Leanings
LEANINGS
Railing on trails
Peter Egan
“WE NEED A GOOD, LONG, BREAK-in ride for our new dirtbikes,” said Toby Kirk, rattling the ice cubes in his usual water tumbler full of Wild Turkey at our meeting of the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang the other night.
We were all in a smoky bar in Madison, Wisconsin, eating free peanuts and listening to Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” on their excellent jukebox.
“What did you have in mind,” I asked, arresting my pint of Guinness halfway through its intended arc.
“Well, there’s an old railroad bed down in southwestern Wisconsin, near my place, that’s been turned into a recreational trail by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (www.railtrails.org). They call it the ‘Cheese Country Trail.’ It runs for 47 miles, all the way from Mineral Point to Monroe, and it’s open to ATVs and motorcycles.”
“Hmmm,” I mused, suddenly alert for the first time that day.
“It’s not a very demanding trail,” Toby continued,” but it’s a beautiful ride along the river.”
“Sounds ideal,” I said.
Toby and I did indeed have new dirtbikes to break-in. Toby had just bought a Honda XR400 to replace his unbreakable, but worn and smoky, 1981 XR500. The old XR still ran well, but when he reared up on that kickstarter, you could see mosquitoes packing their tiny suitcases and heading for the exits. No malaria or West Nile virus for Toby. But now he had a new, modern XR that didn’t smoke.
I, meanwhile, had just traded in my orange 2003 KTM 450 EXC for a nearly identical-looking 2004 525 EXC, unable to resist the allure of a little more thump and bottom-end torque.
Several friends had advised me not to make this trade. “Keep the 450,” they said, “the 525 is explosively fast and hard to ride smoothly on a trail. The 450 is a much sweeter-running bike, and it doesn’t accidentally launch you into the trees.”
After my first ride on the 525, I wondered if these warnings were not well taken. By comparison with my old 450, the 525 felt brutally abrupt at low speeds, with a lean surge and much fapping and backfiring when I backed off the throttle. Kind of a beast, really.
But a quick and easy pilot-jet change (from a #42 to a #48) transformed the bike into the same docile, nice-running low-speed performer my 450 had been, but with a little more oomph off the bottom and an even better set-your-hair-onfire top end. A sprocket change for slightly lower gearing also made the KTM better for the woods and hillclimbing.
Now the beast is happy, and so am I.
Last Friday morning I loaded the KTM into my van and headed for Toby’s rural slice of heaven, located not far from the Cheese Country Trail. Also converging for this momentous occasion were my friend Rob Himmelmann with his ATK 605, and fellow Cruds Jim Wargula and Gordon Kline. Jim, who is thinking of returning to dirt riding after a 25-year hiatus, would ride an ancient but remarkably capable Suzuki SP250 borrowed from Rob, and Gordon-new to off-roading-would be on Toby’s old XR500.
We unloaded all these bikes in the nearby village of Calamine, suited up and headed off on the old railroad bed, a smoothly graded surface of hard, finely crushed limestone.
Toby was right about the trail-it was too easy for a serious (i.e. grueling and unsmiling) dirt ride. But the old railroad path was a beautiful place from which to regard the passing world nevertheless. It wound through the deep green valleys of what I call “Wisconsin’s Ozarks,” the hilly portion of the state that’s full of dairy farms, red barns, shady woods, rivers and, yes, cheese factories hidden on county roads. The trail snaked along the Pecatonica River, with multiple creek and river crossings over wooden bridges. We saw no other dirtbikes, but quite a few ATVs, mostly ridden by older couples or young families who were happily trundling along. Everyone slowed down, moved over for everyone else and waved. The way it should be, but isn’t always.
We stopped for 2004 trail stickers ($6 each) at Mike’s Small Engine Works, a motorcycle/ATV shop in Darlington, ate a fine lunch (Wisconsin’s traditional Friday beer-battered fish fry) at a bar in Gratiot, fueled up in South Wayne, turned around in Monroe and back-tracked to our starting point by late afternoon, having covered about 100 miles of trail. A beautiful ride on a warm spring day.
Yesterday I washed the KTM, serviced all four oil filters-two screens to clean and two paper filters to replace-and added the required 1.2 liters of costly synthetic oil. Ready for summer.
And possibly for a return trip to that Cheese Country Trail-or others like it.
Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to convert an old railroad bed to a recreational trail, starting in 1968 with the Elroy-Sparta bicycle trail. Now there are 54 Rail-to-Trail routes in this state, with more under development. Only a small handful of them allow ATVs and motorcycles, but I hope we see a few more in the future. They’re not only good for the economy of the small towns along the trail, but good for motorcycling. They make great places for families and casual riders to sample off-road riding and get addicted to the sport.
The appeal of these trails works on more experienced types, too.
Jim is seriously looking for a dirtbike to buy again, and Gordon bought Toby’s old XR500 right after the ride. His first dirtbike ever. Gordon doesn’t worry about the smoke. He’s an experienced roadracer and a professional motorcycle mechanic who runs a Moto Guzzi shop. And now he’s a former non-dirt-rider.
Score two points for the trail system, and the visionaries who had the good sense to build it before these scenic old railroad lines were sold off and gone forever.
