Husaberg is going to Baja

Husaberg USA is sponsoring our team for the upcoming Baja 500 on June 6, 2004. We are racing a 428 mile course with 4 riders on a 2004 Fe 650. www.score-international.com I'll post more information and pics as we go.

Morgan

We are racing class 30 and staying at the Sahara Hotel. Its a dive but a friend owns it.

schwim said:

This may be an incredibly dense question, but who is "Husaberg USA"? BMG? Dealer?

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BMG supplied the bike...

We are also sponsored by Acerbis, Ceet, Spy, GPR, TAG Metals, Precision Concepts and TrailBoss Tours (logistics support) at various levels. BMG/Husaberg are our main sponsors.

I think we will be very competitive in class and overall.

Latest update from Baja...

We have changed out one rider for Chris Steward (Trailboss Tours) who has thousands of miles in Baja and is a former AMA #1 plate holder in 500 Pro Stock class and a few others. Chris will be taking the bike from Santo Tomas south to where the course crosses Highway 1. This a very fast dirt road section. With Chris' road racing expertise and the fact that he rides this route 40+ times a year with his tour business, makes him the best choice for our team.

We are continuing to pre-run and have found the course to be one of the most technical and roughest courses in years. This will give us an advantage over the Honda 650s.

Changes to the Fe 650 for Baja

Mods for the Baja:

Michelin Tire bib-mousse on the front
Extra heavy duty tube in the rear
Precision Concepts suspension (springs and valving)
Extra fuel tank under the seat
GPR steering damper
Safety wire the spokes
Lots of thread lock on all of the bolts
Rejetted the carb, 48 pilot, 180 main, richen the needle one clip
Skid plate
Spare wheels (two sets)
44 tooth rear sprocket and 15 tooth front (geared for 110 mph)
We removed some plastic items and moved the ignition unit to the steering head when we installed the spare fuel tank

Other Items:
Hired pits
Race radios with push-to-talk on the handlebars
Satellite phones

The bike is close to stock. We are doing everything possible to ensure reliability. Its as much about beating the Baja as your competitors.

Morgan

husabutt said:

In contrast to all the other mods this may seem trivial but what kind of oil will you be running?

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I've always run a semi-synthetic 10w 40 in my KTM. I have 6000 off-road miles on it and my mechanic told me last week that I am 95% of the top end of the factory spec. I change oil every 200 miles (if possible).

Right now we are running a non-synthetic 10w 40. The bike only has 71 miles and I want it to break in properly.

When we give it back, I don't think the 650 will have more than 800 total miles on it...

We finished... poorly. We started at about 0615 AM. All went well to the rider change at Santo Tomas (Manual Espinoza, 2 hrs). The next rider (Chris Steward, Trailboss Tours) took the bike from there to highway 1, about 110 miles. So far all was going well. We re-geared the bike to 16/45. It was pulling 6th gear to well over 100 mph. We made the rider change for (Jeff Kinney, Acerbis USA) the leg from highway 1 inland to Valle de la Trinidad. He made the next pit and wheel change at San Telmo Rd. At this point we were running about 25th over all. About 10 miles from Mike's Sky Ranch and our fuel pit, the "T" fitting that connects the auxiliary fuel tank to the fuel system came undone. This drained the main tank dry and dumped lots of gas all over the bike. (We were very fortunate that the bike didn't catch fire. One of our friends from 401X stopped and gave Jeff some plyers so he could re-wire the fuel line. Jeff though he had enough gas in the aux tank to complete the 10 miles to the pit. He waited 10 or so minutes for the motor to cool so he could repair the fuel line. After fixing the fuel line, he continued about 7 miles and the aux tank did not have as much fuel as he thought and bike quit. Long story short, after a number of hours, Jeff was able to get fuel to get him to the next pit. At this point we are about 5 or 6 hours behind schedule. After enough hours, we got word that he was broken and assumed we were going to DNF and have to retrieve him. We drove to Ensenada to get a bike with a HID light so we could backtrack on the course to drag the bike out of its current location. About the time we got to Ensenada Jeff calls from Valle de la Trinidad saying, "Where are you guys?" Needless to say, he continued north to K78 where we could meet him. On the way south I geared up and got on the bike about 8:50 to complete the last 90 miles in the dark with that worthless headlight. I worked my way north to the finish and got in to the finish at about 11:20. We exceeded the 17 hour time limit by 11 minutes. We are going to talk to SCORE this week about all this. I'm confident that we will be posted on to the finisher list.

So to answer the last post, we did finish. A minor problem had a major consequence that became another adventure in the Baja. The bike itself ran flawlessly! Amazing power and handling. Everyone who rode it fell in love with the 650. I may send them a check instead of the bike...

BMG was awesome and KTM of Gresham loaned us spare wheels and other parts. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I'll post some pics in the next few days once I have a chance to scan some and get the rest off of my digital camera.

In closing, those of you are conisdering some SCORE racing, this is difficult. Its not just the race but the prep. Be ready to give up a month or more of your free time to prep and plan; the race is almost anti-climatic. Jeff and I worked on the Husaberg for over three weeks riding and prepping the bike. It has gallons of lock-tite, hundreds of zip ties, and yards of safety wire to ensure it would complete the race. We figured that if one of us yard-saled the bike, we could just reel in the parts and string them back together.

Thanks to:
BMG
KTM of Gresham OR
TAG Metals
Renthal
Acerbis
CEET
Precision Concepts
GPR