Monday, August 8, 2011 at 9:03PM Coming soon Pilot Jet II
Our erstwhile blogger #33 is currently running around the mountains of Idaho looking for impossibly steep hills to conquer. Fortunately his is using our new toy the Liquid Image Impact Series goggles with the built in video camera. What Eric sees the camera sees, this should be fun. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 7:57PM 37th Fools Gold Enduro
It’s amazing, I wrote an article for a friend of mine who published a dirt bike magazine back in the seventies, the article was on the 3rd annual Fools Gold Enduro and in it I said I hoped to be able to ride the 33rd annual event. They were annual events up until a few years ago, but it’s become a lot more difficult to put these events on as time goes by.
This year’s version of the enduro took three tries to finally get it started. The first attempt was canceled by rain the second by way of a freak snow storm; actually it was more than rain and snow that delayed the event. Last year’s event was canceled period because of huge user fee hikes by the Federal Government. (Encouraged and supported by those groups who prefer we not be allowed to step foot in their forest) This year’s event was headed down the same path do to the numerous studies and reports put up as road blocks that were not going to get done in time. And even when it’s a go there’s always the day before the event look see for the Red Legged Frog or Spotted Owl who if found to be near the course or possibly in harm’s way could be cause for cancelling the event.
The club (CERA) who have put this event on for all these years found a way at the eleventh hour to get around all this. It was a FREE ride; if you wanted you could donate to the club. (Hopefully everyone who road did so) This did away with a few of the unfinished reports and allowed the event to go on, for this year anyway. I’m sure they will find a way to close that loop hole by next year.
Originally the event was full (350 riders) and the club had actually started a waiting list, but by the time the twice cancelled event was finally run a lot of riders no doubt had other plans for that weekend. With the amount of riders reduced it made for a lot less dust for some. For me though I ate dust all day, I don’t ride enough enduros anymore to invest in a fancy computer to help time keep. (That’s why I like the National Enduro format, no time keeping) So I decided to ride on the same minute with a few of my fellow class competitors. One didn’t show up, another was behind us when he ran into problems on the trail (He flew off the side of the trail, it took him about a half hour to get back up) the guy I followed has been the champion of my class for the past "umpteen" years so I ate his dust and followed him. Actually he (The class champion) launched his bike off the side of the trail not long after the start and we, the three us hauled it back up. Had this been a Cross Country event and since he is one of my competitors I would have taken great joy in his plight and with a smile on my face simply roosted him and rode off, but not this day I needed his time keeping skills.
It’s frustrating when your late for a check and lose a point (For being a minute late) especially when you are within sight of him (The class champion) we go into a check I lose a point and he loses none because he was just far enough ahead of me that by the time I got into the check the minute changed and I was late. We went through only one check where we were not within sight of each other and at the end of the day he beat me by five points. Five points is a lot in an Enduro but to say I was like five minutes behind him wasn’t true I could see him at every check, except one, if I was five minutes behind him at the end of a Cross country event that would be a lot. The guy who finished third in our class was tied on points with me, but I beat him in the tie breakers. Amazingly ties aren’t all that unusual among competitors in the same class so clubs set up a few of the checks as tie breakers where they not only score you by the minute you come in but by the second. Anyway tie breakers can get very complicated and I ended up beating him by a few seconds, if I was him I’d be pissed, I mean after 83 miles to lose by a few seconds, I’d be pissed.
When you looked at the route sheet you thought this might be a fairly easy six hours and eighteen minute, eighty three mile ride, (If there is such a thing) the club had lots of free time (Rest time) built into the schedule and you thought there might be plenty maybe even to much free time. Well not to worry about all that free time, the trails, speed averages and check placements were such that you magically lost time before one of those free time spots. So when you did get to one of them you had either used up all the free time or perhaps had a little time left so you could take a drink and gather your thoughts for the next section?
The day wasn’t too hot, the dust could have been a lot worse; the course was very good with lots of great single track trails and the company was excellent. One of the best things about any activity like this is doing the thing called bench racing afterward. From the AA rider to the first time racer all of us can relate and share in recalling that branch that almost got you, or that big downhill section with that steep drop off, or whatever. It was another good day to be alive.
Doug 21J
Photo by: www.husaberg.org
Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 4:04PM Sometimes it is hard to find people to ride with and places where you can ride. One of the ways to solve that problem is to join a motorcycle club. No, not the silly types you see on TV. One that is made of responsible guys that like to ride and race dirt bikes. A group like the Polka Dots MC. Every year they take a fun little trail ride out of Austin, NV. What's it like.......well let Mark the trail boss tell it.
All,
Since my first Austin Moto Ride, I knew we could someday break the 300 mile mark. This weekend we booked 315 miles. I want to thank every rider who showed up ready to get this done. Riding with you all this weekend was a pleasure. You all made this a great ride. It was especially gratifying to take 14 of the 25 on their first Austin ride. I didn’t plan 175 miles of it the first day but we made it.
John and Wayne did a great job on the chase truck and trailer with gas, food, refreshments, gear, bikes and riders. I would also like to send a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Mike Outerbridge. My bike died a mile from the start of the ride back Sunday and he let me borrow his bike to lead Sunday’s ride. He injured his knee Saturday and wasn’t able to ride. Also, thanks to Duane Groves. My GPS skills only go so far but he has the navigation skills out there that always come through for our rides. Thanks to Bill Fain for managing the task list that is too long to mention. Great job!
I make the commitment to get every rider and their equipment back to Middlegate on Sunday. They don’t always come back arranged the way they left, but they’ve always gotten back. We left Middlegate Saturday with 25 riders and got to Austin with 21 having lost three to injuries and one breakdown. Sunday morning we Left Austin with 12 riders. We lost the rest to injuries, one case of the flu, breakdowns and “attrition.” We booked 140 miles on Sunday and averaged about 35 mph. We sacrificed the morning portion of the ride to get the afternoon run completed which was S-W-E-E-T! The weather cooperated perfectly both days with sunny skies and 75-80 degrees.
Our two hill climbs allowed a few riders to exhibit some pretty serious hill climbing talent. And yes, our Dots President made both hills both days on The Big “H.” Andy “Billy Goat” Rewinkle, well… Steve DeMartin needs to clean his underwear. You just had to be there for that one. How’d you pull that off TWICE? Justin Jensen? Where’d he come from? Our guest Ray Alvarado pulled out a couple of over the top moves on his ’11 KTM 300 that should have come with a bag of popcorn. What a show. Parker and Groves put the 530’s over the top as well.
Opportunities for people to exhibit leadership qualities are sometimes spontaneous events you simply can’t plan. And once in a great while one of our Polka Dot leaders will show all of his fellow members a side we didn’t know before. Such an event took place where several of the Austin 315 Moto Ride participants and Polka Dot members were celebrating the day’s events after dinner – where we were enticed with $1 coupons for our first beverages. Simply, Mr. Mike Fallon took the initiative to support the local economy in Austin and let the matrons at the above establishment know under no uncertain terms that as our leader, absolutely no one was to spend so much as a minute without Mike’s beverage of choice. Orders were given and followed not to let a drop got to waste. And Mike chose a very wide variety of beverages. He had to because they kept running out. Mike’s generosity simply overwhelmed both the matrons of the establishment as well as the other Polka Dots in attendance. So much so, several other Polka Dots felt compelled to support the local economy in like fashion. As the night wore on, even Mr. Fallon seemed to succumb to the frivolity and newfound kinship that he’d nurtured. Our hearts crumbled at the new side of Mike we were seeing.
I had to retire relatively early. But our breakfast and pre-ride discussions divulged that Mr. Fallon’s newfound generosity and leadership earned him a safe escort down the hill to his motel from almost ALL of the remaining Polka Dots. Once back at the motel, Mike evidently felt the urge to further embellish the qualities of his fellow Polka Dots. Even to the degree of waking a few of them up to tell them how important his thoughts were. Someone enjoyed his speech enough to leave Mike some flowers. (See attached)
I applaud Mr. Fallon for taking the initiative to uphold some well-established traditions of our leaders of the past. They would be proud.
Who has the pictures of the cluster&%$# you guys made of the water crossing? Had there been a few more of us, a film of this would have prompted On Any Sunday III. Unbelievable!
My last comment on the ride is of a more serious nature. This was Bret Eckert’s last ride before he goes in for some remodeling on his limbs. I would like to wish Bret well on his operation as I’m sure do all of our past and present members. Bret’s contributions to the PDMC during his membership have benefited many of us. We hope to be banging bars with him again soon.
That’s my take on the weekend. I hope you all got what you came for plus some.
Mark Tustin 48X
Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 3:01PM The 43rd Annual Hangtown Classic
An Evolutionary Tale
My friend Art sent me an email saying he wouldn’t be attending this year’s Hangtown MX and asked if I felt a literary urge to write something about this year’s event. I did, so here goes. As it turns out this story is more about an evolution than it is about the racing.
I believe this is the 40th year AMA’s been running what’s now known as the National Outdoor MX series and this was the Dirt Diggers 43rd annual Hangtown MX event. I also believe this is the only national event put on by an AMA sanctioned club and one of the few, if not the only one that hosts three days of amateur racing in conjunction with a national MX race.
My first Hangtown MX event was the 3rd annual at the sand track in Plymouth. For years after I would race in the amateur events on Saturday, camp out in my old Ford van and watch the National event on Sunday. I could spin many a yarn about the atmosphere at that old track. Ok I’ll tell one story, I was there the day Bob Hannah had his breakout race. I, like most, didn’t know who he was, but I remember thinking to myself, man this guy’s intense. You could see it in his face. In those days most riders wore open face helmets and the only thing between you and the track was some flimsy plastic fence.
When they moved the event to Prairie City it went through years of transition, some of it good some not so good. There were years when you wouldn’t have wanted to take your family. I felt the vast majority of the people attending were there just to party and had no clue what was going on the track. (They did that at Plymouth as well) Fortunately, that has changed. It’s now a great place to take your family and has been for a number of years. I believe the vast majority who now attend are fans.
As I have done for years I ride my Dual Sport bike and park as close to the track as I can. Riding a bike out there is a huge advantage, unless it rains, which has happened. One year I was so unprepared I had to scrounge and beg for a large enough plastic garbage bag to make a poncho to ride home in the rain with. I also came to the realization as I was on the freeway in the slow lane doing about sixty with my plastic poncho flapping in the wind in a hurry to get home I was on my Dual Sport with its knobby tires, not one of my smarter days, fortunately for me I survived.
This year my son and I rode our bikes again. Normally I don’t get out there until noonish preferring to miss all the traffic and show up in time for the big show. This time we decided to go a little earlier and I was reminded again why I don’t go until later. The traffic was backed up to the freeway on Prairie City Road; some two or three miles from the track.
We got some dirty looks from a few people sitting in their vehicles who didn’t appreciate the freedom we were enjoying on our bikes as we rode past them. Any way, as we wound our way through and over and around we ended up parked near the concessions without having to give anyone our tickets. We couldn’t have purposely done this if we had tried and if we had tried to sneak in I’m sure we would have been caught.
As we were walking in past rows and rows of blue outhouses and the lines of people waiting to use them, I told my son I needed to look for some funny things to write about today. Turns out there weren’t that many funny moments. Although it was interesting to watch people carefully trying to stack their piece of trash on top of a trash can that was way beyond over flowing. (I tried it myself a couple of times) One observation I’ve made over the years is when the weather is warm there seems to be an endless supply of women who wear tops that take constant readjusting of their stuff and shorts that continually require pulling them down or they’ll ride up into places they don’t want.
How great is it to be able to spend the day with your son sharing a lifelong passion? We also brought along the father on my two year old Great Grand Daughter. I say this because I’m not sure what to call him, perhaps my Grand Son to be. He’s a fine young man, who I like very much, but his passion for the sport doesn’t match ours and at times I’m sure he was a little bored. Maybe he got a little tired as well, one thing I’ve always done is walk around the track, all day, I have no idea how many miles I’ll walk but it’s a lot and most of it is up or down the side of hills. Trying to find a flat piece of ground to stand on is virtually impossible. When you walk around as I do most all the flat spots are taken by people who set up and just stay in one place all day.
Speaking of setting up that’s become a tradition for a lot of people who get there early, stake out their little piece of turf along the fence line, always in the most advantageous viewing spots available around the track and fill it with friends or family, which leaves the rest of us scrambling for the leftovers. But even before the fans get their chance to lay claim, the corporate sponsors lay claim to the very most primo spots, set up their tents and cordon off large areas for their guests. If you’re lucky enough to know someone or are willing to pay you too can enjoy the benefits of prime turf. Use to be you had to know someone who knew someone to even get a sniff at a pit pass. But today you can get a half day or all day pit pass, just depends on how much you’re willing to spend. Most of us go for the “F” package, the one day general admission ticket. But a few years ago even if you couldn’t get or buy a pit pass the factory teams would set up their rigs so the rest of us could walk around hanging on the fence outside the pits and see some of the race bikes and occasionally a rider.
Use to be a time when the track itself matched the outside of the track, hard and rocky. The track today doesn’t resemble in any way the original track. Over the years truck loads of real dirt, sand and rice hulls and a little real grass have transformed the once hard rocky track into a showcase. One only needs to walk around the outside of the track to be reminded of what it used to be like. Originally there were very few man made jumps most were natural, today the course is filled with spectacular uphill and downhill jumps and rhythm sections all a bye product of Supercross. Today’s bikes and riders are designed to attack and fly over these sections with incredible skill and daring. The speeds these young men and women are riding at are truly amazing. Unfortunately with this kind of speed the injuries seem to be increasing as well, staying relatively healthy is almost impossible.
In the past the sound system was for the most part was nonexistent unless you happened to be next to a speaker you then heard for the most part stuff you really didn’t care about. They’ve made small changes over the years to make it better, but this year they out did themselves, this year’s system was outdoor concert quality and was the most obnoxious, over bearing thing they’ve ever done. Apparently they (The promoters not the Dirt Diggers) must have believed that 99.9 % of the fans were ADD and therefore must be constantly stimulated with loud over the top music and an announcer who had to scream at you most of the time. You know maybe most of our youth today is ADD? When we were on the side of the hill where most of the fans were, looking down on most of the track you couldn’t hardly hear the bikes unless they were passing by you. I’d venture to say 99.9% of the fans wanted to and came to hear the roar of the engines off the starting line and this alone would have been enough to stimulate them, but a lot of what you heard was loud music and an equally loud announcer, it was horrible. I overheard a group of young men saying they were going to write a letter about the noise. We eventually made our way over to the other hill next to the concession, pits and starting line the noise was tolerable there, you could actually hear the bikes leave the starting line, you could hear them but you couldn’t see them incredibly the view was blocked with adds. (Looks good on TV though)
The other thing that is new the past few years is live TV coverage, which is great for the sport. The course has been changed to better suit TV cameras and the course is now entirely lined with banners on the inside fence as well as the outside making it much more difficult to spectate, especially for those who want to sit in a chair next to the fence. I’d say the vast majority of spectators had difficulty or were unable to see the starting line. The other thing with TV coverage is you’re on their time schedule there were delays, so you know what the promoters do to keep an ADD audience entertained right?
As time passes and the sport continues to grow things will continue to change, not all change is bad (Except for that piece of S… sound system) and then there’s always the racing, the real reason we all go there and this years was most excellent, we were treated to some very exciting two and three way battles for the lead and battles all the way back to tenth or so lap after lap until the dust settled and Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed pulled way in each moto and split wins with Reed taking the overall in the 450’s. In the lites (250’s) it was the same maybe even a little tighter racing than the 450’s, but in the end Blake Baggett was the hardest charger of them all. Well maybe that’s not true there was two time and current 250cc World Champion Marvin Musquin from France who was making his American debut and after getting two bad starts made two incredible charges forward, from fortieth to sixth in the second moto. It was incredible to watch. I met him on Friday and was amazed at how slight of build he was. Goes to show you don’t have to look like a body builder to hang onto one of these rocket ships and go fast.
I’ve been around long enough to watch the evolution of the sport and in particular this track and I hope to once again ride my bike along with my son and attend the 44th annual Hangtown classic.
Doug
21J
Monday, May 23, 2011 at 2:19PM 43rd Annual Hangtown Classic
photo by Carlosmacho
If any motocross race ever deserved the term classic, the 2011 Hangtown event is the one. Following what most riders and fans thought was the best Supercross season ever, the outdoor motocross season holds even more promise for great racing with lots of close competition. This years Hangtown delivered a great show, very competitive racing and great crowd.
In the days leading up to Hangtown it is always cool to see the team trucks arrive in the Sierra foothills with their cargo of immaculately prepared motorcycles and pristine work environments. Friday evening, before the race you could feel the excitement and the confidence of all the major teams as Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda all had riders who were healthy and ready. Speaking to Mike Webb, the Suzuki team manager the evening before the event he expressed excitement for the outdoor season to begin and to be shaking of the long winter rain cold we have been experiencing. The fact that he has a very competitive team with Ryan Dungy and Brett Metcalf didn’t hurt.
Saturday morning practice saw the return to form of Mike Alessi (riding a 450 KTM instead of last years 350) as he posted the fastest lap during timed practice. Unfortunately during the second morning practice he got cross rutted going over a large table top jump and hit the ground, knocking himself out. This is his second concussion this month so even though he returned in the afternoon for an interview it appears his chances of winning the title are gone. Hopefully he can return to form later in the season.
The first 450 moto saw Team Honda’s ace substitute rider Kevin Windham out front and laying down some smooth laps. He led for about ten minutes before he began to fade eventually finishing in sixth. Chasing Windham were Suzuki’s Metcalf and Dungy. Metcalf fell on about lap three and Chad Reed and Ryan Villopoto slid in behind Dungy and the finishing order was set with Dungy winning followed by Reed and Villopoto. While the finishing order was not to surprising the closeness of the racing was.
The second 450 moto started with Villopoto leading but Reed and Dungy in tow. Dungy and Reed both got past Villopoto who faded to a distant third. Windham was in forth and stayed there for the entire moto. He was never close enough to really challenge for third but well ahead of fifth. At the half way point it appeared Dungy was going to go 1-1 but Reed kept the pressure on and was able to slip by and they preceded to put on a great show. Dungy shadowed Reed to the end, finishing second. Reed took the win and the overall but they left Hangtown tied on points and setting the stage for a very competitive season.
The 250 class was even more competitive then the 450 class. Pro Circuit has a strong team as does Factory Connection. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was James Stewarts younger brother Malcolm grabbing the holeshot in moto one and running up front. He eventually faded to 20th and the moto moved toward a great battle between Ely Tomac and Dean Wilson. For most of the moto they rode cleanly but aggressively, but late in the moto Blake Bagget who fell early came by Tomac for second.
In the second moto Factory Connection’s Justin Barcia holeshot and lead for several laps. He was actually pulling a little bit of gap when he appeared to hit a hay bale and went over the bars. At this point Pro Circuit’s Tyla Rattray took the lead and appeared to have the race in hand. Wilson who was in second fell in the same area as Barcia and Bagget moved past into second. With Pro Circuit running 1, 2, 3 you might think they would hold position, but Bagget was on a mission and kept the pressure on Rattray eventually making a clean pass in a rough rocker section. Bagget’s 2-1 gave him the overall and Pro Circuit took a well earned 1, 2, and 3 in the final finishing order.
For Geezer cross fanatics this Hangtown had to go down as one of the best. The closest racing at any National I have seen since the 70’s, coupled with a big crowd and great California weather (finally) has me looking forward to next year.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 4:30PM 
In my last article I forgot to mention one other small disadvantage of using a Rekluse Z-Pro Start. Actually I didn’t forget to mention it because at the time it was an unidentified issue, then one day on the side of a steep hill it became an identified issue. I’m talking about one of those situations when you find yourself unable to continue up a hill and want or need to turn around and go back down. Sometimes if the hill is steep enough or the soil is loose enough simply using the front brake to keep you from sliding back down the hill won’t work. Killing the motor won’t give you that extra engine breaking because with the Rekluse the rear wheel simply free wheels. Because of this freewheeling it makes it very difficult (In my case anyway) to turn the bike around especially if it’s a narrow trail and point it down hill, normally killing the motor would allow you to have the rear wheel locked up while you slide, wrestle and maneuver the bike until it’s headed back down hill. This problem may not happen very often especially with the Rekluses ability to continue chugging uphill without using the clutch, but even once can be once to many, especially if the bike ends up on top of you, which happened to me twice. One of the solutions is to have a hand operated rear brake this would allow you to be off the side of the bike and have the ability to lock the front and rear brake at the same time and not have to kill the motor.
Rekluse offers the option of retaining the clutch lever and having a very sano looking clutch lever and hand brake mounted on the same side for cable operated clutches, but does not offer one for the bikes that have hydraulic clutches, like KTM’s. (You can have a hand operated rear brake or a clutch but not both, I want both) So once again having more time and spare change than sense I decided to see if I could have both for my KTM.
I had the idea but not the skills or the tools to make this happen, so I enlisted the help of my friend Mark Gibson who has both. After some trial and error we came up with a combination using a mountain bike brake that had a small master cylinder, then made hydraulic lines to tie the clutch lever and the rear brake master cylinder together, unfortunately it didn’t work, tying the clutch lever into the rear brake master cylinder by stacking the banjo fittings on top of each other won’t work. Maybe that’s why Rekluse has a separate sleeve that screws into the top of the rear master cylinder, thus creating a master cylinder within a master cylinder.
So instead of reinventing the wheel I decided to use some of Rekluse’s parts. The bicycle hand brake didn’t have a way to bleed it properly so I also ordered a different bicycle hand brake one that had a larger reservoir, adjustable lever position and a way to bleed it. The tricky part again became adapting the hydraulic line to the new bicycle brake.
This is where Mark came in again, he was able to create a way to tie the two together. With that part solved I installed the new set up, the clutch lever was tied into the rear brake master cylinder and became the hand operated rear brake and the bicycle brake was used to operate the clutch.
Because of the size of the bicycle hand brake and stock hydraulic clutch, placement of those took a little time to find that happy medium of convenience for me, I ended up with the hand brake in a position similar to the front brake and the clutch underneath it almost straight down. With the Rekluse you very seldom need the clutch; I use it mainly for fanning it coming out of corners. But in the end they both work well.
Next came testing the new set up, my main concerns besides how well it would work were, I’m a brake dragger so how will this set up handle the heat build-up since I had to take off the aftermarket extra capacity reservoir and install a sleeve where fluid is stored in the master cylinder effectively reducing the storage capacity. My other concern was if I should boil off some of the fluid the only way to fill the system was by way of the hand brake reservoir.
After the project was finished it took forever for the weather to cooperate enough before I could go anywhere to test it. The first test came at a Hare and Hound east of Fernley NV. It worked perfect for the desert race, but the real test would come in the mountains. The next test came at the Sawmill Enduro at Cow Mountain and again it worked perfect.
The advantages of having a hand and foot operated rear brake can be numerous, helping out on the sides of hills as I mentioned above is one, but there also times when I could use my right leg and foot for something other than pressing down on the rear brake lever, like when going down steep hills, or when making a right hand turn by using your right leg for something other than applying the rear brake might be more beneficial.
Anyway so far I’m totally happy with way the system works and it took virtually no time to adapt to it, so never let it be said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Doug
#21J
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 1:17PM Sierra Old Timer MX at Famed Honey Lake Track
Who would have thought that a bunch of Geezers would have an International Motocross at a world class facility? Well, it is back! After a few year hiatus the SIERRA OTMX Club is returning to Larry Wosick’s world renowned motocross track located in Northern California.
If you have been around the sport as most Old-timers’ (read GEEZERS) have for some time, you probably remember names like Saddleback Park, Carlsbad raceway and Indian Dunes as tracks that became known worldwide with riders from around the world making the pilgrimage to ride one of these tracks at least once in their lifetime.
Those places no longer exist but there are still a few places to race that should be high on any moto-geezer’s bucket list. Unadilla New York, Red Bud Michigan, Washougal Washington and Honey Lake MX in Northern California.
I have been fortunate enough to ride all of these tracks mentioned (no age wise cracks!) and can tell you from personal experience that Honey Lake is at the top of the list! When you first pull into the track it is overwhelming. You can’t even see all of the track it is so big. It is a real motocross track with hills and natural terrain instead of an outdoor supercross that the tracks have become in recent years. The uphill is almost overwhelming! As you look up you think to yourself, “Do I really get to ride to the top of that hill?”
Then when you do ride to the top of that hill you are glad to be there because it is so long and so steep you realize you are tired from hanging on!
The whole track is incredible with natural terrain that incorporates uphill, downhill, off camber turns, banked turns, dips and natural terrain obstacles that we rarely have the chance to ride anymore.
It is such a great facility that motorcycle manufacturers have used the place for testing new models of bikes over the years. Several magazines and Cycle News have used it for testing and evaluations for their publications. Now it is our turn to race on it as part of the International Oldtimer MX series.
Do yourself a favor and ride this track while you still can. The owner, Larry Wosick has spend years perfecting his track and does an incredible job on an almost unbelievable track that we once again have the opportunity to experience.
Mark May 7 & 8 on your calendar,
See you there!
#33
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 10:10PM Many of us have beeen around dirt bikes for many years and have tried many different types of riding. MX, Enduro, Desert all bring a different experience. I've always thought it tough to beat the rush I get from trying to get through the first turn in the lead at a big MX. However, I've always been curious about what it is like to get around a real road course on a race bke. I recently got a note from my good friend Scott Link of Alpinestars. Scott had the pleasure of riding at the famed Barber Motosports Park. Here is what he had to say and yes this looks like lots of FUN!
Hello Art,
Recently, a friend of mine invited me to do a two day track-day at beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. Brian Van provided me with a “full race” Yamaha R-6. All I needed to do was show up and ride. It was first class treatment! My level of racing experience is fairly broad: Flat track, TT, Speedway, MX, and various kinds of off-road racing. However, I had never been on a road race bike. Something wasn’t right with this. I needed to close the loop and experience road racing.
The track-day was operated by sportbiketracktime.com. The event was really well organized. The staff was extremely kind and helpful. Their style of communication is straight forward. Each day starts with a relevant riders’ meeting. After the riders’ meeting, the novice riders are called into the classroom and provided more instruction. This additional information later proved to be extremely valuable because the “safety riders” focus on protocol and touch on riding fundamentals. On the track the riders are separated into three skill levels. Each group of has around four “safety riders” mixed into the group. The “safety riders” control the action on the track. We rode a total of eight, twenty-minute sessions each day. The first session the novice riders follow each other. There is no passing unless instructed by the “safety rider”. During the second novice session the pace is stepped up. By the third novice session, riders were allowed go as fast as they wanted (or could). The rule is no passing other riders on the inside entering a turn. This is a good rule to avoid the obvious, and requires much more thought. Attached there is a photo of me riding. The photo looks like an instructional photo on the CHP training manual: rider should be straight up and down to avoid the possible loss of traction. Trust me, I was trying to lean the bike over. They say that it takes time. My knee sliders were safe!
I felt safe and comfortable in my Alpinestars gear and I looked like I knew what I was doing (until I rode)! I plan on doing another track day ASAP. I want to continue to improve. Now, when I watch Moto GP I’ll have an even greater appreciation for the world’s best road racers.
Best, Scott
