Mn Spring Group Ride

Hey anyone from IA, WI, ND, SD etc are welcome too :P

Hey everyone. Found that a couple of you guys are interested in a spring group ride or two, or three... So my first questions are the obvious, which I will update possibilities as time progresses:

Who is interested?
Me (duh)
lunchb0x (http://forum.svrider.com/search.php?do=finduser&u=20678)


Where should we ride?

-side roads down towards the cities (where most of you are), then out to find good roads (need suggestions) around the Mississippi? (this would be a shorter ride)

-Up to St Cloud then NW to Fergus/DL/Park Rapids area?

-Up to Lake Itasca/head of the Mississippi/then east to duluth (long ride), or some shorter version?

-Meeting in an in-between place would be good (for instance saint cloud) or Rogers if we were going to be in the cities area.

-Make a big circle (for those of you who don't mind a long trip) this would include as many members as possible, as well as as much variety of roads as possible!

Basically Make a trapezoidal shape from these four points:

St. Paul
Fargo
Bemidji
Duluth
That covers a LOT of ground, plus we could stray further southeast from St. Paul for these roads that some of you speak of ;D We could meet in the St. Cloud area, and pick up/leave riders as we go. I'd be perfectly willing to rider further too. This allows for the most people to come, plus they can cut it off if they don't want to ride quite as far. This would be close to a 6-800 mile ride so that's quite possibly 20 hours of riding, or more. It would be be nice to make it a 1 day ride so I dunno how good that would work, but I'd be willing to do an overnight somewhere too. I need more input now though.
When should we ride?

We're definitely going to want to ride on a weekend, because this works best for most/all of us.

sweeeeet. i'll rally the troops once we have a set date bit

sweeeeet. i'll rally the troops once we have a set date bit

Are there any decent roads up north?

I'd be down for a spring ride. Anytime and distance is fine with me. I'm up in Fargo, not many exciting roads up here. I know the Itasca area has some nice roads, and as some else mentioned in the other MN spring trip thread, the Pelican Rapids area has some goods ones. The roads SE of the cities by the WI boarder are better, but have way more traffic.

I am down, I am open, but would prefer a weekend. I would not do a 1 day 6-800 mile ride but if we where to plan a londer ride like that I could get a hell of a deal on a limited number of hotel rooms though. Once you figure out what you want to do let everyone know.

I'm down, although I can't commit just this second.

I'm wondering if we should try to do a 2 day thing or just shorten the ride and do one day. Thoughts?

I''ll go anywhere but the NW and SW corners of the state; been there, wish I hadn't [shuddering].

Are there any decent roads up north?



Nothing better than you've already seen with 1K Wayne; some nice bits south and west of Grand Rapids you may or may not have ridden already. North and west of Brainerd it goes downhill fast once you get out of the lake country.


There's certainly enough quantity and quality (not ABC-caliber) to be found in a loop from TC-St. Cloud-Brainerd-Grand Rapids-? but it gets to be a really long day if you go that far on a loop. I've done one day rides up to Ely and back from the north metro, but there was a ton of mile-eating and not enough side roads. Might be kind of cool to take two days to do a large loop continuing on that track to Ely-Highway 1-Grand Portage-back down to Duluth along the lake-MN 23; then continue down to the north Metro or split at I35/MN23.

Nothing better than you've already seen with 1K Wayne; some nice bits south and west of Grand Rapids you may or may not have ridden already. North and west of Brainerd it goes downhill fast once you get out of the lake country.


There's certainly enough quantity and quality (not ABC-caliber) to be found in a loop from TC-St. Cloud-Brainerd-Grand Rapids-? but it gets to be a really long day if you go that far on a loop. I've done one day rides up to Ely and back from the north metro, but there was a ton of mile-eating and not enough side roads. Might be kind of cool to take two days to do a large loop continuing on that track to Ely-Highway 1-Grand Portage-back down to Duluth along the lake-MN 23; then continue down to the north Metro or split at I35/MN23.


I am down with this, I am unsure on how long it would lake to get to duluth but I can get cheap rooms there!! The sooner that we can get this set up, the better the chance of cheap rooms. $35 per night!! Lets get this all set in stone!!

I''ll go anywhere but the NW and SW corners of the state; been there, wish I hadn't [shuddering].

Yeah, what he said.

I've kinda wore out all the roads in MN, so I may or may not come along. I'm losing my job this week so who knows WTH I will be doing in a few months...

I am down with this, I am unsure on how long it would lake to get to duluth but I can get cheap rooms there!! The sooner that we can get this set up, the better the chance of cheap rooms. $35 per night!! Lets get this all set in stone!!

Well if you can in fact get these rooms at such an insanely awesome price, lets start thinking seriously about when we wanna do it. It's totally up to you guys. I'm good for whenever. So WHERE is it that you can get these $35 rooms anyway?

Well if you can in fact get these rooms at such an insanely awesome price, lets start thinking seriously about when we wanna do it. It's totally up to you guys. I'm good for whenever. So WHERE is it that you can get these $35 rooms anyway?

I can get good prices on rooms in marriot properties. There is a Fairfield in Duluth that I can get good deals on especially if I set them up early!!

Hey, that's really cool. I think we should definitely try to set up a 2 day ride then. $35 is pocket change for a hotel room. Hmmm...

Ok this leads to my next question, which is not necessarily exact date, but what month/time of the month? Ideally when ALL the snow is thawed, and it's pretty warm, but not an uber hot day either. If we'll be on the road for mayn hours we won't want to be cold.

Mid May, maybe?

Hey, that's really cool. I think we should definitely try to set up a 2 day ride then. $35 is pocket change for a hotel room. Hmmm...

Ok this leads to my next question, which is not necessarily exact date, but what month/time of the month? Ideally when ALL the snow is thawed, and it's pretty warm, but not an uber hot day either. If we'll be on the road for mayn hours we won't want to be cold.

Mid May, maybe?



Mid May through mid June is IMO one of the best times to plan: Loooooonngg daylight period, agreeable temps, green popping out everywhere...

One thing to be kept in mind: The annual SV Rally at the Dragon is in early June (June 5,6,7).

Where is that?

I am totally up for this! I could meet anywhere from Rogers to St. Cloud (live in Buffalo). Also, depending on how the trip goes, how many people are with and where it goes, I have a cabin in the Bemidji area that can probably sleep 5 (more if floor space counts). :) No running water in this cold weather, so it would have to be after the warm up to have toilet and shower. Nothing fancy, but a place to stay. Even if we don't go that way, I would be interested in this. Keep me in the loop - skister

PS - If anyone wants to go for a ride up North (Bemidji) and likes skiing or tubing, and has an extra day, we have a slalom course on a Lake up there and it is a ton of fun! I might even get the hubby to transport gear from Mpls. if people want to bring their own ski/tube/wakeboard. Just a thought (now you know where skister comes from!)

sweet. you know i have been wanting to ride up there to bermidge hey. i have a few friends that go to school there. . . but yeah the rest o this thread sounds sweet, and what indeed is this "annual SV Rally at the Dragon" ?

Here is a link to all of the info that you can possibly read about the SV Rally......
http://forum.svrider.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57

I am totally up for this! I could meet anywhere from Rogers to St. Cloud (live in Buffalo). Also, depending on how the trip goes, how many people are with and where it goes, I have a cabin in the Bemidji area that can probably sleep 5 (more if floor space counts). :) No running water in this cold weather, so it would have to be after the warm up to have toilet and shower. Nothing fancy, but a place to stay. Even if we don't go that way, I would be interested in this. Keep me in the loop - skister

PS - If anyone wants to go for a ride up North (Bemidji) and likes skiing or tubing, and has an extra day, we have a slalom course on a Lake up there and it is a ton of fun! I might even get the hubby to transport gear from Mpls. if people want to bring their own ski/tube/wakeboard. Just a thought (now you know where skister comes from!)

Cabin FTW.

I'm thinking a good 2 day ride would be best. Who else is up to the challenge?

Elk River here, any time out riding is good with me, once i get the bike repainted and put back together ill be down in the spring. i work 4-10s so im always out on friday if its nice.