Whaddon 12-Hour – 21 June

Here’s the ride report for my adventure at the TBEC Whaddon 12-Hour Enduro.

Scrutineering

It all started for me with scrutineering. Once I finally got there and unloaded my bike, G-Dub warned me that they were being particularly strict on scrutineering and that it could be interesting. Here he is doing some last-minute prep.

And the TM getting a good checking. This is where we were discussing the ground off serial number.

At one point I had both of them looking her over.

There was lots of, “Hmmm, look at this.” before they finally failed me for 2 reasons:-
1. not having a front sprocket cover
2. not having the right coloured backgrounds.

The backgrounds were easy enough to sort out since I had brought some with me, but Nick was nice enough to donate a bit of background for the front. However, there was a bit of a panic while we tried to figure out what to do about the sprocket cover. Here are the great minds at work.

Finally one of the guys on my team sacrificed a part off his bike. Here’s the finished article.

With the fix in place, they were happy for me to race! I’ll leave it to the other guys to fill in what happened in the van over night!

The Event

It had been raining all night and the track had been completely water-logged over night. I don’t think anyone was really looking forward to going first, but atxjohn took the responsibility. As he’s already mentioned, his Husky died about 1/2 way around and refused to start. We saw him walking back up the hill and went to help him get it started again and he rode it back to the pits. Since he didn’t actually take his bike across the line, they disallowed our first lap! Barstewards!

Since my bike still had a trials tyre on the rear and I was trying to decide what to do, I think Brian took the next lap. Poor Brian. He didn’t have a good time. I think it took about 40 minutes for him to get back and I think his quote was, “F*ck that! I’m not doing that again!” (and in fact, it took us most of the day to convince him that it was “OK now” and he should try it again.)

Nick was next and he seemed to get around pretty well and did a few laps.

By this time G-Dub had seen me and told me categorically that there was no way I was getting around on a tirals tyre and to take his spare ‘gravedigger’ that he brought with him. So after much “umming and awwing” I decided to change the tyre.

I’m not the best at changing tyres (the last time took me about 2 hours) but Rob let me borrow the tyre rig (Thanks!) so I figured we should be able to do it fairly quickly. So John, Brian and I set about changing the tyre. We got the wheel off alright but as we were trying to get the ‘new’ tyre on, the bike fell off the stand! OK, no problem, bike back on the stand and back to work. So we finally got the tyre on the wheel and got it all aired up and ready to go but we couldn’t get the wheel back in because the brake pads wouldn’t snap into place. It seems the little clips weren’t holding the back of the pads but we managed to finally get it on only to discover I had put the spacers in the wrong sides. DOH!

OK, no problem.

Wheel off again, switch the spacers, fight with the pads, wheel back on.

Right spacer wrong way around! Doubble DOH!

Wheel off again, rotate the spacer, fight with the pads, wheel back on.

Success!

I think all this took us about 40 minutes to complete and Nick was back and wondering what the heck we were up to. I got out on the next lap and just managed to make it out of sight of the pits before falling. Then I made it another 50m before falling again. Then another 150m, another 400m, well you get the idea. At least I was making it a bit further each time. Somehow I managed to get around in about 30 minutes and came back in the pits to give someone else a chance.

It pretty much went on like that all day for me. As the track dried out and they cut out the worst bits, I did manage to do three laps in a row in one stint. I think my best lap time was around 20 minutes on my penultimate lap. On my last lap, I got through the ‘water hazard’ and out the other side and then the bike stalled. It took me about 5 minutes to get it started again which completely took it out of me. Then, to add insult to injury, I came off about 50m later because the front had picked up loads of wet, slippery mud while I was kicking it. After that, I lost all confidence in the front grip and wobbled my way around the rest of the track.

I had also picked up a clutch problem somewhere along the way (atxjohn?) and didn’t really have a working clutch. Not too much of a problem if you don’t have to stop, but as I was still stalling a bit it made getting her restarted a real bitch.

atxjohn spent all day riding everyone else’s bikes and had a particularly good time on the TM. He also put in some really good lap times for only his 5th race on a dirt bike.

We finally convinced Brian to goo out again and he took about 30 minutes to get around the second time, but had the same comment as after his first lap. “F*ck that!” After much cajoling we got him back out there and (I think) he ended up having a great time by the end of the day.

That about sums it up, I think. The only other thing that should be mentioned is that atxjohn got a bollocking for clearing the course early.

Here we are after it was all said and done.

South Reading MCC H&H – 24 May

The South Reading MCC H&H was my third race. It took place at the Ashdown Farm motocross track. I’d been to Ashdown before to watch and have wanted to ride there ever since – well the MX track, at least.

Christina decided to stay home with Aidan and let me do this one on my own so I got all my stuff ready on Friday night and got out of the house around 8am. The race started at 11 so I should have given myself plenty of time to get there and get set up.

My plan was to stop off at the petrol station on the way, fill up the car and my spare tank for the bike and give the bike a quick spray wash. I also needed to put some air in the tires since I hadn’t done it since the last race. I was able to get the gas no problem, but while I was paying someone parked in the wash spot and started washing their Mercedes. Bastard! Knowing Mercedes owners, I assumed they would be there for a while so I kept my receipt for after the race instead.

I looked around for the air pump but didn’t see it, so I was ‘batting a 1000′ already. As I was leaving the forecourt, I saw the pump behind me. Bonus! So I backed up and got started. Now, while I was checking the pressure in the rear tire, somehow I managed to dislocate my thumb! I’m not too sure how I managed it but there was a terrible crunching sound as my thumb bent completely backwards! I shook my hand hard and it popped back into place but hurt like a bastard.

I briefly considered just going home as the day wasn’t starting out well, but I decided to just get on with it. To add insult to injury, the bloody air pump wasn’t even working! Arrgh! I knew there was a services just before the exit I needed to take so I figured I could stop there and got back on the road.

So I stopped at the services and met a guy who was riding a Yamaha 125 from Reading to his parents’ house somewhere in Buckinghamshire. On the M4. With off-road tires on. I warned him to be careful and told him to stick to A roads.

This air pump was working so I put about 20psi in each tire and I grabbed some water and some Ginsters for after the race and got back on the road. It was about 9:30 by this time and I still had a little way to go.

Anyway, I got to the old roman road that you have to navigate to get to the track and it took ages to make my way down the road. Any of you that may have been there know what I mean. Personally, I think they should make this the special test. Time it from start to finish and make it part of the race scoring. Nil points if you damage your vehicle or bike though!

By the time I had finished messing around on the way there, navigated the old road, and got parked, it was going on 10:15. I knew that I had to have the bike scrutineered and in parc ferme by 10:45 so I had to get my skates on.

Got registered, dressed and scrutineered just in time for the riders’ briefing and then it was 5 minutes to warm up the bikes. As I was sitting there relaxing letting the bike get warm I suddenly realised that I hadn’t lowered my tire pressures. Bollocks! I hopped of the bike and got my stuff out and started messing around with it. Since it was dry, I thought I’d run about 15 in the rear and 13 or so in the front. I got the pressures set just in time for everyone to start and was on my way.

Lap 1

I got started about 11:09 and everything was fine to start off with. There were a few small logs to negotiate and then the first part of the MX track which was good fun. I took it way slower than I should have since I didn’t really know what to expect and it was here that I started to think that I should have more grip.

Shortly after coming off the track there was a large log that a few people were having some trouble with. I sat and watched for a couple of minutes then thought, “Sod it. I have to do it.” and just went for it. I got over with no trouble at all and was on my way again.

Then it was into some nadgery woods bits to the next section of MX track. There was a part where we had to cross part of the track and the far side was an almost vertical wall about 3 feet high. This sort of thing still makes me think before I attack it, even though I haven’t had any trouble with them before. I didn’t have any trouble with it this time either, but I did pause for about 1/2 a second before attacking it.

Anyway, just after that we were back on the MX track and hitting the BIG hills. Again, this sort of thing still freaks me out a bit but I just do it anyway and it’s fine. I even end up having fun on them by the end of the day. This was no exception. On the last long downhill, I missed the turning in the middle of the other side and rode way past where I was supposed to turn. It meant that I had to go back down the hill and get back on the trail. No biggie but I wasted WAY too much time messing around.

Here’s the only pic of me on the day. It’s at the top of the MX track.

More woods then a blast down a chalk gravel fire-road type thing. More hills before getting into the tight woods on the ‘back side’. It was really hard work – especially as I was getting NO GRIP AT ALL. Sometimes it was quite scary and I was having a pretty hard time with it.

WOOHOO! No crashes! That was the first time I’ve made a lap without a fall!

Once I got back to the parc ferme I decided I would let some air out of both the front and rear to see if that helped, so I went through the timer (since my first lap had been long enough already) and then stopped to mess around.

Laps 2 – 5

As I was sitting on the side of the track one of the guys from the forum, Barry, came over to see if everything was alright and he held up my bike while I sorted out the air pressures. I went down to 10 in the rear and 11 in the front and thought I’d try that. If it was too high, I was just going to stop somewhere along the way and let more out. It turned out to be fine however, and the next few laps were great and I managed to speed up a little bit each time as I became more confident in the grip.

Nothing really major to report in the middle. I stopped after lap 3 to refuel and grab some isotonic drink and then it was straight back on the trail.

Last Lap

I came in at 2:07 and checked to see if I had time to get out for another lap and I had 2 minutes to decide if I wanted to go for another one. I suffered from the “one last lap” syndrome and thought, “what the heck, I haven’t crashed all day” – famous last words. As expected I crashed in the trees about 90% of the way through the last lap. DOH! It was a stupid mistake where I lost the front wheel in some loose dirt on a left-hand turn in the last woods section.

I was gutted – but not surprised.

All in all it was a great day and I was really pleased with my riding. Anyone with any experience would probably laugh, but for me it was a good ride. My fastest lap was around 28 minutes which was almost twice as long as the fastest lap overall, but I don’t care. I didn’t finish last in the beginners group.

The bike held up again and I held up with it. Onwards and upwards!

CHEC Sevenoaks

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back posting again, but I’ve been extremely busy with work and my son in hospital. I’ll try to keep up to date better, but there really hasn’t been too much to report.

My last (and second) race was with Chiltern Hills Enduro Club. A club set up for mostly sportsman and lower-level clubman riders.

Obviously I’d never ridden at Moore’s Farm in Sevenoaks, but I ride past it almost every day on the way to work so I was quite interested to see where it went.

As it turns out, most of the venue was hidden back in the trees and you wouldn’t be able to see it from the road anyway, but it was a cracking ride.

Chris was out of town seeing her sister in Liverpool (Liverpull) so I had to hitch a ride with Fausto. I got most of my stuff ready Saturday night so I wouldn’t have to run around too much Sunday morning and I would have time to get some decent breakfast in and start loading up on water.

Here’s all my stuff outside waiting for Fausto to arrive.

We got there with no trouble and parked up right by the TBM crew. Mel and Si were there with Si riding the TBM project 144 bike and Mel on the long-term tester GasGas. I hadn’t seen them since the Dirt Bike Show so it was good to re-introduce myself.

There were loads of forumites in the race and most of them made their way around to introduce themselves and generally point and laugh at the TM.

Skip to the start and I managed to get off with my group after getting a bollocking from the starter for trying to cheekily warm up my bike.

The first section was all open field but I took my time because I wasn’t sure how much grip I would get from my trials tyre in long, wet grass. As it turned out, grip wasn’t fantastic on the first lap but as the day wore on it was fine and I managed to get all the way into 4th and 5th flat-out on some sections of it. The TM screams in 4th and is bloody fast…

As I made my way into the woods, everything was going swimmingly (if a bit slow) as I tried to get comfortable on the bike again. I managed to go the wrong way at the bottom of a gulley and ended up stalling out. It was a real pain to get out of as well, since there wasn’t any room for a run-up.

I finally got over the top, but hadn’t realised what was on the other side. OH SHIT! There was a mahoosive hill that seemed almost vertical dropping about 20-25 feet. And just to make things a bit more interesting, there was a hump about 3/4 of the way down. Somehow, I managed to make it to the bottom without a) folding my forks, b) falling off or c) running out at the bottom.

After that it was another two-stage uphill climb. I can see how this day is going then… At this point I hadn’t really worked out the right level of commitment needed nor the amount of throttle required to get up all these hills. That being the case, I stalled it just before the top of the climb. I managed to not fall off this time – just kill the bike. Two kicks and I was off again.

The ride continued like this for the next good while. There were some big offs on the first lap – mostly going downhill. I worked out going up pretty quickly, but going down is an entirely different matter.

On the climbs. There were two of note. One of them was another two-stage climb where there was a long downhill into a long climb with a very steep bit right at the end. It would have been very intimidating if I had any time to think about it first. As it was, I was already caning it on the way up so there wasn’t any time to panic or think about what I should do. So I used “the technique” – which consists of keeping the throttle pinned and hoping for the best. And you know what? It worked pretty well for me most of the day.

There was another climb about 1/2 way through where there was a very tight left hand u-turn where you had to use the wall as a berm to get around and then gun it up a gradual hill for about 200m before turning 90 degrees to the right and going up a short, fairly steep climb. Now this really wasn’t too hard. There were a couple of stumps in the way and some roots to look out for, but nothing too challenging – or so I thought.

On the first time around, there was a queue of riders waiting to get up the hill but were blocked by a few fallen riders. “Great!” I thought to myself. “That’s me down in front of everyone, then.” Since I was stopped by everyone waiting and had lost any momentum, I decided to slowly roll backwards down the hill a bit so I would have some room to build up momentum to take into the climb.

Eventually the marshal was telling me to go so I sucked in a deep breath and went for it. Amazingly I made it to the top first time with no trouble at all! WOOHOO! I was totally chuffed. There was a short trail off to the right and then a right-hander back down the same hill. Bollocks! I hit some soft dirt and the wheel slid out and I took a very hard fall.

Here’s a top tip about falling in an enduro race: Get out of the trail ASAP. Especially in a blind, downhill turn.

Anyway, here’s me riding at some point during the day.

By this time I was starting to get tired from picking up my bike and it was negatively affecting my riding (if that’s possible). I was going even slower now as my confidence was starting to take a beating, but I know I have to pick up the pace a) to stay out of the way and b) to make it easier on myself.

So I pushed on and finally got to the last little 5ft vertical drop and promptly crashed again. I think this is the only obstacle I didn’t make all day. Anyway, after this was the open field again back to the start line.

I looked at the time when I checked in and it had taken me almost an hour to do one lap. The ‘advertised’ lap time was 12 minutes. Hmm.. I had a bit of work to do then.

I won’t go into great detail about all the other laps, but I will say that my second lap was only 19:55 which is a vast improvement over 55:something.

Here’s me at the end of the day.

That’s it for the moment. I have some more pics that I’ll post later.

Silencer repacking complete

Well, I figured out why the packing wouldn’t go back in. I was trying to put it in upside-down. DOH! Once I took it out and flipped it over, I was able to get it back in without too much difficulty.

I also got a chance to use my new pop rivet gun which was fun. In fact, I think my wife enjoyed it more than I did.

I didn’t take any pics since there really isn’t anything to see.

I did, however, take some pictures of my old chain rollers. They weren’t rolling so I ordered some new ones. Maybe this is why they didn’t work.

This is the bottom roller.

And again.

Now the top one.

No wonder it wasn’t working!

That pretty much does it until I break something else. We’ll see how it goes in the next race on the May 11th. (hopefully – not confirmed yet)

Silencer repacking

In the race last weekend I thought the silencer was really loud so I decided it was time for a repack. Taking it off was really easy and here’s the silencer off the bike.

Now. The short angled part at the end doesn’t have any packing in it at all as far as I can tell by tapping the outside. I’m not sure if this is part of the reason it’s so loud. We’ll find out later, I guess.

Here’s some damage that happened over the weekend. Doubtless in one of my many falls. I hope it isn’t hard to repair.

There’s some red sealant stuff around the edge where the bits slide apart.

Here’s the insert with the old packing.

I assume they all look like that when you take them out. You can also see why the end bit sounds empty – it is. The packing only goes to the end of the long straight part of the silencer and then leaves the angled bit empty. Is this causing it to be really loud? Anyway, here’s the end bit.

In case anyone hasn’t ever seen it, here’s the inside of a used sheet of packing.

And the pipe.

Cleaned up.

New packing.

I’ve had a bit of trouble getting the holes to line up right putting it back together, and we had company over yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to finish it. Should all be done today. Anyway, I know it isn’t the most exciting of topics, but maybe someone who has never done it will find these pics helpful.

Things I learned on my first enduro

1. Make sure you plan to get to the event nice and early so you can find a good place to park.
2. Make sure you leave the house on time.
3. Make sure you have accurate directions to the venue.
4. Don’t try and drive through the mud towing a bike.
5. Drink twice as often and twice as much as you think you should.
6. Trials tyres are not evil.
7. When you crash, pick up your bike as quickly as possible so you don’t lose too much petrol out of the overflow.
8. Arm-pump can be relieved while riding by crashing.
9. If you are a slow rider, keep an eye out behind you for faster riders. They appreciate it when you get out of the way.
10. Ride at your own pace. If you try to go too fast to keep up with someone else you will either crash or run off the course.
11. Don’t think about obstacles too much, just attack them. If you hesitate too much, you’ll most likely fail to get past whatever it is.
12. Ride smart – don’t be afraid to look for legal ways around the hard bits. Sometimes moving a foot off the edge of the main line will let you get through something you have problems with.
13. Don’t stop in the pit area unless you have to. Just keep going.
14. Wearing padded cycle shorts under your race jeans = no monkey butt.
15. With the proper application of throttle, motorcycles can climb trees. 
16. Although it’s a race and everyone wants to win, it’s a good bunch of people. 99% of the time, you will (at least) be asked if you are OK by other riders.
17. Riding standing up takes some practice. Especially when accelerating/decelerating.
18. Trust your suspension. You can ride over more things than you think you can.
19. Motorcycles have a natural aversion to ruts and will do everything in their power to get out of them – no matter what the rider tries to do.
20. It doesn’t hurt that bad to get run over by a KTM.
21. Keep riding until someone tells you to stop.

That’s all I can think of for the moment, but I reserve the right to add to the list as I remember things. 

KDMCC Blackwood, 20 April

Right. Today’s race had potential for disaster: take a 39 year old father of 3 who last rode a motorcycle off-road 27 years ago (yes, really); and add a high-strung, hand-made, Italian, 2-stroke racing bike with a bad personality; mix in the fact that said father has [i]never actually ridden named bike[/i] other than around his close to test it. Bake in a timed-lap enduro oven for 4 hours and see what happens.

The day didn’t start off too well when we left the house 15 minutes late. After topping up the pre-mix tank along the way, we got lost on the way to the event. See, the regs said take the first road to Micheldever Station when in fact, it is the [b]second[/b] road. It took Mrs. Doorag and I a bit to work that out, but we found it eventually.

I’ll let Fausto or G-Dub recount my entrance to the event.

Anyway, sign-in and scrutineering went well and I had my start time at 11:09. (This may be important later.)

Anyway, here I am before the start looking confident but getting nervous.

At the start.

I swear, it always starts on the first kick at home!

That’s better…

And I was off. Slowly.

I made it around quite well at first. The nadgery bits through the trees were alright. The problems started with muddy ruts.

At one point not too far in, I was flanked by two faster riders, both trying to get past. Then I caught a cross-rut and ran into the guy on the left (sorry!) which knocked him over and forced me back to the right where I had a hard fall right in the path of the other guy. He promptly ran dead into my right butt cheek and proceeded to crash as well. (sorry!)

I found out a couple of minutes and one or maybe two more falls later that all of this was caught on film by the DVD crew (I think) BOLLOCKS!

Anyway, I fell on a few more rutted sections, but the rest went amazingly well considering. I had some falls here and there, but I did all the ‘hard’ stuff like negotiating fallen logs (one small and the other slightly larger and surrounded by marshals), the bomb holes (although I crashed in one of them every single time I did it

I managed to get the bike to climb a tree to a height of about 2 feet before it almost fell on me as well, but thankfully there wasn’t any film crew around.

My First Lap!

I knew better than to stop after the first lap because I might not go back out there, so I cracked on. The second lap was much better than the first and I didn’t have nearly as many offs.

I learned that I was best when riding in second gear. I was slow, but the goal of the day wasn’t to win, it was to finish.

After the second lap, I stopped in the pits to get some electrolyte drink and a sandwich.

I won’t go into detail about all the laps since they all went about the same. 4-5 offs, no major crashes, slow going.

I did manage to catch some air off a small jump when G-DUB was behind me. He passed me at the next turn and had a positive word for me which was much appreciated at the time (thanks!)

In the end I cleared every obstacle without crashing – except one. Dont; know why, just couldn’t work it out. It was just a large ditch and nothing that should have been too tough but I couldn’t work it out. GGGrrr…

After all was said and done, I finished. And did all my laps apparently. I thought I missed one but they assured me I did it. Bonus!

Here’s the ‘after’ shot.

That’s it for now. I’ll post a “What I learned” later.

Oh yeah – I forgot. No major injuries either. A few bruises here and there with some scrapes but noting to bothersome.

Oh yeah, yeah – My special test time was 4 minutes

Bike Bling

I got bored waiting for my clutch basket to be fixed so I added a tiny bit of bling to the bike. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but then again neither am I.

Original Documentation

In my quest to get all the original documentation for my bike, I have had a major breakthrough. TM NZ scanned the original brochure for the bike!

Here’s what it would have originally looked like:

I’m not too sure about the centre stand and the bars, but other than that it looks pretty sweet. Now all I need to do is find someone that has an original graphics kit and I’ll be on my way.

I think I found the problem…

So I pulled the clutch today. This is the oil that came out after running it, say, 5 minutes.

Looks good so far…

Hmmm… This doesn’t look right.

Well, it looks like a whole new basket and inner then. The plates were all OK – nice and clean and none of them seemed warped.