2024 Ride with the Champs recap.

[400brian]

We are back from our week in St Germain. It was different this year...details to follow.

[400brian]

The 2024 Ride with the Champs is in the books. The once in a lifetime event we attended in 2007 has resulted in 18 years of unbroken attendance.

We knew going in that this year would be different, as the el nino winter weather pattern had remained firmly in place over Wisconsin, with the active weather track far to the south. Where we live in the southern half of the state, we experienced a 15" snow storm in mid January that allowed the trails here to be open for a couple of weeks, but the northwoods trails had not been open all season. The lakes in Vilas county had been ice free until the first of the year, so things were looking pretty bleak.

That said, there are groups of guys that attend the event as much for the comradery as the actual riding, so all was not lost. It turned out that many of the gang we hang with didn't want to give up their winter vacation in northern Wisconsin, the motels had been booked for months, they were coming!

Our trailer still had the sleds sitting in it just as we had shut them off since last years trip, so I hooked on to it like normal.

The party would begin on Monday February 12. I had a few last minute errands to run, and Rainville would be showing up late in the day. At about 10 min to 7 pm, Joe was about 20 mins from the house. I told him what exit to take off I-90/94/39, and an hour later he still hadn't showed up. Sometime after 8 pm my wife was leaving to go see her mother before we left, and she says ; he is out here sitting on the road pointed south. This meant he had come from the north, and had obviously taken the scenic route. He was wandering around the property waving a flashlight around, so Katy yelled at him; "I have a rifle!"

He had not only drove by the exit I had told him to use, but the next three after that. His excuse was that everyone he knew had called him after I gave the information and he hadn't had time to exit.

I eventually got him turned around and parked for the night, then we dug through my parts stash for a bit. The wife cooked us a couple of T-bones, after which we grabbed a few items from the garage and shop that I needed before hitting the sack.

[400brian]

Tuesday February 13. High of 39 Low of 24, ( this was at home ).

Joe was sleep deprived when had he had arrived, so we didn't get up very early. My only mission for the day was to get loaded up and make the 3+ hour drive up to St Germain. Joe was heading west to the Twin Cities to pick up a windshield order, a sled, and his family at the airport at 6 pm.

We pulled out of the driveway at 12:30, and pulled into the motel at 4 pm. It was strange, there hadn't been more than a dusting of snow on the ground all the way up, and now in the parking lot we were looking at brown grass and bare pavement. We were the ONLY vehicle in the parking lot.

We got our gear moved into the room and got the trailer parked where I decided I wanted it. Nick Freatman had just got to the cabin he and the Bennetts would be sharing on the west end of Big St Lake a couple miles north of us, so we made arrangements to meet at Blink Bonnie's for supper.

Wade and Mindy would pull in sometime after 10 pm I believe, after driving straight through from Crawfordsville, Indiana.

The photo in the middle is of the garage we work in there at the Motel.

[400brian]

Wednesday February 14 High temp 40 Low of 14

We had no big plans for Wednesday. I looked out the window after I got up and saw that there were now two additional trailers in the parking lot. The Rainville's had arrived, and Levi LaVallee was parked next to me. Staggering down to the lobby, we found Cari and Richard hanging out there. Katy and I went in to town and had breakfast at the Wolfpack Café at 9:30, then after fueling the truck, we drove up to Fath's Big Woods to see if we could find where Nick was staying.

Nick had a 78 CC Liquifire in the back of his truck, and Wade's truck and trailer was parked nearby, so they weren't too hard to find. They invited us in where we visited for a while.

Later back at the Motel, we found that Joe was now on his feet and chatting with guys in the lobby. Our plan had been to get his 72 400 in the garage, but before we did that we learned that Jamie was at the museum, so we jumped in my truck and drove down there. Levi and crew were busy setting up a display of his sled upside-down hanging from a stand. We had a chat with Jamie, Wade and Nick arrived, we were chatting and looking around when my phone rang. It was Tom Rehberg wondering where everyone was. When I told told him at the museum, his reply was " great, I am turning in now!" A moment later a Navigator pulled in pulling the "Busco Bullet" trailer, and Tom came in to join the party.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we hadn't gotten the 400 in the garage yet, so Joe and I headed back to get that done. We got it off the trailer and were gathering up tools when Levi pulled back in. He came over and chatted with us for a bit. Joe talked him into posing on the 400, so he has several photos of him on his sled. The 400 was started and I have video of him riding about 100' on the snow that had been pushed off the parking lot behind the trailers. The 400 was then pushed over to the garage on the dolly, where we began taking off the engine cover.

We were planning to all meet at Blink Bonnie's at 6:00 for supper, but they were doing a surprisingly good business and had a considerable wait time. After considering our options, the 9 of us waited it out and had a good meal there. Blink Bonnie's is one of the few places open Monday - Saturday. Many of the bars and restaurants are open Thursday - Sunday or some variation of that.

[400brian]

Thursday February 15 High 30 Low 18

We got out into the garage late in the morning. Joe removed the Salsbury clutch and disassembled it on the bench. The recoil and cup were removed off the engine, and I dropped the dial indicator down the plug holes. After installing a wire pointer on the fan tower, I stuck masking tape on the flywheel and began putting on timing marks. Rainville had been procrastinating checking the timing on this sled for years, today we were going to find out where it was.

After hooking up my cheap flashlight timing light, I quickly established that the mag side was firing at top dead center. Switching over to the PTO side, I found it was at .023" before TDC, just like it was supposed to be. I thought I had a feeler gauge in my tool box, but found I did not. Joe did not have one in his trailer either.

Nick, Wade, and Tom showed up to stir things up. Tom had a box of NOS Salsbury parts with him. Joe could not find a new set of rollers before he left Texas. The ones I had in my stash were stock for the 73 JDX4, and high altitude for the 300. Between Nick and Tom, somebody had the correct rollers springs and bushings, but no one had NOS plastic slides. The ones in the clutch looked perfectly good anyway.

It was after noon at this point, so the decision was made to gather the wives, and go down to Sisters Saloon for lunch. Once that was done the Rainville's, Katy, and myself drove into town to the hardware store to find a feeler gauge. It took a bit of looking, but they did have one. We were ready to leave, but Richard had the sales lady at the back of the store showing him their selection of axes and sledge hammers...his parents had no idea why. Heading back to the motel, I pulled a 3 lb mini sledge out from under the driver's seat and handed it back to Richard. He was impressed, but again no one knew why.

Back at the garage we cleaned the clutch parts with carb cleaner and started re-assembling it. Getting the coil springs pulled back into position is a bit tricky, but by the time he got to the last one Joe was getting it figured out. I wanted a quiet garage to check the point gap with the new feeler gauge, so we knocked off for the afternoon.

We knew that David Clark, Andrew Clark, and Jason Peterson had arrived at their cabin up at Fath's Big Woods, and I had heard that Wyatt Kram and his entourage were getting close to St Germain. We were all heading up to Fibber's Resort on the North side of Big St for supper. There was a Perdue basketball game that Mindy wanted to watch.

Cari had called up to Fibber's, and they had assured her they could handle a good sized group, so at 6:00 pm we were pulling into the parking lot.
Most of the group was there when we walked in, and we had no more than sat down when the Kram's came in with their group of five. I thought the meal was quite good and the prices were within reason. Mindy got to watch her game, and I guess Perdue won.

Back at the motel, Joe was in the lobby working on a slide show for the inductions Saturday night, while being harassed by some of the 76 Polaris racing crew. One of the guys wives was lamenting about the abundance of Deere guys in the lobby, and complaining that Brian Nelson had cost her husband $10,000. Then they started in with the often told story of the helicopter following Nelson as he was coming in towards the finish. The Kram's came in about then, and I headed for the garage.

I was sitting in the garage contemplating my life's choices and procrastinating on working on Rainville's sled when the Kram's came in. We sat in the garage and visited until it was getting close to midnight and we decided to hit the sack.

[AirborneX4Special]

[400brian]

Friday February 16 High 18 Low 4

I got up and got out to the lobby looking for something to eat. I hadn't been sleeping all that well for whatever reason, but we needed to wrap up the sled work today because Saturday would have us doing Hall of Fame things. Joe mentioned that Levi LaVallee's parents car was in the garage because of transmission issues, and they were hoping that warming it up would resolve them.

It was a lot colder than we had become accustomed to, and there was a good breeze. I was the first out to the garage, and found a white Chevy shoebox of some flavor sitting inside. Rainville came out and we finished the clutch assembly. Levi's parents came in, and we had a nice visit with them, they really seemed like a nice normal couple. Joe disconnected the battery to see if resetting the system might fix the transmission issue, but while it backed out of the garage, it would not go forward. We wound up pushing it out into the parking lot where they could get at it with a trailer.

Back in the garage, I was looking at the sled and wondering why Joe had not brought the lift? About that time Wade, Nick, and Tom came in, and they picked the sled up while I slid the saw horses we found in the garage under it. This was much better! The clutch was re-installed onto the engine, which just left the timing situation to be resolved.

The question was; why are the two sides so far apart? I tried adjusting the point gap to compensate, but it was too much. At some point Dave and Andrew Clark came in, and Wyatt and Roger Kram also were there. Guys came and went, but at one time there was nine guys in the garage. Neither Joe nor I ever left for lunch, I had Katy bring out a can of soda at one point.

Jason Peterson spent the day ice fishing on Big St, and Katy walked the 2 miles up to the cabin to visit with Mindy. The paved bike trail along the road made a good walking path. We had gotten 2" of snow Wednesday night, so at least it looked somewhat normal up here now.

Back on the sled...It appeared I was going to have to rotate the breaker plate, but the screws wouldn't budge. Joe had removed the plate a few years back when he had replaced the crank seals, and I accused him of putting them in with green Loktite. Joe beat the heads of the philips head screws flat with a punch or 1/4" extension and they finally broke loose. On my own sleds I like to replace these with socket heads to get a better grip on them.

With the screws loose, I found I could move the plate only a small amount. I remember having the same issue with my 72 400, there is such a wad of wires coming out the back side of the plate that it interferes with movement. To resolve this was going to require removing the fan tower and flywheel. This was following a familiar pattern...but in for a penny in for a pound. My genuine CCW flywheel puller was in my tool box, so as soon as the tower was off, it was installed and the flywheel was popped off. Joe had removed the flywheel nut with my cordless impact and a SAE socket, as my 22 mm socket was not in my box for some reason.

We examined everything closely. There was nothing obviously wrong under the flywheel, the points looked very serviceable, the cam on the flywheel was good as were the rubbing blocks on the points. The screws were removed from the plate, the wires were relocated a bit and the plate was rotated from the screws being in the center of the slot, to being in the most advanced position. The flywheel was put back on the shaft, but when I went to put the nut on, I found it would not spin on easily at all. The threads on the shaft were clean, the nut looked good, I tried each side of the nut, but after 1/4 turn it would jam. I asked Joe if the nut had come off hard and he replied; "yes, all the way".

I don't believe I have ever had messed up crankshaft threads before, and when I had pulled the flywheel off it had not put up much of a fight. Wyatt thought the threads were rounded a bit, so he dressed the threads a bit with some small files Joe had in his box. Eventually we called it as good as it was going to get and screwed the nut on. Back to checking the timing...I now found the retarded side to be pretty close to where I wanted it. Roger and I messed with the mag side points until we got that in about the same spot and declared victory!

It was getting time to get cleaned up and head over to the Whitetail for the fish fry. I was feeling a bit hangry at this point, so we headed in.

The fish fry was very well attended, and the food was good. The provided entertainment was the Polaris guys.

Back at the motel, I decided to go out to the garage and pick up my tools and such. When I got out there, I found Wade, Nick, Tom, and Joe already there. We gave the sled a once over, and then took it down off the saw horses. It was confirmed that it was showing good spark, so the plastic and the windshield was put back on. A few pulls on the rope and it was running.

Nick was heading back to New York in the morning, and Wade and Mindy were heading up to Bergland MI. So goodbyes were said.

[400brian]

Saturday February 17. High 24 Low -4

Breakfast was supposed to start at 7:30 am, Katy and I arrived at 7:00 to get ahead of the crowd.

This years Ride with the Champs was very different than any I had experienced, and at this point I have seen almost half of them. In my time we have had three years where there was little to no snow, and we had the year that Covid really cut into attendance. None of those compared to what we saw Saturday morning. Where normally there would be standing room only, this year it appeared that half the tables were empty.

This year there were two options after breakfast; There was an ATV / UTV ride from the park in town, down to Craig Marchbank's shop on Swamp Lake southwest of Minocqua. Or you could take a bus tour that would take you to the snowmobile museum in Eagle River, then to a local race shop, before heading down to Craig's for lunch.

Rainville had rented a four place UTV, so he, Cari, Richard, and Jason Peterson would be taking that to Craig's. David and Andrew Clark, and Tom Rehberg would be on ATVs. Their group got to Craig's before the buses did, so I saw that there was a fair number of them parked along the driveway when we arrived. They reported that it had been a very brisk trip down, as in it was COLD! That group was leaving as we arrived.

We had a good lunch and took in Craig's collection of Skidoo sleds and Pontiac cars. It had been a very long time since I had been on a school bus, and I mainly remember shivering on them in the winter, this one had us opening the windows so as to breathe. Joe reported that the ride back to St Germain was quicker and warmer than the earlier trip down

[400brian]

We were back to the motel by 2:30 or so and were settling in to watch "We're the Millers" on TV, when Joe called and requested a photo shoot.

He is working on a story to go into "Green Magazine" on the 73 JDX8, and wanted to take some photos of mine. We dragged it off the trailer and he took the pics. I got my tools and gear out of the garage and back in my truck.

The banquet would be getting going by 5:30, so Katy and I got changed and got in the building before 5:00. We grabbed a table, the Kram's came in and grabbed the table behind us, so we had the whole gang in one spot. Jim Tradeup joined us, I hadn't seen him in years. Tom had become acquainted with Jim recently because of a sled that had come through his shop. Jim had a hand in getting the John Orvis race sleds put back together back in 2007 or so. It was great to see him again!

The banquet appeared to be very well attended, if there were empty seats I didn't notice them. Craig made his remarks, they did the auction, Richard drew the raffle tickets, the inductees made their speeches, and Craig gave his final pep talk. And with that, the 2024 RWTC was a wrap.

[400brian]

Sunday February 18 high temp 28 low 3 ( home 42 / 22 )

Our 6 day vacation had come to an end. By the time I got out to the lobby most everyone had already left. I got the trailer hooked onto the truck and got it out front, where we started pitching our gear in. Rainville pulled his rig in behind us and was doing the same. Wayne Nicholsen and his wife were loading up as well. They were heading for Milwaukee and a flight down to Florida.

For us the 2024 RWTC was a success. While we hadn't been able to ride, we'd had a great time with friends, caught up and shared some laughs.
Richard had spent most of his waking hours in the motel pool. Katy had swam with him some early in the week, then later on there were a bunch of kids to swim with.

The Snowmobile Hall of Fame ( Jamie Zeller ) did the best they / she could do with the options they had to work with. Levi LaVallee kind of got screwed out of what I imagine would have been a large group of guys wanting to ride with him. He seemed to indicate that he would like to come back next year and give it another shot.

The "Round Up" in May is the next big event. I suggested to Richard that I could bring the bass boat along and we could go fishing, but he wasn't sure he liked fishing.

A few random photos to close with.

[JDGuy]

Thanks for the report, great as always. You have writing talent!!

[usafrpilot]

Brian, Excellent recap as always!

[jep_800]

Great writeup Brian, as always.

Just a couple of pics I had from the week / weekend: The 96' Cat has been diagnosed, and repairs are underway, I got a shot of Nick's X-country Liquifire, and my ice fishing setup.... I was actually surprised to see 10-1/2 inches of good clear ice on Big St. Lake. No one was confident that riding on the lake would work too well, but the locals were using ATV's constantly. Myself, David, Andrew, and Tom had then wished we'd had at least brought along a working sled or two, because bombing around on the lake would have passed the time, and would have tested engines, carburetors, and clutch setups.

Looking forward to next year!

Jason

[AirborneX4Special]

Thanks Brian. The after action report still works just fine without snow. Not only that, you had time for some unhurried wrenching on a John Deere snowmobile while rocking the IH headgear. I might have been known to do the exact same thing a time or two but that cannot be confirmed since there's not a shred of photographic evidence.

[75rat]

Nice recap Brian!
It was good seeing you, Tom, and the rest of the JD gang. Had a great time and look forward to getting together again.
Jim