Dual Sport Fun!

Racers Under The Sun (RUTS)

The Dual Sport ride put on by the RUTS organization on August 18 & 19 was nothing short of spectacular. They started their 2 day event in the Elkins Flat OHV area in northern California at a Resort named “Sopiago Springs Resort” that caters of off road riders.  The event was 2 days of riding with an overnight stay in Minden, Nevada.  RUTS provided a shuttle truck to take an overnight bag for the riders to the lodging in Minden.

The riders were treated to some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable over the 2 days of riding, crossing the Sierra Nevada mountain range at Ebbitts pass on the first day and South Lake Tahoe/Carson pass the second day. The mileage for the event was approximately 300 miles for both days combined. Just enough to make the riders tired and happy but not worn out to the point of exhaustion.  The ride had a variety of terrain from paved roads to dirt roads with a good amount of single track thrown in to challenge everyone.

We were treated to Sunshine, Cool overcast and even a few showers over the 2 days.  The event also had a route mapped out for the Adventure Bike riders that bypassed the tighter more technical sections so there was a course for everyone no matter what type of bike they brought.

 

Thanks to the RUTS crew and see you next year,

#33

We Don't Need No Stinkin Dust!

2012 Baja 500 (Geezer Style)

The Fly-Works Connection-MX43.com Baja 500 team for 2012 race consisted of Marc Prince, Doug Smith, Dave Potts, Ray Spore and Eric McKenna. They seem to be on a roll with their win at Baja 250, now the 500 and hope to continue to carry their luck/momentum into the 1000 later this year in November.

The race started and ended in Ensenada with the early Saturday morning departure of 6am for the first motorcycle.  It was overcast with no wind which is not a good thing for this type of race with the bikes starting at intervals of 30 seconds per bike. Without the wind to help clear the way the dust just hangs and becomes unbearable in some places. Since I drew the short straw, I mean volunteered to do the start, it meant the first hour and a half of my riding would be like getting a last place start in a cross country event while riding directly into the rising sun on a dusty course without much help from mother nature to clear the air.  But since everyone else was in the same boat I figured it would be some riding and a lot of luck as to how things went. When I finally handed off to Doug at about mile 80 I figured I weighed an extra 3 pounds or so with all the dust collected on my riding gear and down my throat.

We did fine during the first 225 miles while engaged in a see-saw battle with another team until our first bike problem. I happened to be on the bike when it occurred. I was riding along on a paved transition section with a 60 mph speed limit minding my own business when the bike just quit! Just like it had run out of gas. I looked at the tank and could clearly see fuel so I knew that was not the problem. I immediately start to think it must be an electrical problem and am wondering how the heck I am going to find the problem and maintain the lead we had of around 8 minutes. It must have been our lucky day because I was stopped for less than a minute when Chris Haines and his mechanic, Jimmy, pull up to me and ask what is wrong. I know Jimmy has been a Honda mechanic for quite some time and tell him it was like the bike has run out of gas. I was double lucky to have Jimmy be in the truck when they stop and to also give him the correct description of what was wrong. He immediately went through the check list of fuel supply and venting and had the bike running in probably less than 2 minutes. He discovered the overflow line on the aftermarket tank had been kinked slightly on the last gas stop and was starving the bike for fuel by not allowing air to pass through the vent line.  I actually thought it was an electrical problem.  But when he told me to hit the starter and see if it was ok the bike fired right up. I stomped it into gear and was back in the race!  I am pretty sure I said “Thank You Jimmy!” when I rode off.

I finished out my section where Doug took over and put on a new rear wheel/tire. He did an excellent ride over to the coast with Dave taking the coastal section and maintaining a good pace with only one tip over if I got all the story right. Somewhere along Dave’s route he bent the rear brake rotor pretty badly where it was working the brake pad pin out.  Dave handed the bike over to Ray to get it to the finish where on inspection it was discovered that the rear brake pads were being held in by about 1 thread on the brake pin!  Doug inspected it at the finish and thinks if we had to go another couple of miles we would have lost the rear brake. So it appears we were lucky on more than one occasion during this race. But you know the old saying, Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.  In our case on this day that was true, because with everything totaled on corrected start times and penalties we won by about 1 minute!  That is a race when you have 2 teams with 5 or so riders on each team and it comes down to about a minute after almost 500 miles of racing.

So this 2012 year for the MX43.com team has been great so far with the win at the Baja 250 and now the 500 we are headed to the last round in November with the points lead and a chance to win the coveted 500X plate. I will keep you posted if you will keep your fingers crossed for us!

Buenos Dias my Amigos,

#33

Geezer Ride Day....Lot's of Fun!

An Old-Timer Ride Day

The Sierra Chapter of the OTMX race series recently put on one of their Old-Timer only ride days in Marysville, Calif.  At the MMX facility. If you have never been out to one of these ride days you may want to mark the next one on your calendar.

The idea being that you get to ride with a bunch of Geezers that actually enjoy riding together and have a great time battling each other to sharpen their skills. All this without kids trying to cut you off in each turn or over every jump. The added bonus is the lunch was included along with a raffle that provided some pretty cool stuff being handed out just for the privilege of showing up to ride with your friends!

It was a lot of fun to swap bikes and try other guys’ rides. I was lucky enough to ride a new 2012 450 Honda (thanks Terry) and get a pretty good idea of the improvements made to the new bike over the past couple of years. I also got to spend some time on a 2012 WR Yamaha (thanks Doug) even though it was not designed to be on an MX track, it worked pretty damn well! It was actually a lot of fun to ride on the track and had extremely capable suspension. That would be an awesome off road bike with such good suspension and an electric type power from the motor.

I almost got to ride the most beautiful 1980 440 Maico I have seen since……….well, 1980 on the showroom floor. I am not sure the ones on the showroom floor were this clean! The reason I say almost is because the owner, Gino, took it out to warm it up and be first rider since it is his bike and promptly had the rear brake rod snap off. Nothing wrong with the bike, completely mechanic error Gino assured me. He realized he had made a mistake when reassembling after the last detail session. Too bad because that would have been the ride of the day! That bike is beautiful.

 So it may be a good idea to check on the Sierra Old-Timer website and see when their next ride day is so you can make it. Besides the hamburgers and hotdogs that were cooked to perfection, I came away with a Works Connection hour meter from the raffle. I guess now this means I actually have to change the oil on my bike at regular intervals.

See you at the next ride day!

#33

Take Your Uncle To Work Day!

Lucky me, I have a nephew that is now employed by Dirt Bike magazine. So when he called me up and said, “Hey, want to go on a couple of photo shoot/ride days with us?” I said, “Where and what time!”

So I find out that the photo shoot is for the 2012 models of 450cc Off Road bikes. CRF-X Honda, WR Yamaha, TM, Beta factory edition, Husqvarna and KTM xc-w. It had rained 2 days before and there was snow capping the mountains all around the L.A. area. I was a bit excited to say the least and this is coming from a guy that rides an average of 3 to 4 days a week. Can you imagine someone asking you if you want to ride the latest off road dirt bikes out with almost no time on them with new tires (new meats = a Tom Webbism) mounted for the test.

So we meet up at 6:30 am to drive to the area they are going to ride and shoot photos. By the time we make the trip, meet the other riders and get to the riding area it is already in the 10 am part of the day. The other riders include past 250cc World Champion Danny LaPorte, Current GNCC fast guy Josh Strang, long time photographer Karel Kramer, some geezer named Tom Webb (another long time writer photographer), R.J. Wageman, Dirt Bike Honcho Ron Lawson, Mark Tilley and his uncle yours truly, #33.

Bikes are off loaded, riders’ suit up and we are off. I am not sure what to expect since we are heading up, into the mountains with snow still showing on top. The dirt is one notch below perfect, good traction, no mud with occasional wisp of dust to let the guy behind know which way to go in case he gets out of sight. It was just about perfect for riding in a group. We head up and these guys have obviously been here before! They find canyons that are narrow, long, moist and don’t have a straightaway that goes for more than 50 ft! Then they get to the hills. I see some hills and think wow there must be some guys coming up here on hill climb bikes making these monsters. Nope, just obstacles to go up or down on the way to the places they want to take pictures. After first seeing these hills I start to think maybe I should have asked for a bigger bike. Then I remember that I am on a 450 and start to wonder if it is big enough!

We get to the areas that are exactly what these bikes are designed for and the crew starts to take pictures of the bikes doing what they do best, dropping off waterfalls with ledges, climbing back out through the snow and climbing very large hills before they drop down in groups showcasing all the bikes capabilities. I had the chance to ride all of the bikes and now have a very good idea of how they stack up against each other. Since I am not writing the story or shoot out I can’t put these bikes in any order. You will have to wait for the official Dirt Bike story to do that for you. All I will say is that if I were spending my money after riding all these bikes it would be very hard to make a decision between the Beta and the KTM. I’m just sayin’……………

I don’t know about everyone else but I had such a good time riding and watching the other riders all day long I think I may have to go to the doctor to see if he can remove this silly grin from my face!  I wonder if the magazine has a medical plan that covers that?

A big Thanks to the Dirt Bike crew and the other riders. It was very impressive to have Danny LaPorte and Josh Strang there and not act like the stars that they are. Danny is funny and says now that he is old he gets tired too easy. Josh Strang was a very pleasant young man with a lot of talent that rode with everyone instead of ahead of them. Tom Webb gets cranky if someone roosts his camera bag when he sets it down! All I can say to that one is “placement” homie.  Ron Lawson likes to use me as a tripod for his photoflash strobe because I move on command instead of having to physically move it, lol.  My nephew Mark seems to run out of fuel if you go too long without getting him something to eat and starts to get cranky, fortunately I carry a back pack with a bit of food and candy for the sugar. He recovered nicely.  Maybe I should throw in a Sippy cup just in case….

I found out that when I ride with these guys I need to carry a bit of 2 stroke oil in my back pack even though we were all supposed to  be on 450 4-strokes. But that is another story, eh, Ron!

Test rider debutant,                                                                                   

#33

2012 Baja Series Begins

San Felipe Baja 250

The MX43.com  MPA Sales/Works Connection/FLY-WPS/Precision Concepts supported Honda CRF-X 450 made the trek down to San Felipe, Mexico to participate in the 1st round of the SCORE Baja series.  Things went according to plan with almost nothing to hinder the Class 50 team of Marc Prince, Eric McKenna, Dave Potts and Doug Smith. The bike ran flawlessly and the Suspension work that Bob Bell put together for the 501X bike was nothing short of amazing.

The 6am start time was early enough that the sun had not yet found all the sections of the course and the wind that seems to always be present in the San Felipe area took a vacation day. The start has riders going off at 30 second intervals and the wind usually keeps it from being too bad in the beginning. With no wind to speak of, the first third of the race was extremely dusty since it just hung on the course with each passing rider doing his part to dust the guy behind him.

The race progressed with the 501X bike building a slight lead that continued through the day as everyone on the team used their heads and rode well with no mechanical issues and no big crashes to derail the effort.  It should be noted that this year’s race was littered with damaged bikes and bodies along the way that included some of the biggest names in the race like, Cody, Bell and Weigandt. Some of it was caught on camera and video that can be found on YouTube. So this laundry list of Pro riders having difficulty makes it even more impressive that all of the 501X riders did such an outstanding job of cleaning their sections with a minimum of problems. Congratulations Boys!

The Class 60 team had the normal line up of killers on the 609X Honda, like Dempsey, Gates and crew. They have come to be known as “Team GEEZER”.  They were short a rider or two due to injuries and Don Lewis deciding to give this race a try solo!  So this time out they had 2 new riders they took a chance on with zero Baja racing experience. The first addition to the team, Doug McCaleb is 70 years old and has ridden in the woods for years. He has no Baja experience and took on the challenge with all the enthusiasm you would expect from someone much younger, like maybe 60!  Doug had a great time pre riding with his wife Chris doing the chase driving, they both learned a lot in the days leading up to the race. He completed his section with only a couple of tip over’s and found out how little you can see when a trophy truck catches and passes you. That made it to YouTube also! 

The second addition to the team was Don Nelson who is Doug’s senior at 74 years old!  Now Don has ridden in Baja for quite a few years but never raced in any of these sanctioned events. He completed his section with a minimal amount of trouble, other than riding off the course a few times when he couldn’t see through the dust. Again, it was a calm day unfortunately. I have spoken with Don since and he was amazed at the amount of effort required to put on, compete in and complete the shortest race of the series. He said he couldn’t believe how many people were out in his section that he thought was in the middle of nowhere. When he pre ran he thought he would be out there all alone with only another rider or two during the race. He said there was a sand wash full of whoops that he had no idea how all those people got out there to watch. He said it was fun to have spectators to cheer him on when he was tired. Don usually competes in the International Old Timer Motocross series up and down the western part of the United States in the 70+ class with all the other hard core more “mature gentlemen”. He has been riding for years but never raced a motorcycle until he was in his 60’s!

These guys seem to have the most fun of all the entrants with new stories emerging with each passing event. The latest story or rumor being of Bob Gates aka “spatula Bob” caught in a photo driving his truck back to the house wearing a female bikini top he acquired in a trade with a woman at a local watering hole. The story goes that she wanted his “Team GEEZER” shirt and was willing to trade straight across as long as the trade was done right there, right now, in the drinking establishment!  It generated some enthusiasm when they came to the agreement and made the switch! I am thinking Bob should have driven home shirtless instead of wearing her top, it seems one of your friends always has a camera phone!

Can’t wait to see what mischief, I mean fun, the Baja 500 brings. 

Adios, #33