Most of it was amazing. Steady at 65-75 mph where safe to do so. I mean 55, since that’s the legal limit in NYS. A few fields were a little thin but for the most part still smooth and frozen so solid it didn’t matter. Crossed one or two where the corn row ruts were just starting to show up through the snow and that slowed us down to 20 mph or so but it wasn’t like that for long. There was one railbed where the stones had come up on top of the snow for a few miles. Sure my carbides HATED that but if you stuck to the edges it wasn’t as bad. About a 1/2 mile in the woods near Pembroke that was whooped. Just put on my helmet mohawk and rode stand up through there.
We left Clarence at 9am and were back at the trailer at 5pm. Long break for lunch and lots of stops for pictures, water and “draining” that water. Figure an hour for lunch and at least an hour total for breaks, discussing routes etc and you’re left with 173 miles in 6 hours of sledding for near a 30mph average. Conditions have to be pretty good to do that considering all the road crossings, junction stop signs and woods sections.
My friend’s bf came up on that accident and was the one that called it in. 2 sleds involved someone was not on their side of the trail. 1 guy was taken by ambulance with broken bones other guy was mercy flighted still in ecmc trauma icu in critical conditon.
You aren’t going to see lights when cresting a blind hill until it’s too late though.
Riding at night is more sketchy in my opinion. Harder to see obstacles and obstructions. Also I almost hit a deer on Saturday during the day, can’t imagine having one jump out at the last second at night.
I hit a deer in the head with my elbow at 45+ mph in a corn field. Fucker came out of nowhere and ran straight at me. As I went by, I clipped his head and turned him right around in his tracks.
You can usually see lights before you even start to go up the blind hill. And I beg to differ its far easier to see variances in the snow esp with a yellow tinted lenses. I almost hit a deer last night would have been the same reaction as during the day. Plus far less people out from 1-4 am which is the time my fiance and I ride
Yeah, I rode a lot at night and even on blind hills you see some light before the sled comes over.
Depending on the light sometimes dark and a headlight is better. Sunday was really flat light and you wouldn’t know a bump was coming until you hit it. I would much rather ride at night than in flat light. Deer do freak me out at night. I hit one in a slow woods section last year and had a couple get uncomfortably close on some fast sections. I won’t run flat out at night because over 60 and I’m well over driving my high beam.
Around here there are plenty of spots where the trail should probably be divided but isn’t and there is no way you would see a headlight beam oncoming. There are also lots of blind corners where you don’t see anything until you are right on top of someone. Anyway, I run clear goggle lenses and yellow headlight bulbs to improve contrast, it’s still easy to out-ride your headlight in my opinion. I agree with Jay that flat light sucks but it is what it is.
Off to Hebelers. Looking over the sled last night and noticed one of my bogey wheels didn’t make it home from the Letchworth trip. One of the middle ones that’s really easy to get to luckily and Hebelers has the parts in stock.
My sled is done. My g/f and I met up with another couple to go ride. 5 miles into our trip I look down by my right leg and see flames. Stopped as fast as I could popped the hood and started throwing snow to put the fire out. Not 100% sure what happened. A quick look it needs a new oil tank, oil/gas lines, brake line, and definitely some wiring. Fire was concentrated around the brake caliper/rotor. Carb boots still look good, motor was still running strong. Im glad no one got hurt. I grabbed my g/f by the jacket and pulled her off as soon as I got it stopped. Im more upset I spent $40 filling the tank.
If you guys had 1500-2500 budget for a sled what would you look at ? I’ve seen a few 04-05 arctic cats f6 floating around and F5s. Also a few 03 mxz revs 500 and 600. I’m a new rider that will mostly be doing local trail riding .
