Dust, dust, dust dust and more dust. Lots of it!
Saturday I replaced front sprocket and chain on my bike and could not
replace rear because I bought the wrong sprocket, but the old wasn't
*that* bad and I surely could squeeze one more ride out of it.
Sunday we gathered at Paulo's car garage business to meet with seven
more riders, load bikes on a S10 truck and two three rail trailers and
head to Gravatá, about 100km inland. The plan was to ride to Serra
Negra, the rock garden that is one of the best riding spots on state.
It sure feels cramped in the middle of the back seat of the S10 with
two large guys on my side, but all things done for fun worth it.
After a later leave and lots of delays, we got into riding. Three
XR250 Tornado, two CRF230F and one XR200R (brz version with disk brake
and e-start), one XL350 kick start and one XL350 e-start. We started
riding easy back roads. These roads were covered with a five
centimeters layer of very thin clay. The one that if you look at it it
turns into yellow dust. At the back of the pack, visibility was zero.
You could not see your front fender. It looked like the most serious
case of fog that ever happened in the world, only that the fog was
yellow and thick, not white <g>. To get into Serra Negra, we have to
ride in front of two brick factories. Who once went to a brick factory
knows what's in there: 20cm thick layer of fine red/yellow clay
powder. Looks like sand, bike feels like riding on top of sand, but
unlike sand, it produces a really huge cloud of dust. Man, I tell ya:
at least here in this corner of the world, few people have the chance
to see that much dust.
We finally hit the single track, cow paths leading to steep boulder
infested hills. We had lots of fun watching the older CRF230F dude
getting stuck on a rock in the middle of the single track that to
clear it, he had to hit it square in second or third gear and rev bike
up, lift the front wheel and jump out of it, but not too fast to miss
the corner right after it and end up entangled on the bushes. Guy
(50+) wasn't willing to hit that fast enough and of course had trouble
going through. One of the XR250 guys went just a little too slow,
crashed and bent the clutch lever in an "U" shape.
Poor Paulo (130kg), he was completely out of breath half way up the
mountain. This is a very high chain of mountains that you climb and
climb and climb. We stopped half an hour for him to breath. If he
smoked cigarretes one after another, like his 50+ friend on the CRF,
he'd be toast. The CRF guy was tired, but not like Paulo, who was
looking he was going to have a stroke. Paulo is 40+ and was once state
champion on what we call speed enduro: a long course (30km+) mixing
wide straights and tight single track where you do laps as fast as you
can and the first one to cross the line wins.
We stopped at a bar to have lunch, after getting all the way up on the
moutain. Chicken, beans, rice, tomatoes, onions, a goat stomach filled
with cooked blood and intestines, all washed down with water, coca-
colas, beer... :-)
On the way back, the guy on the XL350 e-start noticed his shock was
blown. Too bad! Because of that, he crashed in a movie-like way. The
cloud of dust was amazing. He did not get hurt, but broke the perch
for the front brake. Time to slow down, which was a good thing,
because CRF guy was toast. Not long after, he found himself with a
flat front and plan was riding to the highway and wait for us to go
back to Gravata, pick his car and go rescue him. His son (on the
XR200) teamed with one of the guys on a XR250 to go as fast as they
could, while the rest of us would go slower to not let friend without
brake behind.
That got ugly: XR200 guy, being a 18yo and riding a feather weight
bike, never noticed that XR250 guy got a rear flat and kept going as
fast as he could, missing the right turn and disappearing from XR250
guy sight... Problem was, his father's car was on the XR250's house
and he did not knew how to get there and got lost...
We went even slower and got into house just before dark. And no sign
of XR200 guy. So, we decided to go after them after several failed
attempts of contact on cell phones. The XR200 guy obviously was lost,
but was found not far from house and was leaded back, while folks were
going on rescue of his father.
While that, we kept on drinking beers :-) After a little more than an
hour, they arrived, we packed and left... Arriving our neighborhood by
9:30pm.
Now I am with my nose full of clay. I think I'm going to collect the
dirt and making a pot out of it, I guess I have enough clay in my
lungs to make a nice one <g> I will make sure if riding in Serra Negra
area again to wear one of those dust masks...
-- Tiago
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> with cooked blood and intestines, all washed down with water, coca-
> colas, beer... :-)
> Now I am with my nose full of clay. I think I'm going to collect the
> dirt and making a pot out of it,