2006-2007 TY Mileage - mdkuni

[mdkuni]

I got a decent amount of riding in this weekend and it was a blast. The conditions were not the best but they were rideable and that is what mattered.

Friday night I replaced my 07 bars with my old 06 bars and installed the 07 harness. I removed the stock sway bar and installed a 13MM bar. The original bar had teeth that were damaged so needless to say the 13mm bar did not go in easy. I also replaced my carbides to get ready for Saturdays ride.

I tested the bars Friday night and finally there is heat! They work great.

Saturday I went to Charlevoix and back from Houghton Lake. 280 mile round trip. Conditions were really snirty heading out of Houghton Lake and got better the farther north I went. There was loose snow on the trails so cooling was not a problem. Almost everywhere along the ay had been grooming so things were flat with a few exceptions. Which I do not understand why all but a couple cities were grooming and these city’s had some moguls that were just plain dangerous.

Something else frustrating: A decent amount of trail runs through seasonal roads once you get closer to Charlevoix. There are places on the sides of some of these roads. There was a truck with a plow on the front plowing the road down to pavement! HEY IDIOT why don't you go somewhere warm where you do not need to deal with the snowmobilers who make your town survive. I absolutely hate that.

It was a great trip other then that. I got to go on a lot of trail I have never seen before. And it was just great to be able to ride. Temps were below zero as it approached dusk. With the proper gear it was not a problem at all. The only time I could feel it was at 100MPH+ on the lake. Even then it was not bad.

During that trip I shredded one inner wheel and blew my right rear axle completely off. At 6,000 plus miles I guess I should start checking these more often.

My sled was also re-clipped the previous week. By the time I returned from my ride all my clips are gone again. My dealer has the sled now for that and for low mileage which Yamaha had them put ring free in to correct the problem last week. I was still seeing 11-12MPG.

On Sunday I rode from Houghton Lake to Lake City. The trials to Lake City were the best all weekend. Very flat they seemed to be getting at least double groomed. I passed the groomed twice on my trip. It was a great ride and is about 140 miles round trip straight there and back. I do go off trail and found a couple hills and ended up on top of their ski hill . Thankfully the guy in the booth was understanding, as there are no signs posted anywhere. He told me where I could ride and I was on my way.

I did not notice much of a difference with the 13MM bar. Not sure why. My steering is still too hard though. USI now recommends the limiter strap be let out one hole and the mount to go in rear hole.

I also ride down some seasonal roads Sunday night and some more lake riding as well. The weekend ride totaled: 528.6 miles.

Total miles so far this season including the Venture riding: 2,169

 

[mdkuni]

No Apex this weekend. I am waiting for my w-arm which had a big crack up top to be replaced. I should be up by next weekend. Hopefully. I will also have a new track as well. My Ripsaw was done at about 6,400 miles. I am having the Predator 1.25" track installed. Hopefully my clip problem will also go away. I am going to order new rail caps and see if I can get them to bolt on tight as well.

I rode my Dad's 2000 Venture again this weekend. I rode the lake and put on 30 miles Friday night.

Saturday I went up through Grayling to Frederick to Lovells and back down to Houghton Lake. The trip was 200 miles. A wierd rachet started happening on the way back. I was to scared to look under the sled with my luck so a quick glance is all I did. More on this later.

The trails were excellent! There was snirt but towards Frederic and Gaylord there was a lot less of it. Plus they were grooming. They almost never groom on Saturday I was impressed.

I came across a group of about 4-5 sleds and one of the guys was laying in the woods. I guess he missed a corner and wrecked. He ended up breaking his foot and his sled looked to be much better off as I did not see any damage. Must have been a fun ride back to the truck riding with a broken foot. Ouch.

Conditions continued to become more snirty back towards Houghton Lake. They need snow bad. It was a great day for riding though, even on a 500cc Fan! It is nice to just be in the woods with snow, cold temps, and other sledders, it does not get any better.

And here it comes.... I have made a point of checking suspensions out with my luck and so I did Sunday as I was getting ready to leave. As I walked out the door and looked at the sled I could tell something was wrong right away. The ratcheting sound I heard Saturday all made sense now.

The w-arm snapped off in two places and the remaining half was still bolted to the slide rail and was almost cracked off in a third spot. Honestly I am surprised this arm did not go any sooner. The sled has about 5,800 miles on it. So in the garage I went for the next hour as I removed the skid took the arm apart and dropped it off at the welder for repair. I forgot to take a picture of it, maybe it is for the best. $65 latter I should have it back this weekend.

Uneventful trips would be awesome!

Enjoy the pictures.

 

[mdkuni]

I did not put on many miles this weekend but it was without a doubt the best riding of the year. I trailered to Kalkaska Saturday AM as it was not really worth riding out of Houghton Lake at this point. As I pulled into Kalkaska the groomer was coming up the trail.

I rode up towards Indian River which I turned around before I go there as it was getting pretty brown. That section and one other on the way were the worst I saw. Others were great whit smooth riding.

I ended up in some off trail snow that was a little over knee deep. Even though I got stuck badly it was great.

On the way back I made the Frederic look and there was plenty of snow in most spots with stutter bumps. The monoshock really shines in this stuff. It is incredible. Total miles for the day was around 250. A nice 1-2" were piled on the trailer when I retuned so that was a nice surprise.

Sunday I was going to try and ride out of Houghton Lake as they received some more snow. Between spending some time adjusting my new track to stop the ratcheting and blwong my belt I only put on about 30-40 miles. My spare was not very good and it was to late to find another belt. So I just played close to the cottage in the powder for a while.

I removed my shock Sunday night and took it to MCR in Flint for a revalve and rebuild. I will pick it up this week and hope I get to try it out this weekend although this warm weather is really hurting things.

The new track in incredible so far. I really like the stiffness of the track. It hooks up great. It is also nice to see a nice new shiny front arm on my sled.

 

[mdkuni]

I am three weekends behind, I have been very busy so there were no updates. I will start with the weekend of 2-23-07.

There was not much snow that weekend. So Friday and Saturday were lake riding. It was very hardpacked snow and made for some great high speed runs. I saw 130mph on the speedo which I have never seen before. There was vintage racing, and bike racing on the lake which provided great entertainment on Saturday. Houghton Lake is incredible, it freezes very thick as you can see by all teh weight that is being supported in my picture below.

Sunday it finally started snowing again. It was also very windy which created som great deeper snow riding close to shore where it was piling up. It was a low mile weekend of 284 miles.

 

[mdkuni]

The next weekend of 3-2-07 provided quite a bit more riding. I also took Monday off and got to do some weekday riding.

Friday night I rode the local trails and they were in the best condition of the year. It was an absolute blast.

Saturday we rode to Traverse City and back. It was a great ride and I finally was able to make it that far west which I have never done before. The trails were pretty bumpy on the return ride, but were very tolerable with the Apex. The revalved mono is unbelievable! It rides so much better I would never have waited so long if I would have known how big of a difference it makes. The sled feels so much better though the bumps and makes it feel lighter when it is not bottoming out all of the time. It is perfect!

Unfortunately on our trip back my buddy got a citation for failure to stop. I was told I made an attempt and my buddy simply blew right threw it. The fine is somewhere around $130. The cop really was a great guy and was simply doing his job and we respected that. Right where we were pulled over a sledder died recently when he it a car so they were out being strict in hopes of people realizing how serious things can get.

It did not ruin our trip that is for sure. It started snowing again and it was great to finally see things be all white.

Sunday I rode east to South Branch. What a great time. There were mainly small bumps in the trail which did not cause a problem at all. I had never been in this direction either and have wanted to for some time and it was great to do. I came across groomer tracks on the way back which made it even better. You simply can not beat being in the middle of the woods on a Yamaha!

Monday I headed towards Indian River. It was incredible. The long stretch of trail that runs through Gaylord was 100% smooth. This is quite different then what you experience on a weekend on this trail. It was beautiful. The groomer was even out making more passes on the trail. As I got closer to Indian River the snow stopped so I turned around and headed back. Except for about 20 miles or so I had groomed trails all the way back to the lake. Grayling was starting to get dirty but it was still much better then what I was riding on before.

It was a great weekend and the total miles was: 701

 

[silversurfer]

Great pics, man, thanks! I've always wanted to ride up there, and will someday.

 

[mdkuni]

This brings me to this past weekend. What a depressing weekend. I hate warm-ups. There was the most snow there has been all year at the lake so it did hold through the weekend. You just had to stick to the seasonal roads, lake, and or power lines starting in the evening on Saturday.

Friday night was still excellent riding on the trails. Things were groomed on most of the trail or only had stutter bumps which I do not mind riding on.

Saturday things got sloppy quick. I did some trail riding earlier then spent the rest of the day on the lake.

On Sunday I rode the power lines and seasonal roads with my Dad for about 60 miles. It was darn near perfect riding. I headed back later in the day and rode the power lines and seasonal roads some more. There are about 20 miles of power line near by with many seasonal roads as well. I then spent some more time on the lake dreading coming in as I did not know if it would be the last ride of the season. I hope not.

The total miles for the weekend was: 365

 

[mdkuni]

Great pics, man, thanks! I've always wanted to ride up there, and will someday.

Stop putting it off! Let me know if you ever need a guide.

 

[silversurfer]

Great pics, man, thanks! I've always wanted to ride up there, and will someday.

Stop putting it off! Let me know if you ever need a guide.

Someday I'll take you up on that!

 

[mdkuni]

Two weekends ago I really tried to get another ride in. It was not easy and ended up in a whopping 16 miles!

That lake had some snow close to shore but only in the east bay. I rode that for a little bit. I loaded the sled on the trailer and headed to the power lines and some seasonal roads. They were hard packed and at spots they completely ran out of snow. It was nice to get on the throttle one more time for the last ride of the season. It was way to short and I really wish we had at least another month.

Last weekend I measured almost 16 inches of ice on the lake still. Today the web cam is showing open water. It is amazing how quick the lake freezes and melts. Where does all of that ice go?

Maybe the Waverunners will come out this weekend. If they do, I will have to post some pictures.

It has been a blast writing these reports. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

I did spend some time on a 98 Vmax this year but I never kept track of miles so this is what I have:
Total season mileage: 3568 on my Apex. 528 miles on the Venture.

This brings me to 4,096 total miles.

Not nearly as many as I would have liked, but I am surprised to see that number as high as it is with the winter that we had.

 

[2Blu4U]

Damn Mark, those first two pictures are sad to say the least. As much as I love the snow, I cant wait to get back on the water where it is hot and the woman are lookin even hotter!! You gotta love Houghton lake for the year round FUN. Hope your watching Speed right now. Drag racin at its best here in just a minute.

Later

 

[mdkuni]

Mother nature surprised me and finally dumped some more snow! I went up this past Friday to Kalkaska where there was probably 6" + of snow! I put on 48 miles or so Friday night. Saturday morning I returned and rode to Gaylord, Cheboygan County, Alba and back to Kalkaska. The snow ranged from 6-12 inches. It was great to be out again. There was no base so the traffic made the trails turn dirty pretty quick. Overall it was great riding, even if it did cost me a set of wear bars. I put on 210 miles on Saturday for a weekend total of 258.

Unfortunately my Apex was still at my dealer. They ended up finding an exhaust leak by or on the muffler and the protector was broke off as well. So I took my Dad's Vmax for the weekend.

At the lake, there was a major windstorm during the week. Then with the cold snap everything froze so it made for quite the sight, see the picture of the swing set below.

This bumps my season mileage up to: 4354