Tag: sport

Enough about me. What about the bike?

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I’ve spent a good deal of time on my mental end of things with my racing.  I figure it’s about time for some info on my weapon of choice.  I hopped all around the board in years prior.  My buddies ride KTM’s and get all giddy just thinking of orange things; just not me.  I thought my KTM was good, but honestly, they pull an extra $1000 premium right now, and there were plenty of other options out there, and I’ll add in a bit of spite as my final reason for not going pumpkin.  I knew that I had to go 2-stroke.  Granted I loved the power of my 450, I knew that I could get similar power out of a 2-stroke & not have to think about valves, yadda yadda yadda.

Much consideration went into the possibility of sorting out a Japanese 250.  I liked this idea, as there are plenty of bikes around, for extremely cheap.  I know how to revalve suspension, so that wasn’t a huge thing, but in the back of my mind, I knew I’d still have to get some lights (even if “not working”), some Enduro parts, and all that nonsense.  My brother, the wise man that he is, asked me a simple question: “Why not buy a bike that is built for what you want to use it for?”  It was at this point I knew I had 1 of 2 choices.  Husqvarna or GasGas.

I’d read mixed reviews on the GasGas bikes, and finding one that appeared in decent condition around me was a bit of a stretch.  The Husky was about the same situation, though I knew that I’d seen plenty at the races, and they sold a 300cc 2Stroke which is really what I wanted to get.  I had a line on a nice 2007 Husky, though a WR250.  It needed some standard items (hand guards, protection, bigger tank for longer rides, etc).  It was then that I recalled a friend had a 2006 Husky WR250.  I had seen it on some rides we did, but hadn’t thought too much about it at the time.  This led to that, which led me to buying the bike off of him.  Mint condition bike, I was in heaven.

Fresh from JZEE

Like I said, the bike was\is mint and ready to rock.  I posted earlier what was my first ride on the bike.  I knew after that first outing, that I needed to scoop up the 1 item that I will refer to as the “ultimate cheater”.  The Rekluse EXP 2.0.  I had an auto clutch on my YZ144 and really enjoyed it, but nothing existed for my G450X.  I’ve found this to be one of the best $ I’ve spent on this bike (almost).  The auto clutch saves me when I miss the clutch going into a turn, or have a bobble somewhere that would normally stall the engine (which really sucked due to the bike having such a goofy kickstarter).

I opted to not spend a dollar on any sort of engine upgrades.  The bike rips pretty well, and had an all around good feeling (slight carb tweaks required, but a given with any carb’d bike).  I decided that despite looking new, I had very little to no confidence in the front.  Before I would dive into suspension valving, I figured a fresh tire would help things out, and I was quite right.  The next time out on the bike, I felt very confident in the front end, and felt I could push the bike much better.  I didn’t have 100% confidence, but that is coming along with the more I get to ride & know the machine.

Just after the Bass Lake Loop

After my last trip to the UP, I felt the bike could handle a little loving’ to the fork valving.  Not much, but a bit.  Thankfully this isn’t the first set of forks I’ve massaged into better handling units.  I revalved my YZ144 & G450X, both with awesome results.  On the Husky, I focused on the base valves, and found that the OEM valving was a bit on the wonky side.  It’s damping curve, despite appearing linear, was far from it.  I added in some shims, smoothed things out, and got fresh oil in there.  I’m ready to ride!

So now I sit and wait for the weekend to arrive.  I’ve got the bike dialed in how I want.  I’m stoked on the machine, and itching to improve my feeling and abilities on the bike.  I’ll have more practice footage.  Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

-Andrew

The new trusty steed.

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As posted prior, I’ve decided to update my race bike.  I’ve gone simpler, cheaper, and hopefully faster.  Scratch that.  I KNOW I’ll be faster.  I can base that on the new bike being 20+ pounds lighter.  I’m stoked about what is to come in the upcoming weeks here.   First I’ll put the beast up on display here:

 

I’m excited with what I’ll be able to do on this thing.  In the little I’ve tested it so far, it just feels right.  Thursday I will be setting up a new grueling 3 mile test loop with full on practice Sunday.  I’m unfortunately missing a Harescramble to get this practice in, but I’m trying to keep my focus on the upcoming Enduro season (using Harescrambles to keep me in race form).  The weekend won’t be here soon enough.  I’ll have video up soon enough of what I can do on this bike.  I’m ready!

-Andrew

Preparations for the upcoming season.

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In my past couple weeks here I have really begun preparing myself for the upcoming District17 Enduro Season.  I’ve realized that with the wonky winter the Midwest has had, that my options for proper on-bike practice are quite minimal.  I can only expect to get real seat time every so often.  It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is, and I’ve come to accept it.

Normally this time of year, I’d find myself wrapped up in a pile of resource wasting projects that have deterred me from my goals.  Thankfully this winter I’ve really been able to buckle down with things and keep focused on my ultimate goal for this year.  Since riding can’t happen every day like I’d like, I’ve substituted with a few key things:

Exercise – Something I honestly didn’t do much if at all in the past and in the later portions of my races, I felt it.  My lack of body preparation in the past has really killed my overall results in races.  I can attempt to push it on machine, or setup, or whatever.  Fact of the matter is, I wasn’t at physically fit as I’ve needed to be and now that has begun to change.  My initial steps into exercising have been small, but progressive.  I haven’t begun dabbling yet in any sort of weights, or things like that, but begun getting my cardio in shape and getting some of the past excess, gone.

Nutrition – Since getting married, my nutrition habits had slowly progressed to the side of “healthier”.  My eating had slowly changed from random with occasional missed meals to something just shy of regular.  I had also cut out a large portion of eating out (or I should say fast food).  Despite the progression towards better, I had found that it just wasn’t enough.  Paired with a desire to feel better, and a strong desire to do better in my races, all piled with a healthy dose of reality from various reads online, I decided to jump into a paleo\primal food style.  I hesitate to say that I am 100% in the paleo\primal camp, as I’m sure I’ve violated plenty of their rules, but I can say that cutting out grains, sugars, processed things, etc, that I have felt worlds better.  Physically, and mentally.

Machine – I put a good amount of time into my bike this past winter to prepare it for the upcoming season.  Not much else needs to be said here, other than it’s ready to rock n roll.

I’m excited.  I feel as the upcoming race dates rapidly approach, that despite my lack of winter seat-time, I’ll be able to put in some solid performances right off the bat.  Really looking forward to what this season brings.

–

Andrew

AMA D17 Enduro Season 4 Months Away

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     Just over 4 months away, the AMA District 17 Enduro Season will be underway. Last season I had the initial goal of competing in the complete D17 HareScramble series, though after the initial excitement, it seemed an unattainable goal due to the sheer number of events throughout the year. Along the way, I managed to sidetrack myself with a brief (yet exciting) stint in the world of supermoto. I continued on with a couple more HareScrambles with mediocre success (bike changes, failures, etc) , before finally giving in and going out to try racing in an Enduro. I quickly realized what I should have been doing all along.

So here we are, January of 2012 with just a few short months to be completely prepped for the upcoming season. I’ve decided to set some short(er) term goals in concrete here. Without a clear goal in mind, I’ll never formulate a clear plan of attack. I’ll never win anything, without a plan. So here is my simple 2012 goal:

Top 5 Overall B D17 Enduro

 

That’s it.  I KNOW I have what it takes to get myself there.  I’ll have to push myself & machine for sure, but I am confident in what I can do.  It’s time for me to attack.  I’m taking the year off from swapping bikes.  I’ll campaign the BMW G450X for 2012.  That is final.  I’m excited.  You should be too.

 

We’ll see you on the trails.

Andrew –

Leaf River Enduro……….

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The morning started with me causing issues on my bike.  I had forgotten that when the bike was last in at the dealer, they neglected to torque the shift lever to an appropriate spec, leaving it a bit jiggly.  No problem I figured and busted out the tools to get it locked in properly.  Bike leaned over, skid plate off, wrenches out.  Spin Spin Spin SNAP!  There went the shifter bolt.  Go figure, it snapped in a spot where it was still holding the shifter onto the shift shaft.  A little bit of pit area wrenching, and the old & mildly stripped shifter were removed; replaced with a modified YZ250 shifter.  Problem solved.

I’ve never done an Enduro, and spent the prior week stressing over having to keep time, navigate myself, and do all those things that make riding even more confusing & difficult.  Much to my surprise, I found that this enduro was run in the national\restart format.  Simpley put, it’s a couple mini harescrambles (test sections), grouped together by un-timed connector routes.  You are required to start each test section at a specific time.  If you’re really fast, you can arrive at the end of these sections ahead of schedule, and get docked points.  Or you can arrive late, and get docked points as well.  The connector routes are good for a couple things.  If you were late on your test section, you can make up time to get yourself back on time for the following test section, or it could be a great time to catch your breath and relax a bit, or use it as a time to have even more fun ripping around on your bike :-D.

So there I was, lined up on row 15 with a group of Kawasaki riders (great guys btw!).  Mildly nervous, but ready for what the day would bring.  Get to the start point, 5 seconds…..Off we roll.  WFO down and across a corn field, finally dipping into some woods.  I do my best to stay on the gas as much as possible, stand, let the bike bounce and float beneath me.  I royally mess up just before a short & steep climb.  I try to start right at the bottom and get myself up the climb, only to not stand up in time and watch my bike launch away from me into the air.  It was quite impressive, just about as impressive that nothing really broke.  After a few wrong turns, and bobbles, I manage to get to the first check-out point, unfortunately 7 minutes late.  I made it though, and roosted my way on over to the next start point.

The day continued on in a similar fashion.  Come lunch time, I was ready to eat.  Luckily, with the time we made, I had about 30-35 minutes to wolf down my sandwich, fuel up the bike, and get myself refocused for the second loop.  Second loop was essentially a better version of the first go around.  The first and second test sections I was still doing pretty well (energy wise), but by the final section, I could feel myself getting tired.  Understandable, as the day totaled almost 4 hours of ride time.

Overall, I was stoked on how I rode.  I knew that I could have ridden better, and pushed harder in quite a few sections.  Hindsight is 20/20, and I feel I should be better next go-around.  I couldn’t have been happier with how the 450 powered through everything.  Sure I could have pushed for some more front grip, but that was my fault for not dropping tire pressure as I should have.  All that being said, I’ve heard (unofficial) that I pulled a 3rd place in the B group.  I definitely can’t complain with that!

Now I must prepare myself for Fox Valley Off-Road GP race this Sunday.

Andrew

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