Exploring by Dirt Bike

When was the last time you went out riding alone or with some friends without having a “plan”?

Maybe, either a track you were going to ride, or a loop in an area that you probably already know or have ridden many times before.

 

I recently had the opportunity to ride a couple of areas, mostly desert, that I have only ridden once or twice. What I found was that there are some things to ride and learn in those areas we don’t go explore much that you can end up feeling like a modern day Columbus on a motorcycle.

During these “explorations”, I have come across defunct 22,000 acre ranches, old abandoned cabins that you could spend the night in, Mineshafts and Mines straight into the side of the hills, Gold Miners camps, a man made “Bat Habitat” (no kidding), Historic buildings and markers with history listed on site, panoramic views that are absolutely incredible and people living in places that make you wonder what in the heck they are thinking.

The interesting part of these places is that none of them were known to me when I started each ride. They were treasures I found somewhere along the route by just waiting to see if I should turn left or right at the next intersection. It has started to turn into such a good time riding a motorcycle and exploring that I had to get a bigger Camelbak to carry more water, food, small flashlight (for the caves) and a notebook with pen to write things down. There were so many things I was seeing I wanted to start making notes to find my way back another time!

It seems the more I look around the more there is to see. There are BLM markers in places that you would have no idea existed unless you ran across them exploring. The reason I say this is because since taking off on these adventures, I have gone to a BLM office to see if I could buy a map that would show all these places I had been to.

Lo and behold, they didn’t have any!

They have had plans to have them printed since sometime in the 90’s but it has not happened yet. The sad part is, I have come across these markers that mark trails with assigned trail number designations, but in order to find them you have to be out sometimes miles from an access road. There have been very few OHV signs pointing the way to the areas that are clearly marked as ATV/Motorcycle friendly trails. It almost seems like it is a game of hide and seek with some of our off road trails. I intend to keep seeking, to see what I can find! I have my pencil and paper and will be keeping notes since it could be several months to years before I get back to some of my “finds”.

So again, my point is………..Go Exploring!

 

Happy Trail Exploring,

#33

June 5, 2010 had one of the Closest Baja 500 races Ever!

This year the Baja 500 had a couple of entries in the class 50 motorcycle division that had a fight tooth and nail for almost 500 miles. The Margin of victory for the winning team was a slim 39 seconds!

The two  teams involved were the 500x bike and the 503x. It was Honda vs. KTM from start to finish with neither team willing to give an inch for over 10 hours of racing. In the end it was the Honda team that prevailed across the flag with the 39 seconds they needed to take the checkered flag

Check out the GPS tracking!

From the start it was close as the KTM team started 30 seconds after the Honda and took  the lead about 15 minutes into the race. The Honda team held on and wouldn’t give up, chasing through all the dust and eventually retaking the lead just about the 2 hour mark. By then a couple of rider exchanges had taken place, but each man was unwilling to concede as he took his turn piloting his respective teams bike. These apparently were some tough 50+ year  olds that decided  racing at speeds up to 100 mph in Mexico was more fun than a Saturday BBQ back in the states.

The race looked to settle in after a couple hours of racing as the gap opened a bit for the Honda team to somewhere around 9 minutes. Then the KTM boys made a push and closed up to retake the lead at about 5 ½ hours  into the race. From then on it seemed the RACE WAS ON! 

Each team took a turn taking the lead with the final 250 miles never having them more than a minute apart.  So it went back and forth seemingly taking on a NASCAR feeling with the pit stops sometimes deciding who would come back on the course with the lead.

Now you have to remember in NASCAR you don’t have to ride in the dust of the guy in front of you if your pit guys get you out behind the other rider.  Sometimes the dust is so bad you pray for windy conditions just to clear enough to see the ground you are racing over.

So it went back and forth for the final 5 hours of racing with each team having a minor crash only to recover each time to get back into the mix. Like I said, I don’t know where you could find this many 50+ year old guys willing to fight all day like this. Then assemble them on two teams unwilling to concede defeat until the last seconds run out after 10 ½ hours of racing through mountains, washes, rocks, dust, 100mph fire roads, coastal regions and small towns that turn out spectators by the thousands.

From the 6:30 am start to the checkered flag was almost unbelievable if you consider what had taken place over the course of the day. To have this be decided by 39 seconds is almost the stuff you make into movies. These guys were all certainly worthy of having a part in the movie.

Congratulations guys, all of you on both teams,

Now go home and have a BBQ!

#33



The (Almost) Perfect trail ride.

A Newbies intro to the Doorbell

I went on a trail ride with a few friends the other day in the El Dorado National Forest.  We rode some of the best off road riding imaginable.

It was a sparsely marked course that required you find it as you rode. If you have never done this before let me tell you it is very easy to ride quicker than you can find the next marker and become completely lost before you know it. What FUN!

But since there were several of us on the ride I figured if we got lost and had to camp out at least I wouldn’t be lonely.

My group had a couple of fairly experienced trail riders and one “trail debutant” that spends most of his time on the mx tracks, along with myself for a total of 4 in our group. There were several other groups trying to find the same markings and it became sort of a team style competition to stay on course. The ride was approximately 38 miles of single-track, fire roads and water crossings.

The experienced riders had a great time and the newbie seemed to enjoy himself, but I am not sure he realized that he provided most of the entertainment in our group.  In the first quarter of a mile we were on a trail with a few downed wet logs on the trail. This provided the first eye opener to a couple of the riders in the group as they found themselves picking up the bike and discovering that wet logs are very slippery. So after the second log I figured we should stop for a minute and have an impromptu class on logs as obstacles and how best to approach them. It worked fairly well until we came to one that was elevated, slanted and wet. 3 of us got over fine but the “TD” (trail debutant) not only stalled but lost his balance and tipped over and slid off the slanted log and off the trail!  It took 3 of us to lift the bike back onto the trail for him to restart it and continue. So now being about 10 minutes into this ride our TD has crashed, picked up the bike and restarted it 3 times that I know of.  I notice he is breathing a bit heavy and observe a little perspiration on the face.

A few miles later we encounter our first really tight wooded section that is about a mile or so long. When I say tight, I mean 1^st gear and using the clutch tight to go slow enough to squeeze through the trees. Since I am leading at this point I don’t get to watch the carnage occurring when TD starts stalling, falling, restarting and overheating himself the clutch and the engine.

I was riding a CRF450X that works great for this type of riding with awesome bottom end grunt and not prone to stalling, while TD was riding an RMZ with a taller 1^st gear and less bottom end. So at the end of this section we decided to switch bikes to see how things would work out. It ended up being a good call because he loved the off road type power and electric start of the CRF450X. I had very little trouble adapting to the quicker power of the RMZ and it worked out great for the remainder of the ride.

TD still crashed a few more times throughout the day but had the time of his life and was grinning from ear to ear at the end of the ride.

We completed the ride after getting lost for a few minutes a couple of times and saw some of the best trail riding I think I have seen in my 38 yrs of riding. It was that good from rains earlier in the week, perfect traction and no dust. You know, one of those days you dream of.

We all said our good byes and headed for home. Later that night I get a text message from TD asking exactly what model my bike was. It seems he was shopping on craigslist and thinking he might have a little trail rider in him!

Now we all know there is nothing wrong with having 2 bikes!

Happy Trail riding,

#33

Boise OT National 4/17/10

The CA boys in the 60 Master class had a rough weekend. Terry Sage took a tumble over a tabletop and sliced off the tip of his pinky finger. Art McDade over jumped the small step-up and landed on Tocher’s bike sending himself to the hospital with a broken rib and punctured lung. Both Terry & Art are ok and looking forward to their next race.

2009 Baja 1000 - Eric McKenna

Ever wonder what it would be like to ride the Baja 1000? Well let’s take a little tip down south.

I was invited to ride on a team generally known as the O’Neal team. Yes, that O’Neal of the off road clothing line. Since I was getting a new pair of riding pants and a jersey, O’Neal gear of course, I figured I should go down there and take a look at my section before I was going to race on it.

 I was assigned a 140 mile loop that was in the San Felipe area and included a variety of terrain from  sand to rocks with a couple of miles of pavement for good measure, (oh, by the way did I mention the 22 mile WHOOP section?).

Now I am thinking, 140 miles how bad can it be? So I take my trusty XR600 with a 3.6 gallon tank and figure I am set to look the place over. So the first day of pre riding I fill it up knowing that I have gone around 140 miles before I even hit reserve on past rides on this bike. My loop is 140 miles total, but I should pass right by San Felipe at around 125 miles. No problem, I will just ride into town and fill ‘er up at the local PEMEX station and finish the loop. It seemed like a really good idea at the time so off I went with my camelbak, sandwich, power bars, money, cell phone and tools.

I ride some really fast 100mph dirt roads, some really nasty rocky sections, hit a bunch of sand washes that go for miles with rocks, whoops, silt beds and a lot of cactus in them.  After doing all these obstacles for around 4 hours on a fairly heavy bike I am starting to get a little tired. But now the course has wound its way around  and we are heading down a very fast dirt road toward San Felipe and I am thinking since the big XR is going to be thirsty I might as well get myself a Pepsi when I stop for fuel. I look off in the distance and estimate San Felipe must be around 20 miles or so. I am feeling pretty good since I never got lost and haven’t had any crashes during my first look at my section. When all of a sudden, like someone shut off the switch the bike quits. I am thinking what in the heck can be wrong with the bike, it never quits on me. I roll to a stop and make sure I didn’t knock something loose or the switch didn’t get shut off by accident. I know what you are thinking, he is in denial, the fool is out of gas. So I look in the tank and sure enough I am out of gas! I look at my odometer and it says I have only gone 109 miles.

I wonder how in the heck did that happen, and I start to remember all the deep sand washes that I was having such a good time in all day to this point. OOPS, apparently deep sand equals crappy mileage.

Well, I take a look around and figure since I will probably have to walk to San Felipe and it is around 15-20 miles I should probably get going. So I lay the bike behind some bushes off the course and start to walk figuring  that I should be there in 3-4 hours (about dark) considering the terrain/sand along with my riding boots and gear. While I am walking I figure I should call someone to let them know I am out of gas. I bust out the trusty cell phone, turn it on, battery is good but not a single reception bar registers on that sucker. I think I will call AT&T when I get home to let them know they have a dead zone around San Felipe.

I must have done something right lately because I had only walked about 1 mile when I heard the sound of engines. I stopped and listened to see if they were coming in my direction or going away. Looking back down the course I could see dust clouds about a mile away and they were moving pretty fast in my direction. I waited for them to reach me and there were two trucks pre-running for the race. They stopped and gave me a ride back to the bike. It was my first time in a Trophy truck, what an experience. Those things are amazing, they have so much suspension that they just run over stuff and don’t have to pick a line like we do. When he turned the truck around I saw a bunch of humps and ditches that I thought he would go around. Nope, just nailed the throttle and bombed through all that crap. I would have been white knuckled and scared on a motorcycle! Like I said what an experience, it is incredible what those trucks are capable of.

They gave me a couple of bottles of gas from their truck and we were all on our way. That is an interesting thing about Baja, it doesn’t seem to matter if you are on a bike, in a car or driving a truck and have trouble. Any of the racers out on the course will check on you to see if they can help. So I learned a lesson, I now slow to make sure everything is ok whenever I come up on someone that has stopped for whatever reason until they give me the thumbs up sign to let me know they are alright.

So I make it back to town before sunset, buy some gas and head for home to return the next day to do it again, although with more gas. Each time I rode the loop from then on I carried a gallon of gas on my hip and dumped it in when I had burned enough fuel. No problem, had a great time and learned my section.

We raced in the 50+ age group and did very well, winning the class and eventually climbing into the top ten overall. This may be the first time a 50 yr old team has finished in the top ten of the Baja 1000.  Not bad considering we started somewhere around 57^th off the line with riders going off at 30 second intervals. All of our riders did an outstanding job and everyone had a good time without any serious mishaps.

So if you have ever have a chance to do one of the Baja races with friends, I would recommend it. Just to experience the event and a whole new world of riding we don’t get to see very often, it will teach you and show you things we don’t get at the MX races.

Hasta La Vista Mi Amigos!

#33

Check back soon for a 2010 report on the San Felipe 250

Tony Armada - R.I.P.

Tony Armada will be missed by many, me being one of the many.

I have been riding IOTMX now for about 12 years. When  I first started I used to watch some of the “OLD GUYS” race in the Super Geezer (+60 and  +70) classes. Tony Armada was just one of the guys I used to marvel at how he still wanted to get out and do battle with his friends on the track.

I used to watch Tony and always told myself I wanted to be like that and still go racing at his age.

One of the best things I can remember about Tony is that he always had some good stories to tell. They were not all about the races either, just stories of life. It was always a treat to go visit him on the weekends of racing when we were camping at the track. He would sit by the fire in his pit until late at night talking, laughing, well making me laugh anyway and just B.S.ing in general. I would laugh so hard sometimes that I remember my sides would hurt. I can remember more than once after spending hours laughing I would look at the clock and think holy smokes it is almost 11pm! Then I would look around and realize all the other Old-Timers had gone to bed.

His famous phrase to me was, “these kids now days are punks”,  they use guns now to get into fights. He used to tell me how when he was younger they got into fights but had some honor.  Maybe some ruffian would bring a knife or a chain but nobody ever brought guns to their fights. I was entertained but realized what an era and rough neighborhood Tony must have grown up in. They were little gangsters and hoodlums running around his neighborhood but they had some respect and honor in everything, including fighting with each other.

So I assumed Tony was still fighting and doing battle in his own way just as he did in his younger days, only now he did it on the track. His new ruffian buddies were all the other Old-Timers in his class and he liked it because they still had some honor  and respect in the way they choose to do battle.

Tony has moved on to a new battlefield and I am sure his new adversaries will soon learn from Tony how to compete against him with Honor and Respect.

Godspeed Tony and Thank You for being a part of my life,

#33