Quite possibly the most satisfying experience I’ve had on a dirt bike… that was last weekends trip to WI’s Clark County’s Knobby Ridge Motorcycle Trail. A group of us took a weekend up north to get away & trail ride our dirt bikes.
But let me start back at the beginning.
Friday night was all about getting my bike & gear ready and everything packed because I was heading out at 7:30am Saturday. Things could have gone more smoothly though. I felt rushed to get everything done; from making sandwiches to bring, loading everything up & getting all my gear & bike dialed in. When I was still working on my bike, I went to start it up with just casual shoes & wearing shorts, I slipped off of the kick starter & the starter arm slapped me in the leg. It hurt quite a bit & instantly I had a big lump on my lower leg… which turned black & blue right away as well. As I’m limping around on it, I figure that if I can still walk on it, it must not be broke… that I’d be fine. But I did hope that the swelling would go down for tomorrow, because the lump was right where the lower portion of my knee brace will be cinched around my leg… that didn’t sound too comfortable. I sure hoped that this wasn’t an indication of how the weekend was going to go either.
So I get up to my alarm Saturday morning, my leg is definitely achy… but thankfully the swelling has gone down substantially, things are looking up! Anxious with excitement for the weekend ahead, I chow down some cereal at home & head out the door right on schedule. The plan was to meet at 8:00am with many of the guys at a truck stop just up the Interstate. I’m the first one there, but everybody shows up pretty much on time… we’re on the road around 8:15am and headed up to Black River Falls, WI. With the weather forecast a hot one of 98 degrees & sunny, I had been drinking a lot of water since Friday morning to keep hydrated during the ride. Needless to say, halfway through the 2-hour drive, I had to piss & I knew there was no way that I was going to make it the full trip without a stop. Fortunately some of the others needed to do the same, so
that was good because I didn’t want to be the single person holding everybody up. Why I’m bringing this wayside stop up is that coincidently, I ran into an ex co-worker at the wayside. I haven’t seen her in over a year… what are the chances of that, she was traveling up north & stopped at the same wayside, within this 10 minute window of time that we were there… kind of crazy! So we gabbed for a short bit, but I cut it short because I didn’t want to hold it any longer & I was plenty anxious to get back on the road.
But anyways… we arrive at Black River Falls; where to ride the county trails, you need to purchase a yearly registration. We were expecting it to be $12, but it had been bumped up to $20… without an option to buy a single-day pass. Not a big deal, but 2 of the guys with us had brought along their 2 sons each, so this meant that each Dad had to pay $60 for them all to ride… seems a little steep for one day. You see, the plan was for us to ride the trails at Black River Falls on Saturday & then the county trails at Neillsville, WI on Sunday; which will be another $6 per rider for a day pass. But back to Black River Falls. The previously couple weeks of weather had generally been dry & hot, so unfortunately we were anticipating a lot of dust that would give poor visibility and we also found out that there was a ban on camp fires (we were camping out that
night). To our surprise, the trails were in very good condition! There was hardly any dust, some occasional
puddles from one storm that came through the day before and the soft sand of Black river actually was a little tacky. The heat though… that was another story. It really drained on all of us… 99 degrees of thick, hot air mixed with humidity & total sunshine. We definitely were taking breaks during our ride to drink some water & to take our helmets off for a bit of a breather.
I think that I need to back up just for a moment… this was my first real ride on my bike this year. I bought this bike at the beginning of the winter last year. Previous to this weekend, I had ridden it 3 times for short rides, also in temperatures more in the 80’s instead of pretty much 100 degrees. I thought that I had my bike dialed in for the trip. I actually took a little extra time, I thought, in making sure I came prepared for the weekend trip. Well it turns out that my bike requires a higher octane gas then I had bought the night before. Buying the bike used, I assumed the motor was basically stock, but with a pipe on it. Over the winter, putting a new top-end in the bike revealed that the bike is bored 2mm over, which computers out to be a 265cc instead of the original 250cc. A friend had inspected the head & he said that there was no porting done to it… which was good news since I don’t need a peaky top-end orientated “moto” race motor. Well it does appear that the compression has been jacked up some… During this longer ride & with the heat that we were riding in… my bike all of a sudden wasn’t running very good any more. It was pinging, had detonation & not wanting to idle… and this was only progressively getting worse each mile as we did our first loop of the trail. Through the help of John & Heath, it was determined that I needed to get some higher octane fuel in it before I could really keep going. So John made a couple of phone calls & got me dialed-in to go pick up some VP Race Fuel from a dealer that was about a 30 minute drive away. What I ended up buying was a 5-gallon can of VP Racing C12 race fuel at 108 octane… 5 gallons for $50! It sure does smell nice though. Upon returning to the riding area and putting the new gas in my bike… it was running good again. Problem solved! So the next thing was to see if mixing it 50/50 between the Race Fuel & the pump gas, if it would still run well… which it did… good news for me, I can get more riding time out of my $50 race gas. In the near future, we’ll do a compression test on it & figure out what combination of pump gas & race gas I need to have the bike run strong. Another option for me is the figure out if the head has been shaved or if the cylinder was shaved to increase the compression… and possibly either replace the head if that’s what been modified or put in a second head gasket or something of that nature… and then be able to run just pump gas in the bike by lowering the compression ratio. While I was away to go buy the gas, the gang went out for a second loop. So now that my bike is running better, I went out again with a smaller group. My bike still wasn’t jetted perfect yet… it still wanted to stall some & it started hard, requiring a few kicks. Also, I still wasn’t riding very good… I was tight on the bike, feeling “rusty” and definitely not feeling my rhythm on the trail. But it
was still good to be out trail riding with the guys. Thoughts of whether if I should actually enter the race at the end of August popped into my head though… I really was riding slowly… sure not the pace of what the B class will be doing at the race. I wasn’t very comfortable on the bike.
After we finished riding for the day, we discussed our plan of going over to Neillsville that night or just stay at Black River Falls to camp & then head over to Neillsville on Sunday morning. Matt & Jeff decided to stay at Black river Falls with their sons and ride the trails at Black River again on Sunday. So the rest of us packed up & headed out to Neillsville. After hitting a gas station along the way for more fuel for our bikes & bodies, we arrived at the trail head of the Knobby Ridge trail. Upon arriving at the trails, Pete; one of Moose Racing’s A class racers, was already there with his camper trailer all set up. This was the first
time that I had met Pete, I heard that he was a good rider. After we all got acquainted, we set up camp & then jumped in Heath’s truck & drove over to a near by creek. It was pretty funny… after a full day of riding, we felt pretty dirty, so most of us jumped into the creek to bath & just cool off in the heat. We must of looked like some hill billies washing our hair & pits in the creek… there was a family swimming at the little beach right next to us. Then it was back to the camp site to cook up some food, do some BS’n, have a drink or two… then off to bed around midnight.
Saturday morning I woke to cooler temps & partly cloudy skies. We began by starting to tear down the tents, unloading the bikes & filling up on water. A couple more guys met us at the trail head for the days ride. As all this was happening, the clouds continued to roll in… but the weather was noticeably cooler & less humid then Saturday. John took a couple of the new guys out for a casual warm-up ride while the rest of us casually packed things up & finished getting our gear on. By the time the group was ready to head out for the 20′ish mile loop, rain was looking more & more inevitable; but we welcomed it to keep us cool & the dust down. Actually, John came back from his casual ride with reports that the trails were in great shape, no dust, a few puddles & the soil was tacky.
So it was time for all of us to head out for the big ride of the day, I had anticipation of tighter trails then what Black River had to offer. Based off of my performance the day before, I felt a little uncertain on how the ride would go for me… with the more technical terrain, but my bike was running better & I expected myself to progress & get smoother/faster as the day went on.
Well the trails at Neillsville were awesome! There was more elevation changes then Black River, more tree roots and it seemed to me that there was more of a “flow” to the trails. Even the woods themselves were more attractive then Black River and the trails were a little longer (or was that just the tighter more technical trail slowing our pace down). Don’t get me wrong, I’d go back to Black River for sure, the more riding areas & various areas to ride the better… but for me, the Knobby Ridge Trail at Neillsville is my new favorite location to ride, anywhere!
In my previous post I mentioned that I expected our pace to be about 25 mph… well that was a little optimistic… I’d say my pace on Sunday was about 15 - 20mph. My bike has a 5-speed gearbox, but on these trails I was in 2ng gear most of the time… with some of the tighter areas I’d drop down into first gear… and only rarely did I even use 3rd gear. 2nd gear is my new friend… with plenty of clutch work in the corners. I learned a lot riding on Sunday, I kept telling myself to look further ahead down the trail. I am guilty of looking too close in front of me… like only 15 feet ahead, but when I looked much further ahead, I
was able to react to things in the trail much better, to be able to expect what’s coming ahead & not just react to it. Another thing that I was making a point to improve on was the use of my rear brake. I’ve developed the bad habit of relying on my front brake to much & the rear brake has actually become an after-thought for me. So all day, I kept making a conscious effort to reverse that… to use the rear brake every time & to intentionally not use the front nearly as much. Wow, what a difference in the control. I was gaining control of the bike & confidence quickly now… I was able to get the bike turned much better in the corners, more control in the technical situations & ready for the next obstacle as well. The other thing that I was learning over the weekend was the differences between my old bike (KDX trail bike) to my new bike (KX motocross bike). How lazy the KDX allowed me to be. What I mean is that the KDX lets you lug the motor down real low in the RPM range & it will just tractor up out of it with throttle only. But my new bike, with its moto characteristics is a little different. It requires a little more work, finesse, skill & energy. Even though the motor is much stronger then my KDX could ever think of being, it is not nearly as happy in the
basement of the RPM range. With the KX, coming into the corner I learnt to be more aggressive; pulling in the clutch, blipping the throttle to keep the RPM’s up, working the clutch out of the corner while feeding on the throttle. I spent the entire day with my two fingers never off of the clutch lever. But this rewards you with… well I’m not so sure yet. It is more work, but I was riding more aggressively then I used to on my KDX. I enjoy riding that way, we definitely weren’t out there to look at the birds… so yes, riding the bike was very rewarding & my pace picked up quite a bit… but the KDX is easier to ride & better for a more relaxed trail ride.
My bike was running much better as well, but besides the higher octane gas, part of the equation was that I was on the gas more then I was on Saturday. With me riding looser & more aggressively, I was riding the bike closer to how it was meant to be ridden, unlike on Saturday. This spring, I had kind of set a casual goal for myself, that I want to improve my riding to the point where I can stay with my buddy Brandon. But at this point, he always keeps slowly walking away until he’s out of site… sometimes though, this is happening far from slowly. Even though I personally was feeling good with my riding, both Brandon & Craig kept disappearing on me… I could not keep up their pace, they were riding good. Guys like John & Heath, I have no expectations to ever reach their speeds, but I accept that. One thing that became very clear to me was that after every one of our breaks, it would take me 3 minutes or so to find my rhythm again… when we’d head out after a break, I would be bounding off of everything, riding slow & tight & pretty much sucking. This actually made me think that I’d be better off not taking any more breaks & to just finish the loop in one shot. Even though we did kind of have an established order of guys, John & Heath first & etc, we would still leave as a group & in a short time naturally divide into separate groups by our speed… During this 3 minutes of “out of rhythm” for me, the guys ahead of me like Brandon & Craig, they would just be motoring away as I floundered off of things along the trail. This kind of made it difficult to pace myself with them when they are already out of site, to
chase them, encouraging me to ride better.
At one point during the day, we were on the easier loop that is more open & faster. I was behind Pete (regional A class racer) he was riding a slow pace for him, just having fun going through this mile or so of loose bermed 2nd gear corners… you could move through this area pretty good & really feel the flow as it switched back & forth. I had such a rush following him. I was feeling such a rhythm or groove. For me, I was flowing so well & riding awesome. I was barely keeping up with him, but maintaining the 3 bike gap he had on me. For me, I was railing the corners, totally found “my grove”. I had this unbelievable feeling of rhythm, making forward progress instead of backwards, feeling loose on the bike, letting the bike move around underneath me… being one with the bike instead of fighting it or even fearing the bike like I have experienced when I was racing the OMA series a couple of years ago. Man, writing this has me pumped to go riding again right now!!
Near the end of the big loop, I started to get tired, my shoulders had that hot burning sensation & I was starting to make more mistakes… I told myself to not back off like usual, to still kept pushing… I was chasing Nicolas who was just ahead of me. I felt very satisfied when we got back to the trucks… I didn’t “puss out” & back off, I didn’t leave thinking about how I could of pushed harder or done more… very satisfied, unlike all of my racing experiences I’ve had. Even though I was in the slower group, which I wish I wasn’t… inside I felt satisfied with my riding & I’m focusing on knowing that, not on how my speed compared to the others.
Surveillance of my bike afterwards wasn’t too bad at all… my radiator was bent back a little but I had no problem straightening it & a hand guard pivoted was up… but no major damage, no big crashes… I bounced off some trees, had a few awkward tip-over�??s & slow-speed crashes of course… but nothing bad at all.
This day was so satisfying… the feeling of knowing that for me, I was riding good, my pace was way faster then Saturday’s… even though I was still in the slower pack of guys in our group, Sunday gave me more confidence that I’ll be ready for my race next month. This day riding probably was the most satisfying I’ve had on a dirt bike over any in my life.
Every time that I go back up north & get out of southern WI, it makes me dream of moving back up north again… the hills, trees, further away from IL, much more accessible to trails for riding, possibly cheaper land & cost of living in areas, it feels like home, it would be closer to the bi-weekly transfer of Brandy’s boys… WI pride, I have it!!!
Waking up on Monday, back to reality. Giving my body the surveillance, I find myself sore, with a swollen & bruised right ankle (giving me a “cankle”, not exactly sure why), my lower right leg is all black n blue as well as this mysterious blistering on my right calf to top it all off. Damn I can’t wait to get back on the bike again!!
Mother’s Day brought along with it my next race. I hoped for much better results then what Aztalan brought me two weeks ago. For this race, I brought along my parents, who have never been to a dirt bike race before. One of my sisters met us there as well. I did appreciate them cheering me on as I went by; I gave them a wave in return… sort of to let them know that I wasn’t taking the race all too seriously… I assume that they were nervous with the idea of me racing, based on previous injuries from motorcycles.
Yesterday was my first race since 2004… well the race also marked my first time riding a bike in about 7 months… Not the best scenario for sure.
This Saturday will be both my first race of the year, but also my first time on a bike in 7 months. Nothing like your first race in 3 years to also be the same time to get re-acclimated with the bike & just riding.
So yes… it’s up in the air if I will be able to enter my August 27th race as planned. Motor problems with my bike & Brandy & I have agreed to start a “budget”. Does this spell doom for my racing in 2006? Time will tell.
