Home On The Iron Range

It’s officially late April, and it’s been a pretty excellent spring here in the Midwest. It hasn’t snowed in a LONG time, it’s not been very rainy (we could use some, actually) and it’s been warm enough that it’s hard to stay inside the office on nice days. That means I need to get out and do some riding!

We're currently testing the new Polaris RZR with power steering. So far it seems like a great upgrade!

Things are very exciting around here this time of year. Our ATV fleet is expanding, we’ve got boxes of product arriving for our mud quad project (Can-Am Outlander 650), various out-of-state trips are lined up and trails are opening up all over.

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Season's Change

Winter really pulled a disappearing act on us this year in the Upper Midwest. One day I was sitting atop my yard’s towering snow banks sipping Irish coffee scowling at my neighbors’ less-than-symmetrical piles of snow, while the next week I was spreading aloe on my sunburned face and working on those stubborn tan lines on the front porch. Sometimes the weather moves faster than our minds, which is why you need the aforementioned burst of caffeine to keep up.

I like paying attention to the changing seasons. It’s a good hobby, and evidence life will go on regardless of who’s ready for it. Since I live in Minnesota and it’s still April, it’s possible we’ll get another, soul-crushing snow storm before the end of the month. I don’t like this sort of talk, though, and my sources tell me that’s absolutely not the case. I mean, come on, the pussy willows (Salix discolor, to be scientific) have popped out already! Mother Earth wouldn’t do that to us, would she?  [Read more]

Grand Opening of Nebraska’s Cedar Run Offroad Trail

Harlan County Lake
Republican City, NE
Date: Saturday May 1, 2010

Courtesy of ATVMagBlog.com’s Jon Rhodig and the Harlan County Tourism Board comes word of the grand opening of the Cedar Run ATV/Motorcycle Trail in south central Nebraska.

Come join in on the days festivities for the grand opening of this new trail system.  Free admission, win prizes!

The event will start off with the Nebraska Off-Highway Vehicle Association (NOHVA) sponsoring a noon lunch at the trail for businesses and individuals who donated to the project, contractors who helped build the trails and trail head amenities, project partners, and NOHVA members and guests.
The public is invited to join in the general festivities set to begin at 1:00 p.m., with Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy and other state, federal and local officials scheduled to speak at that time. At 1:30 p.m., trainers certified by the national ATV Safety Institute will give a presentation on safe riding behavior and proper protective gear.

At 2:00 p.m. a scavenger hunt fun-ride through the new trail system, with prizes to be given away for winners and participants. This event is being sponsored by Team MGR, one of the project’s major donors. Members of Team MGR include Jon Rhodig, Katie Rhodig, Chris Flodine, Derek Hinrichs, and Nicole Hinrichs.

Some prizes donated by

ATV Magazine

Rocky Mountain ATV/MC

Decal Works

DT1 filters

There is no registration cost for this or any other of the day’s events.

Helmets are required at this event.

Below is a video depicting the trail before the new construction.

Back to the old stomping grounds

As this holiday weekend approaches a lot of us will be celebrating our freedom to vacation when and where we choose by traveling to that hallowed riding spot that we have some eternal connection with.  For many the reason may be because it is with in a 5 minute drive from the house, a scenic place with good camping or in my case its the place where I grew up riding that WAS less than a 5 minute drive from my house, now that has stretched out to a 6 hour drive.

Back in the 80's this place held an annual harescramble

The place I am talking about is in Harlan County Nebraska at a little place developed by the US Army Corp. of Engineers in the early 80′s.  My memories of this place start back when my dad raced a few hare scrambles put on by a local racer that organizes motocross races in the same area.  The place had nearly perfect terrain for a hare scramble.  The terrain had hills, trees, and mud.  The hare scrambles were always fun to watch, and maybe that was mostly because my dad was in it.  As a matter of fact my dad was always racing on the oldest bike there a 1974 Yamaha SC500. Remember this was in the 80′s!  After a few years of hare scrambles the place would be nearly defunct as in it would be only ridden by locals such as us.  Even big holiday weekends would turn out less than 10 or so riders for the entire weekend.  The trail was never maintained at all during the entire time period that we rode it. 

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2008 High Lifter Mud Nationals Slide Show

High Lifter’s annual Mud Nationals is the largest ATV event you’ll find anywhere across the country. More than 14,000 racers, riders and fans converge on the sloppy grounds of the Mud Creek Off-Road Park in east Texas every April. 

Get Dirty!

Take it from us, the Mud Nats has an enormous, wild crowd and it’s hard to wrap one’s mind around all of the unbelievable things you’ll see on the grounds. Crazy modified machines, a variety of different mud bogs and even crazier people, and everybody’s driving some form of all-terrain vehicle.

Everything about the Mud Nationals is big, and that¹s why we’ve called it the World Series of the ATV world.

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDE SHOW

Meet the blogger, The Junk Man

I thought I would start my first post on this site as an introduction. I find it somewhat odd that I was chosen to write some articles for the ATV Magazine blog site considering my off-road (as well as on road) weapon of choice comes with two wheels, but apparently some people over at the ATV Magazine forum and the editors think I know something and can apply that knowledge to the sport atv side. As I think about it though its not that far fetched that I, as a motorcycle guy, be selected for a knowledge base for atvs being I have been crew chief and manager of a race team (Team MGR www.myspace.com/teammgr) that has been riding and racing motorcycles and atvs for over 10 years now. Since Team MGR’s inception I have had to adapt myself to wrenching on atvs as well as motorcycles. Along the way I have acquired many tips and tricks that could benefit nearly any atv rider and I hope to pass this along with this blog. Most of my posts will be technical in nature but I may write some opinion based pieces as well as lifestyle pieces.

A little about Team MGR, we ride and race most everything if its related to atvs or motorcycles, everything from local to national televised races, charity events, trail projects and just promoting the sport of offroad riding. Our motto is Repair, Ride, Race and I think that is fitting as this is what we do. We are not pro riders and we just ride and race for the pure fun of it and if our excitement encourages others to join in we know we have done our job.

Following is a short video sort of summing up what Team MGR is all about and briefly shows some of our accomplishments. And don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel for more videos, product tests, and trail reviews.

http://www.youtube.com/mgracing