Re: First ride on my "new" 04 550... or..... the r
Okay, Today I went on my official "first ride". I will preface it by saying it was totally worth it, and a deductive mind would see that because i am writing this i lived to tell the tale...
We had originally planned on traveling down to a place called Clear Creek, CA a LARGE blm property that has tons of open high speed trails and hills to climb. a great place to get to know your bike, not to many rocks and minimal tree lined single track. But we got a late start and decided to go someplace a bit closer to home...
Deer Creek rec area in the lower elevations of the great Sierra Nevada mountains. a place known for it's diversity of trails, from fast fire roads to 13 tooth front sprocket, 1 gear, steep, boulder and root strewn, narrow, lever breaking, finger snapping tree lined, rutted out, single track.
today was a perfect day, weather wise. On our way in we had an abnormal amount of slipping and sliding in the trucks due to the VERY slick mud and copious amounts of water that seemed to be flooding the streams and creeks in the area. ( a sign of things to come)
When we arrived at the staging area the puddles still had the ice on them. we could tell that in the recent past a number of trucks had been stuck in the mud so we stayed on the edges and unloaded on the high side of the staging area.
gear on, trucks locked. and ROAR! the 550 came to life with ease. I came with two buddies, one a STRONG level A rider (a few years back he approached the pro level but kids and stuff ....) and the other a novice like myself.
off we went to our favorite "expert" level single track hill climb to start the day.... BAD MOVE 8O I seemed to have forgotten that I had not been riding in almost 10 months, and I must have really had the jetting hammered on the 470, because compared to this it was like riding a xr200. I was not ready for the hit of this bike.
The water was running in rivlets down the road, and as the lead guy took off I could tell that I was in for a very rough day....
The mud! it was like trying to ride in warm butter
as we approached the first hill, you drop 100 feet steeply into a gully and immediately begin a white knuckle ride up a rutted out 200 foot hill climb, that on a dry day is challenging enough. today though, with the sun shining and the snow QUICKLY melting, it was literally a nightmare... off went the level A rider, 3/4 of the way up after spinning his tires and bouncing around like a pin ball and throwing enough mud to change the topography of the surrounding area, he turned around and said, %$#%$ That, lets find another way.
Now, I am not stupid, but I do have a streak that won't let me not do something that I have done in the past, so off I went ignoring the looks of bewilderment on my friend faces, Hell I have one of the best bikes made, with more power than i can use, I can do this... right?.... right???...
long story short, after 4 attemps at the hill, and and having fallen countless times and bounced of of every rock I gave up... it was to damn slick...
so we turned around, and went in search of better traction, but we had to climb out of the gully we came into to do that, so i was second in line and off i went following the level A guy, who is always in control.. right... RIGHT??? WRONG again... as he started climbing i gave him a pretty good lead, and as we approached 3/4 of the way out he suddenly steered to the left, thinking, hmm he must want to try that difficult line, I decide to go right and continue with my momentum, because we all know what kind off hell to pay it is when you have to stop on a steep, mud like lard, trail.
well as I approached my buddy who continued to head left, both of our bikes throwing mud like politicians, I headed to the right of the 6 foot wide trial. Then suddenly his bike hit a root and BAM he was thrown right in front of me! 8O OH crap! and before I new it we were both sliding back down the hill in a twisted pile of yellow, blue, orange and black. at the bottom of the hill we both gave each other the thumbs up telling us the we each OK and then a middle finger telling each of us what we thought of the situation.
well finally, we made it out of the gully, and headed for the west side of the mountain where we mistakenly believed it would be a bit dryer....
to get there we had to take some of our favorite single track and I was POOPED! already and it was only 1 hour into our ride...
the single track was awesome. tight, rutted out, mud to the axles and FUN!
then we hit the SNOW! one-two feet deep on top with MUddy ruts underneath.. so this is what hell is like when it freezes over... :evil:
WELL remember in a previous post when i rhetorically asked "I wonder what I have forgotten?" My novice butt had forgotten to stop fight the ruts, and to make it worse you could not see where they were because of the snow. I dumped that bike so many times I drained half the gas tank through the vent hose on top... Can I just say that my day was beginning to SUCK!
well about 1 hour later I seemed to get my grove back, and was really enjoying myself. the west side of the mountain was a bit drier and the bike was running great. a awesome mix of fire road and trail, nice berms to jump and a few steams to cross... UNTIL
A wash out.. the conversation went something like this;
Level A guy: if i go, you have to also.
ME: Dude, I can handle that, how deep can it be? I can see the bottom...
Level A guy: umm... deep...
Other Buddy: idiots...I am eating lunch...
ME: Dude I have the best bike made and tons of power, hence I am invincible!
Other Buddy: I repeat... Idiots...
so... not one to back down from a challenge, off level A guy went and picked a great line... out he came the other side with water only reaching half way up the cylinder.
I followed, but unfortunately hell had frozen again and i slid out of his line and into water up to the bottom of the seat... and stalled the bike. I immediately hit the hot button and... the bike roared to life and i threw open the throttle and, like a scalded cat thrown into a tub of ice water, i came shooting out of the creek and up the gully embankment and launched myself 10 feet in the air....
BUT I LANDED IT! it was sweet! It totally looked like a intended to do it!
I rode for another hour thinking pretty highly of myself and wishing i had been able to get it on film, knowing that i would never look that good riding ever again...
And I was right...
Next Chapter:
Dude did you see that tree!? It just moved right in front of me!... or otherwise known as DAN, I NEED LOTS OF NEW PLASTIC! 8O
you see I have to go to bed... I have been punished for my sins and my arse really hurts from the stiff new springs.... more tomorrow...
