CHEC - Leighton Buzzard 15th March - quick report with Video

[G]

I'm going to this:
https://www.chilternhillsenduroclub.co.uk/Leighton%20Buzzard.htm

Anyone else want to come play?
2 x 2hour Hare and Hounds event. CHEC are a 'friendly' club excellent for first timers.

Lift from Reading area if you need it.

[D O G]

What does a Hare and Hounds event involve G?

The prevalence of these events, their cheapness, and my anticipated proximity to Reading/Guildford/Basingstoke/Crawley etc is making me more convinced that an enduro will be the go.

Just need to decide which one!

[G]

I've started writing up a list describing all the off-road types, but it's ended up getting rather large, so I'm a long way away from finishing (I had to try and work out some idea of what 'Motoduro' was before I started telling others about it, for instance).

Anyway, hare and hounds is usually a three or four hour cross country ride with varied terrain.
There's usually some fire-road style wide open bits, tight twisty single track, steep ascents and descents - basically a bit of everything.
This will be over a lap that's typically 4 to 10 miles long and can take from under 10 minutes for a pro to getting on for an hour for someone less fit/skilled who's taking bigger breaks, etc.

The one's I've between to have all been pretty friendly and actually specify 'no racing' - so no barging past others, etc.

[G]

Realised I had a puncture at lunch time and managed to mess up putting a new innertube in with some car tyre levers, so ended up having to give up for the afternoon session. Must have actually been riding for sometime with the puncture, but not sure I can blame the crashes on that as they were mostly the rear washing out.

Half of it was like a low-level trial more than an enduro!.. Good fun, still.

Inspired by BlueSV, I have a video. Rather boring and unedited I'm afraid - so let it buffer and skip the start. I did get a bit faster later on (honest!), but through most of it there was a big blob of mud on the camera, so the footage is even less interesting.

https://blip.tv/file/1881655/

If you're really bored and watch it all, look out for the marshal almost stack it, coming to help me after I have stacked it!

Anyway, lesson learnt - next time I'm definitely going to sort out my spare wheels so that I can just swap it over, given a puncture - maybe even take the 690 as a spare bike .

[MarJay]

[G]

That's because you sold your off-road bike before buying three more, you silly boy! Pamp would have been ideal for this sort of track too... Hell, reckon the RDs would be fine, as you can probably get dirt tyres in their silly sizes .

Incidentally, the track wasn't the most 'exciting' compared to some, but still good fun.

Really need to work on strength in my lower arms/wrists as this seems to be what was holding me back.

[J D]

Laughing at the poor bloke coming to help Then getting stuck on that little dip

I watched it all, its what not having a job does to you

[Charlie]

I just watched it all... I am a student

Good fun! Looks great fun, it amazed me how quick some of the others could just disappear and you looked like you where going pretty fast. I am really looking forward to my off-road day on Sunday....
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[G]

As I said, I can rider faster than that, honest... but nowhere near the speed of some of the people out there, definitely not on an enduro course.

Incidentally - I have a trials rear tyre on, while some people have motocross tyres. However, that's no excuse for getting stuck - what you need not to get stuck is momentum, which makes the whole experience easier generally.

Also, I was thinking while riding around that you get much less of a sense of movement with the helmet camera in the wooded bits because you tend to throw the bike around underneath you, while keeping your upper body and head fairly steady.

[Charlie]

Yeah the wooded bit in particular looked challenging. You could see the bikes in front of you sliding around (before they disappeared).
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[G]

The entrance to the wooded bit got nasty later on as there was loads of mud left from the stream-splash. The trials tyres get clogged with mud quite easily.

Also meant to mention, which I was thinking as I'm going along - to show you how you really don't need that great a bike; listen to how few times I go 'on pipe' - I'm rarely getting into the powerband on a bike that's very revvy. So could have probably been on a 125 4 stroke trail bike and gone just as quickly.
Partly a mixture of it being the first lap and not knowing where I was going and the whole finding my arms really knackered thing.

Going to make an effort to streghen my arms up and maybe look at taming the power delivery a bit - I think I was handling it a fair bit better towards the end of last year when I got it, when I'd been doing a reasonable amount of off-road before.

[Charlie]

I was really impressed from the video at how you managed to navigate around, in more than a few places I was like, erh where the fuss is he going next.

It never really occurred to me how physically demanding off-roading might be; I guess I shall see on Sunday
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[G]

That's one thing I love about it - it's great exercise that is relatively 'easy' to do. On a mountain bike you have to put the effort in to go fast, at which point pedalling hard is good exercise.
On an enduro bike, you twist your right hand slightly and your whole body is given a workout trying to hold on .

The first hare and hounds I did, I pretty much collapsed after the first lap and had to have a ten minute sit-down! (I was on a heavy bike in a very circuit though and wasn't the only one doing so either!)

I think I've got the rest of my body to a reasonable level of fitness, but that more than anything tends to be what holds a lot of people back from going faster.

[Charlie]

Well I have never felt held back from my un-fitness... heck I used to do 70 miles cycle trips back to back But that was last year and since then I have consumed a lot of beer, not exercised and eaten badly.

I have a feeling I should start looking for suitable bikes before I even try it on Sunday. I was talking with my parents this weekend gone and they didn't think me buying another bike was a good idea because I'd hardly used my current bike (with being at university), there was no room in the garage (6 bikes already, plus other garage crap), I'd have to maintain two bikes and if I got one bike (i.e. off-road bike) it would be too 'single' purpose (i.e. xr400 requiring oil changes every 1000 miles or something).

Meh they always try and talk me out of stuff.
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[G]

Oil changes every 1000 miles, if you do them that often, isn't too bad when you consider what your average mph off road is.
People have gone around the world on them, so I wouldn't say they're too 'single purpose'. Something like the EXC I'm riding, more so.

Unfortunately it seems while good mountain bike fitness definitely helps, it doesn't 100% transfer over as different stuff is used. However a good overall level of fitness will definitely help.

It's a long time since I've had any problems fitness wise trail riding - and only before on pretty fast trail rides. However, of course, enduro and motocross is slightly different .

[Charlie]

[G]

Look!.. Tarty KTM motocross hand-guards (not what I wanted).
https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/redbikejohn/CHEC%2015%20March%2009/CHEC15march0985.jpg

Oh, where have they gone?
https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/redbikejohn/CHEC%2015%20March%2009/CHEC15march09398.jpg

[J D]

I got some acribis hand guards if you need them G

They look better

[JBurrows88]

haha.. I want a KTM i cant wait for the summer...

Oh btw i changed the oil on the drz every 800-1000miles.. was 5 minute job and not any hassle.. Also was actually really quick of the line and when i had the SM wheels i could ride incredibly quickly (maybe too quick for my skills)

I was out goalkeeping in the Sunshine today after a few saves my arms were tired and i can barely type now (lol)... Not like there was much running... after 1hour we were all nackared.. damm those cheap student drinks I've been drinking 6/7 nights this week, im sure that cant be good for me!!
____________________
Dave
XJR400 Kenney Roberts Paint Job

[D O G]

That looked sweet. It did look slow, but I bet it felt fast enough! Damn those lying cameras.

I cannot believe how slippy it looked in places - the bloke who's bike just slid from under him in the bit where you were trying to manouver to get over the hump early on was funny.

Surely you will be getting some proper knobblies on?

[G]

It did feel a little slow for me - definitely riding faster at the end of last year, as I say. Been hitting the punchbag and powerball this week, so hopefully by the one next month at least, it'll have made a decent difference.

This club ask you use a trials rear (motorcross front is fine and I had a shiny new one on that was lovely and grippy) because it doesn't tear up the land as much, so less hassle for land owners, which are extra picky around here, compared to Wales or further up North. You can use a motocross rear, but you have to pay a fiver extra and you get 20% taken off the number of lap's you've done.

Of course, I'll have to find some other excuse to blame for being slow when I do get some strength back in my arms - but when I was first got the 200 and was riding with this club/at Enduroland it definitely felt like I was going faster, though I was taking more breaks too I think.

[D O G]

[G]

I used to do boxing many years ago (not competitively, though did do some sparring, etc) and definitely found doing shadow boxing with light weights helped. A while ago got myself some 1kg dumbbells just for this purpose.

However, I'm too lazy to get around to doing it myself at home generally.

Good point, should build in that into my gym-sessions, where I do tend to get around to doing stuff .

[ben_wheely]

[G]

Doesn't work amazingly with low pressure big innertubes - I have managed to get it to work once, though.
I did try some in there (after I got the puncture), but the holes were too big.

Looking for mooses the other day, I quite like the look of this system: https://www.tubliss.co.uk/ .

Most basic club hare and hounds have some open sections connecting the more technical bits, be it fire roads or fields.
The first one I did at Newbury was a lot of tight stuff in woods with only a few small fire roads between different wooded bits.