Same here, I ditched the goggles after the first 10 minutes. Luckily I'm not fast enough to get stuck in anyone's roost..
Classic coincidence at the 1997 Tecate Enduro on my KTM300EXC I was minute 25 race number 1 251, same number as 2014 Tecate Enduro on my (KTM) Husky TE300.
I carried yellow safety glasses, so if a google removal was needed I was good to go and eye protected. Old school memories from north east coast riding.
I told you guys the course was challenging.. 2nd half of test 5 on the 3rd loop. near the beginning there is a guy on a Yamaha stopped , I got hung up there and took a break in the same spot directing others around me on the line that this rider took. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_EQcWKvrBw&feature=youtu.be
Loop 1 test 2 from Erek Kudla- thanks for posting Erek! Buddy Tim at viddy min 927, at 1040 is the down hill into check-see fotos above. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJ-sAool44
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xfi6JkeRd8 Note Erek Kudla is the promoter of Get X Treme series and the always great WestChec Enduro series, his races are always the best managed and organized events around--and most bang for your buck fun as well. http://instagram.com/p/wYZ-NHRnMq/
Wow, what a fun race! It was my first motorcycle race of any kind, and I don't think I could have chosen a better one. It was pretty much a dream day. I was on Mike Kay's line (he's a good friend of Jack, my friend who encouraged me to go down there). Of our group of 7 racers, I was the only one who finished (67th overall, 17th in Vet class). We were directly behind Ramirez, and Jack had said that a good plan would be to keep him in sight. We kept him in sight for about 3 seconds after he started at the resets... I didn't know it was possible to hour out once we started the 3rd loop, so I backed way off and basically rode at a trail riding pace the rest of the way--I'm lucky to have not been cut! I think the 5th timed section was technically the most difficult, but the 4th section was pretty strenuous since it was so continuous. If the 3rd loop had really been harder than that I bet the number of finishers would have been cut in half. I believe I met Jake at the party after the race. I was on my clapped-out KTM 200 (with Kayaba forks), but from his raving it sounds like I may be looking for a WR144 to replace it, since I'm small & am always searching for the smallest, lightest bike that will do the job (and I'm totally over PDS). In this race in particular there was almost nowhere a 450 would have been an advantage, save the few short sand wash sections where I was really wringing my 200's neck. I think I also met Cyril (was he the guy with the Vanagon Westy?). I drove my blue '85 Vanagon there from Tahoe with my bike on the bumper. Good times! If every moto race were like this one I'd be totally addicted!
I rode with a pair of goggles with the upper and lower foam pulled out. Had a regular set in my back-pack. Works great that way.
Not 100% positive, but I belive that is Jeff Evans & the bike that disappears on him at the start is Jordan Brandt.
Whoa! I didn't realize you were so "seasoned"! By no means is that a "old" joke. Haha, Thats awesome. Hope I can still roost as well as you do in 15 years. I'm hoping that's "faded red" on those pants and not pink...
If it isn't dusty, this works well. I'm thinking about gluing some window screen, in place of the foam, for when it's muddy. I've had small clods of mud get inside, when it's really wet.
Here is a few of my thoughts on the challenge of this event This was probably in my top 3 of most difficult events to finish. The terrain itself was not super hard most of the time. But where it was hard there were bikes littered across the course steaming and bouncing off the rev limiter. The hard part was the relentlessness of the event. It was listed at 101 miles, maybe 3 miles of that was what I would consider road 7-8 miles of 2 track. So you got 90 miles of epic single track. No breaks, no gravel transfers, and some of the longest special tests of any Enduro I have entered. In my opinion they really tried to mess with people and bait them into racing the first loop. It was the easiest of them and would have been fun to push really hard. I was well aware that I just needed to maintain a solid safe pace to get to the finish. The pace to stay on time was 15.5 miles per hour total average, 13.5 to finish using all the time. 18.5 if you used the 45 minutes for the gas/lunch stops. The key was to keep moving, the average to finish was doable, the average to finish on time was not. I don't even think the top guys finished on time. Idaho city/Devils head both have some fairly large gravel road sections they have to use so they keep the times down so people are not making up time/racing on the roads. This Enduro had none of those types of breaks. Relentless is the only way to describe it, and really really awesome! I managed to keep my plan of finishing and finishing safely, the bike never tipped over once. One of Roberts friends was lamenting my choice to go with no pipe guard, I was getting nervous about my nice shiny Doma that is not really an off the shelf item for these bikes. I also noticed everyone was running a shark fin front and rear, most of them were heavily used. Luckily for me the bike came away with minimal damage, mostly scratches and the titty slapper brush took both of my radiator louvers. The throttle cable debacle was another issue all together, that was frustrating. It was a motion pro that is only 5/6 months old and it broke right at the ball on the end of the throttle tube. My trail side repair had 4 versions, all of them involved vice grips. #1 I tried locking the throttle at 1/4 or so and using the clutch/kill switch to regulate the power. That probably would have led to an ambulance ride/blown enhine/cooked clutch. Next was just a high idle, this worked okay for the down hills and had me pushing on the up hills. Third was with the vice grips in front of the grip rolling it forward for power, not sure why I didn't see the flaw in this logic earlier before I tried to slow down and almost looped out. The final version had the vice grips on the back of the throttle tube rolling it normally. I had to squeeze hard and it only left me with 1/4 throttle or so but I was able to get through those last 10 miles with little more than a blister across my thumb. Other than that my gear/bike setup were pretty much spot on, I used a fly racing vented jersey with an long sleeve under armor shirt for the first two loops. At the end of the second special test I ditched the cold weather Novik gloves in favor of the Fly lite seamless palm gloves that have become my favorite for racing. My hands had started sweating a bit so I wanted to stop that before blisters started. I ditched the under shirt at the lunch stop then got a bit cold on the transit before the first special. That seemed to invigorate me a bit and put a bit of fire in the stove for the 5th special, the one that never ended. I still don't know where the end of it was. The counter to that bit of good news I had to pee when I rolled up to the special, I just went before leaving the lunch stop so the hydration strategy was working. To that point I had 100 ounces water with a light dose of Hammer Heed to help with the energy levels, plus a gatoraid at the lunch with a refill of water. I left with a fresh camelback of heed/water so I was good for the home stretch. When I rolled into test 5 I had 30 seconds before my minute was out, I opted to just complain and not stop to pee. I rode past the end of the test at some point, but it wasn't obvious to me at the time that I was out of the test and could stop to pee. Then the throttle cable snapped and the opportunity was there to relieve my ever rising pressure. It also gave me some time to ponder the little conundrum I was in. A look at the test loop, the goal here is to not get hurt haha. The start and first mile or so... Pretty cool vibe, I knew early on that I was not going to get into a battle with my friend Trav, he is faster and in better shape than me. That would have hurt my chances to finish greatly! More videos in a bit, I really had an awesome time and had some great hospitality from the entire socal crew! Later,
Also catch and passing Ty Davis at the end of loop 2 was a surreal moment, I did a double take as I went by and almost crashed. That left me scratching my head for a bit wondering what the hell could have happened. Glad to hear is was just a bit of illness and not injury. Later,
Jake thanks for posting you guys really came saw and conquered!! Good on ya!! great trail fix and adapting to the throttle issue, last I heard it is a 1/3 33% finish rate. details and scores are still being checked and rechecked
The fence post incident...my mantra "never show off".......hey watch this!!! Ahead of me were people scattering from the fence. I just know someone will have video....
