Pikes Peak National 8/10
Kenneth Murphy
I worked, I'll post a worker's view.
It all started kinda bad when I went to pick up arrows. The promoter
said, "You don't have any arrows." Neat. We took what arrows we could
find, and took off to start arrowing with what we had. More arrows were
promised in "about an hour". We made it 18 miles before we ran out.
To make a long story short, we got our arrows, finally, and finished
arrowing about 3:30. Much beer and BS flowed until about 10:30.
Observations:
1) You need arrows to arrow a course. ;)
2) Don't try to ride at your normal pace with big cardboard signs
sticking out of your backpack. You won't believe how close your head
comes to low-hanging limbs. Sorry about that tattered reset sign at
21 miles guys. ;)
Race day:
I had a crew of 5 workers that are all top-notch guys. We decided to
station ourselves in a section we called "The A-Loop". It's probably
one of the most technical and tight sections in the entire area. It's
a short section, only being a couple of miles, but I'm glad we were
there. We all sat on a rock and watched the A guys go through. Notables
though our area were Destry Abbott, Mike Lafferty, Ty Davis, Donnie Book,
and local ex-AA rider, Troy Raynor. All these guys just blitzed our
section in impressive form. Around minute 30 we decided to split up
and work seperate sections that we thought would cause problems. From
this point on I think we lifted the entire "C" class over this whole
section. Without going into boring details let me just add the following
riding hints for newbie riders:
1) Momentum is your friend. Don't ride up to the 1' tall tree laying
across the trail, stop and look at it. You won't have enough momentum
to cross it effectively. When you see a tree laying across the trail,
do the following: Attempt to square up to it as best is possible.
Maintain a speed that will allow the rear wheel to carry over the
obstacle without power. Blip the throttle/gas just as you get to the
obstacle, clear the front wheel, and chop the throttle. Let the momentum
carry the rear wheel over. This will work for MANY obstacles, not just
trees.
2) Go where the course worker points. Trust him. Even though the
obstacle might not *look* tough, he's probably watched 30 of your
buddies wad themselves in that same place. If he's piled logs
over the trail, don't try to ride over them to go where he didn't
point.
3) If you come upon a bottlenecked mudhole, don't get impatient
and try to go where the isn't anyone. There is a reason there
is no one there. It's likely that the mire is n*t deep and the
very tired course worker that's there has already extracted all the
stuck XR250's he cares go. Be patient and again, go where they
point.
Now, a word or two about specifics of our section. We got yelled
at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
Rocks: When possible, ride *over* them, and not between them.
You'll do less bike damage that way.
One more thing: To the guy who hit the tree at 20MPH. Duuude,
that looked like that hurt! I'm glad to hear that you're OK,
but man... this poor guy hit this tree and bounced a good
4 feet. I spoke to the EMT's and they'd turned him loose, but
he was a walking bruise.
Lastly: Three cheers for all the riders of this event. We'd
had trouble with ONE resident along the road that we had to ride.
She fought us every way possible, and even made the comment that
this race would "go on over her dead body". We begged, pleaded,
and had a mandatory riders meeting to beg and plead some more.
The result? I spoke to the Sheriff at the end of the day. He
was VERY pleased at how the riders conducted themselves and even
mentioned that our problem lady had changed her mind as well! It
seems that EVERY RIDER obeyed the speed limit, and there were
ZERO complaints.
Thanks to everyone that participated!
"I'm gonna go for it" Lisa WRT the Matador Enduro (Lest we forget! ;) )
O aka Ken Murphy (kmur...@ford.com) Owner/Operator: 98YZ250
<M>erfman Thanks to: Jen, Erin, Apex Sports, DNA Racing, FMF Racing,
_/ \_ Boyesen/Twin Air, Sprocket Specialists and Works Connection
Disclaimer: Don't even pretend you thought I spoke for Visteon
Lisa Horn
Nov. to come. You paint an interesting picture of an enduro. But I'm not
chickening out cause I figure I can crash, hit trees and get stuck in the
mud as good as any... maybe better!
Lisa
97 KDX200
Kenneth Murphy <kmur...@chip1.uucp> wrote in article
<6qn5ls$mg...@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com>...
> I'm sure Will or someone else will post a review of the race, so since
> I worked, I'll post a worker's view.
>
(snipped all the fun stuff)
rbtbone
Kenneth Murphy wrote:
> I'm sure Will or someone else will post a review of the race, so since
> I worked, I'll post a worker's view.
>
> It all started kinda bad when I went to pick up arrows. The promoter
> said, "You don't have any arrows." Neat. We took what arrows we could
> find, and took off to start arrowing with what we had. More arrows were
> promised in "about an hour". We made it 18 miles before we ran out.
> To make a long story short, we got our arrows, finally, and finished
> arrowing about 3:30. Much beer and BS flowed until about 10:30.
>
> Observations:
>
> 1) You need arrows to arrow a course. ;)
> 2) Don't try to ride at your normal pace with big cardboard signs
> sticking out of your backpack. You won't believe how close your head
> comes to low-hanging limbs. Sorry about that tattered reset sign at
> 21 miles guys. ;)
You know...I've seen few of those tattered signs when I'm racing. You know
there is a story there somewhere.Snip hero sightings and good advice
> Now, a word or two about specifics of our section. We got yelled
> at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
> or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
> whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
> two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
Must have been Texas MXer's who won't even ride in the rain
> Lastly: Three cheers for all the riders of this event. We'd
> had trouble with ONE resident along the road that we had to ride.
> She fought us every way possible, and even made the comment that
> this race would "go on over her dead body". We begged, pleaded,
> and had a mandatory riders meeting to beg and plead some more.
> The result? I spoke to the Sheriff at the end of the day. He
> was VERY pleased at how the riders conducted themselves and even
> mentioned that our problem lady had changed her mind as well! It
> seems that EVERY RIDER obeyed the speed limit, and there were
> ZERO complaints.
It never ceases to amaze me how peoples minds can be changed when they
actually meet riders in our sport . This scenario has played itself out many
times here locally. Good behavior and responsible riding only helps our
sport. Your club must have had good organization around that area - good
work!
Thanks for the report Murph...
--
Rick Bowser
96 XR600 the old guys enduro bike
95 RM125 the young guys MX bike
Keith Hill
>Now, a word or two about specifics of our section. We got yelled
>at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
>or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
>whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
>two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
What section was this? The only section that was remotely technical on the
C loop was the first and last 3 miles which were the same except opposite
direction. Even then, going out wasn't bad at all. Coming back though,
WOW, I was fortunate to have been able to pick good lines around of a lot of
the bottle-necks. The hardest part here was negotiating the bottle-necks
without getting stuck or having to wait too long. And there were quite a
few bottle-necks in the last 3 miles. BTW, the other 60+ miles was
rip-snorting fun.
>Lastly: Three cheers for all the riders of this event. We'd
>had trouble with ONE resident along the road that we had to ride.
>She fought us every way possible, and even made the comment that
>this race would "go on over her dead body". We begged, pleaded,
>and had a mandatory riders meeting to beg and plead some more.
>The result? I spoke to the Sheriff at the end of the day. He
>was VERY pleased at how the riders conducted themselves and even
>mentioned that our problem lady had changed her mind as well! It
>seems that EVERY RIDER obeyed the speed limit, and there were
>ZERO complaints.
I am glad to hear this. I thought at the rider's meeting one bad apple
would screw this up.
Keith Hill
Gary M
wrote:
>2) Don't try to ride at your normal pace with big cardboard signs
>sticking out of your backpack. You won't believe how close your head
>comes to low-hanging limbs. Sorry about that tattered reset sign at
>21 miles guys. ;)
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Some of us only get older. 8-)
Gary M TCP#3
Kenneth Murphy
: Kenneth Murphy wrote in message <6qn5ls$mg...@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com>...
: >Now, a word or two about specifics of our section. We got yelled
: >at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
: >or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
: >whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
: >two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
: What section was this? The only section that was remotely technical on the
: C loop was the first and last 3 miles which were the same except opposite
: direction.
Tell that to the 200 or so guys we trucked up the hill. :( The "a-loop"
started at around 23 miles, and finished 2 miles later. I remember when you
came through, it wasn't bad at that time.
: I am glad to hear this. I thought at the rider's meeting one bad apple
: would screw this up.
Yea, so did we, that's why I wanted to mention that NOBODY screwed up!
Congrat's on the 3rd.
: Keith Hill
--
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com
kmur...@ford.com wrote:
> I'm sure Will or someone else will post a review of the race, so since
> I worked, I'll post a worker's view.
Spodeboy's Spin - Or maybe I should call it Spodeboy's Misadventures.
I am cranky! No two ways about it. I was done with my reply yesterday and just
about to post when the lights went out. Grrrrrr.....
First off, I want to thank Ken Murphy, Rex McKinney, Tom Dillon, Phil Roberts,
Kevin Witt, and all the folks who made this race happen - especially Wayne
Intermill the promoter! It was definitely a great race and after 48 hours of
navel contemplation I concluded that I had a ball. (You should have seen my
first post ;) )
Get this... The Enduro was staged out of Jellystone Park, with Yogi, Booboo,
and Ranger Bob. Seriously! - that was the whole shtick and it was one of the
nicest campgrounds I have ever seen with all the amenities. My only complaint?
Well, the place was f'n HUGE! I lucked out and was near enough to a bunch of
people I wanted to talk to (obviously the only real reason I go to enduros ;)
) including Merf & Co. Sat around the fire taking shots off a bottle of Jack,
and shooting the breeze with a contingent from Frisco Colorado. Gentle rain
during the evening ensured a cooler less dusty ride the next day.
> It all started kinda bad...
Oh the shame of it! I was definitely hurt by missing the Calamity Pass Enduro
and a months worth of conditioning. My excuse? Well you all know by now that
I... well Rex suggested Marriedboy as my new handle. ;) I wouldn't have traded
a single minute of that month for the world! The wedding went great, last
minute details all fell into place, and had a relaxing honeymoon being a
Colorado tourist again for a short while.
<sigh...>
Day broke early for My brother and I who had not even registered for the race
yet. Pointer! When going to an enduro in the mountains during the summer,
bring warm cloths no matter how damn hot it was when you packed for the trip.
The ride to Signup/Start was a real weanie shrinker with a light drizzle
going on! Another pointer, there really needs to be a bullhorn available at
any riders meeting where there is more than 400 riders, trust me on this ;).
After asking some questions of those fortunate enough to be within a mile of
the speaker, I was ready to go.
I had heard that the first part of the race was going to be a special test
run around the outskirts of the campground - I was not disappointed! I was
thoroughly entertained while getting dressed, and hopped out of the camper
several times to cheer on friends riding not even twenty feet away away. Joel
passed by at some point with some guy on a CR dogging him too close and
rammed him and went down hard - very dramatic! Joel just kinda looked back as
if to say "dipshit!". There was a good place to pass right there.
I ended up riding with total strangers, only one of which was doing
timekeeping. Needless to say I am a total sponge and got used to riding with
Joel (my brother). As long as I didn't pass him I don't burn checks. I
usually only see him for about 2 milliseconds and run late the rest of the
race ;) Due to constraints of the course, B-riders had to run earlier than
minute 57 and he got put on minute 45 to my 95. Well... I was stupid to have
waited so long for signing up.
The race immediately launched into a series of tight turns in the trees that
had never seen a trail before this event. Wet roots and soft wet loamy pine
duff greeted my somewhat worn Pirelli MT-18's after winding down a couple of
turns I saw the sign "Photo ahead" as I was dogging the guy ahead of me. As
Photoman was taking his picture this guy slides out his front and goes down
hard - making absolutely sure that every square inch of trail was covered by
him and his bike. I cant wait to see my photo, imagine - Spodeboy's eyes
bugging out as he does a stoppie on a steep wet downhill.
Using his bike for traction I launched over the offensive root only to come
flying around a corner at sublight speed and seeing a four inch thick tree
down on a long downhill diagonal across the 3 foot wide trail - the
dirtbiking equivalent to a derailer used in train yards ;). I tried to get as
perpendicular to it as possible, and even managed to get the front wheel
over, but ended up sliding the rear along the length of the log and speeding
backwards off the trail down a steep hill and wedging between some trees.
Getting back onto the trail is where I first discovered my conditioning
deficiency...
After making a lame attempt to regain time, I played it safe and choose a
slower pace rather than one which would get me in trouble again. after
several trips across meadows and road in the campground, we crossed the
beaver pond which had a wide assortment of wooden pallets, stairs, and
platforms, piled into it to simulate the functionality of a bridge - more on
that later. We launched off into the woods again bashing trees on both sides
and still battling the roots. I realized that this would have been a whole
lot more fun had I had a chance to work into it rather than hitting this
section right off the start. My dirtbiking skills were waking far more slowly
than the rest of me ;). It was incredibly fun on the second time through near
the end.
I ended up right behind another spode on a CR125 and had to grin and bear it.
Knowing that Rebecca was waiting for me up ahead with the camera, I hung back
then charged across a nice road crossing taking a respectable little flight -
then back to business. We hit a road presently where there was a reset/gas
optional. Knowing that I was behind I kept going, and hit check one.
"You are WAAAYYY HOT" was what the worker told me as I rolled in.
"How much?" I asked
"4 minutes" he replied
I leaned over the fender and looked at the barcode sticker and drew a complete
blank. I was minute 95 and the sticker said 1h60 or something like that. Had I
not freaked out I would have noticed that it said 0941 (upside down) - 6
minutes behind, I had read it backwards then assumed that it was some kind of
code rather than a time. One of these days I will have to remember to bring my
brain with me - this error screwed me up bigtime.
The next section was all road. We had been informed that there was a STRICT
18 Mph speed limit - anyone caught speeding would be immediately DQ'd. They
had video cameras, police, and workers all over - just to make sure we
wouldn't offend the residents of the area. No problem - I already had dropped
a bunch of points for being early, right? I wasn't in any hurry.
Needless to say, I was late at check 2 as well. By that time I had kinda
figured it out and started to rage at the end of an 18 MPH section. This was
classic Rampart Range riding - red granite pea gravel trails, whoops, narrow
sidehills, whoops, open meadows, whoops, blind tree filled direction changes,
whoops, stream crossings, whoops, tight tree riding, whoops... Actually the
whoops weren't all that bad - generally only 2 or 3 in a row - just lean back
and carry the front and skip every other bump. I raged through here but still
carried excess time into the gas.
> 2) Don't try to ride at your normal pace with big cardboard signs
> sticking out of your backpack. You won't believe how close your head
> comes to low-hanging limbs. Sorry about that tattered reset sign at
> 21 miles guys. ;)
And I thought the bears were chewing on it! ROFL. At the gas I ended up taking
a brief nap - the A & B riders were routed out to an additional 50 course
miles, much of which were actual miles of truly brutal terrain. The C-Riders
had to wait nearly an hour and a half before starting again - almost like
starting for the first time in the morning.
I have to applaud all the family members who made it out there. I don't think
enough can be said about how nice it is to see a loved one even for a moment
or two in the middle of a race. It makes all the difference in the world.
From what I heard - finding the gas stop and parking was a real nightmare.
We had a reset from mile 51.? to 99.8. I blasted off about 30 seconds early
and as we ducked into some aspens I started to really have some fun. I ended
up blasting around a corner fifty feet away from check 5 and saw some guys
from the prior minute - oops! I slammed on the brakes and kept my balance
without dabbing, creeping forward slowly. The guys at the check impatiently
waved at me as if I was a moron and marked me 1 minute hot anyway, oh well -
not worth bothering about after dropping so many points already.
Up to this point we had seen several signs along the way - few that I can
remember unfortunately. In the next section I saw a sign "Bark Busters $100".
The trees started getting closer in and the turns tighter - Bitchin! I was
really beginning to work the brakes and throttle as if I had a clue what I was
doing. As the trail got incrementally more difficult, the Price of Barker
busters went up exponentially to arrive at a final total of $5,000. Then
somewhere in there we had a speed change to 30 MPH.
"Right!" I said imagining what I would look like after a few turns at that
speed. I am sure the Pro's turned through here fine. After another mile or two
and we we out onto a superhighway for dirtbikes and I made up some time.
Sometime later, I noticed some arrows point a hard left and slid by the
turnoff - this was the so called A - Loop that Merf's crew worked. I would
swear that Merf wrote up all the humorous signs 'cause it just sounded like
him. "Increase the Yee Ha Factor" As I had blown the corner I had a tricky
moment dropping down back onto the trail and transferred a good deal of
inertia to a perfectly placed aspen.
There is no doubt in my mind that this was the "playground" of the race.
Unfortunately the way my energy was working by then was for sustained medium
effort - not what I ended up doing. This section was set in a lush... ravine
(but much wider). Some really cool rocky sections which were great. I saw
Merf standing up on a nice 6 foot rock outcrop pointing out line to someone
ahead of me and greeted him.
> Now, a word or two about specifics of our section. We got yelled
> at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
> or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
> whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
> two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
I have absolutely no idea what I said to you Merf - but I was definitely
whining by the end of the section. So guilty as charged. I did manage to
clean the outcrop and headed almost immediately into a steep uphill where Tom
Dillon was stationed. I was unable to clean this area - started spinning the
rear on a root. I hopped off and started to push it while spinning the rear
and Tom hopped right on and blipped it up and over the root like he was on
the flat. I sure as hell didn't mind - but was about to blow chunks I was so
winded getting up to the bike again. I had to pull over after a minute, then
Tom told me to get going again - which was what I needed. A swift kick in the
butt would have been even better as well as about a month more exercise :(
> 1) Momentum is your friend. Don't ride up to the 1' tall tree laying
> across the trail, stop and look at it.
> 2) Go where the course worker points. Trust him. Even though the
> obstacle might not *look* tough, he's probably watched 30 of your
> buddies wad themselves in that same place.
Guilty as charged! When I got to where Phil Roberts was stationed and there
was a hard left directly followed by a foot wide log, another turn and
another log. Needless to say, winded, confidence gone I stopped like a spode.
Phil had been pointing out a good line and just shook his head. After few I
backed the bike up, pissed and moaned for a about where the exit was, and got
a puny run on it - Phil gave me a good push which got me over. Unfortunately
I was in a bad way by this point and was not able to continue immediately.
You guys were great! I'm just sorry that I was so used up at that point. That
section would have been killer if I had had any energy left. Somewhere in here
I passed Rex but I think I was delirious at the time ;)
Got out on some smoother terrain again and managed to get back into a grove
again. Noticed that the last thirty five miles that I has just traveled was
closer to 13. Ohmygod! Then the rain that has threatened on and off all day
started coming down bigtime. I missed a couple of humor signs along the way
and was struggling to keep my goggles clear. I was rolling up to what looked
like a check only to find that someone had put up a life-sized self standing
poster of Clinton and somebody... what the hell was that? Monica? Totally
thought it was a check for a second. I managed to trim off quite a bit of
time between check 10 and 11. It seemed like we traced a very similar path
back to the finish - ultimately stopping at the former reset/gas optional for
another reset before going backwards through the test section again. After
waiting 15 minutes we blasted through again - and being fully awake and very
psyched to finished I was tearing through the test - must have passed 5 guys
or so.
> 3) If you come upon a bottlenecked mudhole, don't get impatient
> and try to go where the isn't anyone. There is a reason there
> is no one there. It's likely that the mire is n*t deep and the
> very tired course worker that's there has already extracted all the
> stuck XR250's he cares go. Be patient and again, go where they
> point.
GUILTY! About the middle of the test I found myself backed up in a line
waiting to get over the poor excuse for a bridge, now thoroughly shredded -
broken pieces, covered with slime. I waited while Merf and crew extracted
some guys from the water. Some guys were backed up on the bridge from people
stuck in rut hell just on the bank. Finally it looked as if It was going to
be clear and the guy ahead of me on his DR350 stalled. Not only that but he
kicked it like a wussy (not that I can talk) and the thing just wasn't
starting. I have come to the conclusion that DR's aren't made by Suzuki. They
are an invention of SATAN!!!! "ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
I had seen some gravel at the bottom near the bridge and what looked like a
great line. Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Ken and Company look over, one even
probably started to wave his arms "Noooooooooooooooooo!!!"
"Splut"
I had the throttle WFO as I hit the water, but as soon as the vent tubes
dipped in the motor went "WWWWwwwwOOOOooooohhHHHHhhhhnnnnmmmmmmmmmm" and
died. I stepped off and immediately sunk to my knees. Merf's hand went
immediately to his head and gave me a look like he wanted to deck me. Worst
thing was he recognized me immediately. After an agony of useless effort,
Merf came over and I helped him extract my bike. I say it that way because I
don't think my help was actually useful - after several tugs the contents of
my stomach was bouncing back and forth between the proper location and the
roof of my mouth. Once the RM was out of he water Merf jumped on there and
started kicking the worn out joke of a kickstarter, and discovered before I
could warn him that it bites, your foot slides off and you catch your knee on
it - ouch! We pulled it up the bank, Ken swearing - something about "Damn
Yellow Turd's" ;) The thing just would not start. Ken headed back for more
extractions, several more guys were stuck out out there, and looked about
ready to pop. Finally, after kicking forever, I just laid it down on it's
side until gas was streaming out the vent tube, lifted it up and gave it a
few more kicks. That was when the kid with the golden leg came up and and
started the damn thing on the first kick.
Needless to say - the remainder of the test sucked bigtime. I pulled in after
spending twenty minutes stuck. I dropped 100 points total.
"argh" I whispered...
> The result? I spoke to the Sheriff at the end of the day. He
> was VERY pleased at how the riders conducted themselves and even
> mentioned that our problem lady had changed her mind as well! It
> seems that EVERY RIDER obeyed the speed limit, and there were
> ZERO complaints.
Super! Glad to hear it! Thanks to everyone for putting on such a great event!
Ken, I hope you will pass this along.
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GraemeD
That section you were at was a blast, I was riding through it and I saw you
sitting there and the next thing I know there was no more trail under my front
tire! Thanks for helping me back up on to the trail. Lesson learned: don't
take your eyes of a 6" wide sidewall trail for a second while still moving! I
managed to get back on time after that but made too many dumb mistakes the rest
of the day. One of them was giving the "Widow maker" a try; I made it about
3/4 of the way up before looping out. I decided to take the novice route the
second time. Did anyone make it up?
Did you mention not enough arrows? Well I thought I missed the trail twice and
doubled back only to realize I was going the correct way in the first place! So
much for my stupidity. The course was fast, after the gas stop the speed
average was 30MPH and then jumped to 36MPH and finished at 60 MPH!!!!
In the second to last section Desty Abbot came by me like I was tied to a tree,
Man the guy can fly!!!
It was a great day at a graet race, I hope it happens again next year!
PS are you going to post the results on the web site?
Graeme Davies 98' KX250 RMEC 2131
Denver, Co 94' XR600 AMA 568408
Thanks to: Palmetto Motorsports, Miami, Fl. FTR 8-29654
Rex M
Keith Hill wrote in message <6qqbdh$e95$1...@ocean.cup.hp.com>...
>>at by many 'C' riders who asked things like: Is this a trials
>>or an enduro? If we'd had 30 miles of this stuff I'd agree your
>>whining was justified, but c'mon, this section was less than
>>two miles!! Suck it up. It's an enduro. Quit whining.
>
>C loop was the first and last 3 miles which were the same except opposite
Keith-
It was about 20 miles in the section right after the sign that Merf put
up that said "Increase Yeeeeee-haaaa factor". If you were riding A or B it
would also be where 5 guys were sitting beside the trail in the middle of no
where. If you were riding C it was the area where 5 guys were sweating
profusely pushing, pulling, and ridding guys bikes up the root covered
hills.
Rex Mckinney
97 YZ250
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com wrote:
<snip>
Some corrections and clarifications:
1. Some posts indicate Merf's A-loop being before the gas - which makes sense
to me so I am probably wrong... Either that or I ran a very different race.
2. The A-loop WAS fun, and was a great change from the superhighway we had
been riding on. I want to go back and run it again this weekend. :) Actually
- I would love to ride as much of the course as is open this weekend. I
loved trail 717!
3. I did some of my very best riding for this race - you shoulda seen it. I
did some of my very worst fatigue induce riding - I'm glad you didn't.
4. This time last year I had houred out of every single enduro I had run the
entire year. I have never come close to houring out this year and I am
currently in 8th place even though I have no division points.
Can anyone give me a ride to the Taos race? The clutch in my truck is
fragmenting and throwing chunks of pad material around the bell housing :(
I live in Longmont - but bet I can get to the Springs or wherever...
Just not all the way to Taos)
____________________________________
William "Spodeboy" Perry '90 RM 250
AMA # 606929 RMEC # 2409
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com - remove _
http://www.off-road.com/~spodeboy/
Kenneth Murphy
: > Keith Hill said:
: >What section was this? The only section that was remotely technical on the
: >C loop was the first and last 3 miles which were the same except opposite
: Keith-
: It was about 20 miles in the section right after the sign that Merf put
: up that said "Increase Yeeeeee-haaaa factor". If you were riding A or B it
: would also be where 5 guys were sitting beside the trail in the middle of no
: where. If you were riding C it was the area where 5 guys were sweating
: profusely pushing, pulling, and ridding guys bikes up the root covered
: hills.
: Rex Mckinney
: 97 YZ250
Keith isn't exactly your average 'C' rider either, no offense to 'C'
riders. Keith is riding in that notorious "sandbagger class" Vet C.
You would likely have thought it the most fun you had before first gas.
I know *I* looked forward to riding it while laying it out. ;) The
Yee-Ha factor was definitely high.
Kenneth Murphy
: First off Great race!
Thanks.
: That section you were at was a blast, I was riding through it and I saw you
: sitting there and the next thing I know there was no more trail under my front
: tire! Thanks for helping me back up on to the trail. Lesson learned: don't
: take your eyes of a 6" wide sidewall trail for a second while still moving!
The laughter was a tell-tale sign you knew you'd screwed up. ;)
: 3/4 of the way up before looping out. I decided to take the novice route the
: second time. Did anyone make it up?
I'm sure some did, but it *is* a bitch of a hill. I've made that hill
climb ONE time.
: Did you mention not enough arrows? Well I thought I missed the trail twice and
: doubled back only to realize I was going the correct way in the first place!
Would you believe I got chastised for putting up too many arrows? I simply
told him, tuff. I'd much rather have too many than not enough.
: In the second to last section Desty Abbot came by me like I was tied to a tree,
: Man the guy can fly!!!
Davis was the guy on fire there, he carded a 2.
: It was a great day at a graet race, I hope it happens again next year!
Won't happen next year. We have an "understanding" with the FS. Every
two years max.
: PS are you going to post the results on the web site?
The results should have been sent to the webmaster last night.
: Graeme Davies 98' KX250 RMEC 2131
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com
"Keith Hill" <hi...@lvld.hp.com> wrote:
> What section was this? The only section that was remotely technical on the
> C loop was the first and last 3 miles which were the same except opposite
> direction. Even then, going out wasn't bad at all.
Bastard! ;) The a-Loop kicked my ass!
The Merfs
>Some corrections and clarifications:
>
>1. Some posts indicate Merf's A-loop being before the gas - which makes
sense
> to me so I am probably wrong... Either that or I ran a very different
race.
I wasn't gonna mention that. I assumed you were just dain bramaged
from the race. It was before gas 1.
>
>2. The A-loop WAS fun, and was a great change from the superhighway we had
>been riding on. I want to go back and run it again this weekend. :)
Actually
>- I would love to ride as much of the course as is open this weekend. I
>loved trail 717!
You don't want to ride the A-Loop anytime soon. It is hacked beyond belief.
Wait until we've had a chance to rehab a little. :-|
>4. This time last year I had houred out of every single enduro I had run
the
> entire year. I have never come close to houring out this year and I am
> currently in 8th place even though I have no division points.
Way to go Spodester!
>
>Can anyone give me a ride to the Taos race? The clutch in my truck is
>fragmenting and throwing chunks of pad material around the bell housing :(
>I live in Longmont - but bet I can get to the Springs or wherever...
>Just not all the way to Taos)
I'll keep an eye out and an ear to the ground...
Merf
EMARPLE
mudhole, then have the bike die while Merf is swearing at him. <g>
But can someone explain to me about riding OVER rocks instead of around them?
How big are the rocks we're talking about here anyway? I normally try to ride
around or between them unless there is no alternative. But I seem to smash
pipes either way though. I'm open to suggestions.
Everett
'91 KX301...(tree-finder)
'74 BMW R90/6...(gentlemen's express)
'75 Kawasaki 400 S3 two-stroke triple...(basket case, project bike)
rbtbone
spod...@rubicon.off-road.com wrote:
snip very entertaining stuff.....
. The guys at the check impatiently waved at me as if I was a moron and marked me
1 minute hot anyway, oh well - not worth bothering about after dropping so many
points already.
Never trust those check workers!!!
I really enjoyed the report!!
Kenneth Murphy
: Great ride reports you guys. I could just picture Spodeboy's blast into the
: mudhole, then have the bike die while Merf is swearing at him. <g>
I think I just said "Daamn Will! There's a reason no one was there!"
: But can someone explain to me about riding OVER rocks instead of around them?
: How big are the rocks we're talking about here anyway? I normally try to ride
: around or between them unless there is no alternative. But I seem to smash
: pipes either way though. I'm open to suggestions.
Riding OVER *was* the way to ride that particular rock, but it was
intimidating looking. It was about 3' tall, 2' thick, and 4' wide,
with a little 'V' to the left, bordered by a tree. Lots of metal shards
were left on the rock.
If you try to ride around every rock here, you'll never get anywhere.
Adjust your suspension to max plushness, and ride *over* all but the
most intimidating rocks. The problem with riding around them is your
wheel is turned, and if you miscalculate a little and hit the rock with
your wheel turned, you're likely going down. If you hit it with the
wheel straight, it'll likely remain that way. I'm no expert in the
rocks, but that's what I was told by someone who is. One other technique
is to MX in the rocks, finding "launch rocks" that you can use to
jump over the nasty places. This is the technique I use the most.
Hammering over the rocks always got me a flat tire.
: Everett