I did not get to go to Crankworx this year, but it is always fun. This video is from the Enduro event, which I would love to do.
I don’t really care about this video as much as I care that the date stamp says January and look at the riding available if you are in NC. In Wisco, we will be under 6 feet of snow at that point. Ugh…
Brandon at Crankworx Slopestyle. Ya, we all wish we could ride like this.
As you can tell, I am consumed with Whistler these days. If I could be there now I would.
Posted in Joe's blog
While I haven’t ridden my RM-Z Suzukis as much as I have wanted to this summer, the days that I have ridden have been epic. This past week Joe and I rode with the Trek World Racing pro downhill guys at Dyracuse. It was a really good day of riding motos with professional athletes and friends.
It took me a few late nights to prep all three of my bikes. One of the 250s needed the engine installed and the other 250 and the 450 needed routine maintenance, tires mounted and practice plastic installed. It’s a lot of work to keep three bikes up and running!
I contacted Jon Sonnenberg at the town of Rome prior to our arrival and got permission to film and video our day on the bikes. I figured the town might be sensitive to us showing up with a film crew so I asked permission. The TWR team almost always travels with a film crew. Trek likes to document the team’s travel and race events and our day at Dyracuse would be no exception. The video has not been edited yet but I’ll be sure to post a link as soon as it is.
Dyracuse grooms their sandy motocross track on Wednesdays. The conditions were magical. We went through all the gas we brought. There were multiple lap battles going on all afternoon. I had to stop and dump the sand out of my helmet and swap goggles more than once that day. Super fun.
During one stop I smelled radiator fluid but I dismissed it as just hot bikes. The sand is hard on engines. Hours later one of my 250s stalled on the trail and would not restart. When we took a closer look we learned that a radiator hose had come loose. It may have been that I failed to tighten it or that the hose clamp was at fault. The clamp had signs of damage and wouldn’t fully tighten. Either way, something in the top end is damaged to the point of no return. We’ll fix her up and get it back on the trail ASAP!
Rob and John Parkin (of Orpheus Productions) make up the TWR film crew. They deserve credit for all of these photos. Thanks guys!
The Vesrah rig and Justin Leov prep for the ride.
Andrew Neethling is so excited to ride he's forgotten some of his gear. And check out the line up of Vesrah Suzukis!
Neko Mulally eyes up his steed.
Dyracuse's Jon Sonnenberg checks in with our crew before the ride. The crew from Rome, WI was super helpful and helped make for a great day of riding!
Needles checks in with Rob Parkin.
17 year old Neko held off Vet rider Joe V for several laps. The outcome? Smiley, sand covered faces.
(picture says it all)
Normally I look like a squid on a motorcycle but I seem to have my act in gear here. I love my RM-Z450.
Downhill riders can ride motos. Period.
Juzo vs Needles battles happened all day long. Needles puts some sand in Justin's lap in this shot but I bet the favor was returned in the next turn.
The SX track was also a big hit with the TWR gang. Needles handled this kicker nicely.
Needles gets the last bit of water out of the portable shower at the end of a great day of riding.
Posted in Scott's blog
This week Scott and I got a chance to participate in a really cool event. The Vesrah Suzuki Offroad team hosted the Trek World Racing Downhillers to a day of offroad motorcycle riding at Dyracuse motorcycle park. Tracey Mosely was not with us, but Andrew Neethling, Justin Leov and Neko Mulally (@andrewneethling, @teamleov, @nekomulally) were all great fun. The great people there at Dyracuse really put out the red carpet effort to make us feel comfortable and at home there. They opened up early for us, groomed up the motorcycle track, sent out a reporter from the local paper etc… Thanks a ton.
Downhilling a bicycle is a lot more like riding a motorcycle than people would think. What that means is that these guys were not slouches. Here is a little video to show what they normally do.
They can ride. We had all of our bikes out there, prepped and ready to go. We also had a camera and video crew with us. Some of the photos are below and eventually there will be a video that I can link to as well.
We rode and rode and rode. Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
I also taught my friend Matt Pickersgill (@mattpickersgill) to ride a motorbike. He is 34 and never ridden one. I know, hard to believe. But, he is hooked now.
That is Matt, thinking about if he can do this. Nervous.
Out for now.
Joe
It has been a long time since I have posted anything here. I am sorry if you have been faithfully checking back, waiting for a post. I will try to make that up here, I will not be so absent again. I don’t really have a good reason for no posting, but I HAVE been really busy.
It all kinda started with the crash in Whistler. You may recall that I crashed really hard in Whistler in early July, separating my AC in my right shoulder. That really set me back. That was about 6-7 weeks ago, I have been training since then, but it is coming back really slowly.
This is what it looked like before it all went bad.
Byron HS
The Byron HS was a real old school HS. I am talking about really tight 90%woods 4 mile course. It was soft and it became really really rutted. So rutted that of course it was really really tough riding. This one was really hard to ride with my shoulder. I fell over a couple of times and that was quite the ordeal with a shoulder that was only about 50%.
I got a crap start and arrived late to the woods. There was about 18 people on my line and getting to the woods in 15th or so was a challenge. The course was mostly single track and passing was nearly impossible. At the woods I knew it was going to be a long day. I had my work cut out for me.
I managed to pass a few people each lap and ended up 5th. John and I were both in the +40 A class. There are a bunch of really fast guys in Illinois, especially in the A class.
But, I was completely shredded after the race. It is completely amazing what an injury and a few weeks of inactivity can do to your aggression and fitness. I have a long way to go for sure.
It was crazy hot on the line at Byron. I must have sweat out a gallon before the start.
Tight turn at Byron. The whole thing was tight, so calling out a single turn as tight seems silly.
Scott
Stone Lake HS
This was the next race on the agenda. The series had been to this venue before, but I had not personally. The first time around was when I was in Whistler with the family in early July.
Stone Lake is near Rice Lake Wi. I know, I know…the Wisconsin lake thing. It does get confusing. Anyway, Stone Lake is up in northern Wi. I love coming up here. The northern part of Wisconsin is a special place. The forest is great, and there are not many people. But, the terrain can be challenging.
Stone Lake was a long loop. 8 miles around. There was not a huge crowd there, only about 9 people on my line. The course started out on a really really great MX track. Great dirt, groomed to perfection, huge uphill jumps, really nice bermed turns. Yow. Then it went through some GNCC width trails. They were fast and furious. Then a great grassy field section and then 3 miles of the toughest roughest rock infested trail I have ever raced on.
Of course it rained the night before the race. It is ME at the race after all, so it has to rain. The rain didn’t hurt the MX track or the fast trails. But, the rocky 3mile section was murder with mud. I am talking standing up 100% of the time, trials type riding over wet slippery rocks that are flipping your bike right and left. It was a workout.
I got another crap start (seems like my shoulder injury has turned me into a week starter). I fell trying to get off the MX track, but pushed anyway and got up to 2nd before we got off the fast GNCC type trails. I was passed by a guy I did not know going into the rock infested part of the race. For 2 laps after that, I could still see John and that 2nd place guy on the MX track when we would get back to that, but then my fitness fell apart and I went backwards.
Oh well. Those are not too bad of efforts for a guy with a bad shoulder. I am starting to feel closer to 90% now, so I think I should get back to the front after this.
JD ripping
My Girl Gang
Me, but not going anywhere near JD's pace
Yep, that is about how well it went for me.
Out,
Joe
I work for Trek Bicycle. We sponsor a mountain bike team named Trek World Racing. Half the team is cross country mountain bike racers and the other half are downhill mountain bike racers. The DH portion of the team is coming to Trek this week for a visit and download about their race bicycles.
On Wednesday, I’ve scheduled a day of moto riding with the DH riders. They all ride motos in their off season so it will be familiar to them. Dyracuse is the venue.
The TWR team almost always travels with a pair of videographers that make video episodes of team happenings. Here’s an example. I’m hoping that we will have a video of us all riding together at some point.
The town of Rome, WI manages the Dyracuse. They know we are coming because I called to ask permission to make a video on their property. All good. The local paper heard we are coming and they might show up to take photos and do an interview. Cool.
I prepped both of my RM-Z250 bikes and my 450 for the day. Joe has both of his 25o’s up and running so we should be covered. Everyone will have their own bike to ride. Woohoo! Looking forward to it.
Posted in Scott's blog
It has been a while since I put up much on the blog site. I have been super busy with work. 2 trips to France in July, our worldwide sales meeting etc… Wow, time have flown by this summer.
I have not done as many races as I had wanted to. But, fall is coming and for the months of Sept and Oct, I will be racing almost every weekend. Looking forward to that.
Anyway, here are a few gems that I have found on the web.
That first one is a great little video that I found of a kid who can rip on a no pedal bike. Impressive. You can see where the next generation of kids that ride flow courses will come from.
That is my favorite bed intruder cover.
If you were wondering where that came from, this is the original made from the raw footage from the news story.
Whistler DH this week. Wish I was there.
One last video to show why we all want to go to Whistler.
That is it for me today. Racing starts again this weekend, so we are psyched to get back to writing about racing.
Joe
Teammate Joe V and I hit a “real” hare scramble race this past weekend. I’ll get to the “real” aspect later but what I really want to dive into were the reality checks I experienced the day of the race.
The Vesrah Suzuki Offroad compound
I lined up on the AA row at the combined D17 and D16 event. It’s given that the farther south you go from Madison, WI, the faster the hare scramble and enduro riders get. Illinois has some fast guys and a deep field of racers. There were 30 riders on our row and only five of us were from up north.
Before the race started I had look at the course and learned that the woods in IL are dense, hot and endless. The trail felt tight on my mountain bike. The only place to pass (if you stayed between the arrows) was on the 2.5 minutes of motocross track you saw each lap. It seemed a little extreme to me.
When I went to set up my bike for the race I learned that the Tubliss system in my rear wheel had failed. The bead on the inner tire had rusted, then broke, then burst the inner tube. I’m a little peeved at this since I only use the Tubliss set up on race day and I nearly always take it apart between races so it gets a rest. I should give Tubliss a call to share my experience.
That's Mark lending a hand before the race. Last minute tire issues.
Vesrah Suzuki’s Mark Junge came to watch Joe and me race. He didn’t know he was going to be recruited to help change tires before the race. But after we got that sorted out I headed to the start and sat in the sun with 100 other riders while we waited for the gun to sound off.
Byron’s terrain and the guy laying out the course have reputations for making tight trails so I opted to ride my RM-Z250 and not the 450. Glad I did that. I got a spectacular start and entered turn 2 next to another rider at the front of the group. By the time we left the MX track I was 3rd in line and stoked to be in front of the other D16 riders. I needed the points on those guys and the narrow trail would make it tough for them to get to the front with me.
Some pre-race banter between Joe V and me.
The guy leading checked out and the guy in front of me was almost holding me up. I could hear several bikes very close behind me and after only a few minutes in the tight woods could hear some of those guys hooting and hollering. They weren’t mad but more trying to put pressure on by being vocal. I blocked it out the best I could by focusing on the trail, keeping my eyes forward and my elbows up.
Thinking about where I'm going to go as we enter turn 1.
13 minutes later we came around to the MX track for the first time and some of those guys squirted by me as fast as they could. I dropped from 3rd to 5th. I held my own on the next lap then lost places on the third lap when I stalled it on a log crossing. JD and Matt both got by me that lap. Shortcut lines started to appear, many of them taking several seconds off each lap. I tried hard to remember where the good lines were because I knew the leaders were using all the short cuts and I was tired of being passed by riders that took the short way through the woods.
I’m a top ten rider at bigger regional events when I race in the AA group. When I bring my A game, I can ride close to the front but not at the front. I think this is respectable since most of the guys I’m racing are 15 years younger than me. They have better skills, rubber bones, possibly fewer work and family responsibilities. If I want to win, which is sometimes nice but is not the driving factor behind my racing, I could race in the 40+ group. But if I do that I might make enemies because I am fast enough to often put that group a lap down. So, when I line up with the fast guys, I should expect to be beaten and be a gracious loser when it happens. When I choose to race with the 40+ group, I may make enemies and I may not feel very good about showing up with my A game.
Rounding a bend in the Byron woods tunnel
In the end I was 9th. I strongly disagree with the manual scoring system that some events have but I’ll leave my comments at that. A top 10 finish in a field of guys that strong and deep was satisfying, for sure. But losing points to JD and Matt was a bummer. I’m just not as comfy in the tight woods as those guys are.
Which brings me to my last point: the “real” hare scramble race. Ryan Moss was the guy laying out the course. He’s a veteran enduro rider. While I’ve never done an enduro to know for myself, I get the impression that most enduro events in the midwest make good use of tight woods.
During the race I tossed my hydration pack into the woods and after the race I went to get it. Ryan was riding sweep and stopped to see if I was okay. He asked me if I liked the course and I said it sucked. But, I followed that up with that I thought it was challenging and it reinforced my knowing that I need to work on riding in tight woods if I want to be better. Ryan said that most hare scramble events used to be more like Byron and less like what we are used to in D16. I can see that. It seems that GNCC races have grown so big that the course have to be freeway-wide to accommodate the crowds. D16 races are rarely as tight as Byron. If they were we’d have even fewer riders than we do because most of us don’t ride tight woods often enough to get good at it. I’d get frustrated with being in 2nd gear all race, every race.
A huge job well done to JD for his win in Bryon. He said we should show these Illinois boys that we can ride fast too when I saw him before the start. I did not but he sure as hell did. Congrats, JD!
And thanks to John for the great photos on this post.
Posted in Scott's blog
Joe’s Vimeo Video Account
