KDXRIDER.NET

Well, my teammates (5 of us) and I managed to survive a 25hr endurance dirt bike team race last weekend at Starvation Ridge (100miles S. of Yakima). It was a continuous race with 18mile laps. There was an electronic transponder that had to be handed off between laps that kept track of time. There were 100 teams (500 bikes) entered in the race including factory supported teams. The terrain varied from grassland-hardpack, to 12" deep silt filled with rocks. It also included a trip through a barn and an old farmhouse.

I felt pretty lonely on the green bike, maybe only 10 other Kawi's out of 500. I would estimate 60-70% orange bikes. A Beta dealer was there, they were pretty sweet looking.

Waking up at 4:45am to do my last night lap was certainly a test of my will power! We will be back next year for sure.

Performance:
Finished 72nd out of 100
~432 miles ridden over 25hrs
24 laps completed
Here are some relatively interesting pictures, mostly are near the pits:

Mt Adams in the distance
http://bawnzai.com/Nuke/html/modules/ga ... d=DSCF1533

Bike prep the night before:
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Bike (KDX200) ready to go, I got picked to start because my bike starts easy and I have done starts before:
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The start is a "LeMans style" start, bike is off and you have to run about 20ft to it and start it, and you are off:
Not me, but a good pic of running for the bikes:
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Contemplating the start:
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One kick and it fired (we only had 4 teams in our class so it was a pretty sane start):
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Check point at 11miles out:
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Nearing the lap finish:
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Teammates jumping:
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http://bawnzai.com/Nuke/html/modules/ga ... d=DSCF1595

Transponder handoff (5mph speed limit in pits, it saved a few seconds to run and get it):
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Ready for handoff:
http://bawnzai.com/Nuke/html/modules/ga ... d=DSCF1605

A welcome sunrise after a long night:
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/ ... =imgAnch13

Pits:
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/ ... =imgAnch12

Everyone still standing at the end (dust was in my eyes!):
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/ ... h=imgAnch6

A few of the professional pics:
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Cool pic of my GF's brother on the KLX:
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Through the barn:
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Day break:
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Through the woods:
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The bike ran great. I defiently need to reduce the high speed damping, way to harsh over braking bumps and the silty/rocky sections. I need to decide whether to buck up for the full revalve, or just mod the stack myself.

The Cyclops light (35w) I bought worked well with the 7ah battery strapped to my chest protector in back, got 60min run time out of a charge. I tried the 50w Cylops first, but my battery did not cut it. The UFO twins w/ Moose coil did surprisingly well, it helped to bump the idle up at night to reduce chop throttle dimming. You need to have a helmet light though!

Congrat! and thanks for the cool report.

Pretty sweet. I'd love to get my family to run one of those someday...

Now we just need to get faster in the desert! Us woods guys don't know what to do when there are wide sweeping corners and no trees to bounce off! RB mods and some Maxxis Desert IT's will help next year.

Watching some of the guys in the Expert class blow by me at night was amazing, how they have the balls for that I don't know. I guess the 8" HID on the bike and dual HID helmet lights they were running help too!

It looks like a kid on the team next to us, he was on a KTM 100 and was ripping! His form is certainly interesting, I need to try that!
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