- Oct 13, 1999
- 2,807
- 0
I’m sure Daniel Joseph has been eagerly awaiting this post, so he can rub it in my face. Let me start out by saying that I sucked! I couldn’t get into a groove all day. In the rock sections it felt like I was riding a jackhammer. In the fast, open sections I had to be careful of the rocks hidden by the leaves. Twice I took a high-speed soil sample. Both times the same guy was behind me and would tell me how spectacular my crash looked. There were a couple of bright spots on the day though. I finished my first NETRA enduro. I didn’t end up last place in VetB since two riders DNF’d. Last, but not least, I finally met Daniel Joseph. Still don’t know if that’s a good thing or not though.
Okay, back to the enduro. We ran a short transfer section with some rocky single track. I’m still surprised they did not have a check at the end. The there was a short reset and some road before turning onto a state forest road. I don’t have a Brand X compatible comparator so I did the old mileage and watch routine. I hit the first check right on time. The course continued down the road then turned into some more single track. Not far into this test section I hit the first rocky uphill. Bikes were littered all over the place. About ¾ of the way up I got stuck and had to dismount and bulldog around a fallen rider. This first test section was a combination of fast, open trail and slow rocky stuff. Just about all the faster riders behind me were able to pass me in this section and I passed a few slower riders too. This is one plus for Brand X rules. Once you pass a slower rider, you don’t have to keep passing them after resets. I dropped 10 points at the check out of the first test. We then had a short reset before heading down the road.
We made our way through the transfer section into the second test section. I was riding with a guy on a WR250F and we hit the second test section right on time. Dang, no check-in. I was doing pretty good in this section I kept the guy on the WR in my sight. We hit an open whooped out section and I started gaining ground on him. Then I heard this buzzing sound to my right. Next thing I know this old Bultaco goes flying right by me and catches the WR just as we turn back into the woods. Nothing deflates an ego more than getting passed by some guy riding a museum artifact. My revenge came later in the day when I saw him on the side of the road with parts and tools laid out like a garage sale. For a short time I was stuck behind an XR mounted rider. The trail finally broke out into a field and I started to make my pass when this guy moves into my line. I yelled, he stopped and I made my way around him clipping his rear tire. The course turned back into the woods and a rider on a black KTM stalled in front of me. I bumped his tire and stalled my bike. I heard a four-stroke coming so I hurried to restart and take off thinking it was the XR I just passed. I battled for the only line into the woods with this guy, who turned out to be on a KTM RFS, not an XR. Oops, sorry. He got his revenge though about ¾ of the way through this section my front tire hit a rock and sent me flying into the brush. Three or four bikes passed me while I was pounding levers, hand guards and what not back into position. I also tweaked the forks in the triple clamps and had to stop at the next tree and reposition them. At least I didn’t bend my new bars. I got out of this section dropping nine points.
The course continued through a transfer section and finally into more trail. This is where I started getting beat up. The forks were bouncing everywhere and I couldn’t get into a groove. I was fighting the bike more than riding it. I turned both compression and fork clickers to full soft. It helped a little, but not much. I made it through and dropped another 8 points at check 4. Then rode up to the known control. We had actually ridden this short section earlier in the morning and I knew it would lead to the gas stop. They had an emergency check-out and I dropped 2:43 in this section. I made my way back to the gas stop. The guy I had come with, Bob, was already there. He was only three minutes ahead of me and had dropped 2:36 in the last test section, so we weren’t that far off. This made me feel a little better since he was having suspension troubles too. Coming into gas I noticed that my clutch was not fully disengaging and that my kickstand was flopping around. I bled the clutch, which didn't help, filled up on gas and water then zip-tied the kickstand to my subframe before heading out.
After gas there was a known control and I decided to leave on minute 59. Another good thing about Brand X, you can check in at a known control up to your original minute without any penalty. I asked the check workers if there were fewer rocks in this section. They just laughed… bad sign. I got hammered in this section, literally, dropping 14 points at the check-out. Then I dropped six points a piece in the next two test sections. Also had another spectacular high-speed get-off in a transfer section. This one tweaked my forks back into shape. The front suspension was not soaking up trail junk and made me very nervous when standing on the pegs. Spent the rest of the ride with my butt in the seat.
Check 11 was placed at the beginning of a section. I had been riding by my watch all day and kept doing the math in my head. I zeroed this check, but heard a lot of riders burned it. Of course I dropped another six points in this last test section, for a grand total of 61. Pretty pathetic when you consider the class winner dropped 15 or 20. I did feel sorry for riders on the early rows. Leaves on the trail made finding rocks difficult, although the way my forks acted, everything had a square edge. In retrospect I may have been too harsh on Brand X rules earlier. They are actually quite simple. Hopefully by next season I’ll have my suspension sorted out, be in better shape and remember to backflush my clutch master cylinder. Other than that I had a blast and only limped around for a couple of days afterwards.
Anything to add DJ?
Okay, back to the enduro. We ran a short transfer section with some rocky single track. I’m still surprised they did not have a check at the end. The there was a short reset and some road before turning onto a state forest road. I don’t have a Brand X compatible comparator so I did the old mileage and watch routine. I hit the first check right on time. The course continued down the road then turned into some more single track. Not far into this test section I hit the first rocky uphill. Bikes were littered all over the place. About ¾ of the way up I got stuck and had to dismount and bulldog around a fallen rider. This first test section was a combination of fast, open trail and slow rocky stuff. Just about all the faster riders behind me were able to pass me in this section and I passed a few slower riders too. This is one plus for Brand X rules. Once you pass a slower rider, you don’t have to keep passing them after resets. I dropped 10 points at the check out of the first test. We then had a short reset before heading down the road.
We made our way through the transfer section into the second test section. I was riding with a guy on a WR250F and we hit the second test section right on time. Dang, no check-in. I was doing pretty good in this section I kept the guy on the WR in my sight. We hit an open whooped out section and I started gaining ground on him. Then I heard this buzzing sound to my right. Next thing I know this old Bultaco goes flying right by me and catches the WR just as we turn back into the woods. Nothing deflates an ego more than getting passed by some guy riding a museum artifact. My revenge came later in the day when I saw him on the side of the road with parts and tools laid out like a garage sale. For a short time I was stuck behind an XR mounted rider. The trail finally broke out into a field and I started to make my pass when this guy moves into my line. I yelled, he stopped and I made my way around him clipping his rear tire. The course turned back into the woods and a rider on a black KTM stalled in front of me. I bumped his tire and stalled my bike. I heard a four-stroke coming so I hurried to restart and take off thinking it was the XR I just passed. I battled for the only line into the woods with this guy, who turned out to be on a KTM RFS, not an XR. Oops, sorry. He got his revenge though about ¾ of the way through this section my front tire hit a rock and sent me flying into the brush. Three or four bikes passed me while I was pounding levers, hand guards and what not back into position. I also tweaked the forks in the triple clamps and had to stop at the next tree and reposition them. At least I didn’t bend my new bars. I got out of this section dropping nine points.
The course continued through a transfer section and finally into more trail. This is where I started getting beat up. The forks were bouncing everywhere and I couldn’t get into a groove. I was fighting the bike more than riding it. I turned both compression and fork clickers to full soft. It helped a little, but not much. I made it through and dropped another 8 points at check 4. Then rode up to the known control. We had actually ridden this short section earlier in the morning and I knew it would lead to the gas stop. They had an emergency check-out and I dropped 2:43 in this section. I made my way back to the gas stop. The guy I had come with, Bob, was already there. He was only three minutes ahead of me and had dropped 2:36 in the last test section, so we weren’t that far off. This made me feel a little better since he was having suspension troubles too. Coming into gas I noticed that my clutch was not fully disengaging and that my kickstand was flopping around. I bled the clutch, which didn't help, filled up on gas and water then zip-tied the kickstand to my subframe before heading out.
After gas there was a known control and I decided to leave on minute 59. Another good thing about Brand X, you can check in at a known control up to your original minute without any penalty. I asked the check workers if there were fewer rocks in this section. They just laughed… bad sign. I got hammered in this section, literally, dropping 14 points at the check-out. Then I dropped six points a piece in the next two test sections. Also had another spectacular high-speed get-off in a transfer section. This one tweaked my forks back into shape. The front suspension was not soaking up trail junk and made me very nervous when standing on the pegs. Spent the rest of the ride with my butt in the seat.
Check 11 was placed at the beginning of a section. I had been riding by my watch all day and kept doing the math in my head. I zeroed this check, but heard a lot of riders burned it. Of course I dropped another six points in this last test section, for a grand total of 61. Pretty pathetic when you consider the class winner dropped 15 or 20. I did feel sorry for riders on the early rows. Leaves on the trail made finding rocks difficult, although the way my forks acted, everything had a square edge. In retrospect I may have been too harsh on Brand X rules earlier. They are actually quite simple. Hopefully by next season I’ll have my suspension sorted out, be in better shape and remember to backflush my clutch master cylinder. Other than that I had a blast and only limped around for a couple of days afterwards.
Anything to add DJ?