Last minute plans work out sometimes. A buddy of mine at work asked me late last Thursday if I wanted to go do a hare scramble race on the coming Sunday. Uh…….. I’m probably busy. It seems like there is always some thing going on and there is rarely a weekend that isn’t booked to the hilt. I told my buddy it sounded good but I’d have to check and see what was on the calendar. Wow, nothing planned for Sunday on the calendar yet. OK a hare scramble, I haven’t done anything competitive like that yet. Look the event up on the net. Hmmm , ok, Looks like they have a class for everybody kids quads old guys novices all the way up to AA. Ahh I see they want every body to come, and have a good time. OK my work buddy is a rookie at riding so we’ll be in this together. Forecast is for mid 30’s with a chance of rain or snow.  I’m in, a little apprehensive, but I’ll give it a shot. Now to get the bike back out of the basement where it was all ready for some TLC and a nice winter nap.


Heading out Sunday morning. 39 deg. Overcast.


Fuel for the day.


Starting to see spots of sun as I near the town of Galena IL


There were four of us in all. My riding partners had some nice hardware. Couple shiny KTMs and a really shiny Aprila. Mmmmm nice.

 

Once we were all unloaded and signed up, we rode down to the “enduro-cross” area to watch the quads negotiate the obstacles. I didn’t have the camera, but did take the camera back down to get some shots of the “A” class motorcycle guys hitting the same obstacles after our C class race.

Pit full of firewood.


complete with cow skull!


Large log.


Another wood pit, this one with narrow planks for a quick way across. I didn’t see anyone ride the planks.


construction tires




A lot of neat stuff to go over, and at the end of the day the A class motorcycles even had a hard time on some of it. So before our C class race we are watching the quads race the enduro cross stuff, we talk about the fact that our race does not use any of this area. That’s all ok with us, it all looks pretty intimidating.

As time is getting closer we head back and get all geared up. Once back down at the start line we start hearing that we will in fact do the same enduro cross course that the quads just did! One of the guys in our group races enduros and he has picked a spot that will give him a good line off the start . The other two guys and I are down on one end, not too worried about the hole shot, but starting to worry about killing ourselves.

 

Gotta run, I'll finish the story tomorrow.
Dan

 

Looks great fun! Looking forward to part two.

 

C'mon Dan, hurry up and post the rest. I want to see the pic of you impaled on one of those logs in the log pit.

Hey man, you're doing some heavy riding up there. If you keep this up, you may need to get a real competition bike. The KLX is a great bike for epic rides where you need true street legal status and real durability, but you look like you're turning into a real off road dude.

 

Sorry, these things are not easy to put together, Especially in a busy house with one computer. I'm looking at laptops to alleviate the computer congestion here.
I would love to have a more serious bike but not sure if i can afford the bike or the maintenance. Maybe Santa will hook me up.

 

OK. I don’t have much more for pics of the race. I do have a nearly hour long helmet cam video that captured quite a few mishaps. I really need a decent editing program so I could post up some short clips of the good stuff. Please anyone with a suggestion for a decent, inexpensive (or free) video editing program, let me know. I can’t upload the whole vid and you probably don’t want to sit through the whole thing.

My plan off the dead start is to let every one else roar off, and start fighting for spots. Time is here, the flag goes down and I get going in about the back third of the pack. As I near the spot where the course narrows to about two bikes wide, I end up passing about 15 guys. I’m on the outside of a turn and spots just keep opening up right in front of me. Felt pretty good. Now I zooming down the trail, riding give and take on some pretty easy terrain. Everything is going great, but eventually I see a big pack of stopped riders halfway up a hill. I take a line to the side of the trail, blaze through the weeds, and get about halfway up before a rock hiding in the weeds rolls out my front wheel. Down I go. The trail is a mess here, it’s a steep spot on a slight curve. The quads that ran earlier have swept all the dirt off a wide nest of tree roots, which now have nice thin layer of greasy mud on them. It’s a real cluster, and it really spreads out the field. I eventually get up after a couple more drops. I take off down the trail but I'm nearly wore out! I’m breathing hard, and my arms are shaky. Once out of the pack the riding is easier, and I slowly get back into the game. About 13 min into the ride I dump it going over a diagonal tree laying in the trail.



My headlight shroud (previously broken and only being held on with one screw) breaks off. When I watch it on the helmet cam I can see that I didn’t even need to go over the tree, there is a section of it cut out just to the left!
No biggie. Ride ride ride. Ok now I can see that I’m coming to the enduro cross section. Just what I need, spectators watching me try to negotiate this stuff that I probably wouldn’t try to ride if I didn’t have to. What are you going to do.



Over the big log ok, but wobbly and not set up too good for the big tractor tires. Hit the tires and get on top before high centering and getting stuck.



Wiggle off the tires , re-start the bike, take off and redeem myself somewhat by catching a little air over the next small jump. Up a pile of logs and back into the woods for a couple hundred feet before popping back into the rest of the enduro section. This time it’s into the pit full of firewood. By the time I got there a bit of a path had been beat through it.. Thank you baby Jesus.

 

As seen above, I just figured out I can capture stills from my helmet cam footage. Cool

 

Some time after the “enduro cross” section I notice that I do not have first gear!! Shifter seems to move smoothly no noise, but no first either. The rest of the first lap was basically uneventful. Early in the second lap I come to the spot where the giant cluster-f was on lap one. With out the bikes in the way I scoot right up. I was feeling good about that. By now traffic is thin and I’m playing cat and mouse with another guy who is a touch better than me. About midway on this second lap I forcibly remove my front fender with the help of a couple trees. Another one of those diagonal down trees in cahoots with a tree just off the side of the trail.



I got the front tire over, but the back end gets bucked around, and sends me sideways, and into the tree off to the side.









As the bike goes into the tree I take a step and go tumbling about 10 feet down the trail. Fender (and unwittingly my scorecard) are laying in the woods. I just pick the bike up and go. (should have picked up the score card).

 

Wow!...freakin' carnage, dan. Hey, your headlight is on. Have you thought about putting a switch in it? Good stuff.