Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's The Rokon worked GREAT!

Just some back ground on myself. I have ridden ATV since 93 have had many over the years am well aware of what they will or won't do. I love the technical stuff and hit MOAB every chance I get, we only try to hit the black diamond trails.

I learned many years ago that you are only as good as best person in your group. But you will find many groups that far out do the group that you may be riding with. I belonged to a sled club and after joining them I rode places I had only dreamed of before. I was one hot shot rider! Yea right joined another club learned fast how little that I really knew, even thgough I was as good as the best riders in previous club. So moral of the story is that even though you think you are the best, judging by the folks you ride with you may not be all that great after all.

I am very confident in myself and my machine not often I throw a challenge but when I do it is because I know what my ability is. Like I say I have rode the trails since 93 being in COLORADO I have many many miles to travel have been from coast to coast and all in between. In all the miles we have piled on over the years I think one time I seen a ROKON. That gives ATV many thousands (couldn't begin to guess at a number) to "one" advantage there is a reason for that. So yes as you say I am Ignorant as to the ROKON, but they are missing for some reason.

I don't care if it is private or public ground, to tear it up like in the video is just plain irresponable. There is no excuse for that. You get thru tight trees where it is impossible to get a ATV well WHOOPIE DING nice thing to brag about. I would hope that any ATV rider would be smart enough to stay out of where he don't belong. Not all are but we that do suffer because of folks like you and rogue ATV riders.

My purpose for an offroad vehicle is to get a large chunk of meat from the point of death to the road. I have an atv, but there are many places I can't take it - trails too narrow, rocks too big, trees to dense. I've packed game on a 1-wheel drive bike many times and it's not easy. I'm not into climbing rocks in competition. I just want my elk moved. We don't have swamps here, just steep hills and lots of rocks. The Rokon is the best thing this side of 4 legs for this country. I just don't happen to own one.

Thats my take on the situation as well. Rock hoping and extreme off-roading (using any sort of vehicle) is no doubt good fun, but is not a practical approach when hunting and /or trying to get a carcass out. I want to hunt not spend time doing vehicle recovery ect, so I tend to be a bit more conservative in my approach than when I am purely off-roading for the fun of it...

Well said gents.

I do not take my Rokon off trail all over the place just for the heck of it or to make landslides. In fact, I rarely ride it just for fun as it is not fast, smooth riding etc and is more like work to ride in some places. BUT, when a critter needs to be moved/retreived it works great which was the point of my thread and that alone. You will not see me and most other Rokon riders out on the fun trails just goofing off so that is not a fair comparison. they are not built for that nor are they particularly good at that. Instead of a toy, they are more of a tool, like a good tractor or such. You probably don't see a lot of John Deer tractors or D-8 cat's out on the fun trails either, but that does not mean they are not good for what they were designed to do.

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Just conveying what i've read and a friend speaks highly of the way they will 'crawl' up a hill.
Supposedly the 30-40% wider tire keeps you from having to get a run at a hill -it eases up the hill whereas a more conventional dirtbike needs more wheel speed to run up the hill.
Just a different way of going up the hill.

I read a story on tw200.com of a couple of amatuers entered a cross-counrty rally race.Much of the trail was washed out from heavy rains a few days before the race.
Long story short they placed in the top five because the vast majority of riders couldn't get through many of the tight wash outs and such.
When they got close to the end of the course and there were riders coming from the opposite direction -they thought they had been so slow that people were coming looking for them.
These people heard them gnawing their way home and came to watch them come to the finish.
The fact that they could sit down a row their way through the really rough technical stuff was a huge benefit.
You won't ride a large displacement enduro bike too well at a couple of miles an hour for a few hours.
Again this is what i read on the internet -so it has to be true !
-Mike

Im sorry if this has been said already but I am very interested in there machines. How do you balance them while crawling uphill with a load at slow speed?

And still no response to my last post from the Middlefork Miner.That is exactly what I expected.

First off, my apologies for the hijack.

Mike, the deal-killer for both my TWs was they weren't low geared enough, maybe a sprocket change would have helped. The rear TW tire is 7"wide, my Big Wheel came stock with a 11" tire, now I have a 12". I can take the tire pressure down to 2.5# and in 1st gear it goes so slow you have to have your feet down, unless you want to weave all over. Not a good compromise if you're going down lots of good roads, 25 mph is just too slow.

Still won't begin to follow a Rokon.

Long Hours short days... ...Chit dude I couldn't do that with one of THEIR bikes...CAN YOU???
There's a guy on youtube that is just as or MORE impressive on his bicycle...but I ain't got the time to dig up a link...they are without a doubt really good at what they do.
You take an average rider though & he'll be able to go places with a Rokon that he won't with a regular one wheel drive motorcycle. It's as simple as that. The last weekend of deer season we had a guy stop by our camp with one of the Yamaha big wheels because he seen my bike. He ended up takeing it for a ride & was gone for about an hour. Came back grinning. Guess what he needs now???

OK...thanks to a post on the campfire I found this on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdc8XEfZKbE&feature=related I kinda thought about the trials bike thing, off & on all week long. Yeah, they are fun. Wouldn't be my first choice for an off road bike though. Damn Rokon couldn't even go where a bicycle can... guess maybe I need to get rid of them...

No!!! Wait!!! I just remembered... almost forgot that I'm usually wearing some insulated hunting boots, gloves, jacket, pants & have a rifle strapped across my back, along with some water, snacks, tools etc. add the fact that it may be needed to transport a dead animal, I think I may keep them after all. YMMV

Good point, amigo.

I am not a top level trials rider,so I could not do many of the things that they do.However,I could do more of what they do with a trials bike than with a Rokon.



It depends what you call a regular one wheel drive motorcycle,and who you consider to be the average rider.I myself ride competition off road bikes,and to me they are my regular one wheel drive motorcycle.As for being an average rider,I did compete at senior and expert level motocross for a few years,so I guess that doesn't include me.I guess it's really not that simple after all. Although I am by no means an expert on a trials bike I have spent some time playing on a friends trials bike,and I would gladly attempt an obstacle course against you on your Rokon if we lived in the same area.

It would be fun no doubt...If you're an expert motocrosser my hat is off to ya...Just like the trials pros...Takes a lot of practice & dedication to become really good. I'm not all that great on the rokon. but it has certainly carried me places I could never had gone on one of my old elsinores or enduros. I'm by no stretch of the imagination an expert at rideing bikes but have had usually at least one, of one flavor or another in the garage over the past 45 years.

Those old Elsinores and enduros are decades behind the new four stroke off road bikes like the Wr450,or Crx or Rmx.You can do things with the new bikes,that you never dreamed of doing with the old two stroke,upright shock bikes.I can ride faster on the new bikes at 49 years old,than I could in the early 80s when I retired from racing.

Thou hast Blasphemed the great ELSINORE!!!!! Now you are probably going to dis on Bultaco's and Hodaka's! Combat Wombats ROCK!

Hodakas...Man they were THE bike when I was young... Wasn't it called the Ace 100???

You and I must be equally young! You will love the guy with the land up in Foresthill. He is an old dirtbiker and trials rider as well. We will have much to talk about.