The Potato State Shines!

IDAHO IOTMX 2012

As the sun is setting on the 2012 season of the International Oldtimer MX series it has been a close rivalry as to which club has hosted the premiere event. With the Idaho Chapter throwing their hat into the ring for top honors for best event for OTMX 2012 category.

The Fernley Chapter had set the bar extremely high with all the entertainment, good weather, a 2 track weekend and the great Saturday night dinner they provided.

Well, along comes the Idaho crew trying to one up them with a Potato Bar to start the weekend on Friday evening, after a practice session. A perfectly groomed track over the 2 days of racing, mild temperatures and a dinner that looked more like a $500 dollar a plate fundraiser than a weekend out at the mx track meal! There was Chicken, Prime Rib, Smokey Sausage links, salad, cheesy potatoes, beans, etc. Oh and not to forget the choices of deserts, cookies, brownies, and frosted chocolate cake to satisfy just about everyone. The serving area was set up with tables and chairs to accommodate the riders and families in a shaded and grass covered area that resembled a park more than a motocross track. Quite a feast Idaho! Great job.

 The racing was run without any delay and very efficiently from start to finish. The start area was groomed to absolute perfection before EVERY MOTO! The last time I saw anything like this was at a Pro National event and they only did it for the 4 pro motos. The track was kept in just about the same condition and it held up well throughout the weekend of racing. It did get fairly rough by the end of each day just as a motocross track should!

There were some very good battles going on in several classes. The 50 Master was fun to watch as #38  Ed Marchini chased the #118 of Hampton throughout the weekend with Hampton being mister consistent and taking the win with a couple of moto wins along the way.

The spoiler of the weekend for these two was the #64 of Mark Kaestner. It seems Mark was on his way to the races on Friday evening when he and his wife, June, got tired around 11pm so they pulled over to sleep. According to June’s version of the story when she tried to wake Mark to get going to make the race in time he wasn’t having any of it!  So now the Kaestners get to the track AFTER practice and AFTER the first moto had been run. Mark decides to ride so he signs up, walks the track before he rides and then rides moto #2 as his first moto and his practice all rolled into one. Since it is a 20 minute moto Mark starts out in 4^th works his way to the front and wins the moto! He comes back and does it again in the next moto. It looks to be a 3 way battle now for each win. However the #64 of Kaestner failed to show up for the Sunday start. It seems Mark not wanting to get out of bed on the way to the track may have been an indicator of things to come. Mark wasn’t feeling well and failed to participate on Sunday, leaving the scrap to continue with the two original gangsters, Hampton and Marchini. They continued their battle with Marchini finally getting a moto win in the last one but having to settle for a 2^nd overall with Hampton being clever enough to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em to secure the Overall win.

Another highly contested class was the 50 expert division with our own Sierra Chapter member #72 Carmen Ogino being in the mix with see-saw battles all weekend long. I have never seen Carmen so excited and pushing himself to such limits as this weekend, probably due to the fact that he always had to hold his ground or someone was right there to take it away. Or maybe it was because he had his family there cheering him on every lap and he was surely not going to disappoint them by giving anything less than his best effort. Good job Carmen! Especially by putting the exclamation point on the whole weekend of racing by taking the final moto holeshot and making everyone chase him.

A great weekend of racing, eating, visiting and napping………..I mean resting between motos. The Idaho Chapter has elevated the bar for all other clubs if they care to compete for best event honors. Good luck.

Great job Idaho, Thanks for all the hard work you guys put into having such a great event.

#33

Bent but not Broken!

Durability Testing

I have had the opportunity to evaluate products for the long haul with a couple of things being apparent.  One is that I can destroy almost anything if you give me enough time and the other is that some of the products are of such good quality and function I am amazed I don’t see them on every bike I pass.

The two items I have had the chance to long term test are a shift lever and an oil cooler, both being used and abused on a Honda CRF-X 450. The oil cooler is manufactured by IRP-LLC and is such a simple and clean bolt on operation that someone might think it can’t work. 

 But rest assured it does. The increased oil capacity and out of the motor circulation the cooler provides has more than doubled the time between oil changes. I also believe it is the reason this bike is not requiring piston, ring and valve replacement that I have been hearing of others having to do on the same model bike.  The durability part has been proven by repeated bashing through boulders and anything on the trail without a single failure in 3 years on two different bikes. I have even had to replace a side case without doing anymore damage to the cooler than a nasty gash. I am thoroughly impressed with this product and would have to give it a solid “10” rating.  You can contact them at ian@irp-llc.com or 503 860-5712.

The second item is a Hammerhead shift lever. I have used this shifter for approximately 2 years until I damaged it on the same boulder that the oil cooler survived. The Hammerhead shifter worked as designed until I smashed and bent it beyond use or repair. I had in fact worn out one replaceable tip and upgraded to a +10mm tip for easier boot clearance. Replaceable parts and adjustability, this alone is worth the price of admission.  The shifter was bent outward beyond normal use but still functioned to get home on. Greg at Hammerhead explained to me that they designed them that way in an attempt to not damage the shift shaft on the bike since that would be a more costly and time consuming repair. The best part was when I checked with Hammerhead through their website the warranty was for the first 6 months. Fair enough since this sucker was at least 2 years and two tips old.  Then Greg offered to replace it at 50% off retail even without the receipt.  I was pleased and surprised to find a company willing to take care of a customer that used their product for that amount of time and made it an easy and pleasant experience. My new replacement shifter is on the way! Hammerhead can be reached at www.hdmoto.com

Hope this information is useful to mx43.com readers, and do your best to avoid BIG rocks,

#33

Perfect weather, BBQ, Crap Shoots...Must be Fernley!

Fernley International OTMX

The International Oldtimer MX at Fernley, Nevada could almost not have asked for better conditions. The weather cooperated by being cool in the mornings with afternoon temps only in the high 80’s. But the most appreciated weather condition was that the normal afternoon desert winds did not materialize. The weather was incredibly perfect for a desert summer day.

The Fernley OTMX chapter put on an event that I think could be classified as their best event ever.  I can’t remember attending one that was run so well. So the unfortunate small turn out meant that the riders that missed the event only hurt themselves. We were treated to a great sand track that was run on the first day and then the club had gone to the effort to run the second day on another completely separate track to give the riders something new and spice the weekend up a bit. It worked because both tracks were very well prepared and run opposite directions from each other. The club also hosted a raffle, provided an awesome dinner consisting of Tri-Tip, Pulled BBQ pork, assorted veggies, soda, beer and sports drinks to keep everyone happy. There was also a slow race that went from the starting line to a designated finish line. The idea being the LAST person to cross the finish line was declared the winner. The rules were simple, you must ride the bike you raced and you couldn’t put a foot down and you could not go any direction but forward. The entry fee became the purse and the winner takes all. It is very difficult to go slow in the sand without putting a foot down as several people discovered. 

Then there was the CRAP SHOOT. Now the game gets interesting. A piece of plywood is laid on the ground and it has been sectioned into small squares numbering from 1 to 200. Each square costs $2 to buy that numbered square. There is a fence placed around it and then a chicken is tossed in and wanders around until it CRAPS on one of the numbers! That is how the CRAP SHOOT works. The chicken cooperated and didn’t take long to make a deposit on #116. Now I don’t know if this is coincidence but the guy that owns the chicken bought one square, the square with the #116.  Wait a minute it gets better.  The chicken owners name is……………Gilbert CHICK.   I couldn’t make this stuff up, it really did happen like that.

The weekend was a huge success and there was some fantastic racing to go with all the festivities. Terry Sage dominated the really old guy class (+60 Master) and the +50 Masters had a good dice between Doug Goodman, John Volk and Ed (sneaky) Marchini.  With Ed coming out on top with the overall win on his Dungey replica KTM just ahead of Doug Goodman of Arizona riding his DAYSTAR sponsored Honda.

A great weekend was had by all and we are already looking forward to next year. Although I am wondering how in the heck the Fernley Oldtimer club will top this year’s effort.

#33