Report 5 Miles of Hell!!

[Greg]

I got an invite from Vonski to to do some riding around Green River, with a friend (Sam) from Washington. Von mentioned riding some technical singletrack around Woodside and some unspecific Green River area trails... he never mentioned 5 Miles of Hell until I showed up Thursday morning and asked where we were riding!

I figured 'What the Hell...' at least I have a bike that's capable of it!

The trail is relentless, it doesn't ever let you take a break. Constant, gnarly climbs & drops, DEEP sugar-sand that doesn't allow you to maintain any forward momentum and so much rock, tight spots, ledge-filled climbs... it's a lot to take on. The 300 is the perfect bike for 5MOH, IMO. The Rukluse really helped me out, but it was still very hard work. Videos online don't do it justice, the 'Crux' is no joke.. friggin' 4' ledge, with a crappy, short sand-covered approach... and even the approach has a 1' ledge right where you're starting to get your momentum up. It was INTENSE!! All 3 of us got our bikes on to the Crux, but nobody was able to ride all the way up. Von put on one hell of a show... wheelied his bike up the main part of the Crux, did a pirouette on the rear tire and just tried to stay out of the way when it came back down!

There were some spots where your (IMO) best bet was to completely remove the front wheel/tire/suspension from the equation... aka, wheelie up the multiple ledges! It worked like a charm, most of the time.

I do have to say, everyone was all similes and great attitudes, despite the trails difficulty! Lots of breaks to catch our breath & rest up for the upcoming obstacles, talking about line selection, etc... it was a great ride.

Here's some pics from the trip... video to come! I have a LOT to process...


Von hooked us all up with some awesome jerseys! :wtf:

2 riders in this picture... can you see both?

 

[Brian P]

KickASS!

 

[jpest]

F***n Awesome!

 

[Caleb]

Excellent! Looking forward to the video So it's about 7 miles, right? How long did the trail take you guys to get through.

 

[glockman]

Awesome. Glad you guys made it out without carnage. I rode 1/2 of it about 10 years ago. We had a sheared water pump housing and had to bail. I can't wait to tackle it again.


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[Kevin B.]

I need a bike.

 

[Greg]

KickASS!

Yes! It's still sore...

F***n Awesome!

It was awesome, borderline epic IMO!

Excellent! Looking forward to the video So it's about 7 miles, right? How long did the trail take you guys to get through.

Yeah, I think it's just over 7 miles total on the trail. It took us 4 hours total, we stopped often for breaks and took a nice long lunch on the trail. Video is uploading now, should be done in a just a bit.

Awesome. Glad you guys made it out without carnage. I rode 1/2 of it about 10 years ago. We had a sheared water pump housing and had to bail. I can't wait to tackle it again.

I can't imagine having to bail, seems like the potential for breakage is quite high. I'm very glad we didn't have any major trouble, everything was pretty smooth.

I need a bike.

You see a ride report for 5MOH and say you need a bike... that's awesome!

 

[sixstringsteve]

greg, could you have completed the trail on your wr450?

I need to get one of those ogio flight vests, they seem like such an improvement over a camelbak.

 

[Greg]

greg, could you have completed the trail on your wr450?

I wouldn't have wanted to try it on my WR450 Steve. A better rider probably wouldn't have a problem, but IMO a 450 is almost too much for the average rider on 5MOH. The WR was too tall & heavy, it would have been a struggle for me. You'd have to be pretty damn good with your clutch work, so you weren't fighting the bike at every obstacle.

The 300 was perfect, low weight, low seat height and very tractable power.... plus the torque to loft then front end when needed.

 

[Greg]

Here's the video, make sure to watch it in HD! -

[video=youtube;_RY5iR76xJQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RY5iR76xJQ[/video]

 

[sixstringsteve]

Cool. The real question is, how anxious are you to go back and ride it again?

Fantastic riding in that video, you guys are my heros.

What bike is Von riding? Was Sam on a 300xc as well?

 

[Greg]

Cool. The real question is, how anxious are you to go back and ride it again?

I would do it again... matter of fact, I would like to try riding the Crux all the way. I think I could do it.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I'll be practicing all summer. Maybe by fall I'll bring my come-along so I can winch my bike through the entire trail. Thanks for taking the time to do that video, it makes me want to run it even more now.

 

[Greg]

Cool. The real question is, how anxious are you to go back and ride it again?

Fantastic riding in that video, you guys are my heros.

What bike is Von riding? Was Sam on a 300xc as well?

Von rides a '10 KTM 250 XCFW that he recently installed a big bore kit in. And yes, Sam was on a '12 300 XC and he is a hell of a rider. I was the only cheater, with a Rekluse...

I'll be practicing all summer. Maybe by fall I'll bring my come-along so I can winch my bike through the entire trail. Thanks for taking the time to do that video, it makes me want to run it even more now.

The Moab trails were pretty good prep for me, especially Cliffhanger and the Sovereign trail.

A big part of riding this stuff for me is momentum... you have to commit and roll up the roughest stuff, it's much easier than battling it and wearing yourself down.

My suggestion would be to ride it in a small group, no more than 3-4 guys... and make sure everyone is capable of technical stuff, good clutch control, etc. With 3-4 guys you won't have to stop and wait for everyone, at every tough spot... and you'll have enough people to lift bikes up the Crux (if needed) and hopefully enough spare parts, tubes etc.

 

[Greg]

So there were some moments on this trail where my front tire got hooked on a ledge or something and I couldn't get moving again easily... I try not to spin my tire that much, but a couple times I did notice smoke rolling off the knobbie after trying to get going again...

The knobbie did the job, but IMO a trials tire would have given you that much more traction when needed. I never felt like I was missing the trails tire, but some spots could have been ridden more smoothly with it. The downside is a trials tire would SUCK in the sand, which already was pretty difficult with a knobbie.

 

[Caleb]

Nice video, I especially like the "Oh Shit!" when you hit the soft sand . How are you liking the sissy clutch? I think it would make that trail way more manageable (not to discredit the trail or your guys' riding abilities). Seeing Von (who I know is a great rider) struggle really confirms my thoughts of not wanting to ride it

 

[Greg]

Nice video, I especially like the "Oh Shit!" when you hit the soft sand . How are you liking the sissy clutch? I think it would make that trail way more manageable (not to discredit the trail or your guys' riding abilities). Seeing Von (who I know is a great rider) struggle really confirms my thoughts of not wanting to ride it

The "Oh Shit" was actually due to how winded I was after battling that last section, it was ROUGH! The video only shows about half of it.

I love the Rekluse, made 5MOH much less tiring that it would have been, IMO. Bad habits die hard though, I found myself clutching the bike on some of the hard parts out of habit! Everyone had their struggles, but the Rekluse let me just cruise up to stuff, then crawl it. This bike almost felt like it was built for this trail, it worked very well... now only if I was a better rider!

The bike did start boiling over at one point after some hard struggling on a nasty hill... it didn't loose any fluid, but you could hear it rumbling.

Its a tough trail, no doubt... I didn't let it get to my head. I just rode what was in front of me and didn't worry about much else... :brett:

 

[TRD270]

Greg have you tried the product, I believe it is called water wetter. My 450 would boil over a lot in technical sections due to my crappy ability. I added that stuff and never had an issue again

http://www.redlineoil.com/Products.aspx?pcid=10

 

[Caleb]

Greg have you tried the product, I believe it is called water wetter. My 450 would boil over a lot in technical sections due to my crappy ability. I added that stuff and never had an issue again

http://www.redlineoil.com/Products.aspx?pcid=10

That 300 already has engine ice in it unless Greg drained it.

 

[Greg]

Greg have you tried the product, I believe it is called water wetter. My 450 would boil over a lot in technical sections due to my crappy ability. I added that stuff and never had an issue again

http://www.redlineoil.com/Products.aspx?pcid=10

I actually have a bottle in the garage, intended for another vehicle. I've used it before and I really like it.

That 300 already has engine ice in it unless Greg drained it.

I haven't drained it, it's still there. I know you mentioned it had Engine Ice, so I wasn't worried. If the only place I can boil the 300 is on the hardest part of 5MOH then I think I'm fine!!