Anyone take any dirt roads with their XS???

[sparkfly88]

The awesome season is coming in FL for camping, hiking, etc..

I have some places I want to go but they require some riding on sand/dirt roads that may have some ruts in them from previous cars.


Anyone do this with their XS???

The one im specifically looking at would be like 3-4 miles of a straight dirt road.
Taking it in my friend's truck last year, id call it sugar sand...

Am I stupid?

[DAVINCI]

No, but did a couple on the Goldwing in Vermont this past weekend.

https://vimeo.com/76294282

Should be no problem on the XS, I'd stay off the front brake though.

[skids]

Let me say that there are different kinds of dirt roads:

Hard pack = good
Hard pack with a sprinkling of gravel = OK (always there somewhere with hard pack)
Deep loose gravel = go good.

At the Florissant house, I do about 1.5 miles each way just to ride pavement. This is hardpack with about 50% of the surface coated with pea gravel. You just have to be easy on the throttle and brakes and you dodge the loose gravel strips as much as you can. Turns need to be made carefully.

Whould I like long distances on gravel?...no. I remember pushing through about 3 to 4 inches of very loose gravel at lake Bonnie for about 8 miles total. It was miserable and my feet were off the pegs almost the whole distance!

[sparkfly88]

Okay...well this is loose sugar sand....maybe...4 inches deep...no gravel.

[sparkfly88]

This is a google street view of the road I'm talking about. looks recently wet in this photo though....I was on it when it was bone dry.

https://www.google.com/maps/preview#...3.1!17b1&fid=5

[JeffH]

I have some places I want to go but they require some riding on sand/dirt roads that may have some ruts in them from previous cars.

Anyone do this with their XS???

The one im specifically looking at would be like 3-4 miles of a straight dirt road.
Taking it in my friend's truck last year, i'd call it sugar sand...

YES, we did this........
But its not for the faint of heart.

On our Annual Winter (Feb) XS group ride to Key West, I took the group down an eleven mile "sugar sand" pathway that Glades County calls a road. Riding Bradenton down to the Seafood Festival in Everglades City. We always stay on backroads when we can. I picked a doozie. I don't like riding on US27 when I can help it.

Took a "shortcut" going south off Berman Rd to get into LaBelle. Came upon a road grader 5 miles down the farm road that was grading the ruts and smoothing out the sand. His eyes just about popped out of his head when he saw 7 or 8 motorcycles come charging down the road.

Key was keep the throttle open and just ride out the twists, bobbles and wobbles we all hit. Most ran 35mph to 40mph. I recall Brent (riding in the left rut tire track) passing everyone and taking pics of each rider/bike as he past. I don't recommend that however.

I didn't get any major complaints from the XS Riders but they were all rolling their eyes and anxiously awaiting pavement, any condition pavement, at the other end. Plus we were anxious to chow down on all the good food at the Seafood Festival.

On the serious side, if you hit a big enough rut then you are toast. I had a friend smash his shoulder to bone fragments at 30mph when getting into a hidden rut and taking a hard fall. So, we were lucky, it was a challenge, we all made it safely; but we were lucky.

Jeff

[sparkfly88]

So, you recommend riding IN the ruts, all the same hoping and praying you dont find a squirly one that someone happened to leave...

Im scavenging the maps to see if I can find this road you were on for the heck of it

[JeffH]

So, you recommend riding IN the ruts, all the same hoping and praying you dont find a squirly one that someone happened to leave...

NO, ruts = bad .......
Point was the bike was almost uncontrollable. Just more or less bike went where it wanted across the road. There were few real ruts or car tracks. I think only those old broken down farm semi's were using the road. Just blown sand mostly and little bit of dirt across the travel path. Road grader was smoothing out some bad spots - soft spots where the road looked like wave churn in the ocean. In some places center was more packed and in other places any remnants of a tire track was more packed and a little more managable. Key was staying out of the soft spots which were anywhere - everywhere shoulder to shoulder. BTW: This was a Single Track road. Not a two lane. Any traffic met head on. We all just did what worked to get across it.

Friend Richard (a life long very experienced rider & amateur dual sport rider + Alligator Enduro rider) I mentioned got trapped in a "soft spot" not necessarily a tire track rut. Just a soft spot that would not support the weight and momentum of the motorcycle. Just his time in the barrel. Two surgeries and pins to rebuild his shoulder got him back on his bike.

If we ride to Key West in Feb you will have to join us!!!!

Jeff

[jimbyjimb]

You guys have balls. I start getting nervous on grooved pavement.

[sparkfly88]

lol....

I've already rode my poor xs through a giant property of standing water and slick grass.

Coming from my dirtbike roots, I just put all my weight onto the pegs, and rode it out

[jwhughes3]

I believe Greg just did this and does not recommend it.

I have seen it done - I saw Motoman and 3Phase take a gravelly mining road once at the 2011 Durango Rally. I cannot say I recommend that either.

John

[jetmechmarty]

Dirt, gravel, and sand will show you just how top heavy the XS11 is. I'd do it, but be advised.

[trbig]

As noted, the front tire tends to go where it wants and you're along for the ride. Though it seems counter-intuitive, the faster the better. The faster you go, the less the front tire will have a chance to sink in and "Snowplow" the sand in front of it. Your first reaction will be to want to go slower when the bike starts to wiggle a bit, but the old dirt bike rider's adage... "If in doubt, burn out!" applies. I've been many miles out into the desert before with mine in Nowhere Arizona looking for a ghost town, and I thought it did pretty good. The low end torque these bikes have came in handy, but there's not much ground clearance. There were no roads out here.. I was just out across the desert by this point, and I decided riding up that hill would be a good pic.. lol.






I can't say I would recommend riding like this to someone without quite a bit of dirt bike experience, but yes, it can be done.

[sparkfly88]

are you rocking a vetter in that photo?

EPIC shot either way

[skids]

Let me say that there are different kinds of dirt roads:

Hard pack = good
Hard pack with a sprinkling of gravel = OK (always there somewhere with hard pack)
Deep loose gravel = go good.

Damn it! I proof-read that like 4 times and still messed-up! It should read "Deep loose gravel = NO good." Sorry folks...