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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.

How did it play out? Three letters sum it up nicely… DNF (Did Not Finish). Just after completing the first lap, my bike just died like it ran out of gas. I knew that it had gas, I questioned some kind of a vapor lock, but that didn’t appear to be the case. So I pretty much knew it was electrical. This is because of a problem I notice on the day before when putting my bike back together. My aftermarket over-sized fuel tank sits lower in the frame, and actually rests on the spark plug cap. I had just put in a new NGK spark plug cap, to replace my old OE spark plug cap. Well the stock one is a little pliable with its rubber casing, but the new one is in a rigid hard plastic casing. So the jarring from the track actually snapped my spark plug cap into two pieces, cutting all electrical current to my spark plug.

What bummed me the most was that I just spent my money to only last for about 15 minutes… there will always be more races & chances to ride.

About my riding… yes, I was very rusty & was only cruising around. My plan was to complete a couple of laps to just get comfortable on the bike… then start to get a little more aggressive & have some fun. But I never even got to the fun. My one lap was slow, awkward & uncomfortable (I got stuck in a mud hole for a moment & also had one small crash).

So in the end, the fix is only a couple of dollars & I really did not gain anything out of the weekend. Well I suppose I did at least experience again that anxiety of sitting on the line right before the start of the race… so that’s good to get under my belt. My next race is only 2 weeks away at the D-23 Hare Scrambles at Arkansaw, WI. For sure I’m now motivated to get some seat time on the bike & to get some more cardio exercise… to be be more prepared come Arkansaw. 3 weeks after that is the OMA Moose Run.

Update: Here are the results from the race.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Dirt Bikes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.