| Author | Message | ||
     M2statz |
Biffdotorg Lucky Bastard!! we have about 3 to 4 inches of snow with highs around 10*. Not much to cheer about. Our cabin up north has anywhere from 18" to 24" depending on who I talk to. The trails are supposed to open Saturday morning!! We won't make it up there till after Christmas. | ||
| Biffdotorg |
The local groomers posted on Facebook today that they are out grooming the local 100 mile loop between the watering holes every 10 miles. They posted photos and video from the groomer. I thanked them for texting while grooming as those photos are F'ing CRACK!! Most clubs are grooming now and those that are not, are posting the photos of the clubs that have already put groomers through the ice! After a week of sub-zero, this shouldn't be a problem anymore. Although, the more snow, the more insulation keeping good ice from being made!   | ||
| Elsinore74 |
Hope this isn't off-topic. The National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa has a Harley-Davidson snowmobile on display. Regardless of the current state of H-D, this is a neat piece of history: http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org/featured-machine-h arley-davidson-snow-mobile/?utm_source=December+eN ewsletter&utm_campaign=DecEnews&utm_medium=email | ||
| Biffdotorg |
AMF was one of the many sled makers in the early 70's. Someone shared a count, but it was a crazy number of manufacturers. I have seen a few of the AMF/Harley sleds at vintage runs still making the loop. We did 72 miles last night in -10. That was very nice to get out and it had warmed up to near zero by the time we got done. That warm weather was a front that came through and dropped fresh snow to rip up on our ride home!! SWEET! | ||
| No_rice |
Hope this isn't off-topic. The National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa has a Harley-Davidson snowmobile on display. Regardless of the current state of H-D, this is a neat piece of history wrenched on and rode a handful of those over the years, and a few hd golf carts also. im getting fairly excited. we head to wisconsin the 21st through christmas. i still need to order myself a helmet, round up a couple more to borrow, as well find a few more sleds to use... dad has 5 running, and i have to go work on his old prowler to see if i can get that working again. plus my thundercat would give us(assuming i get the prowler running) 7 of them, but we need 9... a good friend of mine has a 98 zr440 he is selling. i found it for him a couple months ago and he has done a little work to it, but has stashed away a little more money so thinks hes selling this one and getting something else... so i am going to look that over better saturday night i think and may buy it to take along. then either keep or sell afterwards. my dads response when i mentioned that was "so are you not interested in the zr600 at all?!" i said, its not that i havent considered it, but how does me buying it from you help our problem at all? if i buy that from you, all that has happened is it has changed hands within the family, which doesnt get us more sleds so the whole family can go... my sisters have told him the same thing. that sled has been paid for for damn near 13 years, and its not going to break the bank or be much of a cash infusion to sell it for what its worth these days. why sell it off at all when they always want us to come up and snowmobile with them... | ||
| Biffdotorg |
Well, I got to try out my new lift in the garage. Not what I wanted to do, but the Ohlins Electronic shock in my Apex blew! 11,000+ miles on that shock. That sounds like nothing for a bike, but for a sled, that's 4 sled lives! Off to HyGear Suspension for a new housing and rebuild.   | ||
| 99buellx1 |
We have one, a black one. And we have that same snow trailer, snow suit, boots and mittens. (Message edited by 99buellx1 on December 13, 2013) | ||
| No_rice |
getting close! leave for vacation on saturday! been messing with the thundercats suspension. trying to set the sag and such. and get it preliminarily set up for my riding style... obviously it will take some tweaking once we get there. still havent gotten to ride the thing yet... and im still shopping for another sled. found a sharp 03 zr900 with low miles. love those things. especially in the damn near full top to bottom screaming lime green ditch pickle color scheme! but as with everything, we are having trouble coming to terms on price... i would ALMOST sell my thundercat to have this...  | ||
| Macbuell |
I'm Jealous. There is little I would rather do right now than play in the snow on a nice sled. | ||
| Sifo |
I spent Christmas visiting family near Traverse City, MI. No sleds available anymore, but conditions were better than I've seen for MANY years. While I was there, we had four days in a row of dropping 5+ inches every day. I had nothing but snowshoes, but made the best of it. Kept thinking about sleds though.  Took a shot of our barn in the snow.  And the view from the house.  And snowshoe tracks, that could have been some nice sled tracks.  I hope some of you have been getting those kind of conditions. Best powder I've seen in the Midwest for a long time! | ||
| No_rice |
well, made it out to play for awhile in wisconsin!         | ||
| Kag |
Nice | ||
| K12pilot |
Selling 2011 ski Doo XRS LOTS of goodies with trailer. Pm me with any interest. Thank you Ride safe | ||
| No_rice |
gearing up for another trip in just a couple weeks. just the guys this time... old guys! going with my dad and his friends. | ||
| M2statz |
When are you going to be up there Tim? We are gonna try to take in the Vintage races at Eagle River for a day or two and then ride the rest of a 5 day weekend next week. | ||
| No_rice |
wont be up till the 22nd-26th. then again 12-17 of feb. | ||
| Biffdotorg |
No Rice, those photos are amazing! Nice work! Just flew back from Mexico on Friday, and come home to -25 plus wind!! That's a 100 degree shift in less than 48 hours!! Good thing it's warming up into the 20's in two days! We booked our annual trip to Michigan yesterday. 10 guys driving from Fargo area to Hurley/Ironwood for the first night and then three days in cabins on Lake Gogebic in Michigan!! Bring on the Hurley Gurlies!!! WOO WOO!! | ||
| No_rice |
No Rice, those photos are amazing! Nice work! thanks :-) i enjoy taking them. but its hard to get going again once i stop to take them. its so extremely peaceful. just kick back and relax on the sled. i remember one night out on the river with a friend, out in the middle of nowhere, park the sleds spin around, kick back feet up and head rested on the bars and just enjoy the quiet. stare at the stars and tell stories. cold brisk night with some of the clearest skies ive ever seen. but then again, once i get moving its balls out... Just flew back from Mexico on Friday, and come home to -25 plus wind!! That's a 100 degree shift in less than 48 hours!! Good thing it's warming up into the 20's in two days! We booked our annual trip to Michigan yesterday. 10 guys driving from Fargo area to Hurley/Ironwood for the first night and then three days in cabins on Lake Gogebic in Michigan!! Bring on the Hurley Gurlies!!! WOO WOO!! that swing is great isnt it lol. i remember running in that area. lots of fun! i just got the zr a set up right after replacing an apv valve cable. then tore the t-cats carbs apart to see why i had an odd stutter at most anything but full throttle... pretty sure this may be somewhat at fault. someone got a little heavy handed at some point...  | ||
| Biffdotorg |
What is it? Valve cable? | ||
| Sifo |
Looks like either a bent carb needle or a really bad manicure! | ||
| No_rice |
carburetor jet needle. basically one of the main things that meter the flow of air and fuel. connected to the throttle cables. pull the throttle cable and the needle moves up along with the slide. allowing more fuel in(via needle jet) and more air on(via the slide moving up and opening the carb throat. mine being bent means that it wasnt supplying the right aount of air and fuel at the right time. so it was hanging up and keeping one carb opened up a bit more then the other 2. should explain why as i got closer to full throttle it ran better, because then that kink in the needle wasnt effecting anything and the slide was in the correct position also by that point.     | ||
| Biffdotorg |
Ahh, shock rebuild done! HyGear did a great job and they are better than new. New housings and components that were worn. One less thing to worry about on the trail. And my annual reminder that an Apex skid is probably heavier than most others complete sled!!    | ||
| Biffdotorg |
OMG! We woke up to 6-8" of fresh snow in the region we wanted to ride. We drove our trucks back to a buddies cabin to drop and we were dragging our undersides to get there!! It was great temps, and bluebird skies! 130 miles in awesome conditions! We rode up and around Itasca State Park. (Headwaters of the Mississippi for those of you not from the region) One of my buddies kept the GoPro rolling! Check out the first 10 miles were filmed on the road!! There was that much snow. At about 6:30 mark, my buddy missed a turn and put it into the pucker brush. I guess he was lucky that there was only brush there and no big trees. What a great day! One week till we pack it up for Michigan! And yes, the newly rebuilt shocks were a dream!! http://youtu.be/tAmHTsVfIV4 | ||
| Sifo |
I knew I had this old pic around somewhere. This was in the winter of 71/72.  | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Nice pic, Sifo! | ||
| Loose1 |
I'll be racing in the 1 lunger 100 on Saturday. I hope to make it farther than the 35 miles I did last year. The sleds have to be '73 or older, single cylinder, mostly stock sleds and make it 100 miles. Less than 30% of the sleds/riders finish. If anybody's in the central MN area and wants to see old sleds getting the crap beaten out of them come out to Gull lake in Brainerd. http://vintagesnowmobileracing.com/ONE-LUNGER-100 Matt | ||
| Reepicheep |
I love old pictures. God was a much more timeless designer when he designed Women, than machine designers are when they design machines. Some things just never go out of style... | ||
| Bob_thompson |
Sorry guys, I just could not resist this, below, sent to me from an old friend who I grew up with in the Chicago area. We all loved the sleds back in the day. Also thanks Sifo for some nostalgia.  | ||
| Sifo |
I got a couple of snow pics from my brother near Traverse City, MI. First is just a new clipping, watching the snow pile up outside.  And a shot of him shoveling his driveway today.  I think he's kicking himself for selling his sleds. | ||
| No_rice |
had a good guys trip up in the hayward area alittle over a week ago. dad and i went up a day before the other guys and rode, just wandering around for awhile.    the first day the rest of the group showed up, we made it about 10 miles when one of their sleds started puking coolant out... hauled it back to the house and tore into it.  we swapped in a new thermostat. that didnt end up being the problem so we were left with the water pump being the main other option. that requires engine removal so we left it and took the back up sled the next day. when he got home he took it to the dealer. see the shaft that runs front to back. it drives the water AND the oil pump...  seems as though the gear sheared off. so not only was it over heating because of no coolant flow, it also had no oil flow. you can see where this is going... needless to say its currently getting a big rebuild. here they are trying to decide where we are going. my response is i dont really care where we are going until im getting close to being out of gas! lets just ride!     i got the suspension on the thundercat finally dialed in pretty good! so now i can pitch it into a corner with a healthy dose of throttle!!! only problem i had while we were up there was a freak occurrence with my saturn sl1 tow vehicle. we hauled my thundercat up to WI behind it(dad leaves a couple sleds for him there at the house). we rolled in about 2:30-3am so all i did was grab clothes and go to bed. got up the next morning and walked out to unload my sled only to notice a lime green puddle under the cars muffler and green icicles hanging from it...?!?!?! wtf?!?! first thought was i blew a head gasket or cracked the head(saturn single cams had a problem with that for awhile). the car had never even hiccuped or run warm on the way up. anyway, i commenced to checking the antifreeze reservoir which was nice and green and exactly at the level i had left it a few days before when i replaced the thermostat. pulled the oil dipstick and it was low, but not milky. we ended up driving it the 400 miles back to my house after the trip(and probably 1000 since then) and still everything is just as it should be. i have no idea what the hell was going on. where did it come from?! got me but i guess it will be a mystery. anywho, Jenn and i leave next tuesday night to go back up again for a couples trip, with the rest showing up on wednesday night. im looking forward to it! probably be my last trip of the year, and if the snow or should i say lack there of stays the way it is around my house it will probably be my last riding this year also... |
