Posts tagged Off-Road
Musings of an Endurocross first timer.
Sep 2nd
About a month and a half ago (maybe 2) I was reminded that I would be going down to MotoGP in Indianapolis. It just so happened that I stumbled upon the website www.Endurocross.com. I saw that I could register, so I figured…what the heck, let’s do it. What could possibly be the worst that could happen? I competed in Trials and won competitions. I rip while riding off-road. What could possibly be different or more difficult about this?
I would like to admit here before anything else that I made one fatal error before doing this event. I changed bikes about 2 weeks before the race. Not only was I switching brands, but I switched from a 300cc 2-stroke Woods bike to a 250cc 4-Stroke MX bike. HUGE difference in the 2. Like switching from riding on a bed of pillows (300) to ride on well…rocks or something really hard.
This was not all bad however. I kicked out some great riding at Rocky Glen the weekend before Endurocross and gained a confidence on the bike that I didn’t think I’d get. I felt I can push faster through turns, be on the gas sooner, be off the gas later. I can push jumps and rough terrain at least 5-10x harder than before. I just feel downright comfortable on the bike (no..not while sitting, that seat is a freaking 2×4). It is as I’ve said…Magical. Downside I’ve felt so far had been the front tire. Right now wishing I coulda swapped it before the race, but what could I do?
So back to the race at hand. It was about a week before the event, and I had really no idea what was going on. I was getting the feeling that this race was a bit of a publicity thing. I had no idea when anything was, where I needed to be, or any of the information that seemed essential. I managed to get ahold of Beth (iirc) who was running registration and all that, and got the vitals. Noted to myself….be there before 7pm Thursday for registration (and forget that Indiana is 1 hour ahead of Illinois).
I arrive with plenty of time to spare, get my riders packet, and am greeted with the following:
I take a walk around the track via the stadium, and think about how it shouldn’t be “too bad”. My thoughts go like this:
Logs, I’ve ridden over those…that’ll be easy.
Rocks, I’ve ridden over all that asphalt rubble….those should be easy.
Whoops, I like riding those, off camber, but should be able to stay on the gas throughout.
Concrete Pipes, Those should be…fun, about a bikes length of gaps. Keep the front tire up?
Fire Wood Pile, WTF? Stay on the gas? uhhhh yeah we’ll see how first practice goes. haha
Logs V2, Hit the corners? Jump through?
Tires, HA! I practiced these. Cake walk, Aim for the gaps and slip through. Easy.
Rocks V2, Oh this should get interesting….Find lines during track walk. Stay on the gas, and keep your feet UP!!!
Sand, Shouldn’t be too bad..assuming it’s not too loamy. Keep on the gas.
Tires V2, OK, I’ve ridden over ones like this before. Easy. Stay on gas and let’r rip.
Simple. Right……?
Failure admittance #2. Thinking that I was properly prepared. I was not (still not?).
I quickly found during practice #1 that A. I needed food. B. I had been training in an entirely wrong way. I quickly realized that I had been prepping myself for racing for almost 2 hours straight. This race was gonna be less than 10 minutes and I needed to be able to go 110% for that entire time. No letting up, no breaks, no nothing. Just a full on onslaught of bike bucking, body jarring, intense riding.
My practices seemed to progressively get better, and better. Despite a bit of a doozy of a crash, I got back up and was rolling at the same or even faster pace. I was gaining confidence in me, the track, the bike, everything. I was feeling positive. I was ready for the main event. This is where I realized things would be….interesting. haha
I realized as I pulled up to the line for the main event, that it had been hours since I last rode. My body was not fully “awake”, and I could just feel that I did not have the same intensity that I had during practice and the heat race. I went into the race with the wrong mindset. I thought “let’s just make it through”. Anyone who competes will tell you this is not good. I won’t lament too far on the wrong as I’ve already changed that thought process. On top of that, I most definitely realized that it had been over 10 years since I had done a gate start. Luckily that was the easiest part of the race.
I made an early mistake of taking a risky line that proved to not pay. I went down in the first lap. I proceeded to sap all of my energy in a matter of moments, causing me to get sloppy in short order. I went down a couple more times, but did my best to keep my head up and push until the end. I managed an 11 out of 11. Last Place. Depressing to say the least.
Despite my feelings of defeat and loss, I knew one thing. I wanted more. I know I can be faster. The desire to win is about 100 times higher than it was before. Now if only they would have more of these events locally, we’d be set. I would go and do another one of these in a heart beat. No questions asked, I would be there pushing myself…..and that’s where I’m now.
I am pushing myself to be like the Six Million Dollar Man….Light, Faster, Stronger. I’ve also picked up a new motto for my riding. RLAW – TLAS. I’ll keep it at that. It’ll help keep me pushing. See you all at the next race!
Andrew
PS. If yall’d like to see the race. Check it out.
And a big thanks to my Sponsors:
From one 2 stroke to the next
Jun 29th
If you haven’t really talked to me in the past couple days, you probably won’t know that I’ve turned a new page in my competitive whatever you wanna call it. I’ve decided that it’s time to get my head into racing mr. KTM 300. The little GasGas has gone to help fund a few goodies for the KTM, and will help offset some of the traveling costs, fresh tires, and things of that nature. But anywho, I am feeling it is time that I check out these Enduro type races. I know that there has been everyone and their brother who has probably raced one, but, well I haven’t. HA. I figure the KTM is a perfect lil scoot for the job.
Right now I’m a little unsure of where else to go with my thoughts on this one, but what yah gonna do? I’ll also be competing in some Harescrambles along the way with good ol Jam0. Looking forward to just being out at events again this year!
Andrew
ps…not sure why I chose this picture, cause I’m on Jamo’s 540 and not my 300. I knew something looked weird. haha
Use it………or Lose it.
Feb 1st
As of late I have been pondering my Hare Scramble race last May. I thought back to how poorly I did. Only being able to complete 45\90 minutes of the race. Pathetic if you ask me. Sure I was on a heavier machine than I should have been. Sure I hadn’t paced myself properly. Sure I had never raced something like that before. But should any of that really have mattered? NO. I can’t blame machine. I blame only man, and that man is myself. At the time only 23 and while not overweight, I sure as heck wasn’t (am not) in proper physical and mental shape.
Now what does that have to do with anything? Scoop is this. On top of competing in Trials events, I know that I can win in Hare Scrambles. There are a few “local” races for me to compete in before my Trials season gets underway, but I’ve needed motivation and more-so a reason to get into this. Reason: I need to be in better shape. No two ways about it.
So where does this put me now? Well for one I’ve hated what I’ve done to my BMW bike. Sure it rides great, but I’ve come to a realization of what I should have done (hindsight 20/20). I’m left at a place where I want-need a proper competition off-road motorcycle. Problem is that that doesn’t solve my non race winning streak. A better, more fitting machine will most definitely make things easier on myself, but that’s not the entire equation.
I need to address the other aspects of the race. Most of which drop down to my past and present physical condition. Now 24, I have realized I am greatly out of shape. It was depressing seeing for myself that my laptimes in the race were better than most other competitors, but due to my poor mental condition and my even worse physical condition, I couldn’t make it the full race. Down right depressing. I know I am a better rider. That didn’t matter. Slower riders ended up in better positions than me not because they were better riders, but because they could make it. I couldn’t.
And that right there is why I sucked it up and joined a gym with Kim. I finally have another form of motivation. I have other motivation, but this one has more or less pushed me over the edge. I will win at least A (1) race. I will NOT feel like total crap after. I realize that this is going to be more or less a serious change in pace of life. All for the better. So now I sit here with blisters and cuts on my feet after running more than I have in my entire life; legs not wanting to move, and arms that when attempting to bend straight, shoot pain through them like I’m being stabbed. No doubt in my mind, it WILL be worth it.
Andrew
Trials Training Center…GO!
Oct 22nd
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the TTC. I set things up a month or so ago, and had gotten my brain all set to get down there. I planned to get down there Friday evening, for a restful night before Saturday and Sunday’s training. Little did I know that I wouldn’t get to embark on this 10-11 hour adventure until around 5:30pm Friday night. All was well though as I was heading down there with a good friend, and as long as things didn’t go as they did on our Florida trip in January (Truck broke down in Nashville at 2am in a white castle parking lot) everything would be all hunky-dory. The Trip down was rather uneventful. I sat watching the miles tick away on my GPS, staring at the clock and thinking “am I really going to be getting there at 4:30am?” Sure enough we hit the exit off of I-24 around 4AM. What a relief. Chicago had destroyed some of our “killer time” that we would make on the trip, but alas, we arrived. Well I thought we arrived. The GPS said to go one way, and the TTC signs on the roads said to go another. I figured that the people who work there know best, so I’d follow their signage. I Followed the signs as I went down multiple winding roads. I got to the gravel road, continued on my path and finally saw some lights in the distance. I saw a few cars\campers\tents\cabins and felt like I was waking everyone up at 4:30am. I was told my cabin light would be on, sure enough it was, but so were a couple other cabins. A quick run around in the middle of the night, and we were home free.
I decided I’d wake up around 8 to go and check in with Catherine. I met a few people in the main front office before Catherine made it there to get things all going. I got to talking with Catherine, and after her realizing we pulled in so late, she immediately said that nights stay was free. I thought the trip was already a success since the truck made it down there, but then this….It couldn’t be beat. Well I shouldn’t say that. After more talking, we saw that she had in there that I was renting a bike for the weekend, there again things got better as that saved me another good chunk of change. Awesome I said. I immediately got back to the truck for the check book and an (un)healthy dosage of Red Bull and I was back in a jiffy to the cabin to get my gear on.
I tossed on my rather smelly pants, boots, helmet, and gloves. Gassed up the GasGas crossed my fingers that it’d start as trustily as it has all the times up at home and scooted myself on off down towards where all the others (all 3 other guys in the class) were waiting. Sure enough I pull up and feel like my bike would feel more at home in a dumpster next to those oh so beautiful 07\08 GasGas’s. It was probably a good feeling though, since I knew by not riding one, I wouldn’t end up going home with a $6K lighter wallet.
After a few moments of sitting around, we were greeted by Alex Bedley. An 18 year old whos trials skills, are..welll to say the least….mad skills. You would never guess by his demeanor that is as skilled as he is. A very calm, chill, individual who you can tell just has a blast on his bike. He gave us a quick rundown as to how things were gonna go for the next 2 days and again, we were off to our first practice destination.
I’m not exactly 100% on how things transpired exactly after this, but one of the first things I managed to do in a little warmup ride-around on the bikes, I decided to do a stoppy. (quick back story……Out of all the guys in the class, I was the only one who had any time on a trials bike, so while most were just getting a feeling for the bikes, I had already quite a bit of time on mine, and was used to messing around a bit on it) So amid this stoppy, I found myself getting a little too far ahead of things. I’m not sure if it was the lack of sleep, lack of proper amount of caffeine, or what, but my reaction time was much slower than normal. So instead of myself letting go of the front brake, leaning back and setting the bike down, I just jumped myself straight off. It wasn’t all that big of a thing, but kind of cracks me up now. Best part was that the bike landed perfectly upside down. Rear tire was buzzing away, but somehow (geez, not sure how), but the rear fender managed to crack itself. I was rather mad because I have dropped that thing countless times here, and of course the first time I drop it down in TN, the stupid thing cracks to bits. Luckily my trusty yellow Duct tape was up for the job and got me quickly back on the road (trail). So for that, please excuse the nappy looking yellow tail on the bike. Contact me if you want to help me get a pretty sparkling new one! 
Back to the actual rundown of things though…..Alex started us off with a brief introduction of trials. This proved to be useful for Alex and the others in the group, as it helped them see some of the differences from what they were used to, and for Alex to kind of get an idea as to where everyone was at as far as riding and all that jazz. After this intro, we either had the ill-fated warmup or got down to doing some practicing through some cones. Sure enough despite having riden around tighter turns, faster and more often back at home; when I had someone 10000 times better than me watching ready to critique what I was doing wrong, my nerves got to me. Well it was either that, or again my lack of aforementioned sleep. After a few more runs up and down the cone run, I was getting back into a little groove. Alex really helped with pointing out a few things to me:
1. Throttle Control…………..NEEDS MUCH WORK!!!
2. Keep head to the outside of standard turns (I have been dipping in)
3. To get a little extra lean out of the bike, loosen up the last 3 fingers on the “far” hand. Gets me just that little bit of extra lean.
The Throttle control was very apparent immediately to me, and present throughout the entire weekend. It’s weird how even though I felt as though I had gotten my throttle control down quite well while road racing, that when you have rocks jolting you and the bike every which way, it makes precise throttle control even more important.
The rest of Saturday was pretty smoothe. I believe we messed around in the cones and a few other things before lunch time. I was starving and needed some food. After lunch was back out to the grind. We spent some more time on the cones, and did some off camber turn practice. The off camber turns was a huge place where throttle control is key. Keep it smoothe, keep it consistent. That went through my head about 100 times during each pass through a section. I felt that was a good thing, as it showed I was at least picking up a little bit what Alex was trying to get into all of our heads.
Continuing on Saturday was some more practice, and then some fun intro into getting over objects. Actually this may have been on Sunday, my brain isn’t quite that sure. Either way as the days went on things were progressively made more challenging, while still maintaining a constant emphasis on the basics. The basics, the basics, the basics. All the building block to ensuring that when things hit the fan, that you’ll still have that understanding of what to do. I know for sure on Sunday that we got to ride through some of the Saturday sections. That was a good time for me. What a challenge it is going through dried river beds. I love it! This single portion of the day made me realize that while the Intermediate was a little bit of a challenge before, that I need to be in the next class up.
After all was said and done on Sunday, Alex took us on a bit of a trail ride. This was more fun than imagined. I hadn’t gotten to go on such a long distance on the GasGas in……well forever. There was a lot of tighter stuff, and a lot of uphill\downhill fun. It was definitely a good review for the class earlier. We were taken to where they had some of the World Rounds back by a waterfall. Not much water flowing, but was very cool nonetheless. Alex had us park our bikes a little further away…..meanwhile he rode his way up to the sections as if it were a golden paved street he was riding. Was rad to see him again out having a blast on his bike.
After the trail trials trip, the class was pretty much done. After that I went out with Joe (previously mentioned friend who was with) to get some videos, pictures and to test out some of the more advanced lines on the different sections. This was another valuable lesson for me. I saw how quickly my energy was drained using improper technique on some of the advanced lines. They were a blast to work on navigating through. I’ll have to upload the video, cause while I would have gotten a jab or two on some of them, they were all around a complete blast.
The facilities at TTC were great, the people there was great, and it was something that, for the price just could not be beaten. I was surprised at how even though being youg, Alex handeled working with 4 differently aged guys at 4 different points in their riding lives with incredible skill (I’m laughing at this right now, cause I feel like I should be about 50 years old saying this and in reality am only a few years older than Alex). He was able to manage all of us very well, and was able to keep all of our attentions throughout the weekend all while teaching us plenty of skills that we can now hone.
I can’t speak highly enough of how well this weekend went (especially the fact that the truck made it all the way home!). I had a phenomenal time and while looking out the window right now, I would much rather be in TN right now if I had the choice. I’ve got a winter to prep myself and get ready for next season…….we’ll see you at the event!
Andrew
PS Go to the images at: http://andrewgore.net/?page_id=56
