Dirt Bike Progress

Quick note – work has been INSANE lately. Many sleepless nights. Hopefully things will settle down soon. Though not likely to improve blog communication.

 

Anyway, I’ve been making some serious progress on the dirt bike front. While Craig and the rest of the gang have been heading to coal country every weekend, I’ve managed keep a local routine going. Instead of the the Wednesday night mt. bike ride, I’ve been doing the Wednesday night dirt bike ride at a local venue. It’s not much for time, but it’s a really hard place to ride. My skills are advancing quickly.

Since the kid camping got postponed this weekend, I managed to get up to coal country for a Sunday ride. Unfortunately upon arrival, we learned they were shutting down the mountain we typically ride because of over crowding on the mountain and hooligans tearing through town. Luckily we have some local connections and there are a number of mountains to ride within 20 minutes of each other. Within the hour we were suited up and headed into new terrain.

And what terrain it was!

It was so technical i.e. rocky. It was trail nirvana. Years ago I had ridden these trails on a mt. bike. Riding these same trails on a dirt bike is all I’ve imagined since owning one. Ironically our local connection couldn’t handle it and left early. On our own we found the best stuff and road it repeatedly.

I also managed to work on some timing/technique issues with things like logs and large rocks. Considering the amount of suspension these things have most of the time you can just plow into something and bowl your way over it, but that’s not ideal. You want to at least unweight the front end so it glosses over the obstacle. Ideally you can even “hop it” so that the rear does all the work. Can’t say I’m anywhere near the “hopping” action, but I was certainly unweighting and even lifting freely over some obstacles. I think I even managed to get some air a few times on purpose.

All in all a great trip. I’m making progress nicely and really enjoying the bike. To think 6 months ago I was nearly scared to death of the thing. Now I can hardly imagine riding a different bike.

– b