Tag: Enduro

Sunday Race Report

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So woke up nice and early. Ate 4 strips of tasty bacon & 3 scrambled eggs. Took some coffee with me to go (then switched to water when I got to my buddies house). All loaded up, and headed on down to Fox Valley. Had to make a pit stop on the way as I had drank a lot of water that morning already, and well, you just don’t fight the body. Signed in, and I got to watch my buddy John take off in the early AM race. He was 7th or 9th off the start in his group, and I could see the dust was going to be a PITA.

It was supposed to be 95+ today and sunny. Thankfully God smiled upon us with 85 & overcast. Unfortunately he didn’t give us enough rain to settle the dust, so it was what it was….LOTS of lingering dust. About 45 minutes before my race, I geared up and did a whole bunch of jumping jacks, followed by some high knee running in place…..whatever you will call it. One of them things that they made the kids in High School track do that they all complained about. Anyways, I thought my race started at 12:30, and so at 12, I rolled over to the practice loop looking to do some circles, and saw the entire starting area packed. Mild panic, roosted back to the truck and got the rest of my gear.

By the time I got to the line, I had a theoretically piss poor starting position. I was 2 guys in from all the way inside of the first turn. In standard Harescramble form, the race started just about 15 minutes behind schedule. My 2nd gear starts were feeling positive, and from what I could gather, I was in the top 5 or 6 right off the start (keep in mind, my line was ALL of the B classes). I couldn’t see jack squat. The AA & A lines ahead of us just left the place a dust bowl. And in the trees, there was 0 wind, so it just lingered.

I stayed on the tail of the guy ahead of me as best I could. I kept feeling as if my front tire was washing out. I’d put brand new tires on the bike, so I thought it was odd, but was thinking that they just sucked more than I remembered the last set I had. As I kept riding, I got myself into a groove as best I could, stayed up on the pegs and tried to let the bike float beneath me. I soon realized that the tires weren’t the problem, it was just that the dirt was absolutely terrible. I explained it to a buddy of mine as “flour on top of absolute hardpack”. You’d think that it was loamy\sandy dirt, but it was a trick. The dirt just POOFED away as you attempted to lock in, and then as you went to put weight on the front tire for the turn, it acted like a lubricant on the hardpack beneath it. Absolute crap, but wtf you gonna do? Everyone else is riding the same stuff. Deal with it, and truck on.

Like I said, I got myself into a groove and pushed on. I didn’t want to push too hard out of the gate, as I knew since it was warmer and crappier conditions, that guys would eventually start making mistakes, and getting worn out. As I went through the scoring the first time, I saw that I was in 6th in my class. I knew I could do better than that, so I slowly began inching up my pace. I found that if I kept the bike in 3rd gear instead of 2nd that I held an overall faster average speed. So I began keeping it clicked in 3rd (bless this 6 speed gear box I swapped in), and only dropped into 2nd if I absolutely had to. It worked, and I found myself pulling up into 5th position.

I soon had a guy come up behind me, who I thought that this early, must be in my class. I picked up my pace a bit and pushed on. I overshot a turn or something, and he went past, only for me to realize that the guy was in a totally different class. Not a big deal, except that when I went to get back going, shortly thereafter, I washed out my front and dropped the bike on the left hand side. I looked back, saw no one close, so I took a little extra time in getting the bike restarted. I knew if I rushed, that I’d only hurt myself (use up energy), and end up further behind. This worked, as I got the bike running and was back on my way.

All was well until the 45-60 minute mark. My body felt like it was locking up. My rear suspension literally felt like it was locked solid, and it was jack hammering the ever living piss out of my body. My kidneys felt like they were being pounded on by a baseball bat on my back. It sucked, but I knew I had to truck on and somehow some way it’d go away. Just as I passed a guy in another class, I gas it through a creek, and as soon as I get on the other side, it’s like someone clamped a vice on my sides. I screamed a few choice words and sat down, attempting to keep on the throttle, as I had just passed the guy. It was like torture. As I got out of that section, and into the next, I saw the guy wasn’t too close behind me, so I calmed myself down and did my best to take long deep breaths. I took another quick sip of water, and again, deep breaths. This seemed to work, and made me realize that I was holding in my breath too much. It was the only thing that made sense.

As soon as I loosened up my breathing, my pace began to pickup. My movements were getting more fluid, and I felt I was picking up my pace. I noted that there were some guys I had passed who were in my group, so by this point I knew I was in 5th place. As I went to cross the second log by the start\finish line (tall log), the bike felt like the throttle rocketed on me. All was well as I landed. I saw as I passed through scoring that I was 10 seconds behind 4th place. The hunt was on……..or so I thought.

I got on the gas coming out of scoring, and as soon as I let off, it was like the bike went WFO. I figured something jiggled loose (despite my safety wired throttle cable), and began checking the cable at the carb & throttle housing. Both areas looked fine. I figured maybe I could run with it revving to the moon, just ride in a high gear, and somehow make it work. I rode for a little bit, and soon realized this was a sure fire way to get hurt, and knew at that point….it was over. 75 minutes into the 105 minute race, and my Husky failed me again.

I made it back to our truck by modulating not the clutch, but the kill switch. I was fuming, as I was so close….so close. But that was it. That’s racing. I left the bike on its side while I sat down and attempted to collect myself. Needless to say I was an unhappy camper. I regained my composure and joked about how this husky has been nothing but issues for me. But I suppose, that’s racing.

I had fun, and despite my jokes with friends that if I had another DNF this weekend that I’d be done racing, I’ll be back at the races in 2 weeks time. The next race is an enduro, where I had the first one (and my first DNF). I hope to be slightly more prepared for this one, but the Husky has a few minor issues that I need to address. Easy enough, but some small ones that just piss me off. (Weak radiators that seem to break upon looking at them wrong), and a few other things.

I’ll be at that enduro, and then unfortunately, the following enduro is 6.5 hours away, so I’ll be going to a Harescramble closer by on August 19th, and then another harescramble on the 26th just before my birthday.

I’ll post more, but in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the rest of this….overly sized IPA I’ve got here & watch some Game of Thrones.

Andrew

Saturday Ride @ FVOR

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Saturday went pretty well with testing the bike, and getting some good seat time in. We rode from about 10:30am until 3:30pm. Aside from the changes on the bike, I made the decision to try just a roost guard instead of my complete pressure suit. I was quite glad I did, as the temps were hitting the mid 90’s. I got so much better air flow over my body and honestly in the woods, didn’t feel any less protected. Though I’m sure I’ll feel otherwise the next time I crash hard. 

The riding area is a combo of a mini MX track, and some very sporadic woods trails. There is absolutely nothing defined in there, and is 2-way traffic. Though it could be called 360 way traffic, as the way the trails intertwine with each other, you could run into someone from any and every possible direction. I shouldn’t complain though, as it gives me a good idea of the random trails they may tie in for harescrambles there.

The real downside is that it is next to impossible to ride the same exact course twice. I could try all I wanted, but yeah just not happening. So what I ended up doing was alternating between a few hot laps on the mx track, and then duck into the woods for a bit. I found that doing 5 laps on the mx track was like doing an hour in the woods. I found though as the day\heat grew, that it got to me, which will be addressed with more\better pre-race hydration. I guess I just haven’t been drinking enough water, and I felt it.

On the upside of all this, I really like how the bike was feeling. I felt strong and planted on it at all times. I had installed some CR-Hi bars that put me in a much more relaxed position while standing. The grips I installed gave me some blisters on my thumbs, though that could also be a product of my body sweating profusely and the gloves slipping on my hands. I may ditch the pillow-top pro-tapers and go back to the half-waffles that were on the thing stock.

Check the post below for footage: http://andrewgore.net/?p=590

-Andrew

PS – More footage on the way.

Some y00per Fun!

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Well this past weekend was spent re-energizing my riding batteries. A lot of time spent on the bike, in a non-competitive, non-race situation. Granted I still pushed myself while tooling around, but in a way that just puts a big ol smile on my face. Me & 2 other riding friends loaded up the toy-hauler and drove due North to the great y00per (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan). The plan was to ride some fun 2-track loops based around our camp & if we were up for it, hit up some of the local singletrack. Some\most of the pics courtesy JZEE

The 3 bike crew:


JZEE on the KTM 530xcw
Jburroughs12 on the Honda XR350R
Me on the Husky WR250

We were all having a blast out there. Essentially all of the 300ish miles we rode, we didn’t pass a single other dirtbike\4×4\ATV\UTV\ORV\Car\Truck\Bus\Logging operation. It was just some good pure fun. I realized immediately I shoulda re-geared my Husky. The OEM 13/48 gearing left a lot to be desired in the speed department. On these same trails on my 450, I could cruise 10-15mph faster and not feel like I was revving the snot out of the bike. My fault for not gearing up for the ride properly. Not the end of the world, but in some of the more open riding (and sandy areas), I really like to open the bikes up, and being topped out around 65-70mph, just wasn’t enough.

On the 2nd day of riding, just after a rockier section….followed by a high speed whoop section, I was flagged down, with John & Joe pointing at the rear of my bike. I thought I had some deadly animal attacking me, but soon found the problem.

A rock (presumably) shot up a hole through the center of the rear fender, and the following whoop section sealed the deal and that rear fender was toast. No biggy. First some duct tape, which was the replaced by just looping the thing onto my Nomad Rider pack. Initial repairs took place at the local Ace Hardware:

After that, we continued riding, and remembered part way through the 2nd day that the loop we were on, was one of our least favorite. It had a few road sections & way too much gravel road for our liking. It wasn’t much, but more than we’d care for. There were a couple more spirited sections, but nothing overwhelming. It’d be a better loop if you’re worn out on harder riding & just looking to have a more relaxing final day of riding. When we got back, Joe had the look of “I need some singletrack”, so we tossed our gear back on, filled up the camelbak & around 6:30pm rolled out to go hit up the Bass Lake singletrack loop (videos earlier in thread).

I started out on the Husky and Joe on the XR. I figured I’d offer up the Husky to him, since he’s more used to a 250 2T. He gladly swapped, and I gotta say I was quite happy to really ride the bike on some more aggressive trails. What a blast. That bike was so much fun. I was able to maintain a 15-20mph speed on the loop without trying too hard and was just having a blast while doing it. The only downer with the bike was the rear drum brake. I may have overshot a few turns and ended up in the weeds, but what a blast. I’m really loving that little bike.

Day 3 was our last, and unfortunately cut short. Before we rolled out, I pulled the Rekluse autoclutch from the bike. I didn’t miss it on the XR the day before and figured it’d be a good chance to really test the bike out without it in there. Things started out really well, but unfortunately about 20 miles into the loop, I came down from a roller, and noticed when I got on the gas, that it felt like the rear wheel was spinning. Odd, but it seemed to grab again, so I figured it popped out of gear. Again, another roller and this time it felt out of gear for good. I pulled the clutch cover and immediately saw the problem. My primary gear (on the crank), the nut had backed off and was somewhere in the engine.

I tore things down mid trail and found that the nut thankfully fell in an area where it caused NO damage, but then found that the keyway on the crank\primary gear had sheered itself. I also destroyed my clutch cover gasket in the process of all this, but knew at this point, I wasn’t riding that bike under it’s own power back to camp:

With that we figured the weekend was done. We just had to get back to camp. Luckily we were only a couple miles from a paved road, and luckily I had a tow strap in my kit, so we were off…….and with that I have the pic of shame:

Stuff happens, I’m just glad nothing more went wrong. A 2$ keyway, and 10$ in gaskets and the husky will be back in action for another day. I learned a lot though on the trip. For one, I immediately listed my Rekluse for sale. I just don’t need it. Shane Watts was spot on with his assessment on how it affects the bike. I just had to see\feel it for myself. I found I also learned to ride wheelies on the WR really well. Apparently all the tooling around on the XR translated over, as I can now click through all 5 gears and just rest at the balance point for as long as I want.

I also feel I need to do some work to my suspension. Higher speed stuff, the Husky is pretty good. Low speed stuff, the XR feels so confidence inspiring, and feels like you’re riding on pillows. Low speed the WR feels like it’s being jarred like mad. High speed on the XR…..well you just don’t. lol I’m really looking forward to my next race, whenever it may be. I’m just gonna go have fun with it. I found while riding the singletrack loop, that yes I could push myself super fast right off the bat, but I lose energy too quickly, and overshoot things. If I tone it back to 80-90%, I overall end up much faster. Heck, we rode the loop in 1:35. Not bad at all, considering the last time I rode it, I finished in 1:45.

I’m ready for riding.

Andrew

Dirtwise: A weekend of going back to school.

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I’m working to improve myself as a rider.  If anything, just to be safer as I get faster.  I knew I had to at some point attend a school.  I had been to a Tony Distefano MX School back in 1999 when I was a bit more active in racing MX.  That was a blast & when I had re-entered the dirt world competing in trials, I knew I needed schooling and sought out the experts down at The Trials Training Center in Tennessee.  I really wanted something off-road related, and as soon as I saw a school close by, I jumped at the opportunity.

Shane Watts school opened up close by, so I signed up the day registration opened.  I wasn’t taking any chances.  I signed up and waited the 2 months or whatever it was for the weekend to roll around.  Thankfully I conned a buddy of mine to take the class with me, so we were able to split the fuel for the 5.5 hour drive, hotel, and help keep me occupied while driving.

Saturday AM rolled around, and I’m not sure about anyone else, but I was anxious.  Anxious to ride, anxious to see what we’d be learning, anxious to see just where I was doing things wrong.  The morning began with a short pep-talk from Shane Watts, followed by a quick warmup around a short .5 – 1 mile long loop through the woods down at the Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders facility.  It was a rather simple loop with a couple twisty sections, turns, sand, roots, small ruts, and all the standard stuff you’d see in a race (aside from extreme elevation changes).

Immediately after the warmup, we began in with breaking things down to the basis.  Plain & simple is how Shane does things.  You start with building blocks, stack them up, and apply them all towards the end of the day.  Shane also kept things extremely structured in his overall method of how the “classroom” time went.  Shane discussed what we would be doing, key elements, etc etc.  This was followed up by some demo’s done by Shane, followed by adding in additional key points for us to remember.  After this, we would begin applying what we were taught and were sent to practice in the field.  Shane would watch us all, make comments on what we were doing right or wrong.  After 10 minutes or so of practicing the techniques, we’d pause for a few, discuss things, and then go back out for a little longer; continuing on with practicing what we were just taught.  It was a great process to use to be able to handle the wide range of rider ability throughout the class.

As I said, it was all about building blocks.  Slowly adding things in, finishing with tying it all together.  Saturday began with working on throttle control, brake control, and body position.  We tied these couple skills into a fun drag race\braking exercise.  A line of 4 of us would drag race down a field, click through a gear or two, and then have to brake as quickly as we could at the finish line.  What a great exercise to work on throttle, feeding out the clutch, modulating power and then at the end have to do the exact opposite and work on keeping the rear tire on the ground, not locked up, and keep the front tire gripping as much as possible.  Despite being work, it was a blast.

The day progressed, to where we began working on the Square Drill.  A simple exercise of setting up 4 cones, and basically doing all you can to keep the bike in a constant drift around the 4 cones.  Now in a car, I’d honestly have no issue at all, even a quad.  But hop on a bike and try to do the same and it’s a total PITA.  Despite it being a PITA, like Shane said, it’s an absolute blast.  We all struggled to drift for even 1/4 circle, but we all made progress.  This exercise faded into us doing laps around a grass track.  A grass track that was getting more and more slick as the drizzles that began falling, turned into heavier rain.  The day concluded with us completing more Square Drill exercises.  All of us exhausted, my upper body was being destroyed from fighting the bike, trying to keep it vertical, while keeping the rear end pitched out all while having Shane yell “Go FASTER!!! PICK UP YOUR SPEED!!”.  Our coach knew we needed to wrap things up, so we headed home (er Super 8) to clean up and refill on some much needed food.

Sunday morning I woke up to dark skies and a serious threat of rough rain ahead.  By the time we were ready to go, we rolled out to get some quick breakfast.  While in the health food *cough* mcdonalds *cough* establishment, the rains began.  We sat looking as the sky was pitch black, pouring down an intense rain.  All I could think was: “this is going to be a long day”.  Thankfully by the time we got back to the Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders grounds, the rain had stopped, allowing us to gear up and get ready for more riding.

Just as Saturday began with some warmup laps on the practice loop, so did Sunday.  This time it was much more wet, with large puddles, but a bit more slippery.  Oddly enough, I found myself pressing harder.  I was more confident in placing my wheels in what I’d normally think were slick conditions.  I was on the gas harder and pushing faster than I was even the morning before in the dry.  I felt really positive and prepared myself for the days work ahead.

Things started out with working on corner ruts.  Navigating them, entering properly, looking the correct way, and appropriate throttle on the way out.  This exercise ended and followed by the dreaded Square Drill.  I wasn’t looking forward to this, but knew it had to be done.  As soon as we got out there, things began to click.  I was holding consistent drifts.  I’m sure I looked like a total goofball, floundering around trying everything to keep the bike going, but the more loops I did, the better it was.  I was holding constant circles, I was feeling great, then heard Shane yell to me “GO faster….Push yourself!”.  Not wanting to let the coach down, I did and amazingly enough, I was doing the exact same thing, but at higher and higher speeds.  Not perfect, for sure, but an absolute blast.

The day wound up with us working on a “grinding” technique; riding with wheels on the opposite sides of a downed telephone pole, while riding the length of it, which tied into us putting the techniques into action out on a small ravine climb out in the woods.  Shane again gave us a demo on how it was done, along with several alternate routes up a ravine that left us all smiling, dreaming of being as good of a rider as him.  After the demo it was our turn.  It was a small uphill, that swooped to the right, with a tree root across the thing right at the top of the climb.  Not too major of a climb, but it was slippery, and the climb was well V’d out from the rain running down it.  First time up I got stuck behind the guy in front of me, and didn’t make it non-stop up the hill.  The next attempt, I was more ambitious and pressed a bit harder.  I went in at about 3/4 throttle in 2nd gear and made it up, though had to put a foot down.  I wasn’t happy with that.  Next go at it, I knew I had to just man up, full throttle 2nd gear and just roosted into the climb.  My front tire followed the left side of the climb, with my rear sitting nicely in the middle of the thing.  I came to the root at the top and gave it a touch more gas to really get me up and through.  The root kicked me a good 10-15 feet down the trail.  Unfortunately It also kicked me to the left  onto the side wall dirt.  As I picked up my bike, I heard Shane yelling “YAHHHH AWESOME!!!”.  I couldn’t help but laugh as it just felt great to get up the hill so quickly.  I ran the hill another time, a bit more subdued at the root, and felt like I had made some great headway in my skills.

At this point, Sunday was winding down as we all worked our way out of the woods.  We were tired, the day had gone incredibly well, and it was time for things to come to a close.  Shane gave us some ending inspiring words sending us off to go ride and just enjoy riding.  I know I for sure felt thrilled.  I have no doubt in myself that my skills and confidence have gone through the roof.  I knew I could hold some good speed before this, but the little things I picked up from the class have just helped me take things to a whole new level.  I’m stoked, I’m feeling great, and ready for the races to come this year.  I’m looking forward to putting what I learned into practice in this weekends race.

Pic of the class (I’m bottom right in the red, next to Shane Watts on the end in orange):

-Andrew

To finish first, first you must finish…………..That’s racing.

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As any racer will attest, it seems every race weekend has some sort of drama leading up to it.  Mine (as posted about earlier) was no exception.  Thankfully the planets aligned, bikes got sorted out, and even the weather was looking to be just about perfect.  Truck and trailer got loaded up, I headed up and picked up my buddy John who would be racing his first Enduro.  After spending some time at his house changing his tires, setting up his suspension, and loading his gear, we were on our way out.

We spent the night in fine luxury of a couple camping cots in the back of the trailer.  The mild rain that came in the middle of the night sounded like thousands of shotguns blasts on the roof of the aluminum trailer.  I motivated myself to get up & out of bed around 7 to get registered for the day.  It’s nice walking straight through registration not having to deal with a swarm of other riders.  We really had no line preference for when we started, so we got up on row 10, easy enough for calculating out Key-Time early in the morning.

We didn’t have much time after the riders meeting to get our final gear on & get to the starting line.  They funneled us from the pits down & across a corn field to a gate where the actual start was.  We hopped in behind the Row 9 guys, and saw some of the others who would be joining us on row 10.  My buddy John (despite my yelling) jumped the gun and somehow snuck in with the Row 9 guys right off the start.  Thankfully it was just a .5 mile road section to another start point, and he was able to fall back in line as he should be.

We got up to the line and we were immediately off.  I took the lead of the 4 or 5 of us on our row, and immediately felt extremely confident on my bike.  The terrain was grassy, but had an odd sand base to it.  It was a perfect situation for the Michelin S12XC tires that I run.  I had a few initial bobbles as I was getting reacclamated to running in much tighter tracks than we usually run.  I was running smart though, and running confident.  I began picking up speed where I needed to.  Areas that I normally would have cruised in a constant RPM, I was holding full throttle, and immediately pitching myself fore\aft for upcoming terrain.

I was attacking in a restrained way.  Knowing the race was all day, and it was still early on.  However, I was already pacing myself ahead of the rows ahead of me.  I knew they could all be in totally different classes than me, but it still gives that mental gratification that you passed someone.  It helps, helps me push, helps me keep focused.  I rolled through I believe a check point and motored on.  I came into a tight section that had a fallen tree stump to my left, and some shrubs to my right.  I can only assume I didn’t look far enough ahead, or whatever, cause I immediately felt my foot being smashed between the stump & my foot peg.  I lost my balance, fell to my right and hobbled away from the bike.

It was a sharp pain.  My adrenalin was flowing, and I knew I could work through it.  I looked to my left (behind me) to make sure no one was coming.  I knew I had a good gap from the guys I had passed, but that race instinct says to get back up and going ASAP.  I picked my bike up which was thankfully still running (thank you Rekluse).  I went to turn my bars, and felt some resistance.  I saw the inner radiator shroud had been pushed in, so I yanked it out to toss in my camelbak.  No sooner did I rip the shroud out that the radiator began pissing coolant.

I knew it was over.  As soon as the fluid hit my fender, that was it.  Game Over, See you next credit.  I was pissed and extremely frustrated.  I pulled my bike off the main line and began looking for ways to be resourceful to work around this.  I began pulling for sticks that I could bypass the busted radiator, so I could at least get myself out of there on 1 functioning one.  I searched all around, nothing.  If I had some little tube, maybe I could make it work, but obviously no tube.  Plenty of riders checked to make sure I was OK.  I was grateful, as this never seemed to be the case in the Harescrambles around here.  Somewhere along the way, someone must have mentioned that there was a rider out, because just as I was about to begin the daunting task of pushing my bike out, here comes a truck in the corn field.

It was a long drive back to the pits, so I can only imagine how bad it would have sucked having to push my machine that entire distance.  I had plenty of time to think things over, that’s for sure.  I thought that maybe I could rig something together, but no way was I going to risk getting stuck out there again, only to have to hope for another tow back out.  At this point the race for me was mentally over.

I waited and waited, and my buddy John rolled back into the pits from the first 1/2 of the race around 12-12:30 or so.  He was beat, exhausted and had no desire to do the 2nd half of the race.  I laughed when he told me I’d be riding Enduros alone from here on out.  Which right there makes me laugh.  I’m absolutely pissed that I busted my bike and had to end my race so early.  I was riding solid and knew I had a good finish in me.  But that’s the awesome part of the Enduro’s.  You’ve gotta make everything click.  It’s all day and one early mistake can cost you.  Super frustrated for sure, but now looking forward to the next enduro which is unfortunately not until August.

Until then, I’ll be keeping myself going with Harescrambles & whatever else I can.  Going to be one long summer full of a lot of racing.

-Andrew