Baja One Year Later!

1 Year Anniversary

As I write this short update the Baja 1000 is going on. That makes it exactly one year since my crash at that event last year, which has ended up being more of a life changing event than I originally thought. I have had my share of fairly serious injuries in 40 something years of riding and racing but this one has changed my life.  I am still on the road to recovery and by that I mean getting back to as close to normal as I can.  Riding, wrenching on bikes, even typing this article have all taken on a whole new challenge.  It is amazing how much we take for granted in the things we do every day when we use our hands. For instance as I type this, I now hunt and peck with the left hand and am only able to use the ring and little finger on that hand, the index and middle no longer reach the keys, lol.  Damn, I used to be a pretty good typist!

I also find it very different in the garage when I work on the bikes to hold and feel things like nuts, bolts, wrenches, etc. But each time I get frustrated I try to stop and think how lucky I am and how God truly blessed me since it was the same day and same race that took the life of factory KTM rider Kurt Caselli.   Godspeed Kurt.

I am now back to trail riding and find it is going to take a bit of adjusting my grip on the bars and using the clutch since the wrist and fingers were so badly damaged.

So it looks like the motocross track is a little further away than I first thought. But I will be out to watch my buddies and cheer them on until I can join them.

Well, the sun is about to come up and I have an almost new 2013 KTM XCW calling my name so I think I will go out for some THERAPY!!!   Hope you can get out to ride and remember…..Enjoy each ride because we never know how many we are going to get.

#33

“The trouble with trouble is that it always starts out as fun!”

Let There Be Light!

The Night Life!

On really hot days or shortened winter days with limited day light hours, a good lighting system to supplement your bikes headlight may be your best friend!

I have been experimenting with bike light systems on my KTM to see what the possibility would be to extend my riding window. Baja Designs makes some really great bike lights that allow everything from casual trail riding to just about going race speeds. Although like anything else, you get what you pay for. The hot rod go fast light can easily get into the $400 to $500 range in a hurry.

No matter how much you decide to spend on a bike light you cannot go wrong by supplementing whatever you choose with a good helmet light system. Fortunately for you, you are reading this column so you don’t have to spend your money and hope you are getting a decent helmet light. I have done this for you!   Yep, spent my own money and purchased a light to experiment with.  I wanted to see the amount of light, the type of light (white vs. yellow), the pattern (flood vs. spot) and the run time of the battery to give mx43.com readers some info before parting with their hard earned cash.

I purchased a “TASK Racing” helmet mounted system in their ‘Ironman racer pack with extra battery’.  It was very reasonable at $134.95.  It comes with everything needed to mount it on your helmet and an extra battery. I purchased this package because I definitely am suspicious when companies claim to have battery life exceeding 3 or 4 hours, having had experience with past bicycle companies lighting systems. TASK claimed to have a battery life of 5.5 hours per battery before needing recharging. I was very impressed and surprised to see my first attempt go over 4 hours on the highest setting with no dimming of the light at all.

The system allows you to choose low, medium or high for brightness. I only used it on high to tax the battery to the fullest. I carried the spare battery in my back pack and never had to pull it out.

I tried the TASK helmet light with my stock headlight, an aftermarket system by Polisport and a Baja Designs high end light.

With the stock headlight the helmet light made the ride tolerable because the stock headlights on most bikes are not really up to the task of riding off road at night. The helmet light actually overpowered the stocker. While the bikes stock light was a dull yellow light it became instantly obvious the White light from my helmet was doing most of the work and just overpowering the dull yellow headlight.

With the Polisport headlight, better than stock but still putting out a yellowish light, I made it about 45 minutes into the ride when the bike headlight started cutting out intermittently. As the headlight came and went on my return route I realized I could ride without much problem using just the TASK helmet system as long as I rode at a reasonable pace to get home. It turned out to be quite the lifesaver when the bike headlight finally quit altogether. No problem riding casually home.

With the high end headlight from Baja Designs mounted on my bike the ride took on a whole new perspective. It was fun to ride wherever I wanted to go with a well lit trail and the ability to use the TASK helmet light to direct the beam wherever I wanted. I could look into corners before I got there and look near or far as needed. Both lights gave off a bright white light that showed every obstacle I encountered. This is definitely the way to go if you plan on doing much at night.

So if you are considering a helmet mounted light system you should definitely consider taking a look at the TASK setup. It produced a good pattern without being too focused or too wide in its pattern and put out a very white light with a good battery run time and all at a reasonable price. Check them out at  shop.taskracing.com

It is getting late and my batteries are charged, gotta go!
                                                                                                      

#33

The Do It All Ride!

I just finished a ride with a couple of new riding buddies, Bob and Pat of Helena, Montana. These guys have some secret squirrel trails hidden away that I don’t think get used very often by the looks of parts of the trail. So I was lucky or unlucky enough to get shown the way around some very obscure areas.

After riding the loop Bob showed us I can see why they don’t get used very often. Once you take a guy on this ride he probably always has a reason he can’t make it the next time! You know like I have to mow the lawn or I have a pile of dishes I gotta get done so I can take my wife shopping, etc.

We rode some absolutely awesome almost unridden trails that we had to move logs or cut downed trees with the chainsaw Bob brought in a backpack in order to make it through. I guess I should have caught on when Bob brought the chainsaw, sometimes I am a little slow. Then there were rock sections that resembled the Erzberg Rodeo. All of this was great fun and quite challenging, but just to make sure we didn’t get bored our point man Bob mixes in a little MUD/SWAMP along the way. Did I just say a little bit of Mud? How about over an hour of helping each other get through the FIRST swamp as we each took turns getting stuck. It took having the other two guys push, pull and lift while you tried to get your bike moving.

I have not gone over the bars in quite some time but this swamp was going to take care of that. I had the bright idea that if I went just fast enough to keep the bike driving forward I should be able to make it through the 50 yds of water and muck. Well it was all going according to plan until I found the bottomless water hole that stopped my bike so abruptly that I was looking straight down at the ground while the bike was doing a nose wheelie! Stopped instantly, motionless until I tipped over sideways with me pinned under the bike in the muck. It was so soft and so deep that I could not get up because my leg was pinned under the bike and every time I tried to push myself up with my hands they simply went deeper in the mud until my shoulder was on the ground! There was NO WAY to get up until my two compadres came over and lifted the bike to get my leg out from under it. Then, get this; I still could not push myself up because my hands kept going into the mud up to the shoulder repeatedly as I tried to push myself up. I literally had to ask Pat to come close enough that I could put my hand on top of his boot in order to have enough of a base to push myself up out of the mud. Crazy!

So once we cleared this little hurdle we continued on to some really cool trails that were not really trails but more of a direction on a side hill that required I track our ride leader Bob to hopefully go in the right direction. This eventually became a real trail and I was told we were headed back since this was the second half of the loop. It was now about 4pm and we had been out for just over 4 hours and covered a whopping 25 miles so it was actually turning into my kind of ride. I always like a challenge, Thanks guys! I figured if the second half of this ride was anything like the first, we should be done between 7 and 8 pm. Since I have a Baja Designs Squadron II headlight I knew I was in better shape than both Bob and Pat. I can actually trail ride comfortably with this lighting system as opposed to the stockers on the other bikes.

The rest of the ride was pretty straightforward except for one more mud pit in a heavily wooded section that we got off our bikes and walked before attempting it. We sloshed through and only spent about 30 minutes or so on it.

We arrived back at the truck at about 7 pm loaded our bikes and headed for a cool beverage on our way home. I fully intend to go back and ride with Bob and Pat, unless I have to take my wife shopping.

#33

‘You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life’

Pit Crew Rehab Tour Extended

The last update on the #33 pit crew (Cheryl) had her hobbling along on crutches for an estimated 4 weeks as recommended by the doctor.

4 weeks came and went so it was time for another trip to an Urgent care in Montana for another x-ray to find out how the foot was progressing. Well the news was not as good as we had hoped. The fractured bone was healing but not at the rate we had expected. So the physician sentenced her to another 2 to 4 weeks of crutch time. The idea is that there be no weight bearing on that foot until the fracture was deemed healed enough. So that means 2 to 4 more weeks of carting around a huge wrapped foot or wear the oversized splint/boot they apparently repossessed from some basketball player with a size 16 shoe.

Fortunately we have a buddy, aka Montana John, who spent a great many years working in the prosthetic profession making and fitting people with prosthetic devices so that they may live a more normal life.  Montana John or M.J.  offered to make an insert that would do the same thing as the monster boot and could actually be worn in a tennis shoe. It would offer the needed support without the exaggerated size and bulkiness of the boot.

M.J. takes me and the shoe down to his shop and proceeds to bust out a custom insert support. He does it by shaping leather, hard special purpose made plastic and some glue along with a short stint on a machine that he uses to grind and shape the pieces until he is holding a finished product. It doesn’t take him long either, I would guess he had it together in less than an hour. I think he has done this before!

So for the next few weeks #33’s pit crew can hobble around  with a more normal looking shoe, but the crutches are still a dead giveaway that living in the mobile ghetto can be dangerous!

I wonder if I should get her a helmet while she is on crutches………………just sayin’

#33

“Aspire to Inspire before you Expire”

Group Hug!

Group Ride/Hug!

The past week or so has seen a variety of riders show up for a ride with #33. They all brought their own personalities, much to my benefit.

It was a fun filled and entertaining week for me with such a wide variation of riders. Guys ranging from 40 yrs to 72 yrs of age.

The young group (the 40 and 50ish riders) rode at a much quicker pace than you would expect from a bunch of aspiring Geezers.  Rod, Mark and Kevin made up the group and rode their normal trails at what was probably their normal pace which makes a card carrying Geezer like me have to huff and puff to chase them around the trails all day. But they did take me on some of the coolest single track trails this side of Idaho. It was my good fortune to be allowed into their local playground and be shown the way around because I could have ridden the same area for a month or more and maybe not stumbled onto some of their best stuff. It is not exactly marked or on the map. Kind of gives you an idea of how much fun it was doesn’t it? Thanks guys!

The next group had a couple of qualifying Geezers at 65 and 72 years old. Doug (aka Senor Kirby) and Kerry (aka El Guapo) both of Baja fame. Since they were visiting and riding somewhere they had never seen before with me now becoming the guide, the pace took on a more ooh and aah pace to be able to take it all in. Of course there was the occasional pick up the bike after a tip over break built in. One time the bike did go down an embankment and had to be hauled back up onto the trail and since I was leading the ride and out in front I didn’t see the carnage. When they failed to show up a little ways down the trail I went back to see what was holding them up. I obviously had waited just long enough before I went to check on them because they had JUST gotten the bike back up on the trail and were exhausted. So they sat down on the side of the trail in the shade to catch their breath and have a drink. I wasn’t really tired but I sat down anyway. Hee Hee.

When we continued on we had a great time and took in some awesome views from a couple of fire lookouts. The photos just don’t do it justice. By the end of the day we had covered 82 miles with single track, fire roads that the boys just loved sliding the corners and views that allowed us to see all the way to Mt. Lassen from Red Rock Look Out. As Senor Kirby and El Guapo rolled up to the truck and put their bikes on the side stands I was to witness one final act of bike handling. Or mishandling, if you prefer. I watched as Senor Kirby attempted to dismount his KTM 500 exc. He apparently forgets on occasion about the fender pack on the rear of the bike. As his leg snags on the pack the bike tips and down he goes in a heap! I am cracking up because he still had all his protective gear on and is completely dressed for the occasion. I ask him if he is alright and he mutters something I can’t quite make out, so he may have been cussing me out. That is when I burst out laughing and bust out the camera at the same time!  After I snapped a couple of pictures I did pick his bike up for him. I am not a completely heartless guy! El Guapo just stood there and chuckled.

The other group ride was just me and my buddy Ed. Now Ed does things a little different, he likes to be prepared. FOR ANYTHING. So that means Ed carries as much crap on his body and bike as I do. I do it because I am often out for several hours and sometimes 30 to 50 miles from any kind of help. To give you an idea of his preparedness, everything is wrapped up and stored in a separate container with labels as to what is inside. It takes about 5 minutes to go through and read all the labels to find what you actually need when we do have an issue on the trail. If he ever breaks those reading glasses he uses to find the tools and parts needed he is in deep trouble unless he has a spare pair of those too. I wouldn’t put it past him. His wife calls him O.K.  Sterken (his last name) if that is any indication. The OK stands for Over Kill. Ha! She cracked me up.

I think I will start calling him ‘Puncture’ since our last few rides have resulted in him getting a flat front tire. Of course this one was caused by the tire iron we found inside the tire after breaking it down. Maybe he should have had a label on the tire irons. Just an idea. I watched as he fixed his flat but was secretly putting the clock on him. It took a bit over and hour for the repair. After all he had to break out the reading glasses to be able to read all the labels so he could find the correct equipment container to fix the flat. Luckily he was able to patch it because when I asked him if he had a spare tube to change it out he got real quiet just before he used a cuss word directed at me.

Hey, OK/Puncture you may want to throw a spare tube in if you think you could find a container for it, oh and maybe another container to account for the tire irons used………….I’m just sayin’.

#33

“We don’t stop riding because we grow old, we grow old because we stop riding”