2016 International Old timers MX event in Boise

 

We we’re off to the land of the big potato for round # 9 in impressive fashion we caravanned. Carmen Ogino, Derek Currie, Kevin Stewart and me followed each other nose to tail. Carmen in his big ass motor home with his 2016.5 KTM 250SXF FE hanging at an odd angle from the back of his motor home, Kevin rode with Carmen having rented himself out for the weekend as Carmen’s pit bitch. Derek in his Chevy diesel pickup with two 450 Honda’s in the back, his logic for bringing two bikes was in case he needed to use one for parts, he didn’t. And me in my Ford diesel pickup with my 1987 Lance camper setting in the bed slightly at an angle because my wife had hit one of those speed at speed when she used it, lifting it just enough, even with tie downs so when it landed back in the bed it was slightly askew. And towing behind hiding the slightly angled camper was my enclosed motorcycle trailer. 

I hope there aren’t any cops reading this because we flew across the Sierra’s and desert at speeds well above the posted limits, especially me towing a trailer. We spent the night along the side of the road in Jordan Valley some seven hours into our journey.

Arriving at the gate entrance to the track around 11:15AM the next morning our caravan joined a long line of others stretching out to the highway waiting for the gates to open at 12:00. The parking at the track is flat along with rows of terraced parking. We set up on the top terrace and had a great view below us and of the freshly mown hay fields across the way and with our Sierra Old Timers pop-ups proudly on display. Practice started at 1:00 and for many of us the first disappointment of the weekend. The track had been plowed deep and lots of water put down, so it was sloppy, wet and ended up very rutted.

However Friday evening is the clubs traditional Idaho baked potato fest with a wide variety of toppings, which sort of made you forget about the track conditions and remember one of the many reasons you show up for this event, good food and the comrade.  I forgot to mention the weather was just about perfect as well.

Since I’m retired I don’t roll out of the sack until well after the sun has risen.  With practice at 8:00 and my group the second practice and the one hour time change I was up way too early for me. It was going to be another beautiful day and when we got out on to the track we discovered a well groomed track that offered the prospect of a fun days racing. At the riders meeting there were many smiles all around from those of us who had experienced Friday’s track. Riders who had showed up for Saturday’s practice and race were puzzled by our dire report on Friday’s practice track. 

Kevin (Carmen’s pit bitch) took a boat load of pictures which we will have up on our Facebook and the club web site soon. Kevin concentrated mostly on club members of which there were quite a few; it’s interesting because we now have a number of members who live in other states. He followed Carmen in the 50+ Intermediate class, Paul Park and Brad Peters 40+ intermediates, Mark Kastner and Craig Christian in the 50+ master class, Duane Quick and Bart Kellogg in the 70+ expert class, Derek a 60+ intermediate, and me all alone in my class. 

First and foremost everyone had a great day; we were all safe and had good races. Someone at the parts counter at Carmen’s local bike shop gave him mineral oil for his clutch instead of brake fluid (oops) so needless to say he struggled a little with some clutch problems and on a sandy loamy track you need a good clutch when ridding a 250. Carmen’s wife called to tell him a rattle snake was in their backyard. They called a snake guy who found a total of three rattlers. Paul and Brad had by far the best racing of the day. They swapped the lead back and forth for most of both moto’s, Paul admitted to being a little whipped at the end of the moto’s Brad won both. Mark and Craig both started on the same gate in the 50+ masters. Mark who just gets faster as the weekend goes along won the 50+ class easily but was a fair distanced behind the forty year olds, the second and third moto’s saw Mark closing the distance. 

I didn’t get to see much of Duane and Bart’s races because I was on the line with my race next. It looked like they pretty much held the same distance between them each moto with Bart having the edge. Derek suffered from poor starts and a crash in the first corner of the first moto, but kept the smile on his face and had good scraps with a fellow 60+ intermediate. I had a mixed bag a poor start in race one and a hole shot in race two. I reversed the order on Sunday, but it didn’t make any difference I had no competition in my class and was probably half to three quarters a lap ahead of the second place rider each race. (I still took the trophy home)

Saturday evening is the clubs dinner and as usual was excellent. I was disappointed because there wasn’t any desert this year something happened to the dessert maker, but I was saved, Carmen’s wife had sent him along with some carrot cake that Carmen shared.  Saturday evening’s weather was awesome and it doesn’t get any better when renewing friendships and hashing over the day’s racing. Everybody I talked with enjoyed the track, wait that’s not true Don Tocker from BC liked the old course layout. But he never unloaded his bike all weekend, as he was driving into Boise he remembered he hadn’t purchase medical insurance. (Remember he’s from Canada) Last time he was here he knocked himself out and ended up in the hospital. The evening ended with a hint of rain during the night.

It sprinkled a little Saturday the night but only enough to turn the dust on the vehicles into a mess. The morning was cloudy but the temperature was perfect. Sunday’s track and racing was as good as it was on Saturday. Carmen struggled a little more on Sunday with the clutch and stamina. Brad and Paul picked up right where they left off on Saturday swapping the lead. As I said before Mark just gets faster as the weekend rolls on and actually beat one of the 40+ masters and was much, much closer to the others. Again it looked like Bart and Duane were the same distance apart as Saturday. Gary Chase who rode Saturday on a borrowed bike figured it out Sunday and was the class of the 70+ expert field. Interesting side note, Bart, Ed Perrington, Gary and one other rider who all rode in the master’s class for years decided they wanted to ride in the 70+ expert class because they only wanted to race two moto’s on Saturday instead of three. Gary is the one who lobbied for a 70+ masters class so they could still ride three moto’s on Saturday, interesting how a little age can change your perspective.  Derek faired a little better on Sunday amazing what better starts can do. We all ended the day safe again, some of us took home awards and some didn’t but we all had a very enjoyable weekend.

Coming back we caravanned again, Carmen and Kevin, Derek, me and Paul in his brothers borrowed 4x4 ford towing an enclosed trailer. We stopped in Winnemucca for dinner and stayed the night in Fernley. Sitting around the table at dinner that night we all recounted our races and commented on others and talked about how sometimes it just doesn’t get any better than this.

 

Doug 21J  

PS We were all jealous of Carmen and Kevin his pit bitch for the weekend.

21J's New Project!

2016 Husky FC350 Part 1

I sold the 2016 Yamaha YX450FX I had. Yeah I know why would I do that? Sell a perfectly good bike that I had just gotten set up. Well I finally figured it out, it’s just who I am, this is my hobby my release if you will and yes it does cost some money to do this. I don’t know anybody that makes money on their hobby, if they do it’s a business.

So I’m on to the next thing, which happens to be a 2016 Husky FC350. So why this bike, well I wanted a light weight four stroke and nobody currently builds them any lighter than KTM/Husky. I also wanted to try a 350 again. I had a 2011 KTM 350SXF, the first year they built that model. I did lots to it and wrote many articles on it that appeared here in mx43.com. I rode the bike for three plus years and had virtually no trouble with it. The increase in low to mid torque, improved handling and light weight is what intrigued me about the new KTM’s.

So why not a 2017 instead of the 2016, first of all there’s a huge difference in the cost between a new/used 2016 and a brand new 2017. Thousands of dollars, in the case of the 350 I didn’t see a lot of differences in the two bikes other than the air forks. Three plus pounds lighter and something other than the 4CS forks is certainly worth considering but for the difference in cost I decided to take a chance on being able to make the 4CS forks work for me.

So why the Husky, well a friend of mine bought this one and has at times thought it was great and at other times didn’t.  It was always about the suspension. To a point he even thought there could be something wrong with it, like parts. I even rode it a couple of times and I couldn’t get along with it. So why buy it, well he sold it to me at a price I couldn’t pass up. And I’m just dumb enough to think I could figure out why it wasn’t working the way I thought it should and fix it.

The first thing I did was reset all the suspension components. I’ve been guilty of turning the clickers here and there and the next thing I know it’s not working right and end up resetting everything. The settings and sag were way off and the bike was not balanced between the front and rear suspension. The front suspension had a very expensive after market kit installed that basically turns the forks back into open cartridge units. I know some people who have had great success with this set up. After resetting everything I rode the bike at Mammoth Bar, which if you remember has a small MX track and a very gnarly up and down cross country trail section. The first thing I noticed was the bike was now rideable, it was better balanced and wanted to turn but the front forks were a bit harsh over the small to medium stuff for me. A familiar complaint with these forks, but it was rideable. Next I went up on the trails and the whole suspension beat the crap out of me. It was one and done, normally on my Yamaha YZ250/290FX I do two to three loops,each loop is about 10 miles.  On top of that the next few days I was really sore.

I decided to send the suspension to a company that has lots of experience working with KTM 4CS forks. While I’m waiting for the suspension I decided to take the bike apart, not the motor and clean and inspect everything. I talked the friend I bought the bike from into including the all titanium FMF exhaust system, about $800 worth. I’m going to take it off and put the stock system back on. With my old 2011 KTM 350SXF I had the opportunity to try a number of exhaust systems and I liked the stock one the best. After all it is made by Akrapovic. I’m going to put it on Craigslist at some point, but I’m talking with my friend,the guy I bought the Husky from who will probably buy a 2017 KTM 350 or Husky primarily because of the air forks. So I says to him, hey I’ll sell the FMF exhaust back to you and he says that’s a great idea, hang on to it for me. Hey, sometimes the gods just smile right down on you.

The other thing I did while waiting was change the bars and grips for ones I like.  The stock gearing is 14/50 and feels way too high in low gear for me. For a five speed it has lots of top end. I changed the gearing to a 14/52 we’ll see how that feels. I can see changing the seat cover at some point maybe sooner than later, the stock seat is very, very grippe and I’ve heard it will chap your ass.

Well it’s been a few weeks now and quite frankly I’ve been struggling with the suspension, a lot in fact. I’m spoiled, the suspension on my 2015 Yamaha YZ250FX is so good that it’s making the Husky look and feel really bad, no sense talking about it until I figure it out.

Well obviously the suspension I sent out did not work for me. The same problem I had before I sent it out was still there, namely the forks were too harsh in the beginning of the stroke and again the shock felt dead and the bike wasn’t balanced. I was very frustrated, the time lost sending them back and forth plus eating the freight so instead of sending them back knowing they would be willing to work with me, I decided to give the suspension to Bucky at SBB because he’s local and I knew he would work with me to get it right.

Which he did, first he revalved the forks and that greatly improved the front end but it still wasn’t right. Next he revalved the shock and that balanced everything out. I next went to the Hangtown track, the track was a super busy very technical track with much faster riders on it. I went out and rode the piece of shit rock strewn trails that make up a lot of Prairie City and the bike worked very well. If your bike works well in that stuff it will pretty much work anywhere. When I did get on the track it worked well. I did clank the forks a few times which had more to do with me landing wrong on the technical track than the forks. I’m going to ride it for awhile and continue to play with the set up.

But that ride proved to me the bike will work for me. So I went down to Roseville Yamaha and ordered, a Rekluse, Scots steering damper mounting kit and a set of FastWay foot pegs that I can mount in the back and down position. These are things I’ve gotten used to on all my other bikes, that make me feel comfortable.

I’m going to a family reunion so by the time I get back all my parts should be here. I’ll stick them on and ride and report back.

Doug 21J

Doug's Ongoing YZ 290FX Story

Yamaha 2015 YZ250FX Part 9

Thought I would bring you up to date on the 250/290.

 

At 81 hrs Thumper Racing installed the 290cc kit and since then I’ve put 24.5 hrs on the new kit without any problems. The only thing I’ve done is richened up the very top of the RPM range just a little. I talked to Thumper about when they thought I should check the top end, they advised “At whatever interval Yamaha recommends” At this juncture I’m going to tear it down when it reaches 50 hrs on the 290 kit.

So at 105.5 hrs I decided to have the suspension serviced and basically go through the whole bike. Did things like greasing the steering head bearings and the swing arm and suspension linkage to my surprise everything was in excellent condition and it didn’t really need it?

The Rekluse clutch has been in the bike from the very first and I hadn’t even checked it. I decided to tear it apart and check it out, the last time I rode it and for the first since I installed the Rekluse the end play gain was not in spec. 105.5 hours is a lot without checking it and 24.5 hrs of that was with the new 290 power.

I talked with Rekluse and they asked if I would send pictures of everything they were interested at looking at certain wear parts. They responded with the “clutch looked great” even the Teflon blocks. (See pictures) They recommended I put in three stiffer clutch springs, for greater clamping force (Because of the 290 kit) readjust the settings and reinstall the clutch. That says a lot for their product and my changing the oil and checking the end play gain all the time.  I ordered the parts and decided to replace all the friction plates, Yamaha OEM plates aren’t that expensive.

I had to replace a bearing in the Scotts steering Damper but other than that the bike was in amazing condition.

Eric #33 has a 2013 KTM 500EXC and has 560 hrs on it without touching the motor other than checking the valve clearances (three times) Now Eric does not rev the motor to the moon, he doesn’t need to with all that torque. My point is my bike has never seen the rev limiter and with the new low mid range never will. There’s no need. So I see no reason why the bottom end in my bike won’t last maybe not as long as Eric’s but a long, long time.

This bike is so much fun to ride, it was before but since the 290 kit was installed the fun factor has been raised a lot.

I’ve got all the parts now so it’s time to put it back together and go ride.

Doug 21J

40th Annual Sierra Old Timers International Moto Cross

This was the 40^th annual event and was held at the Prairie City OHV Park and the home of the Iconic Hangtown Moto Cross National track.

The weather couldn’t have been much better for us riders who live in California and Nevada. Some of the riders from up north thought it was a bit warm. The previous weekend was over a hundred so all in all the weather was just about perfect. The track couldn’t have been much better either. (The first race on Sunday was a little over watered and resulted in some riders not being able to make it up big Moe) The track was home to a Loretta Lynn qualifier the week before and they had worked lots of rice hulls and some sand into the track which kept moisture in the track and kept the usual deep ruts from forming in the corners. In fact, a lot of the corners never developed any real ruts at all.

As is becoming the norm the 50 novice and intermediate classes were the largest. Full gates for each class, if they continue to grow we might actually need to have two gates for each class. Growing classes in those age groups bodes well for the future of our sport.

We had enough ladies sign up to have their own gate drop. We as a club are going to encourage more women not only come to our race but join us at our ride days.

An interesting side note I know of three riders this year who lined up behind gate number two next to the dog house on the right hand side that got stuck behind the gate because it didn’t drop as fast as the others. That happened last year as well I know because I was one of them 

I don’t think the ambulance moved all weekend. I know there were a number of riders who went down and the EMT’s were on the track looking after them. But I think they all were able to walk or ride, some in the cart, off the track. I had one little tip over myself, some of you might remember Artie Johnson from Laugh-in when he would be on his little three wheel bicycle and just fall over? My little tip over reminded me of that, came into a corner the bike stalled my momentum stopped my feet were on the pegs and I just tipped over. I don’t remember if Artie was wearing his German helmet or not when he was on the bike, or if that was only when he was peeking out from the little palm bush.

Some of you still might remember the Fish award an idea that came from the fertile mind of Eric McKenna (#33). This is one those Billy Bob Bass things that hangs on a wall and wiggles when turned on. Eric thought it would be good to have an award that would be given to the rider who pulled off the dumbest of the dumb shit moves of the weekend. It travels around with the recipient from one race to another until it is deemed by an impromptu committee meeting during the weekend that someone has proven themselves worthy of the award. A couple of years ago Mark Kestner who was at the time the proud keeper of the fish brought it to our race at Prairie City hoping someone would take it off his hands. And the gods smiled down on Mark that weekend a rider named Mike Harper a very fast 50 Master who was the second gate drop behind the 40 Expert/Masters, Mike got so excited he left with the first group thus earning him the award.

Well Mike came out on Saturday to race with us at this year’s event and brought the Billy Bob with him telling me we needed to give it to someone else this weekend. Well we did and guess who that was? Mike of course. When all the transponders were turned back in he was one of two who forgot. So I called him Sunday and he’s on his boat on Lake Folsom and when I tell him what he did, he says I guess I get to keep the Billy Bob huh.  

We used transponders this year after we had some scoring issues last year and we didn’t want a repeat. There was some grumbling at first, but when the riders found the results were posted minutes after their race and they could also see their lap times I think that grumbling turned into a lot of oh yea’s.

My perspective of this year’s race is a little different than last year. Last year I just helped where ever I could with setup and tear down. This year I’m the treasurer of the club and was very involved in it. There are four new officers in the club this year and we all wanted to put on the very best event we could.

We couldn’t have had the event we had without the Armstrong’s (REP Racing, they operate Riverfront, Est. and Prairie City moto cross facilities) and they really do know what they are doing. And the Armstrong’s were very complementary of us racers and spectators. We were very observant of the yellow flags for downed riders and were the cleanest neatest group they had ever had at any of their events period. Which proves my point that we older seasoned citizens know how to conduct ourselves. I believe we treated everyone fairly. We certainly tried and when you do that people respond in kind. 

One of the things we wanted to do this year was to bring back some of the comradery we all feel when we can sit down in one area after a day of competition and break bread with each other. We did that and had our raffle at the same time. I think I can say that it turned out great. I’m sure most of you have done white elephant gifts where you draw numbers and the higher your number you get the better your chances of getting something actually worth keeping. I know the rules of the game vary but swapping or stealing gifts is part it. We didn’t have any stealing going on but we did have some raffle prize swapping, it was a lot of fun.

We were all very tired and sore after the event had ended and everything was torn down and put away. We were sitting in the office waiting to put the final touches on the financial end with the Armstrong’s and looked at each other and said this wasn’t so bad was it, especially with all the help we had and at that moment we basically committed to do it again next year.

We’ve already started a list of things we might want to change, add or subtract to improve next year’s event.

To all our sponsors and to all of those who came out, thank you very much.

Doug 21J

A Youngsters View of Aging

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain

A look in the 2015 rear view mirror

As 2015 sputtered to its inevitable end I started looking in the rear view mirror on what had happened during the year.

And the reason I started this was I began noticing invitations from distributors and manufactures in the motorcycle industry for 2016 rider resumes. Now I know they are primarily looking for the up and coming rider, but I thought wouldn’t it be fun to send a few of them a resume from an old guy rider.

I’m always looking for the humor in things and actually spend a lot of time cracking myself up. I did write a resume and just sent one out but haven’t heard back yet; part of a rider resume is what your accomplishments for the year were. When I started adding up all the races I participated in this year and all the places I went to it honestly blew me away. I had thirty two race starts, in five different states, competing in Motocross, Cross Country and Enduro. That’s countless hours of driving, bike prep and riding. And the money it took to do this, no wonder I’m broke at the end of each month. I compiled eighteen first place finishes, nine seconds, four thirds and one fifth place finish.

Sure I wasn’t competing against twenty something’s if I had to do that I would have given up racing a long time ago. I get to race with and against my peers and that’s what makes this so special, the camaraderie is priceless. I’ve also found for the most part those of us who choose this sport are like minded in many aspects of our lives. As we age they just keep coming up with new classes for us. At one of the International Old Timers races this year there were five eighty year old plus riders all lined up behind a starting gate, that’s pretty cool stuff.

I know I have those who admire me for what I’m able to do, but also have hero’s young and old alike. In today’s society our concerns for people’s health is at an all time high, especially as the majority of our population grows older. Well in us you’ll find a group of people who in many cases deify what is termed as normal behavior and activity. Most would agree motocross for instance is considered an extreme sport, in terms of the risk, the fitness required to do it at even a basic level, the reflexes required, the mental capacity needed, keep us fitter and healthier longer than most of our peers, especially us older riders.

We don’t consider ourselves tough but we are. Injuries are part of it, we all fall off sometimes and it can hurt, sometimes a lot. We all know that but it doesn’t stop us and none of us think it won’t happen, we know better. But it’s just what we do, nobody takes it for granted and all of us are very thankful we can still do it.

I frequently thank the big spirit in the sky for allowing me to do this and when I’m finally done I’ll have no regrets but stories and memories to last until my time here is up.

Doug 21J

PS Before I read this to my wife I had told her I felt like a little something was missing. After I read it she says why don’t say something about just what it does take to continue doing it. I said you mean things like riding all the time and when you do fall off the first you do is move all your parts to make sure nothing is broken and unlike when you were younger you just lay there for a little while. And then you get back up and ride some more. Or how much you look forward to the next bike you get, or just how much you enjoy being with your riding buddies telling stories.

The special feelings you have on one of those almost perfect days, whether it is on an MX track, trail riding or riding dual sport bike. Or how much I enjoy tinkering and cleaning my bike she said yes, so I said I think I will.