April Fools Day….a fine day for an enduro. Sunday’s Sparkplug Enduro at Tahuya was the opening round of the NMA enduro series in Washington. I had the pleasure of sharing a minute with one of the fastest women in woods and two very fast desert riders from California. The Cali dudes hold some impressive titles, the most recent being: Steve was the top American privateer and Chris 3rd overall at the 2007 Dakar Rally in Africa. That makes them tough as nails in my book! Chris brought his 2005 Red Bull KTM 660 from Dakar (where he placed 9th) to display at the enduro. With a few jealous soles looking on, below is a shot of me riding the Dakar bike the day before the event.
There are only 8 of this particular build of bike in the world. It makes about 86 HP and, with all 12 gallons of fuel on board, weighs in at 450 pounds. I headed straight for the pavement through a short section of twisties and was surprised how well it handled on the road, knobbie tires and all. It had no license plate and I was sure it could be heard about 5 miles away, so I got smart and headed back to the trailhead. Now I’m feeling a little froggy on this big bike and head for a whooped out section of road converted to trail. Launching off about the 6th or 8th whoop I was simultaneously impressed with how well it handled and was contemplating the reality of all that horsepower and weight possibly getting headed in the wrong direction. Yikes! Good time to turn around and safety return this beautiful piece of machinery to it’s owner before somebody gets hurt. Big thanks to Chris for this opportunity of a lifetime.
Mr. Blais is clearly the fastest rider on our starting row, but he’s a desert rider and we’re deep in the woods in mostly tight treed trails. With that, he let’s me take the lead and would not pass me for the first two loops. The enduro was 3 loops, each about 30 miles long. Loop one was a mix of go-fast stuff where we were keeping time, stopping short of the possibles, doing the enduro thing and some brand new trail that was really gnarly & technical. The fresh cut stuff was a special test where we dropped 4 points. The rest of loop one we carded all zeros. I think every time we stopped on that first loop Chris was spouting about how much fun he was having, the rest of us had to agree. It was killer! Loop two was similar to the first. It was getting apparent that while we were having the time of our lives, “C” riders had to be hating life. The course was not forgiving at all. Pretty much all tight trail, some on the nasty side and few opportunities to catch back up once you were behind. My personal definition of the perfect day. Chris and I dropped two more points on that loop. Carol dropped four and Steve a few more, as he had to stop and cramp up a couple of times. Within ½ mile of the end of loop two, which was also the end for the short course riders, was a huge waterhole. I knew it was bad when 20 or so spectators came into view around the perimeter of this thing. I went right, Chris went left, Carol & Steve got buried in the inevitable roost. Gotta like being in the lead sometimes!
With a refill of premix for the Katoom and Gatorade & energy bar for the bod, we were back out for loop three. That is traditionally where this enduro becomes a hare scrambles. It’s no longer about timekeeping, but just seeing who is the fastest rider today. A mile or so out Chris decided he had figured out how to ride the trees and accompanying tree roots that continually try to stop you and throw you on the ground. He took the point and left us in his tracks. It sure is cool to see a really good rider ride, even if you can only catch a glimpse for 30 seconds or so. Things were going my way in a long special test section where I’d reeled in and passed about 6 guys. All of a sudden my bike runs out of gas! I’m only at mile 73 and have roughly 17 more to go. This is grim. My memory flashed back to two weeks earlier in Moab where my float had stuck open and cost me some gas. Arrgh! I flipped it to reserve and started kicking like a possessed woman. Everyone I’d passed plus about 6 or 8 more were getting their revenge now. One of them manages to knock me and my bike upside down down the sidehill I was on. Talk about insult to injury. After benchpressing my bike back up onto the trail it’s more kicking and no starting. It ain’t even trying to fire, so I pull the kill button thinking that it’s maybe grounding out on me. Still no go. Finally I look down at the carburetor and see that the fuel line is flopping in the breeze. A stick had pulled the fuel line right off the fuel filter. In my panic, I switched the gas to “OFF” instead of “RESERVE”; stupid, but at least I hadn’t drained all my fuel on the ground. Got that situation taken care of and switched into major attack mode from there to the finish line. I rode my ass off, shouldn’t even have one at this point, far as I’m concerned! The fuel thing cost me one place in my class and about 13 places overall. Bummer on the standings, but I had an awesome time and was really pleased with how I rode.
The Bremerton Cruisers M/C put on an outstanding event, one that can truly be called an “enduro”, where everyone had points taken away from them and only 132 of the 230 starters finished. Perhaps it was painful to some, but you can’t please everyone. We had a great crew of riders on our minute, all placed well and we were all smiling at the finish. Even with me as an anchor on the first two loops, Chris took 5th overall – great job! Looking forward to the next race.
LT
There are only 8 of this particular build of bike in the world. It makes about 86 HP and, with all 12 gallons of fuel on board, weighs in at 450 pounds. I headed straight for the pavement through a short section of twisties and was surprised how well it handled on the road, knobbie tires and all. It had no license plate and I was sure it could be heard about 5 miles away, so I got smart and headed back to the trailhead. Now I’m feeling a little froggy on this big bike and head for a whooped out section of road converted to trail. Launching off about the 6th or 8th whoop I was simultaneously impressed with how well it handled and was contemplating the reality of all that horsepower and weight possibly getting headed in the wrong direction. Yikes! Good time to turn around and safety return this beautiful piece of machinery to it’s owner before somebody gets hurt. Big thanks to Chris for this opportunity of a lifetime.
Mr. Blais is clearly the fastest rider on our starting row, but he’s a desert rider and we’re deep in the woods in mostly tight treed trails. With that, he let’s me take the lead and would not pass me for the first two loops. The enduro was 3 loops, each about 30 miles long. Loop one was a mix of go-fast stuff where we were keeping time, stopping short of the possibles, doing the enduro thing and some brand new trail that was really gnarly & technical. The fresh cut stuff was a special test where we dropped 4 points. The rest of loop one we carded all zeros. I think every time we stopped on that first loop Chris was spouting about how much fun he was having, the rest of us had to agree. It was killer! Loop two was similar to the first. It was getting apparent that while we were having the time of our lives, “C” riders had to be hating life. The course was not forgiving at all. Pretty much all tight trail, some on the nasty side and few opportunities to catch back up once you were behind. My personal definition of the perfect day. Chris and I dropped two more points on that loop. Carol dropped four and Steve a few more, as he had to stop and cramp up a couple of times. Within ½ mile of the end of loop two, which was also the end for the short course riders, was a huge waterhole. I knew it was bad when 20 or so spectators came into view around the perimeter of this thing. I went right, Chris went left, Carol & Steve got buried in the inevitable roost. Gotta like being in the lead sometimes!
With a refill of premix for the Katoom and Gatorade & energy bar for the bod, we were back out for loop three. That is traditionally where this enduro becomes a hare scrambles. It’s no longer about timekeeping, but just seeing who is the fastest rider today. A mile or so out Chris decided he had figured out how to ride the trees and accompanying tree roots that continually try to stop you and throw you on the ground. He took the point and left us in his tracks. It sure is cool to see a really good rider ride, even if you can only catch a glimpse for 30 seconds or so. Things were going my way in a long special test section where I’d reeled in and passed about 6 guys. All of a sudden my bike runs out of gas! I’m only at mile 73 and have roughly 17 more to go. This is grim. My memory flashed back to two weeks earlier in Moab where my float had stuck open and cost me some gas. Arrgh! I flipped it to reserve and started kicking like a possessed woman. Everyone I’d passed plus about 6 or 8 more were getting their revenge now. One of them manages to knock me and my bike upside down down the sidehill I was on. Talk about insult to injury. After benchpressing my bike back up onto the trail it’s more kicking and no starting. It ain’t even trying to fire, so I pull the kill button thinking that it’s maybe grounding out on me. Still no go. Finally I look down at the carburetor and see that the fuel line is flopping in the breeze. A stick had pulled the fuel line right off the fuel filter. In my panic, I switched the gas to “OFF” instead of “RESERVE”; stupid, but at least I hadn’t drained all my fuel on the ground. Got that situation taken care of and switched into major attack mode from there to the finish line. I rode my ass off, shouldn’t even have one at this point, far as I’m concerned! The fuel thing cost me one place in my class and about 13 places overall. Bummer on the standings, but I had an awesome time and was really pleased with how I rode.
The Bremerton Cruisers M/C put on an outstanding event, one that can truly be called an “enduro”, where everyone had points taken away from them and only 132 of the 230 starters finished. Perhaps it was painful to some, but you can’t please everyone. We had a great crew of riders on our minute, all placed well and we were all smiling at the finish. Even with me as an anchor on the first two loops, Chris took 5th overall – great job! Looking forward to the next race.
LT
