Trails at Oakland

It was a fun day on the trails on Saturday. We had a great time until we came across two fires with unknown origins. All said and done we spent about 3 hours fighting fires but luckily it was towards the end of the day anyway. No parts were harmed on Saturday and other than the fires it was just an all around nice ride. The weather was just about perfect out and the park was not too crowded. Although as we left even more folks were showing up. I think that maybe we got out while the getting was good.

The kdx ran great all day without ever missing a beat. It was a blast to ride. My only criticism of the bike might be that first gear can be a bit much at times. I spent most of the day cruising in second or third. It was still wheelie happy in second but first was great at keeping the tire lofted for the duration of the trail. I can't wait to get Jessie out on the trails. I may re-gear the bike with a +1 counter sprocket gear just to take a bit of the edge off for her when she is riding. I was a bit worried that the kdx would be incapable of just cruising the trails at a relaxed pace but towards the end of the day I spent a fair amount of time just exploring at a slow pace and the bike had no issue just cruising around. I can't wait to throw a new header pipe on though. I think it will make the bike into a tractor for when Jessie rides it and smooth it out quite a bit. All around the bike is better than I could have even hoped for the price we paid. 

Next weekend it is going to get a more thorough test while chasing a bunch of orange bikes owned by some friends. We are headed down to Disney, OK and I can't wait. Although, I don't relish being gone for yet another weekend, it is still going to be a wonderful time!

Oakland is a great place to ride but I wish there were more climbs and obstacles. You spend most of the day running the same trails looking for anything new and steadily going faster and faster. It is a great beginner riding area though. You could not find a better place to practice basic skills and improve. It has a few climbs and can be VERY muddy if it is wet but overall the park doesn't have much to offer to challenge an intermediate rider unless you just want to get faster. I don't need to run trails at light speed myself and so would love a little more variety. My brother ran the trails on his KLR and had almost no issues with anything that the park has to offer. It is almost KLR friendly once you get proficient on dirt.