The Dirt Biker Chronicles

The after-market parts industry is big in the off-road motorcycle world – really big.

When I bought my first dirt bike in 2004 I didn’t realize this. But it didn’t take long to start noticing the many ways my friends were modifying their bikes with after-market pipes, tanks, jetting, handlebars, brush guards, big-bore kits, and other parts.

I soon found things I needed to “mod” on my bike. I learned that a new bike needs ergonomic adjustments. Riding up on the pegs is hard on the back for a guy over 6-feet tall that has to hunch over to reach the handlebars. It wasn’t long before I was buying after-market bars and clamps to raise the handlebar height so I could ride comfortably up on the pegs. 

That was just the beginning of my modification hobby. Since then I have bought five additional off-road bikes for myself and family and I’ve installed some after-market parts on each one. Consequently, I’ve learned a few things about after-market parts. I’ve decided to write them down as well as feedback on the parts I’ve bought in hopes it may help save a fellow rider some frustration, time and money.

Installation Instructions

The first lesson I learned is that most after-market part manufacturers don’t spend money on competent tech writers. The installation instructions are generally vague, short, poorly written, badly formatted and punctuated, and have few, if any, pictures or illustrations. Installation can cause a lot of frustration as you read and re-read instructions trying to figure out what the hell they mean. I swear some of them skip steps and assume you’ll just naturally know the steps in-between. Once you figure out the riddle to installing a part, you realize it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to write better instructions, so why they don’t I can’t understand.

Bars and Clamps

As I learned with my first dirt bike, raising the handlebars above stock height is a great ergonomic improvement. There are a few ways to do this. One is to buy higher bend handlebars. Another is to buy riser clamps. Installing a steering stabilizer with an under-bar mount can also raise them.

Because I like to raise my bars really high, I generally do a combination of high bend bars and riser clamps. Here is my feedback on the bars and clamps I’ve tried:

• Renthal bars – I like Renthal Fatbars and they make a broad selection of bends and heights. I usually get the RC High bar that has a 119mm height. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Renthal and I’ve put them on three of my bikes – a Honda CRF250X, a KTM 200XCW, and a Suzuki DRZ400S.
• ProTaper bars – I’ve also tried ProTaper bars. They have a fat bar style as well with different heights and bends to choose from. I had no complaints with ProTaper and found them to be as functional and strong as the Renthal bars. I just had a hard time finding their tallest bar model and had to settle for a slightly shorter bar when I installed them on my KTM 450EXC.
• ProTaper riser clamps – I’ve bought a couple of sets of ProTaper riser clamps to combine with high bars and maximize overall handlebar height. The are easy to install, have good instructions, and they fit nicely into the stock clamps of my Honda and Suzuki. They both raise the bars and convert the stock 7/8^th clamp to fat bar size. However, my KTMs had proprietary bar clamps and the ProTaper clamps would not fit on the KTM’s stock clamps.

Steering Stabilizers

• Scotts Steering Stabilizer - I’ve bought one steering stabilizer and that was a Scotts. It was fairly easy to install and it took me about two hours. The installation instructions were excellent for an after-market part: color photos with detailed instructions. The key lesson I can share about installing a stabilizer is make damn sure you have the front wheel firmly secured so it will not roll at all once you take the top triple-clamp off. The instructions stated this clearly and warned that the forks can “walk away” from you if you don’t. I thought I had my front wheel secured well enough, but I found I did not and the forks slipped on me and the bearings came out of the steering column. This made it much more difficult to get the triple-clamp back on. Had I not blown that step installation would have gone much smoother.

Gas Tanks

• IMS – I bought an IMF tank for my 2004 Honda CRF250X. It was a four gallon tank that replaced the stock shrouds with side wings of the tank. Therefore it had three petcocks to draw the fuel from the shrouds and tank into the carburetor. The installation instructions were pretty poor; not much more than one run-on paragraph with a drawing showing how to connect the fuel line to all three petcocks. The drawing was obviously hand drawn, and it looked like a Junior High shop student drew it. When I got the tank on, I found it leaked from both shroud petcocks. They would not seal completely. I sent the tank back to IMS with a letter detailing my disappointment in their quality control. IMS sent me a replacement tank with no reply to my letter. When I got the second tank put together I found it didn’t leak from the shroud petcocks. Instead it leaked from the main petcock in the bottom center of the tank. This was because the petcock would not fit flush with the tank. Disgruntled and not wanting to send another tank back, I improvised a cork gasket to seal the leak. Nonetheless, I was not very pleased with my IMS experience.
• Clarke – I bought a 3.1 gallon Clarke tank for my 2005 KTM 450EXC. I was very pleased with the Clarke. The instructions were easy to understand, the tank installed easily, and it did not leak. When I get around to buying an after-market tank for my DRZ400 it will be a Clarke.

Mufflers and Pipes

• FMF – I bought an FMF Powercore slip-on muffler for my Honda CRF250X. Of all the power mods I did on my Honda – cutting the air box, rejetting and modifying the stock pipe – putting on the FMF pipe gave it the biggest boost. It was a noticeable difference in horsepower and torque. The FMF was pretty easy to install and had decent instructions. It didn’t fit real precisely, but well enough to get on. Though a bit spendy it was a worthwhile upgrade.

• ProCircuit – I bought a ProCircuit T4 exhaust system for my daughter’s 2006 Kawasaki KLX125L. It gave a nice boost in low end torque to a mild horsepower bike. It also transformed it from being a quiet stock bike to sounding like a racing 4-stroke. We called it her “mini 450” because when you heard it coming through the trees, it sounded like a much bigger bike coming. The ProCircuit pipe was easy to install and I’d give it a big thumbs up. It was the only pipe I could find that was made for the KLX125\DRZ125 that was readily available.

Jetting Kits

• JD Jetting  –  I got a JD Jetting kit for my Honda CRF250X. I was impressed with the kit. It had all the jets you needed plus a couple of spares for different elevations. It was my first time changing jets in a carburetor so it was nice that the instructions were easy to follow. However, you need to read up on jetting kits before you buy them. Some require additional modifications to your bike in order to function as designed. That was the case with my Honda. The air box opening had to be cut out wider and the stock pipe had to have some cutting done too.

Hand Guards

• Acerbis – I am a big fan of Acerbis hand guards. I’ve put a set on every bike I’ve owned. The installation instructions aren’t that great and I had some minor problems getting the first set installed on my CRF250X. Thanks to the internet, though, I figured it out. Once you put on one set of Acerbis it’s easy to do from then on and I haven’t had any problems installing them since. Acerbis makes a few models of hand guards. I always buy the metal frame ones that connect to the end and middle of the handlebars. They are very durable and hold up against the brush and tree limbs you come up against trail riding. 

Miscellaneous

• Works Connection skid plate – I put a Works skid plate on my CRF250X. Functionally it worked fine, but the installation was not as easy as it should have been. The brackets that hold the plate on were not easy to get on between the frame and the engine and then line-up with the bolt holes on the plate. The instructions were vague and not of a lot of help.
• Pro-Moto Billet rack – I got a PMB rack for my DRZ400S. I’ve been very pleased with it. It was easy to install, well designed to fit like it should, and the instructions and illustrations were clear. They thought the design of the rack out well. I like the holes around the rack frame that allow you to easily install items like luggage boxes on the rack.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on June 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

“You get what you pay for.” That’s the old saying. And when it comes to buying a dirt bike its true.

Lately I’ve noticed a lot of advertising for low-price dirt bikes. We’re talking brand new 250cc dirt bikes for under $2,000. That’s about a third of the price of a similar Japanese bike. When you look at pictures of these low-priced bikes, they’re good looking bikes. They look similar to the Japanese and European bikes.

But they are not the same. These bikes are made in China.

Shoddy Chinese manufacturing practices are well known: from lead paint on toys, to toxic ingredients in pet foods. So out of curiosity I decided to do a little Internet research and see what I could find out about these Chinese dirt bikes.

I was amazed to discover how many Chinese motorcycle manufacturers there are. China has more manufacturers than Japan, Europe and the U.S. combined! One site I found, www.made-in-china.com, listed 4,931 variations of Chinese dirt bikes on the market. Some of them may have been duplicate listings, but browsing through the first two hundred or so I didn’t spot any.

The Chinese make almost every model of motorcycle you can think of. They make minis, motocross, off-road, dual-sport and super-moto models; not to mention their street bike models.

It’s surprising how blatantly the Chinese copy the Japanese and European bikes, and its obvious why intellectual property rights are a problem in China. The Chinese manufacturers have models that literally state they are copies of Yamaha, Honda, and other established brands. I saw one KTM look-alike that had plastics and graphics almost identical to a real KTM. One Chinese manufacturer is named Keweseki, and clearly trying to play off the established Kawasaki name.

The Chinese do a decent job marketing these bikes on the Internet. The bikes look modern. They offer electric start, disc brakes, aluminum frames and water cooled engines. And both two-stroke and four-stroke models are available.

These bikes look ready to race in the pictures you see on the Internet. Are they ready, though? That was my doubt, and I wanted to see what owners of Chinese bikes had to say about them.

One of the first testimonies I found was a YouTube video titled, “Why you should not buy a Chinese dirt bike”. This unhappy buyer paid $2000 for a Chinese motocross bike that looked like a Suzuki. The video documents several problems with the bike, including a broken frame, bad piston rings, a broken muffler, and a dysfunctional front disc brake.

There are several stories from other disgruntled buyers too. The theme is always the same: the Chinese bikes are junk. They’re made of poor metal, bad welds, cheap components, and half-assed quality control. They frequently break down within weeks of purchase, and when they do finding replacement parts or a mechanic that will work on them can be difficult. Even if you do locate parts, the machining isn’t always precise and they don’t always fit right.

Imagine attempting a long trail ride in remote mountains on one. You would be asking for disaster. I wouldn’t take anyone riding a China bike on one of my rides. I don’t want to spend the night with a broke down China bike in the forest.

Some say the Japanese bikes were poor quality too back in the late 60s and early 70s and the Chinese bikes will progress like the Japanese did. I agree eventually some Chinese manufacturers will build more reputable bikes with acceptable durability, dealer support, and part availability. When that will be is anyone’s guess, however. Building a solid bike requires good material, components, engineering, and quality control, which drives up manufacturing costs and, subsequently, the price of the bike.

For now, though, the Chinese bikes are cheap to buy because they’re cheaply manufactured. It just goes to show, you get what you pay for.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on February 18th, 2009 | No Comments »

Donnalee Velvick never met her mother or father. She was an unwanted child. Instead of having a family, she was raised at St. Ann’s Orphanage in Los Angeles.

It’s fitting that she grew up in the City of Angels, because Donnalee’s work is worthy of an angel. At eleven years old, Donnalee made a vow. She promised to devote her life to helping other orphans.

Brandon Whallon also made a vow. Brandon didn’t grow up an orphan like Donnalee, but he felt he needed to give something back for all that had been given to him.

Whallon is an avid motorcycle rider who races  the Southern Idaho Desert Racing Association (SIDRA) series. Last year he raised money so he could race the legendary Baja 1000. “I asked around for some sponsorship to help defray costs in participating in the 2007 Baja 1000,” he said. “My team printed up shirts and then we sold them for donations. I hit up all of my co-workers and friends.”

It was not to be, though. He made it to Mexico for the race, but the day of the race his plans fell apart.

“I ended up going down to Mexico and got very sick, literally an hour before I was to get on the race bike,” Whallon said. “Long story short, I ended up spending two-plus weeks down there, rode over 800-miles pre-running the course, then got super-sick and ended up not participating one iota.” He was so dehydrated he had to go to the hospital for an I.V., and his three teammates had to ride his share of the 1,000 miles.

Whallon felt bad that he had raised money, spent it to travel to Baja, and then couldn’t race. Nobody asked him to pay back the money, but he wanted to make it up somehow.

“This year, I wanted to do something different,” Whallon said. “Instead of asking people to support my silly habit, maybe I could use my silly habit for some good. My employer brought in a very good motivational speaker who told us that what we do for ourselves will get us by, but what we do for others will get us ahead.”

If there is truth to that statement, “what we do for others will get us ahead”, then Donnalee Velvick is far ahead of the average person.

In 1973 Donnalee Velvick began fulfilling her childhood promise to help other orphans. That year she bought an old farm house near Nampa, Idaho and founded the Hope House. Hope House became a home for orphaned kids with disabilities and challenges that made it all but impossible for them to be accepted in traditional foster or adoptive families. The children’s problems ranged from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to Reactive Detachment Disorder.

“I think the most important message,” Velvick said, “is these are kids with incredible courage. They have resiliency. They bounce back and they are willing to try again.”

Since 1973 Hope House has grown in both size and notoriety, and relocated twice to improve the home for the kids. The current location is an old Job Corps site outside of Marsing, Idaho, where they moved in 2004.

Hope House has beds for 25 girls and 19 boys. However, it’s not simply room and board Hope House provides the kids. It’s much more. At Hope House the kids are treated as part of a family, where all are taught to share in the day-to-day responsibilities. Everyone is involved in daily group activities and bible teachings. The kids learn to help both themselves and others by participating in service projects and missionary trips, like the one they took to help an orphanage in Mexico last year.

Hope House also provides all schooling for the kids from kindergarten through 12th grade. “Everyone graduates,” Velvick said. And it’s not because they are just passed through. Every kid gets the attention they need to learn and succeed academically. Academics are rounded with sports. Hope House has school basketball, volleyball and fl ag football teams that compete against other Christian schools in the Northwest.

To provide all of this for the kids, the staff of 22 has to be very dedicated, and they are. They are a living testament to their Christian faith. They’re paid a mere 27 cents an hour, plus room and board; this for a six day work week where they must be available 24 hours a day.

Another remarkable fact about Hope House is it has been funded all these years almost entirely through donations. Velvick said it is “government licensed but not funded.”

“We have five big sources of regular donations,” Velvick said. “The Nif and Sue Sullivan Fund, setup specifically for Hope House; the Lions Club; the Rotary Club; donations from some of the children’s families; and Social Security payments some of the children receive.” She also added they get some monthly donations from private citizens. “There are people that send us $10 or $20 every month, and that helps out.”

And helping Hope House is how Brandon Whallon decided to give something back.

“Last year, for Christmas, we had a company-wide fund raising drive where we donated money matched by our employer, Hawkins Companies,” Whallon said. “We picked a charity, which was Hope House. On Christmas Eve, right about noon, fifty-plus kids show up in our office, and start singing. They had two choirs, one with the very small children, the other with the older kids. And it was AMAZING watching these kids work together! I really did not know the background of these kids, but seeing them band together was pretty moving for me. These kids might have had a right to be pissed at the world, but instead of focusing on the part of the glass that was empty, these kids were making the most of what they did have in the glass, and it was special.”

Whallon’s fund raising idea started coming together. “I remembered participating in the Cystic Fibrosis ‘Bike-a- Thon’ back when I was a kid,” he said. “I went around and asked for pledges based upon a number of miles that I would ride on a specific day. I figured that scenario would translate well to desert racing by just asking for a pledge based on my point tally instead of miles rode. I sent out emails to all of my co-workers, and had a better response than I expected. I got pledges adding up to around $1.50 per point I earned for the 2008 season.”

Once again, though, Whallon’s best laid plan hit an obstacle. A dislocated shoulder injury he hoped had recovered rared up. One race into the SIDRA season he realized he needed surgery, and that meant he couldn’t race the rest of the season. Whallon, however, was not going to let this plan unravel on him like Baja had.  He quickly came up with an idea to get another racer to carry the torch, and have their points counted toward the pledges. He thought of the Schlapia family and their 15 year old son Jared who is close in age to many of the Hope House kids. Jared’s parents, Scott and Micki, supported the idea. Jared agreed.

Whallon made sure his pledgers were okay with the change of riders and the stage was set.

Whallon made a good choice. Young Jared is a ringer. Currently he is in first place in the Men’s Lightweight B class with 718 points seven races into the season. With two races remaining on the schedule he could finish with a possible total of 1128 points. That would come close to $1700 earned for Hope House through pledges. “That’s not nearly enough, “ Whallon said, and he’s still working on getting pledges.

Donnalee Velvick, however, is grateful for every donation. She’s had to make Hope House run for 35 years on donations, and she’s done it at a fraction of the cost-per-child as similar public funded facilities. “Every little bit helps,” she said.

So when Jared Schlapia sits on the starting line at SIDRA’s next race, Brandon Whallon and the Schlapia family won’t be alone in cheering for him to wrap up first in his class. He’ll have the hopes of the Hope House kids with him.

If you would like to make a tax deductable donation to Hope House, please send it to:

Hope House:

7696 Old Bruneau Hwy
Marsing, ID 83639
208-896-4673

*reprinted from HotPipes Magazine, August 2008

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on February 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

The plan was to ride a 50 mile loop starting from camp near Burgdorf, in the Payette National Forest of Idaho. We were going to ride Bear Pete Trail to Victor Creek Trail, to Loon Lake Trail, and back to camp.

We knew that Victor Creek Trail had not been cleared this year and we were bringing a chainsaw to cut it out. It was the kind of loop that we’d all done before with no problems. After all, we riders of the TVTMA cut out hundreds of miles of forest trail every year.

We had a big dinner planned for when we returned. The gals staying behind were going to prepare a great meal. We’d eat by a big fire while drinking cold beer, and afterwards head down to soak in the hot pool at Burgdorf. It was going to be a perfect Saturday night.

We left camp at about 10:15am with 11 of us heading to Bear Pete trailhead. Bear Pete is a well used, intermediate level trail that rolls 25 miles along the ridgeline of Bear Pete Mountain.

We made good time and had covered 23 miles by my odometer when we stopped for a snack at 11:40am. We said goodbye to two of our party who were splitting off there for a shorter ride back to camp. The remaining nine of us headed on to Victor Creek Trail.

Victor Creek Trail is a little over 11 miles long. The first five miles climb up the rocky Diamond Ridge saddle; the next six miles drop down into Victor Creek basin and follow it down to Loon Lake.

The Diamond Ridge saddle has a spectacular view and we stopped there to take a break. I figured we’d ride through Victor creek within a few hours, then ride the other 15 miles to camp in plenty of time to be back by 6pm.

Steve Frisbie told us the trail hadn’t been ridden this year and would need some trees cut out. However, he didn’t think it would be excessive. He had rode the trail two summers before, as had Anne Libengood, who was also riding with us. By their recollections, once we rode down the mountainside into the basin it was a pretty easy ride to Loon Lake.

It was right about 2pm when we started the descent into the basin. We moved along pretty smoothly for the first mile, which was rocky mountainside with few trees. As we got down to the valley floor, though, we came into a stand of burned trees and the number of fallen trees increased. We were still high enough to see to the end of the valley and beyond and we could see the end of the burnt area about a half-mile ahead. We believed that once we cut our way through it, we’d start making good time again.

Things didn’t happen that way, though. The forested sections that weren’t burned also had a lot of fallen trees; a lot more than a trail cleared just two years ago would usually have. There were also more burnt sections ahead than anyone remembered.

Still we kept pushing on, believing that the trail would get better. I remember Anne telling me it was 5:20pm when I noted the mileage on my odometer at 34 miles for the day. I figured we had to get to about 38 miles to punch out onto the Loon Lake trail. The next time I asked her for the time it was 7:40pm and we had only gone little over a mile further.

This is when I started having real doubt. Even if we could ride strait through I knew we wouldn’t make it back to camp until almost 9pm. Somehow, though, we believed we were going to make it out, even if it did get dark on us. We never discussed turning back.

Of course, the trail didn’t get better. We could only ride 2/10th of a mile before running into another roadblock. It was one battle after another. We had long since stopped cutting every fallen tree and were riding over all that were navigable. We even hoisted the bikes over and drug them under some large trees that would have taken a long time to cut.

As the sun began to set we were still over two miles from the end of Victor Creek Trail. It was now too dangerous to even consider backtracking over Diamond Ridge in the dark. We had no choice but to press on, even with hundreds of dead pines littering our path.

Nightfall only made it harder to stay on the trail. We’d cut an impassable tree, ride over some more, around some more, and then there would be another roadblock to cut out. Our progress was unbelievably slow.

At about 11:40pm we were in another burned section with trees lying around like a box of spilled toothpicks. Steve Frisbie, Verrick Bach and JD Mullin walked ahead to scout while the rest of us – Mark Weaver, Steve Carr, Tresa Worrell, Chris Horgan, Anne Libengood and myself - sat and waited in the dark.

Now that we’d stopped riding and working we were getting a little cold. None of us brought anything more than a riding jacket and the temperature was dropping. We debated building a little fire while we waited for Steve, JD and Verrick, but decided against it, hoping they would return soon with a clear path ahead scouted.

Whatever hopes we had of getting out that night were crushed when they returned. They had found several trees that needed cut ahead, and they couldn’t follow the trail very far before losing it in the darkness. If we got off the trail our situation would be that much worse. We decided unanimously to build a fire and wait for sun rise to continue on.  

Fortunately there was an abundance of firewood around and we had a chainsaw. Verrick built a big fire in no time and soon we were all huddled around it, wrapped in our solar blankets, ponchos, and whatever else we had to keep us warm.

We all tried to sleep but it was mostly a restless night. The temperature was freezing and you had to be within a few feet of the fire to keep warm. The ground was also cold to lie on. I got just enough sleep to consider it a power nap.

The night went surprisingly fast all things considered. It was joyous watching the twilight creep across the horizon. By 6:30am it was light enough to begin mobilizing. Frisbie and Verrick left first to start cutting the trail ahead of us. The rest of us put out the fire, and pumped water for our hydro packs.

Once we got moving we made a lot better time cutting and jumping logs. It was so much easier in the light of day than the darkness of night. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to ride to the end of the trail. It turned out we had spent the night less than two miles from the end of the trail. So close yet so far away.

We still had about 15 miles to ride back to camp from the end of Victor Creek, but it was open trail all the way. I was so anxious to get back to camp I was counting the miles down the whole way. It felt like riding to the last checkpoint in an enduro, you’re just so excited to finish.

We rolled back into camp around 8:30am. Of course everyone at camp was curious what had happened. They had been worried. They figured we were staying together and that made them believe we were okay. They had decided they would wait until noon for our return before organizing a search.

In retrospect, it was a great adventure. Of course, if I had known we were destined to spend the night out there, I probably wouldn’t have gone. Or at least I would have packed a few more items; a head sock, jacket, and flask come to mind right off. It is the unknown challenges you have to overcome that make an adventure, though. And that’s what this trail ride had.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on September 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

It was my first enduro race. The China Hat ISDE.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I only knew from my one race that I wasn’t very fast. I had missed my window of potential twenty years earlier. By the time I raced my first race at 40, I was a has-been-never-was, too concerned about getting injured and the consequences thereof to be any good.

The idea to race China Hat started last fall. Our trail riding pals Mark and Tresa, avid racers, started an e-mail thread about racing some enduros this year. I was familiar with the Idaho City ISDE Qualifier and had ridden much of that course trail riding. I like the technical single-track terrain much better than the open, fast terrain desert racing offers. An enduro seemed like the race for me, if there ever was such a thing.

Mark had raced China Hat before and had good things to say. It didn’t take long to get a group committed to going. When registration opened up in February, six of us signed up.

Signing up was the easy part. It’s easy to commit yourself to something months down the road. When the race weekend rolled around, however, my anxiety began to grow.

I had signed up on the same minute with two friends, Steve Carr and Tamera Gomez. We were all novice racers. Steve and I signed up for the Sportsman Class while Tamera was in the Women’s Class. Both classes were one 46-mile loop and on the C-Class time schedule.

With our starting minute set to 10:32am and the main race starting at 9am, I had thought we’d be to the rear of the race with other C-type classes. I found out Saturday night before the race that besides the Pro and AA Classes, all the other classes were mixed together. “Great”, I thought. That meant for sure I’d have faster riders coming up behind me.

Next I heard that the terrain was all ATV trail and that the first loop would run through a lot of open desert. “Nice,” I told my friends, “I came all this way to race a desert race.” I had hoped for technical forest riding. I felt much more comfortable signing up when I thought it was going to be a traditional, technical enduro.

From the moment I woke up on race day the intensity grew. I kept telling myself, “stick with the plan: ride a good consistent trail pace, don’t ride over your head, don’t worry about the time, just focus on finishing.”

I was doing okay with my nerves when it came time to get our bikes and lineup for our start. I was resigned to my fate, trying not to think about the race to avoid stressing. Tamera didn’t help my nerves any by asking me at least twice, “don’t you feel like throwing up? I feel like throwing up I’m so nervous.”

Tamera, Steve and I planned to try and stick together as much as we could. We’d let Steve go first, then Tamera, and I’d follow her. If it worked out right, we’d pretty much ride together as a team. 

Well, of course, it didn’t work out right. Tamera’s bike wouldn’t start when our minute came up. Steve and I waited a good 30 seconds into our starting minute before we decided to go.

Now it was just Steve and I together. That didn’t last long either. It was dusty so we had to spread out, and within five miles I had some faster guys passing me and getting between us. I was on my own.

The first checkpoint was 17 miles and we had 45 minutes to get there. I had a stop watch taped to my tank, but I was so amped up at the start I forgot to start it. Therefore I had no idea of how I was doing on time, but I kept reminding myself not to worry about time, just ride.

The terrain was not hard at all. There were only two decent hill climbs. They only caused me problems because other riders crashed on them in front of me and when I got there I had to get around them to get up the hill. On the first hill it messed me up and I stalled 3/4ths of the way up. I had to push out of a sand hole my rear tire had dug before I could get enough traction to finish the hill. On the second hill a rider who had passed me was stuck halfway up. I got by him and up the hill, but I later pulled off to let him pass me again.

It seemed like it took a long time to get to that first checkpoint. I was sure I was behind my minute so when I got there I rode to the front of the line of riders waiting for their minute; basically the six guys on minutes behind me that had passed me. To my surprise it was my minute on the nose, 11:17. I couldn’t believe I had made it on time. I didn’t see Steve there, so I figured I must have literally missed him by seconds.

The second section was 16 miles and I had 51 minutes to get there on my minute. It started out with a special test. That’s where you’re timed riding as fast as you can for five to ten miles. It was real fast terrain. I had my 200 XCW wide open on at least three stretches. Somewhere in there my tool pack lost a bolt and my tools all came out. I had to stop and rig it to stop if from flapping all over. After the special test section we finally went into the forest. By this time I was beginning to feel more relaxed mentally.

I came up on one of the guys who had passed me who had pulled over under a tree. I stopped and asked him if he was okay. He said he was just resting up from all of the whoops. After a couple of minutes of resting and taking a drink we both took off.

A few miles later I came to the second checkpoint. Again I had forgot to start my stop watch so I didn’t know if I was early or late. I assumed it was close to my minute, which was 12:08.  I rode up to the front and saw that it was 12:04. I was early, and just when I was noticing that I heard Steve calling my name. I hadn’t noticed him in the group of riders when I pulled in. It was good to see him again after 33 miles of being separated. He had thought I might have stayed back with Tamera because he didn’t see me leave the start shortly after him. I told him I didn’t know where she was. She had not been able to start her bike while I was there so maybe she had dropped out.

Section three was the start of another special test. I let Steve go first and then I followed him from a distance to keep out of his dust. It was 13 miles to the finish line and we had 43 minutes to make our time.  I was feeling confident that I could make the time by continuing with the same pace I had been riding. Once the usual fast guys behind me passed me, I felt I had it made. “Just don’t be stupid and wreck, ” I thought to myself.

This time I had remembered to start my stop watch at the check. I could tell I was ahead of schedule by the halfway point of the section. I caught a glimpse of Steve up ahead of me here and there in an open stretch. It finally felt like we were riding together somewhat. I began counting down the miles on my odometer, getting excited to finish.

When I crested the hill that dropped down to the pits it felt glorious. I knew I had made all my times. I had not counted on that happening and I was jacked I did it. It was joyous rolling into the pits and seeing my wife Patty there, waving and video taping.  You are allowed to cross the last check up to fifteen minutes early without a penalty and I crossed the finish line at 12:42, nine minutes ahead of my scheduled minute.

The first thing I asked Patty was, “what happened to Tamera?” Patty told me she had got her bike started about five minutes after we left her and headed off into the course. About 20 minutes later Tamera rode in and crossed the finish line. That doubled my good mood. I was so proud of her to persevere and finish the race all on her own. Our plan to ride together had fell apart and yet she dug in and got it done. Totally commendable.

It was a memorable day. Though I had hoped for a more technical course, I had met my only goal of finishing the race. Getting a perfect route score as well was more than I had hoped for. When I found out a couple of days later that I had won a Silver Medal, it was frosting on the cake. In my second ever motorcycle race and my first enduro, an over-the-hill, slow guy like me gets a medal. It can’t get much better than that.

I haven’t decided if I’ll race again or not. It’s an intense experience and I’m not going to get much faster at my age. I have not illusions of grandeur. But if I do race again, it’s going to be an enduro. As a trail rider, the format and rules make it the ideal race.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on May 4th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Can you imagine yourself beating a factory sponsored Pro in a one-on-one race? If you’ve ever watched a Pro with your own eyes, and your honest with yourself, the answer is “no”. They’re just too fast.

But it could happen. Under the right circumstances, it could happen. Remember Aesop’s fable, the Tortoise and the Hare? The moral is, the faster one doesn’t always win.

That was the scenario on Saturday night, April 19. The circumstances were just right. The setting was the debut party for Hot Pipes Magazine.

Earlier in the week, Dave Gomez had ranted to me how touchy it is to start his wife’s KTM SX250. He said, “I’m gonna have David Kamo ride that KTM and race him two laps around the field by my house. I’ll beat him because he won’t be able to get that P.O.S. started.”

At the time, I thought it was just talk. I didn’t believe such a race would really occur.

If you don’t know who David Kamo is, he’s one of KTM’s newly sponsored Off-Road Pro racers. He’s a local Idaho phenom of growing fame who races the Pro Class in series like the Hare and Hound, Best of the Desert, WORCS, and ISDE. He also makes some appearances at the local SIDRA (Southern Idaho Desert Racing Association) races where he blows the locals away; guys like Gomez, who has been lapped by Kamo more than once.

When Saturday night’s party rolled around David Kamo was in attendance. Tamera Gomez told him about her husband’s boast, and to the delight of the party, Kamo was happy to give Dave a shot to prove his statement.

As the party crowd walked up the street to the field, Gomez made sure the bikes were pushed all the way. He didn’t want that KTM warmed up at all.

The anticipation grew as the two racers lined up on the starting line. The race course was a flat single-track trail running across an old farm field with two long straight-away’s and two long corners on the ends. Once around was about a 1/2 mile I’d guess.

Dan Wilken started the race. Gomez got his YZF450 started right up and took off as fast as he could. As he hoped, Kamo didn’t get the KTM started on the first kick. Or the second. But a few quick kicks later he got it started.

Gomez had nearly a half lap lead when Kamo got going.  Dave was riding as fast as he could too. Tresa Worrell later said, “I’ve haven’t seen Gomez ride that fast in a SIDRA race.”

But Kamo was riding that SX250 for all it was worth. He had it wide open rounding the long corners. It was amazing watching him speed through them, leaning into the turn so much his handlebar nearly scraped the ground. He looked like a road racer taking a corner. And it was on the corners where he gained the most on Gomez.

Gomez still held the lead coming around for the second lap, but it was down to about a third of the loop. Kamo steadily gained and as he rounded the last turn of the second lap, he was closing in.

There is 10-foot wide wash right before the finish line. Gomez had to slow down for it and that’s where I thought Kamo would get him. But Kamo had to slow down too and Gomez got through the wash and shot across the finish line first by a couple of seconds.

He had beaten a Pro. His ploy had played out perfectly. If it had been three laps instead of two, no question Kamo would have beat him. If Kamo had got the bike started three seconds earlier he would have beat him.  On this evening, though, the timing and circumstances worked out perfectly for Dave Gomez, and he got his bragging rights. The tortoise had beaten the hare.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on April 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »

I can still vaguely remember that summer day in 1969. Every time I see the photo in the family album, the distant memory from so long ago awakens. The picture is of my Dad sitting on his brand new Ossa 250 Stiletto in our front yard. I remember the excitement of that day. That special excitement you get when you bring a brand new motorbike home.

In 1969 Ossa was one of the top European dirt bikes, made in Spain. Ossa was just one of many European bikes available in the United States. It was the heyday for European bike manufacturers.

Besides Ossa, other European bikes sold in the U.S. were Bultaco (Spain), Greeves (England), BSA (England), CZ (Czechoslovakia), Maico (Germany), and Husqvarna (Sweden).

Meanwhile, Japanese dirt bikes were widely considered inferior in performance and quality. Dad never even considered buying one when he got his Ossa; nor over the following years of the 70s when he went on to buy a Husqvarna, a Maico, and then another Husqvarna.

Those glory days for the Euros were numbered, though. There were major changes coming in the dirt bike market during 1970s. By the time the 1980s dawned, the Japanese manufacturers owned the U.S. market while most of the European makers were out of business.

Honda and Yamaha, in particular, saw their U.S. dirt bike sales explode from about 1973 on. The companies had deep pockets subsidized by their other industries, like cars and road bikes. They were able to sell bikes at a lower price while at the same time spending more money on research for new technologies. The result was a better bike at a lower cost. European sales dried-up and bankruptcy followed.

Of all those European bikes named, only Husqvarna still sells dirt bikes today in the USA. But the once mighty Husky reputation took a big hit  in 1986 when an Italian company bought Husqvarna and moved manufacturing to Italy. Quality plummeted and has only improved in recent years. It almost killed the Husky reputation and it has yet to return to its’ former glory.

Fortunately the European dirt bike has revived over the past decade or so. Besides Husqvarna’s reemergence, KTM (Austria) established a quality reputation and loyal U.S. market-base over the course of the late 80s and onward. Today KTM is one of the top brands in the world. Other European bikes available in the U.S. are Gas-Gas (Spain), Husaberg (Sweden), Beta (Italy), and Aprilla (Italy). All offer modern, competitive dirt bikes, albeit at slightly higher prices than the Japanese bikes.

Today, anyone who wasn’t around the dirt bike scene of the late 60s and early 70s would have a hard time imagining Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki as second-tier bikes to unknown names like Ossa, Bultaco and Maico. But that’s how it was on that spring day in 1969 when we brought the new Ossa home.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on April 19th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

One of my favorite riding pals is a loyal Yamaha owner who loves to talk smack about other bikes. He particularly loves to slander KTM because I ride one, and our friendly rivalry doesn’t allow praising the other guy’s brand.

Of course I feel obligated to defend the honor of my KTM, and I retaliate in kind. I point out all the great KTM off-road racers like David Knight, Juha Salminen, and Idaho’s own David Kamo. I loaned him my Enduro at Erzberg DVD and told him it is a testament to KTM’s quality and toughness. I gladly reminded him of how Chad Reed’s Yamaha seized on the last lap of the Daytona Supercross.

And so it goes, round and round, the war of smack talk that knows no end.

I recently bought my second KTM, a new 2008 XCW. Three of our other riding friends also bought new KTM XCWs this year. KTM is the only major manufacturer making a two-stroke designed for trail riding, and the XCW models are wildly popular among trail riders. All of this has only fueled the smack talk from Dave. No way he will admit the superiority of KTM’s off-road bikes.

Recently there was another amusing development in our ongoing smack-down. Dave’s wife Tamera found a good buy on a KTM SX250. It was just what she wanted for racing. So she sold her Yamaha and bought the KTM. That really opened the door for giving Dave a bad time. Someone in his own household had switched sides. I loved it!

Unfortunately, there had to be a downside. It was quickly discovered that Tamera’s SX250 was very hard to start. The carburetor was thoroughly checked by the dealer and another mechanic. It was re-jetted, and the valves were checked. Still it was a tough bike to start, very finicky. Dave said he found out online that the SX250 is known for being hard starting. He’s called it a KTM P.O.S. (Piece Of Shit) over and over.

They debated selling the bike, but Dave’s figured out the ritual to get it started. Something to do with turning on the gas, giving it a couple of kicks, then turning off the gas and it will fire up. Weird.

Difficult starting aside, though, the bike is everything Tamera wanted. It’s light, it handles well, and now it’s got a Rekluse clutch too.

The real vindication came in Tamera’s first race on the KTM. After all the complaining by Dave, she went out and won herself a third place trophy. Her first ever racing trophy in her first race on the KTM. Dave has yet to win a trophy on his Yamaha. Welcome to the KTM family Tamera! Eat your heart out Dave.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on March 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

A lot has changed in Idaho over the last thirty years. The state’s population has more than doubled and, along with that,  there are ten times as many registered dirt bikes.

Unfortunately things have drastically changed in the Payette National Forest as well. In 1978 there were 1,773 miles of trail open to motorcycles. By 1991 that had been whittled down to 970 miles. In 2005 it was down to 642 miles. Now the Payette National Forest is proposing to reduce single-track motorcycle trail to 434 miles.

Trail motorcyclists are being systematically eliminated from the Payette National Forest. There is no other conclusion to be drawn from those numbers. Over 75% of the trails we could ride thirty years ago are now closed.

The Forest Service will state all sorts of reasons for the reduction: environmental concerns, wildlife habitat, elk breeding areas, budget cuts, erosion, and trails being underused to name a few.

I understand that we need to be environmentally conscious and respect the land. I love our forests and wildlife. I want them to survive for future generations to enjoy as I have.

However, the accumulated land mass of all single-track trails is a miniscule percent of total forest land. We’re not irreversibly damaging the forests with our trail riding. If you’ve ever seen a forest trail that has not been maintained or ridden for a few years, you know how fast they disappear into the landscape.

In fact I believe that non-maintenance is a tactic the Forest Service is using to eliminate motorcycle trails. The Payette Forest Service is good at this. Several of the trails they have slated for closure are not cleared and maintained. Then they turn around and say, “Nobody is using these trails, so we might as well close them.”

Last year I attempted to ride Vance Creek Trail #160 in the Payette Forest as part of a loop starting from Grassy Mountain Trail #163 and ending at Buck Lake Trail #162. We lost the Vance Creek Trail about 100 yards from the trail sign. It was overgrown and hadn’t been cleared of fallen trees for years. We searched but could not find any sign of the trail’s existence. So instead we took a forest road to the Warm Springs Saddle Trail #347 in hopes of taking it to Hard Butte Trail #344, which would tie us into Buck Lake Trail #162 and take us home. No such luck! We could not find Trail #344 either; another overgrown trail that had been devoured by the forest.

If that isn’t enough, if you still would think motorcycles are detrimental to the forest, then compare motorcycle impact to that of a forest fire. After a forest fire goes through an area you can’t tell a motorcycle has been there. Just drive around the Warm Lake area and try to find the motorcycle trails that were inside the burn area of this summer’s fires. A forest fire decimates the landscape. Fortunately an amazing thing with nature is that the forest recovers from a fire in time. The forest burned in Yellowstone’s 1988 fire have regenerated remarkably over the last twenty years.

None of that matters to the environmentalists and many of the Forest Service Supervisors, though. Their hidden agenda is to push motorized recreation out of the forests. They want to pin problems caused by climate change and population growth on motorized vehicles, like our elimination from the forest will solve all problems.

Sadly this agenda of eliminating motorcycles through a variety of excuses is not limited to just the Payette Forest. The Payette is just one forest trying to eliminate motorized access. Every Forest and every BLM district in the country is working on a Travel Management Plan. In most cases that means further reducing motorized access.

The time has long since come for the dirt motorcycle communities to stand up and fight for our rights to use public lands. This land is our land too, and we have as much right to influence policy as any other American. The fight is happening right now in the Payette National Forest, but it is coming to every forest and BLM district as well. If we do not fight for our interests now, we’ll be riding in fenced in parks in another thirty years.

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on November 21st, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Ginger or Mary Ann? It’s one the great proverbial question every man has to answer at one time or another. Though most of us would just as soon take both women as hurt one’s feelings, we all have chose a favorite between the two

And so it goes with riding the forest or desert. While most of us ride both, we all have a favorite when you get down to it.

It’s great being a dirt bike rider in Southern Idaho. We have a wide variety of forest and desert available to ride. Almost everything South of the Snake River is desert, stretching into Nevada and beyond to Mexico. Conversely, go North of the Snake River about 50 miles, and almost everything is mountainous forest, stretching to Canada.

Our group rides the desert starting in the late Fall, through Winter, and into Spring, when the mountains clear of snow. Then we ride the mountains all through Summer and into the Fall until the weather forces us out. But if you asked us our favorite place to ride? No question, it would be the forest.

However,  I’ve met many a rider who loves the desert and never rides in the forest.  Take my own brother. He is content to ride out around Hemingway and Rabbit’s Creek and you won’t catch him in the forest. It’s sad how two people raised in the same family could be so different.

I say people who have never rode single-track in the forest don’t know what they’re missing! When it come to technical riding, the forest is hands down the better riding. The forest has every imaginable obstacle: rocks, trees, roots, creeks, and logs to name a few. And don’t forget the forests are spread across mountains. That means narrow side-hill, “goat” trails running along deep ravines. It means steep, tight, switchbacks going up and down. It means riding sections where a mistake can mean serious injury or death.

Yea, the desert has it’s technical challenges too. I’m not selling it short. There are plenty of rocks and sagebrush to deal with, sand, sand washes, some creeks, and hill climbs. It’s just not quite as much as the forest offers.

So when you see our ride pictures change over to the desert scenery for the next six months, don’t think that we are pure desert riders. Nope, we just love riding and will take what we can get. Our heart lies in the forest and come next Spring, there we shall return.

Oh yea, lest I forget, I’ve always been a Ginger guy

Filed under: The Dirt Biker Chronicles on October 9th, 2007 | No Comments »