The Ant takes "!st Woman" at the Euro GP!
....er... okay, she was the only woman in her class that day. <grin> There was another woman there but she ran in a separate class to race directly against a friend.
The Euro GP is a located near Goldendale, WA.... 'bout an 1.5 hours from Portland, OR. We drove up Saturday morning and conditions were just great! Sunny, dry... and no mud in sight.
A couple of corners got a little dusty later in the day when the top riders would lap... But other than that... just great.
We spent some time on Susan's suspension settings on her BBR200 before the race. As she has gotten better/faster - we decided to set all the rebound/compression settings back to "standard" for both the forks and shock.
She said the first ten minutes were weird because it felt so much stiffer. Then she realized that she wasn't "bobbing" around so much in the whoops and braking bumps. Then she realized she was riding a gear higher everywhere and was haulin' a**...! (her words, by the way.... <grin>)
She did real well, had a ball, and despite having no direct competitors in her class - is very proud of this win/trophy - as she felt she was racing and "earned" it. Matter of fact, she was puttin' the hurt on a bunch of young boys racing two-smokes and XR200s. Lot of fun to watch from my normal "tow-truck" vantage point.
And how did I do? Was having great fun on the KTM 400 MXC until.... Came up to this one low jump.. on a straightaway... very slighlty downhill. No big deal at all. Didn't get big air but was in third and moving. Something funny about the lip of the jump kicked my rear wheel sideways. Wasn't paying enought attention and the front tire washed out on landing. Resulting in a HUGE body slam and major bruised ribs. Thank goodness for e-start. After de-embedding myself I was able to push the button and limp on back to the start. Later that night, had a coughing spell and ended up cracking a rib! owowowowowo.... it has not been fun this last week.
I met Susan at the start on her second lap - she was doing great and having a ball - so told her to go finish the race.
Despite my boo-boo..... it was a great day, great race. And I highly encourage ALL riders to play with your suspension settings. 'Cause if you don't - you may never know just how great your bike can be!
Oh yeah, Susan loaded the bikes, got us home, unloaded all the gear, and took great care of me. Guess I'll have to take her to Tahiti in December as a thank-you. <grin>
Cheers! - E-Ticket
....er... okay, she was the only woman in her class that day. <grin> There was another woman there but she ran in a separate class to race directly against a friend.
The Euro GP is a located near Goldendale, WA.... 'bout an 1.5 hours from Portland, OR. We drove up Saturday morning and conditions were just great! Sunny, dry... and no mud in sight.
A couple of corners got a little dusty later in the day when the top riders would lap... But other than that... just great.
We spent some time on Susan's suspension settings on her BBR200 before the race. As she has gotten better/faster - we decided to set all the rebound/compression settings back to "standard" for both the forks and shock.
She said the first ten minutes were weird because it felt so much stiffer. Then she realized that she wasn't "bobbing" around so much in the whoops and braking bumps. Then she realized she was riding a gear higher everywhere and was haulin' a**...! (her words, by the way.... <grin>)
She did real well, had a ball, and despite having no direct competitors in her class - is very proud of this win/trophy - as she felt she was racing and "earned" it. Matter of fact, she was puttin' the hurt on a bunch of young boys racing two-smokes and XR200s. Lot of fun to watch from my normal "tow-truck" vantage point.
And how did I do? Was having great fun on the KTM 400 MXC until.... Came up to this one low jump.. on a straightaway... very slighlty downhill. No big deal at all. Didn't get big air but was in third and moving. Something funny about the lip of the jump kicked my rear wheel sideways. Wasn't paying enought attention and the front tire washed out on landing. Resulting in a HUGE body slam and major bruised ribs. Thank goodness for e-start. After de-embedding myself I was able to push the button and limp on back to the start. Later that night, had a coughing spell and ended up cracking a rib! owowowowowo.... it has not been fun this last week.
I met Susan at the start on her second lap - she was doing great and having a ball - so told her to go finish the race.
Despite my boo-boo..... it was a great day, great race. And I highly encourage ALL riders to play with your suspension settings. 'Cause if you don't - you may never know just how great your bike can be!
Oh yeah, Susan loaded the bikes, got us home, unloaded all the gear, and took great care of me. Guess I'll have to take her to Tahiti in December as a thank-you. <grin>
Cheers! - E-Ticket
