Black & Blue: Last one of the year....

Yesterday was the Black & Blue, the traditional season closer.  By this point I was pretty much relegated to fourth place in B-Vet for the year.  The next closest guy was fourteen points ahead, and it would have taken a DNF for me to make up that kind of ground.

On the drive there in the morning, I put more than the usual amount of brain-time into thinking about strategy, time-keeping, and technique.  I reminded myself that this would be the last ride of the year so there was no need to be conservative.  I didn't want to end my season with any regrets or a bunch of stupid errors like I've committed in a couple rides lately.

By a cool coincidence, Ed, Jim D., Mark W., and I all post-entered on the same line.  Great to see Mark come out for an enduro and at the start I started to tell myself that I was going to hang with Jim D. for as long as possible.  He's been on a tear all year and has really only been slowed down when he had a mechanical issues.  Off the start, Ed and I agreed to let Jim take off first so the order was Jim, me, Ed, and Mark.

Right off the bat I felt good and that my pace was decent.  The conditions were perfect.  We were on line 24 and that meant the downed leaves were swept away but the trail was still in good shape without any tough ruts or mud.  The Jim, Tony, Ed freight train stayed together for the whole first section and we all dropped a one.  That felt good because it's not very often that I can match Jim's speed.  Started to think that maybe Jim was taking it easy (and maybe he was) but over this year I've gotten better at controling my state of mind and I used it to build some confidence and to tell myself that I could elevate my comfort level a little.

The next few sections were pure, classic New England enduro.  Rough, rocky, technical.  The second section was the now-infamous river section.  This year, rather than running us down the length of the creek, we criss-crossed it a few times.  I led Jim and Ed into the section and managed to stay in front of Jim for a while.  I think my long legs are an equalizer for his speed in the very technical stuff where there were lots of log crossings, mud holes, etc.  After we got out of the super technical stuff he was right on my ass and I let him by.  I stayed close enough for us both the get the same flip at the check out.  Ed had a few issues in that section and lost a flip there.  The first of two A/B sections was next and it was more of the typical stuff:  Challenging and I was still feeling like my pace was good.

My only real big mistake of the ride happened at the next check in (at the small farm we seem to use every year).  It was a known control and I failed to notice that it was also the gas available.  Ed was nice enough to drop off a gas can there for us in the morning.  The fact that I'd missed the (perhaps crucial) gas stop occurred to me just after leaving the check-in.  There was a good amount of  tar on the day so I think that kept my gas mileage high so that I made it to mile 58 without even needing reserve.

Just before the official gas was the second A/B section, across the street from Martin's hare scrambles track.  I committed one minor error here.  There was a check out just before this section and lots of guys sitting around for a reset.  I couldn't understand why my computer didn't pick up on the reset and started doing it  manually.  Took me about half a minute to realize that the reset was only for the Cs and I needed to get moving.  Might have cost me a flip on the way out.  Jim got me by a bunch in this section.

Ed was only a couple minutes behind us coming into gas.  Jim left a couple minutes before Ed and me.  This was Martin's and it was terrible.  It's so nice of him to have shared his land with NETRA for all these years, but it is beaten down.  Just not a fun section.  Ed and I pushed hard trying to shake the other as we exchanged mistakes and missed turns.   With only 30 routesheet miles left, it really felt like the home stretch.

The next section was near Martins and more wooded (maybe it's still on his property).  There was lots of downed ribbon here and a group of 5 of us got lost.  I was behind Ed when he realized that we'd lost the trail.  After 30 seconds or so he pointed out an arrow so I doubled back and found the trail.  Right after that, I found Jim, with the ass end of his bike pointed straight in the air and the front buried deep.  He was just hauling the front out of a 4-foot mud hole.  I asked and he said he was OK so I pushed on hoping that Ed had found the trail behind me.

After another long(ish) road section it was obvious we were headed to the last section of the day.  Routesheet said that it was probably only going to be about 4 miles or less.  It would be a familiar section for Snow Runs and Black & Blues of the past.  The last section of the last enduro of the year.....I decided to leave it all on the trail and pushed at 10 tenths (as the formula one guys say).  Rock gardens, climbs, descents, and lots of twisty single-track.  It was a blast.  I heard and saw Jim pulling up behind me after entering the section one minute later.  I pulled another 5% and managed to just barely stayed ahead of him as we came into the check-out together - both of us on locked-up front tires as we crossed the stripe.

All in all, a great day of riding, competition, and camaraderie.

Reflections on the day:

• I made good improvements on realizing when I was merely trail riding rather than racing and correcting that quickly.
• My form was pretty good all day.  That's different.
• The cardio work on the C2 seems to be helping me to continue pushing in longer sections.
• I got my timekeeping mojo back - lost that at the Gypsy Moth.
• I elevated my comfort zone.  Continued pushing in some areas where I would have previously backed off.

The humbling part, as I've gotten faster over this season, my competition has done the same.  Two promotions to A out of the class proves just how competitive B-vet was this year.

Congrats to Jim and Ed on first and second respectively in B-senior.  Next year's going to be a ton of fun with 4 PFers in B-senior together.  Can't wait.

Gypsy Moth Enduro

Gypsy Moth is two weeks ago now.  Today was the Black & Blue, but I'm just getting around to catching up on an entry for G.M. tonight.

Again this year, the SRCR club was able to use the very nice property at Whelen Engineering for parking and the start.  When I pulled the bike out of the trailer, I noticed my first mechanical problem of the day....no e-start.  This was a surprise as my last ride a week earlier there was no indication of any problem.  I was hoping that this was perhaps due to the cold weather:  the bike was outside in 30-degree weather overnight.  Unfortunately this was not the case and the e-start was out all day.  In the end, I'd guess that this cost me 2-3 minutes on the day.  I realized that I'd gotten used to not worrying so much about stalling and just relighting the bike with my thumb.  Lesson learned.

We left out the back of parking to do the "Airport Section" first.  And that's when I noticed my second mechanical problem of the day.  I had almost no rear brake action.  Before the start check, I tried to adjust the pedal to get a little more leverage and pressure.  Over the course of the first section, I got a little more brake action.  I guessed that there was probably some water in the line and it froze, blocking the flow of the fluid.

Out on the trail, we got out of the start check and the terrain was the typical for the Airport Section:  rocky, technical, fun.  Ed tipped over just a few corners in and I got past him and put my head down.  This section is on the side of steep hill and it requires constant attention.  A couple miles in is the now-infamous porno-hill:  a 30-foot rock face preceded by a few choice centerfolds tacked to trees.  I remembered the good line from last year and passed a couple guys here that were stuck on the face.  The rest of the first loop was a really good mix of technical stuff with good resets to keep your brain and body in the game.

About halfway through the morning loop I think my brain fell out of my helmet.  I've never made so many time-keeping errors in an enduro since the first couple that I ever did.  On the day I had two burned check-ins, one late check in, and lots of stupid lines taken.  Not sure what's up with my brain.  At Palmyra I kept missing turns.  I need to sharpen up the mental side of my game.  It seems like my trail speed is slowly coming up each race, but my brain is lagging behind.

About halfway through the first loop my forks started to leak....badly.  I'd just gotten them back from Gilles with new seals.  I feared the worst, that maybe there were internal issues causing new seals to leak.  The left leg leaked so bad that oil got all over the brake rotor, giving me about half the normal breaking power.

At the end of the race there was a very sneaky check on the dirt road transferring to the last A/B section.  It wasn't 100% of a legal check, the crew did not have the signs facing the rider - in fact they only had one sign (that I saw) and the crew was hiding off to the side of the road - not that that part's against the rules.

I had a pretty good pace going in the last section until one hill got the best of me.  I made it 3/4 of the way up,  a very steep, rocky hill then slid backwards until I got tossed from the bike and landed with my left hip on a pretty good rock.  I just laid there for a couple minutes as two guys I'd been competing against all day rode by.  I got up and struggled to the end a couple miles away.

So, my riding was generally pretty good, but I ruined it with too many stupid mistakes.

Had to miss the following week's Jack Frost enduro, went to a NEASC visit in Leominster, MA.

Funduro: Palmyra, NY. September 26, 2010

The Wayne County club sanctioned the Newark Enduro with NETRA again this year and then later decided not to hold the event.  Another local group stepped up to host the event (Arcadia BarkBusters), but at the time of their request, they were not a bonafide NETRA club.  A lot of controversy, politicking, mudslinging, and complaining followed.  In the end, through a process no one seems to fully understand, the club was granted the sanction.  I'll admit that I'm one of the ones who feels that the NY enduros are a pretty big burden for the NETRA guys.  In fact, I did a little math and this drive is 3x longer than the average NETRA ride.  Couple that with the fact that my two previous trips to Newark were met with bad weather, axle grease conditions, poor arrowing, course cutters, and 8-hour drives home in the rain and it's fair to say I was not looking forward to this ride.

Ed volunteered to haul his camper out to Palmyra, so we had a place to stay right at the start area...a real luxury with an 8:00 AM keytime.  The start area was Hogback Hill MX track, a really nice facility.  Tech and registration were taken care of on Saturday night.  Not too long after dinner and it was already time to hit the sack.

On the start we did one lap of the MX track.  Even though I've got zero MX experience, it was a ton of fun.  Soft enduro suspension meant that rolling the jumps was the wise thing to do.  The 300 took a pretty easy holeshot off the line and then I backed off and let the other guys take the lead around the track...I probably wasn't going to be the fastest guy on my line anyway.

The whole first half of the ride as at 18mph which meant we were able to zero a few of the sections in the morning.  Lots of wet grass from the overnight dew so you had to ride somewhat cautiously in the grass tracks and fields.

It seemed like only half of the sections in the morning were timed.  This seems to be a theme with the NY enduros.  Lots of really fun riding: short & steep climbs, off camber, with twisty single-track mixed in.

We were on row 2, which didn't give much of a chance for some of the fresh-cut stuff to get burned in.  On the established trails there were tons of little intersections.  The WNYOA guys don't seem to have the same approach to pre-turn arrows as NETRA.  I felt like I was riding just a little tentative for the first loop because you were constantly trying to pick up the trail.

I think by the time we got back to the official gas, I was one minute up on Ed, but he would have me on E-points if we ended up tying because he was a little behind me and closer to the 30-second mark at the morning emergency check.

The speed average was 21mph for the second half  of the ride and after gas I felt like I could wick it up a little more and be more aggressive.  This seemed to work for a little while, but not long.  The first section after gas was the same as the first section of the day.  I was following Ed, and then Jim S. on his big BMW.  Jim and I came around a tight, off-camber corner and saw Ed with his bike pointed straight up in the air, off the right side of the trail, with the bike still running and tangled in vines.  Ed got out and got going and was OK time-wise because the section did not have a check.  Come to think of it, there wasn't a check in either......and that was after gas.  NETRA rules require a known control after gas but in this cases there was none.

After thinking about it, I think my ground speed was quicker than my mental speed in the subsequent sections.  By that I mean that I think my pace was pretty good but I've never missed so many turns in an enduro before.  I should have been looking up to pick up the arrows in order to ride well but I just didn't.  A little later I averted disaster when the bike came to a quick halt after picking up some fence wire in the rear wheel.  Luckily I was able to get it unstuck pretty easily and get on my way without losing too much time.

By now, Jim and Ed were well out in front and I was getting frustrated.  Kept missing corners, including the one that was a turn into the grass track pictured here.  I could see Jim and Ed on the other side of the field and tried like hell to reel them in.  Probably pushed as hard as I ever have in an enduro in order to make time.  So hard that I ended up boiling my rear brake fluid.....and I never do that.  So whatever time I gained in the grass track was given back as we got back into the tight single-track climbs and descents.

After two more sections I felt like I was getting my rhythm back just as we were coming into the second loop's gas available.  Near the end of this transfer section I saw Jim and Ed and Ed's bike on its side spewing a huge steam cloud.  You could tell pretty easily that the bike was done for the day.  He was trying to replace the coolant with the Gatorade from his camelback but that just created an impressive Old Faithful effect out of the radiator.

Jim and I moved on to the gas available and let some club workers know about Ed.  He eventually ended up getting a van ride back to the start.  He was on a tear and having a good day...probably 2-3 minutes up on me at that point.

In the end, my results were what they usually are for a rhythm-type enduro...poor.  Even if you were to take out 3-4 minutes for missed turns, my competition in B-vet was still well in front of me.

In comparison to the Newark Enduros of the past, this one was much, much improved.  Arrowing and ribboning were very good (except for the lack of NETRA-style pre-turns).  Course-cutters were penalized for their cheating by a couple well placed checks.  The start area and MX track were nice touches.  This enduro takes place in beautiful country.  I'm just really, really glad it didn't rain.  It would have made for a much less enjoyable day.

It will be interesting to see if the ABB club sanctions this ride in 2011.  It was well run this year, but it's just so damn far away.

Labor Day Camp & Ride

This year's Pathfinders Labor Day campout was another great one.  The continued gracious hospitality of Bob and Marie D. is inspiring.  Each year they host 50 or so dirtbikers and families on their beautiful, pastoral mountaintop property.  This year the loop was expanded to 14 miles, thanks to lots of work by Bob G. and Kevin B.  The usual good food was served up with a special addition from Anthony's portable brick oven for pizza.  Weather was perfect except for a little wind on Saturday that up-ended some EZups and made sleep a little tough with all the noise from flapping tent flies.

Conditions were the dustiest that I've seen in the five or six years that I've been going there.  By Monday, the grass track was throwing up so much dust that it looked like it was on fire.  The trails were plenty dusty too.  You either had to ride right on the leaders rear or hang back 100 feet if you wanted to see anything.

As usual, Rick B. and I had a great time running together on 4-5 loops.  He's probably 10% faster than me, so having him behind me forced me into sprint pace for long stints.  Got some good feedback from him on corner speed too.

Already looking forward to next year!

Something a little different this year, Steve E. and I spent Sunday morning out on the adventure bikes.  We picked up the Puppy Dog Route just across the river in Brattleboro and followed it for about 80 miles to the north.  Lots of cool unpaved roads and nice vistas.  We're talking about maybe using the PDR as part of a multi-day adv ride next year.

Captain Chaos didn't realize his helmet was on backwards.

Practice Ride

Forgot to include in the Noble Woods post that jetting was spot-on for the 75 deg. temps.  No spooge and really crisp running.  Even at low throttle on the road sections.  For the higher speeds and smoother terrain, the current suspension was perfect.  Still need to have Gilles lighten up the rear compression a little for the more typical N.E. stuff.

Today, I went out to western CT and rode with Dan R. (who I hadn't seen in a dog's age) and Steve. E.  Dan's got some private stock out there that he's spent a few years cutting and blazing.  As it turned out, the loop he's got there is perfect enduro practice.  It's about a 16 mile loop.  Some of it is really cool rhythm riding, like Noble Woods last week.  Some of it is double-track and rocky like RocktoberFast.  And a good amount of it is tight, twisty, and rocky...a lot like Mudslinger.  On the few rock gardens, the suspension was pretty bouncy.  OK if you're going for it, but if I let up, the bike would dance side-to-side on both ends.  Dan knows the place like the back of his hand so, keeping up with him was about a 90% pace for me.  When I was out front, I had to push hard to pull away from him.  Whenever I'd slow to pick up the trail, he'd get right on my tail.  Good fun.

Wish that every ride could end with a dip in the pool, beers and brats on the deck.  That was cool.

Hoping to get out there again before the end of the season.

Noble Woods National

Sunday's Noble Woods National was a blast.  Somewhere just under 500 riders were there along with all the top pros.  Russell Bobbitt took the day and the video of him looks pretty insane.

Steve M. and I got up there on Saturday night and signed in, did tech, and had the KTM spaghetti dinner.  Ed had already been there with his camper, wife, and dogs.  The Noble high school was plenty big enough to house all of the riders, their rigs, etc.

Sunday morning, everything started out smoothly and the three of us were ready for minute 4 until Ed came back from the riders' meeting.  He said that there was an issue with the first transfer section and that we had to leave 5 minutes early.  We got lined up under the big inflatable arch and immediately noticed something was up.  The flip cards were actually 4 minutes late.  I reset my computer keytime to the flip and I was OK the rest of the day, but this meant that we'd have to hustle down the road on the transfer in order to check into the first timed section on our minute.  The speed average for the transfer was 30mph.

Ed and the other rider on our row took off down the road.  I was slowed by the low gearing of the XC and Steve stayed behind me.  Steve and I check into the section just a couple seconds after the flip and I saw Ed leaving about 50 feet in front of us.  Immediately, it was obvious that dust was going to be the story of the day.  This section weaved in and out of dusty fields.  In a short woods section I got caught behind a slower rider on a 4T Husky that would not move over when I revved and yelled.  Then he stalled and I lost about 30 seconds.  I reeled him back in and felt like I could get by if I could get close enough but it was very tough in the dust.  We each missed a couple arrows and swapped the lead but Ed ended up getting me in the section by  less than a minute.  This section ended up getting thrown out because of the problem at the start.

The second section was more of the same with Ed and I pushing each other and Steve close behind.  This section had some really cool, steep, short climbs.  On one of them you ran up a 100 foot climb onto a ridge that we then ran down the crest of, weaving in and out of the trees in 3rd and 4th gear.  Lots of fun.  Again, Ed got me by a few.  Same story in the 3rd section.  Lots of fun.  Lots of single track.

After gas, in the fourth section we were all pushing hard.  I pulled away from Steve and Ed for a little while and was having a blast on more of the same excellent trail.  About half way through the section there was an arrow with the words "Gas It" underneath.  So I did.  Right there was the biggest hill of the day.  It has 6" of baby powder sand with loose rocks underneath.  I got caught 3/4 of the way up and a couple guys got caught behind me.  Pushed it to the top and rode on.  This was the only real tough spot of the day.  I ended getting Ed by a good margin in this section so we were both guessing that this put us about tied on the day...3 sections for him with a little lead in each.  One section with a bigger lead for me.  In fact, the Mototally scores show that at this point I was leading by 21 seconds.

The fifth section was the last for us and was promised to be the most fun on the day.  Steve could have quit after section four with the rest of the C riders but he stayed with us for the extra ride.  I still don't know why, but about half of a mile in, something went wrong with my left knee.  Lots of pain and I had trouble standing, dragging, and even just extending it.  Ed ran off and I couldn't keep him in sight.  Steve stayed close behind me for just about the whole section.

We got back, had beers and burgers and bench raced for a while.  Big smiles all around.  We walked over to the scoring tent and found out that Ed had gotten me by 11 seconds.  A great day of back-and-fourth racing. All three of us came home with trophies:  Ed got 4th B-Sen and 28th B overall, I was right behind him in the overall and 7th B vet.  Steve took 4th C-Sen.  I was happy with the fact that I beat all but one of the B-vet guys that usually beat me pretty well.

Hope the club can get another national sanction next year.


NOW THAT'S A TROPHY!

Speedsville vs. the Autoclutch

Speedsville enduro was this Sunday.  My record is now officially 0 for 3 in New York races.  That is, I've never had decent weather for a race way the F... out there in New York.  Both the Newark and Speedsville enduros could be the most fun on the circuit if the weather would ever cooperate.

Ended up driving all the way out there alone and hooked up with Jim D., Ed, Brett, and John S out there.  Lots of the other NETRA typical guys made the drive as well.  Went to the start area on Saturday to check in with the thought of picking up the spectator sheet in order to find Gas Available for the next morning.  Well, the club didn't have the directions ready yet.  So that was an extra 40 miles of driving for nothing.  The course had 130 routesheet miles and 88 ground miles with 58 of those after official gas.  So, Gas Available was not optional.  This left a bunch of us looking for a friendly face to get to the GA.  Luckily, Pat Timothy's dad was there and saved all of us NETRA guys from running out of fuel.  All I can say is I'm glad that NETRA trailbosses don't set up things like this.

By this point in my life, I should be smart enough to know that you never test new equipment at an enduro.  But, against this wisdom, I tried to make this my first-ever ride on an autoclutch.  I felt uncomfortable right off the bat.  The engagement was at too high of an rpm which put the motor above my favorite range.  I couldn't lug it for the torque of the motor the way I really like to ride.  Some things were nice, like being able to keep all four fingers and a thumb on the left grip at all times...especially in the creekbeds full of loose shale.  It was also fun on some of the uphills where I could just upshift and let the torque motor on up.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the autoclutch set up properly yet.  I started the day with it functioning properly.  But, it slowly lost override at the lever meaning that shifting was very notchy and required a lot of deliberate effort...so much so that I was avoiding shifts that were necessary and I could not disengage engine braking on downhills.  Coming into corners it felt like the motor was always pushing me wide and keeping the bike vertical.

Alan at Revloc has been very good with support so far so I'm going to give him another call and try to get these glitches worked out.  Even if they do get worked out, I'm not sure if I'm an autoclutch kind of guy.  Kind of like the trials tire, seems like a solution to a problem that I don't have.....wheel spin.  I can see how it would be very advantageous in the gnarliest rock gardens, though.

The race was very fun....while it lasted.  Early on, conditions were perfect.  Even though it was lightly raining, the trails were still dry...even a little dusty.  The course was typical NY, twisty, lots of elevation changes, barely any rocks.  Lots of fun rhythm stuff.  As the rain got heavier, more and more slick spots came up.  Some of the field crossings were treacherous.  Any root that was not perfectly perpendicular to the trail instantly had the front tire jumping out.  You just had to go for it and wait for it to catch again on the other side.

Going out of official gas, my computer was a little off.  Later, Ed guessed that this was because I didn't correct for the drive across the parking lot.  He's probably right.  I barely made it to the line for my flip on the start control.  I was following Ed when he had a little bobble and he followed me to the next road crossing.  I looked down and my computer showed that we were about 40 seconds hot so I slowed down.  Ed motored by and kept riding at speed.  This section went in, along, and out of a creek bed a bunch of times.  After a couple miles there was a check right in the creek bed and I got a zero there.  Saw Ed at the next road and asked "Did you burn that check?"  He said "What check?"  He had ridden right through it without stopping.  I told him to ride back and go through it.  He did and he made it to the next check in on time.  Instead of a burn, he dropped 8...but it kept him in the game and allowed him not to DQ.

The next section was the A/B section and it included two very steep and very slippery ramps over barbed-wire fences into fields. I rode OK, still struggling with the autoclutch.  Waited a little too long to see if Ed would come out at the end but he didn't.  It cost me one point on the next check in.  One more long section and we were at Gas Available.  Ed was there in street clothes.  He'd busted a radiator.  I really thought about quitting there, but tried to push on.  Rode the next section as fast as I could which ended up to be very, very, very slowly.  By now there was absolutely NO override left in the clutch and the bike was riding me rather than the other way around.  I quit there, which was not a timed section anyway.  Not sure where I ended up.  Would have been more fun with a stock clutch.  I'll be back next year....hoping for dry conditions.

Knobby Knife

Heard about the knobby knife a while back.  Seemed like a sound idea.  Basically just a high-wattage soldering iron with a sharp blade tip.  For $60, it seemed like an investment that would pay for itself pretty quickly.  Ordered one and tried it yesterday.  In just under an hour I had the front of each lug on the MT-16 rear and the center-side of each side lug on the M59 front.  The result was nice, sharp lugs.  My only concern was that it would weaken the lugs and lead to chunking.

Had a really fun trail ride with Steve M. at Beartown today.  Traction felt good.  For me, indistinguishable from new tires.  After about 30 high-speed, rocky miles I saw no chunking.  The front was still very sharp.  The rear was rounded again, but not as much as before the sharpening.

Seems like this will be a good way to "tune up" used tires so that they are competition-worthy.

Mudslinger Enduro

100% different from last year, this year's Mudslinger was dry and dusty.  Same terrain as usual, some of the most technical riding on the NETRA circuit.  Lots of long, twisting, rocky climbs that test everyone's ability to maintain traction and forward momentum.

Before gas there were only 3 sections.  The first turned out to be a 3 mile warm-up that was untimed.  Too bad. It was probably my best section of the day.  My pace was OK and I had a good rhythm.  Two guys that left my line before me each went down once.  The following two sections were both very long:  probably around 16 miles each.  Coming into gas I felt OK, but no longer felt like I had a good rhythm.  There were a bunch of grassy sections with hidden rocks beneath.  Some cart road sections that challenged your bravery.

After gas, we did some of the same climbs as in the first section of the day.  I just could not get back into riding hard.  By about mile 50, I was out of it mentally and it just went downhill from there.  The Pigeon Roost trail was fun since they sent us down the slick-rock sections instead of up.  By this point I was being passed by tons of riders and my motivation was nil.

Going up the Ledges was the usual.  It was pretty well lubricated by the time I got there from all the previous riders.  I took the usual line that waits on the left until the turn and then heads diagonally to the right.  I made it to the last ledge, where I got caught up....I've made that line on my 450 before but the 2-stroke just did not have the tractor to make it....and the pilot didn't have the skill.  Bobby S. and Dave D. were there to help me up the last 10 feet.

It was still another 20 miles after the Ledges and I was just hanging onto the bike.  My worst ride in a while.  I've got to get serious if I have any hope for 3rd place for the season.  Riding once per month and sporadic exercise as I've been doing this summer are not going to cut it.  Time to take the bull by the horns.  Ed and Jim both had really good runs today, beating me by a ton.

The rear suspension was very harsh for today's conditions.  Need to get that to Gilles for some softer valving.  Jetting was pretty fat most of the day and the silencer had some spooge right after a re-pack on Saturday.  So, probably need to lean out the needle at least one clip.  Tires were perfect, the M59 front and MT16 seem to be do-all tires for me.  Ed said that the trials tire did not do well on the uphills that had silt-covered rocks.

RocktoberFast 2010

Ed did a great job trailbossing our event this year.  We had a near-record turn out...around 100 riders.

All told, I think we did 4 preparatory rides to get the route together and verified.  That place is just relentless.  The route was designed with a few time-keeping sections for the fast guys and the usual extra Known at Erzberg to keep the C-riders in the game.

The weather on both Saturday for arrowing and Sunday were perfect.  Conditions were dry and fast.  Six of us did the arrowing on Saturday and it worked out fine.  Dinner at the sports bar in Lee on Sat night, Dave S. was nice enough to buy!

I didn't really get to see much of the event on Sunday.  I did my usual role of moving from point to point to make the course changes between the first and second loop.  There were five spots that needed to be changed and everything went without a hitch.

The BTR guys really came out big time and manned 2 check crews.  That was a huge help as well as helping with scoring.

One unfortunate thing was one rider with perhaps the nastiest head wound I've ever seen.  A 4"x2" flap cut out of his forehead with the skull visible.  He said that somehow he'd fallen forward and a sharp rock hit him between the helmet and goggles.  He got an ambulance ride to the hospital and is doing OK.

Parking was very tight.  We lost some space in the lot due to piles of earth and debris.

Check 10 caught a lot of the fast guys with a 1-minute burn.  That's exactly what that check was designed to do.  I hear the Erzberg Challenge was a big log jam and that Steve from STS has some good video of it.  The Long Way Home section was the undoing of a lot of the C-riders, but no one needed to be rescued.  All made it home.  Jim Senecal won with a ridiculous 9pts, including a burn....dropping just 1 point in the last section.

King Phillip Enduro

Had a blast today at the King Phillip Enduro.  Lots or rain overnight meant for slippery conditions.   They started us and finished us in the grass track this year.  Ed and I post-entered on row 20.  He got the holeshot and I used up a bunch of roll-offs trying to get by him in the first few corners in the muddy grass.  Corner speeds were low as traction was low.  I thought that if I could hang with him there I'd end up getting him in the trail section between the first and second grass tracks.  That's what happened as I got past him when he bobbled on some whoops.  Right away I was feeling the groove and feel like I rode as well as I could today.

The majority of the sections today were typical New England.  Lots of slimy rocks and a little bit of mud.  No stoppers, everything had a bottom.  The club did a good job of putting the sections together to have a mix of flowing and technical.  Arrowing was perfect and I didn't miss a single turn all day.  The only glitch was there not being enough reset after the first grass track.  Most of us pushed down the road and still checked in 3 minutes late to the next section.

I've decided that I'm not going to mess around trying any other tire combinations.  The Bridgestone M59 front and MT 16 rear were spot on and predictable all day.  So was the jetting.

In the section after gas, Ed got away from me for a while.  I had him reeled in at the tubes but he pulled away from me there and got me by half a minute in that section.  It was lucky for me that he just missed a flip so we ended up on the same minute.  That section went right into the A-B section with no break.  The check out of the tubes section was the check in to the A-B.  I was determined to reel him in and pushed as hard as I did all day.  Found him picking up his bike sideways on a hill about 1/2 mile before the check out and got him by just a few seconds.

At the Rhody, Ed beat me in almost every section.  Today was my turn.  I ended up 3rd B-Vet.  Gonna be fun riding this year.

Trials tire flop

After all the hype I've heard from a bunch of people about how good trials tires work in N.E. I decided to give it a try.  First ride was doing RocktoberFast mileages with Ed.  I really didn't like it at all.  The traction was marginally better, but the lack of braking, brake sliding, and the way it just sinks in mud were not worth the advantage to me.  It also felt like it upset the balance of the bike, putting too much weight on the front.  I don't really ever struggle with wheel spin so the traction gains were not that significant for me.

I decided to give it one more try this weekend at Beartown.  Another bust.  I hated the way the bike rode.  Some guys on NEDB and a few Pathfinders suggested going with lower PSI, more like 8 or 9.  I let a little air out on the trail and didn't feel much difference.  Got a flat a little bit later.  The trials tire is horrible when it's flat...a lot worse than a knobby.

So, I'll pull it off this weekend and check the damage.  If the bead is not too damaged, I'll keep it and put some car studs on it for frozen ground riding.  I'm going back to the good, ole trusty MT16.

EDIT:  Turns out that Shawn B. was right.  When I pulled off the trials tire to get ready for the King Phillip, I saw the the tube had ripped at the valve stem.  Too much traction.  They say you need 2 rim locks.  Anyway, after the great performance from the MT16 this weekend, I see no reason to experiment with the trials anymore.

Leyden Memorial Enduro

It's a crazy time at work right now so it's  taken me a while to get this update in. The Leyden enduro was two weeks ago and as usual, it continues to be one of the best organized and most fun enduros on the schedule.

Weather and trail conditions were perfect.  It was run in AMA rules, so 4 of us ran on the same line all day:  Rick B., Ed V., Scott F., and me.  We were on line 14 and the turnout was big for NETRA, probably about 130 riders.

As mentioned in a previous post, I think I've got the jetting knocked.  The bike ran great all day, no signs of overheating, no problems.  The suspension is still a little stiff, but in balance.  I'll probably have Gilles service the shock in a few weeks and I'll have him soften the valving the equivalent of 4-6 clicks of compression.

The trails were in awesome shape and the club had added lots of little sections of new singletrack.  Mostly this was in the form of small snippets that connected older pieces of trail.  I had a lot of fun chasing Rick and Ed for most of the day.  I got Ed in one of the sections, but he got me the rest of the day....including the last one.  In the last section, they opened up the flood gates turning the stream from the first section into a deluge.  It was a lot of fun.  The big shock was the small climb out of the stream in the first section was now a tough, off camber right turn.  I caught Ed just after this when I found him just looking at his bike on the ground, exhausted.  Not a quarter mile later I fell over and took a bath in a huge puddle.  Ed caught up and followed me through the grass track section before the end.  Crossing a log pile, I hesitated when the rider in front of me bobbled and Ed went straight over...beating me in the section.  It was a lot of fun and I almost caught back up to him.

As usual at this event, I had a ton of fun but my results were terrible...6th in the class I think.

Hoots' T.R.

Went out to there with Vizzo, Erickson, and F. Stone.  


This was the first ride with the new "W" leaner needle in the carb.  It seems to run just off idle and idle much better.  Air screw is set to 3.5 turns out, so maybe I could go one needle leaner.  


Some really incredible trail out there. The first 1.6 miles was awesome and, at times, scary fast...4th gear tapped then both wheels locked coming into the corner. 

The second, third, and fourth sections were like a cool mix of Hancock and the Sumter National. I ended up doing the 4th section twice...Steve was having trouble in there somewhere so I went back around. This section started and ended in the same spot.

I got a flat in the second section and got it patched thanks to Fred and Steve carrying the right stuff with them. Like Fred said, Vizzo went on and we didn't see him for a while.

It was cool when he pulled into the first gas stop and hooked back up with us. Fred and I were dragging a little after 40 miles of trail (an extra 4.1 for me) and Vizzo looked fresh as a daisy after taking the road back to start and getting food & drink. The club had water and orange slices here. They hit the spot.

We ran a nice long section after that...a cool mix of single track with a little bit of whoopy HS section thrown in. We stopped at one point, about halfway through this section. Tony took off first, then Fred, then me about 60 seconds later. Fred let me by and then I pushed hard to reel in Tony. I just got him in sight....about 75 yards ahead....and then my front flat came back.

After that section we called it a day. Did just a little over 50 miles. Lots of fun. 

Set-up Ride

On vacation this week and today was probably the last day of good weather for a while.  After lunch decided to head out to Pachaug to try some settings adjustments on jetting and suspension.  I rode the same trail repeatedly out of the campground area.  Good singletrack with lots of planted rocks and roots.  Did about 10 miles of testing.

First I worked on the jetting/air screw.  There's still a little bobble just off idle.  I went another quarter turn out...that means it's now all the way out:  4 turns.  I'll need to go to a smaller pilot jet.

Suspension:  Looking to get things just a little softer without losing the "athletic" feel the bike has now.  First I tried the front.  I thought that slowing down the rebound would calm things down like it did on the rear.  I went 3 clicks slower and immediately noticed packing that almost threw me off the trail when the front bounced off a few medium-sized rocks.  Went back to the prior setting.  Next I tried the compression.  I lightened the compression by 2 clicks.  This felt better in the front but it didn't seem balanced with the rear.  The rear was noticeably stiffer then the front and this made it feel like the front was riding the rocks while the rear was skipping.  So, I went one click stiffer.

Next, the rear:  Both the low- and high-speed compression are already on full soft, so nowhere to go with those.  A few rides ago I slowed the rear rebound down by 2 clicks and it made the rear feel calmer.  I decided to try 3 more clicks.  In the less gnarly stuff it felt good but in the tougher stuff you could feel the rear grabbing the rocks and slowing the bike down.  I went back out two turns to end up just one stiffer then prior.

In general, the settings from Gilles were pretty darn close.

Sandy Lane 2010

We had a great time.

4 of us got down there by 4:30 and got through reg. and tech no problem.

The hotel was really empty compared to past years.

The race:
The first section was not timed and had a big reset in it.  This was the stuff that everybody loves behind the gun club.  Fast, flowing, fun.

Another couple really fun sections before the first gas.  I get the foot-in-mouth award for next year's banquet.  Sat. night I made fun of Shawn for doing the routesheet minutes by hand, but when I set up my computer off by 1 minute, his sheet came in handy.  A little later I got it straightened out and everything was good.

Shawn and I rode on 12 and it was a good day to be on an early line.  The first and second sections were wet.  Sometimes the best line was right through the middle and sometimes you had to bushwhack 30-50' off the side.  4 other PFMC guys were on row 46 and theirs was a very different race.

After the first gas was the section that was called "the meat grinder" last year....except longer.  This year it was 10miles of the really, really, tight stuff.....the kind of stuff that makes you wonder why you bother doing that race.  Somewhere in this section, Shawn had a real issue.  The manifold on his EFI came off and spewed gas all over his engine.  Luckily he was able to get it fixed, but not before he houred out.

The second section after gas was a little more open, but not much.  There was a reset after the previous section but not enough for me to get back on time.  This section was a little more flowing but also somewhat whooped out with braking bumps.  At the end of this section there was an innocent-looking little swamp with a blue bike pointed toward the sky and the back buried.  Lucky break, because I probably would have taken that line.  More bushwhacking to get around spots like this.

Thanks to a long woods-road section at 12mph I got back to the 2nd gas on time and had the full 25 minutes to rest.  Right after that there was another 14 minute reset....seemed like they lost some trail or it was not usable due to the huge rains they'd had the week before.

The last section was only about 3 miles of moderately tight stuff, then a very long tar ride back to parking.  I would guess that there were probably 15 fewer miles of trail this year compared to last year's ride.

By the time we left I was in 7th, B-vet and it looked like most of the scoring was done.  I was pretty happy with how I rode.  Felt like I was faster than usual on the faster, flowing stuff.  The tight stuff is just not a place that a 6'4", 230lb guy should be....very, very tough just getting my legs and shoulders through some of that.  Need to work on getting smother in the tight stuff.

On the long, baby-powder sand roads I felt like my training on the balance board was very helpful.  I felt a lot more confident looking far ahead and trusting my body to keep the bike going and upright.

Kudos to Scott F. for zeroing a few check in his first-ever enduro.

The day after Sandy Lane is when you ask yourself "Why do I go to that race?", but next February I'll be looking forward to it.

Big, big vacation plans

School vacation this week and man, do I have some big plans........nothing.  It will just be me and Calla the Dog here all week.  So, it will be a good time to spend some quality hours out in the garage making the bike perfect.  I started safety wiring a few things and it's kind of addictive.  I haven't been able to keep the shifter tight since the bike was new.  Blue loctite just isn't strong enough.  So, safety wire that, the exhaust mounts, and whatever else I can get to.  Added a brake snake to the shifter and will do the brake too.  I'd like to come up with a better way to mount the Watchdog, but don't really have a good idea for that.  Quite the exciting life I lead....

Snow Run

The NETRA Snow Run was this past weekend.  Perhaps one of the most fun NETRA enduros I've done.  Right off the bat you could see that the routesheet was fairly short so we knew there was no need to save energy.  The start went to the right out of the parking to a familiar section from many Ramblers runs.  Even though I had the deflectors, grip heaters, and thicker gloves, my right  hand got numb in the first section.  Speeds were very high.  The Ramblers pretty much only used cart road for this event.  This would have been a necessary move if the snow was deep.  In the thin snow cover we had, most of the day we were riding the brown stripe of frozen ground.

Traction initially was great.  The front stayed strong all day but the rear started losing side lugs during the run.  It got tough to accelerate hard out of turns.  I don't think I ever used 4th and 5th gear so much in an enduro.

Ed was on a tear and ended up 1st in his class.  He got me by 1 in a bunch of sections.  I did not leave anything on the trail.  That was as hard as I could run on that day.  I made a couple errors and checked into a section late in my minute.  I ended up 3rd C-vet.  Really fun day.

Pics:
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE

Steve E.'s bike wouldn't start in the morning so we put it in my trailer and pointed the Mr. Heater at it.  Got a little too close and melted his shroud.  Any longer and we could have had a huge fire.  Pretty funny but could have turned out different.

Sumter National

Got back from Sumter around 10:00 last night.  All in all, it was a great time.

Ed and I left here around 5:00 Friday afternoon.  We drove a few hours and got a hotel in northern Maryland for the night with the plan to finish the drive to SC on Sat....just about 8 hours left of drive time.  We screwed up because neither one of us looked ahead on the weather forecast.  When we got up they were predicting 8-12" across VA and ice in NC.  Well, the forecasts were exactly correct.  By the time we got to VA, there was 4" on the highway and piling up fast.  Southerners DON'T know how to drive in the snow and the southern states don't seem to own many plows.  Before lunch we spent 3-4 hours going no faster than 30mph.  In NC the snow changed to ice and the pace was a little faster but not much.

We got to Sumter and got checked in to the Wyndham hotel.  Went across the street for dinner and bumped into Gilles T. and Adam V.  Good luck to talk with the guy who built your suspension the night before a race. Gilles suggested that I go up 5 clicks on compression and leave rebound alone.  I did that plus added one round of low-speed compression.

We got to the start area early got checked in.  Everything went really smoothly, the club seemed to to have everything well organized.  Lots of cool people to see there including the pros with their huge haulers.  Biggest enduro that I've seen.  600 riders were registered, but 500 ran...probably because of the tough weather.  5 or 6 times bigger than a NETRA enduro.

 

Ed and I left on row 94, more than an hour and a half after the first riders.  We had time to watch the first few pros in the first trail.  Awesome.  Probably doing 30-35mph in very tight trees.  There were 120 rows total - five per line.  I purposely left last off of our line.  Other than Ed, the other three guys were all A riders.  After about a mile, Ed let me by and I was feeling pretty good.  Lots of fun rhythm riding.  I pulled over about 1/4 of the way through the section because I was really hot under the enduro jacket.  Opened it up and was good.  The front suspension felt perfect, but the rear was just a little jarring on the roots and sharp acceleration bumps.  Traction was awesome and I had a blast catching back up to and passing Ed.  Unfortunately he got back passed me when I missed a turn because I fixated on another rider that I was trying to pass.  That cost me about 2-3 minutes.  Pic from section 1 here:  SECTION 1 PIC

I found Ed at the Section 2 check in just about 1 minute before our minute flipped.  No time to adjust the suspension, just take a few sips from the Camelbak.  Ed was right on my rear for the first couple miles, but I was able to pull away just a little.  Then I didn't hear him after that....he'd gotten stuck in a mud hole where I saw another guy up to his seat.  I really pushed hard in this section and had a lot of fun.  There were just a couple sections that were super tight....narrower than the bars.  But they were less than a 1/4 mile in length.  Lots of fun.

At the first gas stop, Ed and I talked about how well the Dunlop 756's were working.  I took 2 clicks out of the rear compression.  When Ed got there I told him we had 21 minutes before we had to leave.  He told me I was crazy and that the reset was 50 minutes long.  I was pretty sure that I was right, but listened to him anyway.  He walked over and found a check-out point where guys that were 60 minutes ahead of us were checking out and told me about it.  The logic didn't match up, but by then it was too late.  We left gas 6 minutes late....depressing but it didn't really matter in the results.

 

Two more sections before the official gas stop.  Sections 3 and 4 were a blast and just the right level of challenge.  There was one big swamp section but I made it through in good time.  3 was really tight and I pushed hard and did lots of bar-banging.  The rear suspension was now perfect.  Section 4 started off tight and then opened up into longer straights of sand whoops....lots of them.  Ed came past me and I pushed but could not keep with him.  Started to get dejected and those enduro-type negative thoughts started to creep in, telling me that it was OK to take it easy.  I was proud of myself that I took control of that mindset, pushed it out and and pushed my pace.  I finished the section strong.  The picture AT THIS LINK was taken just after I'd bounced off of the trees on either side of me.

Gas was after section 4 and Ed looked ready to quit when he got there.  I talked him into going back out.  Pretty early in the section I got stuck really deep in a whole that was the only line available.  The seat was so deep it was lower than my knees.  Luckily, it didn't get vacuumed in like it would here in New England so I was able to pull it out and get going without holding up Ed and a couple other guys too badly.  He really kicked butt in that 5th section (last one for us B's) and beat me by 27 seconds there.  This section was more really fun rhythm riding:  awesome traction on the wet sand.

In the end, my results were pretty weak:  30th out of 37 in B-Vet but it was the best I had on that day.  I definitely did not leave anything on the trail!  I'm still very sore two days later and my left hand is a mess.  I enjoyed the national format and can't wait to go back next year.  Really fun riding and worth all the hassle of the drive down.

Sumter Prep

This Friday, Ed V. and I'll head for South Carolina and the Sumter National Enduro.  I'm pretty excited for my first national.

Spent the last two days getting the truck ready for the haul.  Yesterday I put the new rear shocks on and spent all of today on the struts.  I had a real tough time with the passenger side until I got it figured out that the sway bar links had to be detached on both sides....can't just do one side at a time.  I also finally installed the iPod2car adapter for tunes for the drive.

The trailer was prepped last week and the week before that.  Greased the wheel bearings and ramp hinges.  Last weekend I put new tires on it.

I'll spend most of tomorrow getting the bike ready.  I bought a used set of wheels in good shape from Mark P.  I'll put the soft-terrain Dunlop 756s on the new rims and leave my rallye studs on the stock wheels for the Snow Run the week after Sumter.  The FMF Q arrived this week so I'll mount that (good deal through the new sponsorship).  Then all the typical stuff:  change oil, air filter, drain gas, etc.

Walden Mud & Snow Scramble

Went out to the MX track in Walden, NY today for the scramble.  Had a great time.  Rick B. and Kevin O. also raced.  I didn't change my suspension or my jetting.  Didn't seem to need to.

There was no snow to be found.  I rode with the rallye spikes on the bike.  I'm still pretty impressed with how this tire is holding up.  Cheng Shin 755 with 22mm rallye studs, Gorilla Glue on each.  Conditions today were the toughest possible for the studs and I think I only lost 10 or so on the rear...none on the front.

I felt good in the small woods sections and had a decent pace there.  The many sections where we used the MX track were tough.  Lots of frozen mud ruts.

I feel OK about the way I rode, but whenever I do a scramble I forget about the shorter length and hold back a little...like I'm riding an enduro.  Gotta learn to just cut it loose.  Not really sore or tired.

This guy was moving.  Passed me from a line behind (at least I wasn't the first guy he passed).  Had a big Suzuki and regular digital camera taped to the chin bar of his helmet.

YouTube Video

Pachaug ride today.

Shawn B., Steve E., and I rode at Pachaug today.  It was a great time.  Most trails had 3-5" of virgin powder on them.  It was definitely easier to make your own track when there was a track already there.  It was about 20 degrees but still sweaty under the enduro jacket.  We did the second part of the loop backwards and forward back to the trucks.

Snow "warm" up

Finished up the work on the bike and let the grip glue set up.  Took the bike out for a few laps around the backyard.  Did a couple miles.  Traction was good.  3-5" of grainy, wind-driven snow.  I think the log with the 90-degree wheelie needs to go.  Good practice, but too much chance of smashing a pipe....not worth it for backyard practice.

It was a good reminder of just how fast you build up body heat.  It was 17 degrees with a fierce wind but I was soaked in sweat after just 2 miles.

Lots of work on the bike today

Used today today to do a lot of work to the bike.

• Mounted the spikes
• Rerouted the vent tubes to the airbox
• Installed the radiator guards
• Installed the grip heaters.

Thinking about doing the Winter Scramble with Ed V. this weekend.  Someone just posted a video of the terrain, looked pretty sweet.  Not too much snow there.  Could be a fun time.

ALSO:  Got another couple sponsorships this week.  I applied to FMF directly and KSR Wheels on MXSponsor.com.  Not sure if I'll accept the KSR one, they didn't give a specific discount in the offer.  Seems a little shady.