observations

To start, I want to say thanks to all of the folks who worked their butts off to put this event on. It was originally planned for Deer Flats, about 5 miles up the road and, more critically, abouit 1500 feet higher in elevation. We’re having a late, kinda crazy spring here in western Washington, and we had snow in the lowlands last week, and pretty much got snowed out of Deer Flats. But folks rallied around, and put on a great event.

Sunday morning dawns with typically spring weather for around here, maybe a bit chilly. 45 degrees and drizzling off and on. A quick bite, gather my lunch, coffee, etc.,
and i’m out the door. I’m driving the Rover today with the box trailer behind it, because when the weather is nasy, there’s nothing nicer than going into the trailer at lunch break, firing up the Kerosun heater, and getting truly thawed out. After an uneventful drive to Gold Bar, I pull off the pavement at Reiter Pit, and head for our riding area; holy potholes, batman, this road is really going to hell! Later I’ll see a competitor pull in driving a BMW 5-series sedan; I wonder how he got it up the road without ripping out one of it’s key organs?

Find a spot to park, untie the bike, but it’s drizzling, so I leave it in trailer, no sense getting soaked before I need to! Get my gear on, go say “Hi” to the familiar faces, and stretch out a bit. Go out and warm up, practice a few easy things and head back to the pits. Sign up, and have a bit of a discussion about group check vs. cross check. I grudgingly admit that the weather makes group checking a bit more attractive today, but regular readers know that I always ride worse during group check, so I’m not a huge fan. After some discussion, it is decided that we will cross check. So i get my assigned duties, and head out to my section. Section 6, I find it easily enough, and discover, in what would become a theme for the day, that it is long, I can just barely see the start gate from the end! A little bit of walking around reveals a good spot to observe from, which allows getting to the end gate to mark the riders card in only a few steps. Ah, my first rider, here comes Ted, almost always our first novice/intermediate rider, he just flys! He puts in a good ride, and motors on. Through the morning, I had a few fives (stalled motors mostly), one of which was an actual dismount from the machine. Front tire went this-a-way, rider went that-a-way. No injuries, so it’s all good. All in all, though everyone rode well, and most improved their scores as the morning progressed. It was great to see the new faces, as well, welcome everyone, hope to see you at another event soon.

Back to the pits, grab lunch, in this case beef stew and some french bread. Having a thermos that will keep stew or soup warm is really nice on these soggy 42 degree spring days. Change into some dry gear, gas the bike, and get ready to go. Oh, wait, tire pressures. Check them again, decide I’m happy with 4lbs in the front and 3lbs in the rear. That’s a bit lower than usual, but I figured traction was going be a bit scarce, and it seems like the Dunlop tire likes to run a bit lower pressure than the Michelin I used to use. We get our score cards and the riders meeting, and one of the Marshalls vaguely waves a hand and says ‘loop is yellow ribbon, and starts over there’. Find the section, and start figuring things out. This ones on a hill, predominately downhill, with some turns and climbs in it, and it ends with a series of tight turns
left 90, right 180, then right 90, over a set of tree roots and logs. I get a bit out of shape early, due to over-enthusiastic use of the front brake, and end up with a 3. Not bad, but I can do better. Back out on the loop and away we go. The next three are log and turn sections, I like the logs, but the turns are really tight. In #3, I take a planned dab early in the section and it works out pretty well. The small logs where the bark is gone are really slick though. Very delicate getting over them at any kind of angle. Working though the rest of the loop, mostly rock-jumble type sections. Things are really slick today, and for me, at least, it’s way too easy to pick up more speed than I can smoothly scrub off. I have been slowly coming to the realization that my bike may be too quick for my riding style, and maybe I need to do a bit more to slow down the initial hit off idle. I’ve changed to a slower throttle grip, but I’m thinking a gearing change or a small change in the ignition timing might be just the thing. We’ll see.

Finishing out the first loop, sections 8 and 9 are rock jumbles, and really tight turns; I struggle through both with 3’s. Then to section 10. This one deserves special mention, mostly due to the fact that it had two challenging climbs, and two downhill/dropoff obstacles that looked like they would generate fender-puckering fear. The entrance was tricky, over a rock then a log at 45-degrees, then some winding around over some logs, and up an S-shaped climb up the hill, and the last 6-8 feet are completely loose mud. I never got past this point, all day. 3 attempts, 3 fives. On the last one, I asked, humorously, the checker if I could yell a cuss-word? “I didn’t hear nothin”, sez he! When I was done venting my frustration, he asks “Is that going to be in the blog?”. Yes, Ted, it’s in the blog: F*CK! That said, I did notice from the posted scores that several folks got through it much better, and there were several cleans there on the day. A hearty ‘Nice job’ to those guys, that one was tough!

Anyway the next two loops went reasonably well, getting close to cleaning a couple of sections, improving my score in a few others, and completely floundering though a few. Just as I went out for the third loop, it started raining. By the time I got to #2 the third time, the logs had gotten really slick, expecially the big one right at the entrance, and my dreams of a clean there were washed away! I finished the trial with a decent loop, except for section 10, and headed back to the pits. Adding up the scores, I had to stop and do real math at one point, as I counted 17 ‘3’s on my score card! At that point in the day 3 times 17 was more than my wee brain could handle! That’s a ton of threes, with the upside that some of those coiuld have degenerated into ‘5’s, and the downside that some of them should have been ‘1’s or ‘2’s, but isn’t that how it always goes? Totalled up to 76 with 2 cleans, which I felt OK about, but didn’t really think it would put me in contention.
A bit later, as they are handing out the awards, I discover that 76 and 2 was good enough for 2nd place in advanced on that Sunday in April. wooT!

All in all, a fun day, and I’m really looking forward to the Columbia Cup. It will be in Goldendale, WA, May 3rd and 4th. Love to see you there!

Keep those feet up!

blackdog

Another season has begun. We should have gotten started in February, but too much snow kept us from holding our traditional “Ice Trial”. A tad ironic, that.

Be that as it may, roughly 35 of us showed up at Gold Bar, under cloudy skies and with mid-40s temperatures. Got unloaded, geared up and went off for a bit of exploration and warm-up. I hadn’t been on the bike outside my own yard since my last practice session in mid-November, so I was a bit rusty and my timing and judgement was off. But I got warmed up, and determined that the dirt had a fair bit of traction, but that the logs and rocks we’re really slick after an entire winter of soggy, cold weather. I did find myself hitting obstacles with either too much or too little speed and throttle, just rusty, I guess.

Riders meeting comes and goes, and I’m off to check section #4 in the morning. A cute little section, deceiving in it’s simplicty. There were basically 2 rocks to go over, one at the entrance and one at the exit, with some turns and gentle climbs and descents between the two. Deceptive, because the final right hand turn was quite sharp, and down in a dip, with a rock on the inside of the entrance that kicked the rear tire outwards just an you started climbing out. Took me a few tries to figure it out, and it took many points from the Intermediate class riders throughout the morning. If memory serves, Jesse Howard had it completely figured out and had the smoothest rides there all day.

Had several spectators stop by and ask about Observed Trials, and about the bikes, etc. One them were a couple of gentlemen who introduced themselves as Dale and Dean. They asked a bunch of questions about bikes, and Dale indicated that Dean had been involved in Trials in the past and was thinking about getting back into the sport. He was asking about Shercos, so i told him he could take my ‘04 2.9 for a spin. As soon as he rode away, it was obvious that he’d ridden fairly seriously at some time, I could just tell from the way he balanced bike and his stance. Later I found out that their last name is Dorcas; Dean Dorcas was the NATC High School national Champion in 1984. In my book , that qualifies as ‘rode seriously!’ Welcome back, guys, hope to see you at more events!

The morning finished without incident and I went back to the pits to get ready for the afternoon ride. Check the gas, tire pressures, fill the hydration system, and then decide whether or not to wear the jacket; on. off. on. off. on for now, but i’m takin’ it off just before i start. A little before 1pm, they turn us loose, and it’s across the power lines to find Section 1. Not too bad, a nice re-introduction to how this is supposed to be done, after a winter of couch surfing and fireplace tending. I get through with a 1 (should have been a clean), and head on out. The loop is fairly open, and the sections are nicely spread out, which is nice, it keeps large lines from developing at any 1 section. Section2 is a hillclimb with several changes in surface, another 1, and i’m feeling pretty good. That is about to change. Section 3 is on a rock face we call 3-step. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 feet long, very steep, and has several steps and surface changes in it. The advanced line here today is a Z-shaped path up the right side of the first pitch, across the face, and up a slot in the left side of it. This is after entering 1/2 way up, and dropping the last 20 feet, and making a U-turn in a field of softball-sized round rocks. The trick to a section like this is knowing how much traction you have at every point, and how to balance the traction/power/momentum equation. I never did get it right. First attempt was too slow, got messed up on the crossover, and knocked a marker down the face, second time had too much momentum, and the third time I missed the line and failed to make it back up the first pitch. I know the section is ridable, but it was very intimidating and my speed/traction judgement was rusty. Oh well. The rest of the loop was about what you’d expect, a mixture of not-killer sections, and a couple of real ‘pregnant dogs’. Sections 6 and 7 bear special notice. As you may know, Western Washington, especially as you near the Cascade Mountains, tends to be a bit soggy. Rocks that sit around in this climate for years and years acquire a delicate coating of slime, the tractive properties of which approximate polished marble with motor oil on top. Sections 6 and 7 were laid out through field of these rocks, including sharp turns and a couple of steps and climbs. For the Expert-class riders, these were continuous sections, iId guess total length of about 150ft actual. Advanced-class riders got a 15ft ‘free zone’ between the two. Perceived length while attempting to navigate this rock pile on a trials bike was about 2 miles! At any moment the back wheel was likely to step out, and a loss of momentum at a crucial moment meant a bunch of lifting and pushing to get things moving again. The best I did here all day was a 3 and a 2 (and that 2 felt like a clean!).
Anyway, these two sections were great challenges to punctuate a larger set of doable, yet still technically challenging sections.

A couple of trivial, yet interesting observations from sections 9 and 10: Section 9 was a classic log section, a few tight turns, and 4-5 log crossings, depending on class. The final log in the section has been there for so long that both sides are starting to erode, and in profile it’s now more rectangular then round, about 26″ tall, and 12″ across the top. This log really brought home to me how rusty my judgement was. On the first loop, I hit that puppy with about 30% too much speed, sailed over, and nearly missed the right turn to the exit gate. The second time, I pussy-footed it, and wound up taking 3 points, basically carrying the bike over the log. It wasn’t until the last loop that I actually hit it correctly and got out smoothly. More practice I could use.

Section 10 was also interesting, for another reason entirely. Upon walking the section, it was fairly obvious what the marshall intended. The trick was that the section wasn’t marked with continuous ribbon, which meant that some creative line picking made the run up to the hill climb substantially longer and straighter than what seemed to the the ‘intent’. Not a huge deal, but there was some discussion with the observer about how far outside the ‘intended’ line was legal, and ‘cheater’ lines. This has been a long-standing discussion in the Trials community, but in my opinion, the trials marshall gets to make the decision: either mark with spot (non-continuous) ribbons and accept the fact that trials riders are clever critters, and will find the eaiest line, or use continuous ribbon where they want to enforce a particular challenge.

all in all, a great way to kick-off the 2008 season. Looking forward to many more great events! Keep those feat on the pegs!

blackdog

I purchased these boots last winter, replacing a pair of well-worn Gaerne’s that had finally sprung a leak. For Trials riders in Western Washington, leaky boots are a real downer, since we spend substantial time walking through muddy/wet sections. I’ve now ridden 5 or 6 events with these boots, so I figured it was time to share my impressions and thoughts about them.

Fit: I have aize 10.5 feet, I ordered the size 11 boot, and they fit fine. I can wear a thin sock under them for summer events, or by loosening the latches a notch or two, wear a heavier sock for cooler rides. These boots are pretty easy to get snug over the entire foot, leading to a very supportive and secure feeling while wearing them.

Waterproofness: So far, no water intake. This includes the bitter cold and wet April trials. It also includes slogging through a small creek at the last Walker Valley Trials.

Traction: traction from the soles seems good. Everything was really slick at Walker Valley last fall and at Gold Bar last weekend, so it was hard to tell, but I have had no problems previous and no problems with them coming off of the footpegs or anything like that.

Buckles/Straps: some cool features here: the attachment clips are on the opposite ends from the adjusters, so once they are adjusted for you feet, the just snap on and snap off. Heavier or lighter socks might take one or two notches of adjustment, but it’s pretty easy to make.

The only downside I’ve discovered so far is that due to the way the boots tighten up on my feet (your feet may vary ), there is a rather conspicous fold of leather on the inside of each ankle. So far I don’t notice it while riding, but I have noticed that it rubs on the frame of the bike, and has already taken the smooth finish off of the leather on that area of the boot. A pretty minor thing, and it might be that someone with differently shaped feet and ankles may not run into any of this.

Conclusions: This is a high quality boot with good protection and good comfort. Not cheap, but good quality.

A wonderful day greeted a fairly large turnout of riders for our last event of the year. Not too cold and we had nice sunshine all day. A bit of warming up and poking around, interesting sections, looks pretty technical, with lots of turns with obstacles in them. Little did I know.

Got signed up, and confered with the other Advanced riders; we are doing group check, so we had a quick discussion of whether to split the 5 of us up to make things go faster or not. the discussion was inconclusive, the 5 of us pretty much rode together the entire day.

out to section 1, start looking around. whoa, nellie: imagine riding up the right front wheel of a mini-cooper, turning left, and then riding down off of it at the left rear wheel. that’s kinda what the first rock obstacle looked like. Many folks had trouble there, some went over the bars coming down, some didn’t make it up, and some if us just had a case of the heebie-jeebies once we got up on to and were looking down into that drop-n-turn as you come off. never did get through there with better than a 1 all day. On to the next section, which really summed up the trials. It had a challenging-loooking rock step at the entrance, and then looked like a tight trail ride through some rocks and up the hillside. The entrance was the easy part, it was the slimy rocks in the turns, no good place to put the back wheel, and the deceptivly slick leaves that made it really tough. All 11 sections were like that, in one way or another. It took us over 2 hours to ride the first loop. Overall, I felt like I was doing OK, but being a little bit too timid. This was not helped by going skydiving off the rock in section 3; made it up, but was too far right, and when I needed that dab, my right foot found only air. wheeeeeee, smack! right on the rocks with my right arm and shoulder. But no lasting damage, just a nice bruise on the elbow. By the third loop, I’d gained some confidence in the bike and knew a bit more about where the traction was, and had a few good rides. There was general agreement, though, that this was a tough event. Many of the corners seemed impossible, at least for Advanced riders.

Finished, back to truck to lick the wounds a bit. Then got around to tallying the score. Wowsa, thatsa lotta points! 105, with 2 cleans. But this time the 1-point score difference went in my favor! 3rd place! Hey, I made the podium!

As a final event of the year, it was a good ending. I think i’m getting some of my confidence back, I have a winter plan of a few things to take care of on the bike (front brakes need some attention, and i’m going to see if i can get the clutch to have a little softer engagement point), and I’m going to be ready to go in 2008!

see y’all on the loop trail! keep those feet up!

blackdog

Whew! arrive at the parking area about 8:30am sunday, got out of the truck, Holy Stiff Breeze, Batman! We’re at about 1900 ft. altitude, and up on an exposed hilltop where they’re running a gravel pit, and the wind is blowing pretty good. Get over to sign up, Sean (one of the Marshalls) allows as how we’re probably going to do a Group Check event, where riders go out in groups, and check each other. It allows all classes to run at once, which makes for a much shorter day, and given the way the weather looked to be movin’ in, the right call.

That said, I’m not a big fan group check trials, for purely selfish reasons: i historicaly haven’t ridden well in group check situations! I have a tendency to get into my own head too much, and psych myself out, especially after a couple of bad sections. When doing cross check events, I can take advantage of the clock, and give myself breaks, snacks, and re-group time where I need it. In a group check situation, I always feel like there’s something else i need to be paying attention to, and my riding suffers, especially on the first loop, when things are often quite slow.

Anyway, enough whinging! We get our cards and punches, and away we go. Down the hill, up the road, into the woods, and there’s #1. A tricky upslope with an angled log in it, then a sharp turn, cross-hill over to a descent over a slick slab rock, about 8 feet long. Not too tough, but I don’t have confidence in the traction yet, and get out of shape after the log, and paddle through. Oh well, not too bad, I think, and we go on. much of the first loop is like that, including a couple of really dumb 5’s, stalled the engine, hit a tree with the shift lever, that kind of stuff.

But as the day went on, I felt like I was riding better and better, and it all came together pretty well on the last loop, I put together a loop of 17 points, lowest of anyone in my class, and had 2 cleans. Alas, it wasn’t enough, and I wound up with 78 points and 3 cleans, which was a solid lock of 4th place advanced. again. At least I feel like my confidence is returning, especially on the last lap sunday, and my conditioning work is paying off, it wasn’t until the end of the third loop, after section 10, that i really started having forearm pump and cramping problems.

So, in short, it wasn’t the ride I’d hoped for, but I am still improving. If I could make the time and motivation to practice more, I’m sure it would advance my cause a bit faster.

Next event: Halloween Two, by Jon Payne, at Gold Bar, WA. See ya there, and keep those feet up!

blackdog

After spending most of the summer riding my street bikes and Dual-Sport machine, I got back to the Trials thing on Saturday, Sept. 9th. We had fantastic weather, around 75 degrees and clear skies, which probably contributed to the good turnout. I think there were 25-35 riders, including at least a couple of folks who came out to help or cheer for family members! We had several riders from Canada, as well as a few folks from the Portland, OR area.

Logistically, the day went smoothly, nothing unusual on the drive up, just the standard crappy road to deer flats. Signed up, and went out for a bit of warm-up. Found the loop and glanced at a few sections. It is fairly obvious that turning is going to be a key skill today! Even the Novice/Intermediate sections were tight! A bit or warm up, feeling decent, still a little trepidation about large rocks, especially going down, but better. Head back, get my gear for the morning, and head out to my section for observation.

I was on Section 7, a pretty straight-forward turn-log-turn-log… section until the end, where there’s a right uphill turn with tree roots, followed by a left downhill, also with roots. An obstacle that really rewards awareness of both wheel tracks, and the ability to manage weight and loading. With a quick, well-timed unload of the rear wheel, not too difficult, but it’s a delicate trick. I see a low score of 1, but a ton of 3’s and a number of 5’s. The 5’s are from either stalling, or losing the front in the next to last turn and having it go out of bounds. Pretty soon, we’re done, and it’s lunch-break time. A quick snack, and get ready to ride.

We get our score cards and head out. Section 1 is a pump-fake: up/down/up/down, no logs, no rocks, just tight turns. I get through with a 1, and i’m feeling pretty good. At section 2, reality hits. Really, really tight turns, and two nasty rock steps, the first of which has an off-angle approach, and the second is a pointed rock: there’s *a* good line, and it’s 1 inch wide. Gulp. I get through it with a decent 3; i.e. not really floundering, using my dabs well, and having decent traction. OK, not too bad. That set the tone for the day: lot’s of decent threes, a few flounders, and at least 3 really dumb 5’s. The first came in Section 10, which was a long hillclimb with a couple of gentle turns in it. Not too bad, unless you miss your line, and make the turn across the hill too early.

By the end of the third loop, I’d finally figured out the hill-climb, but I was completely worn out. Both forearms and hands were cramping up, and my leg was beginning to really hurt where i’d used it it keep the left footpeg from getting scratched on the big rock in section 7. Back to the pits, tally up the score, hmmm 90 and 0 cleans. 90 i’m OK with, but I was disappointed that i didn’t manage a single clean ride all day. My disappointment was to get deeper…

Back to the truck, get changed and loaded up, then back to scoring to check the results. Ouch! beaten out of 3rd place by 1 point! Arrrgh! So many places during the day, I could’ve shaved a point off. Hell, I could’ve shaved 6 or 8 off just in section 10. Overall, it was a close competition in the Advanced class, all 4 of us seperated by just 12 points.

So in the end, it was a very challenging trials, very technical, but fun and left everyone with the sense that they’d accomplished something by the end of the day. I’m getting back to form slowly, and my confidence is returning. We shall see how the next 2 events go.

Thanks for reading!

Keep your feet on the pegs!

blackdog

Due to the usual combination of work, chores, other motorcycles, etc. I hadn’t been on my trials bike until the evening before this event. To make the grim even grimmer, I sprained my back on wednesday, ballet dancing with a weedwhacker. So the evening before, I go out into the pasture for 30 minutes, work up a good sweat, and manage to semi-remember what this whole trials thing is about. kinda. not too confidence inspiring.

So when sunday morning rolls around, we (my lovely wife accompanied me to this event) mosey on out to the site. A new area, about a mile farther than Deer Flats, on the same crummy road. 5 miles of hard, rocky, potholed dirt road. about 10-12 mph is all my old truck wants to do, at any faster pace, it wants to pitch it’s occupants through the roof. Hmmm, maybe there IS a drawback to the $29.95 shock absorbers. Arriving at the site, we scope it out, and find a place to park, mostly off the road. Not much parking room here, so everyone is pretty much parked on the road shoulder, and strung out over about 1/4 mile of road. I proceed to sign-up, where I sign up for AM Sportsman. That means I’ll ride the easy sections, but my score won’t count for trophies or points. This way, I get to have some fun, get some of my chops back, and not run the risk of aggravating my back too badly. It looks like it will be a great day, weather-wise, too: 75 or so, clear skies.

After signing up, I gear up and head out into the woods to warm up, and take a look at the loop. I find a bunch of both morning and afternoon sections, looks interesting. I bop around a bit, and then try to find an obstacle that challenges me a bit; i find two parallel logs, 8 inches apart, and behind them a slippery pair of rocks. Looks good. after 3 or 4 attempts, I’ve got it pretty well, and I feel like I’m riding OK. So i meander up the trail to find the rest of the morning loop trail. I’m on the trail backwards for a while, and then lose it a bit, but I can see some ribbons in the distance, so i head that direction. There I find section 3, and there is an observer and riders there! Holy cow, I’ve lost track of time, missed the rider’s meeting, and now the start! Ask the observer where 1 is, and head out. I find the first section, force myself to relax a bit, and walk the section.

By the end of the first loop, I’m only behind the next-to-last rider by about 5 minutes, so no problem on time. I relax and my riding starts to get better. It’s a short loop, only about a mile, and there are only 8 sections (normally, a loop contains 10 sections). About 1/2 way through my 3rd loop, I think to ask an observer “How many loops?” “Four” is the reply. Ah, now I have another loop to ride. No problem, I ride reasonably well, but not great. I finish, total the score (38 and 9 cleans), hand it in, even though no one is going to write it down anywhere, and hunt down the Marshall. My lovely bride and I have a party to attend, and if I am not needed to observe in the afternoon, we’ll skate. So I ask, making it clear that if I’m needed, I’ll observe (it’s considered really bad form to ride and then not offer to observe, as the event is contingent on having observers). He allows as how he has enough, so I can split. We do, and make our way home.

A couple of days later, I check the scores, just to get an idea of where I would have placed: looks like in intermediate, I would have won by a single point. So that’s not bad, for no practice. Now I look forward to the next event. Our next event is at a location outside ellensburg that we cal Funny Rocks. It’s a bit of a drive from here, so I’m debating whether to go or not. More news as I decide.

Thanks for reading.
blackdog

A few leftover thoughts from this past weekend’s trials event in western Washington:

The just-concluded winter did an real number on the riding area we call Deer Flats. There were a ton of trees blown down or knocked over, to the point of constricting the road in a few places. For those that might not know, we had a pretty severe winter (for western WA) this year. Several snow storms, a few bouts of really heavy rain and the subsequent flooding, and in mid-December, a severe windstorm that left hundreds of thousands of people in Washington without power, phone, or TV service. Personally, we we’re without power for 8 days, and without TV, phone, and internet service for over 3 weeks. The effects of this temper tantrum by Mother Nature were plainly obvious at Deer Flats.

In addition, the devastation to the trees in the area was the topic of an amusing quip after the event was over; a bunch of us are standing around outside the scoring trailer, awaiting official results, and someone asks why we don’t have a bonfire going, with it being so bloddy cold and all? “we couldn’t find any wood” comes the laconic reply from one of our local expert riders! well, maybe you had to be there.

Cold weather and Alpinestars trials boots: about 90 minutes into my stint as the observer on section 10 in the morning, i had a very weird sensation. Just as a rider was leaving my section. I felt a vibration in my boots. “Whoa! that was weird. the exhaust sound must have set up some kind of resonance in one of the plastic components in the boots. how odd.” But then it happened a few more times, and then I noticed that sometimes I could feel the vibration when there wasn’t a bike nearby. A little experimentation during a really quiet period confirms that when the boots get really cold, something in their structure sqeaks at a pretty low frequency during very slow movement. Kind of a bass version of the ‘fingernails on chalkboard’ sound. how weird. And, btw, if not for being of service to my fellow tirals riders, that’s too damn cold to be just standing around in the woods watching it snow. Just so you know.

keep those feet up!
blackdog

April first, not necessarily the best day for a Trials event, but here I am, in the truck at 6:40 am, headed for our nearby riding area in Washington state. It’s cold this morning, and drizzling just a bit as I make my way out of town.

50 minutes later, I pull into our riding area; hmmm, no one here. Well, now that would be an April Fools day trials, huh? “no event. April fools!”. A quick phone call to my lovely wife, a quick search on the ‘net, and the answer: “you should read the flyers, dear”! The event is another 6 miles up the road. So I drive up, get set-up and go out to warm up… in the *snow*! Yikes. It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden a trials in weather this cold. I warm up, but I’m stiff and out of sync with the bike. Might not be a good day.

9am, riders meeting. I’m observing this morning, for the Novice and Intermediate classes. Section 10 is my assigned post, so off I go. I find the section easy enough, dump my pack, and do some exploring, finding a couple of afternoon sections nearby. They don’t look too scary, but filled with pretty tight turns. I need a challenge, so I go find a decent rock, about 20″ high, about 2/3 of the way up a 50ft hill, with a 12″ log about 20 feet farther up, looks like a good test, so I give it a go, get warmed up a bit. Over the rock no problem, but then there’s exactly 0 traction between it and the log. After about 6 tries, I find a line just to the left of my original attempt that has a bit of traction, and with the help of 2nd gear, rather than first, I finally clear the log, with a dab. as I’m heading back down to my section, I’m thinking “boy, that stunk!”. Then I watch one of our local experts take a shot at the same rock, it took him 3 tries to get over the log, so now I feel better!

Usual stuff observing the Novice and Intermediates, give a little advice here and there, always try to help them out, without slipping into ‘nag’ mode. Highlight of the morning is when a guy rides through, says he is just messing around, but he rode pretty well, and as we’re watching his buddy ride through, I’m thinking “this guy looks familiar”. His buddy rides up and away they go. About 5 minutes later, it dawns on me, “that guy looked a lot like Kevin Schwantz; he was at a local dealer yesterday, I’ll bet that was him!” A chat with the trials marshall a few minutes later confirms that that was, in fact, Kevin Schwantz. Very cool.

After lunch, we head out on the loop for our shot at our sections. First section, first obstacle: a 30 inch rock face, where a year ago, my finger slipped off the clutch and the bike pounded me into the tree right to the left of section-in. Oh well, here we go. I make it up the face with just a dab at the top, and then on through the section. Wow, really tight corners, with lots of ups and downs thrown in. The entire course is like that. There’s nothing really dramatic or scary here, but it’s tough riding, never time or space to get set-up for the next obstacle. Since I’m out of practice, it’s really hard work. I ride most sections with 3’s, a couple of 5’s where I stall the bike, or in a couple of cases, find a boatload of traction where I wasn’t ready for it and catapult myself and the bike out of bounds, in one case in section 3, right into a stump. instant halt to forward motion! ow, that’s gonna hurt tomorrow! (comment from future self: yep, it does.)

So I muddle through, put together a couple of decent rides, a few ‘real’ 3’s (only dabbing 3 times, not paddling), a couple of 2’s, and finally a 1 on section 9 the last attempt! back to the truck, change into dry clothes (this is always where I regret not having brought our 12×5 box trailer: the contortionist act that is ‘changing clothes in a compact pick-up passenger seat’), and head over to the scoring
trailer to tally up the card. I have no illusions that I’m in contention, but I figure it was a tough course, someone might have had a worse day than me. alas, I was about to be proven quite wrong, slapped in the face by the universe, in fact. In totaling up the card, I find that I only have 1 score for section 2. I quickly ride back out into the woods to find the observer, and get the other scores punched (they’d be 5’s at this point, but better than penalty scores). No observer, no section, all the tape has been taken down.
I found the location, and at the moment I gazed on the nasty slick log that was the entrance, I realized that I had in fact spaced out the loop, and skipped section 2 on both loops 2 and 3. Aw Shit! Back to the scoring trailer, tally up the card, add the penalty (10 points per missed section, 20 points), and we get a grand total of 113! ow! not even close to being in contention!

So I drive home, tired, sore, and a bit disgusted at myself. I’m not too upset at riding poorly, I know I’m out of practice. But to make a mental mistake like that, it irks me. It’s also pretty rare, I can’t every remember actually getting all the way to the end and discovering that I missed a section like that. Oh well, live and learn.

For the next event, I’m buying a new rear tire, and I hereby resolve to practice more. Keep your feet up and the rubber side down!

See ya on the loop trail!

blackdog

Hi there!
Welcome to observations. I am your host, blackdog. I live in Washington state, and I compete in a fairly obscure motorcycle sport called observed trials. Here I’ll share my experiences and observations on this challenging sport. If you’d like to know more about what observed trials is, go here.

I hope you enjoy my ramblings, please feel free to comment, disagree, ask questions, whatever!

blackdog