Perfect conditions! Ride Report

 

When I say to people that is best coming to my slice of world from
september to may, it is because between late may and late august it
rains a lot. Geographically speaking, we have only two well defined
seasons: summer, from september to may and winter, the rest of the
months. During summer, dust is plenty. During winter, mud is more than
plenty! However, sometimes late in the winter and on the very
beginning of the year the conditions get perfect: Either it stop
raining or it rains strong for a couple days. Saturday's ride was one
of those rides that gathers the perfect conditions. One entire week of
no rain whatsoever (months that I don't know what is a day that
doesn't rain!). Of course, it rained a lot this year, good for those
on the agriculture business and great for us trail riders. I advise
against winter because it would be frustrating: one entire day to ride
less than 50km that would cost a set of brake pads, a set of bearings
and cause you muscle pain for an etire week (well, at least for me,
that ain't an athlete). You can hit the jackpot and arrive on the week
of the perfect condition like last saturday.

Since we repaired the electrics on Gabriel's bike, last weekend, I was
sure he was going to try to arranje a ride for this weekend. I called
him friday, about 8pm and he was still working with Eduardo, they're
are kind of partners on the construction business and said he did not
knew if he was going riding after all, but he called me late that
night saying "be ready by 8am!" :-)

He arrived - alone - at my home by 8:15am. Eduardo (XR350 e-start),
Fabio (XR200 e-start, he's a taxi driver and this is his second ride
with our group) and Alex (XTZ125 e-start, first ride after being
unemployed for over an year) were waiting for us at the gas station.
Seems that Gabriel owns the only kick start bike of the pack and of
course he was the one that wanted to ride the most, but, was as soon
as we hit the dirt, he noticed a flat front tire... Tire shop not far,
half an hour and USD3 later, we got his tire fixed. Lots of fun
watching Eduardo and Gabriel, who works together most of the days,
arguing about how to remove the tube from the tire - the shop was more
than full and we decided to borrow their tools and do the job
ourselves, shop owner only charged for the cold patch.

Way too late for a start, but anyway, later is better than never,
right? We started as usual, crossing the railroad bridge and into the
Jar Trail. Eduardo decided to explore (pic 1) while us, the rest of
the crowd went through the hard way (pic 2, Fabio up front and Alex
follows). Alex is a real trooper. He used to have full gear, knobby
tires, a job... He lost his job and had to sell everything. Now, with
a job again, he wanted to go riding no matter what. We all know, it is
not ride, use your gear all the time, yada yada, but he's over 18 and
nobody pays his bills, and well, we all hope not having to carry
someone with a broken foot out of the trail. A real spode is pictured
on pic 3 (lol!) The XTZ is a pretty little bike ain't it? Gabriel was
happy with his bike, while Eduardo watches, after taking the easy path
(pic 4). From the jar trail we take an easy (?) trail, that's actually
pretty wide in some places, but with deep ruts. I, leading the way,
lost control of my bike while going downhill and endo-ed, breaking the
left side alluminum bark buster and banging my rebuilt (left) knee. It
took me 20 minutes and a lot of sips from my hydrapak to recover...
From there, started crashing at every possibility I could. I don't
know what was wrong with me. Even my riding buddies noticed how I was
dropping the bike every time...

From the jar trail, up to the antenna trail and it's steep downhill
(pics 5 & 6). After that, we gathered on the TST (pic 7) to ride to
the Zombie Woods, where a fallen tree made us struggle to go around.
We had no chainsaw, no axe, no nothing besides a small knife, that, of
course is completely useless against vines and trees. We had to yank
the vines out of the way by hand (pic 8). I think I dropped my bike
five or six times to cross this fallen tree. After the Zombie Woods,
there aren't much mud anymore, so, bikes never got more filthy than on
picture 9. The blue bike is my XR250 and Alex's XTZ is behind.

After a lunch of fish and fried macaxeira (that was horrible btw and
we are strongly considering never return to that place again), we
returned home, through the lamphouse ruins and the penguin trail - I
should take pictures of the penguim someday. Pict 11 was supposed to
be the last picture, Gabriel, resting and Alex (right) and Fabio
(left) stand looking.

Above I mention railroad bridge, right? well, mostly, we ride on
sundays, but I like riding saturdays better, because I would have the
entire sunday to cure sore muscles, sleep late, wash bike, have a beer
with friends and revive the trail... But also, saturday there *are*
trains going by the railroad. If one's not paying attention... <g>.
Sorry for the blurred picture, but it was dark and camera was on
"squeeze every millimeter of light available" and that means firm
hands that a trail rider that has crashed more than 10 times, who lost
a bark buster, who discovered why the front brakes were so lousy just
a few kilometers before (blown fork seal leaking right into caliper )
and who had to push and pull 1 ton bikes out of the mud does not have.
Sorry! But I liked the effect. On the three last pictures, you can see
Gabriel's bike idling (lit headlight) and Fabio's XR. They were about
to climb the railroad to cross the bridge when they noticed the train
coming.

Now, add to the list I posted last week:

- bark busters
- fork seals
- chest protector (not sure if I will buy a new one, but my old has
cracked on one of my crashes, maybe is stitchable (is this a word?))
- fork oil

but like I said last week, it worth every minute, cent and pain pill
needed!

pics at:
http://www.diariodastrilhas.com/24082008.html
try copying and pasting to avoid my ISP thinking it's url redirect if
you get a denied page.

-- Tiago

 

In article


Thanks for the excellent report. I was a little worried when I read
about your endo...hope your knee is no worse.

It made a great lunch break at work, to read your exploits.


I was a little disappointed when the Brazilian women beat the US team
in volleyball, but the men's game was a good one :) Did you follow any
of the Olympics?

--
Charles
'99 YZ250

 



HardWorkingDog wrote:

Not... Some ice and tylenol and it was ok again. If not for the brace,
I think it would have been ugly. My leg was twisted in a not much
natural position and I was trapped under the bike. Good gear and all
the gear always, much cheaper and painless in the long run.


And soccer. We lost women to US and men lost to Argentina! I support
banning soccer from olympics, it's too embarassing.


I did watch many of the sports. I wish TV had more coverage of sports,
canoeing, cycling, distance jumping, instead of the usual ball
sports...


-- Tiago

 

Wow, I can't believe your buddy riding in shorts & sneakers.  Were his shins
bloodied by the end of the ride?

-Jeff-

 

wrote:

His lower legs, yes, he regrets not wearing at least a jeans. Our army
friend offered to give him an old pair of military pants, but he
refused. Oh well... I told him not to sell his stuff, but stupid needs
like rent and electricity were more important to him...

-- tiago