Distance = 46 Miles Jeff emailed me this morning asking if I knew anything about today’s Poker Run. I had just seen it in the paper that morning, and was about to call him and tell him when I got his email. This one was being organized by the Rivesville Fire Department. We thought we would do the same thing as last weekend, just sorta tag along and see where they went. I had to pass the Fire Department on the way to Bens, and saw about 40 ATVs there. I unloaded at Bens and rode out to Jeff’s house to meet him. We sat and talked for a while, thinking they would pass by his house on their way to Indian Creek. But after about 30 minutes had passed we figured they might be taking a different route. So we headed to Hells Hollow to see if they were there. We got to the top of one of the main ride aways for the power lines, and saw them down below in the valley. We kicked back here for a while waiting for them to get on the move again. Just when they started to head out around the valley toward our way, we see a Jeep coming up the ride away. We were rather surprised to see this, its a pretty rough hill to climb on an ATV, it had to be rough in the Jeep. There were 4 Jeeps altogether that came up that hill, they parked alittle above us for alittle while. Most of them had fairly large tires, a couple even had winches. We think they were part of a local Jeep club. We followed the Poker Run group down out of Hells Hollow, and over into Indian Creek. Here is a shot of us waiting for them to make their way out of Hells Hollow. |
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They made a stop at The Island, and like always, one guy had to try the main hole there, and like all the rest, he got stuck. I dont think anyone is ever going to make it through this hole again, its just too deep now, and they all high center when they try to come up out of the other side. Here are some shots of them winching him out. | ||
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I talked to a couple more riders there that had the Big Horn tires. They also had nothing but good things to say about them. One guy said I could even fit 27s on my Rubi with no lift. But I dont want to go too big, and loose too much power. It has 25s stock, so I think I will jump up to 26s. This is still a ways off though, I want to wear out the stock tires first. But after looking them over later that night, I noticed they are wearing faster than I thought. I think it is from the fast road riding that I do, between Bens and Hells Hollow. I have been doing 30 to 40 mph around turns repeatedly, and while the bike feels good and stable, I can feel it sliding the tires laterally. After the Poker group left The Island, Jeff and I figured they would goto Table Top. So we took a shortcut up through the woods directly to it, which is alot more fun than the man road anyway. We beat them to the top by a few minutes, and waited for them next to one of the main mud holes there. They stopped there, but only a couple people rode through the hole. |
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They were only there about 10 minutes, when one of them asked “when are we supposed to be at the next bar?” That’s basically all these poker runs are, they bar hop all day, not really getting any good riding or mudding in. They took off to the bar, Jeff and I stayed behind. | ||
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Not much else to say about the days ride. Jeff and I continued riding till almost midnight. It was only my second time out at night with the new HID light upgrade. The first time being in that down pour, after Sam and I helped the girls that got their car stuck in Indian Creek. I am quite impressed with the HID setup. Its extremely bright and white. The stock Rubicon reflector does a great job of managing all the lumens. It makes a very wide rectangle beam pattern. After I adjusted it alittle higher, it was lighting up the entire area in front of my, and much to the sides. It doesn’t have amazing throw, but the entire area is so evenly lit that it looks fantastic. I think I blinded Jeff a few times, he said you couldn’t look toward it at all. I plan to install an additional switch, so that I can run the bottom two stock bulbs independent of the HID one. That way if I am riding back on a main road I can switch off the HID so it doesn’t blind other motorists. I will also need to switch it off if I have something large on the front racks, so it doesn’t bounce back and blind me. I should have took some beamshots of it while we were on Table Top. I will try to remember to do that next time. |