Well I suppose it had to happen eventually... but after meeting dozens upon dozens of really nice people on the trails in my oh-so-new career at dirtbiking, I finally met my first nightmare...
On Saturday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! In the 70's with bright sunshine... It had rained a few days in the previous week, but had 3-4 days of solid sun to make the riding conditions very enjoyable! The soft ground was that kind of tacky firm soil with water only in specific run off streams and easy to avoid if you wanted to.
There was a hill climbing competition that day at the riding area and so I was forced to ride less familiar trails on the other side of the park that wasn't closed off, but that worked out very well because I found a great loop that contained moderate hills, rocky stuff, wide trails and twisty technical stuff all on the same loop. It took me about 20-25 minutes to get all the way around one lap, and I found it very enjoyable because after about 4 or 5 laps I became familiar with the conditions, what was coming up ahead and so on... With that kind of confidence, I could go faster than I would have had everything been unfamiliar. It was great fun for me.
That is until about the 8th "lap" (I had stopped once for some lunch and was just getting started again) While I was negotiating a short climb, suddenly a big bore (sounded like it) 4-stroke Yamaha went blasting by me at a VERY impressive speed! Even though the the climbing face of the hill path was very wide (about 20-30 feet) the rider shot past me with only about 3 feet of distance between us. I got a full on face of dirt from his roost as he continued up the hill and disappeared over the top.
I thought to myself "Hmmm, maybe I just picked the best line going up and he was using it too, good for me :) " and I left it at that... A bit later and he passed me again; I suppose he was on the same loop as me, this time I was on a flat section of a trail, and he passed on the inside and as he was going by very quickly again, I noted that there was a blip of the throttle on his part just as his rear tire was lined up on me and again i got roosted with a cloud of dust...
Ok, Maybe just bad timing I said to myself this time... Watching him further down the trail there was a group of riders that looked like an adult and two kids on smaller bikes. They were tooling along pretty slowly in the opposite direction and this guy, barely slowing down whips in between them pulling a slight wheelie.
The two younger riders were obviously rattled by this and pulled far off the trail as he was approaching. After he passed them (again in a large cloud of dust) the Adult rider stopped and looked back at that guy as he again disappereared around a bend.
When I got up to the other three riders, the Man with the two kids said "That's the second time he's done that" I told him what happened to me twice already and he responded that he was taking his kids to another trail.
In a kind of really sad cosmic coincidence I was on exactly the same climb as the other one he roosted me on and sure enough I hear the rumble of a loud 4stroke coming up behind and this time I just went straight and braced for the roosting cloud which I indeed got for the THIRD time...
This time when I got to the top of the hill there was another group of riders there (they looked about college age and were off their bikes obviously relaxing and enjoying the view from the top...
I stopped next to them and said "Hi" and decided this would be a great place to just get a breather and a drink and hope the other rider would eventually go somewhere else... I talked with the group for a while and they were talking about how the KDX was a great trail bike (and a great beginner bike as I told them that I was a beginner) and they agreed with that as well... We were jabbering on in friendly banter for a good 10 minutes and sure enough, here comes nightmare rider blasting up the hill again, but this time I wasn't there to roost.
He gets to the top of the hill and this time stops and yells something at me... I didn't hear him and was actually hoping in a naively stupid way that maybe it was going to be something nice...
"I said if you went a little slower you'd be F$&*#ing stopped!"
That really got to me, and not really thinking I just blurted out "If you went a little faster, you could be an A$$ to more people per hour"
I'm not really a confrontational person at all, and so it kind of caught me off balance that he started to get off his bike. MUCH to my relief though two of the riders in the group I was talking to came forward and told him to just keep on riding. He flipped us all off and with me breathing a sigh of relief, he rode away.
After talking it over with the group I found out that they had seen him once already bombing down the trail they had been on oblivious to them or apparently any thought of safety or consideration... They shook their heads about the incident as I did, and I told everyone I was heading back down to the staging area and they offered to have me ride down with them since they were heading in that direction to pick up the next trail.
I accepted their offer and made it back to the car without incident. I was actually leaving at the time of the last encounter anyway, so at least not all timing was bad that day, but it still put a damper on the riding that had me dwelling on it the whole way home...
Hopefully these kinds of encounters are few and far far between...
Anyone ever have run ins like this?
Thanks for listening to me babble...
Feanor
On Saturday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! In the 70's with bright sunshine... It had rained a few days in the previous week, but had 3-4 days of solid sun to make the riding conditions very enjoyable! The soft ground was that kind of tacky firm soil with water only in specific run off streams and easy to avoid if you wanted to.
There was a hill climbing competition that day at the riding area and so I was forced to ride less familiar trails on the other side of the park that wasn't closed off, but that worked out very well because I found a great loop that contained moderate hills, rocky stuff, wide trails and twisty technical stuff all on the same loop. It took me about 20-25 minutes to get all the way around one lap, and I found it very enjoyable because after about 4 or 5 laps I became familiar with the conditions, what was coming up ahead and so on... With that kind of confidence, I could go faster than I would have had everything been unfamiliar. It was great fun for me.
That is until about the 8th "lap" (I had stopped once for some lunch and was just getting started again) While I was negotiating a short climb, suddenly a big bore (sounded like it) 4-stroke Yamaha went blasting by me at a VERY impressive speed! Even though the the climbing face of the hill path was very wide (about 20-30 feet) the rider shot past me with only about 3 feet of distance between us. I got a full on face of dirt from his roost as he continued up the hill and disappeared over the top.
I thought to myself "Hmmm, maybe I just picked the best line going up and he was using it too, good for me :) " and I left it at that... A bit later and he passed me again; I suppose he was on the same loop as me, this time I was on a flat section of a trail, and he passed on the inside and as he was going by very quickly again, I noted that there was a blip of the throttle on his part just as his rear tire was lined up on me and again i got roosted with a cloud of dust...
Ok, Maybe just bad timing I said to myself this time... Watching him further down the trail there was a group of riders that looked like an adult and two kids on smaller bikes. They were tooling along pretty slowly in the opposite direction and this guy, barely slowing down whips in between them pulling a slight wheelie.
The two younger riders were obviously rattled by this and pulled far off the trail as he was approaching. After he passed them (again in a large cloud of dust) the Adult rider stopped and looked back at that guy as he again disappereared around a bend.
When I got up to the other three riders, the Man with the two kids said "That's the second time he's done that" I told him what happened to me twice already and he responded that he was taking his kids to another trail.
In a kind of really sad cosmic coincidence I was on exactly the same climb as the other one he roosted me on and sure enough I hear the rumble of a loud 4stroke coming up behind and this time I just went straight and braced for the roosting cloud which I indeed got for the THIRD time...
This time when I got to the top of the hill there was another group of riders there (they looked about college age and were off their bikes obviously relaxing and enjoying the view from the top...
I stopped next to them and said "Hi" and decided this would be a great place to just get a breather and a drink and hope the other rider would eventually go somewhere else... I talked with the group for a while and they were talking about how the KDX was a great trail bike (and a great beginner bike as I told them that I was a beginner) and they agreed with that as well... We were jabbering on in friendly banter for a good 10 minutes and sure enough, here comes nightmare rider blasting up the hill again, but this time I wasn't there to roost.
He gets to the top of the hill and this time stops and yells something at me... I didn't hear him and was actually hoping in a naively stupid way that maybe it was going to be something nice...
"I said if you went a little slower you'd be F$&*#ing stopped!"
That really got to me, and not really thinking I just blurted out "If you went a little faster, you could be an A$$ to more people per hour"
I'm not really a confrontational person at all, and so it kind of caught me off balance that he started to get off his bike. MUCH to my relief though two of the riders in the group I was talking to came forward and told him to just keep on riding. He flipped us all off and with me breathing a sigh of relief, he rode away.
After talking it over with the group I found out that they had seen him once already bombing down the trail they had been on oblivious to them or apparently any thought of safety or consideration... They shook their heads about the incident as I did, and I told everyone I was heading back down to the staging area and they offered to have me ride down with them since they were heading in that direction to pick up the next trail.
I accepted their offer and made it back to the car without incident. I was actually leaving at the time of the last encounter anyway, so at least not all timing was bad that day, but it still put a damper on the riding that had me dwelling on it the whole way home...
Hopefully these kinds of encounters are few and far far between...
Anyone ever have run ins like this?
Thanks for listening to me babble...
Feanor
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