Couldn't take being cooped up any longer and had to get out after spending the last three weeks taking care of the wife, kids and new baby. Opted instead to blow off doing anything productive and head out for what may be the last outing of the season. Originally was heading 2.5 hours west out of Richmond to the mountains, but radar was showing a monsoon already falling and didnt like the idea of wet extremely rocky trails with leaves by myself, so opted at the last minute to try a new place in Surry VA which is near virginia beach. Its designed as a riding area with supposedly 300 acres and 14 or so odd miles of trails. Had the place to myself. Had a wonderful time. Terrain mostly sandy soil with some hardpack and some sand areas. Fair amount of relief in the terrain considering proximity to the beach with a few small hill climbs scattered about. Ive been told the place is absolutely nuts on the weekends with people, but owning the place that day was nice. There was a main area along some power lines lined which is mostly open space and Trails are supposed to be one way, but not that well marked. Trails in the woods were awesome with many high banked serpentine turns and some tight technical riding (no photos of that). This was my first real day out off road on the bike with the 351 kit even though ive had it on for months. My god it runs like a dream now. still need to putz with the carb a bit but this thing has so much low end grunt, i ran hard all day through the trails and dont think i ever went above 5K on the engine, and man does it pull now...




Lots of water and stream crossings. Very leary of them at first but got more comfortable. A few trails looked like this....

All was fine until i came to this one, I was cautious at all of them and nervous, until i thought, hey these are all safe ....innocent puddle right??? not so much. Went to cross it at the far right coming into the picture in a section that was about 4 feet longer than the whole bike and went headlight submerged deep to my surprise. yuck, stuck in the muck. In answer to the post floating around, you cant go that deep and not get into trouble. damn near died getting it out. no tools to drain the carb and killed the battery trying to start it.

Had to push the damn thing back through the sand up hill about a half mile to the car. There after draining the carb, using a battery pack to fire it back up and run it a bit, rode for a few more hours, until the lovely photo of my bike above....Stopped it to get a photo since the monsoons were moving in and i was ready to get out....took my photo, got back onto my bike, pressed the starter button and the button fell out, into the dead leaves and sand.... dont ya know there is no easy way to short that out and start it from what i see....tried to bump start it but was too sandy to turn it enough to go, so, for the last time that day, i pushed my bike a half mile back up the hill, went home and slept soundly.....

 

Sweeeeet. Looks like fun riding area The 351 really shines offroad huh? I frickin love it..

Not sure what's up with the carb, but once you get it right you shouldn't have to touch it. I guess I got lucky with it running 100% first try!

 

Awesome!

 

Pushing the bike is all part of the fun right? Sounds like you had a good time, hopefully you can get back out before it gets too cold.

 

And think of the fuel you save

Virginia looks like a great place to play!

 

I just got an 06 on "Black Friday" and was jonesing to hop on it. I need to do a lot to the suspension among other upgrades. All are on order or already in the garage. We just got about 2 hours but our day was cut short because of all the snow on the trails here in MN. Good looking ride BTW. This forum was my clincher for getting the bike. I'm looking forward to next spring so I can ride a lot. Good post and thanks for the pics. Cheers,

 

I feel bad for you "Yankees" (says the northern transplant). It was 62 for me...and i was worried about being cold. Dont think i could ride in weather like that for any duration whatsoever

 

Nice Pic's.
Thx For Sharing W/us

 

Cool to see the bikes still out this time of year. We have had so much rain the last month that I decided to just drive the truck. So its been over 3 weeks since I rode the bike, and this morning even though it was froze out, I rode to work. It felt good to get back in the saddle. I believe in the last 30 days we got something like 46 inches of rain. BAAARUUUTAAAL!!! This picture is from today taken with my new Blackberry Storm 2 Man I am loving this new phone.