Did my first enduro.... Little Brown Jug. And fellow KDX'ers
Posted: 02:49 am Sep 07 2017
Sooooo yea..... as the title states, I did my very first enduro this past weekend! The Little Brown Jug Enduro in Buffalo, SC (65th annual.... it's been around awhile! lol). This makes for my 8th race so far. Always heard people talk about how much fun enduros are, so wanted to give it a try for myself
Anyways.... on with the pics. Since these things apparently start so dang early (I work 2nd shift, I'm not used to waking up before 9-10 am, haha), I went down Saturday and camped out. Nice bright moon and cooler temps..... beautiful weather for camping!
Up and at it nice and early..... watched the sun rise then went over to get signed in and get my rider pack. Doug (doakley) is camped out right behind me here
Got signed in, bought a t-shirt, ate some breakfast, lubed chain, check tire pressure, gas up, gear up.... and we're ready to roll! Dougs buddy Travis (CRF-450) and his brother Kyle (Beta) were with us as well.... we all got signed up for row 4 together. We get up to the starting area, and Doug and I instantly start making new KDX buddies Seen here, Doug is down talking to the guy on the end there about his KDX. And get this.... it's a 1986 air cooled KDX..... 31 years old and he's still out there racing it... hell yea!! He said he's ran that bike the entire season, and just can't convince himself to get anything else. He said the bike runs strong as hell. He was starting two rows behind us on row 6
Aaaaand, we're off! Just after the start.... she managed to get all of us. I'm not sure who the 4A guy is, but he beat all of us off the line, lol. That's Travis right behind him on the CRF (usually he's Team Green too on a KX-450, but a shop royally screwed up his forks a couple days before the race, so he had to dig his old CRF out of the shed)
Then yours truly, then Travis' brother Kyle on the Beta
And then Doug right behind Kyle
Got a wave from Doug on one of the first road sections, haha
Wheeeee!
The guy with the 86 KDX passed me around 14 mins in
Looking through the pics, I spotted a few others too
Aaaaandd after a good solid 7 hours.... and completely exhausted, I finally finished, lol. We started at 9am and I got back right around 4. Ended up being right at about 55 miles.... and not easy miles. Even harder for me since I'm slow, and never made it to any of the reset in time to take a break, and had to get scored then just keep going. Only break I got was the gas break around the middle of it. I wish my camera battery would have lasted longer.... I only got from the first 1 hr 45 mins or so before my battery died. The trail seemed to get progressively harder as you went along. Nothing actually difficult, per se.... just tighter and tighter. The last about 13 miles or so were brutal.... I was down to 1st gear many times, and just lock to lock to lock to lock.... non stop back and forth just zig zagging through the trees, and up and down hills (while still zig zagging through the trees). Some of which I didn't even fit through and had to wiggle. My arms were jello. The trail you see in my video below is like a highway compared to what we had at the end. Plus there was a pretty sketchy creek towards the end too.... had to ride lengthways down the creek.... it started off just rocky but then got deeper. Doug was in front of me, I held back a ways to make sure he made it first before I followed behind. It was legit about 3/4 of a wheel deep. Wish I would have had the camera for that one, haha. We both made it though, nobody went swimming, lol
This actually is a little low.... I realized afterwards that I had forgot to change the tire size in my trail tech, from when I was running the supermoto wheels (17") a few days before. Trail was 55 miles though
Video..... Doug giving me a wave on the road section not too long after the start, then I was following him for a bit. Another buddy gave me a shout at 11:38.... didn't even recognize him at the time, lol Thought I heard somebody yell my name though. Then the air cooled KDX guy passed me at 12:12. As always, nothing too crazy here.... I'm slow, lol
[youtube][/youtube]
I didn't finish well.... at all. Dead last, lol. But, I guess finishing last is still better than not finishing at all. Being my first time I wasn't expecting a good finish, I just wanted to do it and see what it was like. I really enjoyed it though. It was kinda rough just cuz I'm slow and never quite made it to the resets in time to get any kind of break, so just had to roll up, get scored, and keep on going. Only break I got was the gas break.... other than that, it was one big 7 hour ride, haha. I also got lost several times.... missed the arrows apparently and ended up having to come back and find the trail again. Another time I don't even know how it happened... followed the arrows and it looped me back around to the part of the trail I had just been on.... ended up going right back through the same check point twice. That same area passed a couple other bikes going the opposite way on the trail. Heard somebody say they think some local kids were in there messing with the arrows and got some people headed the wrong way. I also almost lost my Go Pro..... just happened to reach up and feel my helmet and it was gone.... stopped right away and walked back a ways to see if I could find it, didn't see it so started walking back, and found it not even 20 feet from the bike, lol. So that cost me quite a bit of time. Then towards the end I had to just pull over and stop for a few mins.... shortly after a younger kid pulled over with me, about in the same boat.... completely exhausted. So we just sat there and talked a few mins. Green tractor ran like a champ though.... no probs whatsoever. Didn't have any bad crashes, just a couple stupid little drops that were no biggie. Had a couple spots early on where the morning sun was in my eyes and I just couldn't see.... you can see me in the video playing "where'd the trail go??" a few times, lol
Oh and in case anybody wondered how the guy on the 31 year old air cooled KDX finished in the usual sea of fancy new orange bikes...... I guess "Quite well!" would be an appropriate answer here
Dude is a beast on that thing! haha
That's all I've got..... it beat me up pretty good but I still had a great time and enjoyed it. Weather was perfect.... couldn't have asked for nicer. And always fun spending some time with buddies too. All 4 of us are already signed up for the Bootlegger enduro coming up in a couple weeks..... should be fun!
Anyways.... on with the pics. Since these things apparently start so dang early (I work 2nd shift, I'm not used to waking up before 9-10 am, haha), I went down Saturday and camped out. Nice bright moon and cooler temps..... beautiful weather for camping!
Up and at it nice and early..... watched the sun rise then went over to get signed in and get my rider pack. Doug (doakley) is camped out right behind me here
Got signed in, bought a t-shirt, ate some breakfast, lubed chain, check tire pressure, gas up, gear up.... and we're ready to roll! Dougs buddy Travis (CRF-450) and his brother Kyle (Beta) were with us as well.... we all got signed up for row 4 together. We get up to the starting area, and Doug and I instantly start making new KDX buddies Seen here, Doug is down talking to the guy on the end there about his KDX. And get this.... it's a 1986 air cooled KDX..... 31 years old and he's still out there racing it... hell yea!! He said he's ran that bike the entire season, and just can't convince himself to get anything else. He said the bike runs strong as hell. He was starting two rows behind us on row 6
Aaaaand, we're off! Just after the start.... she managed to get all of us. I'm not sure who the 4A guy is, but he beat all of us off the line, lol. That's Travis right behind him on the CRF (usually he's Team Green too on a KX-450, but a shop royally screwed up his forks a couple days before the race, so he had to dig his old CRF out of the shed)
Then yours truly, then Travis' brother Kyle on the Beta
And then Doug right behind Kyle
Got a wave from Doug on one of the first road sections, haha
Wheeeee!
The guy with the 86 KDX passed me around 14 mins in
Looking through the pics, I spotted a few others too
Aaaaandd after a good solid 7 hours.... and completely exhausted, I finally finished, lol. We started at 9am and I got back right around 4. Ended up being right at about 55 miles.... and not easy miles. Even harder for me since I'm slow, and never made it to any of the reset in time to take a break, and had to get scored then just keep going. Only break I got was the gas break around the middle of it. I wish my camera battery would have lasted longer.... I only got from the first 1 hr 45 mins or so before my battery died. The trail seemed to get progressively harder as you went along. Nothing actually difficult, per se.... just tighter and tighter. The last about 13 miles or so were brutal.... I was down to 1st gear many times, and just lock to lock to lock to lock.... non stop back and forth just zig zagging through the trees, and up and down hills (while still zig zagging through the trees). Some of which I didn't even fit through and had to wiggle. My arms were jello. The trail you see in my video below is like a highway compared to what we had at the end. Plus there was a pretty sketchy creek towards the end too.... had to ride lengthways down the creek.... it started off just rocky but then got deeper. Doug was in front of me, I held back a ways to make sure he made it first before I followed behind. It was legit about 3/4 of a wheel deep. Wish I would have had the camera for that one, haha. We both made it though, nobody went swimming, lol
This actually is a little low.... I realized afterwards that I had forgot to change the tire size in my trail tech, from when I was running the supermoto wheels (17") a few days before. Trail was 55 miles though
Video..... Doug giving me a wave on the road section not too long after the start, then I was following him for a bit. Another buddy gave me a shout at 11:38.... didn't even recognize him at the time, lol Thought I heard somebody yell my name though. Then the air cooled KDX guy passed me at 12:12. As always, nothing too crazy here.... I'm slow, lol
[youtube][/youtube]
I didn't finish well.... at all. Dead last, lol. But, I guess finishing last is still better than not finishing at all. Being my first time I wasn't expecting a good finish, I just wanted to do it and see what it was like. I really enjoyed it though. It was kinda rough just cuz I'm slow and never quite made it to the resets in time to get any kind of break, so just had to roll up, get scored, and keep on going. Only break I got was the gas break.... other than that, it was one big 7 hour ride, haha. I also got lost several times.... missed the arrows apparently and ended up having to come back and find the trail again. Another time I don't even know how it happened... followed the arrows and it looped me back around to the part of the trail I had just been on.... ended up going right back through the same check point twice. That same area passed a couple other bikes going the opposite way on the trail. Heard somebody say they think some local kids were in there messing with the arrows and got some people headed the wrong way. I also almost lost my Go Pro..... just happened to reach up and feel my helmet and it was gone.... stopped right away and walked back a ways to see if I could find it, didn't see it so started walking back, and found it not even 20 feet from the bike, lol. So that cost me quite a bit of time. Then towards the end I had to just pull over and stop for a few mins.... shortly after a younger kid pulled over with me, about in the same boat.... completely exhausted. So we just sat there and talked a few mins. Green tractor ran like a champ though.... no probs whatsoever. Didn't have any bad crashes, just a couple stupid little drops that were no biggie. Had a couple spots early on where the morning sun was in my eyes and I just couldn't see.... you can see me in the video playing "where'd the trail go??" a few times, lol
Oh and in case anybody wondered how the guy on the 31 year old air cooled KDX finished in the usual sea of fancy new orange bikes...... I guess "Quite well!" would be an appropriate answer here
Dude is a beast on that thing! haha
That's all I've got..... it beat me up pretty good but I still had a great time and enjoyed it. Weather was perfect.... couldn't have asked for nicer. And always fun spending some time with buddies too. All 4 of us are already signed up for the Bootlegger enduro coming up in a couple weeks..... should be fun!