this weekend....I need to get off my arse and prep.....drop rear deeper sag. add bigger main jet. install turbine core muffler per rules. fresh air filter too .... keeping oem tank on. start full , refill at 33 mile mid 60 mile loop fuel stop, refill before final 2nd 30 mile loop. I'm not happy about satellite gas stop, its logistically a PITA and for my 1 track mind.....not great, not easy, now I will have 2 fuel cans to be sure. when I need it its there. see yall there for those that go.
I know John will be there. I was gonna go but promised a club friend I'd go ride a scramble race with him his first race back after a looonng hiatus. You boys have fun.
have 2 fuel cans 2.5 gals each, one for home pit one for remote. took 1.5 turns out of preload (didn't check sag yet, I'm thinking 105-110) added 3 clicks of LSC all else same, installed the Turbinecore 2'\ per regulations, added one size jet bigger on main per JD, but did not raise my needle .5 it stays same at 3. all else is as is, did zip tie stitch my left handguard that I broke last weekend bushwhacking. ANd somehow I lost my #2 USWE....cant find it anywhere--I hate that so will plan to refill the 1 I have. that 1st loop A will be 60 miles of HELL even quads will be on the same track.....meaning that it will flat with some sand hills and I'm sure minimal rocky sections D38 zone desert......with whoops from 50 years of offroad traffic...Loop B will be the technical run.
John....if I could beat him ,,I probably would not because hes a points man for the series......problem is I cant!!!he beat me fair and square today. I tagged along with him for a while on A loop but he got a little ahead of me and when I came in for gas he was almost ready leave on B loop....I never saw him again. Friends all rode a great race Frank Z, Giovanni S, John K all 50A guys that finished ahead of me (me 9th from 16 starters). course was tough...dust was a factor as were lots of deep whoops, but heck every one had to ride them. My bike ran kind of crappy today in the idle range...weird all I did was throw in a bigger main jet and verify my AS position.
Robert I had fun all thru the first loop battling with you. The first loop was crazy fast But the second loop was much better The poor little Zip Ty Husky was pinned on the big sand dunes I got all of loop 2 on Gopro so stay tuned Most people will not believe what we rode thru I was at a disadvantage most of the day on a 125 But my plan is to do the Nationals on a 125 My 5th place finish today ties me in points for 2nd Now we wait for Rd4 in Utha I still not ready to move up to the 60 year old class
that combo of ultra lite bike and lean weight John is impressive. On loop 1 when I stayed with John I was thinking yes fact I can go faster but I stuck with the master knowing his strategy to not burn out in that first long mostly low dez trail and be ready for the tough one loop so I hung and keyed off him. and heck he still pulled me near the end of the loop. I saw him in the pits as I passed to go to mine. Loop B....video great to get the viddy to show the technicality of what we are riding. John went through that waterfall canyon very well as did I except I was caught behind a big conga line. I did make passes in some of the same spots a John as guys were held up or layed over. I should not have relaxed so much at the pits I wanted to be ready for B loop and went slow drank ate a banana some go juice etc. My 3 hundo probably needed 2 mains bigger after the dune sections she wanted to rev and run on (lean!!). But I kept it under control. all the up hills and steep downs went well with only a few offline excursions, but with 300 grunt I made off piste lines. I lost about 5 minutes on the north side of the mountain in the rocks when me and 5 other riders lost the ribbon and in so much rocks there was no tire tracks line, I circled a rock outcrop looking for the race line..finally my friend Brian (40B who caught me up) found it and I followed him down into the canyon. I shadowed him for a while then pulled away, but at the end I really thought he beat on aggregate time..but looks I still got him. The race was for sure not my cup of tea. But if you want a real challenge the NHHA is a ball breaker. My muscles are ripped....and I'm on heavy doses of RynoPower Protein, Carb fuel and aminos.....it was a worthy event. John you old (er) son of a gun!! Great ride John, I guess I will once again join you for the 100s MC final....why not, even after I usually swear off National Hare and hounds..... Oh also I simply unscrewed my preload 1.5 turns off the spring to drop the rear (and never even checked sag) which saved me numerous times is the sand and soft stuff, but was unfamiliar on the steep uphills and caught me in wheelies and unplanted front a number of times where I normally don't feel that when I have my bike in tight trail stink bug short sag, but for the dez its proper, I'm just not used to it and I had my front ricochet off rocks and deflect off line on lot of up hill stuff until I got way over the frontwhich caused some rear traction loss....balance was off from what I normally set up. PS the AER48s are the best thing Ive ever experienced for the crazy steep down hill grooves because they ramp up so much they ride high even when you are riding the front wheel down a chute under braking. another note Rekluse......still my fave attribute is the deceleration feature of semi lock up....as a slipper clutch. Ive always been fine using my left hand to feed clutch both ways to get traction ,,but when coming down arse pucker steep rocky stuff having not to worry about feeding clutch and controlling with only brakes is great.
Cool video. Drone provides a great perspective. So what did the traffic look like in this canyon when the other 200 or more riders came through?
I was a little less than aggressive and waited where in a normal XC race I would have bulled my way through the conga lines. I should have been more aggro in the pits and got out faster, I would have been ahead of a lot of the guys that I got stuck behind in that first technical canyon. But truth is there really were not that many guys out on the L2, just small groups and single riders. There were only 103 riders that finished the L1 and L2 with 25 DNF after finishing the L1, so some may have quit after L1 or just never finished L2. 19 others on the 2 loop list DNFd the first loop. http://www.moto-tally.com/nhha/results.aspx/2018/2/O1/CT
