Well,
A Friend was finally able to get me to go on a dirtbike dayride at a "Real" riding area (My experiences thus far have been small SVRA's and private motocross tracks...
I have to tell you that the Stoneyford riding area where we went is absolutely incredible! and I'm looking forward to going back as soon as possible, particularly when its a bit drier! :) and that's the segue into my story...
I thought I knew a little abut mud from the "puddles" that I would run into at Carnegie (SVRA) These were often areas of muck that simply hadn't dried out sufficiently from a previous rain, and I would motor straight thru them, get a little squirrely, fling up some mud, and then when I got home at the end of the day with some of it caked on the bike, I felt a bit more "manly" and justified that my vehicle was actually an offroad conveyance *laughing*
Well, nothing prepared me for the mud I ran into at Stoneyford in the Menocino National Forest! First of all, it had rained hard the night previous and then off and on all the time we were there. I motored out of the staging area onto the trail head path and literally sank into the first section of mud! paddling thru it there was a small downhill leading to an opposite hill climb and though the speed I carried going down was sufficient to float over the that mud, the face of the hill climb opposite was slick as ice! and the parts that were not slick were deep ruts, and the parts that were'nt deep ruts, were trees!
During the day I lost count of how many times I went down (though it got much better later on) and was literally on the cusp of calling it quits right at the beginning. My greatest fear was really on killing my friends fun, but my buddy from work stuck with me and he told the others to go on ahead. At that point I made up my mind that the conditions weren't going to get the best of me... I soldiered on, wobbling down mucky straights, weaving thru muddy, rutted turns, getting intimately familiar with the technique of feathering the clutch :)
All of this took place in the lower trails around the staging area because my friend told me it might be best to get my legs first before heading out farther... The one moderate hillclimb leading out of the lower had been giving me a hell of a time, and it finally took 5 tries to make it up! I still remember the rain making the visibility poor, little rivers of water running down the trail, the ruts, the slipperiness and how the back of the bike pitched wildly left and right, the rocks... When I finally made it to the top and was looking down at the parking area I wanted to do a kind of Conan victory yell LoL!
From that point, my friend led me up a few more hill climbs which were no where near as bad as the first (I suppose because the rain had more chance to run off or maybe the ground was harder) As we rode around on wider trails I really started to feel more confidence building back up... After a while hit some single track in the woods and THAT was so much fun I can hardly describe it! The mud actually made the single track more enjoyable because it was a different consistency of mud... more like really thick cake frosting rather than the soupy stuff farther down. Maybe the tree cover or the pine needles mixed in helped in that regard...
Twisting thru the trees was an incredible rush even though I was just tooling along at newb speed... My friend bombed on ahead, but waited at every fork in the trail to make sure we stayed together... I started making names for the different kinds of mud I would find during the day... the soupy stuff at the bottom I called "diahrrea mud" (sorry I know its disgusting), then there was the Betty Crocker mud (thicker cake frosting), Toothpaste, mixing bowl mud (right when you pour the liquid into the flour) which is clumpy with standing pools, etc... I found that it was easier to see a type of mud coming, remember what dealt best with it from the last time it was encountered, and then make sure I could get to the right gear, speed riding position, etc, to handle it best... This often took the form of remembering that third gear was TOTALLY inadequate last time and that I was thrown forward when the front wheel hit and sank in a bit, and so this time I then clicked down into second, sped up, and sat back further in the seat... The longer the day went on, the better and more consistent my predictions became, though I still found the mud with my body on occasion! :) Other things I encountered and learned to deal with:
The Slingshot: While powering up a very slick climb that was deeply rutted... I would often find myself steering further away from the ruts than was necessary... this flung me to one side of the trail... The bike was already squirrely and deep in the power band (on the pipe), and so to avoid going completely off trail I would steer back toward the middle, but since the edge of the trail had more traction, I would get slingshotted completely to the opposite side! After getting into this predicament many times, I got the hang of rolling off the throttle in anticipation of the "sling" and being able to steer with throttle, very satisfying for me when that worked! The best way to describe it is to think of balancing a broom handle in your palm and the motions you make with your hand to keep it upright kind fo mimick the modulation motions of twisting the throttle as you head up a slippery track.
Multitasking!!! I am amazed that women aren't all demons on dirtbikes since they say women multiask better... I found myself overwhemed in situations that required alternating front and rear braking, coupled with gear braking (feathering the clutch for traction) shifting, and steering and throttle inputs! It sometimes felt as though i had to do one before moving to the next task and THAT got me nowhere fast! As I got more comfortable doing two or three things at once, my riding got significantly smoother and more confident...
The Pitch: When going over a lip (starting a descent) leaning backward in fear of the drop is the WRONG thing to do! You have to stay neutral or even lean over the front a bit with the drop so that your arms can extend and follow the contour... if you don't and you lean back in the seat with straight arms thinking that you're going to delay the inevitable (LoL!) when the front goes over, it literally yanks you forward and almost over the bars!
At the end of the day, despite the miserable conditions, I learned two extremely important things that helped me tremendously...
1) Falling down rarely means you get hurt
2) If you think a riding condition is tough, ride somewhere more difficult and then when you go back to the first place you thought was tough, you'll almost laugh at it LoL!
What's the worst part about dirtbiking in the rain? I thought before the ride that it would be because the riding would not be enjoyable or useful, or too nervewracking... The reality? The worst part about the rain is that at the end of the ride, if no one brought an easy-up canopy you have to stand there and socialize soaking wet!!!
Have a good one all!
Feanor
A Friend was finally able to get me to go on a dirtbike dayride at a "Real" riding area (My experiences thus far have been small SVRA's and private motocross tracks...
I have to tell you that the Stoneyford riding area where we went is absolutely incredible! and I'm looking forward to going back as soon as possible, particularly when its a bit drier! :) and that's the segue into my story...
I thought I knew a little abut mud from the "puddles" that I would run into at Carnegie (SVRA) These were often areas of muck that simply hadn't dried out sufficiently from a previous rain, and I would motor straight thru them, get a little squirrely, fling up some mud, and then when I got home at the end of the day with some of it caked on the bike, I felt a bit more "manly" and justified that my vehicle was actually an offroad conveyance *laughing*
Well, nothing prepared me for the mud I ran into at Stoneyford in the Menocino National Forest! First of all, it had rained hard the night previous and then off and on all the time we were there. I motored out of the staging area onto the trail head path and literally sank into the first section of mud! paddling thru it there was a small downhill leading to an opposite hill climb and though the speed I carried going down was sufficient to float over the that mud, the face of the hill climb opposite was slick as ice! and the parts that were not slick were deep ruts, and the parts that were'nt deep ruts, were trees!
During the day I lost count of how many times I went down (though it got much better later on) and was literally on the cusp of calling it quits right at the beginning. My greatest fear was really on killing my friends fun, but my buddy from work stuck with me and he told the others to go on ahead. At that point I made up my mind that the conditions weren't going to get the best of me... I soldiered on, wobbling down mucky straights, weaving thru muddy, rutted turns, getting intimately familiar with the technique of feathering the clutch :)
All of this took place in the lower trails around the staging area because my friend told me it might be best to get my legs first before heading out farther... The one moderate hillclimb leading out of the lower had been giving me a hell of a time, and it finally took 5 tries to make it up! I still remember the rain making the visibility poor, little rivers of water running down the trail, the ruts, the slipperiness and how the back of the bike pitched wildly left and right, the rocks... When I finally made it to the top and was looking down at the parking area I wanted to do a kind of Conan victory yell LoL!
From that point, my friend led me up a few more hill climbs which were no where near as bad as the first (I suppose because the rain had more chance to run off or maybe the ground was harder) As we rode around on wider trails I really started to feel more confidence building back up... After a while hit some single track in the woods and THAT was so much fun I can hardly describe it! The mud actually made the single track more enjoyable because it was a different consistency of mud... more like really thick cake frosting rather than the soupy stuff farther down. Maybe the tree cover or the pine needles mixed in helped in that regard...
Twisting thru the trees was an incredible rush even though I was just tooling along at newb speed... My friend bombed on ahead, but waited at every fork in the trail to make sure we stayed together... I started making names for the different kinds of mud I would find during the day... the soupy stuff at the bottom I called "diahrrea mud" (sorry I know its disgusting), then there was the Betty Crocker mud (thicker cake frosting), Toothpaste, mixing bowl mud (right when you pour the liquid into the flour) which is clumpy with standing pools, etc... I found that it was easier to see a type of mud coming, remember what dealt best with it from the last time it was encountered, and then make sure I could get to the right gear, speed riding position, etc, to handle it best... This often took the form of remembering that third gear was TOTALLY inadequate last time and that I was thrown forward when the front wheel hit and sank in a bit, and so this time I then clicked down into second, sped up, and sat back further in the seat... The longer the day went on, the better and more consistent my predictions became, though I still found the mud with my body on occasion! :) Other things I encountered and learned to deal with:
The Slingshot: While powering up a very slick climb that was deeply rutted... I would often find myself steering further away from the ruts than was necessary... this flung me to one side of the trail... The bike was already squirrely and deep in the power band (on the pipe), and so to avoid going completely off trail I would steer back toward the middle, but since the edge of the trail had more traction, I would get slingshotted completely to the opposite side! After getting into this predicament many times, I got the hang of rolling off the throttle in anticipation of the "sling" and being able to steer with throttle, very satisfying for me when that worked! The best way to describe it is to think of balancing a broom handle in your palm and the motions you make with your hand to keep it upright kind fo mimick the modulation motions of twisting the throttle as you head up a slippery track.
Multitasking!!! I am amazed that women aren't all demons on dirtbikes since they say women multiask better... I found myself overwhemed in situations that required alternating front and rear braking, coupled with gear braking (feathering the clutch for traction) shifting, and steering and throttle inputs! It sometimes felt as though i had to do one before moving to the next task and THAT got me nowhere fast! As I got more comfortable doing two or three things at once, my riding got significantly smoother and more confident...
The Pitch: When going over a lip (starting a descent) leaning backward in fear of the drop is the WRONG thing to do! You have to stay neutral or even lean over the front a bit with the drop so that your arms can extend and follow the contour... if you don't and you lean back in the seat with straight arms thinking that you're going to delay the inevitable (LoL!) when the front goes over, it literally yanks you forward and almost over the bars!
At the end of the day, despite the miserable conditions, I learned two extremely important things that helped me tremendously...
1) Falling down rarely means you get hurt
2) If you think a riding condition is tough, ride somewhere more difficult and then when you go back to the first place you thought was tough, you'll almost laugh at it LoL!
What's the worst part about dirtbiking in the rain? I thought before the ride that it would be because the riding would not be enjoyable or useful, or too nervewracking... The reality? The worst part about the rain is that at the end of the ride, if no one brought an easy-up canopy you have to stand there and socialize soaking wet!!!
Have a good one all!
Feanor
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