Tag: Endurocross

Fox Valley Off Road Harescramble Report (5-11-14)

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First race is down and in the books. I’ve been him-hawing about racing this year. I’ve just been enjoying riding my bikes, so the hassle of dealing with a race was a bit less than appealing. In the morning, I was kinda hoping it was down pouring and I’d stay home and relax all day. It was the opposite, and we had perfect weather all day.

My wife and MIL came with to the race. My MIL hadn’t seen any of my races, and wanted to see what it was all about. When we got to the race, my buddies morning race had just started, so we went over and watched some of the action from the start area. This gave me a chance to eye up the first few turns, and see where the faster guys were starting to brake for the first dash into the woods. After a bit of watching, I figured it was time to start prepping myself for my race.

I like to be geared up and ready to roll 30-45 minutes before my race. I don’t like to really talk to anyone before, preferring to put on my headphones and mentally prep myself. About 15 minutes before the race, I start to do some mild jumping jacks\stretches\etc. Get the blood flowing a little bit and try to just zone in. About 5 minutes before the race is supposed to start, I head over by the starting area (where no one is really even lining up yet) and do some screwing around on some mulch piles and figure I should try out some dead engine starts.

My past 4-stroke & e-start bikes had cost me some terrible starts. Nothing like pushing the damn button and watching the rest of your class just launch away. I tested in 1st gear and 2nd. 1st didn’t seem to want to let the motor spin quick enough to fire, so I tried 2nd. It seemed to work well, but hey….I was uneasy about it. That is one thing I miss about the 2-stroke. With that RMX, you look at it wrong, and it starts up and roosts away. These 4-strokes…not a chance.

Wardy (land owner\race organizer) finally shows up, gives a speech which I can’t hear (ear plugs), and the bikes fire up, waiting for the flag to drop. B class guys are all on Row 4. That gives me 3 chances to do test dead engine starts.

My line is up, engines off, the last check and the flag drops. The 350 fired right to life, but I don’t get the pull that I wanted into the first turn. I’m a couple riders back. I see 2 guys up front really start to scoot away, and I know it’ll be a lot of work to catch them with being stuck behind another 2 or 3 slower guys. I use it as a chance to regroup myself mentally after the start and form my plan of attack.

I slowly begin recognizing where the course is leading us, and know that my first big offensive move will be in the Endurocross section. I’d practice it a LOT the last 2-3 times I’d been there, and I felt confident in my bike. I knew the good lines through there, and I know that if I treat everything like a jump or something I can just wheelie over, I’ll pass a lot of guys. And I did just that. There seemed to be 10 guys all fiddling around through the section as I roosted on past them. That gave me a hell of a mental push to truck on and try to put some distance between anyone I passed.

Unfortunately the section right after the Endurocross section was where I had my bad crash there a few weeks prior. On the upside, they were running the section backwards, so it was like a new section. I was a little gunshy running through there, but kept a decent enough pace that I felt I was pushing fast enough, but not at a speed where I’d be screwed if things got a bit wonky.

I end up making my way through the course and get to timing and scoring. First lap through, and I see I’m 1st in Class. Again, another motivator that makes me push myself to go faster. I remind myself that at this point, it’s mine to lose, so get on the gas. I pace myself, but push in areas where I feel confident. There were a few slick spots where I didn’t trust my front tire, so I was a bit slow in those areas. Again though in the technical areas, I make my attacks. Endurocross, creek section, and the singletrack I gain a LOT of time on people. Thank God I rode trials before getting into harescrambles 

Around the 45 minute mark, I feel some minor fatigue setting in. By the next lap though I get a second wind (thanks to some big gulps of icey water) and am able to keep a good solid push. At some point I catch up to another guy in my class, who didn’t realize that I was lapping him decided he’s going to try to keep pace and not move over. Not the end of the world, as there were plenty of spots I could make a move. Of course right when this happens, I end up with an AA guy breathing down my neck. We’re both hooting\hollering\revving to get the slow guy to just slide over a smidge to give us some space. We both finally find a spot to squeak past the guy. I lose sight of the AA guy pretty quick and continue on.

By the 90 minute mark, I’m feeling some pain in my hands. I know they’re blistered, but wasn’t quite sure to what level. I see at timing and scoring that the race ends at 2:20 and it was currently 2:12. I pray that my lap times were not under 8 minutes. I knew I had 1 lap left in me, but 2 more would have been rough.

I get to the endurcross section for what was the last time. All was fine until I jumped the last set of tractor tires. I land and feel all the blisters in my hand all spontaneously explode with the skin ripping off my hands. I grit down knowing that at least I won’t likely have to do the creek section again. I knew I slowed down a bit, but it was still an acceptable pace considering.

I cross the line and see the scoring still says I’m the class leader. I’ll take it. 

My wife & MIL greet me back at the truck and I do my best to get my gear off and catch my breath. I was a bit exhausted, but most of all, my hands BURNED. Removing my gloves revealed some nasty blisters, but hey…as far as I knew, I won, so again…I’ll take it.

My upper body is a bit worn out, but otherwise, I’m in relatively good shape. I’m happy with my performance. I’m thrilled with my bike. I would like some new tires on the bike. The OEM DOT tires are……not the best, though oddly the rear hooks up incredibly well. I keep being told I should invest in slightly stiffer springs for the bike, but I’m quite cheap. 

Overall a great day. My MIL kept repeating how amazed she was at how difficult the racing was. I knew this, but it is incredibly difficult to explain to people who don’t ride, just how difficult this racing is. There is an assumption that since you have a motor, you just twist the throttle and you go faster. If only 

Some pics from the day (most action shots were from FreeMotoPix on facebook)

Filling up with race fuel (yes…I’ve learned my lesson):

Gearing up:

Sweet word I look like one of those KTM guys:

All lined up:

Making a pass happen in the creek section:

Working the Endurcross section:

Some more creek action:

Just before timing\scoring:

Landing after jumping a bit too high off the tires:

On the gas, making the pass:

Gotta score some style points on this one 

How I felt at the end:

The results 1st in Open B – 3rd in both B classes – 18th overall (out of 73):

My lap time sheet:

Great day!

Andrew

 

Photos thanks to Free Moto Pix @ https://www.facebook.com/Free.moto.pix

First time on the new bike.

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I’ll work on getting video done this weekend, but I did make it out to the indoor. Felt good to be back on the bike.

It was about 35 degrees inside the building. My fingers froze up after the first lap around the track. I stopped, put my jacket on and shook my arms and hands back to life. I had some arm pump crop up which diminished gradually as I rode more. I tried to remind myself that I hadn’t ridden a bike since November, and to take things slow. Not exactly how I like to ride, but I’d rather not injure myself before the season even really starts.

I had a few close calls as the rear spun up going up the face of a couple of the jumps. The bike took the sideways landings in stride, though it did require some heavy body english from me to not get too huckabuck. I fought quite a bit with the bike on the track though. The dirt there is quite different. It’s completely bone dry, so you end up with this powdered silt on top of slick hardpack. 90% of the turns are 180 degree bowl turns that don’t lend themselves to maintaining corner speed. You end up diving into the turns, and working the clutch to shoot out of the turn as quick as possible.

I need to work on trusting my front end again, but considering it’s my first time on the bike, I’m quite OK with how I rode. My fitness is definitely up. I could feel myself a bit drained towards the end of my riding, but I still had the strength to work the bike through the turns, albeit slightly sloppier than I’d have preferred. I ended up packing up when both my goggles were so fogged up that I could no longer see the track. Yes, bad day to wear smoke tinted goggles in a dark indoor track.

I’m excited. Bike feels good. My body feels good…..well it’s a bit tight today. I hope the place stays open during the week (I was 1 of 3 people riding there last night). I can workout all I want at home, but there is absolutely no replacement for seat time.

Video soon.

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

 

Not quite a noob, Not quite a Pro, Not quite old man, Not quite boy racer……

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I am at a point in my life finding myself making up for lost\missed time.  Doing my best to get in as much racing before I feel I’m “too old”.  I suppose it’s best to back things up a bit and give some back story.  My name is Andrew Gore.  I’m 26 years old and I race dirtbikes.  I’ve got a lovely wife, slightly spastic dog, and officially work as a Mold Designer\Machinist at my Fathers Injection Molding\Mold Making company.  I have one goal ahead of me: to race national pro enduro by 2015 (or by the time I’m 30).

I began riding bikes when I was in elementary school.  First ride I took, was on a 1974 Kawasaki 175.  From then, I went into racing MX at a local track on a 1985 Yamaha YZ125 that was nothing but issues.  At the same time I was dealing with that bike, I was also forced to deal with the reality that the area I had to practice\ride was being shut down.  It was 1999, I was entering high school & found myself using any free time I had to go skateboarding, with the YZ sitting dormant in my basement.  Through high school I went full blown into skateboarding, was shooting video non stop, and gained a great board sponsor out of Pennsylvania, and even managed my own signature board by the end of high school in 2003.

Unfortunately from there, the board company was going under, and I found myself in a position of owning a paintball company with my brother.  From that point on, I just didn’t get competitive in much of anything.  We had separated ourselves from our fathers manufacturing business to venture out on our own, we were both immersed in work, and at the time I just didn’t feel any draw back to competition or even motorcycles.  This slowly began to change when I moved back in with my parents & back to work with my father.

Summer of 2004 (or maybe 2005?), I don’t remember exactly, but suffice to say, I got the bug to ride again.  I picked up a 1974 RD350 & had all sorts of fun fogging the area on the thing.  One thing led to another, and I found myself road racing a 2004 Yamaha R6.  With the help of my brother coaching me, I was picking up speed at a great pace.  Unfortunately, as my speed increased, as did the spending from my wallet.  A weekend of racing was using up every bit of money I had, especially so after a triple digit crash sent me sliding directly towards my entire family there at the race to watch.  I knew something had to give.  My funds were essentially non-existent, but the desire to compete was extremely high.

At this point, my dad had seen some trials events, and inquired if I’d be interested in giving that a go.  We made a deal that he’d front the money for a trials bike until I sold the R6.  I found a bike (1994 GasGas JT25), and a week or so later, had the R6 sold.  I entered my first event and was sucked in.  The slow methodical approach to riding, with a delicacy that just drew me in.  After my first event, I knew I needed some schooling and in the fall of 2008, I went down to the Trials Training Center in TN.  The following year, I competed in the D-17 Advanced class, and won the overall for the season.

The following year had me feeling the need for a bit more speed.  Early 2010, I competed in a couple trials events at the Sportsmen level, but I was feeling the need for some speed.  Maybe it was me knowing I was getting married in a few months, I don’t really know.  I do know that I needed some speed or change of pace from trials and began giving HareScrambles a go.  I had tried a Harescramble in May of 2009.  I made it 45 minutes into the event on a bone stock DRZ400S (yes, lights blinkers, everything).  I wanted to die, and I was barely half way into the race.  Things weren’t much different when I entered another event on a KTM 300.  I got stuck in a terrible rut, sunk the bike down to its rear axle and just about lost my brain.  It wasn’t until I entered my 3rd race that I even managed to finish.

I’ve spent the past 2 years competing in Harescrambles, dabbled into supermoto (finding I needed to be in the dirt), and finally giving an enduro a go this past fall (2011).  I’ve made a HUGE mistake the past couple years, which has been not focusing on an ultimate goal for each season.  This season is different.  I aim to win the D-17 Open B Enduro class.  I’ll be racing local Harescrambles as well to help keep my brain in race mode, but won’t be so focused on taking the “overall” for that.  Something to keep me in shape and in the spirit of racing.

I’m stoked for what’s to come this year.  I’m on a phenomenal bike (2006 Husqvarna WR250).  I’ve got myself on a tasty diet, and have a workout plan going on.  I’ll post as more comes up here.

-Andrew

 

Finally a ride on the new scoot

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Finally got a chance to take the new Husqvarna out for a test ride (video uploading shortly).  We had a good 3 mile loop to really push ourselves and our bikes.  There was a great mix of high speed open sections, mixed in with some plenty technical & extremely rough terrain.  Overall I felt really positive about the bike.  The ergonomics fit me really well.  The bike has plenty of power, though the jetting down low in the RPM’s is a little on the rich side.  Minor details, and really the jetting can be solved with me running a bit faster.

I had a lack of confidence in the front end of the bike, though I feel this will be solved with a fresh front tire & possibly some toying with the front forks a bit, get a bit more feeling out of things.  My only real gripe with the bike is the wonky kick start.  The lever is about 3″ further forward than any other bike I’ve ridden & it has a super short sweep.  Extremely annoying if I killed the engine in a rough spot and as I noted while washing my boots, it ripped apart the center of the sole on my Tech 8’s.

All in all, a very positive day riding.  Heck, I even got to test the 85′ XR350R & what a fun bike.  Great 6 speed gear box.  Just the right amount of power, super plush suspension, and my goodness a lazy-boy seat.  Great combo for a fun vintage machine.

-Andrew