates but clearly still illegal (maybe just take a low risk of a $300 equipment ticket from a cop in a bad mood). Or just plate the XR and take that. I'm also hearing about trails being controlled by quad riders, and them marking them off limits for motorcycles. Sometimes with permission of the mining company land owners, some times because they are just making stuff up. Is that a real problem? What about specific riding locations? Any recommendations? We are all mature seasoned riders with decades of riding experience both on and off road. Not racers by any stretch, and easy to slow down, but not likely to be stopped unless things get really insane. So, suggestions? Comments? Ideas? This thing is coming up FAST. Thanks! | ||
| Daves |
Do search for Creature here. Haven't seen him post in a looooong time but he helped us on the "Ride your Uly to the UP" promo I did back in 06. He lives in Iron Mountain. Have fun! Wish we could've spent a few more days up there! | ||
| Iamike |
Check out this guy's rides: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=792871 |
