Category Archives: Scott’s blog

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.

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.

I spent a hour doing laps at the tight woods loop near my house.  It poured rain the entire time.  While it was fun and a good skill builder, it destroyed the bike and pretty much destroyed the trail.

Oakley goggles are good but they only lasted 5 minutes in these conditions.

There's an RM-Z250 under there somewhere. It's peat so it won't take much to clean up.

Lucky for me my job sometimes puts me in some pretty cool situations.  Last week I was in Whistler, BC riding a Trek Session and this week I was in France riding a fleet of 2011 Trek mountain bikes.

The Trek Session is 38lbs of downhill fun.  It has 8+ inches of sophisticated suspension travel, hydraulic disc brakes, and relatively big tires so it behaves similar to a motorcycle.  And Whistler is the near perfect place to enjoy the Session.  A chairlift takes you to the top of the hill and you choose the kind of trail you want to take back down.  The trails range in difficulty from a mellow coast back down all the way up to 10 foot drops, 30 foot gaps, and 30mph, rutted descents.  The place is awesome.

I’ve been to Whistler twice now.  It’s a different kind of riding than I’m used to doing since almost all the bicycle riding I’ve ever done has me using clip-in pedals on road and cross country bikes.  On a Session you use platform pedals.  Whistler begs you to learn to jump up and over some pretty big terrain.  The bike can do far more than I’m capable of (just like the RM-Z450) so I really enjoy learning how to make the thing work for me.

One of the cool things about the Session is being able to make suspension adjustments quickly and without any tools.  Spring preload and compression and rebound settings can be changed just by spinning dials.  It’s pretty satisfying to be able to make setting changes that make an immediate, tangible difference in the middle of the trail.

My trip to France was for a 2011 Trek product launch.  Four different Trek mountain bike models were unveiled in front of 37 journalists that had been flown in from around the world.  Trek’s European office made the travel and hotel arrangements for everyone.  The venue was in the French Alps town of Chatel near the Portes du Soleil ride park.  I was flown in with other Trek employees to help relay technical information and innovations to the journalists.

I'm sitting in Switzerland about to head into France. The trail network cross the border several times during our rides.

There’s no better way to learn about the bikes than to ride them.  A local guide hired by Trek led all the rides.  On day one I joined a group of 20 journos on a Fuel EX ride that mixed some very steep and rocky climbs with a few rooty descents.  The loop took us about 5 hours to do but that includes several stops for photos and bike discussions.   It’s tough to find rolling single track in the Alps so we had a few journalists complaining about the steep climbs and descents.  The EX is a great all around mellow trail bike or even a good XC race bike.

Top of the world. Those are French Alps.

On day two I joined the Remedy ride.  The Remedy bike has more suspension travel than the EX and more relaxed geometry so it can tackle more technical terrain.  The beauty of the Remedy is that despite the 6 inches of travel, it still pedals well so you can actually enjoy the climbs before bombing the descents.  We were on the bikes for almost 6 hours because we discovered a ride park that suited the Remedy perfectly.  It was just too much fun to stop.

On the last day we all jumped on Scratch bikes.  Trek offers up two version of this bike – one with air springs and one with coil springs.  The air bike is slightly lighter than the coil bike but both are aimed a park riding and mellow downhill riding.  You can “lock out” the suspension on the air Scratch to optimize pedal efficiency.  The coil bike is active all the time.  The Portes du Soleil ride park has a bunch of trails perfect for Scratch bikes.  I rode with journalists and other Trek employees for about 7 hours doing run after run.  The jumps and turns at Portes du Soleil are not as mature as the ones in Whistler so you have to be on your toes.  Trails marked as easy had massive jumps or man-made structures that we far from being easy.  After a few runs we learned which trails were fun and which ones to avoid.

This is suspension guru Jose Gonzales doing a drop in the Portes du Soleil ride park. Pretty bitchen for a 50 year old guy to be willing and able to rip it up as well as Jose does. Chapeau!

Because I just spent the last two weeks riding almost every full suspension bike that Trek makes, I have a new understanding of how much work Trek engineers and product developers have put into making them work right.  Although each of the models I rode has been made for specific types of terrain, the suspension for each has been tuned to perfection.  All of the journalists I spoke with while in France all remarked on how well the bikes felt on the trail.

One aspect of the past two weeks has made a huge impression on me.  The groups of people I was riding with are all well into their 40′s.  The terrain we were riding and the length of the rides were pretty challenging.  I’ve been riding mountain bikes for close to 25 years and I’m 42.  I see no end in sight.  Places like Whistler and Portes du Soleil keep you young; I’m convinced.

I’m on my way home from France now and I’m anxious to get back on my RM-Z to try and apply some of the suspension tuning I learned while in Whistler and Portes du Soleil.  Most specifically I want to mess with the slow speed compression settings on the rear shock.  I’ll be sure to report back with my findings.

Gary Fisher was along for the ride, too. He was forced to ride 26" wheels and did a great job of keeping his thoughts to himself.

I went out on a limb yesterday and raced my RM-Z450 at a local District 16 hare scramble.  Hixton was the place.  Hixton is notorious for its clay soil, nasty ruts, and confusing trail network.

The risk was that I don’t have much time on the 450 so when it rained 6” in the days leading up to the event the chance of competing on a weighty, clay-laden bike in tight and twisty rutted trails was high.  Although I was happy with the suspension, the ergonomics, the bolt-on woods parts and all, the 450’s weight was what I feared would be the end of me.  The additional power of the 450 was in the back of my mind – and that it could wear me out if I got overly zealous – but I figured I could just turn the throttle less if I got too tired.  Heavy mud added to the weight of the bike was what worried me.

Reality set in on the lap I rode on my bicycle.  The forest floor was so soggy that I couldn’t ride my bike without sinking in and bogging down.  Portions of the motocross track were under water.  On the other hand, the sun was out and lots of open field and road sections were quickly drying out.

Pre race cleaness.

The AA row was a good one.  Ryan Moss and Brian Lenth came up from down south and three other riders from Illinois were there.  Speedy Pete and JD were there.  It was a quality field from where I was sitting.  My anxiety about getting a good start grew.  The 450 starts reliably in neutral but is hit and miss when in gear.  And it takes wallop to get the piston and valvetrain to do a lap before firing up.  Luckily it all worked out and I was 3^rd into the first turn.

I bumped my way into second before we entered the woods and realized I was talking to myself about how a stall or fall would be the end of all this work.  I have been focusing on making fewer small errors.  I recently read that Charlie Mullins has been doing the same thing inside his helmet and you can see his recent string of quality results because of the effort.  Stalling or dropping the 450 would cost me energy I did not want to spend.

A few turns into the woods the guy in front of me fell.  I scooted by and lead a train of riders that were all faster than me in the woods; I could hear them stacking up behind me.  Then I made a wrong turn and heard the riders behind me go the right way.  I cut through the woods to pick up the trail but had riders on my left and right all trying follow arrows that weren’t all that obvious.  We were mostly going the right direction but not really on the course.  I don’t know how many spots I lost because of my mistake.  Worse yet, and something that still confuses me, was that when I did get back on the established and obvious course, I was riding with A group riders.  I have no idea how that happened.

From there the race got spread out and we all found our own pace.  I was having a great time using the 450 power to get up and over stuff and I also enjoyed the heavier feel of the bike to plow through terrain.  The opening hour and half of the race was truly fun.  I kept trying to keep from making mistakes (but I did stall 3 times during the race) and I think that having that goal in mind helped me ride a steady race.

The timing equipment was not working so I didn’t know what place I was in.  I think we did 12 laps total.  I caught JD on about lap 9.  I rolled up on him so fast that I thought he was having a problem or that he might have been a lap down but later learned he was in a funk and had a slow lap.  I tailed him for a while until he fell and l got by then I messed up and he got by me again.  I was having a tough time riding close to JD because we ride so differently.  I was trying to ride smooth and carry speed and he is an on and off the gas guy.  I lost my rhythm by following him too closely and ultimately make a mistake that caused me to lose contact.

At about that same time I started to feel the effects of the heavy bike.  The mud had added several pounds by then.  I started to go into get-to-the-finish-alive mode and had at least one full lap of riding much slower than I had been racing.  By then the ruts were long and deep in several places.  The power of the 450 always got me through – something that I never could manage on the RM or RM-Z250 – so I’m super stoked with learning about that.  Momentum goes a long way with getting through ruts but having the power to give me an extra boost of speed was great.

I finished 3^rd behind Brian Lenth and JD.  That may or may not be the case since the timing wasn’t working and the results were in question for a while after the finish.  Others I spoke with after the race were as confused by the same opening lap chaos that I was but no one had answers for what happened.  No matter – it is what it is.

Big thanks to Matt Herrington for sacrificing his race day to help make the course a success.  Sorry we didn’t get to ride the course he laid out before the rains came.

The 450 isn’t a big bike in size or shape.  It has a lot of GO when you ask it to go.  That GO is manageable and I like it.  The weight is what I felt in the race yesterday and it’s what is making me so sore today.  I bet I could ride that thing a few days in a row and be fine with it.  As it is, I have just over 5 hours on it and 2 of those hours were racing.  I’ll get better on it.  Late in the race I projected having a difficult time getting the bike up on the stand and promised myself that if I could get it up there after the race, I would race it again someday.  I did get it up but it took everything I had left to do it.  Joe can attest to my empty state of mind and body while we packed up and drove home.  I was finished.

Post race mess. And I entirely fatigued.

I’m not abandoning the 250 and I may have to take both bikes with me when Joe and I go to races.  Then, no matter the weather or terrain, I’ll have the right tool for the task.  Stay tuned.

Two new topics today – the van got a facelift and I’ve been putting time on a 2009 RM-Z450.

The van was a perk that AJ at Victory Circle Graphix helped us out with.  Joe and I have often talked about how to grow our presence at races and on the .www and this was one of the ways we discussed.  We might have pushed to do it for our 2008 GNCC series adventure had we thought the bikes would remain in the van.  Ultimately we feared the advertising would draw the wrong kind of people and we’d wake up at some far away hotel with sprung doors and no bikes, or worse yet, no van and no bikes.

My wife thinks I’ve totally lost it.  Now I’m advertising that I spend tons of time and money on the events that suggest I’m wallowing in my adolescence.  But I’m super stoked with it.  Thanks, AJ!

Some of my favorite things.

And the 450.  It’s entirely possible that I’m aimlessly wandering through this whole motorcycle race experience searching for something that’s not there – the perfect set up.  I’ve been on six different machines in six years.  Two of these machines, this 450 included, are bikes that I probably already had dismissed as too fringe for me to ride competitively in a regional off-road series.  Remember my RM144 project bike?  That was the one that had a modified cylinder, pipe, flywheel, and suspension in an effort to give me the lightest woods weapon possible.  Ended up that I can’t ride an engine that small.  I’m too heavy and I never learned to ride a bike in the upper revs the way that bike had to be ridden.  While it was fun to ride, it was not fast for me.

The 450 is on the opposing end of the chart.  It’s big, heavy and powerful.  I definitely had no place for a bike like this in my off-road racing stable just a few months ago.  The RM-Z250 did it all for me – turned like a champ, has decent power, and is reasonably light and flickable.  But at these few opening rounds of the District 16 Hare Scramble series I’ve found myself wanting a little more poop.  I’ve needed more speed on the straights and needed more thrust to get me up the hills.  That translates into me thinking I need more power.

When I dissect what it takes to go fast in the woods it boils down to just a few things: the ability to process everything that’s coming at you very quickly and some combination of physiological abilities.  The quick processing thing comes naturally for the fastest riders.  It’s instinct; they don’t spend anytime or energy processing stuff like balance, throttle control, where to look on the trail.  To be on the higher level physiologically you’d have a bigger and more refined capacity than the rest of us.  You can do more work, more efficiently.  Put fast processing speed and a gifted body together and you get Josh Strang.

I don’t have the natural instincts that the faster, more precise riders do.  Most of what I do on the trail happens like this: I’m in 3rd gear weaving thru the woods, there is dirt under me and trees around me. Hey look, a big log.  Hmmm. Should I go around or over?  Darn – too late, guess I’m going over.  Hope this thing starts when I remount.

Okay, that leads me to why I like the 450, and in case you were wondering, I REALLY like the 450.  While it is heavier than all of the bikes I have ridden previously, it has super friendly power (in my opinion – Joe might disagree with me here because he felt it was ferocious).  If you want it to creep along, it will.  If you want leap up and over a puddle, rock, log or mound, it will.

This is my first experience with a computer-controlled fuel system.  I suspect I’ve joined the masses that are all saying, “how did we get along without it!?”  It really is magical in terms of immediate throttle response, linear power delivery and, clean, clean jetting.  Thanks to Shane Nalley at FMF Suzuki for the CPU mapping!

I less than three hours of ride time on the 450 but here’s what I think.  The weight it is carrying over the 250 is noticeable at all speeds but in different ways.  At low speed – one foot off the peg, body off the center of the bike, reefing on the bars to place the bike somewhere – the 450 is top heavy.  I find that I need to be more careful about where my weight is on the bike at slow speeds because it takes on a mind of its own that is hard to coax back into shape if I get out of sorts.  At higher speeds the weight becomes your friend by creating stability. The bike plows thru trail trash and small whoops rather than being bounced or deflected (Some of this could be a fresh tune on a killer Factory Connection set up.  Thanks FC!).  The 450 feels more settled at speed than the 250 does.

And the POWER.  I might be faster on the 450 just because I love feeling all that acceleration.  Every time I can see daylight I grab a handful and ride along in bliss.

But there are bigger caveats I need to acknowledge.  No matter the machine, I still make mistakes that cost me time.  Stalling. Not getting by lappers fast enough. Trying too hard.  I have to eliminate or at least significantly reduce the number of errors I make in order to capitalize on the benefits I see in the 450.  That all starts now.

The time I have on the 450 is all at Dyracuse.  I’m so familiar with the terrain there that its not that great for bringing demons to the surface. I need to spend some time at Homann’s riding in super tight woods to get a better understanding of low speed 450 challenges.  With luck that will happen this next week and with more luck I’ll be racing the 450 at Hixton next weekend.  Woohoo!

I know it’s totally lame to post without photos when you’re trying to share a cool experience but bear with me.  I feel bad enough for not taking a single photo and I don’t need to be reminded that most people visit our blog only look to at the pictures.

Last Wednesday I met up with three of the professional downhill riders that Trek sponsors.  They were in New York doing a few US national downhill events as well as doing a tire test with Trek engineers.  It’s my job to know what’s up with the equipment Trek’s sponsored athletes ride so I took the opportunity to pay the riders a visit.

I wasn’t able to get to the tire test in time but I did manage to meet up with the riders when they first arrived at a race venue and were doing their course inspection.  The pros take the time to walk the course top to bottom and do a pretty thorough job of looking at every rock, root, turn, jump and anything else that they will be riding down when its time for practice, qualifying and racing.  It was good to walk with them and observe their thought process and watch their eyes as they mapped out possible lines and problem spots.  It was similar to what Joe and I do when we walk or bike a lap at a hare scramble but the DH riders are far more particular with line choice.  They quickly identified sections of the course that would be critical to get right and they spent several minutes walking up and down those sections thinking about how much speed they would need to carry and where the lines would develop and deteriorate and exactly where to put their tires while riding.  It was cool to see them go through the motions like that.

The bigger personal experience I had was riding a Trek Session downhill bike while I was there.  The race was held at Diablo Mountain in Vernon, NJ.  Diablo has a developed trail system that offers up diverse trails all serviced by a chairlift.  It’s just like skiing where you buy a lift ticket, jump on the lift and get yourself back to the bottom of the hill somehow.

It was my maiden voyage on this Session so it took a few runs to get it sorted out.  The fork had come from Trek’s west coast test group and was set up for someone else.  And the fork tube height has a huge range of adjustment but no ideal starting point that I was aware of.  The rear shock needed the sag set and rebound messed with.  After each run I’d make small adjustments until the bike felt more and more comfortable.  Then I stopped tuning and tried to get my head around the DH experience.

Big DH bikes are just like motos yet radically different at the same time.  They’re similar in that there are lots of adjustments that can be made and you have to trust that the suspension can do a ton of work for you (as long as you’ve taken the time to get it set up correctly).  To get the most out of a DH bike you have to stand on it like a moto: be aggressive, look up, react quickly, pay attention and recognize that the consequences of falling will be dire.

But DH bikes are dissimilar, too.  There’s no throttle to get you up and over something or out of trouble.  You have to carry speed everywhere – not only to get over stuff but just to stay upright.  And because there’s no propulsion when you aren’t pedaling, staying balanced on the bike is key.  If you lose your balance you have to make corrections that totally kill your momentum.  The mass and mass’ location are also very different.  The rider is the majority of the mass on a bike, the bike is the mass on a moto.  Because of this the geometry on a DH bike is super relaxed to help keep your center of gravity in the right place.  The relaxed geometry has a massive affect on how the bike handles, especially at slow speeds where the bike becomes sluggish and heavy feeling.

Anyhow, once I got the suspension and geometry settings where I could comfortably ride them, I set out to explore the mountain.  There were trails with 20 feet table top jumps that you could sail through a perfect ramp to ramp arc if you hit it just so.  There were steep trails littered with bowling ball-sized rocks that forced you to hang off the back of the bike and try like mad to keep up your speed and not let the front wheel fall into any gaps.  A few trails had skinny, manmade trellis bridges to ride across.  If you lost your nerve in the middle of a few of those you’d fall 10 feet to a garden of rocks.  Pretty sketchy but I signed the release and knew what I was getting into.

I did 11, ten minute runs before my rear brake crapped out and I had to call it quits.  Air in the line didn’t make it out when I set the bike up, evidently.  I was pretty beat afterwards but I could have done a few more runs.  A Session weighs 38 lbs so it’s not easy to horse around for hours on end.

Again, I wish I had taken time to snap some photos, but I didn’t.  Next time!

I’m short on time this week because of a busy work schedule but here’s the gist of my race experience this past weekend:
•    Pearson, WI is four hours north of where I live in WI. It’s pretty much the great wild north but not quite as far away. I felt like I was in the middle of Canada somewhere.  Joe couldn’t make the trip because of his busy work schedule so it was up to me to wave the Vesrah Suzuki Offroad flag in Pearson.

•    Actually, lots of Canada made its way to Pearson a long time ago by way of ice age glaciers.  The bazillion of watermelon-sized rocks is debris dragged down from Canada.

•    Pearson is famous around here for hosting a solid D16 Enduro event.  The hare scramble I did on Saturday was all I had time for but there was an Enduro planned for Sunday.  The parking lot had lots of vehicles I had never seen before and I caught lappers with license plates on their bikes.  I assume they were the Enduro crowd I’ve never spent time with.  Someday I will because Enduro racing looks like a good time.

•    The trails in Pearson are narrow but have great flow.  Somehow the tight spots aren’t slow there.  My pre-race observation lap on my mountain bike had me thinking the race would be slow and frustrating but it was actually fast and lots of fun.

•    I finally managed to get a good start and entered the first woods section behind series points leader Mat Herrington.  This was the perfect scenario for me: watch, learn, make a plan.  But it wasn’t 10 seconds into that woods section that I clipped a tree and landed sideways in the trail.  My bike stalled and I had the remainder of the AA group passing me however they could just to get by.  To be fair, the AA field at Pearson was thin and it was only Mat, John Strangfeld, Speedy Pete Laubmeier and me racing against each other.  John and Pete take this racing stuff much lighter than Mat and me so there’s getting to be a bit of tension between the guys that are trying hard and the guys that are fast and skilled but racing for the fun of it.

•    I chased John down pretty easily so I started looking for a place to get by but that was impossible.  He’s fast and the trail was narrow and too new to me to try anything risky.  I followed him for the entire first lap then got by right before we went back into the opening tight woods.  Like a total squid, I clipped the same damn tree and stopped sideways in the trail AGAIN.  I have to quit making such stupid mistakes if I want to get any sleep at night.

•    I got going and planned to catch Pete at some point.  I figured he would tire out.  Mat was the one I was worried about.  He’s been fast and has a lot of confidence from his GNCC racing and recent D16 results.  If I wanted to win I needed Mat to have bad luck or I needed to ride mistake-free for the remainder of the race.

•    The trail was 70% tight woods with lots of attention-grabbing stuff like trees at odd angles,  wide trenches that would snag your feet and pegs, and round rocks that were covered with slippery dirt and moss.  The remaining 30% of the loop was scary fast logging road with a single beat-in line that was whooped out. I increased the damping on my GPR-4 damper about half way through the race because the soft suspension I loved in the woods was dangerous in the 5th gear whooped out ruts.

•    More on those rocks.  They were round and buried in the dirt so you tend to deflect off of them.  I found it was best to stay relaxed and let the bike bounce around a little rather than force the bike in a specific direction. This ride loose and hope technique worked pretty well for me and my speed and confidence gradually increased as the race went on.

•    My RM-Z250 was awesome. The Factory Connection settings gave me loads of confidence on the slick rocks and flowy trail.  The only issue I had was missing my jetting a little and I had a slight bog / hesitation when I whacked open the throttle too fast.  It didn’t cost me any time but it was distracting.

•    There was an open field just before the scoring tent where we zigzagged back and forth.  I could see if I had made up time on Mat every time we entered that field.  Some laps I had closed in on him and some laps he had stretched it out.  More than once I felt like I had put in a stellar lap and would come to the field and see that Mat had put time on me.  That was frustrating and it somehow made me try harder.  I have always had a tough time with lappers because I don’t like to push them out of the way.  It’s that I wasn’t getting by lappers fast enough that was costing me time, I think.

•    Finally, late in the race I started to take time out of Mat.  On what I thought was going to be our last lap I was seeing his dust on the trail and getting cheered on by spectators who were saying he was just in front of me.  On a road section with a high speed chicane I carried a little too much speed and lost the rear end.  I slid sideways down the trail and couldn’t get the bike back under me before lowsiding in a plume of dust.  The bike was still running so I picked it up, revved it hard, dumped the clutch and spun the bike around the right direction. But when I leaped on to go it stalled.  It was in 4th gear.

•    I figured that was the end of my race and that 2nd place was as good as I would do.  It took me a few minutes to get back up to speed and I knew I was losing time to Mat while I sorted my self out.  I was kicking my self for making such a silly mistake when catching Mat was within my reach.

•    When we came around we were told to do one more lap.  Wow! A second chance.  I put my head down and charged like mad.  I strung together every fast bit of trail I could and then, halfway through the lap, I caught Mat.  Unfortunately we had already ridden through most of the sections that allowed a safe pass so I was forced to ride behind him and hope for a mistake.  We caught a lapper that let him by but not me and that was enough to let Mat get a gap before we got back to the grassy zigzags before the scoring tent.  I finished 1 second behind Mat.

•    Congrats to Mat on his results and solid race.

•    I’m super stoked with my speed and endurance.  My faster laps came at the end of the race.  I need to work on my early race speed and consistency.  No more dumb errors.

•    Hixton is next.  Woohoo!

One week ago I rode at Homann’s in eight inches of snow that covered frozen ground. Yesterday I did an hour on the Gas Gas on nearly dry dirt.  That might sound like anything special to you but when you haven’t seen dirt in you own back yard for almost 4 months, this is big news.  I don’t know how it dried up so fast but I’ll take it.  Let hope we don’t have one of those record setting Aprils where it rains for 30 days straight!

148.5 pound of fun.

Check this out:

Michael Williams

http://www.wix.com/mwilliams64/michaelwilliamsracing

He’s only 17 but has a website and regular blog entries.  I think its cool that’s he so serious about what he’s doing.

Joe definitely made the best of being woods rider by going to the opening round of the national enduro series last weekend but I did my best to get some ride time in here in Wisconsin.  I don’t know what has kept me from riding more in the winter other than its cold and it doesn’t truly measure up to riding in perfect dirt but I’ve suddenly grown fond of riding on frozen terrain,  A few weeks ago I did laps a Homan’s farm (where it really wasn’t entirely frozen since we had a weird January thaw happening).  That was great fun and it started me thinking that cold weather riding could really hone certain riding skills.

This past Sunday I got out on Rock Lake.  Rock Lake is pretty big as lakes go so there’s plenty of room for all winter (or summer) recreational enthusiasts to do their thing,  But I never considered riding on the lake because I assumed it was illegal or just plain too much of a nuisance for the lake regulars to tolerate.  My idea of fun would be countless laps at speed on a relatively loud motorcycle – that contrasts greatly to a leisurely Sunday afternoon of ice fishing.
No matter, really, since I was determined to give it a go.  I did my best to overpopulate a Pirelli mid-soft set of tires with as many worn out ice screws as I could and told the family I’d be back in 2 hours.

I had taken a look at the ice earlier in the week and wondered what would be best: for me to park across the street from the lake and ride to the ice (and not have my stuff with me if I wanted to make changes or warm up in the van) or to park out there and have to deal with the slick ice while unloading and reloading my RM-Z.  I chose the latter but took a bucket of sand with me to help with grip.

Driving the van down the boat ramp an onto ice that was so clear you could see its thickness at fissure intersections was a little concerning.  I have no idea if my insurance would cover any recovery expenses if we all fell through but I doubt they would.  The way is saw it was that there were several cars out there that day, the weather had been very cold for the past week and I’m often up for an uncalculated risk from time to time.

It's going to be expensive and messy if the ice breaks on me at this point.

Communities of fishing houses were near the shore and a small group of ice sailboats had gathered just past the ice huts.  The middle of the lake was wide open.  The fishermen must know the fishing isn’t any good out there so that made plenty of space for the ice boats and me to do our thing.

It was a calm day and quiet out there on the ice, except for the surprisingly frequent thumps and bangs the shifting ice makes.  It was a little unnerving firing up the bike for the first time being that I was about to make a lot of noise in an otherwise quiet setting.  The middle of the lake – which is a long way out there – was empty so that’s where I was headed to put as much distance between my loud bike and the rest of the world.

The ice was hard.  I suspect there are as many types of ice as there are types of dirt.  The rains we had weeks ago were followed by cold, clear days which is why I think the ice seems so hard.  I did a few starts and stops on my way to the middle of the lake and quickly learned that my front tire was hooking up well and the rear was not.  That is opposite of what I expected being that the rear had three times as many screws as the front.  I’m unclear on what makes a studded tire really work.

But because the rear had less grip than the front I immediately understood that it would be a great day to learn about throttle control and balance.  I can only think of a few times where you could hang the rear of the bike out forever and ever when on the dirt but on the ice with a home-made rear tire, you can hand it out there for as long as you have gas.

Eventually I wore a trail in the ice.

I brought some pink ribbons with me and laid them out at turn markers.  I made a 10-turn road course that had two long sweepers and several tight 180-degree turns.  On the long sweepers I could get the rear to step out and hand there while shifted from 3rd to 4th then to 5th before slamming it back down to 3rd for the next tight turn.  All the way thru the gears the rear of the bike would dangle just 6 to 12 inches to the right or left while I controlled it with the throttle.  Really good fun.

The front, like I said, had remarkably good grip.  I began to trust it more and more and eventually could drift both ends of the bike into a turn before getting back on the gas rounding the corner.  I almost made it through the entire 1 hour, 20 minute ride without falling but lost the front in a slow right, lowsiding me into a lazy slide across the ice.  I went back to see the tracks that I had made but only saw that the front let go and I couldn’t  catch it with the gas or inside leg.  No harm done but I was thinking I was cautious enough yet skilled enough to make it through the ride without a fall.  Not to be.

Visibility and glare got to be a problem late in the afternoon so I called it a day.  The sand saved me big time when I put the bike back into the van; pushing it engine off up the ramp would have been impossible.  I even got a thumbs up from a guy parked nearby.  He didn’t seem to mind me being out there making noise.  Sure feels like most would not like it, though.

So now I’ve got a bug for riding on the ice a well as in the woods.  Who knows if the weather will preserve the ice for much longer but for sure the woods could be good until the overnight temperatures stay above 25 degrees.  Time will tell.

Mark and I made our way from Gallatin, TN over to near Dickenson today.  We planted the big truck at the hare scramble venue then loaded the mountain bikes into the Jeep and drove to the Montgomery Bell State Park for some exploring.

The MBSP has really good reviews on the Tennessee mountain bike site Mark found so we were anxious to get riding.  After some sleuthing we finally found the trailhead and by that time it was starting to get late so we mounted up with lights.  The trail network was extensive and the trails themselves were challenging and enjoyable.  The map was good but the on-trail signs were confusing.  We nearly ignored the signs after a while and just rode.  It was dark by the time we had had enough but riding in the dark is loads of fun to me.  Mark asked if there were ever night time hare scrambles.  I don’t know of any but that sure sounds like a good time.

Taking a break during the ride we did in MBSP

Leafy and chilly but a good ride, none the less.

By the time we got back to the hare scramble race venue it had filled quite a bit.  Pizza for dinner then a good night’s sleep and we woke to all sorts of mayhem.  But first I must say, for Joe’s sake, Mark’s RV is way, way, way more comfy than the pop-up camper we did the GNCC races with last year.  I slept like a log despite the usual late night antics that happen at moto races.  Joe, we missed you this trip and hope you can make the next one.

Anyhow, sometime during the night an RV the size of Mark’s had backed in next to us.  He tried to jockey left or right or something and got the thing stuck.  It took a tractor, a jeep and a Ford dually to pull him out even though the ground was dry and flat.  Watching him struggle was entertaining for me but you could see the guy was frustrated.

He's stuck and he can't get out.

Completing a quick tire swap on the lift gate of Mark's fun hauler. Better than working on the ground, that's for certain.

Race time.  The parking lots had filled and the race lines were loaded.  We were told to expect 400-500 riders at this Mid South race and I’d guess that’s about what there was.  Felt like a GNCC (complete with prayer on the start line) but this race started just about on time.

Actually, everyone but me started on time.  I had a four kick start and had to chase for a first few minutes.  I was riding the course pretty much blind so I was only comfortable going so fast.  But for the good and the bad of it, the trail was narrow and winding so there was only one line.  You could only go as fast as the guy in front of you in most sections of the lap.  Early in the first lap there was a flat section that had enough moisture to freeze overnight.  When I came on to that section there were several bikes on the ground.  It was slick but I made it across okay and picked up a few spots.

I was making my way through traffic the best I could but really I wasn’t gaining much.  The trail was narrow and I’m not aggressive enough to gain many positions.  Per my recent track record or having a major snafu during the race, I did tangle with a sapling that bent my shifter back to my foot peg.  That cost me some time while I kicked it back straight.  I was lucky it didn’t break off, really.

Laps were almost exactly 30 minutes long for me so I was hoping to pick up some pace and get in five laps.  My middle laps were fast and fun and I felt like I was a racer again.  The trail was holding up pretty well but started to develop some long and deep ruts.  The bottoms of the ruts had thick roots running across them.  There is no grip on a shiny, white root, by the way, so you had better keep on the gas and prepare for a bumpy ride if you plan to get to the end.  Luckily I was having a fun time in the ruts today and only made a handful of embarrassing mistakes.  The dirt was awesome and the 45 or so degree temps weren’t too cold for my hands and feet.

As I’ve been complaining about, I haven’t done much to stay in ride shape lately.  Somehow I felt okay today and had good energy until the end of the race.  I’m tired now but that’s normal.  Perhaps I’m not as good in the heat as I think I am and cooler races are more my thing.  Points to ponder.

Nearing the end of the race but other than the dirty bike, you'd never know it. I was often lost out on the loop because so much of the trail looked exactly the same.

At the end of my first lap I think I was 6th in class.  At the end of the race I was 3rd.  I placed 31st out of 274 finishers.  I’m okay with that.

So now it’s the long nine plus hours to home in the big rig.  I took a shower before we left and I’ve been able to walk back to get something to eat every few minutes.  The big rig makes it a breeze to get things done.  Big, I mean big, thanks to Mark Junge for having me along on this trip.
I’m off to New Zealand with my family through December so we’ll catch up next year.  Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays.

Here’s livin’!  I spent the day riding trials bikes and talking shop with Tray Batey and Mark Junge near Nashville, TN.  Tray is nearly 50 but, boy howdy, can he ride a motorcycle.  Tray is one of Mark Junge’s endurance road racing riders and he lives here in TN.  Mark, as you know, is the reason Joe and I are on Vesrah-backed Suzuki RM-Z250 bikes.  Mark owns and runs the 8-time national road racing endurance championship team, Vesrah Suzuki.

Mark has joked with me about how there’s clean and there’s “Tray spec”.  Today I got to witness some Tray spec cars and motorcycles and in fact, bartered to end up owning one of Tray’s bikes.  In Tray’s garage was a meticulously restored and extremely hopped-up 1967 Dodge Coronet – original vinyl roof, 572ci, 823bhp(!!!) – and a gaggle of Gas Gas Adam Raga Replica trials bikes.  In fact, there were four Raga Replicas here today which might be the biggest pile of Ragas in the eastern US.  They are pretty rare.

Tray has owned this car since he was in high school. That engine barely fits in.

Mark and Tray talk shop. Two of the four Ragas are in the foreground. You can eat off the floor it is so clean.

Our day was complicated by driving here and there to pick up motos, get something to eat and getting the RV parked so the story behind all that moving around is tough to tell.  Bottom line is that we parked a guy’s house that Tray knows.  Behind that house is an off-camber hill that makes for a few challenging trials sections.  It has rained hard here recently so the soil was greasy.  The greasiness forced us to get our weight in the right place or else you lost grip and wouldn’t go anywhere.

Here's Tray making it look easy. He's riding his 2008 Raga that weighs only 149lbs. That's darn light for a 300cc machine.

There weren’t any big obstacles to mount or fall off – just slippery off-camber sections that built skills. Tray was good at finding short repeatable section and refining the line until he could do it flawlessly several times in a row.  After he had mastered a section he would hop of his bike and coach Mark and me through the section.  It was huge help for me to have someone walk me through proper technique and line choice.  Thanks Tray!

More trials riding planned for tomorrow and maybe a quick mountain bike ride if we can find some dry trails.  Stay tuned.

Mark Junge invited Joe and me to ride motos and bicycles near Nashville this weekend.
Tomorrow we hope to hook up with road racing legend Tray Batey for a day of trials riding. On friday we plan to ride mountain bikes then get a trail ride on the RM-Zs on Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday there’s an OMA Winter National south of Nashville we’re doing. Woohoo!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the race we did a few weeks ago.

Ready set go

sandy climb

navigating the sand track

JD at speed

fast downhill

Marquette fast guy Ben Bernard

Teammate Joe

sand jump

race winner Brandon Houts

OMA superstar Chuck Garritson

fellow Trek employee and veteran racer Roger Bird

Thanks to Brian Terry for posting these on Smugmug for all to see!

There are a fair number of people voicing their opinions on-line and at WI hare scramble events about how the racing has been this past season.  Its my opinion that two clear topics of discussion have surfaced throughout the year – that the races are poorly attended and that the two series don’t get along.

There are several bi-products of the low race attendance – it makes it look like the sport is dying, the venues hosting and the people promoting the races don’t make any money, the racers don’t compete against all of the riders in the region and rider’s sponsors don’t get the return on their investment that they should.  These points are the same for both series; it makes sense to me that there needs to be a better game plan for 2010 so that no one suffers as they have in 2009.

The reason two series don’t get along is beyond me. Seems to me that WIXC would benefit from the structure and power of the AMA and the D16 series would be better off using the WIXC venue connections.  The reason they are now separate is a matter of ego, and the riders (and in my case, my sponsors) are the victims.

While I agree that multiple series can exist, I believe that we don’t have enough woods riders in WI, the UP and neighboring states that regularly compete in hare scramble events to have parallel series.  If we had 300 rider lines like IL has or a series with the maturity of the OMA, it would be a different story.  D16 and WIXC need to remember that without the riders, they don’t exist.  Thinking that you can run a successful series with half the number or participants that you had in 2008 isn’t great business sense.

Judging by the timing of when the race schedules needs to be set, this might be preventing better cooperation between the two series.  This is a perfect example of how the main players need to put egos and politics aside and map out a schedule of events that makes sense for the riders and promoters. Firming up a WI hare scramble calendar of events probably has more leeway than we are lead to believe.  Discussing options on an open table is the best way to find out.

So, although the economy might improve enough to get some riders and their families back and the D16 organizers will have a year under their belt to have learned from and the WIXC series will have located new venues to race at, 2010 will again be a bust if something isn’t done.  The root of the issue is that WIXC doesn’t like the politics of D16.  There may be no way to get one series back in WI because of this but there certainly can be a better way of doing things than how it is now. Perhaps the two series can have more  shared venues/events rather than trying hard to not overlap?  The series should share the resource we have rather than hoard them.

Here is my suggestion:  we invite any and all – riders, organizers, sponsors, race venue owners, D16 reps, WIXC reps, etc – to attend a meeting at a venue in central WI (hotel, casino, where ever).  We listen to the issues that everyone has and we work to finding a solution for 2010.  I think the meeting could be too heated to be productive so I think we should have a person to mediate; a person that has no invested interest in our situation.  (It would be easy to find a local law student that wants debate practice.)

I’m all ears and willing to help organize a meeting.  SOON!

Scott – (920) 390-9136

Holy cow I’ve been busy and out of the moto scene. I haven’t ridden my RM-Z or RM since Lakewood – more than five weeks ago. But I’m back and plan to be hitting my weekly routine hard in preparation for some September and October events!