GETMETOCA
Can't Wait For Tuesdays
- Mar 17, 2002
- 4,768
- 0
Finally, An Actual Ride Report
Way back on a cold and brisk January day, Karna, Justin and I were on our way to Clear Creek to do some trail riding in preparation for the upcoming Piglet Family Enduro. During that 3.5 hour drive, Karna agreed to sell me her 1999 Montessa Cota.
Now fast-forward 8 months....I FINALLY got over to Karna and Justin's house last week to actually pay them for it and bring my new trials bike home. I loaded up my Moto-Jack rack on the Yukon and Justin helped me position it on the rack. One small problemo....the footpegs on the Montessa don't have wide enought sections to insertt he 1" diameter rod to secure it to the Moto-Jack Rack. We considered stuffing it into the back of the Yukon, but it was too tall. We considered boring out a section of each peg to widen the opening but decided it might weaken the peg structure. A few other ideas were considered then rejected and then Justin came up with a brilliant idea!
We decided that I would play hooky from work mid-week and Justin would meet me at Carnegie with BOTH his bike and mine. We would ride til we were wore out, then he would drop the bike off at my house on his way home. Worked for me!!
So today, I showed up at Carnegie around 9:00 am. Justin was driving back from the Bay Area after an early morning flight lesson with one of his students. The morning was fairly warm by that time, but the place was vacant due to school starting up. The Ranger's weren't even at the gate and no one charged me an entrance fee. A sign posted said a Ranger would contact entering visitors.
Justin showed up and told me these horrid stories of how his morning had went. First off, when he was heading over to the Bay Area at 3:30 AM, he noticied two vehicles in the middle of a busy street near his neighborhood. When he got closer, he realized that there was a person lying on the ground; apparently, he was a pedestrian and had been hit at 40 mph by one of the vehicles. Justin is a trained EMT and stopped to help but the guy didn't look so good. :( He did what he could til the ambulance and sherrif's arrived and resumed his trip to the Bay Area, where he teaches helicopter flight lessons.
On his way to Carnegie later in the morning, he was almost hit head on by a crazy driver who had decided to pass a semi on the back side of Corral Hollow Road (Windy, blind corners, no safe passing!) Wow, what a crazy morning. :eek:
So Justin arrives, we unload both Trials bikes and gear up. We have the WHOLE PLACE to ourselves, except for some kid on a quad with shorts on. Its getting pretty hot here and I kinda wished I had shorts on too. I don't have the cool Trials helmet and I feel insta-sweaty as soon as I put my normal off-raod helmet on.
We do a little ergo-setup on my new Montessa and I get a couple pointers about this and that. Karna had warned me not to let the clutch out too fast or I would be clear across the parking lot in a snap. We start out by doing circles and figure 8's. Justin spends a whole lot of time critiqing my form and positioning. My back is starting to burn and tighten and I have to stop every so often to stretch it out. We fiddle with the bars a little more and I watch Justin's body position has he does circles.
Once I move my feet to the outer edges of the pegs and work on directing the bike with my feet and legs instead of my whole body, my back does not hurt nearly as much.
I remember seeing a Hill Climb special on OLN just the other night and they hold these events here at Carnegie as well. I talk Justin into riding down to the hill climb area so I can show him where its at and decide before we even get there that it was a mistake to go all that way (like half a mile, hehe). My back's hurting again. I remember meeting LoriKTM and her husband Dave at DW and how Dave rode around on his Trials bike ALL THE TIME but did not seem to get back fatigue. He rode 20 miles in the Poker Run on his trials bike... how did he do that? I decide I've got a lot of conditining and body positioning to work on. :ohmy:
We forgo the Hill Climb viewing and work on circles and figure 8's and head back to where we parked. We take a water break and do one more round of working on body position. This time I get it much better and my circles are much smaller and my body position is much better and I get big Thumbs Up from Justin :cool:
That was fun. A nice, brief 2 hours of playing around on my new trials bike. So if any of the locals (Jonala, Mini, Justin) want to meet me at Carnegie for some more fun, just holler!
Natalie
Way back on a cold and brisk January day, Karna, Justin and I were on our way to Clear Creek to do some trail riding in preparation for the upcoming Piglet Family Enduro. During that 3.5 hour drive, Karna agreed to sell me her 1999 Montessa Cota.
Now fast-forward 8 months....I FINALLY got over to Karna and Justin's house last week to actually pay them for it and bring my new trials bike home. I loaded up my Moto-Jack rack on the Yukon and Justin helped me position it on the rack. One small problemo....the footpegs on the Montessa don't have wide enought sections to insertt he 1" diameter rod to secure it to the Moto-Jack Rack. We considered stuffing it into the back of the Yukon, but it was too tall. We considered boring out a section of each peg to widen the opening but decided it might weaken the peg structure. A few other ideas were considered then rejected and then Justin came up with a brilliant idea!
We decided that I would play hooky from work mid-week and Justin would meet me at Carnegie with BOTH his bike and mine. We would ride til we were wore out, then he would drop the bike off at my house on his way home. Worked for me!!
So today, I showed up at Carnegie around 9:00 am. Justin was driving back from the Bay Area after an early morning flight lesson with one of his students. The morning was fairly warm by that time, but the place was vacant due to school starting up. The Ranger's weren't even at the gate and no one charged me an entrance fee. A sign posted said a Ranger would contact entering visitors.
Justin showed up and told me these horrid stories of how his morning had went. First off, when he was heading over to the Bay Area at 3:30 AM, he noticied two vehicles in the middle of a busy street near his neighborhood. When he got closer, he realized that there was a person lying on the ground; apparently, he was a pedestrian and had been hit at 40 mph by one of the vehicles. Justin is a trained EMT and stopped to help but the guy didn't look so good. :( He did what he could til the ambulance and sherrif's arrived and resumed his trip to the Bay Area, where he teaches helicopter flight lessons.
On his way to Carnegie later in the morning, he was almost hit head on by a crazy driver who had decided to pass a semi on the back side of Corral Hollow Road (Windy, blind corners, no safe passing!) Wow, what a crazy morning. :eek:
So Justin arrives, we unload both Trials bikes and gear up. We have the WHOLE PLACE to ourselves, except for some kid on a quad with shorts on. Its getting pretty hot here and I kinda wished I had shorts on too. I don't have the cool Trials helmet and I feel insta-sweaty as soon as I put my normal off-raod helmet on.
We do a little ergo-setup on my new Montessa and I get a couple pointers about this and that. Karna had warned me not to let the clutch out too fast or I would be clear across the parking lot in a snap. We start out by doing circles and figure 8's. Justin spends a whole lot of time critiqing my form and positioning. My back is starting to burn and tighten and I have to stop every so often to stretch it out. We fiddle with the bars a little more and I watch Justin's body position has he does circles.
Once I move my feet to the outer edges of the pegs and work on directing the bike with my feet and legs instead of my whole body, my back does not hurt nearly as much.
I remember seeing a Hill Climb special on OLN just the other night and they hold these events here at Carnegie as well. I talk Justin into riding down to the hill climb area so I can show him where its at and decide before we even get there that it was a mistake to go all that way (like half a mile, hehe). My back's hurting again. I remember meeting LoriKTM and her husband Dave at DW and how Dave rode around on his Trials bike ALL THE TIME but did not seem to get back fatigue. He rode 20 miles in the Poker Run on his trials bike... how did he do that? I decide I've got a lot of conditining and body positioning to work on. :ohmy:
We forgo the Hill Climb viewing and work on circles and figure 8's and head back to where we parked. We take a water break and do one more round of working on body position. This time I get it much better and my circles are much smaller and my body position is much better and I get big Thumbs Up from Justin :cool:
That was fun. A nice, brief 2 hours of playing around on my new trials bike. So if any of the locals (Jonala, Mini, Justin) want to meet me at Carnegie for some more fun, just holler!
Natalie
