The Mountain
Active Member
Finally had nice weather up here in NH, and finally decided to get some dirt on the tires, so I went looking for what are known up here as "Class VI" roads in my area. These are roads that are still on the books, and even sometimes still on the map, but they're no longer maintained by the town. The one I finally found very quickly deteriorated beyond "packed dirt with potholes" into "ya know, this looks more like a seasonal stream bed than a road, but hey, it still has the two tire ruts" kind of thing. It started out fairly level and clear, but gradually faded more and more into the forest floor; lots of exposed roots and rocks, and then it started going downhill (literally). I finally stopped when I encountered a section where an actual seasonal stream crossed what was left of the road, resulting in a very soft-looking boggy area. It's probably best that I had stopped where I did, because I reviewed the map later and the road only continued a few hundred yards further before dead-ending in a marshy pond that probably would have been even more inescapable.
Now, this "road" did still see traffic of a sort. There were tire tracks of at least one actual road-legal vehicle (probably a Jeep), and a number of side-by-sides and dirt bikes, but it was hairy enough slithering a 600-lb motorcycle down this lane on the OEM Battlewings without trying to mud-bog into the bargain. As it was, I had enough "fun" manhandling the bike through a U-turn, and then back up the surprisingly slippery hill (leaves over damp sandy loam). I made it back up, finally, without ever actually dropping the bike. I eventually had to shut the TCS completely off, and engage some big handfuls of throttle, but thankfully no disasters. The only "damage" from my excursion is that, despite not going down, hitting any trees, or smacking any big rocks, I seem to have tweaked the forks, so that now the bars and triple-tree have to be angled off to the right in order for the bike to travel straight. I've got an appointment to drop the bike at the dealer to have the forks checked on the 18th. As far as I can tell, the fork tubes aren't bent; I think I just twisted them in the clamps.
My GoPro is on order, but hadn't arrived yet, so unfortunately no pics to share.
Now, this "road" did still see traffic of a sort. There were tire tracks of at least one actual road-legal vehicle (probably a Jeep), and a number of side-by-sides and dirt bikes, but it was hairy enough slithering a 600-lb motorcycle down this lane on the OEM Battlewings without trying to mud-bog into the bargain. As it was, I had enough "fun" manhandling the bike through a U-turn, and then back up the surprisingly slippery hill (leaves over damp sandy loam). I made it back up, finally, without ever actually dropping the bike. I eventually had to shut the TCS completely off, and engage some big handfuls of throttle, but thankfully no disasters. The only "damage" from my excursion is that, despite not going down, hitting any trees, or smacking any big rocks, I seem to have tweaked the forks, so that now the bars and triple-tree have to be angled off to the right in order for the bike to travel straight. I've got an appointment to drop the bike at the dealer to have the forks checked on the 18th. As far as I can tell, the fork tubes aren't bent; I think I just twisted them in the clamps.
My GoPro is on order, but hadn't arrived yet, so unfortunately no pics to share.
