Ride for 24 hours.....at night! Are You Crazy?

How would you like to ride the 24hrs of Glen Helen?

That was the question I was asked about a week before the race, but before the sentence was finished I had already opened my mouth and said “Yes”.

So now I was committed and didn’t even know who I was riding with or what kind of bike we would be riding. It sounded like a good idea at the time! Especially when I get to ride someone else’s bike, use up their tires, spare parts and they have all the equipment/logistics prearranged. Or so it seemed………

I was glad to find out we were going to ride a CRF 450X with Precision Concepts suspension, Yoshimura motor work and exhaust. I have never used any Yoshimura products before but they worked perfectly. I have had the opportunity to use Precision Concepts suspension before and was very impressed with their work on more than one brand of bike. It was every bit as good as I expected and kept us from being pummeled for 24 hrs.

When It got to be the day before the event I found out that 3 of the 6 riders scheduled to ride this 24 hr marathon wouldn’t be able to make it. One was out with an injury from riding the day before, the second one was out due to a son being seriously injured 2 days prior and the third I think was smarter than me and said he couldn’t make it either, I think he found out about the other two. Hmmmm, I wonder if he was scared or just smart. Oh well, I was not going to waste a perfectly good ride!

So when I found out we are down to 50% strength I start to think maybe we should look for some help. We got very lucky and recruited a young man named Connor. He is the son of former world champion speedway rider Bruce Penhall. Bruce called me and said he heard we were in need of help for our team and offered to have his son come ride for us to help out. It turned out to be the answer to the prayer (cussing, bitching, swearing) I had been saying the night before the event.

You see Connor races on teams in Baja Mexico and was looking to get some night practice in for his upcoming night ride in the Baja 1000. Connor was going to get his share of night riding, as we were down to 5 riders and most of us are hovering around the +50 yr old mark.

Connor is 20 yrs old and rides a lot by what I observed during his rides, he is a very fast, strong rider. As an added bonus he is a very nice young man and very polite, which was a pleasant surprise from the average 20 something kids we see today.

I was personally thrilled to have him as a team mate and he lived up to his promise to ride as much as we needed, especially at night.

Riding or racing at night puts a whole new perspective on your skills as a rider.

The funny thing about a 24 hr race is that in the middle of the night people sometimes seem to disappear!  One guy rode a total of 4 laps having to go help out in a couple of reroutes of the track.  Another told us he was not much of a night rider and if we could do a few extra laps at night he would really appreciate it. At around 11pm he got in his van, closed the door and got a good night’s sleep. We banged on the door at around 6am and told him to get up because Connor and I were really starting to get tired. At around midnight everyone disappeared so Connor and I passed the bike back and forth a couple of times, riding about 1 ½ hrs each time. So we made it until 6am and then we got a little help and made it to the finish at 10am. Thanks Connor.

It was a good time even though we had to scramble to fill the roster and had to clean and reinstall the air filter in the middle of the night, but that is another story……

We broke spokes in the rear wheel and had to replace the wheel. I happened to be on the bike when it broke, but I think Connor really broke it and gave it to me that way! Smart kid.

After all a 140 lb kid going fast is more likely to break it than a 200 lb old guy, right? Ok, so I owe the team some spokes.

When it was all said and done it was a fun ride. I would recommend you give it a try if you ever get the chance, it is quite an experience and a much bigger undertaking than most people imagine. Calculating lap times for each rider, amount of gas, having food to keep riders going, putting the lighting system for the bike on and off, sleeping arrangements, extra riding gear (it gets nasty and sweaty), pit lighting to fuel and work on the bike at night. Plus all the spares needed from simple things like shifters and brake levers to extra wheels/tires and tubes. Even if everything works out you will learn things you will do differently or better the next time.

I got to meet some great people and be part of a last minute team that did a good job of making it to the finish while finishing a respectable 2^nd in class.

Thanks to everyone on the team, my wife Cheryl for keeping track of everything and everyone, and a big Thanks to Connor for helping us out and doing such a great job. I never heard him complain even though he had to ride with a bunch of “old guys” that had to take naps!

Start thinking about a 24 hr/night ride. Give it a try and you will have a good time!

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