First Scramble Race

[IamRyan]

I have a '02 xr200R with a fmf powercore 4 aftermarket pipe, I mostly just play ride w/ my dad and brother but i have been thinking about racing just to see if im fast or if it is as much fun as it looks. I belive what i want to do is a scramble just a regular race through woods and trails no timed stations or anything (enduro?) . I ride at St.Joes state park MO ( i call it flat river)
I like to think I am fast but my dad could smoke me at any given moment he has a cr250 but i am faster than my brother who has same bike as i do. just wondering if there are any ways to train for these types of races or if you just have to do one and see what is what. thanks

 

[mideastrider]

Endurance is the key. Run, ride bicycle's things like that. The first race will be the hardest but it just gets better the more you ride.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

I would suggest bark busters, a camelback (or other drink system), and the restraint to not go flat out and wear yourself out in the first 10 minutes.

 

[RedRacer1137]

You need bark busters bad! Ive gone to 2 races so far and thank god th 2nd race i didnt bust my hands up but you need them. Sadly my clutch lever got stuck in my boot when i layed it over in a rocky creek and made a pretty big pile up. Also you want a camel back or youll get alot of dust down your throat from 250's blowing past you.

O yeah i dunno if you would want to do this but my first race i just kinda putt putted around and got the feel. I had a 1hr6min lap while others had about a 26min lap. So its kinda what your into and how hard and long you can push yourself. Its up to you now were you take this whole racing thing.

 

[IamRyan]

I have the plastic hand guards but they arnt reinforced back to the handle bars but they work alright. At flat river one lap takes about 20-25 minutes if you go back and find the fence and ride till you come out on the other side and ive ridden 2 laps in a row but i was pretty beat afterward. Ive deffinatly learned to stay out of trouble spots cuz you will zap your energy getting out of trouble or forcing the bike all over the trail. ill have to look into a drink container of some sort. and I kinda want to see how i measure up so im not going to go like hell the whole time but i dont want to just put through but then again i do want to finish so i just need to go practice finding a good pace where i can ride for long time periods.

 

[IamRyan]

Lets crash some more

Watched a couple Scramble video's in my spare time of class and the whole thing was crash after crash after crash and the occasional run over dude who fell. there there were people who would just fall over for no reason and cause a pile up is it realy that crazy or are they just showing the "interesting" parts of the race?

 

[dezryder]

The newbies and novices cause a lot of the bottlenecks. (They often get better starts because of MX experience, but can't last) If you have some experience and savy, you will just blast around that stuff when possible, without missing a beat. But it takes some trial and error experience as well.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Watched a couple Scramble video's in my spare time of class and the whole thing was crash after crash after crash and the occasional run over dude who fell. there there were people who would just fall over for no reason and cause a pile up is it realy that crazy or are they just showing the "interesting" parts of the race?

LOL! That brings up another good piece of advice...

If your in a hare scramble or enduro and you come upon an area with spectators....SLOW DOWN AND BE CAREFUL!! Those damn spectators are there for a reason, usually it's because there's something there (log, root, hole, etc) that causes people to crash or get stuck and they're there to see it.

If you come to a muddy section with spectators...AIM FOR THE SPECTATORS! They have found the dry gound and are occupying it so they can watch you get stuck.

In reality, there are not too many crashes in HSs and enduros.