Blogs

This was going to be my breakout race. The one where I finally get to ride terrain that I like and ride it the way I like to ride...fast. The part that I didn’t count on was that apparently everyone else had exactly the same idea. And most of them were faster than me.

Keith and I rolled out of Dallas Saturday morning for the 6.5 hour drive to Cravens Louisiana for the Piney Woods Enduro. The drive out was uneventful and we got to the race site well before dark and in plenty of time to sign in, go through the sound check and get our camp set up for the night. We requested an early row and were assigned row 9, which is where I usually like to ride. We put our numbers on the bikes and gas cans and finished up the camp chores then decided to drive into Leesville for some supper.

After Pauls Ride, I decided that the TE could handle being geared a little higher, which would also make it work less at cruising speed.

It comes standard with a 14 tooth front sprocket, and a 50 tooth rear. On purchase i'd got the 14 replaced with a 15, as I'd already heard that it was geared low.

On thumpertalk, some guys have gone to a 16 tooth front, but it can hit the shifter on downshifts.

It was called the Cajun Classic but it could just as easily be called the 1000 Logs Enduro.

If you're the type of person who grades enduros by the amount of pain and suffering they inflict this one was a dandy. I'm writing this with hands that are covered in blisters, my body is one big, giant, blue/green bruise, and we won't even talk about the monkey butt. The race was held on the grounds of the former WW2 training base Camp Claiborne, near Forest Hill LA. The 23,000 acre area is under management by the US Forest Service and if you want to get a little bit of the history of Camp Claiborne I found this interesting link: http://www.campclaiborne.com.

Unless you've been missing the TV lately, you'll have seen the "Crazy Frog Dance Remix" mobile phone ringtone advertisment. Seeing this reminded me of the original sound i'd heard ages ago, so I set about finding out a little bit about it.

It seems that Erik Wernquist is the creator of the animation:

http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/wernquist/1.html

And the sound comes from Daniel Malmedahl , and I originall heard it here:

http://www.funnyjunk.com/pages/insanity_test.htm

or here:

http://www.jokaroo.com/ecards/funny/racecarnoises.htm

Anyway, I thought that was enough research, enjoy ;-)

What a weekend!

For those that don't know my son was picked to ride the KTM Junior Supercross Challenge in Dallas this weekend.

KTM does it right. They made my whole family feel welcome and treated all 15 of those kids participating like stars. Lots of free stuff, helmet, goggles, gear and best of all provided and MAINTAINED the bikes.

Donnie Hansen led us down to walk the track about 11:30 or so. He was telling everyone about how Ricky Chad and Bubba go through the whoops. I told him Josh goes through em pretty go himself. He just laughed and said "yeah he's coming around."

First practice was at 2. They ran the whole track in the first practice. Most of the kids were having a hard time through the sand and the whoops so they decided to cut that whole part of the track for the 2nd practice and the main.

Oh yeah! This weekend was the first good riding weekend of the year and I don't mean it just for me, it was the best day. Why? Just because of the weather. Here, 8 degrees below the equatorian line, we don't have clearly defined seasons. There is the season where it rains every day, all the time and the season where it does not rain at all. The no rain season is from late august, early september until late march, early april. This is when the dust rules the trails, when the clay get harder than concrete and the sand makes a thin coat over the *hard* packed clay, making for a very slippery ride, not much traction. Well, saturday was april 2. And the week before it rained every night. It's a good sign when it starts raining at night. It rained and rained... And I said, screw the oil drain plug, I am going to squeeze one more trail from the oil I have.

Luckily the 36 degree day was the previous day, so the 20 intrepid riders had a cool day with some drizzle to help lay the dust.

Simon had the new Husky 510 out & Merv liked his DRZ400 so much that he sold it to his son & fronted with a brand spanker (with .4k’s on the dial at the start)! Obviously getting ready for Cape York, as was Darren having his first time out after giving his collar bone 6 months to heal – it was ok.

We got away at 9.30am & within 5 minutes were in donga. Lots of back roads & tracks to enjoy & all were appropriately careful when crossing busy roads which criss-crossed our ride. Plenty of great scenery to admire while zipping along the byways, especially when we stopped to play on a bit of a hill.

The real excitement started at 12.30 am when the wheel came off the trailer at 100kph & sparks flew out its arsehole (with apologies to Mary – if you haven’t heard the rhyme, ask me around the campfire some time). It seems that the new bearing which I put in 500k’s ago exploded. Let me know if you find a wheel & hub (buggered if we could find it, despite an extensive search). I guarded the load while Tom drove the remaining 20k’s to camp, borrowed Bob’s trailer & came back to rescue me. Of course, it rained while I was passing the time searching. We hid the trailer in the bushes & finally got to bed at 4am!