2022 Ride with the champs

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:35 am

The 2022 Ride with the Champs is in the books. This was the 16th consecutive trip I have attended, my wife Katy has been attending since 2012.

This year was going to be a little different for us, in January the week before attending the Midwest Ride-in, we had sold the last of the steers we have been feeding. So for the first time we would be attending without paying anyone to do chores, and without the attendant concerns about how things were going back home.

With the new 23’ V-nose hooked on the truck, we could take 4 sleds north, and hopefully have a relaxing, fun week in the northwoods.

The 73 and 74 JDX8s were on the trailer, the 74 green machine, and the 72 400. I was fairly confident we were ready, I had 12 gallons of fresh pre-mix on board, all that was left was to load our gear Tuesday morning.

We were out the driveway before noon, and pulled up in front of the Whitetail Lodge at 3:09 pm. Dry roads, no issues, never stopped, just hammered it out. I backed the trailer into parking spot number ONE, and it sat there for the duration of the week.

We headed up to our friends place in Manitowish Waters, had supper at the Irish Pub, and laid some plans.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:21 am

Wednesday February 16. Low temp 18 High temp 31

Wednesday morning was foggy and raw. We had decided to drive over to Eagle River for breakfast with the Whirry’s. They parked their truck and trailer at the SHOF, and we headed east for pancakes and eggs.

When we returned, we pulled the green machine and the 73 X8 off the trailer, got dressed and headed over to the museum. Gary and Renee' were ready to go when we arrived, so we headed South out of town headed for Pitlic’s Resort, about 15 miles away.

We found the trails the normal brown in town, but once we were out beyond the perimeter, things were much better. They have been grooming the same snow since December, so it is getting kinda sugary. Reasonably smooth, although I was told that the wife tried to dismount the sled almost immediately upon getting started down the trail under the power lines.

We pulled into Pitlic’s at 1:00 pm, and found the door locked. The Coors truck was making a delivery, and a guy from Rhinelander was delivering 6 rental sleds. Their website said to call for their hours of operation. We took some pics and headed back. We lead the Whirry’s back to the SHOF, then Katy and I swapped sleds so I could see how the new plastic skis on the 73 X8 worked in the conditions we were in. When we arrived back at the motel and put the sleds back in the trailer, she was telling me she wanted the X8 back, as the green machine was too squirrelly. So I guess she thought the skis were an improvement as I did.

Wednesday evening we drove back up to Manitowish Waters to have supper at the Aberdeen Restaurant and Bar. A gal we all went to high school with, and her husband, had been in the UP cross country skiing, and we were all getting together. We had a great meal and had a fun time.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:36 am

Thursday February 17. Low temp 8 High temp 14

The Rainvilles had arrived well after midnight. On the last fuel stop between the Twin Cities and St Germain, Joe had noticed that the trailer now had 5 tires instead of 6, that was going to have to be dealt with. Joe had stopped at Chuck Moser's place and picked up the replica of the 340/S liquid cooled prototype. The plan was to get Chuck's sled into the SHOF that morning.

We drove over to the museum and backed the trailer up to the door. Once we had the sled off, it occurs to us that this might be the only chance to get pics of the sled in the snow.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:31 am

Jamie showed us where she wanted the sled, we had to move some things around a little, but it was no big deal. She brought us some dollies to set the sled on, and we rolled it into place.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:38 am

Jamie still had room for one more sled. I still had my restored 72 400 on the trailer from displaying it at the Midwest Ride-In, and I offered to bring it in, and Jamie told me to go get it.

So, no way was I going to risk losing the number one spot, so we loaded the 400 on Joe's trailer and took it over to the museum. We slid the sled in between Brock Weber's 78 CC and his Snowfire. Displayed behind the sleds is Brock's helmet collection.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:43 am

Tom Roland had dropped off a 200 Cat for Richard to try, he has pretty much out grown the Kitty Cat. That wound up getting stuck in my trailer for the time being, and we collected Cari, Richard, and Katy, and drove down to Sister's Saloon for lunch. It is between the motel and the museum, but Katy and I had never been there before.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:59 am

We then ran west to Minocqua to hit the Tractor Supply store in search of trailer parts. We found some wheel studs, lug nuts, and a dust cap.

However, the Bogie bash was the next day, and we had some minor work to do on sleds, so my 73 X8 and Joe's 72 400 went into the garage. I spliced in a wire to the headlight so I could hot wire it if need be, as I have yet to figure out why it won't work through the switch. Joe needed a brake cable on the 400, as the Cat cable that was on it was the wrong housing length, and it simply didn't work. The cable was quickly replaced, took a couple of tries to get the adjustment right, but in the end he had a brake.

The plan was to have supper at Blink Bonnie's at 7:00 pm, but it was going to take 2 hours to get our party of 9 in, so we went into town and had supper at Knockers. David Clark, his nephew Andrew, and Jason Peterson joined us, and we had a great evening meal there.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 6:15 pm

Friday February 18. Low temp -20 High temp 22

Friday was Bogie Bash day! JR and I had left the sleds in the garage overnight, so I was confident they would start with minimal effort. That turned out to be correct, as the X8 and the 400 fired right up. After a few laps around the parking lot to warm it up, I turned my attention to the green machine that was in the trailer.

We had a decent sized group forming in the parking lot which was great to see. The green machine was as stiff as a poker, I pulled the rope a number of times to limber things up a bit, then turned the key, to my great relief it rumbled to life! I took that one around the parking lot a few times, then topped off the fuel tanks to have both sleds ready to go.

David, Andrew, and Jason were there. David would be riding a 80 Liquifire, Jason would be on his restored 800, and Andrew had a Sprintfire that they had been mixing and matching some ignition parts to make run.

Joe and Richard would be on the 72 400, and Cari would be on the Spritfire.

There were two Harley Davidson sleds sitting there ready to go, but before we left one developed a fuel leak and was put back on the trailer. So Mike Horn would be riding the Harley and Brandyn Horn a 78 Liquifire.

We had a 80 Kawi Invader sled lined up to go, and a 91 Indy, so for the first time we had some variety of makes represented on the ride, which has always been my goal.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Feb 21, 2022 7:19 pm

Friday’s goal was to ride down to Lake Tomahawk. We have been there twice before, but the most recent was two years ago. There are several ways of getting there, and in the past we have just simply headed south and followed the signs to Lake Tomahawk. This time, signs directing us in the right direction seemed sparse. At one intersection I consulted the map, the signage made little sense, but in the end apparently I went west where I should have gone south. The day was solidly overcast, so visual clues to our heading were absent.

We arrived on the west edge of Arbor Vitae, not really where we had intended to be. We needed to run south to get to Lake Tomahawk, I was looking at a trailside map which showed us where we were, and had concluded we needed to run south along a highway to get there, but we weren’t to that spot yet. This is when Brandyn Horn came up and offered to get us on course. It turns out the Horn’s have property nearby, and he knew the trails here, plus he had the Trail Command App on his phone.

This simplified the situation greatly. I told Brandyn to take the lead, and away we went. The trails on Friday were decent for the most part. A few rollers here and there along the highway, but not too bad.

Everything was looking good now, we were running through some woods when David's LF died. David was cranking it with the e-start, and it would hit, but not pick up and run. The plugs were not dry, but not dripping wet. I remember asking if they could see fuel in the lines? I pretty much stay out of Kawasaki diagnosis, as I have no experience with them. The sled had died early on in the ride, and the thought there was that there was some ice in a line. Joe unscrewed the gas cap now, and fuel appeared to flow in the line. The engine was cranked, and after a bit it fired up and ran normally. Apparently the problem was an unvented gas tank! The solution was to leave the cap loose and all was well.

We took off down the trail, and soon things started looking familiar, I had been here before! Shortly after, we were in Lake Tomahawk, and parked across the street from the Shamrock Pub n Eatery. All 12 sleds that had left the Whitetail had made it under their own power!

jep_800 · Post by **jep_800** » Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:28 am

David's issue took a little bit to figure out... Here's a few shots of trying to diagnose the issue. As Brian mentioned, loosening the fuel cap identified improper venting. Pretty simple fix in the end.

jep_800 · Post by **jep_800** » Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:30 am

Oh, and you may have noticed the oil tank had tape all over it.. I think this cap was not tightened down after checking it in the morning when we left the cabin, and ended up underneath the belt guard. The belt must have grabbed it as it was damaged beyond use.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:25 am

We had a great meal at the Shamrock, and when we headed out the door, we found it was snowing fairly hard. A few of the guys wanted to top off their fuel, so we slid into the gas station just down the street. Katy and I did not take any, and I think Joe found the 400 only took a bit over a gallon.

We left Brandyn on the point as it made good sense. So the trip back was shorter time and distance wise. One section of trail he took us on was where we turned off the trail under the powerline south of town, then ran across Pickerel Lake, exited off the lake onto a road which brought us out right at the motel!

I pulled up to the back of the trailer and left the green machine idling as I ran the X8 in first, as I would be riding that the next day. Then I came back to run the green machine in, and as the skis touched the end of the ramp, it died. This seemed odd, even odder when it refused to restart. I finally got it to start and run by holding the throttle to the bar, but all it would do is idle. Doing some quick diagnosis, I found pulling the choke made things worse, and pulling each plug wire in turn dropped the cylinder off.

As far as failures go, this was as good as it gets, as I didn’t intend to ride the sled again this trip, and it literally died at the ramp! We did have to drag it on, but that was as bad as it got. At any rate, I get to dig into it at a later date.

We had just gotten our gear off back in the room when there was a knock at the door. JR wanted a hand in fixing the hub on the trailer. So I headed back out to see if we could get this done.

The hub came off no problem, so now it was time to see if the broken studs would put up a fight.
Joe had the propane heater running, so it wasn’t too bad in the trailer. The studs came out without too much effort, and the new ones actually fit, and they tapped in without having to pull them with the nuts. A bit of grease was smeared on the bearings, and the hub was replaced. This was going way too easy, but wait…the new cap refused to tap into the hub. The caps came in a 2-pack, and after the first one got a bit beat up trying to install it, we moved on to the second. The edge was adjusted a bit with the channel locks, and finally went in! I said; You watch, before you get home, that SOB will fall out! ( it actually did ). This is your finest Chinesium junk.

As we were getting the spare tire bolted on, Cari brought Richard out to ride. I pulled the 200 off the trailer, got it fired up, and rode it out to where he could see it. It is much bigger than the Kitty Cat, and he was eyeing it with some trepidation.

Joe put him on it, and then with the two of them on it, they rode around the parking lot. Richard had such a look of grim determination on his face, it was hilarious! A bit later, the Kitty Cat was pulled off, and the two of them were running around in front of the motel.

We had the Friday night Meet and Greet, at 5:30, so I headed into the room to change.The Meet and Greet was a huge success. Craig told Katy and I that the event that went on at the race track in Eagle River on Thursday was a huge success, and plans were being made to do it again next year. At times while we were there, the wind was howling and it was snowing hard.

Later we filled some cans with gas and got the truck hooked back onto the trailer. It was cold and blustery. We were ready for Saturday, time for a little shut eye.

jep_800 · Post by **jep_800** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:11 pm

The Horn's stopped by our cabin after the Bogie Bash to get a few parts David had for them. You can see the snow coming down as Brian mentioned. The picture in the dark was taken after the Fish Fry that night. Started to accumulate pretty good, but can't remember if that improved the trail conditions much the next day.. Seemed very light and powdery.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:25 pm

Saturday February 19th. Low temp -7 High temp 12

I was up at 5:30 Saturday morning. I hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights for whatever reason, and was not in very good spirits. I needed to be at the Whitetail Inn before 7:00 am, so I had to push to get going.

As I walked out of the door of the motel, I found Rainville standing in the driveway. His first task was to drive the truck and trailer over to the restaurant. My buddy Gary Whirry had volunteered to drive the support truck for the day, and guys would toss their fuel cans into the truck.

Joe offered to assist in getting my sled started. I had put new batteries in 2 of the sleds, but not the 73. I started pulling it over to limber it up, tried the e-start…yeah, that wasn’t happening. Joe gave it a few pulls while I held the throttle, and it rummbled to life! OK, my outlook on life has improved! I took it around the parking lot a few times to warm it up, then stopped to top off the fuel.

I had started the truck as soon as I got out there, now it was starting to warm up. I sat in the truck for a moment, put some heat packs in my mitts, then remembered I needed to transfer my spare belt, tow rope, and tool kit from the green machine into the X8. Once all that was done, I pulled my helmet on and rode over to the restaurant.

I was standing in line to sign in when Gary slid in beside me, awesome! So I got him all set to go as well. We hit the breakfast buffet which was great as usual. After we ate, I took the goodie bag we had been given out to the truck. Guys were still getting their fuel cans in, and Gary was saying he wanted to get going so as to beat the rush out of the parking lot. There is also the rush to hit the head before departure. I chatted with Don Amber and Tom Otte while the group photo was being taken, and then we were ready to go!

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:14 pm

Ten sleds lined up to ride the Vintage Challenge. The route for the day would be north to Sayner, northwest to Boulder Junction, then west to the Rustic Roadhaus just south of Manitowish Waters, where we would have lunch.

As soon as everyone was assembled, we headed north up county road C. Once we are north of Big St Germain Lake, we turn onto the trail that takes us to Sayner, a little less than 10 miles I think. We have rode this many times, so it is very familiar.

I have David Clark right behind me on his ‘81 Scorpion Sidewinder. As we made the last turn into Sayner I looked at the mirror on my wrist and saw him, but when I pulled into the Sayner Mobile station, everyone was gone. Gary had the truck and trailer sitting there, and I was talking with him when a few sleds came in, and the word was the Sidewinder was blowing steam.

Sounded like it was going on the trailer to me, so we opened the trailer and went to work getting Joe’s 72 400 started. Joe had tried to start it in the parking lot that morning and couldn’t get it to fire. Joe shot it with starting fluid twice, and never got a pop out of it. About that time David came riding in and drove the Sidewinder on the trailer. They had wrapped the hose with tape to get him in.

The story was that a coolant hose had opened up a pinhole aimed directly at the exhaust, so David immediately saw steam and smelled antifreeze. That fact prevented him from getting the engine hot, and he was near the trailer as well, so it worked out as good as it could have.

So David was going into the truck as well. I remember Gary saying something about calling around to see if they could find a hose, but I dismissed that as very much a longshot at best.

We saddled up and headed north across Plum Lake. There is about a mile of trail between Plum and Star lakes. When we were going north to the UP, we would go straight through here. Bob Anderson is telling us to hang a left in here and head west towards Boulder. Two years ago I missed the turn, and we went around Star Lake, exiting at Stillwaters Resort. We then rode north to trail 8 and got to Boulder that way. It was a really nice ride BTW.

Today Joe is on point, but he has no idea where he is going either. We make the turn to the west and are cruising on some pretty decent trails, then suddenly we are breaking trail on an unplowed, ungroomed road…this doesn’t seem right! We break out on a plowed road with houses sitting on lake frontage. Eventually it dawns on Joe that this isn’t right. I remember seeing a turn to the right just before we hit the virgin snow, but it was on the top of a knoll and really didn’t look like much, nor was it marked with a big arrow, maybe a little sign.

So we consult with Brandyn Horn, and his phone indicates we need to go back and take that turn. We get turned around, and now Andrew’s Sprintfire is dead, no spark. However, they pulled the harness off the engine and it fired right up. That would indicate the ignition switch had just crapped out. We took off again, running through that fluffy snow was really a novelty, kinda fun. When we got to the turn, there sat the modern sled group that was making the same trip! They had lost someone, and were waiting on them. We just blew by them and made tracks.

The trails were a mixed bag. We would see long sections that were awesome, then parts that were beat up and rough. The modern group soon caught up with us and one by one buried us in their snow dust. Visibility was nil behind them, and I prefer to see where I am going, so I slowed down til they were gone. Rainville was way up ahead when Bob Anderson caught up with him, so of course he had to race him a bit.

One of the more memorable experiences I had on this leg went something like this: I was cruising along at a pretty good clip, everything was going good, when I came over the crest of a knoll. The sled went airborne, landed hard in the wallow that everyone else had landed in, then went airborne again! The weird part about this was that the second time I was in the air, I could feel myself being pushed, and I could see skis on either side out of my peripheral vision! What the hell? I wasn’t sure who was behind me, but they were following a little close.

Shortly after this we were pulling into Boulder Junction. Joe reconnoitered up the street a bit, and came back to report that the trailer was not in sight. We took the group up to the gas station / mini mart and shut them down. I got on the phone to Gary and asked where they were, and his reply was that they were in Manitowish Waters, and would be there in 10 minutes or so. At that moment I could not understand why they were there instead of here. I hit the head, then went out to tell the guys the truck was just a few minutes out. There was some discontentment about that, and it was uncomfortably cold standing around.

While we were standing there, I asked loudly, "Who is the joker that was ass-packing me on the way in here?" Andrew laughed and admitted it was him, but it wasn't his fault, he couldn't slow down because he was in the air! You can't make this stuff up!

A few of us went into the building to warm up. Rainville was getting cranky, so I called Gary again, but he didn’t pick up. I finally called David, he answered, but was breaking up. He said they were just about there. I told him we were at the Coontail Minimart, and he said OK.

A minute later they pulled in. As we were refueling, I saw them pulling David’s Sidewinder off the trailer and top off the fuel. That got my attention! So when I was done I went over to hear the story. After they had left Sayner, David got on the phone to a guy Gary knew of north of Manitowish Waters that did sled repair. The guy answered his phone, and when David told him he needed a hose for an Arctic built Scorpion Sidewinder, his reply was; yeah bring it up and I’ll see what I can do.

When they got there, he took the sled into his shop with a fork lift, came out with a large box of hoses, and promptly found one that would work. David said it seemed to be a better hose than what was on it before, and I think he said the whole deal cost him $30.

So our group was back up to full strength, David only missing a short leg. Rainville and I decided to take the southern route to lunch, as it was the shortest distance. So we headed west out of Boulder, found trail 8, and ran some decent trails. 40 or so minutes later we were at the Rustic Roadhaus. The late model group had only just arrived ( they had ran the longer route ) and Gary said he had literally just arrived with the truck as well.