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BRM OFFROAD |
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PLACES TO RIDE - ARIZONA |
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This page was developed to
inform you of different places to ride. We've been riding quads since the early
90's, so our focus is
on those riding areas that allow quads. We included as much info as possible for
dirt bikes, but you may want to contact the various facilities for the
latest track info. We've tried to give as much info as we could for
each place that we've been to and we hope you'll find it beneficial when inquiring
about a place to visit. If you're thinking of visiting one of these place and have some questions like travel
time, places to stay and eat etc, send us an
email and we'll try our best to help you
out. Also, if you know of a great place to ride
quads, send us an
email
with the location, nearest larger city, type of riding, and a website or
contact information for the location and we'll gladly add it to our site. So load up the toys
and have fun!
Scroll down to check out
various riding areas. Feel free to come over and say "HI" if you should see us at the track or in the dunes. Stay young, have fun, play!
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Located in the East Valley, right on the edge of Apache Junction; take highway 60 east to the Ironwood exit and head south on Ironwood for about 5 miles, you shouldn't miss it. Big Bikes and Quads are $25 per rider and $15 or $20 for kids under 80cc. There is a main track (south track), a vet track (north track), a pee-wee track for the really little guys & gals, and a mini track for the advanced or bigger pee-wees. The bikes have access to the main and vet track, while the quads now only have access to the vet track. Although the vet track is a pretty good, there are a few things that could be done to make it a good vet track. Unfortunately it's not unusual to see someone being air-vacced out, from the vet track, and it's almost always a bike rider. The vet track had some serious work done to it and it is getting better over the years. There is only one gnarly/long double on the track that could easily be made into a table or scaled down to really make this track a good one for all levels of riding, but we like the double because it gives us an advantage over some of our friends that we ride with. Vet riders and beginners/novice riders will have a good time on the Vet track. We saw a few quads out there that were really airing it out (clearing the triple), and they may intimidate the novice rider, but the quads aren't allowed on the main track, where the serious racers could really perfect their skills. The youth (80cc) track appears longer and wider, for the size of the quads and bikes on it, than the vet track... and the kids get to kick the quads off the only track they're allowed on, for their 50-80cc sessions. It's pretty lame shelling out more money than the youth riders and having to share a track with them (when they have one just for them). There are a total of 4 tracks, 3 of them are open to the bikes and the quads get to share the other one. That's pretty much our only pet-peeve about the facility. Mostly because a lot of youth bike riders get hurt on the Vet track and then the track is closed to everybody until the helicopter or ambulance arrives. We've seen a lot of kids go down over the years, and most could probably be prevented if they weren't allowed on a track that is beyond their abilities. The Beginner track (50-60cc) looks very mellow for the little riders, the kids always look like their having a blast. Parents should caution their young beginners to watch out for the kids that cut the track though. For hours, races, and more info check their site www.etmotopark.com.
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Located just north of Fountain Hills. Follow the 87 north (Beeline highway) towards Saguaro Lake. Shortly after you cross over the Verde River, you'll enter the park on your right. The track is a great mix of loamy soil and granite stretched out over 1.4 miles with a mix of high speed areas, technical areas, jumps, and several elevation changes. A very good and natural outdoor motocross track. After a couple of impressive day of heavy rains for Thanksgiving, the track had some pretty good water hazards to navigate around, and sometimes thru, but overall the track held up great. We had a great time and although you can't really see much of the track from the pits, we got pictures where we could. However, the Pee-Wee track is very visible from the pits and we had no problem burning a few pix of our daughter as she's still learning how to handle her DRX 50. The 4 hours spent washing our quads and gear was totally worth all the fun we had. For more information on practice hours and fees, please visit their web site - Grinding Stone Sports Park
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| Located in Surprise. Big Bikes and Quads are $25 per rider and $20 for kids. More info will be added soon, but for hours, races, and more info check their site www.speedworldmx.com. |
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~ FEBRUARY 14, 2009 ~ |
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| There haven't been many changes over the past 9 years of riding out here, but it's a great track that will really whip you into shape. We have a few recent pix posted below as well as a couple of videos showing the track layout. With a very low turnout on Valentines day, we pretty much had the track to ourselves. | ||||||||||||||||
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Motoland is a new track in Casa Grande, that just opened on 2/26/05 and we were there for the debut. From I-8 take the Thornton road exit and go south for about half a mile to where the asphalt road ends. Turn right onto Hanna road (dirt road) and follow it for about 1 mile or so and the track entrance is on your left. There is 1 main track and 1 youth track with other tracks and facility improvements in the works. Here is the current Main Track layout... Hop on the track and you go down into a pit, come out and take a flat hairpin right into another pit. Come out of that one and take a banked 90 degree left. Turn slightly right for the first table, probably about a 40-50 footer. There's not much of a run at it coming out of the corner and it makes you drift slightly to the left but we were getting about 75% a crossed it (400EX quads). After the table, you take a 90 degree flat left hand turn onto a good straight away (100-120ft) into a flat left hand 90 degree turn right into the next table. This table has a nasty lip on it and you drift hard to the right (Kirb almost went off the table once). The lip gives you good air, but we didn't have much speed to try and clear it because of the corner before. Plus there was no run at it. Great for the advanced bikes though. After table 3 you take a 90 degree right for a short distance and then another 90 degree right onto table 4 (which is identical to table 3). Table 4 had an uneven lip on the right side... a lot higher than the left side. You either had to hit the left or right otherwise you're going off it crooked. This table made you drift left and on one lap the bike in front of me drifted off and landed on the side of the table. He rode it out but I think he had a short-check afterwards. After table 4 you take a 90 degree flat left hand turn into a long straight away again, probably the same as the other straight (100-120ft). Then we slooow down for a nasty double. It's the kind that has a longer drop off than starting ramp... and you can't see the landing area. After this double you take a 90 degree flat left hand turn into what is supposed to be a double-single-double... but for us it was 5 singles! Another opportunity to apply the brakes J. After this section is a 180 degree left that leads to table 5. It didn't have much of a lip but it did have a gradual down hill landing. We tried to clear it, but it need the lip to get in the air more. After table 5 is a 180 degree right turn down a short straight into a 90 degree left. This is where speed can do one of 2 things, give you the hard unforgiving landing or put you ahead of the pack (guess where we were J). Ok, you come out of the left and hit a some-what blind table that drops into a pit (the pro bikes would land on the downside in the pit). You come out of the pit and hit it hard and we were almost clearing the step-up. A couple of times we had a hard landing because we came up short, but it didn't discourage us from trying it J. After the step-up out of the pit you go down a short straight (50-60ft) into a 90 degree left to table 6. Once again with the table being at the exit of the corner, we have no speed to clear it. So after you come down the back side of this table, you take a 180 degree right turn into table 7. You actually get a run at this one, but there's no lip. The good news is, this is the one we were clearing. After table 7, there's a 90 degree right hander that goes into a roller section. The rollers are deep, but not too close together... great rhythm. After the rollers there's a 180 degree left turn with a run at table 8. This would be another good table to build the lip up on to help the quads clear it better. (Table 7 thru the rollers over table 8 was my favorite part of the track.) Then you drop into pit 4 and just haul butt, if there was a lip you could launch out, and hit the long straight. At the end of this straight is the tightest and narrowest 180 degree right hand turn on the whole track. It's also elevated and at times you almost think you're going off the edge... it's an adrenaline rush. Then you hit a straight just like the one before the 180 turn. Fly down this straight to hit the brakes (or try the triple). You guessed it, we hit the brakes then the jump. Then we roll/wheelie the next jump and then hit the single at the end. After that there's a 180 degree left that takes you into a really long whoop section. Not nasty like Verde's, we were hitting them in an easy 3rd gear. They all had rolled tops so you couldn't mess up too bad. After the whoop section is pit 5. Coming out of pit 5 is the fastest part of the track and it takes you into a double apex left hand turn and drops you back in to pit #1. 1.5 miles later, you've completed 1 lap. There are colored flags/ribbons that line the corners and we almost took a couple out, it was kind of funny. There are also flagger towers, with flaggers, throughout the track. It's a very good set up and was run very well. For more current info check their site, www.motolandmxpark.com . As of 2007, quads are no longer allowed, but still a fun track for the bikes. |
Located in Cottonwood, about 10 miles west of I-17 on highway 260. The track entrance is on the north side of the highway, and they don't have a sign near the road. Practice fees were $15 in 2003, and they are open on the weekends. This is the most technical track in Arizona. It's a lot of fun, but you need to be in shape for the big doubles, and the nasty whoops. This is where I got my first trophy and where I broke my femur (thankfully not in the same day J). The track is long, has elevation changes, a few step-ups, a triple, 4 different doubles, a whoops section, a rhythm section, and some tables. The track is narrow in a few areas, but the corners are pretty wide. A great place to ride in the summer, temperatures are usually in the 70-80's range.
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Located in Casa Grande. This track is for both quads and bikes, there’s a $25 use fee, and Friday nights are becoming known as Quad Night. In the summer, they are open Thursday thru Saturday for night riding. The rest of the year it’s Friday thru Sunday 8am to 5pm. The track is a little narrow for quads, but lots of fun none the less. It is technical with a lot of jumps, tables, pits, tight corners, and whoops. There aren’t a lot of places to lighten up on your grip, except for in the parking lot. Definitely a good track that will whip you into shape in a hurry. Moto Grande is located south of Phoenix near Casa Grande located right off of I-8. From Phoenix, follow I-10 south to the intersection with I-8. Take I-8 west to the Bianco Road exit. At the top of the exit ramp turn right and go over the freeway, the road will turn into a dirt road. Follow the dirt road a couple hundred feet to the first right, turn here and follow it to the track (you’ll see the track on the south side of the freeway before you take the exit at Bianco Rd). Here are some directions we received from a rider out there that says it will shave 35 minutes off the drive from Chandler. Take I-10 South to exit 185, follow it to the right to Casa Grande. Take this all the way through town, and turn right on the main drag (Florence Blvd and highway 84 are the same street). Go under the bridge and make a left at Thorton (stop light). This will take you to the I-8, go right and then get off at the next exit. For more info call Moto Grande at (602)326-8293. Moto Grande has lost a lot of riders to the new track, Motoland, which is about 1 mile east on I-8... Motoland is a better overall facility for the entire family.
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Located just north of Fountain Hills. Follow the 87 north (Beeline highway) towards Saguaro Lake. You’ll go past the Saguaro Lake turn off, get in the left lane, take the next left (crosses over median-road thru bushes) and at the stop sign you’ll see the entrance across the southbound lanes of the highway, just slightly to your left. Follow the entrance in and find some shade. There are usually quite a few riders out here early. There are a lot of good trails and a wash that people like to rip up and down. We want to see it after it rains. Located near Saguaro Lake and has quite a few trails to venture on. We've been out here a few times with both our quads and our truck. The trails are nice, clean, and very scenic. To get here take Highway 87 (the Beeline) north of Fountain Hills towards Payson. Follow the signs to Saguaro lake, and turn into the boat staging area (before you get to the lake), just head straight back into the dirt. There are no fees to ride here.
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