I decided to do this Enduro race on a wim. That meant I had to scramble to get parts on the new beta Xtrainer. Not everything showed up on time, like the swing arm protection, or the skid plate. I also needed to give it it’s first oil change. I hadn’t done that before, so it was interesting. I had to call Jesse to ask if I had read things in the manual correctly. Come to find out that I didn’t need to make things so difficult. Live and learn. Next time, it’ll be different too, since the new skid plate is in the way and it’s really tricky to get on and off. I see some dremel modifications in its future in order to make that easier.
I managed to get it all done. The trailer was another story, it was still just too cold to put water in it for the weekend. So I just dry camped that weekend. I had to get myself down to Red Sands early on friday. I got there an hour before the class was to start, managed to find a nice place to park the trailer, there was even room for Michelle and company to park there, but they showed up really late friday eve. That actually was fine, since I was so wiped out from work and getting up so early that I had fallen asleep around 8:30. Woke up about 1am to shut off the light and give Sable a potty break.
I had signed up for the Destry Abbott class that was Friday afternoon. I really enjoyed it. I did have some tell me to take the KTM since I was more comfortable on it, but where is the fun in that??? It would have allowed me to ride on Sunday, but again, oh well. I was able to get home early, get the trailer parked so that was kind of nice.
I did learn a few things in the class, he helped me with riding whoops and corners better. I had a great time. There was one young kid who really needed to learn not to always push the limits, I don’t know how many times he fell over, but he took me down in one of them. lil’ shyt. No apology or anything, of the sort. He roosted me twice, totally unnecessary in a training class. So I had very little sympathy for him when he crashed in the whoops and rung he’s bell hard and broke a second bike for the day. One of the hardest lessons for some to learn is that you can’t win if you are constantly crashing. If you are in a class, where you actually want to learn you have to slow down, just enough to make sure you are attempting the techniques you are being taught. It’s impossible to be at your speed/talent limit and learn a new technique. I do hope that he doesn’t get hurt too badly and has to give up riding .
Saturday started off with such promise….
Thanks to the class with Destry, I was feeling really comfortable on the XTrainer. I took my time on the first couple of miles, I slowly started to go faster as I even more comfortable. I really like that bike. It is confidence inspiring, each change in the terrain that I had some apprehensions about, the bike just went through it with ease. By about mile 10 I was totally loving it and having fun. A few miles later, I saw the oil light come on. I couldn’t believe it. We thought that it had been fixed… I knew that I wasn’t likely to make it through the last 16 miles of the course, without running out of oil.
When I hit a cross road, I stopped and I was asking everyone who went through if they knew a shortcut back to the pits. Michelle stopped and was helping me try and figure it out. I had left my phone in the trailer… Last time I’ll do that. We borrowed a phone from one of the riders. Michelle and I headed down the road, when we got to the cross road, we picked the wrong direction. After about 3 miles, I stopped, asked her to check. That was when we turned around to head back to were we started. I stopped to check to see just how much oil there was. It appeared to me that it was just about out. Michelle went on to get a truck to come get me. I hung around and then got it in my head that I should try to work my way closer to the pits. I headed on down the shoulder of the road. That didn’t work out so well. I picked up thorns in both tires.. I limped it to a road that I could see racers going past. I guess I still wasn’t thinking about getting picked up, so I got the bike to where the racers were going by. Ask one of them to let the organizer know where I was and that Michelle was going to be looking for me. Shortly after that, a sweep UTV came by so I hitched a ride to the pit with him.
At the scoring line Michelle was there, I got an earful about not staying where she left me, and rightfully so. I really should have stayed there. I know what the thought process was, but it wasn’t the right thing to do.
I hung around the next day to watch the girls start their day. It was great to see so many of them.
