• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

entering first hare scrambles this spring

Norman Foley said:
Lots of excellent tips already....

Does your series have a morning race for novice and age riders? In my local HS series, everyone from AA/Expert to the greenest C Novice, race together. Speed differential between fastest and slowest is huge. Novice race is nicer, as usually fewer riders and fastest to slowest is closer.

Yes, it's a trail ride of sorts, but a little more intense....

Practice your starts.... You're not looking for the holeshot in your first race, but starting well has benefits. You'll waste energy, if your bike doesn't start right up and you'll have a harder time pulling yourself together and finding a pace, if the line behind you is passing you too soon.

Practice running laps at your fastest "trail pace".... Lay out a loop similar to what you think the HS will be and ride it. If the race is 2 hours, pound out the laps and do a pit stop at 1 hour. The last practice before the race... run it backwards to the direction you've been practicing. This is a good tuneup to ride the race course, which you don't know. That said, if you have a chance to walk or bike the course, do so. If you can't, at least walk the start and where the course enters the woods.

Practice riding, with all the gear you will use racing... If you don't use roll offs, wear a drink system or a tool belt, but plan on using them in the race.... start using them now. Don't try any new boots, pants gloves or anything else race day. Stick with your most tried and true stuff.

Figure out your goggles or glasses.... You need to keep them on, as much as absolutely possible. Racing is way more hazardous, than trail riding in this respect. You're going to deal with a lot more roost, as you are passed and passing. The course will usually be trimmed, but you will be off line moving over to be passed, to pass and get around bottlenecks. This won't be trimmed. Tear offs or roll offs for muddy race, a pair treated with Rain-X for a rainy race. A spare pair by your gas can, for when you pit.

In the race... keep riding and going forward. Many guys drop out, so if you ride as many laps as you can, you may be pleasantly surprised at your result! Good luck!
Click to expand...

Excellent advice.

CRA starts all classes 1 min apart , morning is peewees and afternoon is quads, Bike run at 11 or noon.
You know what western Pa is like , real muddy in the spring and muddy in summer, ( except maybe if we get a drought, Yea right!)
new tires or fairly new tires a must for novice riders. And some of the fast guys are pros and in it for points and money. They will pass you like your standing still, just stay focused on YOUR line....
 
yeah the guys that will run you and your bike over at any cost is honestly the reason i ve waited so long to get involved with any kind of formal racing. ill just have to keep my wits about me.
 
FabOneUp said:
As a newish (1.5 seasons) racer myself, I have one major problem that seriously needs fixed….holding my line. I have taken out a couple guys faster than me by not holding my line. The last crash was pretty serious. At first I was really pissed at the other guy, but then realized it was completely my fault. He picked the lower line to pass and I took it when he was in full throttle. Also, people always say to just go out and have fun which is great advise, but some guys are out there for the win at any cost. Watch out for those guys. They only care about impressing there girl friends or something and will take you out and not even blink. C class is the worst for this. We are all green in C class and learning as we go. Many good times ahead for you and good luck! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

great point! i always wonder when passing other riders if they are going to decide to swap lines. do you guys bark or yell at people right before you pass? i see riders do that at times
 
Yes, but thank them for moving.
If fast rider comes up behind you and your in tight woods section.
Next available place, I point where want him to pass me.
 
dartyppyt said:
Yes, but thank them for moving.
If fast rider comes up behind you and your in tight woods section.
Next available place, I point where want him to pass me.
Click to expand...
I nod my head four or five times on the side I want someone to pass. At race pace I need both hands on the bars! :cheers:

I've raced a couple of CRA harescrambles in the past, there is some gnarly stuff at a few of those places. My advice would be to treat the guy in front of you as a fast riding buddy and go with him/her. You'll soon know where you stand. Don't try to hang on to the back wheel of someone slower than you, thinking you'll 'trail ride' and get experience or that you're tired enough and this is a good pace; what will happen is that you'll have to adjust to every mistake or line they ride and that's not a good thing. A lot of the pre-race thought process is just too much anxiety, wasting energy. Relax and tune in to your ride. Momentum at the bottom is what carries you to the top... but that 360 is a great equalizer! Also, don't get too hung up on bottlenecks. You'll be surprised at how easy some of those are to ride right past/up. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Ain't that right, Vince?:oldman:
 
No confidence is the coward maker... 360 slip in 4th n chugg away rarely do i need 2nd on my 360 in the gnarr, im always a 3-4 gear monster in open sections pinned still find me thinking am i in top try going for 7th thats just not there!, be hitting 85mph on the road in 6th garmin told me only been full chat on mile stints not miles n miles.
People do pass you like your in reverse tho an im like wth how you got that amount of traction?!?
 
Do not look back. A overtaking rider has already chosen his line around you and thinking your moving out of his or her way just turned that into a 50/50 crap shoot for a huge crash. Don't over think this, just show up and pay your entry put your gear on and ride. By the end of the event almost all your questions will be answered.

Like my high school teacher used to say "We can make plans,we cannot make results". Everything changes as soon as you drop the clutch with one small exception , the last guy who could not start his bike always leaves with a wheelie LOL.

Just go have fun.:)
 
I've been fussing over my bike for the better part of this week. I think I checked everything twice, lubed everything real good, cleaned and oiled the air filter even though it was fine. Checked spokes three times per wheel. Spent over an hour applying number plate background and the steward supplied numbers. The battery is sitting on the tender, there's a fresh rear tire and a near new g216 fatty up front. Stripped all the street gear off and used a Zip Ty license plate frame to mount my plate (registration tags must be attached per race rules). Today I'm getting my gear all packed and ready to go, then I'll stare at my bike for a while to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Funny thing is that the loop I'll be running tomorrow is shorter than an average day of riding with my wife, but I figure peace of mind is cheap insurance so I can focus on having fun tomorrow and stay on task. Getting pretty excited though!

One thing I have heard over and over is if you show up solo and don't belong to a club, make sure you find one to register with as a guest for breakdown assistance. You don't wanna be the guy waiting for a sweep rider at the end of the day to send help. Plus if you need to pit these guys will help with that too! I haven't even loaded my bike up yet but already know I've got new friends to meet when I get there. Great to know you're welcome and there are fellow racers who've been in your shoes and are willing to help you succeed.
 
Hoping I'll have a bike. Looks like it's gonna be close. It's been waiting for it's legs for 2 weeks. Zip Ty should have my boinngers done any day now. Been passing the time going through all the electrical and cleaning/ treating connectors, dropping in the Earth x battery, adding some radiator braces and guards and general maintenance. Aiming for a Saturday arrival to set up camp and test my new suspension and get used to it.

For a little diversion I finally got some new tires on my Mustang so I show her a little love. These two wheel projects and rotten tires have had her shut in the garage for months.
 
Ride your own race, not that of the next bloke.
Back off 10% to gain 10%
Every minute fraction of a second gained by efficiency adds up.
Grin but don't open your mouth
 
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