Dirt bikes

How many days did that take you to do? Did you ride at night?

 

5 days. About 930 miles of special and 250 of transit. Nothing at night. Typical day is about 0600 to the 1pm on course.

Only one day was particularly physically demanding. I had my heart rate strap on and it tracked about 7000 calories burned. It’s the mental side of constant navigation and road book reading combined with sleeping in a different place every night since leaving Seattle that starts to increase the difficulty. Nothing in particular is technical. It wears you down with high speeds and constant activity. Also something is probably going to break. Baja has its ways.

 

That is what I found absolutely exhausting in both the Baja 1000 and Baja 500's. The focus and concentration at speed for extended periods wore me out. And, at desert racing speeds, a small lapse in concentration has really dire consequences. I trained hard and never had a physical issue on the bike - hands, legs, back, etc. It was the constant mental work that wore me down. I trust you found it the same: good physically from your training and preparation, but being "on" for so long and handling/worrying about all the different aspects, navigation, bike maintenance, course changes, crew and support . . . it is a lot in a multi-day event.

Again, big congratulations. No small feat of accomplishment, and the memories will last a lifetime. And, trust me, the stories will get better and better with the passage of time.

2 thumbs up.

Cheers,

Dave

 

Exactly. You nailed it. Every time my mind wandered something would happen. Miss a nav point, overcook a corner and have to use some raw desert, or even just hit a fist sized rock at 90 instead of seeing it.

I tried to be cool jumping a cattle guard 20 miles from the end of the whole race and about bought the farm when the nav tower shoved my helmet and goggles up to where I couldn’t see. That was a long ass-chewing inside the helmet. I wish my camera was on so I could play it back when I need it.

 

Congratulations!!!! That is sooooo impressive.

I can’t even imagine what that would take to accomplish. I’ve ridden dirt bikes on and off for 46 years but I’ve never done a hare scramble, enduro, or long desert race.

Actually I’ve never raced a dirt bike

 

Platinum Man Card for anyone pursuing such endeavors.

...And here I thought I was bad-ass for completing Sniper Elite 3 on "Authentic". No saves - you die, you start over. Windage/elevation in full effect, no health packs, enemies are all elites and their snipers don't miss.
It did take a lot longer than five days, tho'.

 

Some good photos of #58 on the ADVrider thread - start of last day?

Cheers,

Dave

 

Yeah, 52 and 81 were with me and the rest of our 8 man crew.

BTW, the two up couple that won overall are:

1. Amazing people.
2. Know what the fuck is up down there.

The first time I did this in '19 I thought there was no way I would get beat by a 2up. Then I learned how well that dude can ride, how dialed that setup is for super high speed and how much knowing how to read terrain at those speeds matters.

I will also run GPS next time now that I feel I can run the roadbook well enough. It's tempting to think "I'll smoke anyone riding 2 up." Go for it is all I have to say about that.

 

Anyone need a 2019 RMZ 450 with 40 hours on it? Not mine but selling for a friend.. Bike in Owensboro Ky... 5K

 

I don’t need one, but that sounds like a pretty good deal.

I need a KTM350 EXC-F or possibly a bigger one but I’ve heard great things about the 350 and I rode a 2015-2018ish one and really liked it.

 

Need? Yea like a hole my head.

 

Last weekend was supposed to be 2 flat track races for me. The first was supposed to be the dirty - O half mile in Joliet on Friday night before AFT. That rained out. We were still able to make it down to Central Illinois Motorcycle Club for Sunday and man oh man was it a blast. It's just shy of a half mile and kind of setup like the Peoria TT. Has a jump and an up and down hill into turn 3. I wasn't too sure how these programs work so I only entered 1 class. I should have entered 3 classes but oh well now I know. Ended up 4 in the 40+ Senior class and had some great battles with the boyz out there. The old 2004 2 stroke YZ250 seems to work just fine to have some fun and get into this genre of motorcycle racing but I know I'm going to want a 450 sooner or later. Next stop is the Dairyland Classic in Plymouth Wi before Moto America.

 

My 92 WR250ZD hangs just fine with the 450s for Supermoto, I see no reason to get one of those complicated, multiple valve firing every other rotation contraptions.

 

The Dairyland is a cool race, at a great track, assuming no rain. Infield floods when the heavens open. Best luck in your race!

 

I finally bought a Tubliss kit for my rear wheel and then read that it's recommended to only use a new tire when installing. My rear tire has plenty of life left so I was hoping to reuse it. Any body here reuse their tires when installing Tubliss? I've read that using Slime to install can make it all work fine?

 

New tires, old tires, I take the TuBliss on and off and reuse, I don't care. They're not infallible, but they're pretty amazing all in all.

Having said that, we ride a lot of rocky stuff, and I was getting a lot of front flats still. I switched to a Mousse, and so far so good.

 

Me too. Biggest problem I had in Baja was getting speed drunk, I guess you’d call it, rolling along at high speeds mile after mile then suddenly encountering something dangerous and technical—cliff turn, rock pile, washout, whatever. Strange and risky riding rhythm there.

 

So, kind of like riding Michigan trails.

 

Nice. Yeah I'm using a mousse up front, just like to mess with pressures out back a bit more so I'm trying tubeless.