8th June - Chiltern Enduro club... Now with report

[G]

As requested by a few, details of what I'm entered into (I'm #72 on a shiny KTM 690, looking worried)...
https://www.chilternhillsclub.co.uk/Penwood%20entry%20regs.doc

It's a basic Hare Scramble, with a break in the middle of the three hours riding for those less fit like myself.

If anyone wants to come along to play, or just to watch, feel free.
Scruiteneering at 9:30 for a 10:30 start.

[2006 _p1]

[G]

Only 4 strokes?

Given the choice, I'd be on a 200cc 2stroke enduro, if I had one, but I don't and my hussy is too loud .

Think it'd be a bit far for you to come, if I remember; to get a general idea, try this. The exact location isn't up yet, I believe.

Under 20 miles for me, so might even ride there .

[2006 _p1]

Well about 4 strokes being more environmentally friendly so i thought no 2 stokes would be allowed in.

yeah quite a bit a way for me just to watch.

[G]

Ah, err suppose they are in some ways. Though the whole idea of motorbike racing is rather 'unenvironmental' as it is .

4 strokes are a lot louder with 'race' pipes on. While they burn less oil when running, the decent ones do get through a fair bit of oil that still has to be disposed off.

[m0l0t0v]

Ahh that's a shame. I would've come to watch but can't. If it was after the 10th I would've as you're not too far from me


Enjoying the KTM? Or still unimpressed?
____________________
'99 Hornet 600 , VFR 400 NC30 '92 , Kasawamasaki GT 550 , '98 Hornet 600
**\Tarmacsurfer/** said: It's that immaculately manly coiffure of yours isn't it. One glimpse of your virile locks and the punters can't wait to buy whatever it is you suggest, as it might let them be just a little bit like the Adonis that is our very own Molly Doovydoo said: Its not my fault I can't get it up properly, I just wasn't blessed

[Wave2k]

G is unimpressed with anything, if its very good its usually descrided as meh.

What do you think after riding Valentino Rossi's M1 Mr Giffould.............. "Meh unimpressed".
____________________
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[Bendy]

I think it would be classed as 'acceptable'.

[G]

It's ok, but I didn't get it as an amazing bike - got it as a 'do it all' bike .
Not so impressed by the standard tyres in mulchy mud, but otherwise they were ok - did maybe 100 miles road riding and a load off road on Saturday - they handled both 'acceptably'.
[edit]Ok, I meant to post this about an hour ago, before people predicted my ever so precitable comments![/edit]
However, I should point out that I /was/ impressed by the 300cc 2 stroke and suspect I would be by a 200cc 2 stroke (anyone want to give me a 2008 model to prove me wrong?) - bikes that are nearer the 'pinacle' of off road performance for a newbie such as myself. As ever, I'd suggest I'm just being realistic, rather than understated .
The 'good' things about the 690 is that it's got 3k mile service intervals and a bit over half the power of a sports 600 for road riding.

[.....]

How did it go G?

[G]

Report with video to follow. I'm, err, glad that no one took up my suggesting of entering "'cos it won't be that bad" - I was certanly one of the slowest there, though I was definitely on the heaviest bike by quite a bit, with most on proper competition enduro fare.

Had a few crashes, but only one slightly iffy one and that wasn't too bad.

Good fun, but really could do with that 200cc 2 stroke I've been after .

[Bendy]

My piccies are pretty shite - cack-handed camera operation.

[Bendy]

...

[G]

Ta for the pics.
Bah, it was all looking good at picture 0054 - me standing up, looking kinda like I know what I'm doing and going past someone waiting at the side, then you have to go and add more .

[G]

Hopefully a lap in video:
https://blip.tv/file/975036

Doesn't seem to play here; if you click 'Download Playing' at the bottom it should work, but beware, it's the original size, so will take a while.

[Gazdaman]

Yup, not too upset I missed that one

Up for the hill climb at Monmoth in August?

Gaz

[G]

I'm busy through most of August unfortunately.
KTM might actually be quite good at that, though. It tractored up and over loads of nasty stuff where (the slower end riders on) proper enduro bikes were having a bit more trouble - suspect a heavy fly wheel and lots of low down power worked well the trials tyre. Surpised how well it dug it's self out of mud over decent lumps of slippy tree roots etc.

[Gazdaman]

Did you change the tyres off the stock ones then?

I might make an appearance at the hill climb, ACU sent back my licence forms, so they havn't taken my money yet. So if I'm not gonna enter, I probably won't bother with the licence just yet.

Not sure it's the type of thing I wanna embarass myself at alone either.

Gaz

[G]

Yes, most definitely. Stock ones would have been /seriously/ scary (though they get much better ones in the US, for some reason).
I had a proper enduro knobbly on the front and the trials tyre that was on the 'pamp on the rear.

I'm not sure what the hill climb will be like, but a bit going up that hill shouldn't be too bad, at least.

[G]

Preperation
Me
The Plan: get to the gym three times a week for the two weeks before along with occasional cycling in the evenings and some decent off road (pedal and powered) rides at the weekends.
Reality: Gentle greenlaning and a steady mountain bike ride the weekend before, two hours in the gym on the Thursday before. Of note, I made use of the gym punch bike, hoping that might replicate the kind of abuse my arms would be getting - I was quite surprised I wasn't suffering from severe arm-pump, so I wonder if this had helped?

I had also been trying to drink lots of isotonic drinks for a couple of days before to get my energy and water levels up,


The bike
Adjust suspension, raise bars and move/turn forward, add grab handles, add front 'pull' strap on forks/yolks, add tyre sealant to tool kit, oil and filter change and a few other bits, I'm sure.
As ever, I ended up leaving most of the preparation to the day before:
Adjusting suspension, adding grab handles and front-pull, bar risers etc.

Getting There
Seeing that I was on my KTM690e which I’m intending to be a “do it all” bike, I rode the bike there – an interesting experience with a proper enduro front tyre and trials rear. Around 60mph the bike had a steady rhythmic weave; more than that and the wobbling/pulsing sensation, got very ‘interesting’, so I stayed within the speed limit on the single carriageways I was on.

Pre-event
Expecting there to be a few DRZ400Es or similar, I’m a bit worried on arriving when every single other bike is competition enduro bike. Gary Grover, who I’d got some parts from the day before wanders over and mentions the conditions are quite nasty.
Looking at the results, there was one DRZ, but seems they gave up quite quickly.

There’s a quick briefing, then bikes are ‘let go’ in groups of ten, one minute apart. I was number seventy two, so my start and finish times would be at thirty seven minutes past the hour along with everyone else numbered seventy one to eighty.

The Event
First lap
Starting gently, within a couple of minutes I've still already managed to drop the bike on a bit I should have been fine on - quite a few times I find myself letting silly 'survival reactions' get the better of me - for instance taking it slowly going down a slope, where I should have leant back and gunned it, which would make getting it up the other side much easier as well as being safer going down.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/img_0048_190.jpg

Coming up to a rather boggy bit I get stuck at the back of a queue stuck behind a rider who's dragging his bike in the mud. The rider infront of me points to a short cut that misses out this bit; as it doesn't look like much is happening, I take it and cheekily go past a few that have gone past me before. The next lap the first route is blocked off and the short cut I've taken is now marked as the official route. In the briefing we are asked to tell marshalls of any problems along with their approximate location; so I'm guessing stuff like this is included.

Muddy stuff:
https://gees.zenfolio.com/p819138299/?photo=h37ED8C63#956834983

As the first lap progresses I'm becoming more and more knackered - this is kind of like the toughest bits from a green-lane ride, but successively one after another with no real let-up. After the deep muddy sections, there's some tight twisty undergrowth which is followed by a wooded section that has roots continually crossing the track.
At section 6 I stop for some water; unfortunately I couldn't find the 'bladder' for my camelback, but the stop to get my bottle out is appreciated.
By the time I've made it to the timing gates again I'm totally knackered - seems I'm not the only one either as there's a few sat outside, though a short time later I note the number 1 plated rider comes in (presumably after having done at least two laps, maybe three) to top up with fuel - while I doubt I've used 10% of my total fuel so far.

Rest of the morning
As I had been quite dehydrated, I make sure I drink plenty. Going out for a second lap I'm feeling a bit more confident and manage to if not up the pace, at least smooth it out a bit.

The track is definitely pretty tight, in some cases thanks to trees either side to make it twisty, or tight lines of bushes barely allowing space for the bars to pass through.
https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/img_0062_190.jpg

The third lap sees me getting a bit too confident; after letting a couple of people past on one of the heavily-rooted areas I think "they're not that fast, I can at least try and keep up". Pride, as ever, comes before the fall and I'm soon going over the bike as the front wheel slides along rather than over a root.
The handle bars are a bit sideways, possibly due to the slightly-bodged risers I had installed before. Just loosening off the top-clamps and doing them back up makes it pretty much straight again however. Glad I did strap that tool kit onto the mudguard now.

Open single track:
https://gees.zenfolio.com/p819138299/?photo=h37ED8C63#938314851

I could go out to do another lap before I stop for lunch, but as I'm pretty tired by this point I come in just under ten minutes before the cut off.

Afternoon
Lunch is courtesy of a 1/2lb burger with cheese and a can of coke, as well as quaffing most of the rest of the drink I already have.

Luckily Bendy turns up at this point bring petrol, which it turns out I don't need and more usefully in this case water, which I definitely do!

https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/img_0045_190.jpg

Fire road:
https://gees.zenfolio.com/p819138299/?photo=h37ED8C63#549179072

Hoping to improve on the three laps of the morning to four in the afternoon, I'm pleasantly surprised when I find the first two laps have been done in forty minutes or so - so I should be able to easily do four and probably five ok, accounting for breaks.
I think the track has maybe been made a little shorter as the worse deep-muddy bit has been replaced by some more very tight riding-through-hedges sections. This doesn't mean there's no muddy bits and I still have to be helped out by a marshal once or twice through some of the obstacles in the slimy mud that now have big trenches leading up to them - as in the morning I might not have made it quite so smoothly up the top of a hill, had a marshall not grabbed the front of my bike as I was teetering at the top, about to fall back down.

A few times I pick up a 'roaming marshal' who rides behind me for a while; not sure if they've decided I'm going to be in need of rescue soon, or are just being courteous, as they're obviously faster than me.
Not only the marshals, but pretty much all the other riders were really friendly and helpful through out the events - I'm sure a good 'starter' club compared to many.

Tight going:
https://gees.zenfolio.com/p819138299/?photo=h37ED8C63#964690977

The KTM seems to be working suprisngly well in the deep mud and on some slippy slopes, despite it's bulk. The big engine is doing it's job, tractoring over most of the roots and logs that have become quite nasty obstacles once the dirt before them has been eroded away by hundreds of bikes spinning up their tyres. I seemed to pass quite a few decent enduro bikes in such situations where they were getting bogged down.

The end...
Until next time!
Apparantly this was one of the nastiest events run by the club, so I think the KTM at least 'proved' it's self, though it was far from perfect. Had it been an a more open course with a faster track it would have probably been relatively a lot better.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/img_0065_190.jpg

After suggesting other people should do it, I've realised now I was confusing people's comments on Rallys - which are events that are much more reasonable for most bikes and most skill levels - with entries ranging ranging from C90s to BMW GS' as opposed to the rather enduro focused requirements for this.
Saying that, I'm sure with a bit of practice something like a XR wouldn't be too bad, but unless others are a lot easier, do expect some quite tough going for the 'newbie' - of course I'm sure had one of the better riders entered on my bike they'd have done much better than I did.

The results have just been published and I managed 52nd overall; not too bad out of 99. Ok, a lot of the people slower than me dropped out so might have done better if they'd not decided to go home.

[m0l0t0v]

Looking good G. Wish I could've come to watch. Also, did you clean the KTM at the end? Bit unusual for you?

Doubt the greasy burger and crappy coke would do much to hydrate you properly. Mind you the grease probably gave you some energy
____________________
'99 Hornet 600 , VFR 400 NC30 '92 , Kasawamasaki GT 550 , '98 Hornet 600
**\Tarmacsurfer/** said: It's that immaculately manly coiffure of yours isn't it. One glimpse of your virile locks and the punters can't wait to buy whatever it is you suggest, as it might let them be just a little bit like the Adonis that is our very own Molly Doovydoo said: Its not my fault I can't get it up properly, I just wasn't blessed

[G]

The KTM has to some degree been cleaned after – unfortunately you really /have/ to clean dirt bikes after muddyness. If you don’t mud gets into and knackers bearings, chain rusts up and it does actually add a fair bit more weight. The weight difference before and after cleaning my CCM was almost 10kg! Some people were actually trying to get the worst off in the lunch time break.

Greasy burger on white bread with cheese certainly isn’t very good, but Coke is apparently not /too/ bad as far as ‘sports drinks’ go – not the best, but you get a hit of sugar and the caffeine can help to keep you going too. Coke on it’s own can lead to slightly dehydration, but as I was drinking a fair bit of water too, it should have brought it down to around the ‘ideal’ amount of carbohydrate.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[m0l0t0v]