> Last sunday I was at Goiana, ~100km north, for the second enduro race
> of the season. That area is big on cane sugar plantations because of
> the soil: A perfect -for cane plants- mix of clay and sand that when
> wet makes deep and narrow mud puddles -those where you get the forks
> and engine stuck in the rut- that is almost impossible to cross. It
> rained for one week, but somehow it stopped thursday. That was good.
Sounds "fun." It's funny how we repeatedly put ourselves through this
kind of
thing and manage to enjoy it. I hope that your bike isn't too
expensive to repair.
I had a fairly similar, but probably not as muddy, experience at the
Delaware
Enduro this past Sunday. I finished 2nd at this event last year, and
quit at the
halfway point this year. What a difference a boatload of rain can
make. I'm
actually proud of myself for quitting early before going through any
major body
or bike abuse. I just wasn't "in the groove" and decided there was no
point
killing myself for a cheap trophy that I almost certainly wasn't going
to get anyway.
That decision kept it fun for me.
Craig
On Apr 28, 11:42 am, googlegroupm...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Last sunday I was at Goiana, ~100km north, for the second enduro race
> > of the season. That area is big on cane sugar plantations because of
> > the soil: A perfect -for cane plants- mix of clay and sand that when
> > wet makes deep and narrow mud puddles -those where you get the forks
> > and engine stuck in the rut- that is almost impossible to cross. It
> > rained for one week, but somehow it stopped thursday. That was good.
> Sounds "fun." It's funny how we repeatedly put ourselves through this
> kind of
> thing and manage to enjoy it.
When I was in the middle of nowhere, nobody to be seen - I wasn't even
hearing other riders - and ultra-afraid of being stuck with a
powerless bike I was mentally adding the costs and thinking how
amazing it is that we pay lots of cash to suffer...
>I hope that your bike isn't too
> expensive to repair.
Yeah, me too, I think not, but then I'll have to do the valve lapping
and checks and not destroy anything. I suspect that leaky valve will
be replaced. I heard that when replacing valves I should also replace
valve guides and seat. The four seals will be replaced, of course.
> That decision kept it fun for me.
I believe that the whole point is about having fun. I don't care about
finishing first or last, but I care about finishing. People here take
shortcuts to get back on time, but that will cut trail riding as well,
which is much more important to me. I don't care if I'm 2hrs late, but
I want to finish the race. The guy who was third cut ~50% of the race.
I rode ~60% and I am sure I had more fun than he had, but he got a
cheap trophy... I liked this trail so much I kept the chart. If
someone from outside state asks for a medium to high difficult trail
being 90% single track with few to none rocks, I have a really great
trail up my sleeve...
-- T
> On Apr 28, 11:42 am, googlegroupm...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > > Last sunday I was at Goiana, ~100km north, for the second enduro race
> > > of the season. That area is big on cane sugar plantations because of
> > > the soil: A perfect -for cane plants- mix of clay and sand that when
> > > wet makes deep and narrow mud puddles -those where you get the forks
> > > and engine stuck in the rut- that is almost impossible to cross. It
> > > rained for one week, but somehow it stopped thursday. That was good.
> > Sounds "fun." It's funny how we repeatedly put ourselves through this
> > kind of
> > thing and manage to enjoy it.
> When I was in the middle of nowhere, nobody to be seen - I wasn't even
> hearing other riders - and ultra-afraid of being stuck with a
> powerless bike I was mentally adding the costs and thinking how
> amazing it is that we pay lots of cash to suffer...
> >I hope that your bike isn't too
> > expensive to repair.
> Yeah, me too, I think not, but then I'll have to do the valve lapping
> and checks and not destroy anything. I suspect that leaky valve will
> be replaced. I heard that when replacing valves I should also replace
> valve guides and seat. The four seals will be replaced, of course.
> > That decision kept it fun for me.
> I believe that the whole point is about having fun. I don't care about
> finishing first or last, but I care about finishing. People here take
> shortcuts to get back on time, but that will cut trail riding as well,
> which is much more important to me. I don't care if I'm 2hrs late, but
> I want to finish the race. The guy who was third cut ~50% of the race.
> I rode ~60% and I am sure I had more fun than he had, but he got a
> cheap trophy... I liked this trail so much I kept the chart. If
> someone from outside state asks for a medium to high difficult trail
> being 90% single track with few to none rocks, I have a really great
> trail up my sleeve...
> -- T
And you guys want us to start riding trails? <snerk>... I am too old
to be pushing my bike out of the woods;) Great report though, always
glad to see guys and gals having er, uh, "fun"??? Anyway, keep those
reports coming. It's summer here on the bottom of the world ;) I am
sure we will have a few more soon...
Rowdy Mouse Racing, too old to push, and I don't like trees;)
On Apr 28, 12:58 pm, justwaitafrekinmin...@gmail.com wrote:
> And you guys want us to start riding trails? <snerk>... I am too old
> to be pushing my bike out of the woods;) Great report though, always
> glad to see guys and gals having er, uh, "fun"???
yeah? lol! Well, I can say in our defense that we get to see much more
than you round'n'round guys... I saw a huge dam, beautiful place. I
also saw a mud fish. It is a kind of fish that bury itself in the mud,
when the mud dries out it hibernates and only gets out when the soil
is soaked again. One of the guys revving the bike throwed one of these
near me, it flapped it's tail and jumped onto a nearby mud puddle.
Amazing how these critters live in such dirty water.
I got some air under the tires too. There was a huge hill to climb on
the first 5 minutes of the race, when my bike still had power. I did
it wfo in second gear and got big air over the top of the hill,
landing far away on the other side of the road that is on top of the
hill. It even bottomed out both suspensions!
Other highlight of the day was seeing people who claim to ride better
than everyone getting stuck when there is a clear a way around. And
after that we see the same guys crying like babies. It's fun how
people consider the DRZ400 an off road bike. It is sort of, but it is
way too heavy and "clumsy" for the kind of riding we do. I guess it is
so popular because it costs only 12k usd. I can't complain, I've got a
XR250, not exactly the most nimble and proper bike for heavy trails...
>Anyway, keep those
> reports coming. It's summer here on the bottom of the world ;) I am
> sure we will have a few more soon...
Yeah, I will try my best to fix it and go riding a FIM Enduro on may
17th. The next regularity enduro(*) will be may 30, this I'm going,
even if I have to rent a bike. A DRZ400 maybe, so I can see what's all
about everybody getting those.
About 4 or 5 years ago every monday this place was full of RRs.
Nowadays people prefer posting on web based forums. Sad. I think
usenet is much better, the anarchist aspect of it, imo, win any
argument over web based.
> Rowdy Mouse Racing, too old to push, and I don't like trees;)
Trail riding for me is synonym of pushing... I have an uncanny talent
for getting stuck and dropping the bike on the most steep hills... But
then I like the hardest trails. There are trails that doesn't need any
pushing at all, but I don't like'em. I like those - like this sunday -
when I am on the verge of passing out and full of bruises the day
after. Then I know that I'm having fun. That remembered an old Calvin
comic strip I read on a local newspaper. Calvin is trying to figure
out a way to classify a game he and Hobbes were playing. Hobbes asks
why, let's just have fun and let it be, as Calvin replies - with
numbers I can know if I'm having more fun today than yesterday....
LOL, I remember that when I need to laugh alone... :-)
-- T
(*) regularity enduro is a kind of off road motorcycling that was
invented in Brasil in the 70s and we are the only country that play
like this. We are given a chart that is made with those receipt
printers that are used for credit card - a yelowish paper - this chart
has a long sequence of symbols - called tulips, like the flower. This
tulips have -more or less- the drawing of a point of interest, be it a
trail intersection or changing direction. We do not have trail markers
except when they make us ride through pastures that have no way to
tell the right way. At each tulip there are two more information: The
time in hh:mi:ss and the kilometer in tens of meters precision where
this reference is. A rider start at every minute or 30 seconds. When
you start, you start your chrono. The time on the tulip is the time
you have to reach that tulip reference. One second ahead of the time,
3 points penalty. One second, 1 point. We have hundreds of tulips on a
race and we do not know which are the ones that are being monitored.
Before you are assigned a start minute, you're given a small GPS unit
that has no display, but has pre-programmed the coordinates of the
places you have to go by. When you reach it, the GPS device records
the time you got there. Race promoters download all GPSs from all
riders into a laptop and a software makes the cross reference between
the time recorded at each check point and computes the points. If
you're late over 15 minutes, 900 points. 20 minutes or passing
backwards or not passing at all, 1800 points. I've got 89-something
thousand points this sunday.... :-) to make things easy, we have
enduro computers, but we can't use world class computers, because they
more than often doesn't make possible 190 speed changes like we had
this race. I've got a Compass enduro computer (http://
www.compassnet.com.br/imagens/Compass2004.jpg)Also, the concept of
"possibles" and "jump to zero" and "resets" are completely different
with our version. Who understands databases can relate this to MS Sql
Server and Oracle - both are database software, as AMA, FIM and ours
are enduros, but the similarities ends on the name and the purpose
that is racing a bike off road...
Tiago Rocha wrote:
> Yeah, I will try my best to fix it and go riding a FIM Enduro on may
> 17th. The next regularity enduro(*) will be may 30, this I'm going,
> even if I have to rent a bike. A DRZ400 maybe, so I can see what's all
> about everybody getting those.
>
> About 4 or 5 years ago every monday this place was full of RRs.
> Nowadays people prefer posting on web based forums. Sad. I think
> usenet is much better, the anarchist aspect of it, imo, win any
> argument over web based.
YESSSSS! Maillists are kind of the same, but different.
You said previously "I liked this trail so much I kept the chart. If
someone from outside state asks for a medium to high difficult trail
being 90% single track with few to none rocks, I have a really great
trail up my sleeve..."
I have to ask: How can something be difficult without rocks?
--
Cheers, Bev
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
If it weren't for pain, we wouldn't have any fun at all.
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> of the season. That area is big on cane sugar plantations because of
> the soil: A perfect -for cane plants- mix of clay and sand that when
> wet makes deep and narrow mud puddles -those where you get the forks
> and engine stuck in the rut- that is almost impossible to cross. It
> rained for one week, but somehow it stopped thursday. That was good.