Sat 15th May - Ashdown farm enduro - Near reading

[G]

I'm planning to do this, anyone want to come play?
https://www.srmcc.co.uk/events.html

Ashdown farm is a little north west of Reading.

Here's a random youtube video of the motocross track, they add in more bits in the woods when they run enduros there as far as I know (seen the markings left out when I was up there to play on a normal motorcross practice day.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEGFIQYOpd0

Unfortunately gonna cost a bit for club and day ACU membership, but still fares nicely compared to a (road) trackday, never mind club racing!

Very much doubt the field will be full of super fast people - they have a 'beginners' class.

[J D]

Im tempted, its either buy offroad gear and get Kdx Mot'ed and insured or buy tyres for the gixer which i need for work
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m0l0t0v wrote: Chris, just so you know, JD is a nutter

[G]

Might be able to sort you out with cheap front and rear part worn tyres for the GSXR?

[J D]

Would be much appreciated, i have still got the ones i got off jay but didnt notice it at the time but the rear is bald right on the edge one side so dont fancy using them, fronts good though so if you have any use for them you can have them.
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m0l0t0v wrote: Chris, just so you know, JD is a nutter

[G]

Was good fun.
If you're really bored, there's some random waffle extrapolating the above point below.

Ended up being a bit late to the start and was already dripping in sweat before I got on the bike, running across the paddock carrying a jerry can for the refuelling area!
First lap was terrible - I just wasn't 'feeling it'. Was riding slowly and hands/arms were taking a beating.
Second lap was a bit better and I slowly got into it.
I realised I was standing up too much - not off the seat too much, but too tall which was putting a lot of stress through my arms. Going in to more of a squat position and sitting down more (which does my back in ) got me being a bit smoother.

The course it's self was a good mixture of tight woods, some quite open woods... then there was the bits of the motocross track, including the very steep final hill on the 'open' area now taken backwards going down it - and with a tight ninety degree turn marked off at the bottom - this hill must be worse than 1 in 1, so it's a bit hairy how much you can brake at the bottom! Over all I seemed to be doing relatively better on the open motocross track compared to others (ie they caught me up less ).
I particularly liked the section going across the side of a hill; nice and smooth ground, but with a couple of cutaways that meant you got a bit of air or on the small bits had the front stay level if you kept it pinned while the rear tracked the ground.

As it went on, I definitely started feeling more comfortable, which meant I got a bit faster and as often happens, being faster also meant I was able to tackle some sections more smoothly - for instance forcing myself to power up a singletrack hill after the aforementioned field meant there enough speed to fly over the bumps, rather than stick my feet out and try and prevent wheelies in first as I went up them.

The penaultamet lap I was feeling pretty happy with my riding, but wanting to make sure i finished in plenty of time I didn't take much rest and found myself a bit ragged for the last lap - slid the front sideways in to a tree, though still the only time I dropped the bike was when I put it on a stand at the back of the 'riders briefing' before the race!
Does suggests I perhaps should have tried harder - though I was fairly happy with my progress. Keeping my feet on the pegs more and squatting a bit helped me control the bike and I'm confident enough to open the throttle around about right not to need my foot to kick it back up in most situations.

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

I have loads of cameras, but rarely get around to using them.

I was in the garage putting new sprockets on at 11:45pm the night before - I leave the video to the end of the list as, after all, I'm doing it for my own enjoyment foremost .

I've had reservations about the Go-pro in the past; I don't like the physical format (a bit boxy) or the ultra-wide angle for on-bike stuff.
However now I've found the 1080p footage comes out a bit less weird looking and if I keep doing the hang gliding, then ultra-wide 720p could actually be quite useful. But, yes I've got plenty of cameras I could use if I got around to it.

There was a photoguy there, as I was a bit busy to take pics - I'll stick a link up the pics when he's got them up.

A 'real' enduro isn't too far off a practice - it's just there's more impetuous to keep going in the real thing. It's a lot different from trackdays and racing and there's usually similar ranges of skill levels at both.
I'll stick a post up for the next one I'm off too - though doing scooter racing next Saturday and possibly a CHEC enduro Sunday (will have to see how I feel after the 6 hour scooter race - am in a team of two though). Weekend after that I've got trackdays at Rockingham. Possibly something weekend after that, though I think it's Molly's party then.

[drzsta]

Ride the MX practice track regularly, good fun, but can get boring - plus it gets fucking slippery on some of the hard packed clay and stone, like ice on some parts of the track.

track suits slow and fasts riders with the option to skip the Steep Hills for new comers and head straight back into woods.

glad you enjoyed!
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Current Bikes - BMW S1000RR ‘17 & KTM 690 SMC-R ‘12

[G]

I mean to go to the mx track practice days more as it's pretty close to me and not bad to do occasionally.

Some pics of me doing nothing exciting below; see the site I stole them from here:
https://www.photoboxgallery.com/teamsnapper
https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/023110469513c6a26907fcb24739262243441f7b4e3b2dba866eb8be565aac6333e92d15.jpg

https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/72202041a39a657f52e20b93c01ca7da2b62f95f8efff7594311e36856d95e4e4e5c5c7a.jpg https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/923768546fa48033b135fa1e028ff1860a40cb9be0be1c860755c8785c6efaddb05e2e1c.jpg
(Bottom of the big hill - the latter how it should be done I suspect - I was trying to make use of a slight berm at the corner.)

https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/86611979f0ddfa021340fbc30bb400bb6cb13add566db5b101b0ebc22ca77a6b29c8c4f8.jpg
Actually looks like I might know what I'm doing here!

https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/22606739237ab9d4bce974cbe2cbffb69c58925d25683af181e4c4b15d93a2f2548a47f3.jpg
Note how my left hand guard has come loose - unfortunately they only held on in the mid-bar with gaffa tape.

[Blue_SV650S]

This one is a classic shot and a keeper for sure!!

https://img4013.photobox.co.uk/86611979f0ddfa021340fbc30bb400bb6cb13add566db5b101b0ebc22ca77a6b29c8c4f8.jpg


p.s. Sign me up for the next one!!
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The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[G]

This was from a previous event, but should give you an idea:
https://vimeo.com/5789083
https://vimeo.com/5802674
Part 1 & 2 of the winner of the 'B' class from that event I believe. A lot of the route we did was similar, but the majority in reverse to what you see on the video.
Was a decent chunk drier for us yesterday too.

[jay12329]

Looks like fun! Watching it makes me want an off road bike more than ever!

J

[Blue_SV650S]

[silky666]

[G]

They run open practice days most weekends on the motocross track - which seems to be the bit you like .

The singletrack is fine - I make a point of allowing faster riders past as there tends to be loads of bits of space by the side. On this course there's also a lot of bits where the track splits so faster riders can easily overtake - and everyone's pretty friendly about it - if someone really wants to get past, they'll probably be blipping their throttle beforehand so you've got some advance warning, but haven't seen any need for people to push past much.
I will generally try and tag on to faster people a bit - but I know my limits and will let them go when I'm obviously reasonably outclassed.
Single track is pretty fun for the sense of speed.
More of an issue I found is when you find someone that's actually a similar speed to you who lets you past, then you feel you should probably make a bit more effort .

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

At a location like 'Penwood' where I did my first enduro (on my 690 too!) it was more of an issue, but while people were trying to push past a bit, it still wasn't done in an aggressive nasty way and was just a case of people wanting to get a reasonable result for their championship.
CHEC at least actually specifies 'no racing' as it's supposed to be for fun.

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

There's enough cases of it getting competitive - it'd be interesting to see how we compare as you have more trials/motocross experience, but I've done a few more of these (though as I said, I at least started off really sucky on this one).

[G]

Provisional results are in - I got 20th out of 30 in the beginners class and 59 out of 74 all together.
Seems you don't get penalised for coming in late here, so I could have done another lap to get me up to a total of 9 rather than 8.

My fastest lap was 17:34, while the winner of the entire event's slowest lap was 15:03. The winner of the beginner class ranged from 15:00 to 21:54 lap times, with most 15-17 minutes.

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

That's my fastest lap - you gotta keep it going for three hours .
(Or two lots of two hours in the case of CHEC - also found some club offering a solid four hour enduro, though you could do it in teams if you wanted.)

[G]

That's my fastest lap - you gotta keep it going for three hours .
(Or two lots of two hours in the case of CHEC - also found some club offering a solid four hour enduro, though you could do it in teams if you wanted - then there's what was the dawn to dusk that now offers a 24 hour event .)

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

One thing that I definitely noticed for reducing pump (though not general fatigue, as arms were still pretty bad) was loosening my slightly tight armour. When I got forearm pump in a dragon boat race, I realised it wasn't actually me trying really hard, but that I had my fleece rolled up around my elbow.