Tag: District 17

33 miles, 18mph, 10 blisters, 1 bruised body, and my first Harescramble Win.

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1st race of the season down, and I can’t complain one bit. I managed to pull a handy 1st in my class (Open B). Looking at the numbers, I Overalled in the B class (little\big\30+), so I’m happy about that. My finish woulda put me in about 6th place in the A Class, and well….let’s not even go into where I’d be in the AA class.  On the upside, it puts me around 20th out of 72 for the afternoon race. Not too bad considering the 10 deep AA class.

I rode pretty well, and managed a decent start. Into the 2nd turn, I was in 3rd place. I slipped into 4th in the middle of the first lap, and then took advantage of the MX portion of the course, and kept the 450 pinned as best I could. After that section, I pulled back into 3rd, and shortly after the 1st & 2nd place guys made some poor line choices over a log (much faster going around it ), and I managed to squeak up to 1st. I held 1st through the rest of the race, and did my best to try to not let anyone pass me (AA guys lapped me )

The course was overall pretty easy. There was nothing super technical, as they had a good bit of rain, and races really suck when there are traffic jams on slick hills and such. This helped a bit, as I was racing my WR450F, as my 250F was still on the fritz. On the 2nd lap, I managed to dump the bike in the creek section. I wouldn’t have minded, but my gloves were then soaked, and my left grip was spinning like mad. Not fun when I still had 10 laps to go.

About an hour in (and coincidentally when my GoPro stopped recording) I caught a tree with my handguard on the left side. This bucked me pretty good (I’m blaming my handguards as they were some homebrew ones I made out of plastic), and I managed to huck-a-buck myself into the dirt pretty good. This took the wind out of me a bit, but I kept on trucking.

Approaching the 90 minute mark (105 minute race), and my body was really feeling things. The 450 power, the multiple crashes, the blisters growing ever larger on my hands….it was all adding up. The braking bumps in some of the turns were wreaking havoc on my lower back. You could just feel things being jarred. I was chuckling to myself thinking about how I used to blame my suspension for getting harsh late in a race. I laughed as I realized that I’m just not in 100% perfect shape. I continued on with this thought in my head.

As I rolled through Timing\Scoring just before my last lap, I realized I made the cutoff for the “extra lap” by just a couple of minutes. I really didn’t want to do this lap at all. I was concerned I’d drop the bike in the creek section again, so I really tip toed it through there (which ironically makes it more difficult). I more or less did my best to just enjoy the last lap. You could hear that there were less riders out there, so there was a sense of calm and I was able to collect my thoughts and push through the burning sensation in my hands.

I slightly fumbled my way over the 2 large Timing\Scoring “speed reducing” logs, and off the course. I putted my way back to the truck, and could feel my body was already wanting to lock up. I did my best to load up the truck, and off we went. Glad I wasn’t the one driving home. 

I learned a few things about my riding. I watched as the AA guys passed me. The speed that they carry, is just far better than me. I could see that they were experiencing less obstacles, due to the fact that they were essentially skipping over them. I’ve realized that I really need to smooth out my riding. This would probably get easier with doing a better job of looking ahead at the course, but as fatigue sets in, that grows increasingly difficult. I was on my 450, and I really wish that I had been on my 250F. Not so much the power situation, but the fact that its at least 30# lighter, and heck, I’ll admit it, the Rekluse wouldn’t have hurt me either. I’m perfectly OK not using an autoclutch, but there are times where I think it would help me with keeping a gear higher, and lugging the bike a bit more. Why I wasn’t doing that more on the 450, I’ve no idea. The thing can drop down to 0 RPM and still be running, and will pull it just fine. Keeping the bike in 3rd gear (instead of clicking between 2nd\3rd), I woulda been in much better shape.

Overall though, I had a blast, and am itching to get back riding (though the hands are still healing). I’m going to invest in some of those locking grips in the meantime, and some more proper\sturdy handguards.

Here’s some pics some folks took at the race. I’ll be uploading whatever video I have from the race when I get home this evening.

Heading into the creek section:

More Creek:

Bowl turn before a tabletop (that I always manage to over-jump):

This is a short climb, followed by a quick right hand uphill climb. My goodness that 450 excelled here. 2nd WFO and roost up the hill:

Start Finish speed logs. When just riding there, I normally jump these things. In the races, I find I do a trials style double tap. I figure that’s the safest way to go over, with least risk of messing up (note that these logs have no ramp on the opposite side in pic):

And the coolest one of the bunch, mid-creek section, full attack mode:

Andrew

Fired My Mechanic.

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This is about how I feel right now:
My 250F has been a royal pain in my ass. Well, more so, my right foot. I made the epic mistake this past winter of messing with the engine. I’ve been paying for it since, and the currency has been Head Gaskets. I had worries about not being able to actually get to race this year. I made some quick decisions, and long story short, I’ve no longer got a Trials bike, but a Yamaha WR450. I’ve also fired my mechanic (myself). I’m only allowed to change oil, filters, and grips. Beyond that, if that shmuck touches anything else, he’s gonna get slapped around 

Not a move I’ve exactly wanted to make, but it’s making more and more sense as time goes on here. I realize it’s not the easiest to use 45hp in the woods, but I’m finding it incredibly easier than I remember. I find that I don’t really want a Rekluse on the thing. It’s nice, but it’ll lug so much better than the YZ, that I’m just not stalling it like the 250F. We’ll see how things pan out.

Here’s some riding from 2 weekends ago:

I’ve got 2 weekends on the WR450F, and will be racing it this weekend. My biggest concern with it is related to starting it. It’s no 2-stroke, that’s for sure. I did about 30 dead engine starts Saturday while riding. If the engine is good n warm, it seems like it’ll fire just fine with the kick start. Suppose I’ll do that with the finger on the e-start button at the same time.

In the meantime, I’ll be on the rower tonight. This 450 works your body a heck of a lot more than the 250F. The riding from Saturday was pure awesomeness. I’ll be putting up video of it. We had a track groomed in a farm field for us. Flat track & kinda like supermoto. Tacky dirt that you could in places just about put the handlebar into the ground while railing a corner. Awesome stuff.

Andrew

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Upcoming race prep!

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Things are looking up! It’s March. My GasGas is up, running and feels like a great machine. My YZ now has a WR transmission, 290 Big Bore, and may or may not have a Rekluse Z-Start Pro going into it. I hadn’t really planned on that, but I found an almost new one for the price of an EXP unit, and the DynaRing unit I have will NOT grab with the added power of the 290 kit. Kinda wild that a couple HP difference, and it just slips. Go figure.

On top of that, I’ve added a “toy” to my working out.

I love feeling really worked after a good row on this thing. It’s like doing pushups, crunches, and leg presses all in one. Come race time there’s a good chance I’ll be down around 170#. Not bad considering last year I was closer to 185-190. I feel good knowing that its the “excess” I’ve been whittling down. Rebuilding muscle at the same time is just a plus.

Only downside so far as of late, is that I have not gone to the indoor MX track as much as I had planned. Heck, I haven’t made it there since I last went. Basically life got in the way, and then I got antsy, and tossed the WR gears & big bore on the YZ, which took much longer than planned as I busted the cases while doing the swap.

Hopefully get there one more time this month. Supposed to go to a race middle\end of March, but based on how the weather has been, I forsee a total slop fest. Not exactly in the mood for that. Then it’s down to Trials Training Center first weekend of April with the GasGas to do some skills improvement work. Then end of April is a trip to the UP for some trail riding with friends.

The season hasn’t begun…..but already has. 

Time to go row & get some dinner with my wife.

Andrew

Now that we’ve got that out of the way.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not excited to be reporting that I finally completed my first event of the year.  I am excited however in how the day panned out for me.  It wasn’t a top finish as I had been hoping, but all things considered, I felt I did really well.  In my class were 12 riders, of which I placed 6th.  Out of all the B Group riders, I placed 19th out of 54.  While not the most stellar, there were a few things that definitely didn’t help my situation.

I began my morning with an appropriate breakfast (albeit at 4am) of 4 giant strips of bacon, 3 eggs, and a pile of home-made home fries.  Plenty of energy packed in there to keep me going through at least the morning.  Hopped in the truck, and I was on my way over to Johns to reload my stuff in his truck and get going.  The drive down was quite uneventful with plenty of jokes about whether or not the Husqvarna was the right choice for the day, or if I should have chosen the Mighty XR for the event.

We arrived at the event with plenty of time to spare.  Rows 10 through the end were already spoken for, so we found ourselves on row 7.  It didn’t bother me, as I figured the trail would be what it would be.  Before I took the bike off the stand, I gave it an inspirational speech….Telling it it WILL finish the race today.  I dropped the bike off the stand, fired it up, and rode a couple little circles to get some blood flowing to my arms.

We pulled up to the line, along with a couple others.  I noted the one rider was on a brand new WR250, and noted that the red\black looks 100x better than the older blue\yellow, but I suppose that’s all subjective.  Either way, our minute came up and the other rider on the Husky took off.  He was going a decent pace, so I figured I’d ride behind him a bit and find a groove for myself.  This proved to be a good strategy as the rider was at the same speed as me, but much much smoother.

First section was a bit so-so for myself.  I knew it’d take at least that section to get my blood flowing.  Completed (docking 3 minutes), and onto the next section.  I took the lead this special section and found that while I rode faster than the other guy on my line, my form did not allow for me to maintain the higher pace for the entire day.  I messed up a corner or two (or 10), and was passed by him.  I was ok with this, as I keyed off of him again, and found myself to be more consistent.  The following section, I rode behind the other Husky rider as well.  This proved to be a good strategy.

The 2nd special was interesting to say the least.  Most of it seemed as if they chose a random line through the woods, and just tacked up some random arrows.  Since there were so few guys ahead of us, we were making wrong turns quite consistently.  The section just downright sucked.  I like riding as much as the next guy, but when you’re just bashing through shrubbery, trying to guess which way to go based on some random arrows, well it kind of sucks.  It also makes you wish you had an auto clutch. haha  By the end, it opened up a bit and had me feeling much better.  That initial part just annoyed the snot out of me.

After the 2nd special (I think?), I decided to take a look down at my little roll chart I had taped to my fuel tank.  I believe I was supposed to be heading towards fuel or something along those lines.  I was heading down an open grass area, with corn to my left, and a drop-off & ravine & corn to my right.  I glanced down for a second while still accelerating, and found myself heading right towards the drop-off.  I would have been able to pull out of it, but the drop-off was all this really tall….corn like stuff.  No idea off hand what it was, but it sucked me in, and down I went.  I couldn’t let gravity do it’s work to help get me up, as there was a creek or something down there & a bunch of water.  I had the joy of lifting the bike uphill up this drop-off.  It sucked for sure, but really pounded in my head to pay attention.  I got the bike up and worked my way on down to go fuel up my bike.

I realized while filling up the bike that I would have been fine using just the stock sized fuel tank (which I’ll be doing at the next Enduro).  I attempted to eat one of my energy bars.  Unfortunately it was just too rich & dense that I couldn’t put it down.  I took in a good amount of water and then headed out to the start of the next special with the other guys on my line.  When we got there, we had a good 30 minutes to relax.  In this time, I was able to put down one of my protein bars, so that provided me with some energy for the “5 mile” special we were about to head out on.  As soon as we took off, I could feel that my body was running low on energy.  My proper breakfast held me up for 1/2 the day, but no way it was going to hold me over for the entire event.  I failed to bring the proper “quick energy” supplements (sugar\carbs), so found myself really working as things went on in this 5-mile section.

This 3rd Special was to me kinda like the 2nd special.  Just a bunch of annoying stuff, though I suppose that is why this was an Enduro race.  There was a long section, which appeared to be on a slight ridge.  The trail was pretty much straight, but you were riding under low hung trees\shrubs for what seemed an eternity.  You had to stand in an odd crouch position to ride quickly, and this quickly sapped the energy out of me.  I also managed to have a branch catch on my hand guard, and promptly fling into the tip of my thumb.  I decided to not stop and investigate, as I figured I’d be seeing some blood.  By the end of this special, I was really feeling drained and wishing I had more stuff on me to give me some much needed energy.

Just before the 4th & final Special, I ate my last 3 Gatorade energy blocks, and hoped for the best.  Not quite the greatest plan of attack, but what you gonna do?  About 1/4 mile into the special I had the strangest thing happen.  A random tree jumped out right in front of me.  The thing pile drived itself into my shoulder\right arm.  The tree literally stopped me in my tracks and knocked a good bit of wind out of myself.  I did my best to push on, and rode as hard as I physically could.  I got through to the end, and was mighty thankful that it was the end.

I had no idea what place I came in, no idea of much of anything, but I was quite pleased at how the Husky rode through the day, and felt pretty positive in my own riding through the event.  I was kicking myself for not having a better source of energy for the event, but it was a great learning experience for the next one.  I’ve also decided that my bike could handle some slightly lower gearing.  Currently my gearing allows for me to do 85+mph, which is more than enough for these events.  I’ll be adjusting that and see how it goes at my next race.

I also found that my riding style needs some slight work, as I was having a heck of a time with front end confidence in the loose stuff.  This was my own fault, as I was using too much front brake, and putting too much weight over the front in general for turning in the softer sandy areas.  It seems this Husky steers with the rear, which is another reason for dropping my gearing.  2nd & 3rd Gear just need that little extra pep that I think it will get with this gearing change.

Anyway I cut it, I’m ready for the next event.  I’ve got 2 harescrambles this month, then a weekend off for my birthday, and then I’m off to the UP for a weekend of riding with some friends.  Looking forward to the riding I’ve got ahead of me.

-Andrew

ps – If you’re riding an Enduro…..make sure you have a kick-stand.  I’m kicking myself for losing mine the last time I rode.  Sure you can always find a tree, but what a pita.  Time to make one!

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Unexpected Findings

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Got invited to ride on some farm property yesterday. Close by, free, and wide open areas to work on some skills…how could I say no? I also saw it as a chance to do some scientific testing between some bikes and see which gets me through some trails quickest.

We plotted out a small loop. Started on a small section of farm field, into a singletrack tall grass section and then a quick duck into some mildly tight\off-camber section. This led to a small jaunt back out of the woods and back across the field. Once you were back across the field, there was a dried up pond that we roosted around. The outside was packed full of downed trees, and sticks, and by the end of the day, getting slick and rutted. As you finished your way around the pond, we had a pile of downed tree limbs to hop over followed by a slightly larger 18″ diameter-ish tree to hop. After the tree hop, you immediately banked hard right, and then a quick left to bring yourself back out of the pond area to where you started.

It was a short loop, but it gave me a chance to do a lot of hot laps. My findings were mildly frustrating, but I suppose telling of my riding. I had 3 bikes to test out. My Husky, the Mighty XR, and my buddies KDX200. I started out on the Husky, so I had a good general idea of how the bike handled the loop, what to do, what to expect, etc, etc. Initial lap times were 59-60 seconds. I then hopped on the KDX, and my lap times were 57-58 seconds. I hopped onto the Mighty XR, where my lap times were at a consistent 58 seconds. After all that, and some other fooling around, with my body tired, I did another 5 laps on the Husky, where my lap times were at a consistent 58 seconds.

So what’s this telling me? I know I felt that on the KDX, the bike felt the most compliant and kind of the easiest to go fast. The bike felt plush and confident. The S12XC front he has on the thing helped in the slick sections for sure. He’s got an autoclutch, though I still work the clutch manually, but that may have had an effect on things. The XR, I felt I had to work the most to go the same speed. The drum rear brake always required more attention to help stop you, and the slightly sticky throttle made you have to think more while riding, rather than focusing on going fast. I liken riding it to riding a 125 2-stroke. They can go just as fast, but require a LOT more input, body english, and finesse to get the speed out of it. Now for the WR, I felt to me it has the most room for improvement. The bike has got plenty of power which helps immensely in anything more open. It was the most forgiving if I messed, up, but required a bit more brain focus to extract the speed out of it. The suspension is also not nearly as plush as the KDX, however, it is feeling better now than it ever has (I opened HS\LS Rear compression 100% open).

I got to do a lot of work on drills that we did at the Shane Watts school. Braking\accelerating\drifting\wheelies\etc. From where I was a year ago, I’m 10x more confident in high speed roosting, and drifting out the rear. Heck, I could be dragging my knee on the XR if I wanted. 

Yesterdays riding (and subsequent timing results) has me questioning if the Husky is the bike for me. With my apparent knack for breaking a bike at every race, it’s got me considering the idea of going back to a Japanese bike, due to the abundance of parts\spares\cheap prices. Hard to say as I really enjoy the Husky, but I need something that I can trust will take me all the way through a race. Any thoughts\opinions on this?

I can say however that that XR350R just won’t be sold. We did some flat out drag races between it & the KDX200. The XR was dead even with the KDX. Quite the mighty little beast. 

Time for some Sunday lunch.
Andrew