Looks like we might get snow this weekend. Miller Canyon is one of our favorite snow riding spots! It usually catches the storms just right, and gets way more snow dumped on it than the surrounding areas. Three feet is pretty common for big storms.

But, NF web site shows a lot of the roads in the area are still closed. Called the ranger station, and they said safety (falling trees?) is the primary concern, and things would not reopen until they decide it is safe...which could take forever.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/conditions/


Anybody been up there since the fires and have any first hand information???

Can you still drive in to Pinnacles and stage from there? Don't think I would want to make that drive in the snow hauling a trailer though......

 

Hello......
Merry Christmas.
I was up in Millers a couple of weekends ago and still closed. I'm itching to get up there and ride. I forgot the trail numbers but you can even get up to where the two main trail combine below the water treatment plant.
I just got new tire and I'm dying to get all muddy!!!!

Have you ever been in the MT's near El Mirage?
Also did you ever link up with that guy from Yorba Linda with the 4x4 bruin?
Talk to ya later and Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.
Attila

 

Hi all SoCal riders. I'm new to the ATV scene...actually I don't even have an ATV as of yet, and that's really why I'm here. I'm in Irvine, CA and me and a friend have been thinking about buying some quads. We'd really like to know what other people are riding in the areas we'd liketo ride in and get their feedback and experience to help us make our own decisions. We're thinking of riding up arond Arrowhead and/or Big Bear. Could you tell me what you see most people riding up there? Actually we don't know all that many places to ride, so if you'd like to give some suggestions that would be cool too. We'd like to ride some nice mountain scenic places. We're not opposed to other places though. A guy at a Kragen mentioned El Mirage and the Lake Elsinore area to me, and everybody knows about Glamis. We will be checking these places out, but we think the sand and dirt and desert scene might get old quick, where as a nice mountain scenery is always a pleasure to look at. Anyway, for me, I've sorta narrowed down my choices to the Yamaha Raptor 700R or the Can-Am Renegade 500 or possibly 800. The main differences here is the Can-Am has 4 wheel drive and independent rear suspension, but at a 200 lb weight penalty. I really need to know if it is necessary to have 4 wheel drive up in the local San Bernadino mountains. We're not young and crazy, so even though these are our first quads, we think we'll be able to handle the more powerfu machines ok. We've been riding personal water craft (Yamaha Wave Runners) in the summer and fall, but are looking for something else for the winter and spring. He has also ridden dirt bikes before. Also, that snow at Millers Canyon that was just mentioned sounds like fun too and I'm sure we check that out when we can. So basically, do I need 4 wheel drive? Or will 2 wheel drive suffice? Thanks for any advice you have.

 

I will do a seperate post on where to ride in So. Calif. There are lots of links, and it will take me a little time to get them all together. In the mean time, do a search. I have done lots of these in the past. (Search "So. Calif.", and you will come up with lots of my stuff from the past.)

Don't sell the desert short!!! There are a thousand spectacular desert rides out there...it's a great resource! The local mountains on the other hand are quite restriced, so if all you want to do is ride the woods, you could probably ride everything there is around here in a couple of day trips. If you want more mountain riding and are willing to drive, the Sierras and intermountain west offer lots of opportunities......

We have both 2wd sport quads and 4wd utilities. Mostly, we ride the 2wd's in the desert during the cool months, and the utilities in the mountains during the hot months.

So. Calif., is really sport quad country! Even in the mountains, 95% of the places I go can be done just fine on a sport quad. In fact, I sometimes have to go deliberately looking for places that require 4wd (like rock crawling or the snow!), just for the challenge of riding them. I guess I would call 4wd a nice luxury, but not a necessity.

The best all-around machines will be the great trail sport quads! Honda 400EX, Suzuki Z400, and Yamaha Raptor 700. If a rider is smaller (teens and petite ladies), then the Honda 300EX, Honda 250EX, or the new Yamaha Raptor 250, will be good choices. For the wide open desert, I love the screaming Honda 450R...the king of desert endurance racing!

As far as utilities go, I just don't like the current crop of huge heavy big bore monsters! They are needlessly large and heavy, and that will just hold you back on tight mountain trails! Folks (especially "senior citizens") get sucked in by the cushy suspension, but imagine what it would be like if you roll an 800 pound monster back in the woods somewhere??? Utes are pretty lame in the desert as well! Their size and weight have a high penalty, and they are absolutle misery in the whoops.

As far as utilities go, I personally stick with the medium size machines (~400cc), that have manual transmissions. They are smaller, lighter, and more agile. My new Honda Rancher 420 is a real peach....darn near perfect for what I ride (I only wish it was lighter).

PM me and we can exchange phone numbers. I ride with a large group, and between us all, we own a huge variety of quads and dirt bikes. Lots of first-hand experience to draw from!

 

Hun-Didn't mean to ignore you! No, we didn't get a chance to do the Miller Canyon ride....I was sick.

We are doing lots of riding over the holidays, if you are interested. I'm not sure what I did with your card? Can you PM me with your e-mail and phone numbers? Thanks!

 

Hi reconranger. Thanks for all the info. I had been reading the forum a bit, but I have just been scrolling through the different topics. I will try searching for more specific info. I think i'm leaning a little more towards the Yamaha Raptor over the Can-Am Renegade now. Still need to work a bit on the financing though.

I'm glad you can read minds a little bit too. There IS a petite lady in our group who we need to help make a choice also. We'll check out those ATVs you suggested. Since we think we will be riding in different altitudes all the time, we've been focusing on fuel injected models since we don't want to have to be adjusting the carbs all the time. They don't make any small bore fuel injected models do they? She's 5'2" and 100 lbs, and has sat on a couple of 400s and though they were too big, then tried out some 350s and 300s. We were thinking the 250s wouldn't be powerful enough, but we'll take another look. She also thought the clutch was hard to pull so we'd like to find some kind of automatic for her too. I know, that's asking for quite a bit in a small machine, but if there is anything out there, please let me know.

 

The Honda 250EX has a "sportclutch" (similar to the Rekluse aftermarket clutch). It has a left hand manual clutch, but also a centrifugal clutch so it won't stall if you forget to pull the clutch in when you stop. Great learning tool for a beginner! The little EX is based on the Recon utility, and will do anything any 2wd utility will. My boys ride theirs along with us literally everywhere I go on the Ranchers.

The 300EX is an excellent machine as well, and the new Raptor 250 is supposed to be pretty hot (and ultralight!). I have taught kids to shift a manual in a couple of hours, so beg her to give a manual a try....she will be so much better off in the end!

I really think the Renegades are awfully heavy. It's a great idea to combine sporty handling with 4wd, but they left to much utility in there and didn't include enought sport for my taste. Did you look at the Yamaha Wolverine 450? It's the same idea........

My buddies wife has the Yamaha 700. Monster torque! I didn't like the ergonomics, but he put on lower handlebars and that made it somewhat better.

Our typical Sierra rides start out in the valley at 4,000', then go up to ~11,000'. I do a little trick with venting the airbox lid (I can explain later if you are interested), and we have no trouble at all riding carburated quads at maximum altitude. My fuel injected Rancher 420 is nice up there, but I can vent the Rancher 350 and the 250EXs, and they do just as well.

 

Another consideration between a sport quad and utility is how much gear you want to carry. One reason I like the utes for the mountains is that I can carry more "survival" gear in case of bad weather, etc. Once in a while we camp off the quads. Works well if you pack light like a backpacker.....

Sometimes, water can be your most precious piece of survival equipment!!! On the sport quads, I carry a Camelback with 3 liters of water and can't ever recall running dangerously low, but especially if one is in a big group it pays to pack extra.

 

Another consideration in deciding between 2wd/4wd, is just how "technical" the terrain that you are planning to ride will be. If you tend to like rock crawling then for sure you want a 4wd and high ground clearance....but the price you will pay is a taller less stable vehicle (especially with IRS), and a whole lot of extra weight!

Snow is however the one place where 2wd is way lame! (Mud as well, but we don't really have much of that here in the arid southwest.)

This is where we are going to ride today: http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/...eDetail.jsp?id=330535


The little SRA Ranchers that only have 7" of ground clearance, get through this stuff fairly easily. You might thing a big IRS machine with lots of ground clearance would do better, but those are tall and tippy and what seems to be logical on paper doesn't always work out that way on the trail! If you roll your big tall heavy monster machine back in the rocks, what's the point????

If you have good skid plates and are in a group where you have lots of help lifting and carrying and pushing, one could get a 2wd sport quad through some nasty stuff. But, most of the time that isn't practical.

So, my point is to carefully consider what your riding conditions are going to be. You seem to want to do a lot of mountain riding, so these are things to think about!!!

 

Muteki,

I'll throw some of my 2 cents in here too... I just purchased my first quad to see if the family would enjoy it or not. We've only had it about two months, so we're just learning where to ride as well. After a lot of research, I settled on a 2005 Honda 400ex. It has a solid reputation, an engine that's been around forever, is very dependable, fast (enough for us at least--I had it up to about 60 which seems really fast on something so small), and has reverse. My petite wife has no problem handling the size or power of it. She has owned manual transmission cars before, so shifting the gears came easy for her.

Our first ride was out at El Mirage dry lake bed. It seems like a nice easy place to learn. It's very open, with trails leading everywhere.

Our second trip was Lucerne Valley, which is HUGE. Lots of places to ride, with all types of terrain. We were there for a weekend, and weren't able to see even a small portion of the area.

After that I did some trail riding from Idyllwild down to Hemet. It was a great ride, with a big elevation drop, and a big change in scenery, from pine trees to desert and back again. I basically rode trail 5S09, and took a few detours along the way. Although one of the detours was pretty rough and steep, there was nothing that the two wheel drive couldn't handle. Here are a few pics: Idyllwild Trail

Personally, I recommend a sport quad over the 4x4, unless you plan on the majority of your rides being rock crawling. They seem to be lighter, nimbler, and will go over most terrain. Also, I would be afraid that a smaller 250 or 300 might be outgrown quickly, even by my wife.

PS, I found a great deal on the quad on Ebay, so don't be afraid to shop there.

Have fun!