observations

So I decided to take a gamble and go to California to retrieve the KTM I purchased 3 weeks ago. It is a 2006 KTM 950 Adventure with 4000 miles on the clock. The weather reports looked OK, if not stellar, but I have good gear, and I warned my boss that i might not get back into the office first thing monday morning. Friday flight to SFO and cab ride to Mark’s place, where the beast was being stored went with only the usual amount of drama associated with air travel these days. I had expected to receive extra attention during the “Security Theatre” as I was flying on a one-way ticket, but it was the normal routine.
Upon arriving at Chez Mark, Joe escorts me to the garage and there’s the beast. it’s even orange-er in person, if that’s possible. And it’s metallic orange, with green metalflake in it! the bike looks exactly as described, only better: this thing is basically brand new! if it had a new back tire on it, you’d swear it was right off the showroom. I’m very pleased, and set about getting my GPS and heated gear hooked up, with the help of Joe and his awesomely stocked toolbox. first trick: where do they hide the battery on a KTM 950 Adventure? Remove the seat, no not there. peer around next to the airbox, not there. hmm, there seems to be a lot of wiring headed towards the front of the skid plate. And the battery tender pigtail is in front of the rear brake lever. remove a couple of bolts, the skid plat pivots down and viola, the battery. some jiggery pokery to get wires routed (without removing the fuel tanks, which looks like a task), some zip-tie mastery, and everything lights up the way it should. I stuck a piece of dual-lock on the side of the GPS and stuck the heat-troller to it, and we’re good. A quick run to the shipping place to send the stock seat and stock windscreen home, then it’s off on the shakedown cruise, down to Los Altos and back, stopping to have dinner with an old friend I haven’t seen in 20 years. What a cool bike: feels a lot like my old F650, except it handles better and has twice the HP. wheee!

Joe writes down some route suggestions for me, and Mark primes the coffee maker. I’m the only one moving at 6:30 Saturday morning as I pack up and get loaded. I leave a scrawled ‘Thank You’ on the dining room table, go outside and start the bike. It’s only as I’m deploying the sky-crane to get my right boot over the seat that the front door opens and Mark appears, wishing me safe travels and a thumbs-up. And I’m off. First stop: a little town called Kentfield to meet a friend for Breakfast. It’s about 45 miles of mixed freeway and city driving, and the bike is pretty pleasant, it runs well, handles pretty good, if a little slow to respond to the tiller, but i put that down to the 21″ front wheel. It does seem a tad-lean on the pilot/needle transition in the carbs, hunting a bit at 35mph or so in 2nd/3rd gear.
Breakfast handled, I gas up (twin fuel tanks, and both will gush gas back at you if you’re not careful how you have the nozzle pointed when you pull the trigger). I realize I have no idea how much fuel it holds, make a note that it’s at least the 4 gallons I just put in, and hit the road in earnest, motoring up 101 under gray skies. In about 25 miles, my heat-troller is loose, flopping around in the wind, and my right earplug is killing me. OK, I can take a hint. I stop in Santa Rosa, remount the HT (black and white dual lock doesn’t play well together), reposition the earplug and motor on. 350 miles of awesome roads later, with only about 10 minutes of rain the whole way, I see the sign that says “welcome to Oregon, Michael and Judy, next left”. I motor up to the Giant Road Burrito and greet Michael and Judy. I think i see a smidgen of bike lust in Michael’s eyes.

Michael and Judy took great care of me, providing a hot shower, hot chicken enchiladas, and a nice port to round out the evening. A perfect way to end a great day of riding.

Sunday broke grey and damp, but not actually raining. A check of the weather forecast was inconclusive; change of rain most of the way up the Oregon coast. A check of the various passes over the coast range showed no anticipated problems crossing over to I-5 where ever I decided to. I get my stuff packed and while I’m doing that Michael makes me a ‘bronze’ mocha (in honor of a fallen friend: it’s a 20 oz. quad shot mocha); I thanked him and told him that if the bike didn’t start I’d just push it to Gold Beach. “One handed” sez Michael! I “Mocha up” and get ready to go. I get a recommendation for a restaurant to check out for breakfast (apparently run by an ADV rider) and hit the road. It’s about 7:15 AM.
A short ride to Gold Beach, search out the “Barnacle Bistro” only to find it closed. Oh well, back-track to The Cape Café and settle in with a coffee and the 2-egg breakfast. As I chow down, the sun breaks out and the sky turns a lovely blue. I gear up to head out, making sure to change to the tinted shield, and I’m on my way. For the next 3-4 hours, I work my way up the coast, from small town to picturesque bridge to small town. My GPS says Hwy 18 is the ‘shortest’ route home, and it leads through some of my old stomping grounds, so I go that way. Shortly after departing the coast, I have my only near-brush with Officer Friendly. We are climbing up the hills out of Newport, and there’s a ditz in a minivan doing 53.5MPH in a 55 zone, with 7-8 cars backed up behind her. We get to a passing lane, and she camps out in the left lane, so those of us behind (myself and about 6 cars) proceed to go around on the right. As soon as I’m clear, I shift left and get on it, hoping to get out of the clot of cages for the run to the summit. As we round a sweeping right-hander, with me pulling out in front the pack, at about 80 per, I spot Mr. friendly parked in the turn-out, with his testicle-toaster hanging out the window. I gently roll off the gas, as does everyone around me. Whew, no way he’s going to be able to pick me out of that pack. We gently motor past and my heart rate returns to normal.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, with two notable events; while stopped for my final gas stop in Chehalis, I put the helmet on the mirror (yes, I know better; I was getting tired) so I could move the bike away from the pump, and while pushing it, the helmet bails and lands face-shield down on the tarmac. ARRRGGG! Oh well, that shield was ready for replacing anyway. And the sun’s almost down, so I swapped it out for the clear one that I took off over 350 miles ago. Upon arriving home, I discover that I also cracked the side cover on the helmet, so I’ll have to fix or replace that. The other noteworthy event, even though wholly predictable, was the speed at which the temperature dropped after the sun went down; with no cloud cover to hold heat in, the mercury plummets! And I discovered that the heated grips on this bike are ‘california’ heated grips: Ok for taking the morning chill off, but not up to the job of keeping your hands warm in the northwest in feburary. I arrived home about 7:23 PM, feeling a bit tired but not beat up in any way and very pleased with my purchase.

keep those feet up, and the rubber side down.
blackdog

Headed out the door at oh-dark-fifteen for our second club trials of the season, the Ice Trial. Weather looks like it won’t live up to it’s name, although it has in past years. Get to the site, get unloaded in a light drizzle, and warm up. A little practice, and some time dialing the carb in a bit, since it was completely disassembled and cleaned a couple of weeks ago. Focus was on the smoothest possible off-idle response i could get, a key characteristic for a trials engine.

Got geared up and went over to the rider’s meeting. learned of an interesting plan: in order to manage traffic, our trials marshalls had built an ‘out-n-back’ loop. The plan was to ride the loop to the end, doing sections 1-12 (1-11 for Novices) and then ride it back to the bottom, hitting the sections in reverse order (12 through 1 on the way back). Then back to the pits for water, fuel, food, whatever, and then finish with a final 1-12 ride). sounds intersting. So we divide into groups, and away we go.

We quickly discover that a lot of the road and trails is a soupy, muddy mess. But the sections are challenging and fun, with very little actually dangerous. It took me a number of sections to loosen up, and to get a better feel for the gearing on the bike, with the new 9-tooth countershaft sprocket (down from the stock 10). What I discovered is that I now have a choice of gears for a section, first for really crawling, second for normal or anything with a climb, and third for serious climbing. All in all though, the bike ran great and seems a better fit for my riding style this way. The loop was pretty long and rugged in spots and I was certainly happy to get back to the pits after our first two ‘loops’. Water, a bite to eat, and gas for the bike. And out to finish out with the third loop. At section 1, we run into the rest of the Advanced class, and they’re already finished! What the….. turns out they just rode two attempts on all the sections on the way back down, so they only made two trips up and down the loop. smart guys!

In the end, i had some good rides, and a bunch of sloppy rides, 3’s that should have been 1’s, and 1’s that should have been cleans. Finished in 4th or 5th place, I think. I hope to get some practice before the next round, hopefully that will help keep me a bit sharper.

A question for all of you: how much do you consider the loop trail to be part of the challenge of a trials event, in particular, a local club event? There was some grumbling around the pits after the event about the folks who didn’t ride the loop trail all 3 (or 4) times, and I’m curious if there’s a consensus on this issue. I’m not serious enough about it to care that much, but my guess is that my score would have been 5-9 lower with the extra fatigue and arm pump that I had on my thrid loop. What do you folks think? Send me your comments, I’d love to hear from you.

keep those feet on the pegs!
blackdog

A short story of deferred maintenance, dirty carbs, and broken kickstarters.

At the last trials a few weeks ago, I noticed that my ‘04 sherco was becomming a little hard to start and was occasionally kicking back during starting.

So I got on the horn and ordered a few parts for some maintenance, and some improvements. One of the improvements was a 9-tooth coutnershaft sprocket to slow the thing down a little. So I changed the sprocket and was going for a short test ride. Got the bike started, but it wouldn’t run without the choke on. uh-oh, this doesn’t sound good. it died, and when I re-started it, it kicked back, and I heard something go ‘ting!’. When it immediately died, I looked down for the kickstarter, and the end of it was gone! When the bike kicked back against my foot, it snapped the ‘foot’ part of the kickstarter off! capital CRAP. lucky i wasn’t wearing trainers!

so. next step is to order some parts. so i place an order for some new spark plugs, a kickstarter , and just to be safe, a couple of woodruff keys. The woodruff keys are because one of the things that can make a 2-stroke kick back is bad timing. on a modern engine like our bikes, the only way the timing gets inaccurate is for the woodruf key to shear and the flywheel to slip on the crankshaft. Maybe that’s what happened…

While waiting for my parts, I pulled the carb, the airbox, and the flywheel. The woodruf key was good, everything looked clean inside the engine. The carb was a different matter though, crud in the float bowl, and and apparently a plugged pilot jet. a good cleaning later, i reassembled and reinstalled the carb, and waited for the parts.

When the parts arrived, I put a new woodruf key in, just on general principles, poped in a new spark plug, and reassembled enough of the bike to start it. Got it started, tuned the low-speed jet a bit, and it runs great.

So the morale of the story is: buy your bike a new spark plug and clean it’s carbeurator every few years, it will thank you. oh, and be very careful kick-starting a bike in trainers!

As you may have noticed, keeping up with this blog didn’t top my hit parade last year. it wasn’t a very good year for trials, either, so it didn’t matter much.
I got ill during the columbia cup, then I injured my elbow while practicing last june, and it took many months for it to heal, so I didn’t ride very much through the summer. so that’s ‘09 in a nutshell, on to 2010!

THe year started out with our first event, the “Plastered Purple Penguin” on january 3rd. A new location for most of us, a private area in Marysville. We had excellent weather for january (45 degrees and not raining) and Tom had a unique event planned with a group check observed trials in the morning, and a Scot Trial in the afternoon (a race where you points both for the dabs in the sections and for how far you are behind the target time).

This area has a 3.5 mile scrambles track laid out, and that’s pretty much what we used for the loop, with the sections in the woods next to the track at various places. Really easy to wear yourself out trying to go quickly on the scrambles track; that’s not what a trials bike is really good at!

A good selection of sections, with not a lot of splits between advanced and expert, but fun. Once again I proved conclusively that I cannot ride competatively at the advanced level by just hopping on the bike the morning of the event, and calling the 30 minutes warmup ‘practice’. I had fun, but made a number of stupid mistakes, and finished in last place. I also had some issues with the bike being hard to start and kicking back while starting, so i guess it’s time to catch up with all that deferred maintenance. (this will be a subject for a future post)

after lunch, 5 or six folks (all but one on larger enduro machines) tried their hand at the Scot Trials. It certainly looked like fun, maybe next year I’ll talk some fool into loaning me a WR or something and try my hand.

All in all, though, a fun way to start out the year

Next Event: Walker Valley, Feb 7. See you there. Directions are available on the Puget Sound Trialers web site.

keep those feet up!
blackdog

The day began with disorientation: April in western washington, clear skies, predicted high of 70 degrees. WTF? oh well, guess we just deal with it as best as we can. For a long time northwesterner, this was serious cognitive dissonance territory.

the day before, i’d done some prep on the bike (clean air filter, check tires and fluids, etc.) and then taken it for a quick ride around the place. This was of course the time that i mis-judged a log crossing and snapped the front fender off, right at the brace. a quick session with some scrap plastic and a few pop-rivets set things right. I had every intention of ordering a new fender, but the fix worked so well that i might not.

anyway, on to the event. normal morning routine, faithful readers (both of you!) will know it by heart now: drive up, find a parking place, unload, preflight the bike, warm up, then off to sign-up. signed up, and when the marshall asked me if i could observe, i said “sure”. saw him write my name down for section 1, but didn’t really think about it too much. of for some more warm up. found most of the morning sections, then went looking for the afternoon sections. found 2 and 3, but no others. 2 and three were both steep hillclimbs, with the exits nor easily reached without riding the course (a ‘no-no’). so i walked through 3 and on up the trail. found 4, and figured out that the rest of the sections were laid out along a trail on the side of the mountain that would give a mountain goat second thoughts. ‘rugged enough to make a rabbit crash’ is one phrase i’ve heard. walked back to the bike, and found section 1; hmm, that looks like a cakewalk. well, sections (the ones i saw, at least) aren’t going to be the tough part of this trials, but the loop is going to take a toll. back to the pits to get ready to observe. morning riders meeting commences, they are calling off observers, but my name is not uttered. rrruuh? i let the commotion ebb a bit, then go talk to the marshalls; ah here’s the confusion: when i singed up, he wrote me down to observe in the afternoon, forgetting or not realizing that i was riding in the Advanced class, in the afternoon. well, looks like they aren’t short of observers, so i’m off the hook. so i head out for a bit of serious practice.

i resolve to focus on things i’m uncomfortable with: steep drops, turns over jumbly rocks. I manage to re-teach by body a few things about staying loose in the bike, and leaning the bike over; don’t try to keep it vertical all the time, it really does turn better when it’s leaned over!
after about 45 minutes, back to the pits for a snack and water. while i’m relaxing, a friend wanders up and is examining the back tire of my bike, from the look on his face, i’m guessing he’s about to point out a giant hole in the tire, or a torn-off knob or something. but no, he points out that i’ve a bazzillion feet of rusty wire wrapped around the rear sproket, hub, and brake disk! expletive. i quickly borrow a stand and a BA crescent-wrench, whip the rear tire off and start in with the wire cutters. a few minutes of cutting and pulling, and it’s all gone, and no damage done. we speculated that it was the wire belting from a tire that some asshat probably burnt in a ‘campfire’ in the area.

a bit more practice, some on the big undercut log (which resulted in one of slowest ‘over-the-bars’ i’ve ever had) and i feel like i’m ready. around noon, we get the signal for the riders to meet up at the scoring trailer. get our instructions (yellow ribbon marks the loop, it starts over yonder and ends over thataway, ya got 3 hours, now git!), and away we go. off to section 1, looks like a cakewalk, sure enough start off with a clean. nice. on to 2. sections 2 and three and laid out parallel to each other, up a steep hillside. 2 is a mixed-media climb, dirt, a big rock step, and the rocky dirt on to the exit. 3 is about twice as long, starts in the water, makes a significant right turn 1/2 way up, and has a piece of old log choker cable about an inch in diameter across the line, about 8 inches off the ground. the cable has some give, so it’s really not much of an obstacle, but it makes ya think. back to 2, watch a clean and 3, decide on 2nd gear, and go for it. good traction, i do a little ‘traction bounce’ just after the rock bit, and get out clean. down the hill and attack #3. 2nd gear, concentrate on getting through the turn clean, and then getting a bit of momentum built up before the cable and the steep steps after it. a little footpeg leverage just after the cable, and i made it out clean! you can see a photo here. (notice the wire cable just under the bike’s front wheel.) yee haw, started off with 3 cleans! but now we get to the meat of the trail. it’s visciously steep, both uphill and downhill, and requires nearly as much effort to ride as a section. #4 has a sharp left followed by a steep climb, 5 has a nasty root-filled uphill left that caught nearly everybody for at least 1, etc. etc. 8 and 9 were a bit noteworthy in that they were a continuous section; 8 has a devilish little turn with a perfectly placed dining-table sized rock right at the apex at footpeg height, forcing you into exactly the wrong place for the exit. very tricky!

finished the first loop in about and hour and 15 minutes, the entire loop couldn’t have been a half mile long. but it was work. I’ve been riding events over the past year and tried to keep track of what my heart-rate was doing at various times and what my calorie burn was. One of the things that i’ve learned is that if i’m sitting at the entrance to a section, and my heart-rate is over 145, i should take a little rest break until it comes down to about 130 or 135. I ride much better, given the extra 2 minutes it takes for the rate to come down. so on the second and third loops, i paid attention to this; the loops was so short and so challenging that unless i gave myself forced breaks, i’d just wear myself out. by doing this, i managed to get through the event without once arriving at the end of a section and not being able to get my hands unclenched from the grips!

finished out with 39 points, which turned out to be good enough to ace Curtis Mann out of 3rd by 1 point. Michael Jordan schooled all of us though, with 24 points, topped off with a 4-point loop 3!. Nice ride, Michael. Kyle Larson also put in a good ride to take second.

Next event is May 3rd, at Deer Flats, above Gold Bar. Great place to ride, nasty place to get to. about 5 miles of rough, rocky road.
If you’d like to find out what observed trials are all about, let me know, i’ll get you detailed directions and you could come up and spectate.

keep those feet up!
blackdog

Well, here we are at the start of a new trials season. I hadn’t gotten nearly as much practice over the winter as I’d hoped, partly due to the pressures of my job, and partly due to the 2 FEET of snow we had around christmas! yikes. That is really unusual for western Washington, and brought a lot of the area to a halt.

Anyway, finally got off my keister the week before the event and put a clean filter in the bike, a new spark plug, and turned the rear tire around, so as to wear the sharp edges off of the other side of the knobs. Only took 3 tries to get the rim band to seat properly and hold air. Needless to say, it was a bit frustrating. Those Montesa-style flanged wheels look better and better all the time! Oh, and I also replaced the fork oil, and while doing so, I added an extra 50cc of oil to each leg hoping it would give me a bit more preload and spring progression than before. I weigh a bit more than you average trials expert, so I figured this might stop some of the bottoming that I’d been feeling. I also cranked up the preload on the rear shock about 1/4″. I might actually need a slightly heavier spring in the back, but more on that later.

Got out to the site, found a parking place and unloaded. According to Edward, it was about 38 degrees F. Pretty chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining or snowing on us. Went through my morning ritual: unload, sign-up, dress, set tire pressure, warm up, more coffee, warm up, and wait for start. I felt pretty good, although not terribly relaxed on the bike, and the slightly stiffer suspension felt really good, more responsive to my weight transfers and a bit quicker. Had a short discussion with another rider about Group Check vs. Cross Check. I’ve made my opinions about Group Check known on this forum before, but this time I allowed as how I probably disliked the idea of standing around in 38-degree weather more than I disliked group check. It’s all about perspective, folks!

A short riders meeting, explaining the new marking system, and we’re ready. For those who haven’t seen it, the new marking system we’re using here in PST works like this: for each group (morning, afternoon), each class is assigned a color. When you are walking a section, all you have to do is follow the arrows that are your color. For example, Advanced class was white. So I simply had to follow the white arrows all day. Pretty simple, and I thought it was easy to use. It’s still possible to miss a marker, but it’s harder to mis-understand a section this way.

Gather up into groups and we’re off. Bit of a traffic jam at Section 1, but that’s give a chance to what other riders a bit. Looks like a typical Gold Bar “Technical” section: lots of jumbly rocks, but nothing scary. Should be a cakewalk. Right. My back wheel gets kicked off line at the entrance gate, and I’m so stiff that I flounder through with a 3. Many of the rest of the sections were similar, jumbly, slick, sharp rocks. Nothing dramatic, nothing scary, but challenging of bike control and line control. There were really only two exceptions, Section 8 and Section 9. Section 8 was the Log Section. 3 Crossings of a slick log, seperated by 180-degree tight turns; The first crossing was easy, but you could get spooked going off of it, if you weren’t back far enough on the bike. My first time over, I wasn’t and felt the back end get very light and try to start to go over my head. The second crossing was the challenge, as it was undercut and the approach was littered with a root and some rocks; you had to be perfectly on line and have good timing on the throttle and rear-end weighting. I flubbed this the last loop, didn’t get the clutch out in time; by the time the power hit the rear wheel, the suspension has already started to settle up front and I plowed right into the log! ooof! I tried to recover by doing a standing bounce up onto the log, but didn’t quite get ‘er up on top! dang! oh well. Section 9 was interesting in that it had some logs and some rocks, mixed together with some tight turns. Never did get a clean here, as I couldn’t get the first sharp left-turn log crossing just right, took 1 every time. Ended the event feeling pretty good, I tightened up during the second loop for some reason, then had a decent third loop, except for the above 5.

Overall it was a very technical trial, and a bit easier than a lot of last years advanced trials. I believe the winning score was 34, whereas a lot of winning scores last year we’re in the 45-60 range. I don’t have a strong opinion about the score range, although I very much like the very technical trials, as opposed to the event with lots of big-scary obstacles. On one hand, the technical trials give me a better chance of going back to work on Monday with all my body parts intact, but I also understand the sentiment that these types of events don’t really prepare our up-and-coming younger riders to compete at the expert level. I’d very much like to hear what you folks think about this.

All in all a good start to year. I’m excited for the next event, have some ideas for a few more improvements to the bike, and plan on getting at least one practice session in before that event.

Keep those feet up!
blackdog

Well, it’s been a long time since my last blog entry. Too much excitment on both the job and the family front has left little time and energy for thinking about trials. Nonetheless, I did try my hand at the Deer Flats event in July. I hadn’t been on a trials bike for about 2 months, and as expected, I was really rusty. I got through the event with a few decent rides, but never really got in the groove and never really got confidence in my riding. When it was over, the scores showed how rusty I was, last of the assembled Advanced riders.

Time marches on, I was out of the country for the September Trial, recovering from the creeping crud for Halloween I, which brings us to Halloween II, at Gold Bar. I had decided before heading out that since I hadn’t ridden in many weeks, and effectively only once since June, that I would ride Sr. intermediate instead of Advanced.

Arrive at Gold Bar about 8am, find a parking spot and get unloaded. First impression is of strange weather; it was below freezing when I left my house outside of duvall, but there was a warm breeze blowing at Gold Bar. Overall, a fantastic day weatherwise: sunshine, a bit of wind, and about 58 degrees. it doesn’t get any better than that on October in the Pacific NW.

Went out and warmed up, including trying out a few rocks that have given me trouble in the past. not too bad, but obviously out of practice. I take a look at a few Advanced/Expert sections and confirm my earlier decision to ride Sr. Intermediate; With no practice or riding time for the last 4 months, those sections didn’t look like a good idea.

Back to the pits, get ready, and away we go. Section 1 at many trials is kind of a gimme, an easy section to get you warmed up and build up your confidence, before of course, smashing said confidence like a china bowl on a tile floor. Being a trials marshall requires just a touch of sadistic tendancies. Not today however; a fun little section, but it has a diabolical uphill right turn in it, with a little exposed rock just where the back wheel will be when you need to lift the front wheel to float the end of the turn. Never did figure that one out; took a point there every time. Had a pretty bad first loop, including a 5 when I slipped on a slick rock in section 9, trying a different approach to the slick tree root step. It’s not just the mechanical riding skills that atrophy from no practice, it’s also the mental parts of the game; line picking and seeing the creative approaches to obstacles.

Anyway successive loops got better as I got back in the groove, even posting a loop score of 2 on the thrid loop. That’s what the good riders were posting from the beginning. My eventual score of 24 was good for 5th or 6th, not a shining performance for someone who took home a second place Advanced back in april! oh well. It was a great event, with good sections and good organization; as always: Thanks to Jon and family! you guys rock!

So all this brings us to the end of the season, and looking forward, past the holidays, to next season. The way I see it, I have three options as to how to approach next year. I could get off my ass, clean up my trail system on my property, build some practice sessions, get out there and practice, and set my sights on being competitive in Advanced next year. I could continue with my “ride when it’s convenient” plan and ride Sr. Intermediate next year. Or i could take a year off from competition, and attend all the events as photographer and scribe, try to generate even more press and some excitement around Observed Trials in the Pacific Northwest.

Right now, not sure which way to go. It seems as though work and family life are going to settle down a bit, so the ‘get competitive’ approach might be possible. I’m not going to make my decision until after thanksgiving, we’ll see.

See you on the trail, Keep those feet on the pegs!

blackdog

To start, I want to say thanks to all of the folks who worked their butts off to put this event on. It was originally planned for Deer Flats, about 5 miles up the road and, more critically, abouit 1500 feet higher in elevation. We’re having a late, kinda crazy spring here in western Washington, and we had snow in the lowlands last week, and pretty much got snowed out of Deer Flats. But folks rallied around, and put on a great event.

Sunday morning dawns with typically spring weather for around here, maybe a bit chilly. 45 degrees and drizzling off and on. A quick bite, gather my lunch, coffee, etc.,
and i’m out the door. I’m driving the Rover today with the box trailer behind it, because when the weather is nasy, there’s nothing nicer than going into the trailer at lunch break, firing up the Kerosun heater, and getting truly thawed out. After an uneventful drive to Gold Bar, I pull off the pavement at Reiter Pit, and head for our riding area; holy potholes, batman, this road is really going to hell! Later I’ll see a competitor pull in driving a BMW 5-series sedan; I wonder how he got it up the road without ripping out one of it’s key organs?

Find a spot to park, untie the bike, but it’s drizzling, so I leave it in trailer, no sense getting soaked before I need to! Get my gear on, go say “Hi” to the familiar faces, and stretch out a bit. Go out and warm up, practice a few easy things and head back to the pits. Sign up, and have a bit of a discussion about group check vs. cross check. I grudgingly admit that the weather makes group checking a bit more attractive today, but regular readers know that I always ride worse during group check, so I’m not a huge fan. After some discussion, it is decided that we will cross check. So i get my assigned duties, and head out to my section. Section 6, I find it easily enough, and discover, in what would become a theme for the day, that it is long, I can just barely see the start gate from the end! A little bit of walking around reveals a good spot to observe from, which allows getting to the end gate to mark the riders card in only a few steps. Ah, my first rider, here comes Ted, almost always our first novice/intermediate rider, he just flys! He puts in a good ride, and motors on. Through the morning, I had a few fives (stalled motors mostly), one of which was an actual dismount from the machine. Front tire went this-a-way, rider went that-a-way. No injuries, so it’s all good. All in all, though everyone rode well, and most improved their scores as the morning progressed. It was great to see the new faces, as well, welcome everyone, hope to see you at another event soon.

Back to the pits, grab lunch, in this case beef stew and some french bread. Having a thermos that will keep stew or soup warm is really nice on these soggy 42 degree spring days. Change into some dry gear, gas the bike, and get ready to go. Oh, wait, tire pressures. Check them again, decide I’m happy with 4lbs in the front and 3lbs in the rear. That’s a bit lower than usual, but I figured traction was going be a bit scarce, and it seems like the Dunlop tire likes to run a bit lower pressure than the Michelin I used to use. We get our score cards and the riders meeting, and one of the Marshalls vaguely waves a hand and says ‘loop is yellow ribbon, and starts over there’. Find the section, and start figuring things out. This ones on a hill, predominately downhill, with some turns and climbs in it, and it ends with a series of tight turns
left 90, right 180, then right 90, over a set of tree roots and logs. I get a bit out of shape early, due to over-enthusiastic use of the front brake, and end up with a 3. Not bad, but I can do better. Back out on the loop and away we go. The next three are log and turn sections, I like the logs, but the turns are really tight. In #3, I take a planned dab early in the section and it works out pretty well. The small logs where the bark is gone are really slick though. Very delicate getting over them at any kind of angle. Working though the rest of the loop, mostly rock-jumble type sections. Things are really slick today, and for me, at least, it’s way too easy to pick up more speed than I can smoothly scrub off. I have been slowly coming to the realization that my bike may be too quick for my riding style, and maybe I need to do a bit more to slow down the initial hit off idle. I’ve changed to a slower throttle grip, but I’m thinking a gearing change or a small change in the ignition timing might be just the thing. We’ll see.

Finishing out the first loop, sections 8 and 9 are rock jumbles, and really tight turns; I struggle through both with 3’s. Then to section 10. This one deserves special mention, mostly due to the fact that it had two challenging climbs, and two downhill/dropoff obstacles that looked like they would generate fender-puckering fear. The entrance was tricky, over a rock then a log at 45-degrees, then some winding around over some logs, and up an S-shaped climb up the hill, and the last 6-8 feet are completely loose mud. I never got past this point, all day. 3 attempts, 3 fives. On the last one, I asked, humorously, the checker if I could yell a cuss-word? “I didn’t hear nothin”, sez he! When I was done venting my frustration, he asks “Is that going to be in the blog?”. Yes, Ted, it’s in the blog: F*CK! That said, I did notice from the posted scores that several folks got through it much better, and there were several cleans there on the day. A hearty ‘Nice job’ to those guys, that one was tough!

Anyway the next two loops went reasonably well, getting close to cleaning a couple of sections, improving my score in a few others, and completely floundering though a few. Just as I went out for the third loop, it started raining. By the time I got to #2 the third time, the logs had gotten really slick, expecially the big one right at the entrance, and my dreams of a clean there were washed away! I finished the trial with a decent loop, except for section 10, and headed back to the pits. Adding up the scores, I had to stop and do real math at one point, as I counted 17 ‘3’s on my score card! At that point in the day 3 times 17 was more than my wee brain could handle! That’s a ton of threes, with the upside that some of those coiuld have degenerated into ‘5’s, and the downside that some of them should have been ‘1’s or ‘2’s, but isn’t that how it always goes? Totalled up to 76 with 2 cleans, which I felt OK about, but didn’t really think it would put me in contention.
A bit later, as they are handing out the awards, I discover that 76 and 2 was good enough for 2nd place in advanced on that Sunday in April. wooT!

All in all, a fun day, and I’m really looking forward to the Columbia Cup. It will be in Goldendale, WA, May 3rd and 4th. Love to see you there!

Keep those feet up!

blackdog

Another season has begun. We should have gotten started in February, but too much snow kept us from holding our traditional “Ice Trial”. A tad ironic, that.

Be that as it may, roughly 35 of us showed up at Gold Bar, under cloudy skies and with mid-40s temperatures. Got unloaded, geared up and went off for a bit of exploration and warm-up. I hadn’t been on the bike outside my own yard since my last practice session in mid-November, so I was a bit rusty and my timing and judgement was off. But I got warmed up, and determined that the dirt had a fair bit of traction, but that the logs and rocks we’re really slick after an entire winter of soggy, cold weather. I did find myself hitting obstacles with either too much or too little speed and throttle, just rusty, I guess.

Riders meeting comes and goes, and I’m off to check section #4 in the morning. A cute little section, deceiving in it’s simplicty. There were basically 2 rocks to go over, one at the entrance and one at the exit, with some turns and gentle climbs and descents between the two. Deceptive, because the final right hand turn was quite sharp, and down in a dip, with a rock on the inside of the entrance that kicked the rear tire outwards just an you started climbing out. Took me a few tries to figure it out, and it took many points from the Intermediate class riders throughout the morning. If memory serves, Jesse Howard had it completely figured out and had the smoothest rides there all day.

Had several spectators stop by and ask about Observed Trials, and about the bikes, etc. One them were a couple of gentlemen who introduced themselves as Dale and Dean. They asked a bunch of questions about bikes, and Dale indicated that Dean had been involved in Trials in the past and was thinking about getting back into the sport. He was asking about Shercos, so i told him he could take my ‘04 2.9 for a spin. As soon as he rode away, it was obvious that he’d ridden fairly seriously at some time, I could just tell from the way he balanced bike and his stance. Later I found out that their last name is Dorcas; Dean Dorcas was the NATC High School national Champion in 1984. In my book , that qualifies as ‘rode seriously!’ Welcome back, guys, hope to see you at more events!

The morning finished without incident and I went back to the pits to get ready for the afternoon ride. Check the gas, tire pressures, fill the hydration system, and then decide whether or not to wear the jacket; on. off. on. off. on for now, but i’m takin’ it off just before i start. A little before 1pm, they turn us loose, and it’s across the power lines to find Section 1. Not too bad, a nice re-introduction to how this is supposed to be done, after a winter of couch surfing and fireplace tending. I get through with a 1 (should have been a clean), and head on out. The loop is fairly open, and the sections are nicely spread out, which is nice, it keeps large lines from developing at any 1 section. Section2 is a hillclimb with several changes in surface, another 1, and i’m feeling pretty good. That is about to change. Section 3 is on a rock face we call 3-step. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 feet long, very steep, and has several steps and surface changes in it. The advanced line here today is a Z-shaped path up the right side of the first pitch, across the face, and up a slot in the left side of it. This is after entering 1/2 way up, and dropping the last 20 feet, and making a U-turn in a field of softball-sized round rocks. The trick to a section like this is knowing how much traction you have at every point, and how to balance the traction/power/momentum equation. I never did get it right. First attempt was too slow, got messed up on the crossover, and knocked a marker down the face, second time had too much momentum, and the third time I missed the line and failed to make it back up the first pitch. I know the section is ridable, but it was very intimidating and my speed/traction judgement was rusty. Oh well. The rest of the loop was about what you’d expect, a mixture of not-killer sections, and a couple of real ‘pregnant dogs’. Sections 6 and 7 bear special notice. As you may know, Western Washington, especially as you near the Cascade Mountains, tends to be a bit soggy. Rocks that sit around in this climate for years and years acquire a delicate coating of slime, the tractive properties of which approximate polished marble with motor oil on top. Sections 6 and 7 were laid out through field of these rocks, including sharp turns and a couple of steps and climbs. For the Expert-class riders, these were continuous sections, iId guess total length of about 150ft actual. Advanced-class riders got a 15ft ‘free zone’ between the two. Perceived length while attempting to navigate this rock pile on a trials bike was about 2 miles! At any moment the back wheel was likely to step out, and a loss of momentum at a crucial moment meant a bunch of lifting and pushing to get things moving again. The best I did here all day was a 3 and a 2 (and that 2 felt like a clean!).
Anyway, these two sections were great challenges to punctuate a larger set of doable, yet still technically challenging sections.

A couple of trivial, yet interesting observations from sections 9 and 10: Section 9 was a classic log section, a few tight turns, and 4-5 log crossings, depending on class. The final log in the section has been there for so long that both sides are starting to erode, and in profile it’s now more rectangular then round, about 26″ tall, and 12″ across the top. This log really brought home to me how rusty my judgement was. On the first loop, I hit that puppy with about 30% too much speed, sailed over, and nearly missed the right turn to the exit gate. The second time, I pussy-footed it, and wound up taking 3 points, basically carrying the bike over the log. It wasn’t until the last loop that I actually hit it correctly and got out smoothly. More practice I could use.

Section 10 was also interesting, for another reason entirely. Upon walking the section, it was fairly obvious what the marshall intended. The trick was that the section wasn’t marked with continuous ribbon, which meant that some creative line picking made the run up to the hill climb substantially longer and straighter than what seemed to the the ‘intent’. Not a huge deal, but there was some discussion with the observer about how far outside the ‘intended’ line was legal, and ‘cheater’ lines. This has been a long-standing discussion in the Trials community, but in my opinion, the trials marshall gets to make the decision: either mark with spot (non-continuous) ribbons and accept the fact that trials riders are clever critters, and will find the eaiest line, or use continuous ribbon where they want to enforce a particular challenge.

all in all, a great way to kick-off the 2008 season. Looking forward to many more great events! Keep those feat on the pegs!

blackdog

I purchased these boots last winter, replacing a pair of well-worn Gaerne’s that had finally sprung a leak. For Trials riders in Western Washington, leaky boots are a real downer, since we spend substantial time walking through muddy/wet sections. I’ve now ridden 5 or 6 events with these boots, so I figured it was time to share my impressions and thoughts about them.

Fit: I have aize 10.5 feet, I ordered the size 11 boot, and they fit fine. I can wear a thin sock under them for summer events, or by loosening the latches a notch or two, wear a heavier sock for cooler rides. These boots are pretty easy to get snug over the entire foot, leading to a very supportive and secure feeling while wearing them.

Waterproofness: So far, no water intake. This includes the bitter cold and wet April trials. It also includes slogging through a small creek at the last Walker Valley Trials.

Traction: traction from the soles seems good. Everything was really slick at Walker Valley last fall and at Gold Bar last weekend, so it was hard to tell, but I have had no problems previous and no problems with them coming off of the footpegs or anything like that.

Buckles/Straps: some cool features here: the attachment clips are on the opposite ends from the adjusters, so once they are adjusted for you feet, the just snap on and snap off. Heavier or lighter socks might take one or two notches of adjustment, but it’s pretty easy to make.

The only downside I’ve discovered so far is that due to the way the boots tighten up on my feet (your feet may vary ), there is a rather conspicous fold of leather on the inside of each ankle. So far I don’t notice it while riding, but I have noticed that it rubs on the frame of the bike, and has already taken the smooth finish off of the leather on that area of the boot. A pretty minor thing, and it might be that someone with differently shaped feet and ankles may not run into any of this.

Conclusions: This is a high quality boot with good protection and good comfort. Not cheap, but good quality.