Group Rides in Southern New England

[advsquid]

Howdy y'all. I've been organizing some mixed surface rides lately for adv and dual sport bikes. We mostly do routes around central and western Massachusetts as well as up into NH. Just day tips so far but planning a multi-day camping trip as well. I'll continue to update this thread as we plan more rides. 

 

Starting off, some friends and I are doing the route unofficially known as the Trans-Mass Trail this Saturday, July 9th. Right now I'm planning KSU for 10:30am and it should take us about 4 hours. This route is easy. It will not challenge your offroad riding abilities in any way. I wouldn't call it street tire friendly either though. The route mostly rolls through colonial era farms in the hills of the Berkshires, a few twisty paved sections, and a small amount of actual double track. It ends in Deerfield and we'll probably grab a beer and a pizza at Treehouse brewery there after. 

 

Just leaving it here, when I see a house or farmstead coming up on the map, I slow WAY down, upshift a gear, and putt along until we're through. I wave to every passing local I see. I am aware once these routes are posted many packs of high powered bike comes screaming through the woods like it's the Hundred Acre Wood Rally and continued access to places like this worries me. We can have our fun and not piss off the locals, it's totally possible. 

 

Anyway, if anyone is interested, the route starts at Shell on New Hartford Road in Windsted CT, July 9th, KSU sometime between 10 and 1030, ends in Deerfield MA, definitely won't take more than 4.5 hours. Running North to South instead isn't out of the question, just lmk. 

[advsquid]

Short notice yeah but we're doing a modified version of the tomato trail tomorrow morning leaving the meetup in Westminster at 10am. It's friendly to both big bikes and beginners and has some fun but not daunting obstacles. Easily doable on 80/20 tires like OEM. I had a hoot doing with my trailmaxes too. Will be 3 including myself so far, probably grab lunch or a beer at pioneer valley brewing at the finish line. 

 

 

Pm for details. 

[advsquid]

Doing the Johnny Appleseed route in central mass next weekend with a couple guys on dual sports. Probably saturday. Shoot a pm for details 

[advsquid]

Just like to post this here in case anyone comes along and sees the previous post and wants to try the route. The Johnny Appleseed route is HARD. We hardly completed 1/4 of it. Partly because of our late start and early ending now that the sun is down at 4pm, partly dicking around and walking some things before riding, partly making a wrong turn and almost getting stuck in a powerlines trail. As far as the official route goes, we started at the gas station the GPX starts/ends at and went counterclockwise. What we rode (up to boylston) was moderately to pretty damned challenging. It's probably a well spaced tier above the other pre-planned and cutely named adv routes in the area but the dead leaves were filling every crevice of every watermelon-rock hill climb. Even when dry it's all pretty slick and it's not always dry and you can't even see which is which until your bike is on top of it.  

 

Use the go around at the really long water crossing. You'll know which. The go around is up a short, steep, and sharply curved uphill on your left (or an obvious trail on your right if you're going clockwise). If you're closing in on Boylston (again, going counterclockwise) and your friend says "we can just take the powerlines to the main road it's more fun" don't F^*@#%^! do that. It's a dead end and seriously it's way harder to get back out than it is to get in. 

 

Anyway, probably the last time we'll be doing a big ride like this for the season. See y'all in the spring!

[Larson627]

First time stumbling across this thread, I am from the Berkshires and just bought a house on a property that abuts October Mountain State Forest. Lots of good riding there! I'll keep an eye on this thread come springtime! 

[advsquid]

Can't wait for spring!

 

We definitely want to try the Johnny Appleseed again so I'll be sure to post here with some lead time. Maybe around June, or earlier if our spring this year is as dry as it was last year. It was enough of a challenge with all the leaves hiding the trail, I have no desire to try it with bottomless mud puddles on a 500lb bike 

 

Since we did that last ride I bought a WR250R so I might be trying it on that bike instead if I decide to put a milder tire on the Tenere/bother to get a truck so I don't have to ride the WR for 4 hours round trip on the highway, but we'll definitely be going out for more adventures. 

 

Might also have a small crew going to North East Adventure Rally, dates for that just got posted 

[Ray Ride4life]

11 minutes ago, advsquid said:

on a 500lb bike

If it is 500lb you added too much

[advsquid]

Just going off of what I happened to see in a youtube video earlier today. Roland Sands' scale had it at 474 and Jamie Robinson told him it had a quarter tank. I've just got some crash bars and a plastic skid plate so it definitely isn't heavily laden like some I've seen haha

[Larson627]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:03 PM, advsquid said:

Since we did that last ride I bought a WR250R so I might be trying it on that bike instead if I decide to put a milder tire on the Tenere/bother to get a truck so I don't have to ride the WR for 4 hours round trip on the highway, but we'll definitely be going out for more adventures. 

 

I've got an old street legal KTM450EXC as well so let me know either way! I've got a cheap bike hauler that works perfect for lugging it around too if need be. 

[advsquid]

On 2/20/2023 at 9:27 AM, Larson627 said:

 

I've got an old street legal KTM450EXC as well so let me know either way! I've got a cheap bike hauler that works perfect for lugging it around too if need be. 

Awesome, I'll be sure to post here and maybe we can get a good group going. Of course the snow is coming again. I totally fell for false spring this year.

[unicycle]

Hi, new member! Just bumping this -- I am in the southeastern MA area and looking for some rides before it gets too cold! Feel free to DM 

[Fagro]

On 11/13/2022 at 11:53 PM, advsquid said:

Just like to post this here in case anyone comes along and sees the previous post and wants to try the route. The Johnny Appleseed route is HARD. We hardly completed 1/4 of it. Partly because of our late start and early ending now that the sun is down at 4pm, partly dicking around and walking some things before riding, partly making a wrong turn and almost getting stuck in a powerlines trail. As far as the official route goes, we started at the gas station the GPX starts/ends at and went counterclockwise. What we rode (up to boylston) was moderately to pretty damned challenging. It's probably a well spaced tier above the other pre-planned and cutely named adv routes in the area but the dead leaves were filling every crevice of every watermelon-rock hill climb. Even when dry it's all pretty slick and it's not always dry and you can't even see which is which until your bike is on top of it.  

 

Use the go around at the really long water crossing. You'll know which. The go around is up a short, steep, and sharply curved uphill on your left (or an obvious trail on your right if you're going clockwise). If you're closing in on Boylston (again, going counterclockwise) and your friend says "we can just take the powerlines to the main road it's more fun" don't F^*@#%^! do that. It's a dead end and seriously it's way harder to get back out than it is to get in. 

 

Anyway, probably the last time we'll be doing a big ride like this for the season. See y'all in the spring!

Do you have the .gpx file for the Johnny Appleseed route?

[advsquid]

Hey y'all. Just wanted to let you know I sold my T7. I was getting into trouble on that thing, decided it was best to just be done with it and get a real dirt bike before I hurt myself or ended up somewhere shitty with a broken 500lb Yamaha. To that point, I rode the route with my buddy (on a WR250R) up to the powerlines on Pine Swamp Road going north east. I did everything he did and even scaled the cool rock face. It was also a dead end, not a shortcut, I had been out of water for an hour and was seriously dehydrated by the time we realized we had to turn around. Getting out of there is MUCH harder than getting in. To get back to Pine Swamp road you have to go back up a long, steep hill climb that is made of big jagged rocks the power company uses to make a "road." There is no other way back out and as a novice rider I have no clue how I got back up that hill. Luckily the Tenere makes enough horsepower to make up for my lack of skill at the time. Aaaaanyway, the route otherwise is challenging for a big bike but very fun. We only did about half though.  

 

Anyway, here is a link to the thread on advrider with the GPX file. Note there now may be a reroute off of Old Country Road/Teel Road off of Route 12 in Ashburnham. The sand pit there is being developed into some mcmansions I think. 

 

If anyone else is into NETRA or Future Aces, look for me on a TE150 and phase moto gear!