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Big Boot
I finally went on the Big Boot trail ride. It was a BRC fundraiser
ride and my club picked up 1/2 the $200 entry fee. This trail ride is held on Simpson Timber Company land in Big Lagoon, CA. I drove fellow GasGas rider Josh Golden's van up there and due to the Nascar race at Raceway (Sears Point) and it being Gay Pride weekend in San Francraphole, the traffic sucked and turned our 5.5 hour trip into a 8 hour trip. Josh had to drive back. The riders meeting was at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and the last rider had to be out by 9:00 AM. There was 65 miles of trail with 62-63 being single track. SWEET! The area had not seen rain in 3 weeks, but the only real dust was in the clear-cut areas. We took off at about 7:30 AM and the trails were so dark, I had to remove my goggles to even see. These are some thick redwood forest. About 6 miles into the ride I was going up a hill and had to make about a 60 degree left turn half way up. Traction was hit or miss and I was struggling to find a comfortable pace. The 60 degree turn turned into a 90 degree turn as the rear of the bike came around as I lost traction. Unfortunately, I regained traction and was not heading towards a 3 inch diameter tree, but I was going pretty slow. So I chopped the throttle and prepared for impact. The impact was nothing special and I confident I would stop and grab the tree to keep from falling down. Well, I let my throttle hand linger to long and as the left bark buster hit the tree, the bars turned left and the throttle accidentally was applied. My bike did the most beautiful loop out as I held on to the tree. The bike was undamaged and my wrist was sore. I sprained it or it's got a fracture, but it didn't hurt enough to stop riding. So, I finished out the 65 miles and it was well worth any pain I endured. They had another 30 miles available, but my wrist was sore and I had another day of riding to do Sunday. Sunday morning and my wrist was 1/4 bigger than normal, but it did not hurt to do most normal things, so the ride was on for me. We started later to get some more light into the woods. We were riding the same trails, but only backwards. They were awesome and in better shape than day 1 which is a little odd. The gas stop was at 45 miles on Sat., so that put it at 20 miles on Sunday. That's where I called it a day. I had a sore wrist and a long drive home and I felt like I was beat with a bat because I haven't ridden much. I fell over a few other times each day, but nothing to write about. The woods reminded me of the Harrell compound. Big ferns and thick trees. Staying on the trail was a must. Holes and logs were waiting for you to make a mistake. There were wild flower everywhere. It was really cool to ride past the Irus' growing throughout the woods. (example - http://www.pbase.com/ilanb/image/56176703) I hope to be able to do this ride again. I tamed my GasGas for day 2. I have a RB designs modified head on my bike and it added low end. That and the leaner slide I was running prior to the head was too much in the tight bar banging woods that I rarely see in California. So, I went back to the stock slide and smoothed the power a bit. I'm going to drop a tooth on the rear sprocket also. Sunday, I rode a '06 CRF250X for a couple miles and a '07 KTM 300 XC. I was helping a couple club members set up their bikes. The CRFX had the perfect power for those trails. The suspension was jacked, but I was able to get it back to good working order. The stock suspension on that bike is good stuff, but not when set-up wrong. The KTM had been revalved, but the owner did/does not know what to do to tune it in. I backed off the rebound 12 clicks if that tells you anything. It was packing up bad. The '07 KTM 300 XC is leaps and bounds better than the '04 I had. It even turns! It was still too stiff as I set it to 2 clicks from full soft, but the balance was there front and rear. Power on the KTM was just like my GasGas before I went back to the richer slide. Very beefy power. Anyway, I had a good time, Mike |
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