today's ride

[FMYStreetRacer]

this is a copy and paste from a thread i made on thumpertalk

i met up with DRz400mike today and went out to to a place called east bonita. so we leave and start to ride out there and right off the bat a bee flies into my left jacket sleeve and stings me. me not knowing if it was a bee or a wasp starts beating the shit out of my arm/jacket sleeve trying to kill it if it wasn't a bee. Mike drives by and is givving me this funny look like "what the hell are you doing?" and i motion to pull over. we pull over to get the bee out of my jacket and Mike dropped his bike in the grass. we get the bee out and Mike get's the bike back up and we're off.

we get out there and can't find my friends so we decided to head back to the store and get a drink and take a break. took a couple pics of the bikes.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6972/1003540sy7.th.jpg (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003540sy7.jpg)

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7959/drz400androketaun7.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=drz400androketaun7.jpg)

called my friends and they told us where we'd meet them at. so we take back off out to the place and end up running into a bunch of cops on 4-wheelers. they stop us and ask us some questions and told us that we couldn't ride back there. after aout 2 min of talking with them we some how got the ok to keep on riding and go back to the woods. so we get back there and run into a couple of my friends with 4-wheelers and they tell me my buddy Billy is pulling some guy out that is stuck in the mud bad. so of course we had to go check it out. this guy got stuck at 1am it's now 3pm....yeah 14 hours stuck.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1170/1003542vl5.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003542vl5.jpg)

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1262/1003543fd6.th.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003543fd6.jpg)

we hung out for a while and more 4 wheelers came by to see this guy stuck.
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5092/1003545ta9.th.jpg (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003545ta9.jpg)

then we diced to go out and hit up the fire trail. all these pics are on the trail or on the way out there.

J5 stuck
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2228/1003547gq5.th.jpg (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003547gq5.jpg)

all of us on the fire trail
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1496/1003550ov8.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003550ov8.jpg)

we diced to let our friends with trucks keep going and take a dirtbike trail. it turned out to be a pretty good trail but it went no where.

pic of a little pond we came across. pretty hard to tell but there's about 20 baby gators swiming around in there.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7857/1003551sa9.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003551sa9.jpg)

we kept riding and came to this little wooded area that was just awsome.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/9793/1003561ma5.th.jpg (http://img375.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003561ma5.jpg)

pond that was by the wooded area
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2890/1003563xx7.th.jpg (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003563xx7.jpg)

the bikes
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3407/1003562ae9.th.jpg (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003562ae9.jpg)

Mike had to pee, caught ya
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/681/1003564gs4.th.jpg (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1003564gs4.jpg)

and here's some video of Mike riding over a hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smLNZC0CzCs

here's one of Mike and some other people riding through and around a mud hole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdc9nnfTuCM

[Savage]

Looks like everyone had a blast! How do you like your bike compared to his 400? Or how does he like yours compared to his? I like how his fender sits up higher.
I think a 400 would be just perfect but I've heard people complain of it not having a 6th gear - just like ours needs one!

[TheOtherRide]

That looks awesome, FMY! I rode a DR200 in MSF class & find that I like my bike better. A Chinese 400 would really rock, especially if they had a 6th gear. Thank God we don't have to worry about gators or rattlesnakes over here; just avid bicyclists! Thanks for sharing pics.

[Jim]

Looks like you had fun!

[FMYStreetRacer]

i didn't ride his 400 but he rode my 200 around the parking lot of the gas staion. he said it was pretty good. he used to have a ds200e as well. his 400 though isn't even in the same catagory as our bikes. it's just one bad ass machine. the thing is super quite, suspension looks to be awsome and power is unreal. we'd pull out into traffic and he'd just ride a wheelie for about 100 feet. the bike did seem a little heavy. he fell about 5 times on the ride and i had to help him get it back up a few cause we were so tired and he just didn't have the energy to get it back up on his own. i think a drz will definatly be my next bike though. a guy around here has a dual sported drz400e for sale for $2500 but i just don't know where i'll come up with that kind of cash before he sells it. i really don't want to sell the china bike either.

we might go for a ride again today but next weekend is a definate must. we need to get all these china guys down here as well so we can ride before they shut every thing down.

[culcune]

It seems weird that you have all that open space in FL; and not allowed to ride it! Your cops on quads scenario makes California seem like it is one of the 50 states... :lol:... and not the communist country it disguises itself as.

[liverchip]

The sheriff department out here runs quads and Yammies to try and catch us. Victor Valley is highly patrolled with off-road vehicles.

[molypod]

There's enough police to patrol off road riding areas?
We barely have enough to Patrol the streets!
what are they looking for?
No Plates/Insurance?
Loud Pipes?
Off road bike on Legal roads?
Sh**, they should bugger off, get a life, and go catch the bad guys selling crack on the streets.

Up here the off road areas usually are marked with signs that say No off road vehicles allowed below this point. (This is where the roads become DMV or municiple control and require plates & insurance, ect. )and are barely patrolled by anyone.
Off road clubs have a great relationship with municipalities, dept of forests, and land owners(logging company's). Crown Land ( all land not owned by person('s) or Company is considered public land since Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Eveyone (public and agencies involved) seems to get along well and respect the trail etiquette. we share our trail with hikers, Horsebackers, ATV's and Mtn Bikes. we have trails clearly marked No ATV!( great for us two wheelers), or No Motorcycle,Mtn Bike only!)

[FMYStreetRacer]

down here the only real place we have to go off roading is east bonita. there is a area that you are not allowed to go in and everyone stays out. i don't know what the cops were looking for but first thing outta his mounth was "are those bikes street legal?". i replied yes and he said "ok... well what are you doing out here?" i replied that we were out there to ride around and he asked if i'd be off road and i said yes. he them told me that we couldn't be back there unless we knew the owner of the property. as far as i know the county ownes the property. he asked if i knew anyone else that was back there and i said yeah my friends were back there in their jeeps mudding. he said well i guess it's ok that you go back there to meet them. it was a weird incounter all together. i wonder if they'll keep coming out there or not.

[culcune]

The sheriff department out here runs quads and Yammies to try and catch us. Victor Valley is highly patrolled with off-road vehicles.

...and I thought the meth manufacturers were the real scourge of that whole area. :? It was the illegal off-roaders all along...