I just wanted to share some photos and experiences of a ride a group of us took at Chadwick, Mo. There were about 15 of us in all, mostly from my hometown. Three of the guys had dirtbikes, then there were 2 banshees, a 400ex, a 300ex, a Kawasaki 300 bayou, a Rubicon, my AC, and the rest were a mixture of Ranchers and 450’s. I definitely felt in the minority!

There was some challenging terrain to say the least, but was fun. We rode about 75 miles over two days. The terrain varies from rock crawling one minute to 30 mph sprints the next. The trail conditions were very dusty, so when we rode with 11 of us, we were spaced a long way apart.

Here are some positives and negatives of the 500 with riding with this group.

Positives

Hi/Lo Transmission was great for hill climbs/descents mixed with open ridge runs. See same comment in negatives below.

Torque and tires – never ran out of power, and the 489’s are good rock climbers.

Suspension, suspension, suspension – the rocks really put it though a workout and this is where the AC shines, always felt in control, good positive engagement with the ground. I noticed a lot of rear wheels in the air with the company I was riding with. Some of it was kinda scary to watch. Climbing with this thing really gives you confidence.

Engine Braking – The Ruby owner and I did a test and went down a steep 500-600 foot section with a couple of switchbacks, both in low. The object was to not touch our brakes on the way down. I followed the Ruby down about 20 feet behind him and never did gain on him. He both just crawled down, both having to use the gas to keep going. I was impressed with both quads.

Negatives

Some of these trails were old singletrack dirtbike trails, so the size of the 500 was sometimes a hinderance. Had to wrestle it around a couple trees.

Hi/Lo Transmission was also a negative because of riding in such a big group of Hondas with single range transmissions. Low range is so low that you max out about 20 mph. So you had to pick your spots to change between ranges so you didn’t get run over from behind. Left it in Hi a lot, but would have felt more comfortable in low. The Ruby owner could run his in low range to about 35 mph. But, I guess that is the trade-off for that low-range torque. If I wasn’t riding in such a big group, it never would have bothered me.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 

Good pics Tcat (expecially the quad-hauler).

I want to take my Dad there for a ride someday soon. He is a beginner rider for sure, how much trouble do you think I'll get him into? He has a AC 500 Auto also, so I'm not worried about the ability of his machine, just his rider ability.

 

Catlance,

I was lucky and went with some guys that have been going there for almost 20 years, so they were our trail guides and knew the area very well. When we went we got a hold of a couple trail maps, which helped a lot. We had to ask a park ranger for some, she said something about new maps coming out soon that were GPS'd.

As far as getting into trouble, you can pretty much pick and choose where you go. If you want to ride big rock ledges, you can do that, or if want open trail, you can find that also. There are two main loops that go through the park that are fairly tame. Most of the rest of the trails come off these two loops. Most of the nasty stuff is on spur trails that come off the main trails. Our "guides" took us on some of these spur lines just to scare the **** out of us.

I consider myself a beginner rider also, at least for this type of terrain, and as long as you ride within your limits and watch which trails you choose, you should be fine.

A couple comments we got about the quad hauler. We had talked to one of the park rangers earlier in the day and told her that we had a group coming to join us. When they arrived she came back and found us and asked if they were the group we were talking about. We said yes, and she said "I've seen a lot of rigs come in and out of here, but nothing compares to that!" Another guy drove up to us on the trail while we were stopped and asked if we were the ones with the semi. We said yes and all he said was "Wow!" and drove away. The guy that owns it hauled some stuff back going home through Springfield and wrote it off as a business trip.