A few friends and I are going to be at Highland Park riding area in Cedartown GA (about an hour west of Atlanta just below Rome, GA) next weekend, May 29-31st. I have a cabin rented, but there's camping, and lots of riding. I'll be mostly on my KTM 950 and some other friends are bringing ADV bikes, so bring out the big girls and lets get dirty!
The plan is to ride Saturday, stay there saturday night and then do the hare scramble on Sunday morning. They have an ADV class that's open to any street legal 650+cc bike. I know of at least a couple of KTM 950s' that will be racing, maybe a 690 or two, and not sure who else. Maybe a Triumph 800XC? In the past in the ADV class has been a few 950's, an HP2e, KLR, DR650, XR650L etc. It's a riot. It's not about winning, it's about finishing. in front of a bunch of little bike hopefully.
Even if you have a smaller DS bike come on out and ride/race with us. I had another friend on a TTR225 race and he had a blast (as well as passing many other dedicated trail bikes).
anyway if you want to come out and do some riding with us on Saturday and get a feel for the real capabilities of your ADV in a controlled environment, this is your chance. It's like a track day for your ADV bike. if you want to work on skills, not that I'm a big help, but I'd be glad to give any advice I may have.
if you haven't ridden at HP before, there's a main lodge/camping/cabin area. Full service KTM shop that has plenty of stuff for other brands as well. two or three MX tracks, and about 80-100 miles of trails. Two main "perimeter" loops that are like wide forest service roads with water bars/jumps in spots, and hills. they can be fun just by themselves. Plus all of the trails. the trails are all off the perimeter loops and are marked with 2-5 diamonds. 2 diamonds are easy, 3 is harder, 4 and 5 I wouldn't do without scouting first on a little bike. well, I wouldn't. some are ATV wide, some are single track. lots of elevation changes.
The nice part about the layout there, you loop back near the parking lot pretty often so you can ride for an hour or so and take a break at the car/parking/cabins then get back out there. I just wear my camelback and take minimum tools. if someone breaks down it's at most a 10-15 minute ride back to the cars/tools.
There's an area near the parking lot that I can check with paul and we might be able to do some small skills building stuff in a close area with some logs or just turning and maybe jumping? no it's not a full on endurocross course. lol.
they do serve burgers and hot dogs for lunch and we'll head into cedartown saturday night for some mexican.
the plan is to race the hare scramble sunday. It starts at 10am, registration from 8-9:30 or so, or you can save some time and pre-register on the website and pay when you arrive. $35 for the race and another $10 to ride the rest of the day if you want to. I may ride some after the race but will have to see how worn out I am after Saturday riding and sunday racing. I'll be racing my KTM 950, and have done the race three times now on the 950. it's fun. not too tight, the majority of the course is dedicated to just the race, the trails are mostly wide enough so passing is easy (as is getting passed) and it's very low key/low pressure racing. Even if you haven't ever raced, here's your chance! With a 12-13 mile course the leaders will take a while to get back to you and it'll only be a couple that may pass you in the two hour race. So don't worry about folks passing you, there's plenty of room. If you don't want to race just come watch, but you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't race. it's that fun. really.
Anyway come on out on the big bikes or even your little bike if you want. Two or three friends that are new to dirt bikes will be there (renting a 250XC and 350 XC-W) so the pace will be casual and we'll be taking plenty of time to talk and take photos.
info about the park, race registration, videos, etc. below:
http://www.highlandparkresort.com/
if you think you might come out, PM me so we can be on the lookout for you and send contact info
video from the race in Oct on my 950.
click on the gear wheel and change the video to 1080p.
The plan is to ride Saturday, stay there saturday night and then do the hare scramble on Sunday morning. They have an ADV class that's open to any street legal 650+cc bike. I know of at least a couple of KTM 950s' that will be racing, maybe a 690 or two, and not sure who else. Maybe a Triumph 800XC? In the past in the ADV class has been a few 950's, an HP2e, KLR, DR650, XR650L etc. It's a riot. It's not about winning, it's about finishing. in front of a bunch of little bike hopefully.
Even if you have a smaller DS bike come on out and ride/race with us. I had another friend on a TTR225 race and he had a blast (as well as passing many other dedicated trail bikes). anyway if you want to come out and do some riding with us on Saturday and get a feel for the real capabilities of your ADV in a controlled environment, this is your chance. It's like a track day for your ADV bike. if you want to work on skills, not that I'm a big help, but I'd be glad to give any advice I may have.
if you haven't ridden at HP before, there's a main lodge/camping/cabin area. Full service KTM shop that has plenty of stuff for other brands as well. two or three MX tracks, and about 80-100 miles of trails. Two main "perimeter" loops that are like wide forest service roads with water bars/jumps in spots, and hills. they can be fun just by themselves. Plus all of the trails. the trails are all off the perimeter loops and are marked with 2-5 diamonds. 2 diamonds are easy, 3 is harder, 4 and 5 I wouldn't do without scouting first on a little bike. well, I wouldn't.
some are ATV wide, some are single track. lots of elevation changes. The nice part about the layout there, you loop back near the parking lot pretty often so you can ride for an hour or so and take a break at the car/parking/cabins then get back out there. I just wear my camelback and take minimum tools. if someone breaks down it's at most a 10-15 minute ride back to the cars/tools.
There's an area near the parking lot that I can check with paul and we might be able to do some small skills building stuff in a close area with some logs or just turning and maybe jumping? no it's not a full on endurocross course. lol.
they do serve burgers and hot dogs for lunch and we'll head into cedartown saturday night for some mexican.
the plan is to race the hare scramble sunday. It starts at 10am, registration from 8-9:30 or so, or you can save some time and pre-register on the website and pay when you arrive. $35 for the race and another $10 to ride the rest of the day if you want to. I may ride some after the race but will have to see how worn out I am after Saturday riding and sunday racing. I'll be racing my KTM 950, and have done the race three times now on the 950. it's fun. not too tight, the majority of the course is dedicated to just the race, the trails are mostly wide enough so passing is easy (as is getting passed) and it's very low key/low pressure racing. Even if you haven't ever raced, here's your chance! With a 12-13 mile course the leaders will take a while to get back to you and it'll only be a couple that may pass you in the two hour race. So don't worry about folks passing you, there's plenty of room. If you don't want to race just come watch, but you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't race. it's that fun. really.
Anyway come on out on the big bikes or even your little bike if you want. Two or three friends that are new to dirt bikes will be there (renting a 250XC and 350 XC-W) so the pace will be casual and we'll be taking plenty of time to talk and take photos.
info about the park, race registration, videos, etc. below:
http://www.highlandparkresort.com/
if you think you might come out, PM me so we can be on the lookout for you and send contact info
video from the race in Oct on my 950.
click on the gear wheel and change the video to 1080p.
