Kluge
06-06-2008, 04:37 AM
If you happen to be near Long Island, NY and you want to sample some dirt riding, you can take the Sunrise Highway Route 27 to Wading River Road in Center Moriches. Go north about 1 block then right onto North Jerusalem Road. You'll get about 1/4 mile of medium-soft sand/dirt before it goes back to pavement and eventually to Chapman Blvd., that can take you back to Sunrise or north towards route 495.
map 'Forbidden' by google...
I'm pretty sure it's a legal public road and I made it through at about 2 am without dropping the bike or rousing any locals. I went 18 mph tops in 1st gear for the best control, and stayed mostly on my side of the road. My 800cc Boulevard isn't an off-road machine and it's about 100 pounds heavier than the sport-bike suzuki with a similar engine size.
With me on the bike it's about 400 pounds per tire, almost the same as a compact car but less than half the per-tire load of my minivan. Bike tires are round so I was figuring that as a factor that would reduce hydroplaning when it rains, but it probably doesn't help when sinking into dirt. It rained about 36 hours before but our sandy dirt doesn't always make puddles, I didn't see any but there were lots of dried puddle-holes.
It did take some effort to steer around the holes and stay balanced while mushing around a bit. I realized too late that it would be a relly bad time to drop the bike, since I'm not supposed to lift over 20 pounds, I was basically alone in the woods, and I only went that way to try the dirt road. I haven't ridden on a long stretch of dirt since they buried a pipeline near me when I still had the 250cc bike.
Here's a link to the map (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&ie=UTF8&ll=40.831541,-72.804294&spn=0.023964,0.023646&t=h&z=15) in case the embed doesn't take.
map 'Forbidden' by google...
I'm pretty sure it's a legal public road and I made it through at about 2 am without dropping the bike or rousing any locals. I went 18 mph tops in 1st gear for the best control, and stayed mostly on my side of the road. My 800cc Boulevard isn't an off-road machine and it's about 100 pounds heavier than the sport-bike suzuki with a similar engine size.
With me on the bike it's about 400 pounds per tire, almost the same as a compact car but less than half the per-tire load of my minivan. Bike tires are round so I was figuring that as a factor that would reduce hydroplaning when it rains, but it probably doesn't help when sinking into dirt. It rained about 36 hours before but our sandy dirt doesn't always make puddles, I didn't see any but there were lots of dried puddle-holes.
It did take some effort to steer around the holes and stay balanced while mushing around a bit. I realized too late that it would be a relly bad time to drop the bike, since I'm not supposed to lift over 20 pounds, I was basically alone in the woods, and I only went that way to try the dirt road. I haven't ridden on a long stretch of dirt since they buried a pipeline near me when I still had the 250cc bike.
Here's a link to the map (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&ie=UTF8&ll=40.831541,-72.804294&spn=0.023964,0.023646&t=h&z=15) in case the embed doesn't take.