Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

My weekend

I often get asked what I did for my weekend., this weekend my answer was thus: I got my mom to buy a dirtbike. This bike to be exact. A 2004 TT-R225 from Capitol Powersports in Folsom Ca.

They are currently having an AMAZING sale on the 2004 TT-R225. Right now, you can get a TT-R225 for less the then the TT-R125LE. This sale lasts until the last day in January.

So, Tonya and I convinced my mom to buy a dirtbike and we drove all over town with my 2002 YZ250F, Tonya's TT-R125LE, and my mom's TT-R225 in the back of our 2004 Nissan Titan SE 4x4.

Sunday, we spent an hour or so at the Prairie CIty SVRA in Folsom. My mom was all smiles. Unfortunately, it was cold and muddy and we ran out of day time and had to leave. My mom and Tonya road around in circles for a while in the parking lot/riding paddock. While I did some short but fast sprints along the trails to scout it out. My mom had a BLAST. She was really happy she purchased her dirtbike. Tonya had a good time too. I had some fun and I got really muddy hitting puddles WFO (wide fucking open) in 3rd gear. I was really glad my bike had a Scotts steering dampener on it. The mud and rocks made the bike bounce and slide all over the place. The dampener made the bike handle a lot more sanely at speed.

Prairie City is different then Hollister Hills or Metcalf (the two SVRAs that I normally use). It is also different from Clear Creek but not as different then it is Hollister or Metcalf. The big difference between the OHV parks is the way the trails are run and made. At Hollister and Metcalf you have predefine trails with directions (all trails are one way with a FEW sections where two trails either cross or merge for two way traffic but are CLEARLY marked). I like have the trails formerly marked and named and routed. At Prairie City the trails seems ad-hoc and have no direction, this I'm not crazy about. It is OK for me, I am experienced enough to have enough control to pass or be passed in nasty crap but beginners seem to have it rough. It seems easy for a beginner to get in a place where they have to avoid traffic and deal with a challenging obstacle. This is similar to Clear Creek but at Clear Creek you can ride all day and not see anyone else but at Clear Creek the trails are formerly routed they just don't have direction. Prairie City is also very different is both trail composition (type of dirt/mud) and terrain features. Prairie City is clay and rocks with a mostly flat terrain, mostly flat because there are tons of small mounds from the old gold rush days when the entire area in California was dredged and mine debris was scattered all around (see Folsom Potato fields...). Metcalf and Hollister have an adobe clay base on their trails with very very few rocks. I prefer the adobe but will give Prairie City a few more tries before giving up. The end result is this, Prairie City seems very cool but the lack of organization and the large amount of rocks make it less then ideal for beginners.