Ledges, Ohio 2007 Ride!

[liflod]

Mike, if you've never ridden with a large group of 6x6 and 8x8 before, you should plan on next years event. Just watching how good (and bad) some of the machines and drivers perform is worth the trip. There's s few people you want to follow and a few people you don't want to follow

[hydromike]

These events are really what it's all about. A quick Google Maps query for "Kings Mountain, NC to Garrettsville, OH" shows its only about 8.5 hours. Marc S. from Jersey traveled 8 for Copper Ridge, and about the same for this ride. If you plan to arrive mid day on Thursday, you have all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday to ride. It's amazing how much you learn about your machine and other machines in this sort of gathering. The BS can be about knee-deep, but the trails are the great equalizer.

Some people take there machines right up to the gates of Hell and start knocking. Others putt-putt along at a steady 2 mph on the trail. I learned to listen to Lance and try to stay toward the head of the pack which moves a bit faster. Outside of the larger trail rides, there are about 60 hours worth of "go explore yourself" time where you can go where-ever you want when-ever you want. I already miss it...

~m

[Mike]

It sounds awesome. I do plan on going next year and really I just can't wait to ride with some other AATVs!

[egoperf]

Hey Lance, you woud'nt be referring to not following me are you? ha ha

[jpswift1]

Did you guys get some good exposure for 6x6world.com there?

[johnschwab]

Mike is right about these rides being a great place to watch other riders pilot their machines, some good, some great, some you wonder how they drove their family vehicle to the event! But all trying to have a good time, which I know I sure did. Personally I like to go out and give my Max II a thorough thrashing and this year was no exception. I have my annual case of poison ivy, which always seems to flare up after the Ledges ride...Hmmm...I wonder why. This was a great time as usual, there were about forty machines there, according to the unofficial count we took saturday pm. My favorite part was the high speed romp on the slimey woods trail saturday night right after the thunderstorm. What was everyone elses favorite part? Lets hear them. Thank you to everone who made this event happen, hopefully it will happen again next year. I think they really would need to get more folks there though.

[egoperf]

the slime was great but I liked the 10ft tall cattail run through the marsh, it was like a grand prix course with twists and turns and you could not see what was coming next. it was so soft you had to run full trottle. the bear caves were awsome too. anyone who missed it has got to go next year!! it has something for everyone.

[hydromike]

After reviewing the group photo, it looks like there wasn't quite 70 machines there, but it sure felt like it. As far as favorite parts of the weekend, I have a dead tie between thrashing the racers down at the Dunes, and the water crossing on the Saturday group ride. This was my first time with a 4-stroke machine and I'm hooked on the thumper's trail prowess. I'll never bad mouth my two strokes, but the low end torque that the Kohler twin generates is addictive. Next year, the RIM is coming to challenge all that Ledges has to offer...

When all is said and done, I think this ride is a good deal for the money. I'm not sure where Leo would put the cap on the number of machines, but I don't see a reason why we couldn't have 100 machines there. There's plenty of room, and the grounds were never crowded. We've showed up at Copper Ridge with just about as many machines before, and Ledges is more central for the midwest and southerly folks.

~m

[liflod]

One of my favorites was watching Jon H and Greg O climb some really steep hills in the woods. They were followed by Kevin g and then MadMAX (Eric) who did make it up the hill.
My son was in the back seat asking why we weren't climbing that hill. We tried explaining how steep the hill was and we had 5 people in the machine.

His reply :

"Why can't we at least try it ?" 5 year old boys have no fear!

Also, my kids would yell "WEEEEEEEE" and giggle every time we went down hill or made the water/mud splash in our faces.

Priceless.....

[hydromike]

Just to chime in with my LEAST favorite part of the weekend...

I had a small gas leak around the fuel tank outlet, which made a small perennial puddle in the floorboard of the Attex. While out riding with Lance and his family, I had to continually avoid them as whenever I approached, the entire clan would begin yelling:

"Throw matches at Mike! Throw matches at Mike!"


That, and Lance's son didn't quite grasp why I didn't want to climb a sand dune that surely would've planted me rubber side up. He kept egging me on to climb it. He's going to be a fun guy to ride with when he's old enough for his own machine...

[Mike]

"Throw matches at Mike! Throw matches at Mike!"

Oh man, that is priceless!

[jerseybigfoot]

ledges 07 at the lake

just uploaded a video to Youtube

[Mike]

Hey, it's bumper boats! AATVs everywhere you look. Now THAT looks like fun.

[jpswift1]

Hey Jerseybigfoot, what kind of rig were you driving in that video and what kind of tires were on it? It seemed like you were moving very well in the water there.

[jerseybigfoot]

Late model Argo bigfoot with 25" rawhide . This machine is faster in the water if you bias the weight forward to get as much of the rear tires out of the water as possible. I have a Hustler with the same tires and its very slow in the water. Probably because the tires are deeper in the water.