justalonewolf007
Member
- Apr 30, 2007
- 657
- 0
This is a little bit of an intro, so bear with me please!
Having started on a Yamaha BW 80, upgrading to an XR 100, then racing that once and riding it out of suspension and power, I decided to get a 98 CR 80 Expert.
A couple years back I tried it out on a faircross track which wasn't user friendly at all, and I got discouraged and stuck solely to riding on dirt roads. However, this summer I've gotten bold, and applied for a season membership for the local series! (DMC Motorsports).
The first organized practice was last saturday, and was quite the adventure!
The night before the practice was scheduled, I went out to my parents farm to prep the bike (at least tried). Basically, I mixed up some fresh gas, and tried to adjust my shift lever to accommodate my new boots. After checking other things like oil level, chain tension, and those little other things that seem to fail at the last second.
Soon, it was 3:00am and I finally gave up fiddling for the best fit, hoped for the best, and headed inside for bed.
Both my dad and brother said that I wouldn't have the guts to try it, but I was pretty determined to at least try!
I woke up late the next morning, and then found myself without any means to get the bike to the track! Thankfully my grandpa stepped in and let me use his pickup two hours AFTER I had planned to leave.
It was then that my dad decided to come out and work on my bike. This put me 45 more minutes behind schedule, and I had to tell him to stop.
I made it to the track without too much trouble, and got my t-shirt and membership card right away without any confusion. Unloading was a very interesting experience, as my wonderful dad had somehow managed to wedge the ramps into the pickup box AND underneath the bike, with the tiedown straps woven through them somehow.
Funny how no one happens to be in sight when things like that happen. When I finally got the bike out, I had missed half of my classes' practice session. I threw on my gear as quickly as I could, and pushed my bike up to one of the officials. He pointed me and the bike in the right direction in the starting gate, and told me to start my bike and wait for his cue.
I jump on the bike, and SURPRISE!! I can't touch the ground in my boots! Luckily, the official caught me before I hit the ground, and even held my bike for me so I could start it.
He sent me out, and I was great and happy off the first jump, then saw the size of the doubles coming at me and had an "EEK!!!" moment. I decided to roll the rest of the track as best I could.
I got lapped, pointed at, and laughed at because of my jeans, but I made it around without crashing and managed to keep my line most of the time! The only problem was that I couldn't keep my head up and kept missing shifts because of my boots.
Second session of the day went much better, and I was able to control the bike a little better. My first and last attempt at a double ended up with the bike landing on me because I missed the shift, hit the face of the landing, and whiskeythrottled myself over the next ramp.
I felt fine, and the race organizers said I rode faster AFTER I crashed. Sadly I didn't get another try because time was up, and they closed things down. It didn't take too much flirting to get one of the guys to help me get the bike loaded back up.
The adrenaline wore off on my way back home (2.5 hours), and I started hurting pretty badly - my right shoulder and left knee apparantly took quite a beating. My shoulder is still a little sore, and the bruise on my knee has shrunken from baseball sized to...a little smaller than baseball sized.
All in all, it was crazy, but I'm glad that I did it.
First race is May 12th...this weekend!!
(Sorry for the lengthy ramble!!)
Having started on a Yamaha BW 80, upgrading to an XR 100, then racing that once and riding it out of suspension and power, I decided to get a 98 CR 80 Expert.
A couple years back I tried it out on a faircross track which wasn't user friendly at all, and I got discouraged and stuck solely to riding on dirt roads. However, this summer I've gotten bold, and applied for a season membership for the local series! (DMC Motorsports).
The first organized practice was last saturday, and was quite the adventure!
The night before the practice was scheduled, I went out to my parents farm to prep the bike (at least tried). Basically, I mixed up some fresh gas, and tried to adjust my shift lever to accommodate my new boots. After checking other things like oil level, chain tension, and those little other things that seem to fail at the last second.
Soon, it was 3:00am and I finally gave up fiddling for the best fit, hoped for the best, and headed inside for bed.
Both my dad and brother said that I wouldn't have the guts to try it, but I was pretty determined to at least try!
I woke up late the next morning, and then found myself without any means to get the bike to the track! Thankfully my grandpa stepped in and let me use his pickup two hours AFTER I had planned to leave.
It was then that my dad decided to come out and work on my bike. This put me 45 more minutes behind schedule, and I had to tell him to stop.
I made it to the track without too much trouble, and got my t-shirt and membership card right away without any confusion. Unloading was a very interesting experience, as my wonderful dad had somehow managed to wedge the ramps into the pickup box AND underneath the bike, with the tiedown straps woven through them somehow.
Funny how no one happens to be in sight when things like that happen. When I finally got the bike out, I had missed half of my classes' practice session. I threw on my gear as quickly as I could, and pushed my bike up to one of the officials. He pointed me and the bike in the right direction in the starting gate, and told me to start my bike and wait for his cue.
I jump on the bike, and SURPRISE!! I can't touch the ground in my boots! Luckily, the official caught me before I hit the ground, and even held my bike for me so I could start it.
He sent me out, and I was great and happy off the first jump, then saw the size of the doubles coming at me and had an "EEK!!!" moment. I decided to roll the rest of the track as best I could.
I got lapped, pointed at, and laughed at because of my jeans, but I made it around without crashing and managed to keep my line most of the time! The only problem was that I couldn't keep my head up and kept missing shifts because of my boots.
Second session of the day went much better, and I was able to control the bike a little better. My first and last attempt at a double ended up with the bike landing on me because I missed the shift, hit the face of the landing, and whiskeythrottled myself over the next ramp.
I felt fine, and the race organizers said I rode faster AFTER I crashed. Sadly I didn't get another try because time was up, and they closed things down. It didn't take too much flirting to get one of the guys to help me get the bike loaded back up.
The adrenaline wore off on my way back home (2.5 hours), and I started hurting pretty badly - my right shoulder and left knee apparantly took quite a beating. My shoulder is still a little sore, and the bruise on my knee has shrunken from baseball sized to...a little smaller than baseball sized.
All in all, it was crazy, but I'm glad that I did it.
First race is May 12th...this weekend!!
(Sorry for the lengthy ramble!!)
