Quarry Run D/S - 8/9&10

[skid jackson]

Shoulda went to Hancock ...my first enduro turned into a hell ride. 1st 10 mile section took 2 hours. needless to say I houred out half way through the first section. After a week of rain it was a 10 mile single track trench of impassable bike swallowing mud and roots. Nothing can discribe the carnage without a dougbt the dumbest thing I have ever done on a motorcycle. I bet At least 90% of the c riders did not make the check at the end of that 10 mile section. In my class C senior, of 10 riders, one made the 2nd check another made it to check 5 the other 8 never made the first check!! C 4 stroke ... nobody made the first check!! that was one tough azzed section!!

 

[WoodsRider]

Once again the Quarry Run was an absolutely fantastic ride. Being trail boss for our clubs h/s, back in May, kind of burned me out. Haven't spent a lot of time riding or wrenching on my bike since. The wrenching part bit me hard.

The only s/a silencer I had was from my old '98 EC250 and since I swapped the (broken) aluminum subframe, on my '03 EC300, for a steel subframe from a '97 EC, the silencer fit. Unfortunately the core broke while going down the first road section Saturday morning. I couldn't get the bike to rev out and lift the front wheel over simple trail junk. Some hills were tackled in 1st gear at half-throttle. Because it was running so crappy I went on reserve around mile 35 and still had another 8 miles until the gas stop. Luckily one guy in our group, Mike from North Jersey (maybe Glenn knows him) took a digger and we stopped in front of a farm house to perform some surgery on his KTM200. The farmer brought us some crowbars to bend Mike's pipe back into some form of what it once was and also some tools and water to fix a leaking radiator hose on the KTM. I also gave him $5 for a gallon of gas, which got me back to Fireman's Field.

Back at camp I took the silencer apart, fixed the broken core and repacked it. Glad I brought along all my spares. Mike fixed his twisted handguard and another rider, Darryl, who bailed earlier when his clutch cable snapped, rejoined our group. The Suzuki support truck gave Darryl a new clutch cable.

The second half of day-one was absolutely fantastic. My bike was running like it should and I was making up for going slow in the morning. A few times I spooked myself pretty good and backed off to let someone else take the lead. Rescued one rider who was pinned underneath his Yamaha with gas pouring out the carb all over his legs. Finished Saturdays ride, which probably doubled the total amount of miles I've ridden this year, and couldn't wait for Sunday.

Woke up Sunday stiff as a board, but still determined to ride. Left Fireman's Field just after 9:00 and headed to the first trail section where a log-jam of riders had developed. It was here I noticed the s/a on my silencer was loose. I didn't have any loctite when I put it together Saturday and five of the eight screws holding it together were gone. Tightened the three remaining screws and then Mike and I took an alternate line passing the dozen or so riders waiting at the bottom of the hill. When we got to the top another two-dozen were taking a break after struggling to get up the hill.

Sunday consisted of riding hard, even through the 30-minute rain shower, and hitting all the hero sections, then stop to tighten the remaining screws holding on the s/a. Eventually I lost another screw, so it was down to two. When those fell out, on a road section, the entire guts of the silencer were chucked out. I found all the pieces, but only had the almighty zip-tie to put it back together. Five more miles down the road the zip-tie melted, chucking the guts of the silencer, once again. Spent a half-hour looking for everything, but only found the core. Gave up and called it a day with ~30 miles left to go. Rode 11 miles back to Fireman's Field, packed up, ate some chicken then headed home just as the rain and hail started.

Also found out my bike will go 46.5 miles on a full (stock) tank. Had to push it the last half-mile to the gas stop on Sunday.

Despite the issues, which I have nobody to blame but myself, I had a great time. The Quarry Run restored my mojo to ride, but I've got a lot of wrenching to do on the bike before my next ride. Probably going to hang my competition side in the closet for a while. Just too much going on to concentrate on chasing series points. Probably going to stick with the "fun rides" for a while and concentrate on teching my son to ride next year.

 

[GMP]

Did they use the "butt crack" section, the rock wall at the top of the steep hill with a crack that your pegs barely fit through?

Glad you guys had fun and no injuries. The thing about riding up there is you get some pretty good speed going as the trails are not tight, and when you bail it hurts!

Also glad I missed the hail, my buddy was calling my cell (in my backpack) warning me not to come, but the rain was enough to discourage me as I left dry roads a few miles back.

Oh well, off to surgery to get some Ti removed.

 

[WoodsRider]

... without a dougbt the dumbest thing I have ever done on a motorcycle.

Skid - Don't get too discouraged. I've ridden enduros like this before. September 2000 Big Red Enduro in White City, IL. The night before it rained cats and dogs. At sign-up the club limited the rows to 2-riders/minute (no pre-entries). I ended up on row 20 with Jeff Fredette (under AMA enduro rules AA riders start on minute 20 with 1/row). I stuck to Jeff's rear tire for all of 20 yards. Two turns later he was gone.

The entire course was slick with a single rut and two outrigger marks on either side. I got stuck on the first hill, along with 20 other riders, and burned up the clutch in my KDX 200. Didn't even make the first check point.

Since my day was done I helped other riders up the hill. Then some kid on a DR350, at his first enduro, drowned his bike out in the creek crossing before the hill. We pushed his bike out of the creek and tried to pump out all the water. It still refused to light. Ended up pushing both our bikes, a mile through a muddy corn field, to the road. We were only about 100 yards from the start at that point.

That day a lot of good B-riders houred-out by the first or second check point. Out of the ~80 riders who signed up fewer than 30 made it off the clubs property, which was less than 10 miles, and only 7 finished. Fredette siezed his top-end trying to make up for lost time going down a road section.

If that had been my first enduro, I would've been discouraged too. The other two riders in my class houred-out at the first check, so I went home with a 3rd place trophy after riding only 1.5 miles.

 

[WoodsRider]

Did they use the "butt crack" section, the rock wall at the top of the steep hill with a crack that your pegs barely fit through?

If we're talking about the same thing, that was actually at the start of a "hero section" on Sunday. Went through there just as the rain started pouring down on us. A lot of club members were at the course splits encouraging riders not to take the "hero sections" on Sunday. I didn't have any problems.

The trials tire and the auto-clutch definitely proved to be the hot ticket for me. Only had one spill on the grass track when I leaned the bike over a gave it a little too much throttle.

One buddy, Roland, mentioned something about me not wearing elbow pads. Sure enough I scraped my right elbow on an oak and drew a little blood. Then Roland said something about Mike still having a perfect stock pipe on his '01 KTM. Sure enough, in the next section, Mike went down and waffled the pipe but good. We told Roland to keep his mouth shut.

 

[GMP]

I think that section got its nickname at the WEC, there it was just used as a transfer section! Last year the hill up to it was a hero section and the crack and slick blustone downhill on the other side was a "super hero" section, with an easy downhill bypass. When you see a lot of cameras you know its special. It was wet and there was much carnage, but I cleared it.

Craziest thing I saw was a guy on a Husky 510SMR, in full SM trim, slithering up that hill. I think his picture was in Trailrider.

My surgery went well yesterday, Thurs I'll find out when I can expect to ride and maybe we can set something up for the fall.

 

[WoodsRider]

My surgery went well yesterday, Thurs I'll find out when I can expect to ride and maybe we can set something up for the fall.

Glenn - Good to hear! The SMOG East trail ride is scheduled for Sat. Oct. 5th this year in Ravena, NY. Every year you see more and more GG bikes at this ride. The trails aren't too technical. There's one hill that usually gives the the inexperienced dirt-riders on vintage bikes fits. It's pretty much an open-invitation ride, no membership required. You just have to ride a Spanish steed.

Hopefully you can make it and, if you want something a little more technical, we can do some trail riding at CATRAland on Sunday.