Hi All,
I decided I needed to put some miles in on my bike last weekend, and decided on the 6 hours of Glen Helen over the District 37 Enduro. I definitely got my wish as I rode the event "Ironman".
I met up with a few friends of mine and pitted next to them at Glen Helen raceway. I also found out that a spark arrestor was not required, nor was there going to be a sound check as I am used to. So, I removed the spark arrestor and quiet core insert from my Akro silencer and installed the open core insert that has been waiting patiently in the box the muffler came with. I did a burn in for 15 minutes to reset the ECU for the lower elevation and the open core exhaust and headed off to sign up.
Sign up was a painless affair really. Just a matter of filling out a simple sign up sheet, and plopping down the $100 deposit for the transponder, of which you get $ 75 back at the end of the day when you return it. This took all of 10 minutes max.
I put on some numbers that I had left over from years of D-37 racing, I was # 760 for this day.
Charles Jirsa was there with the Husaberg Sprinter, and we had a nice chat as he was prepping his bike and a bike for a young up and coming Husaberg rider. Charles also told me he had plenty of parts on the truck, and that if I needed anything to just help myself. Sounds just like the Force Ride #3!!
The mandatory riders meeting was late as was the start of the event by 30 minutes. Not a big deal when you have 6 hours of un interrupted ecstasy ahead of you!!
When I got to the start I found that the Iron men were starting on the last row, and that row was full. They began starting the rows up front, and I quickly realized that there was no point in me sitting directly behind the guy in front of me-unless I wanted to start my day with a face full of roost! Plus, I was lined up on what was the inside of the first corners and I could see that was not the place to be too. So I swung around and lined up about 50 feet behind the guy on the very outside of the row. The sweep rider who was sitting at the back, kind of gave me a weird look as I was lined up even with him.
So, time to start, left hand on your helmet and the green flag waved and we were off!! In the first corner about half of the riders got bunched up and went wide and I just cruised on by on the inside!!! Not bad.
The course markings were made up of day glo cards, and their placement was in some cases interesting. Definitely not what I'm used to in terms of a desert race. Riding the first lap with caution, I found the course, given it's location to be pretty creative. From the wide open trophy truck section, out through a water filled sand wash, hard packed fire breaks, single track and then back onto the infamous Glen Helen national MX track. There was also some asphalt sections that were very fast indeed, and really pretty scary, considering the repercussions of going off the asphalt at some of the apex's, where you would be greeted on case by large pieces of concrete pipe. NICE. There was even an Enduro Cross section complete with logs and big tractor tires!!
On the first lap I got a little arm pump that began to fade away about 1/2 way around the second lap. As the second lap wore on I began to loosen up a bit and began to ride a bit more aggressively. With my map switch set on position #2-aggressive, I began to notice how much more power my 570 was making with the open core silencer. As well, how much quicker it would spool up. My bike had no trouble spinning up the last of my MT-18 120/100 tires on the asphalt. In fact up through 4th gear I really had to be careful as it came into the upper revs, it would spin the rear up and begin to drift on the asphalt.
On the national MX track I got another big surprise while climbing one of the Mt. St Helen's type hills. About half way up one of these big hills and revving the bike up pretty good with the throttle open to the stop, the motor got into the upper rev range and seemed to explode with power!!! I was sitting at the front of the seat leaning over the bars, and immediately found myself looking up at the sky!! Impressive, most impressive.
Each lap had you going through the pits at 5mph, and on my first pit I took the opportunity to switch the map switch to position #3 or the standard position. This definitely helped with ride ability in the tight sections where the ground was hard packed clay=concrete, with loose talcum powder on the top. However, again on the big hills I almost looped it again at least 3 more times throughout the race. Hind sight being what it is, I probably should have just set it on position #1 from the beginning and been done with it!!
In the back section of the course, on some of the single track, there were a few very steep down hills with some pretty big, almost vertically faced braking bumps, so much so, by the end of the race the bike felt like a rigid framed bike.
Throughout the race all the competitors were pretty cool, when you'd come up on someone they would move over as soon as they could, and in turn I would do the same with just about everyone raising their left hand in thanks.
The race wore on and I made several stops for fuel and liquid libation at my truck. Lot's of people there wanting to help, sometimes too much, like the young man who insisted that he pour my gas, ended up overfilling it so much so that it flooded my bike as the gas flowed down the tank and through the air cleaner into the throttle body. I wonder how much dirt got flushed through with it? So, tossed in a new air cleaner real quick and I was off again.
It was about this time I changed gloves as well. I was getting a blister on the palm of my left hand, mind you, I NEVER get blisters. But the course by this time was so hacked out I suppose it was inevitable. I traded my Moose Sahara gloves for some Fox Bombers that I had. At first it was worse, but as the lap wore on my hand hurt less, and in another lap, although it was sore, didn't hurt nearly as much.
I felt pretty good for the first 4 hours. Then at hour 4.5 started getting pretty tired, and when I came around at hour 6 and was hoping to see the white flag since the leader had lapped me several times, I was greeted with a rolled up white flag and the realization that I had at least 3 more times around the approximately 10 mile loop ahead of me. I just concentrated on being smooth and practiced the fundamentals to conserve energy and not fall down.
Speaking of falling down I only did so twice, once I lost the front in some single track, and once coming out of a rocky wash where the bike stalled, which caused me to lurch forward mashing down on the rear brake and causing the bike to come to a very abrupt stop. Unfortunately, physics being what they are, my body did not. I proceeded to ram my family jewels into the cross bar pad with such force that it broke the ty wrap holding it in place. Needless to say, I did not recover from this very quickly. I spent the next few minutes on my knees coping with the pain and trying to occupy my mind with the question "when was the last time I did something like this?". I finally settled on Barstow to Vegas in 1988 when I received a crotch full of roost and a large rock from a CR 500. I didn't realize that I had lost my bar pad until the next lap when I came through the same spot, and saw a Husaberg bar pad lying on the ground and thought "hey, there's a Husaberg bar pad lying there" looking down I realized mine was gone LOL!
On the next lap I got the white flag, but, was so hungry I stopped at my pit and wolfed down a half a peanut butter sandwich for the final lap. I was pretty much on auto pilot just trying to make it around with out falling or getting stuck in one of the technical sections. Soon I was greeted with the checkered flag and the end of the race!!! I finished 13th out of 24 starters and 23 finishers. You can view results and lap times here:
http://www.tracksideonlineresults.com/t ... &rn=2&rt=M
Charles Jirsa waved me down and we chatted about the race, and he flashed the latest map into my bike. Looking forward to trying that out!!
I got back to my pit and we all shared our stories from the event, with a new buddy of mine Paul Barnes summing it up best by saying "look everyone has a dirt smile"
I'll be training and looking forward to the 12 hours next!! It's mainly a night race on the 26th of June, from 6PM to 6 Am.
I decided I needed to put some miles in on my bike last weekend, and decided on the 6 hours of Glen Helen over the District 37 Enduro. I definitely got my wish as I rode the event "Ironman".
I met up with a few friends of mine and pitted next to them at Glen Helen raceway. I also found out that a spark arrestor was not required, nor was there going to be a sound check as I am used to. So, I removed the spark arrestor and quiet core insert from my Akro silencer and installed the open core insert that has been waiting patiently in the box the muffler came with. I did a burn in for 15 minutes to reset the ECU for the lower elevation and the open core exhaust and headed off to sign up.
Sign up was a painless affair really. Just a matter of filling out a simple sign up sheet, and plopping down the $100 deposit for the transponder, of which you get $ 75 back at the end of the day when you return it. This took all of 10 minutes max.
I put on some numbers that I had left over from years of D-37 racing, I was # 760 for this day.
Charles Jirsa was there with the Husaberg Sprinter, and we had a nice chat as he was prepping his bike and a bike for a young up and coming Husaberg rider. Charles also told me he had plenty of parts on the truck, and that if I needed anything to just help myself. Sounds just like the Force Ride #3!!
The mandatory riders meeting was late as was the start of the event by 30 minutes. Not a big deal when you have 6 hours of un interrupted ecstasy ahead of you!!
When I got to the start I found that the Iron men were starting on the last row, and that row was full. They began starting the rows up front, and I quickly realized that there was no point in me sitting directly behind the guy in front of me-unless I wanted to start my day with a face full of roost! Plus, I was lined up on what was the inside of the first corners and I could see that was not the place to be too. So I swung around and lined up about 50 feet behind the guy on the very outside of the row. The sweep rider who was sitting at the back, kind of gave me a weird look as I was lined up even with him.
So, time to start, left hand on your helmet and the green flag waved and we were off!! In the first corner about half of the riders got bunched up and went wide and I just cruised on by on the inside!!! Not bad.
The course markings were made up of day glo cards, and their placement was in some cases interesting. Definitely not what I'm used to in terms of a desert race. Riding the first lap with caution, I found the course, given it's location to be pretty creative. From the wide open trophy truck section, out through a water filled sand wash, hard packed fire breaks, single track and then back onto the infamous Glen Helen national MX track. There was also some asphalt sections that were very fast indeed, and really pretty scary, considering the repercussions of going off the asphalt at some of the apex's, where you would be greeted on case by large pieces of concrete pipe. NICE. There was even an Enduro Cross section complete with logs and big tractor tires!!
On the first lap I got a little arm pump that began to fade away about 1/2 way around the second lap. As the second lap wore on I began to loosen up a bit and began to ride a bit more aggressively. With my map switch set on position #2-aggressive, I began to notice how much more power my 570 was making with the open core silencer. As well, how much quicker it would spool up. My bike had no trouble spinning up the last of my MT-18 120/100 tires on the asphalt. In fact up through 4th gear I really had to be careful as it came into the upper revs, it would spin the rear up and begin to drift on the asphalt.
On the national MX track I got another big surprise while climbing one of the Mt. St Helen's type hills. About half way up one of these big hills and revving the bike up pretty good with the throttle open to the stop, the motor got into the upper rev range and seemed to explode with power!!! I was sitting at the front of the seat leaning over the bars, and immediately found myself looking up at the sky!! Impressive, most impressive.
Each lap had you going through the pits at 5mph, and on my first pit I took the opportunity to switch the map switch to position #3 or the standard position. This definitely helped with ride ability in the tight sections where the ground was hard packed clay=concrete, with loose talcum powder on the top. However, again on the big hills I almost looped it again at least 3 more times throughout the race. Hind sight being what it is, I probably should have just set it on position #1 from the beginning and been done with it!!
In the back section of the course, on some of the single track, there were a few very steep down hills with some pretty big, almost vertically faced braking bumps, so much so, by the end of the race the bike felt like a rigid framed bike.
Throughout the race all the competitors were pretty cool, when you'd come up on someone they would move over as soon as they could, and in turn I would do the same with just about everyone raising their left hand in thanks.
The race wore on and I made several stops for fuel and liquid libation at my truck. Lot's of people there wanting to help, sometimes too much, like the young man who insisted that he pour my gas, ended up overfilling it so much so that it flooded my bike as the gas flowed down the tank and through the air cleaner into the throttle body. I wonder how much dirt got flushed through with it? So, tossed in a new air cleaner real quick and I was off again.
It was about this time I changed gloves as well. I was getting a blister on the palm of my left hand, mind you, I NEVER get blisters. But the course by this time was so hacked out I suppose it was inevitable. I traded my Moose Sahara gloves for some Fox Bombers that I had. At first it was worse, but as the lap wore on my hand hurt less, and in another lap, although it was sore, didn't hurt nearly as much.
I felt pretty good for the first 4 hours. Then at hour 4.5 started getting pretty tired, and when I came around at hour 6 and was hoping to see the white flag since the leader had lapped me several times, I was greeted with a rolled up white flag and the realization that I had at least 3 more times around the approximately 10 mile loop ahead of me. I just concentrated on being smooth and practiced the fundamentals to conserve energy and not fall down.
Speaking of falling down I only did so twice, once I lost the front in some single track, and once coming out of a rocky wash where the bike stalled, which caused me to lurch forward mashing down on the rear brake and causing the bike to come to a very abrupt stop. Unfortunately, physics being what they are, my body did not. I proceeded to ram my family jewels into the cross bar pad with such force that it broke the ty wrap holding it in place. Needless to say, I did not recover from this very quickly. I spent the next few minutes on my knees coping with the pain and trying to occupy my mind with the question "when was the last time I did something like this?". I finally settled on Barstow to Vegas in 1988 when I received a crotch full of roost and a large rock from a CR 500. I didn't realize that I had lost my bar pad until the next lap when I came through the same spot, and saw a Husaberg bar pad lying on the ground and thought "hey, there's a Husaberg bar pad lying there" looking down I realized mine was gone LOL!
On the next lap I got the white flag, but, was so hungry I stopped at my pit and wolfed down a half a peanut butter sandwich for the final lap. I was pretty much on auto pilot just trying to make it around with out falling or getting stuck in one of the technical sections. Soon I was greeted with the checkered flag and the end of the race!!! I finished 13th out of 24 starters and 23 finishers. You can view results and lap times here:
http://www.tracksideonlineresults.com/t ... &rn=2&rt=M
Charles Jirsa waved me down and we chatted about the race, and he flashed the latest map into my bike. Looking forward to trying that out!!
I got back to my pit and we all shared our stories from the event, with a new buddy of mine Paul Barnes summing it up best by saying "look everyone has a dirt smile"
I'll be training and looking forward to the 12 hours next!! It's mainly a night race on the 26th of June, from 6PM to 6 Am.
