Whose Faster? A Policeman or a Fireman?

2011  Fire/Police MX

Have you ever been to a race that you felt really safe?

I recently attended the Opening round of the 2011 Fire/Police MX, put on by a Fireman named Ed Wilson. Ed has been putting on motocross events since 1989 in the Southern California motocross community. But the biggest difference in the races Ed promotes is that you must be with a badge carrying Police or Fire agency. So the fact that you are in the pits, lining up with and racing against guys that most people hold in such high regard gives you a really good feeling.  Actually I would have to go one step further and say that it makes you feel proud to be associated with a group of this caliber.  

These guys obviously put a lot of time and effort into their chosen profession and it definitely carries over into their recreational activities. Some of them are riding at the Expert level of competition which shows the kind of commitment they are willing to put out just in the name of friendly competition. There are no purses, paychecks or big time sponsorships on the line. Only the Gold, Silver or Bronze medal awarded in each class, and the fact that they performed to the best of their ability at the end of the day.

A couple of very fast and talented riders in the Open Expert class were Ryan Chapin and Alex Zapata. They put on quite a show with Ryan Chapin mounted on a Yamaha being the big winner over the two days of racing at the Cahuilla Creek facility. That must be why Chapin is the 2011 #1 plate holder for the FPMX series.

The Cahuilla Creek track was very well prepped with overnight rains to make sure there was no dust anywhere on the track. Track workers did a fantastic job of keeping the track in good condition throughout the 2 days of racing. It was an excellent layout with high speed sections, fast down hills, uphill jumps, table tops, hill top flyover jumps  and a couple of rhythm sections to incorporate almost any kind of obstacle you could imagine. The lap times were running close to the three minute mark.

If you ever get a chance to go to a FPMX you should take it. Ed also has civilian classes and support classes to give husbands, wives, kids and friends or family a class to ride.

Check out their schedule of events at firepolicemx.com

Team MX43.com Wins Opening Round of Baja Series!

The 2011 San Felipe 250 was the first race of the Baja 250/500/1000 racing series in B.C., Mexico.  The class 50 winners, riders over 50 yrs of age, were the MX43.com supported team consisting of Jim Dizney, Doug Smith, Steve Williams, Paul Doebereiner and Eric McKenna. They were mounted on Jim “Big Chief” Dizney’s Honda CRF-X 450.

The race seemed to fly by but the week leading up

to the race was quite an interesting one. It produced a couple of mishaps that slowed the team but still couldn’t derail the effort everyone put out for this event.

My personal challenge seemed to being able to keep a bike running without a problem for more than 2 days in a row. My first problem reared its ugly head when I couldn’t keep my bike running at lower rpm’s about 50 miles out into my section. It seems the valves had reached their time for adjustment and became very tight on the tolerances. I had them checked that afternoon and found that they were too tight to adjust back to specs. Bike #1 down. So I loaded it up and made a Banzai run back to Arizona to get another bike! Back the next day with bike #2 and  back on the trail to finish my pre running.

Everything goes well for the first day and I decide to change oil in the big KTM. No problem, drain the old oil put in some fresh and I should be on my way. While waiting for the oil to drain I do a little checking over on the bike, air filter dirty, change it, done.

Spokes checked, oops. I find a couple of broken spokes in the rear wheel. Fortunately I am carrying a few spares in the tool box for just such an occasion. I start taking the rear wheel off and we get company.

 The 600-X team shows up on their way to a Checkers motorcycle club sponsored barbeque and proceed to visit a while first. These guys are all over 60 yrs old to ride in this class. They have learned a few things in their years of going to the races. The first rule seems to be to always have Tecates and Coronas available whenever you go to Mexico to race your motorcycle. They definitely had that! The more they drank the more I laughed while I worked on my bike.

It took me twice as long to finish but it was well worth it! Some of the things these guys have done during their trips to race in Baja are great stories but not really what you want to put into print. So I will just say that I had almost as much fun working on my bike that evening as I did riding it that day. I finally finished the bike and decided to fire it up to check the oil after the service. It ran for a minute when Steve looked over and says, “What’s leaking?”  We trace the leak and discover the water pump is dripping water from the weep hole.

So now bike #2 has a water pump seal that needs to be replaced. I don’t have an extra one of these so now I have to go to my second back up plan ………….…uhhhhhhh………………… which is to try to figure out where I can steal, beg or borrow someone’s bike. Steve says Doug is not using his bike, (more on that in a minute) you could make a loop on his bike. Great idea! I unload his bike since he is gone and take off to ride my loop a couple of times. I have never ridden this bike before and figure I will take it easy since it is not my bike and I am not familiar with it. I head out and the bike works very well up until about 14 miles before the end of my loop. The bike just stopped. I was worried maybe I had put down bike #3. But after taking a look in the gas tank I realize his bike doesn’t get very good gas mileage! I am out of gas with 14 miles to go. It is an 80 mile loop with a fair amount of deep sand throughout the section. I take off my helmet and start to push figuring I can be back in a few hours. I must have done something right because after pushing for only about ¼ of a mile along comes a guy on a quad that is pre running the section too. He stopped and asked what was wrong. I told him I was just out of gas. He says he has 2 one liter bottles of gas in his back pack. I offer to buy the gas and he says don’t worry about it and leaves me the bottles. That was enough to get me back. When I get back to the truck my phone gets cell service and Doug has left me a message and wants to know where his bike is. I told him I used it to make a loop but never mentioned that it ran out of gas and he almost didn’t get it back until after dark. I figure why worry him.

During all of this Steve’s bike has a cam chain tensioner go bad and is making an awful sound. But one becomes available when Jim “Big Chief” Dizney runs into trouble and then recruits Doug as a chauffeur. So that’s how Doug’s bike became available for me to steal, I mean borrow.

So now on to the rest of the story.

The biggest obstacle to overcome was that “Big Chief”, who by the way is the rider of record, broke his right lower leg during his pre run of his section. Now as rider of record he must either start or finish the race for the team to get credit. That happened on Wednesday and the race was on Saturday. So what would you do if you found yourself in that situation? Well, Big Chief decided to have Doug drive him home to San Diego, have his leg checked out, get it put in a cast and drive him back to San Felipe in time for the start.

 Why, you ask? Because Big Chief surmised he would get on the bike, cast and crutches in tow, get the green flag, ride across the line and hand the bike off to the next rider! Great plan on paper, but it becomes slightly more difficult when he realized he couldn’t put his right leg down even to help balance the bike. So he is trying to figure out how to get his running bike in gear with his left foot while maintaining his balance with that same left foot.

Ok, race officials to the rescue. They are going to “help” him put his bike in gear but don’t just click it into gear for him. Instead they will help balance him while he puts his bike in gear. The next few seconds are either hilarious or a nail biter depending on who you are while watching this whole mess unfold. “Big Chief Lefty”, remember his right leg is in a cast, brings his left foot up to click the bike into gear and begins to tip to the right side where the well meaning officials are supposed to provide support and make sure he doesn’t fall on his bad leg. They are either not paying attention to the weight shift or just not strong enough to support him and the bike, rider and an official end up on the ground when the green flag is waved! You hear a gasp from the crowd all around the starting area and start seeing flashes from cameras going off everywhere! I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first crash on the starting line of any Baja race in history! Several people run over to help pick them all up and get the 501-X bike on its way. Big Chief and his bike make it the 25 feet or so to where the rider is waiting and make the switch without any further incident and the team is on its way.

 The rest of the race goes according to plan without anyone else crashing the bike or having any real mishaps the whole day. No mechanicals, no flats, no problems. Our 501-X bike crosses the finish in 9^th place overall and first in the 50+ class by 35 minutes! Everyone did a fantastic job in their sections and had a good day blessed with good luck after such a rough week.

Good job guys and heal up quick Big Chief!

#33

A Geezer Party in the Desert

Have you ever gone to a party thinking maybe it won’t last too long and you can get home early?

I was invited to a getogether  with a bunch of super-geezers (60+ riders) thinking it would be fun but may drag on since I was  a day away from leaving on a trip to Mexico and not yet completely ready.

Well as it turned out I was having so much fun watching and listening to some of those guys tell stories that before I knew it the guy I rode to the party with came looking for me and said it was time to go. I thought, “what do you mean it is time to go!”  I wasn’t done listening to the next story from one of my new friends.

I was having such a good time that the afternoon was gone and I had only scratched the surface on the wealth of information I was being exposed to. This group of guys had so much knowledge and were willing to share it if only I would sit down, shut up and listen.

I found out so much about the surrounding area in property values, geological make up, who lives  where and for how long, where to get work done on equipment,  where to buy or sell precious metals and even got an invitation to stop by any time I was out on a ride.

It was put on by a guy named Fred Sessions that is a tick or two past his 80^th birthday! His right hand man in this whole outdoor desert barbeque was a guy named Chuck Owens who is quite the master fabricator/builder. He is a youngster at just 72 years young!

All that was required of anyone was to show up with whatever you wanted to barbeque, your brand of beverage and be prepared to have a good time.

Their whole excuse for getting this together was  3 of the guys in the group were having birthdays in the month of March. Sounds like a perfectly good excuse to me.

I just hope I get to have all the birthdays  they have had and enjoy  riding and get-togethers as much as they still do.

I also hope I get invited to the next wing ding they put on!

Thanks guys,

#33

It Never Rains in Arizona!

The first International Oldtimer MX event has taken place. It was hosted by the Arizona chapter at Arizona Cycle Park, in Buckeye, Arizona.

The weather was good on Saturday with rain coming in on Saturday night to make a muddy track for Sunday.

Turnout for the event was rather small with only about 110 riders showing up for the opening round. Apparently the economy has not recovered enough yet to boost the turnouts. It seems the rising fuel prices could be a deciding factor for the people making the trip from way up north.

Saturday’s racing was very good with some good battles in a few classes. The track held up well and even started to become a bit hard packed with wisp of dust showing later in the day. The Arizona Chapter did an excellent job of keeping it under control and it was a fun track all day. It had soft, hard and even some sand sections satisfy everybody.

Another outstanding feature at the Arizona race was the evening entertainment. They had dinner of course but then proceeded to clear away the dishes and put on a BINGO game with prizes donated by their sponsors. It was a good time and all free of charge!  It was fun and entertaining with a couple of people winning more than once!

Just a note, I apparently suck at BINGO because I didn’t win anything! But it was fun! Thanks and hats off to the Arizona guys.

Sunday rolled around and it had rained most of the night, turning the well prepped track into a muddy mess. The program was delayed to allow the track crew to work a few sections of the track in hopes of making it a bit better. Then the call was made to run an “open practice” for 45 minutes. Only a handful of riders braved the mud and it was going to take a lot more than that to clear it off. So a rep meeting was called and it was decided to call the event and score from Saturday’s racing. Not a bad call since I observed several vehicles already pulling out to get an early start home. I guess they had already decided they didn’t want to spend $10 at the car wash to clean their bike.

Even with the small turnout and the rain causing track issues the Arizona Chapter did an outstanding job with their event.

Thanks guys and see you next year!

#33