wikdsvt
Club Member
This past weekend (SUNDAY) 2 friends and I went to St. Helens for some riding on Sunday. Left early morning, made a few stops on the way up there, but was on the trails by 10am.
I rode a KFX 700, a friend brought his KFX 700, and another brought a 4x4 Prairie 700 (all machines had the same engine and were automatics). The Prairie was the fastest as it had a big bore kit from V Force John and extensive engine work.
St Helens trails are great. It is sandy, but the morning rain on the way up kept the dust down. The trails are WIDE (not like Layota which are very narrow) and there were very few sections of whoops. In many areas we were WOT on the trails. There was the ocassional puddle of water due to the morning rain, but you could skip across it at 65mph.
We rode from the trail head in St. Helens to Prudenville and back. (well i was towed the last 2 miles as i ran out of fuel just before Prudenville. I removed some mods to make the machine more reliable and never changed the jets. The carbs were pissing fuel into the engine causing me to use a ridiculous amount of fuel.). Drove right through town next to Houghton Lake, pulled up the gas station, filled up, grabbed some food, and drove through town. The local police officer even waived to us as we drove by.
Afterwards, headed back to St Helens and I had to refuel again. At this time my quad was losing power and bogging at anything more than 1/2 throttle. So we let the machines cool down as we grabbed some food in downtown St. Helens. just lined the ATV's up with the other ones, kinda like motorcycles lined up outside a bar.
Afterwards, the quad was still acting up. Rode back to the truck and swapped the plugs out. I never saw plugs so black and fouled in my life. Pulled the outerwear off the filter to get more air and she was back to running great, albeit pig rich.
We rode to the "ROCKS" where the prairie was put through the paces climbing over rocks and boulders. Using the winch occasionally to make it over.
Then we headed over to the open area. It is a large sandy area with a huge fire pit, and sand hills to climb. I'd say it is about a 1/4 mile square area. Raced a few other quads up the sand hills, had a great time. We packed up the car around 5pm and headed home.
We rode 78.3 miles!
Thoughts:
The riding is great! Nice wide trails, clearly marked. You can ride through town legally.
The suspension on the 700 needs to be softened up a lot. While all the quads were automatics, it was nice not having to shift and still go ~65-70mph.
The Banshees (we all have them) would have been a much much smoother ride, but my left hand would have been killing from pulling in the clutch. Plus 100hp is a little too much for the trails.
I strongly recommend it, if you are looking for a nice place to ride. It's close enough to do a day trip.
The St. Helen trails met up with other trails and you can ride as long as you want. Next to Silver Lake, it's my favorite place to ride in Michigan.
I rode a KFX 700, a friend brought his KFX 700, and another brought a 4x4 Prairie 700 (all machines had the same engine and were automatics). The Prairie was the fastest as it had a big bore kit from V Force John and extensive engine work.
St Helens trails are great. It is sandy, but the morning rain on the way up kept the dust down. The trails are WIDE (not like Layota which are very narrow) and there were very few sections of whoops. In many areas we were WOT on the trails. There was the ocassional puddle of water due to the morning rain, but you could skip across it at 65mph.
We rode from the trail head in St. Helens to Prudenville and back. (well i was towed the last 2 miles as i ran out of fuel just before Prudenville. I removed some mods to make the machine more reliable and never changed the jets. The carbs were pissing fuel into the engine causing me to use a ridiculous amount of fuel.). Drove right through town next to Houghton Lake, pulled up the gas station, filled up, grabbed some food, and drove through town. The local police officer even waived to us as we drove by.
Afterwards, headed back to St Helens and I had to refuel again. At this time my quad was losing power and bogging at anything more than 1/2 throttle. So we let the machines cool down as we grabbed some food in downtown St. Helens. just lined the ATV's up with the other ones, kinda like motorcycles lined up outside a bar.
Afterwards, the quad was still acting up. Rode back to the truck and swapped the plugs out. I never saw plugs so black and fouled in my life. Pulled the outerwear off the filter to get more air and she was back to running great, albeit pig rich.
We rode to the "ROCKS" where the prairie was put through the paces climbing over rocks and boulders. Using the winch occasionally to make it over.
Then we headed over to the open area. It is a large sandy area with a huge fire pit, and sand hills to climb. I'd say it is about a 1/4 mile square area. Raced a few other quads up the sand hills, had a great time. We packed up the car around 5pm and headed home.
We rode 78.3 miles!
Thoughts:
The riding is great! Nice wide trails, clearly marked. You can ride through town legally.
The suspension on the 700 needs to be softened up a lot. While all the quads were automatics, it was nice not having to shift and still go ~65-70mph.
The Banshees (we all have them) would have been a much much smoother ride, but my left hand would have been killing from pulling in the clutch. Plus 100hp is a little too much for the trails.
I strongly recommend it, if you are looking for a nice place to ride. It's close enough to do a day trip.
The St. Helen trails met up with other trails and you can ride as long as you want. Next to Silver Lake, it's my favorite place to ride in Michigan.
