Wisconsin Boys Hit The Rock House Trails

Fellow Wisconsinites on the Hatfield-McCoy trails.

So we traveled the 12 hours from Wisconsin to West Virginia and our first day on the trail we ran into some other riders from Kenosha, WI, less than 30 minutes from us back home!  They were staying at the Blue Goose as well and were leaving the day after we arrived.  Kind of crazy we have to travel half way across the country to meet fellow Wisconsin riders.

I didn’t get their names but they were zipping down one of the harder descents and enjoying their last day on the trails.  Most of our group was on bigger dual sport/adventure bikes and not quite so brave to risk that drop-off  so we turned back around and took an easier route.  No need to be heroes our first day out on the bikes in months.

Dropping down the big hill. It never looks as hard in the pictures!

One of the really cool things about the Buffalo Mountain trails (one of the six trail systems that make up the Hatfield-McCoy trails) is that there is a pretty wide variety of trails and difficulty so you can always find something to fit your skill level.  Even some of the “easier” trails can throw a challenge or two your way when you hit some of the rocky climbs especially if it happens to be raining and making things a little slick.

Remus silencers on our 950 Adventures with 2-into-1 conversions

Craig and Matthew both were riding KTM 950 Adventures and this trip was a shake-down run in prep of their Alaska trip this summer.  They both are running the CJ Designs 2-into-1 exhaust with Remus silencers.  This setup saves about 15 lbs. and frees up space on the left side for other storage needs.  Remus is one of the few pipes that will stand up to the added flow going from two to one and is also a spark arrested silencer so you don’t have to worry about starting any unwanted fires!  This is a proven setup that works well on these bikes and Dual Sport Warehouse recommends Remus silencers when making this conversion.

We managed to get them nice and muddy – these are dual sport bikes!

Riding the rail bed to the Rock House trails

One of the unique things about riding in this area is that once you buy the $50 trail pass (good for a year) it’s pretty much anything goes.  You can ride dirt bikes or atv’s w/o plates, lights or any road gear on the roads, into town and just about anywhere you want to go.  We road down the rail bed for about 15 miles to get to the Rock House trails and you are literally riding less that a foot or so from the trains and you can see if you can out pace the train for a while!  Don’t mess up or you’ll pay dearly.

Crossing the river by the train tracks

There’s lots of rivers and creek crossings in this area.  It seems like the water running out of the hills is everywhere.  This one was one of the few that was clear water.  Most were muddy from all the rain run-off water washing the mud out of the mountains.

Matthew found the limits of what a stock 950 Adventure could do in the mud

Although this picture doesn’t look like a very steep climb it was worse than it looks and Matthew couldn’t get enough traction on the big 950 to continue this climb.  It got steeper and rockier the farther you went and his tires were so full of mud that he was just spinning.  Even with two guys pushing it was going nowhere.  Craig was able to get through with the two wheel drive 950 Adventure but without the extra wheel pulling Matthew had to turn around and take a different route home.  Craig went with him so that he wasn’t riding alone.

That left Dennis, Dan and myself to explore the rest of the Rock House trails.

A wet riding day on some tricky trails

With Dennis in the lead we rode all day in the rain, up and down lots of slippery, rocky hills with a nice layer of slick mud so you really had to pay attention or you’d end up on your head.  We didn’t stop much, just kept a nice quick pace and covered a lot of ground that day.   Not very many pictures though because of the limited stops.

We had started kind of late in the day so we were approaching darkness by the time we got off the trails and back to the road to take us home.  The temperature was dropping pretty fast, it was raining and we had about 30 road miles to get back to the Blue Goose.  By the time we got back we were very happy to crawl off our muddy bikes and jump into a hot shower and clean up for another great meal put on by Bill and Theresa.

My KTM 560 with a Giant Loop Mojavi bag & Leo Vince X3 pipe

For this trip I had equipped my bike with a Giant Loop Mojavi bag that is the perfect size for day trips from a base camp.  Just enough room to carry a couple water bottles, tool pack, tubes, tire irons and a few snacks… everything you need for a day ride.

I have been running the Leo Vince X3 silencer on my bike for about 9 mons now and it has performed well.  Quiet enough to keep everybody happy but it still has a good sound, it has a built in spark arrestor and the power is more than enough.  It’s stainless steel construction so it’s very durable and I have to say it’s been a great addition to the bike.  Leo Vince has models that will fit most current dirt bikes.  Email us at info@dualsportwarehouse for pricing and applications.

Alpinestars Durban adventure gear

 I spent Tuesday evening at an Alpinestars gear seminar and had a chance to check out their new Durban Gore-Tex adventure riding gear.  This is some really well thought out gear that has great functionality for the adventure or dual sport rider.  The Durban gear consists of a jacket and pants set that provide protection in all the critical areas, waterproof shell and waterproof thermal liner (that zips out), built in hydration pack, plenty of pockets, good venting, zip off sleeves and a storage pocket on the back to keep the extra pieces in when not in use.

Add a pair of Alpinestars Scout waterproof boots and the Arctic Drystar Gloves and you’ll be ready to take on the world!

The Alpinestars Durban gear is available from our Petrie Motorsports website now (pictures are not loaded yet) and we will be loading it all on our Dual Sport Warehouse website soon.  If you need something right away you can always email us at info@dualsportwarehouse.com.

Check out the video below for an overview:

Wisconsin Woods Rider Development Class (for Kids)

March, 20th – Nekoosa WI The Rapid Angels Motorcycle Club in conjunctions with Wisconsin Woods Rider Development (WRD) and Moose Racing has announced its 1st annual Woods Rider Development school on Saturday, May 14th at the Dyracuse Recreational Park. The class is open to all riders 16 years of age and younger and will be free to all participants (park fees apply). The goal of WRD is to continue to expand the reach of Hare Scramble and Enduro racing and offer an easy introduction to these racing disciplines. The School will start at 10 am and last about 5 hours with a lunch break. All bike sizes are welcome. Some of the topics covered will include bike setup, mental approach & strategy, rules, gear setup, technical drills from log crossings, to hill climbs, to turning, rock sections, and of course lots of riding with the coaches to apply the newly acquired skills. Speaking of coaches, we have solicited the help of some of our local greats including Pete (Speedy) Laubmeier, JD Friebel, Ryan Moss, John Strangfeld, Heath Drone, and others (we will update this as we get closer). “WRD is excited to be able to provide this service to all young riders who have considered giving woods racing a try or improve their current woods riding skills, but haven’t really had the opportunity to explore this further” says Wolfgang Neuwirth, spokes person for WRD. There will be limited space available for this school, as we would like to keep the rider number per group small and manageable and maximize results, so sign up early. Download the parental consent form from the Rapid Angels website, complete it and e-mail it to Wolfgang at wolfgang@smacsite.com to reserve your spot. You can also mail it to WWRD, attn. Wolfgang, W5552 Briarwood Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121. Depending on space availability, sign up will also be available at the event. For information on the Dyracuse Recrational Park, camping or hotel opportunities please visit their web site at http://www.rapidangels.com.
The event will be sponsored by the Rapid Angels Motorcycle Club, Moose Racing, Silikolene Oil, Team VRM, Fun Mart Cycle, Country Sports, P&G Offroad and more (tba).

West Virginia Ride & The Blue Goose Inn

At the "Top-Of-The-World", West Virginia

Our Dual Sport Warehouse group just returned from a week of riding in  Matewan, West Virginia where we stayed at the Blue Goose Inn (www.bluegooseinnwv.com) with our hosts Bill and Theresa. 

Matthew on his 950 Adventure checking out some crazy machine. We never did find out what it is?

Matewan is well known for a couple of historic events, the Hatfield-McCoy fued in the 1880’s and the “Matewan Massacre” when miner unions and mine company detectives clashed in 1920.  Today Matewan is much more peaceful and the area is full of trail systems for atv’s and motorcycles.  The “Hatfield-McCoy Trail System” encompasses several counties and six different trail systems of  all types of terrain and difficulty and is known as “trail heaven” by the people familiar with it. 

We spent the majority of our time on the Buffalo Mountain trail system right outside Matewan and one day at Rock House that is just down the road a bit.  Our group was made up of  primarily dual sport riders on bigger bikes.  We had two KTM 950 Adventures, a 690 Enduro, a 560 Enduro and a 250 XCW so we wanted to test the bikes on the ATV trails the first couple of days and then move up to some tough single track for the last few days. 

Bill from the Blue Goose Inn was from the Chicago area and moved to Matewan about 5 years ago to take advantage of the trail riding in the area and he has been working very hard to develop some great single track trails for the dirt bikes.  And as a result the Buffalo Mountain trail system is shaping up to be a single track riders dream come true. 

A wet day on the Rock House Trails

Matewan and the Hatfield-McCoy trail system are smack-dab in the heart of coal mining country and also natural gas fields, so many of the trails are a result of coal mine roads or natural gas pipelines.  Many of the trails have pipe running alongside the trail to get the natural gas out of the mountains.  You’re constantly reminded of the great natural resources in the Matewan area because there is a steady stream of coal trains running by day and night bearing ton after ton of coal headed to variaous destinations around the country. 

Stay tuned for future posts with much more trail info, products used and pictures of the amazing riding in West Virginia.

West Virginia Bound

It’s time to get out of the shop for a little bit and go ride!  Our new website, http://www.dualsportwarehouse.com has been keeping us busy with getting it launched, adding products and shipping orders and now that it’s somewhat under control we need to get out on the trails and do some riding ourselves.  This trip will be a testing and planning trip in advance of the big Alaska trip that Craig and Matthew are leaving on in late May so we are running some new products that will be used and evaluated to make sure they will function as intended.

You don't often see a winch mounted on the back of a motorcycle!

We are headed to the Hatfield-McCoy trails in West Virginia and we’ll meet up with a couple of the guys from Warn Winch who have ridden in that area previously so they can show us “the good trails”.  Warn will be working with CJ Designs to test and implement their new motorcycle winch system and prep Craig’s bike for the winch setup on the Alaska trip.  Some of you may know that Craig has been running a Warn winch on his 2006 KTM 950 Adventure for a couple of years now, since he got stuck in the snow in the mountains in Colorado, and Warn has developed a motorcycle specific package based off of some of Craig’s ideas.

Remus Revolution

One way to lighten up and make  more room on a KTM 950 Adventure is to drop the heavy stock dual exhaust and convert to a single side exhaust with a CJ Designs 2-into-1 pipe and a Remus Revolution Titanium silencer from Dual Sport Warehouse.  Remus is on board with this West Virgina trip and also Alaska and we’ll be running this setup on both KTM 950’s.  Craig has been running this setup for a couple years already and Matthew has just installed his Remus single pipe system.  We have tried some other brands of silencers in the past and they did not stand up to the demands of the single sided system and would blow apart after a few thousand miles.  Remus Revolution has proven to be durable and is a spark arrested silencer.

Giant Loop Coyote Bag

I’ll be riding my KTM 560 dual sport bike in West Virginia and running a Giant Loop Coyote bag to handle all my gear that is coming along.  I’ve used these bags on previous trips and they work great.  You really don’t notice the bag is even on the bike when you’re riding since it sits back far enough and it carries most of the weight down low on the bike.  Your gear will stay dry and clean with no worries.  There are three size variations of this basic bag design to fit different sized bikes.  The Mojavi for moto bikes and small loads, day trips; the Coyote that holds 30 liters and fits moto or dual sport bikes; the Great Basin with a 50 liter capacity and is designed for adventure or large dual sport bikes. 

The Dual Sport Warehouse staff will be putting several other products to the test on this West Virginia trip as well.   Craig is testing out some Held gloves, Wolfman tank bag,  Heidenau K60 Scout tires, a new Rekluse auto clutch setup for the 950 Adventure, and fine tuning the CJ Designs/Christini AWD system on his bike. 

Matthew is running the Remus exhaust, several of the CJ Designs products available from Dual Sport Warehouse, and testing out a Go Pro camera system for recording the Alaska trip.   Matthew’s “day job” is as a professional photographer so he will be documenting the Alaska trip to post on this blog and also produce a trip DVD. 

We’ll also have along a couple of other riders on various bikes.  Dennis on a KTM 250 XC-W, Dan on his KTM 690 Enduro and myself on the KTM 560 dual sport.  We’re looking forward to a good week of riding in West Virginia and we’ll report back here after we return with pictures and how everything worked.