Hey there Tommyboy. Good to see another Cafe guy racing Floriduh. RD#2 was my club's race so I spent 7-8 hrs a day in the woods. It's much easier to race an event than help put one on for sure. Here's another copter-cam vid of some of the starts. View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upMBphdSWik&feature=youtu.be I'll be at Bartow, you race Sat or Sun?
I use to race both, but concentrating my efforts on Saturdays Senior Evo classes and an occasional Sunday Golden Master A. Our club does the Brooksville event and we all help out at Dade City.
RD#3 was the Salute to Veteran's HS today in Bartow. I got a so-so start with 30 on the MasterC line. About 5-6 mi out tried a risky pass(yea I was getting impatient) on a dry grassy off-camber straight(yea, I'm a dummy) & kinda spun around in a circle. Took a minute or so to get back on the trail & headed in the right direction. Took off & was passing alot of riders, from my row & some others. Ended up 9th on 1st lap, & everything was just gelling. Started picking off more & more guys, they would take the alternate smooth line & I would blast down the beat up one & beat them to the corner. It was getting fun, made about 6 passes on the second lap that way. The scoring monitor had me 5th in class on lap 2, so I put my head down for my 3rd & final lap. This 310 worked soooo good today, gobbling up the rough stuff & the many off camber trails with ease. Came through the final time to see "3rd" on the scoreboard A real podium finish And my last lap time was the 4th fastest in the class. Had a great day, hope to see some good pix from this one...
Well, your day sounds better than mine. On Saturday, I noticed that the rubber stop glued under the bottom of the kick start lever on the clutch cover had gotten lost somewhere and I didn't have a replacement with me. I took a bad inner tube, and cut a section eight inches in length and wrapped the bottom of the kick starter a number of times and use four zip ties to keep it in place to protect the cover from being struck by the kicker assembly. After the practice lap, I had some free time and did some minor adjustments on the bike. I waited to just before race time to top off the tank and put in a fresh plug. Removed the plug and the threads in the head self destructed. I didn't have time before the race to get it repaired and watched instead of riding.
My cat scratched my dogs eye on Thursday. It turned blue and swelled up pretty nasty. My wife spent the day at the Animal Eye Vet Specialist on Friday. $676 dollars later I have a bottle of eye drops, a cream, and no race money. Oh well. That was my favorite track. Maybe next time.
Oh wow, hope ya both got your bad luck out of the way. That's the challenge with racing vintage bikes, just getting them to the line in one piece. And my dog picks on the cat relentlessly, I'm waiting for that to happen, lol. Maybe we'll get to see ya at Maxville. That's a good track also. So now I have a 5th & 2 3rd place finishes. Maybe I can get to the "B" row b4 Xmas.
Finally getting some pix up, gotta join the facebook so I can see the rest.... Got my usual mid-pack start, gotta work on that I guess, lol
Hi all, RD#4 was in Maxville, SW of Jacksonville, hosted by the RiverCityDirtRiders. This should have been RD#1 but was flooded on the original date, held on a tree farm with very little elevation. Low turn-out for this one so only 18 on the MasterC line. Got another mid-pack start but quickly moved up, until a vine somehow caught my front brake lever sending me into the bushes. Grrr, got back under way & re-passing the same ones from earlier. About 4mi in caught a rut & went over the bars. Well at least I'm going fast enough to go over the bars instead of just falling over, haha. Jump back on & get going, suddenly something feels funny, kinda wet. Aaarghhh, I busted my hydro bladder & now have 85oz of ice-cold water running down my crack & into my boots. I start drinking as much as I can b4 it's all gone, it's 55degrees & cloudy, not a good feeling. Outta water, I just put my head down & try to move up through the pack. 8th after 1st lap, 5th after 2nd, tackling the small endurocross section with ease. Start seeing some blue plates ahead & pick up the pace. Damn this is fun. Make another pass by railing the outside beat up line. Now in 4th heading to the flag, but going into some whoops 1 mi from the finish I get messed up & take a handlebar to the gut & shut off the bike. Then the bike won't start, dammit. Get going after what seemed like forever & lose 2 spots, ending up 6th. What a blast, earned another plaque but no advancement points which is what I really wanted. Every race this bike gets better, flameouts are a thing of the past, unless I'm in too hi a gear. May get the Earth-X battery since I had the starting problem. 2 more HS & a GP in the next 3 weeks if I can make them all. Also probably going to the TC oil drain plug & vent filter for the crazy hose routing. Pics soon......
The 500 was ready for Maxville and ran fine in the practice lap. Tight and rough course for the older bikes to run unless you have some super modified suspension setup. Anyway, ran fine the first lap but my left aftermarket foot peg got bent down due to the bouncing around on the course on the second lap and this was a course that required a lot of standing. On the third lap and new noise appeared and I did finish the lap and went to the pits, dropped off the bike and watched the rest of the race. The following race this past weekend was in Samsula and I thought the problem was resolved, tested the bike and before loading up in the trailer for the jog across the state, the noise reappeared and sidelined me for this event. I opened the clutch side cover and discovered one of the tangs on the clutch basket broke and disintegrated and that was the noise I heard every once in a while. I'm now looking for a new clutch basket. The old one was a solid billet unit and had holes on the backside where the gear was attached on the back.
RD#5 Samsula FL. Well, had another good day on the little 310. This course is very enduro like, tight & nasty. Just enuff rain gave really good dirt & some mud. Still getting so-so starts, only my 4th race on the bike. Went into 1st turn around 20th with 28 on the line. Started movin on up, making good use of alternate lines in the woods. Some worked, some didn't, haha. Came through scoring on lap 1 feeling good but not seeing my position. See my buddy Shaun up ahead. He ALWAYS gets a good start, so I think I'm up close to the front. Since Shaun runs 2 gopros, front & back, I decide to hang out right behind him & get some camera time, lol. So 2nd lap goes pretty good, working through the 7 or so mud holes on the course. On the last whooped out section b4 scoring I figured I followed him too long & blast by & into the chicane. !!2nd place!! Ok, so I went from 20th to 3rd on the 1st lap. Cool. Now in 2nd, I have no idea how far ahead the leader is, so just maintaining position is the plan. At one point, Shaun gets by & shortly after that catches a rut in the mud & does a beautiful belly flop into the soup, I laugh out loud & hollar "Good one dude". Have a few minor tip-overs the rest of the way & come home 2nd, best finish ever. Added 5 more advancement points so I'm only another 2nd place from "B" class. Will post pics soon. Wow, just checked the scores. I'm tied for FIRST in MasterC after 5 events !!
Go to the web site: www.floridatrairlriders.org and on the front page near the top, key on Events/Scores, then key on Scores. You should get the scoring page for all FTR events. Target HS and you will get hare scramble results. With some looking around you should find the information you seek.
I need to get a new front tire for my 450. What tire do you recommend in the FTR series? I would like something that can also take some road miles since I still like to ride my TE to work e few times a year. I have a Desert IT on there now but it is on its last leg. I am hoping to make it to the Carlton ranch and brooksville race this year.
Hi there Swampds, good to see another CH guy in FTR. I like the Michelin S-12XC for here, but not sure how they would hold up on the road. So what class would ya be in? Ya may ask on the FTR forum, there is a few guys that dual sport alot.
I run the S-12XC for hare scrambles too. Like street2dirt said, I don't know about any long term street riding on this compound as it may be to soft. Check with the FTR forum or dixiedualsport.com riders and perhaps they can give you some more insight. Consider having a second pair of wheels, the first with racing tires, the second with dual sport tires. It might me a large initial investment but should pay off in the end and you could always sell that second set later if you didn't need it and get most of your money back.
