WHERE to ride off-road

[Hockey Dad]

Anybody been out to Oakland lately, Still open? Good shape??

[troy]

RideForum.NET "Where to Ride" thread:
http://rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=529

There is a relatively new club dedicated to keeping Oakland open:
http://www.sc-trail.com/
http://rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2033
http://rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1884

[Savage]

Welcome Hockey Dad! Where ya at?

[ChrisCrash]

Hey Troy how about SoggyBottoms near Cameron Mo. It is private with good camping, electric and water. Great kids place to ride but most of the trails are atv rutted. Went there with the boys a few weeks ago and it was real quiet. Kids had a great time because they can ride anywhere from camp. Price isn't too bad either.

http://www.soggybottomcamp.com/

[troy]

Hey Troy how about SoggyBottoms near Cameron Mo. It is private with good camping, electric and water. Great kids place to ride but most of the trails are atv rutted. Went there with the boys a few weeks ago and it was real quiet. Kids had a great time because they can ride anywhere from camp. Price isn't too bad either.

http://www.soggybottomcamp.com/

Never heard of it. Added it to the list:
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1156

[Foster]

I emailed Soggy Bottom camp a while back to make sure, and the were very helpful and said they are "dirt bike friendly". My wife is getting a new bike on Monday and I am hoping to go and try out this area.


Did you find anywhere Hockey Dad? I am in Smithville and would love to find some areas closer by to ride on a short day trip.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 0277,d.b2k

[OverlandOdyssey]

I've never been to Perry. How is it for "big bikes"?

[Bob Morgan]

I've never been to Perry. How is it for "big bikes"?

Hello............
If by "big" you mean over 300 LBS, Perry is not well suited for that type of bike. Most vehicles there are light off road only motorcycles, and ATVs.
Hope this helps,
Bob

[OverlandOdyssey]

Yep, that helps. Thanks Bob

[Bob Morgan]

I see you added your bike to your signature. You could goof around a little on the West side with your KLR, and not get in too much trouble but the woods and creek crossings on the East side wouldn't be much fun.

[troy]

I see you added your bike to your signature. You could goof around a little on the West side with your KLR, and not get in too much trouble but the woods and creek crossings on the East side wouldn't be much fun.

Of course it depends on skill and what makes you smile! There is a guy in AR who races his KLR in hare scrambles and loves it. Of course he's a big dude and a really skilled rider. Back when I had my KLR, I rode it at Perry once and School Creek once, but at my skill level, there were plenty of sections I had to skip. I do recall picking that bike up a LOT!

[OverlandOdyssey]

I'm going to try to check it out sometime this week. I'm an absolute NEWB when it comes to two wheels and dirt. I've spent many years (as in decades) with Jeeps in the dirt and bikes on the street, so it's only natural that I needed to combine the two. It can't be that different....can it?

[Bob Morgan]

Back when I had my KLR, I rode it at Perry once and School Creek once, but at my skill level, there were plenty of sections I had to skip. I do recall picking that bike up a LOT!

Yea, I suppose it can be done................................

[Hockey Dad]

Wife going to Florida for a couple days. HMMMMMMM. I really have no choice but to RIDE!!! Looking over Troys handy list was considering Randolph or Carbondale. Never been to either one. I've been to school creek.

I stopped by Carbondale about a month ago and the land owner said it was pretty over grown. Anybody been out there lately?

It looks like there are 3 places close together. Manhattan, Randolph, School Creek. Is one better for dirt bikes? Can you hit all 3 in one day?

Doug (Hockey Dad)

[troy]

Wife going to Florida for a couple days. HMMMMMMM. I really have no choice but to RIDE!!! Looking over Troys handy list was considering Randolph or Carbondale. Never been to either one. I've been to school creek.

I stopped by Carbondale about a month ago and the land owner said it was pretty over grown. Anybody been out there lately?

It looks like there are 3 places close together. Manhattan, Randolph, School Creek. Is one better for dirt bikes? Can you hit all 3 in one day?

Doug (Hockey Dad)

I just wanted to apologize to Doug (Hockey Dad)--sorry nobody replied to this. I must have missed it. I'll go ahead and answer now for folks coming along reading this...

First, I've never ridden Carbondale, but plan to this Sat, Oct 22, 2016. The other 3 are relatively close together and could all be ridden in 1 day, but you can make a nice day out of School Creek by itself. School Creek is the best of the 3 for motorcycles. I have to admit, though, I've never ridden the spillway ("Manhattan" in your list.). It's good for motorcycles, but really small as I understand. Still fun! Randolph is fun on a bike, too, but it's more for big 4WD vehicles. I've had plenty of fun riding at Randolph.

[Snowman]

This is an attempt to list all the places to ride that are relatively local to Kansas City. Unfortunately, there aint' a lot of riding areas close by, so "relatively local" is about a 6 hour circle from Kansas City.

This is a list in progress. If you know if places not on this list, post up! To discuss any of these riding areas, please click the name to go to the discussion thread for the riding area.

On-Road (Gravel)
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1180

When I try and download your file, I get a security warning (which scared me so I didn't download). I wonder if anyone else gets that and if so why that is (I'm assuming you're a bit of an IT guy). I was wondering if maybe you hosted it in something like google drive if it would have that same issue?

[troy]

I assume you tried to download one of a couple files that I removed yesterday. Those links were to safiri's web space, and yes, you get a big warning in the browser that the space contains malware. So I deleted those links. The link was just to a zip file of the PDF KSDOT maps -- same maps you can get directly from the KSDOT site (links provided in that same post).

[troy]

@snowman and all, I moved the posts regarding mapping technologies to it's own focused thread.

http://rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2646

[Snowman]

Looking for a flat, non gravel, preferably grassy area where I can practice my low speed turns and simple skidding without scraping up the bike or my knees too badly when (not if) I fall. Anyone have any suggestions for an area like that?

[troy]

Looking for a flat, non gravel, preferably grassy area where I can practice my low speed turns and simple skidding without scraping up the bike or my knees too badly when (not if) I fall. Anyone have any suggestions for an area like that?

That is surprisingly hard to find in the Midwest where we have millions of acres of relatively flat, grassy land! Problem is almost every inch of it is private property. The very few ORV areas are way too small for the population that uses it, so they become nothing but rutted, eroded, rocky messes fit only for folks training for hard enduro!

So #1 recommendation is make friends with a land owner! Your post here on RideForum might help you with that. We'll see.

Good news is I do have an option for you! Turns out the Santa Fe Trail Cycle Park (Carbondale) has a pretty large open grassy area that would be perfect for what you want to do. It's an area just N of their vintage motocross track (also used for peewee races). Some details and directions in this thread:

http://rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1874