Did I ever mention how much I enjoy riding my motorcycle? Today was one of those days were the riding was about as good as it gets, all things considered. I played hooky from work, blasted Sirius XMU as loud as I could all the way to Dyracuse, signed in, suited up, lit the RM-Z250 and hit the trails. Ha!
They had .25″ of precip there yesterday so the sand was as good as it gets. The MX track has been groomed this morning so the moist sand was smooth and firm. It was 60 degrees and calm. All the quads in the parking lot were headed for the mud hole on the far side of the property so I had the trails and the track all to my self. It was dreamy. Like a beer commercial, really, but without the umbrella girls.
I brought my lap timer today and planned to experiment a little. I combined some of the single track trails to make a 6 minute 30 second lap. The loop had a few whooped sections, a rocky technical climb, a few 5th gear wide open straights, lots of right left right in the trees and tons, I mean TONS, of grip.
Keeping track of lap times does a few things for me: it forces me to try hard all the way around the lap (time is ticking and I can see how I performed the second I break the beam), it shows if I’m consistent or not, it can tell if a section or line is faster or slower, and it gives me a feel for how much time a mistake can cost.
It's just a thick layer of sand under there. It will come off easy as.
I rode well today and my lap times improved with each pass. I could feel that happening because I was using parts of the trail that were outside my normal lines (carrying speed out of a turn, for instance, and needing to use up a little more real estate than I did the lap before) and I was making some good ruts in the turns I really had wired. It’s in the back of my head that when I can hit the same line lap after lap and dig a more pronounced rut with each pass, I’m doing something right. Think of the rutted turns that develop on a National outdoor track and you might see it like I do.
My bike was a little off today but it didn’t dampen the fun factor. I had to go to my backup forks because my “A” forks need new bushings. Who knows if there is a distinguishable difference between the two but something was amiss for the first few minutes of the ride then I must had gotten used to it. Jetting was a little rich but I didn’t mind.
After feeling good about the woods laps I headed over to the motocross track for some engine abuse. The long, sandy climbs and deep sand turns must play havoc with the longevity of moto engines. I was somewhat careful but it sure was easy to try to go fast and to do that you had to wring it out. When the track is as firm and smooth as it was today, you can ride the entire lap without using your brakes. My method was to shift down a gear as I approached a soft turn, look where I wanted to end up and then drop the bike on it side and crack open the throttle. The front end would dig into the sand to slow me down and the rear end would search for traction and swing around in a lovely arc. I did a dozen laps and finally pulled it over thinking that I should save the engine for another day!
Pearson is the next D16 hare scramble. If I can ride there like I did today I should have a good time and do well. Here’s to hoping!
I bought that FMF Q pipe from Joe. It has made the bike so much easier to tolerate for 2 hours in the woods. Occasionally the tip hits my butt when I'm trying hard in the whoops. No biggie tho.
