Fürstenwalde MCC – Brandenburg, Berlin

[KLR600]

Last weekend I went to Fürstenwalde MCC with some friends. It's a typical off road motorbike paradise here in East Germany as it has an enduro course, endurocross course, trials areas, a sandy motocross track, a kids motocross track and an RC car track.

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Frank scrubs a jump

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Martin roosts a corner. This was his first week back to MX after a 6 year absence!

Initially I went to take some photos of my friends but after the lunch break (most German riding centres have enforced course closures for an hour between 12 and 1pm) they were throwing gear at me and offering bikes!

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Martin sends it to the sky

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Andre rides a rut

I've never ridden either enduro or motocross in the UK so I don't know what the tracks are like but I had my GoPro with me and filmed a lap of both courses. Be warned, the video is 23 minutes long (NOT a vlog though!) and the camera was angled down a tad too much (not helped by the fact I couldn't look past the front wheel ) and I rode incredibly slow as it was only my second time on a bike since April. I thought it might be of interest to some of you on here to compare tracks with the UK though.

Fürstenwalde MCC

I struggled a lot on the enduro track. Obviously not riding a bike for so long and then jumping straight onto a cammed Honda CRF250R to ride an unfamiliar track was not going to yield fast lap times! I struggled to feel in control of the bike and couldn't figure out why for a while until I realised that the idle was set really high and the bike would pull a little when totally off the throttle. Once I figured that out I used the clutch a bit more and felt a bit more stable but my cornering was terrible. I did surprise myself by not crashing on the whole lap of the enduro course and even tackling the steep concrete hill/obstacle thing (18:15 in the video) without any hesitation. I suppose that's my mountain biking crossover coming into play as I've been riding my MTB a fair bit recently.

After a lap of the enduro course I decided to tackle the MX track. I've ridden MX a total of three times over two years before this and each time was on a much less sandy track than this. Fürstenwalde is known for being a particularly sandy track and I had a real hard time riding it. In fact I fell off on every single lap of the track I did except one.

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Andre taunts me from out of nowhere!

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Frank rails a rut

The deep sand really threw me. The guys gave me some good tips for riding in sand but I just couldn't make it gel. I was trying to be constantly on the throttle, keeping my weight slightly back and gripping the bike with my legs but I was just taking a battering. I just felt out of control most of the time. I did manage to ride as aggressively as I could for about a third of a lap at one point and everything felt better but I was so tired by that point that I couldn't keep it going for too long.

I took a particularly hard slam after getting a bit cocky completing my crash free lap. I ended up riding over a corner and the ruts in it instead of around it and just totally lost control and smashed into the edge of the corner. I crashed so hard that I twisted the forks in the yokes and even broke the steel toe cap off Frank's left boot! Unfortunately I wasn't filming at the time but Andre happened to be right behind me and apparently got the whole thing on his GoPro. I've yet to see the footage though (I will update if he puts it online though).

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Andre gives it some through the trees

I set myself two goals for the day when the guys started throwing gear at me. One was to complete a lap of the MX track without falling off (which took a while but I managed it!) and the other was to clear one of the smaller double jumps on the track. Oddly, whilst I felt pretty naff in the deep sand and like I was just churning up every corner, I felt ok on some of the jumps. Maybe it was my MTB skills coming back into play. After a few runs at the jump I managed to clear it and you can hear my shout of joy at 22:20 in the video

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Clearing one of the smallest jumps on the track

Despite really struggling in the deep sand I had a great day overall. Frank and Andre managed to persuade me to enter a two hour MX endurance race this weekend as part of a two man, one bike team with Frank. Andre has a friend of similar ability to me on an MX bike so we're having a bit of an internal race! I am totally unprepared and am quite nervous about it but I've ridden the track before and we're just doing it for a laugh. What could possibly go wrong! It's not confirmed yet and while I am nervous about it I would be a bit gutted if it doesn't go ahead.

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Practising my winners pose for when I take my first world MX championship

Hope this thread was of some interest to you in the UK, maybe some of the BCF off road lot would like to come out to Berlin for some sandy riding practise! Big thanks to the guys for being so hospitable, lending me gear, bikes, advice and for looking out for me every time I decided to have a quick lie down on the MX track
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[chris-red]

I went offroading it was fun, I loved the jumps

This was how high I felt I was going.

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In Reality...

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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
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[KLR600]

[-Monty-]

I'm yet to see a "KLR600" thread that isn't awesome. Some really good pictures. I'm hoping to give off-roading a try at some point - If I can get a green laner.
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Present: [Kawasaki ZX7r][Suzuki DRZ 400s]
Past: [Honda PCX 125] [Yamaha RXS 100] [Honda CB 500] [Triumph Speed Four] [Honda ST1100 Pan European - Po-Po Edition]