1. Norman 2. Kamo 3. Sutherlin 4. Argubright 5. Underwood 6. Abbott Dave Pearson DNF'd. When I went by him he was having a siesta on the side of the trail and his bike was parked against a fence. There was NO rear tire on his bike.
WOW Kendall again!!! he is on a roll, and young Jake A in the top five! Dave got some fotos and course report? I am sure you guys had a good one up there with this seasons moisture!! Good work you beat KTMs own big Dave Pearson Its a fun claim to beat a top pro, I once beat Steve Hatch...........he ran out of gas on his RM250!!! ZipTy team??
in the 2005 desert mtn enduro in AZ, hatch passed me and I followed him all the way up a steep switchbacked hill. He was dog-paddling the whole way. Then we got to the top and he went away pretty quickly, lol. Back to national yesterday, I debuted my new wr300 at this race, since my normal race bike hasn't been resuscitated from the round 3 deluge yet. The bike worked awesome in the rocks and tight stuff, but was still a little unstable in the open stuff, and kinda loose-feeling in the sand. I had to be cautious in the occasional huge sand whoops. There's a little bit of an imbalance front to back for desert stuff right now. I'm going to start by double-checking the sag this weekend and then doing some test runs with a little more compression damping in the front, and maybe a few other minor changes to see if i can dial it out. my hands were happier than they would be on the kx. I guess that's an advantage of softer forks.
you communicate with Ty and company? His WR300 seems to be dialed in for H&H adventures, they may have a few shortcuts to your goals. Cant wait for fotos!! Thanks for keepin the post going!
I'm sure if i just give a suspension guy some money, he'll get it pointed in the right direction, lol. I'm gonna start with getting adjusted as close as I can with the clickers, and then work from there.
Robert -- Here is a link to some photos: http://www.43northphotography.com Here is a race report too: Conditions -- It was pretty mild day [60s] and fairly dusty. Not blinding dust but enough to cloud your vision a bit. There was a bit of a breeze to help, but not much. Bomb run -- Got right behind Dave Pearson for my B wave start. He got the holeshot by the way. I got a good start but the run was pretty nerve racking. Halfway through there was a draw you had to negotiate. So I slammed through that and still had clear air. At the end of the bomb the course took a sharp left hand turn into a wash. To enter the wash you had to go down about a 10' bank. Since there wasn't any pre-running -- this was news to me. So I hit the brakes hard and managed to get in the draw no issues [although the pucker factor rose a bit]. I heard there was quite a pileup coming down this bank but didn't see it. Onto the course -- One of the problems with nailing the bomb run is I was holding on so tight that my right arm cramped something fierce and I could hardly twist the throttle. So I wasn't able to push for the first 20 or so miles. The course was pretty fast with lots of sand washes [high speed sandy stuff] and some fun twisty trails [mostly smaller washes]. When we got out of the washes the trails were wide, fast and fun. I need to learn how to ride those washes at speed. My bike was dancing and I hard a hard time really pushing it [need a stabilizer maybe?]. Props to you real desert guys for going so fast through that stuff. That being said, I just tried to ride my pace the first loop in anticipation of the more technical [and longer] second loop. Came through the first loop 5th in class [Senior B] and felt good about that as I had the cramping issue and didn't really push it. My thinking was I would be able to make up a little time even on the technical stuff, because that is what I ride more often. Pitted and headed out on some really fun, twisty single track. Riding at my normal pace I was doing pretty good, even picking off a rider or two and not getting passed all that much. The trail turned a little technical and I caught 5 or 6 guys and we all sort of bunched up. Shortly thereafter [around 10 miles into the 59 mile 2nd loop], I threw me and the bike into about an 8' gully. The group I caught up to created some dust and I took an outside line. The trail turned left and I went straight. I realized my error and got hard on the brakes but it wasn't enough and launched off the side and impact the bank on the other side. I tweaked the front tire pretty good and completely broke my left aluminum handguard off [It broke totally off both mounting points]. I hit the bars with my chest and landed hard on the tank with my crotch. I saw stars. As I was figuring out where I was some guy did the exact same thing and crashed. His cartwheeling bike hit me square in the back and knocked my about 5' away with his bike landing on me. The worst part was his dry break cracked open and spilled about a gallon of gas on my midsection and crotch. I seriously cannot tell you how much it burned. I thought about stripping down and dumping my camelback over my body to stop the stinging even. After about 10 minutes I was able to get my bike straightened out, get myself squared away and push on. I thought about bagging it but, aside from my stinging crotch, I wanted to finish. I didn't have much left and rode pretty conservatively all the way in. I couldn't have gone much faster -- I was spent. The second loop was 59 miles. At 32 I stopped and got some gas at e-gas. Super helpful folks there. I can't say enough about the club and the support. First rate. Shortly after e-gas I came upon some poor guy who was laying there with a broken leg. He passed me on the first loop and was riding good, so it must have been a real bummer. A couple of guys were trying to coax some others [including myself] to stay and help out, but with my unit [and entire midsection] on fire from the gas in my pants -- I decided to push on. Rolled into the pits a bit later. It was really too bad I blew it because the 2nd loop was much more fun and to my liking. I ended up 11th in class [dropping about 15 minutes relative to where I came through at the half way point]. I'm pretty disappointed but glad I finished. I felt ok about my speed and absent my crash I probably would have ended up about 4th to 6th. If "ifs and buts" were.... yada yada yada. All in all, not a bad event. I'm paying for it today. I have a bruise on my chest the size of a small child, my right nut is the size of a softball, and I have a rash on my waist from the gas [where my toolbelt was]. But -- I have a finisher pin.
I drove up Friday left So Calif at 5 AM and rolled into Nampa Id at 9 pm not bad for 900 plus miles .Sat out to the start area unloaded and went for a ride up into the snow with my friends john,levi and Kendal Norman the overall winner.We went trail riding so far back into the hills we got stuck in the snow and had to push for awhile .Idaho is so asome and the trails are so good .After about 4 hours of high mountain riding headed back to the pits.Nic Burson showed up and he parked next to us his buddy Matt said he would pit me an my friend John .Sunday morning lined up next to Nic as the banner dropped i left as poor Nic was doing a 2 kick start but soon pasted me . I rode my WR 250 i am really trying to like this bike but i think i should have brought the 125 .The 250 is fast and has tons of power which was needed on the first loop because of all the soft deep sand washes .Loop 2 had much more harder ground so i think i would have been faster on the 125 .MAYBE a new FACTORY 144 is in need not a big bore kit i want a factory 144 bike .Any way had a good ride but i just have not got my speed back since my crash back like 3 months ago .I thought i was going fine at least i had fun but i finished 6 th in over 50 A . Race started at 11am i finished around 3 pm loaded up and drove all night to get home at 9am today .Now we have 3 weeks to go until Utha round 5 where i will be on the 125 again unless it rains and the ground is wet then it is back on the 250. PS the club did a great job one of the best marked courses i ever rode and i will try to make it again next year
good stuff!! MotoSapiens Imsure the club will get you pin as a finisher, I would talk to the club stewart. Dave that sounds super ugly glad no serious injury especially the other bike nailing you in the back, scary stuff. John good stuff and long drives, what the heck happened to Nick and the ZIp Ty crew?
Nic was the only Zip Ty racer there As i stated he got a bad start which at this race was importannt since it was mostly single track. I heard he worked his way up to like top 5 then missed a turn and when he got turn around again he had to work his way back up .The club has him posted as 9th overall still not bad for this race
It was a rough day for me but in the end it wasn't to bad. Finished 9th Overall I have a race report up on my website. www.nickburson.com
Nick, glad you pushed up into the single digit finish after the misfortunes without pushing the safety envelope too much. Tech info question 450 or 510? TC or TXC? (just for cafe info)
I had a buddy who was racing in the event and thought he was hauling ass. Dave Pearson passed him like he was idling with no rear tire. He took off all hair on fire to try and catch him, way over his head and endo'd it into a ravine. Managed to pass him once Pearson's rear wheel footballed and he was parked. Walt
