ISDE Spain

[Mark Berg - CPD]

Greetings from Six Days in the Navarro region of Spain everyone! The weather has been sunny and 70's every day, but this place needs RAIN!

Administration for US team was today and there is opening ceremonies tonight. Impound for the US isn't until Monday late afternoon, then its race time on Tuesday and the conditions are "California" like. Very fast, very, very dusty!

The Factory Pons GasGas team went out of their way to set up a race bike for Broc Hepler. There is no difference between his machine and Barragan's or Ventura's. I will take more pictures tomorrow and try to list all the mods. Broc is ready to roll. His father Dean is here with him, great guy to meet as well.

A young Canadian girl named Megan Griffins is renting a GasGas (EC250) as well. I had a chance to meet her and this is her first six days as well.

The Pons team also has 12 other rentals with full service to do, so they are going to be very, very busy!

I will try to keep everyone posted every night if I can of whats going on. I have met most of the club riders, and everyone is having a great time before the racing starts...some more than others!.

 

[fst96se]

Mark, is Megan officially associated with Gas Gas? I've seen her posts on instagram before.

 

[barossi73]

Thanks mark,all the best for the gg team from new zealand

 

[Dirt Dud]

Sounds like a great time ! Lots going on but keep us up on the Dirty , Dusty details .

 

[gg3]

Thanks mark,all the best for the gg team from new zealand

+1 Good luck

 

[hadfield4wd]

Awesome. Good luck Broc and team.

 

[Mark Berg - CPD]

Bikes in impound

Hello Again from Spain.

All bikes made sound test and inspection so USA good to go. Have I said how dusty and dry it is here? Big chance of rain on Wednesday, but so dry here it will only cause a huge mess.

Meeting tonight for all involved, then its race time tomorrow!

Megan is renting a GasGas EC250 from the rental program GG had here. The mechanics and staff at the Pons GasGas team have I believe 13 or 14 rentals now after starting with 12 rentals because of bikes being stolen over the last couple of nights. Racers are scrambling to find unused bikes Bad deal. I met her briefly and she seems like a great new young talent. She is a rookie but the Canadian staff know what they are doing, so she is in good hands.

Broc is our only supported rider and the Pons team have been incredible to work with, like Broc was on their WEC team!

 

[shultzy]

I am very interested in the details of the Factory Pons Gas Gas bikes. The more information the better ( especially the suspension ). Some good pictures of the bikes would be greatly appreciated as well !
Thanks.

 

[hadfield4wd]

I can't believe people stole the bikes. What a shame. Good luck guys and girls!!!

 

[MargusV]

Timing results

As official timing results are somewhat counterintuitive to find on the ISDE webpage i post this link here:

http://fim-isde.alkamelsystems.com/index.html

 

[gasgasman]

USA in 1st place as of Test 3.

 

[Danj56]

As official timing results are somewhat counterintuitive to find on the ISDE webpage i post this link here:

http://fim-isde.alkamelsystems.com/index.html

http://www.fim-isde-app.com/?r=0_03
Link for the phone.
Looks like Broc is top CT. I have two friend's son's/club members that are racing, 73rd and 75th OA on day one, 10th and 11th club team.

 

[Mark Berg - CPD]

Day 1 done and in the books

Dusty, dusty, dusty, and for Bro being in the E3 club class, meant he started in the back of the pack with a lot of local club riders from Spain that made passing for him a real struggle.

He currently sits in the top 100 despite it all and will move up in keytime and continually get a better starting minute.

Broc nailed a serious rock today with the aftermarket chain guide and it sheered off the bolts that hold the block on the swingarm. Luckily check #4 was back at the paddock and he was able to swap out for a new swingarm within 10 minutes and not gain any route points! Very impressive to say the least.

Lets hope that is the worst of his problems all week!

Trophy and Junior teams doing well as is the women and all the clubs. No DNF's so far for the USA.

Gnite!

 

[gasgasman]

I am very interested in the details of the Factory Pons Gas Gas bikes. The more information the better ( especially the suspension ). Some good pictures of the bikes would be greatly appreciated as well !
Thanks.

On the GasGas FaceBook page
https://www.facebook.com/GasGasMotos.NorthAmerica/photos/pcb.1392522507449124/1392521377449237/?type=3&theater

 

[MargusV]

These photos are actually quite interesting.

First semi-official info about running KYB forks.
X-Trig triple clamps
Mods to carbs
Haan hubs
BUD Racing silencers on some bikes
Something that looks like new graphics
CrossX seat covers

 

[philm]

Good to see Jonathan Barragan on his Gas Gas running 10th in the overall classification.

 

[shultzy]

Thanks for the pictures ( I finally broke down and got a Facebook account ! ).
It was driving me nuts looking at 2013 pictures of the Factory Pons bikes. Some of the forks appeared to to have kYB tops in Marzocchi 48 bodies. Makes sense now that they have confirmed that they are using KYB cartridges in Marzocchi forks. I had read that the Synergy Seals guy had performed the same conversion on a Sachs fork and that it was fairly expensive and difficult to do. I wonder if there are any KYB/Marzocchi conversion kits available for purchase ?
Anyway super cool bikes! I wish them all the best.

 

[Mark Berg - CPD]

2 down, 4 to go!

Day two was a very good and easy day for Broc, mostly cloudy with some rain towards the end for some new conditions tomorrow on some new and old tests!

Changed tires down at the GasGas Pons Factory team because the US pits were so overwhelmed with riders all coming in at the same times today! All is well and Broc moved up to 2nd overall Club rider behind Jason Toth of the USA and 1st in e3 club class!

Wet conditions in the morning should help Broc as well! Been an exciting 2 days so far, but with the ISDE, anything can happen! Keeping fingers crossed!

USA Trophy team in 1st, Junior team in 3rd!

Mark

 

[Mark Berg - CPD]

Halfway home!

Day 3! No more dust! Rains and drizzle continued through the night and all day today making some sections very slimy and tough!

Broc had a small fall in a transfer late yesterday afternoon and banged up his shoulder. We all thought it was nothing to worry about last night, but we were wrong. Really affected him today as could see visually the pain he had. He also had one test where he high sided pretty hard, but yet picked up and had a stellar final test to end the day.

Fell back to 2nd in Club 3 but only 34 seconds, so can make that up easily. 4th overall in all clubs, but Jason Toth is on fire...and in 1st Club.

Trophy team added another minute to their lead and the Juniors are steady!

Supposedly rains go away tomorrow....we will see!

 

[firffighter]

So good to see GasGas represented well at the most well known, historic enduro in the world!