The fat lady sings
sTeVe?
ECEA Round 19 of 19
It's a miracle I even made it to the race. On Wednesday I install my
oversize tank. It leaks right at a seam. The manufacturer promises
to ship a replacement overnight and doesn't. My local dealer was
supposed to get me a rad shroud and fin whammy. He doesn't. So here
I am Frankensteining my plastic together, making custom brackets to
fit my Honda fins and finding a way to epoxy a plastic gas tank.
Everything is together, in plenty of time. I'm getting together my
gear and I hear "drip-drip-drip-drip." There's a large hole in the
radiator. What's strange is, when I topped off the radiator, it needed
*a lot* of coolant. Apparently I finished Pine Barrens with less than
2" in the radiator and the bike never so much as pinged! Great,
Saturday morning I tear the bike apart, again, and run the radiator
over the a shop to get it fixed. Got to the race in the dark, as
usual.
Shades of things to come. I originally said Moonshine was the race
that made me the most nervous. I'd like to ammend that and say any
race that's a National makes me a wreck. You just never feel the bike
is totally ready. I'm feeling pressure because I've got to finish at
least two places in front of Trevor Davies to hold on to second. If I
finish third or better and Tim Gallagher DNF's or at least has a
really bad day, I can still pull off a win.
A 7:00 am keytime has us up bright and early and we are hammering
right off the start. We are racing fender to fender through a canyon
in the phragmitis (8 foot tall very dense reeds in a swamp.) George's
throttle sticks (like last week) and he shoots into the phrag. Ray
lays on the brakes, Sammy Verdetto dodges right, I dodge left to avoid
plowing Ray and go shooting into the phrag as well. The reeds are so
dense I figure if I stop I'm buzzard bait so I'm screaming WFO through
the reeds for about thirty feet. I exited carrying about three bales
of plant life in every crevass in the bike. Front brakes are gone,
rear pedal is jammed, I can't shift, and my mouth is full. Perfect,
two miles in and I'm already taking a breather.
It may have been dry for the last week but the entire state of
Delaware is six feet below sea level so some sections were quagmires.
We were on row 43 and things were well stirred up by the time we got
to the really rude sections. Ruts were seriously deep and there were
plenty of riders stuck. I managed to avoid this fun by going
diagonally across the nasty sections, bouncing off of the edge of the
phrag and going diagonally across the other way. I did wind up behind
one rider who was stuck and he summarily buried me in mud. I was
covered.
The one thing that is typically Delaware is they don't give too many
resets. They give you open terrain and let you moto to get back on
time. The morning loops had one or two resets, but the typical ECEA
check in, check out, reset, just doesn't apply here. You are on the
gas pretty much all day.
I had the suspension cranked up pretty tight because the speeds were
kind of high, the sand was thick and damp, and the whoops were
enormous. I was in full moto mode and proceeded to hit every tree in
the forest and drop the bike at least 30 times. I hit this one short
section of rocks went down really hard and saw all kinds of stars
when my hand hit the rocks. It was about mile 65 and I actually
pulled over and set my suspension to full soft thinking the sluice was
coming up. Only 2/3 done and I'm already in full survival mode. I no
longer cared a wit how I finished, as long as I did. Drew Smith once
said to me, "Enduros are not won and lost in the whoops." So I just
took it easy on the whoops and hammered everywhere else. I was faster
and using less energy.
Somewhere out there, in the section between 5 and 6 I bit it hard. I
was day dreaming. I came around a corner at warp six in the wooded
area and was confronted by a catch-22. A three foot deep four foot
wide ditch extending all the way across the open area I could see.
Two riders having a discussion in the shallowest part of the ditch
that was most easily crossed. I'm going to fast to stop before
hitting the ditch and I really don't feel like slamming the tea party.
So I grabbed a hand full of throttle, slipped the clutch, got way too
much traction, skyed the front end, cleared the ditch by twelve feet,
fell off theback, snapped the rear fender clean off, and packed the
silencer so full of mud it took me three minutes to dig it all out.
When I yanked the wires out of the rear fender, it left these two bare
wires that I tied off ot the grab strap on the seat. The bad part was
they kept zapping me in the butt. That *hurt!*
The trails were awesome. Some guys got lost, including Ray and Sam
when they followed the Dual Sport arrows. There was only one course
arrow pointing racers left and two for the Dual Sport guys. I'd like
to take Ray's side on this one but the white sign with 2-1/2" letters
saying "Dual Sport Only" was pretty plain. You didn't have to be an
Evelyn Wood graduate to catch it, even at speed.
In one tight section my bike was hemorraghing steam and sounding like
it was going to seize or something. It was making a sort of
"clack-clack" noise and lurching. I just kept it barely over idle
short shifted for a bit and it went away. Anyone have any ideas?
The sluice was worse than I remember, I think they imprted some rocks.
Last year I had my feet ont he pegs most of the time. This year just
the opposite. The water was cooking pretty good down the sluice this
year as well.
George DNF'd when he hit a tree hard enough to ring his bell and waste
his shoulder. G is hardcore, he can't even lift his arm and he's
riding around with his hand taped to the throttle trying to finish.
He ultimately gave it up. He didn't have to finish anyway, the guy
that could keep him out of the top ten was doing pretty bad.
Extra Shorty finished the C loop with 175 points. Shorty was doing
really well and carded 117 points in the A-B route. Ray and Sam had
about 95's in A-250. I had a ghastly 103 in the B-Open class, which
was only good enough for fifth. I got beat out of fourth by emergency
points! I think I picked up third place points though, the riders in
third and fourth were from another series. Either way I can hold on
to second for the year. Tim Gallagher did finish, he spanked me
pretty bad with a 75 finishing second. Congratulations, Tim on the
class win. Trevor Davies may have held on to third once they filter
out the non-ecea guys but he may be displaced by Sharp depending on
how the points fall.
Oh, yeah. Mike Lafferty overalled with a 29. GEEZ that is haulin'!
Fred Hoess was first ECEA AA.
120 ground miles on the gas most of the time. Seven hours, four gas
stops, sans fender. I'm going to be picking mud out of my butt for a
week.
Steve
aged GG300 pilot
http://home.att.net/~sa-snyder-nj/
http://www.ecea.org
http://www.smackovermotorsports.com
Marty Wicks
(sTeVe?) wrote:
>Delaware National Enduro, Delaware City, DE October 31, 1999
>ECEA Round 19 of 19
<snip yet another sh!t-hot race report>
Soo... how long 'til next season??
Cheers,
Marty
'98 KTM 250EGS
sTeVe?
Jim Cook
On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 04:30:50 GMT, NODAMNS...@mindspring.com
(sTeVe?) wrote:
Gas Gas EC 250 - Senior B
Smackover Motor Sports
www.smackovermotorsports.com
dirt...@arkansas.net
BJEC SERA AHSCS
Jim Cook
On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 16:00:08 GMT, NODAMNS...@mindspring.com
(sTeVe?) wrote:
>http://www.mindspring.com/~njic/1113.htm
Gas Gas EC 250 - Senior B
Brian Luttman
sTeVe? <NODAMNS...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:381db8c1...@news.mindspring.com...
> http://www.mindspring.com/~njic/1113.htm
J Payer
the other thing (s) that are missing are the left side radiator, shroud,
and brace. Probably a hose and clamp or two also. :-)
J&K
Special thanks to the following:
Jim Cook at www.Smackovermotorsports.com Jeff at www.mxsouth.com and
John Duffy at www.appliedrace.com
billkx250
the number plate.
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Jim Hall
>http://www.mindspring.com/~njic/1113.htm
Is this from the last enduro on the CR where you lunched your radiator
and had to use magical "Lafferty water" to finish?
Jim Hall
380 EXC and others
turning Money into Noise...
Thank you Big Joe's Cycle; Plateau Engineering
DirtCrashr
before going super-senior...
Whit I liked in particular was:
> George's
>throttle sticks (like last week) and he shoots into the phrag. Ray
>lays on the brakes, Sammy Verdetto dodges right, I dodge left to avoid
>plowing Ray and go shooting into the phrag as well. The reeds are so
>dense I figure if I stop I'm buzzard bait so I'm screaming WFO through
>the reeds for about thirty feet. I exited carrying about three bales
>of plant life in every crevass in the bike. Front brakes are gone,
>rear pedal is jammed, I can't shift, and my mouth is full. Perfect,
>two miles in and I'm already taking a breather.
LOL sounds like a fun start, or like one of mine ;-)
It just sounds so "cowboy" with the riders heading off in all directions!
Phragmitis <cough> sounds like a chest-cold. At least it's not Manzanita...you
wouldn't get six feet in that spikey devil before doing an impersonation of St.
Stephen - he was the one that got shot-up with arrows, right?
Thanks for the write-up.
The bike in the pic looks fine to me...
-keith '97xr400
Mental
Congrats on your season! I only made it to one of the ECEA enduros,
just enough to get a taste of what it's like. However, it was enough
for me to realize how SERIOUS your commitment was/is. %99.99 of the
general population couldn't come close to even finishing an enduro,
much less consistantly placing in the top 4 or even winning. You
should be proud!
I also always look forward to your write ups...you have to come down
for NVTR's Spring event. It would be a good warm up for you.
-Eric
sTeVe?
wrote:
>>http://www.mindspring.com/~njic/1113.htm
>
>Is this from the last enduro on the CR where you lunched your radiator
>and had to use magical "Lafferty water" to finish?
WOW!
You guys are paying attention aren't you?
Makes me feel kinda, kinda . . . special, <sniff>
sTeVe?
wrote:
>The rear fender seems a little short.
Jim,
I love ya, man but not only do you need to get your prescription
checked you have to stop taking post trimming lesson from Ghost RIder.
Steve
aged GAS GAS 300 pilot
^^^^^^^^^
The bike in the picture is a Honda James.
sTeVe?
<mental5...@hotmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>I also always look forward to your write ups...you have to come down
>for NVTR's Spring event. It would be a good warm up for you.
Sorry Eric, I was too stupid to figure out you anti-spam to send a
personal e-mail. Keep me posted, Rob K is in you club, I'll prolly
check it out.
S
J Payer
> WOW! You guys are paying attention aren't you?
Most of the time.
> Makes me feel kinda, kinda . . . special, <sniff>
Glad you feel special...now WTF is my Atta-Boy? <G>
BTW - I realized yesterday I'll never buy a bike from someone who races
enduros. After reading Steve's write-ups and hearing about all the
abuse a bike takes in an enduro, I'll have to pass. <VBG>
Gary M
>Excellent report sTeVe, aged B-Open rider, I don't think I have a shot at that
>before going super-senior...
>Whit I liked in particular was:
>
>> George's
>>throttle sticks (like last week) and he shoots into the phrag. Ray
>>lays on the brakes, Sammy Verdetto dodges right, I dodge left to avoid
>>plowing Ray and go shooting into the phrag as well. The reeds are so
>>dense I figure if I stop I'm buzzard bait so I'm screaming WFO through
>>the reeds for about thirty feet. I exited carrying about three bales
>>of plant life in every crevass in the bike. Front brakes are gone,
>>rear pedal is jammed, I can't shift, and my mouth is full. Perfect,
>>two miles in and I'm already taking a breather.
>
>LOL sounds like a fun start, or like one of mine ;-)
>It just sounds so "cowboy" with the riders heading off in all directions!
>Phragmitis <cough> sounds like a chest-cold. At least it's not Manzanita...you
>wouldn't get six feet in that spikey devil before doing an impersonation of St.
>Stephen - he was the one that got shot-up with arrows, right?
The only part missing was the wild eyed look on his face. You know it
hadda be there. <VBG>
And 7 hours. I am impressed.
Gary M
sTeVe?
wrote:
>BTW - I realized yesterday I'll never buy a bike from someone who races
>enduros. After reading Steve's write-ups and hearing about all the
>abuse a bike takes in an enduro, I'll have to pass. <VBG>
Definitely! Well, mostly. The best deal you can find on a bike is
from some poser who does two laps in a pit and hangs out to look cool
the rest of the day, or some loser who bought a bike to satisfy his
mid-life crisis and realizes you have to be strong and/or skilled to
ride one of these things.
There is one good thing about buying an enduro bike to race enduros
from an enduro racer: all the necessary mods are on the bike and the
bike may look like crap but all the important stuff has been well
maintained.
<advertising section>
I'm selling my '94 CRE270 for $2,300. Suspension, tires, chain, top
end are fresh. Has big tank, bash plate, hand guards, lighting coil,
lights (not wired in). It has a brand new FMF pipe on it, Acerbis
spark arrestor, and E-line pipe guard without a mark on it (stranger
than science fiction eh? The plastic is whooped! This bike can win
races and is a good mount for a C-rider with some experience or a new
B rider. I'll even throw in a Pro Circuit ported cylinder and decked
head. This bike rips! Scott's Damper tower already welded on!
Compare that to what it would take to get a newer MX mount and convert
it, then spend half a season working out the bugs.
Steve
aged GG300 pilot
Trail Rider
sTeVe? wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2 Nov 1999 10:33:40 -0500 (EST), Pay...@webtv.net (J Payer)
> wrote:
>
> >BTW - I realized yesterday I'll never buy a bike from someone who races
> >enduros. After reading Steve's write-ups and hearing about all the
> >abuse a bike takes in an enduro, I'll have to pass. <VBG>
>
> Definitely! Well, mostly. The best deal you can find on a bike is
> from some poser who does two laps in a pit and hangs out to look cool
> the rest of the day, or some loser who bought a bike to satisfy his
> mid-life crisis and realizes you have to be strong and/or skilled to
> ride one of these things.
Nothing like alienating half the RMD group :-)
--
Scott Aldrich
'98 Suzuki DR350SE
'85 Honda CR125R
'74 Yamaha DT125A
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sTeVe?
wrote:
>> Definitely! Well, mostly. The best deal you can find on a bike is
>> from some poser who does two laps in a pit and hangs out to look cool
>> the rest of the day, or some loser who bought a bike to satisfy his
>> mid-life crisis and realizes you have to be strong and/or skilled to
>> ride one of these things.
>
>Nothing like alienating half the RMD group :-)
I didn't think about that but I guess you are right. I can fix it up
though. My favorite quote comes from Charlie Williams of Trail Rider
fame, I'm paraphrasing but here goes, "All riders are equal, not
equal in ability but equal in that they got up off the couch to ask a
little more out of life."
There.
Dave Dude
(sTeVe?) wrote:
>I didn't think about that but I guess you are right. I can fix it up
>though. My favorite quote comes from Charlie Williams of Trail Rider
>fame, I'm paraphrasing but here goes, "All riders are equal, not
>equal in ability but equal in that they got up off the couch to ask a
>little more out of life."
>
>There.
>
>Steve
>aged GG300 pilot
Well said!! Speaking of Trailrider, I got a chuckle out of the way
they slammed you about the high point b trophy<G>
Dave Dude
96yz250-not for sale
78dt250-couldn't give away
sTeVe?
wrote:
>Well said!! Speaking of Trailrider, I got a chuckle out of the way
>they slammed you about the high point b trophy<G>
I actually had to run to the bathroom and fetch my copy. I read the
whole thing previously, except that paragraph!
I'll get that bastard . . . . .butterfly collector indeed. I've seen
him taking photos on the side of the trail, I'll bet I can make him
soil his undies with a little trip off the trail or at least roost
him.
Perhaps I'll have to put the GG in a Monarch Butterfly paint scheme.
; )
Steve
aged GG300 pilot
Team Lepidoptera
Wudsracer
new yellow front fender, yellow tank shrouds, and yellow headlight. He
has new blue side panels/number plates, a blue rear fender, a and blue
"Throttle Jockey seat cover". He wants the bike to "morph" from yellow
to blue as he passed by.
Were looking at adapting the Skin Industries "Free Ride" graphics kit,
with the Ladie's tongue licking at his legs, but haven't decided yet. We
might use the Throttle Jockey graphics/sticker set.
>In article <38211f55...@news.mindspring.com>,
> NODAMNS...@mindspring.com (sTeVe?) wrote:
>
> I actually had to run to the bathroom and fetch my copy. I read the
> whole thing previously, except that paragraph!
>
> I'll get that bastard . . . . .butterfly collector indeed. I've seen
> him taking photos on the side of the trail, I'll bet I can make him
> soil his undies with a little trip off the trail or at least roost
> him.
>
> Perhaps I'll have to put the GG in a Monarch Butterfly paint scheme.
>
> ; )
>
> Steve
> aged GG300 pilot
> Team Lepidoptera
> http://home.att.net/~sa-snyder-nj/
> http://www.ecea.org
> http://www.smackovermotorsports.com
>
--
Jim Cook - Wudsracer
Gas Gas EC250 SMS Racing Team LAGNAF
Smackover Motor Sports 870-725-3966
www.smackovermotorsports.com dirt...@arkansas.net
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Before you buy.