So how's the X3 like off-road? The Answer.

[AzNMpower32]

Yesterday, me and a friend packed up our bikes and headed out to Green Ridge State Park out in Western MD, a huge park about 90 minutes from Washington DC. Did about an hour of mountain biking before giving up (cuz it's absolutely exhausting for us city-dwellers ). Great bike trails though, and the park isn't crowded at all and the trail is great.

But there was a second reason I'd picked the park: it was one of the few places where I could find a place to take the X3 off road. And by off-road, I don't mean like "gravel road". I mean like, a specialized ORV (off-road vehicle) trail meant for ATVs. However, registered vehicles were permitted so I just took the X3 on the road.

It ended up being a bit more than I had bargained for. It was uneven, hilly, protruding rocks..........yea all the stuff you'd imagine an ATV trail to be. I used Hill Descent Control (HDC) no fewer than 10 times in a 5 or 6 mile stretch before I turned around because doing the entire 18 mi. loop would take too long. Progress had to be slow to minimize any damage; I was doing about 5-10mph tops.

xDrive handled the trail just fine, and DSC intervened only twice, once on a slippery uphill and another time when I plowed over a mud puddle. The trail is fine for our X3 non-sport. However, I wouldn't recommend anyone with the sport package and/or low profile tires go anywhere near this trail. Of course, I'm preaching to no one cuz I guess this is one X3 in 100000 that has seen real off-road stuff.





Sorry the pics are bit lousy since I left the camera at home and took these with my cell phone.

I think this trail would be impossible if it had just rained. In the dry, this was already probably 85% of the X3's off-road abilities. Never got stuck or bottomed out the suspension, but based on the street tires (with 45k miles of wear) and 55-series sidewalls on the tires, this was enough. ABS frequently stepped in when individual wheels broke traction. Great fun though!

Of course, the X3 was quite dusty and the wheels filthy but I gave it a wash this morning

[xx3]

Ahh I did worse in my X3... haha... I went down into a logging trail that was supposed to be closed off...

Another time, me and some friends back in high school had some fun in a muddy (which was once grass) field while it was raining... Long story short... the pick up truck, got stuck... the X3 ploughed on right through... I went to go get wooden boards & shovels for my other friends...

[davipt]

Originally Posted by AzNMpower32

it was one of the few places where I could find a place to take the X3 off road. (...) I guess this is one X3 in 100000 that has seen real off-road stuff. (...) Of course, the X3 was quite dusty and the wheels filthy but I gave it a wash this morning

Ahhhhh great moment of FUN! Congratulations for making your car do what it is supposed to do. ))))))))))

[trueX5er]

Haha, sounds like fun. How was the biking?
The most offroading i've done was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee on some random trail in rural Colorado. I'd like to do more at some point.

[AzNMpower32]

Originally Posted by trueX5er

Haha, sounds like fun. How was the biking?
The most offroading i've done was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee on some random trail in rural Colorado. I'd like to do more at some point.

The biking was a blast, but since I don't do "real" mountain biking often, we both got pretty tired after a few miles on the trails, so we took one of the easy-outs. On the way back, we took the park roads and there was this massive downhill which I managed to get myself to 40mph (according to the bike speedometer). That was fun, except (as anticipated), it was followed by an uphill so steep that we gave up halfway up the hill despite being in the low gears. . It felt a bit of "waste of time" seeing as how the biking was an hour, and the drive there was 90 minutes, but unfortunately if you want real mountains around here, you have to drive 1+ hour west anyways.

[trueX5er]

dayum! 40 mph! That's almost impossible. What kind of bike do you have? I get 27 mph max on downhill on pavement, with road tires on my mtn bike. It's a Jamis Durango Sport SX, from 2004. About 5 mins from me is a lagoon/forest preserve, with a dirt/mud trail that leads to a large dirt hill that has a lot of jumps and downhill tracks down it. I have disc brakes, which were no match for this hill. There is a path to get to the top of the hill, and my friend, with an identical bike, but with the stock mtn tires, got stuck going up it. Me, with my hybrid road tires, powered up that hill right past him. It's all in the gearing.

[AzNMpower32]

Originally Posted by trueX5er

dayum! 40 mph! That's almost impossible. What kind of bike do you have?

http://www.x3world.com/lounge/34056-my-new-ride.html

Terrific bike, good manners on and off-road. The gearing is shorter than it used to be on my previous Marin, so I end up using gears 5-8 a lot (rear derailleur cogs) while cruising around neighborhoods.

[trueX5er]

yup, thats way better than my bike. I ride mine pretty hard, and the only parts I've needed to replace are tires, but shortly I'll need a new front brake disc, mine is way bent. It needs to get tuned up every year, after the gear changes get painfully long, but mainly the componets are stong. I find it's a good mix of on road (90%) and off road (10%).

[AzNMpower32]

I rode my previous Marin bike (an Alpine Trail) for almost 6 years and loads of miles before the Y-fork broke in June. I do ride my bikes fairly hard, but avoid abusive shifting. I do the same mix, about 90% on-road and 10% off. The repairs over the years on my previous one included a new rear derailleur, a new chain, 2 sets of brakes, 2 new tires, along with a new shifter and new rear wheel late in its life due to my crash in April. I treated it like a BMW though, never fussing about its repairs (which would land it in the shop for weeks at a time) since it was a thrill to ride and I knew it was 10x better than the typical ones I see around the neighborhood. Plus, Marin bikes are lightweight, so I never have to muscle it when loading it into the car.

[bigtoysinc69]

I take my x3 off road any time I can and people are shocked at what it can really do. Im one of those people who if they took a wrong turn and the onlything seperating my destination and i is a durt fieald, curbs, watter ways and some rocks ..... ill go that way. lol O and never got stuck yet got to love the X drive!