Memorial Day Dirtbike Riding In Elsinore

Well, I know it has been awhile but Shawn finally dragged me out of the house and into the dirt again.  We’ve both been so busy working , we’ve had almost no time to play whatsoever.   Another reason is that he had sold his last dirtbike ( XR100) a while back so I let him use my own (which has better suspension anyway) to hit some jumps and berms to get in a little slide time before Road America this weekend.  

And lo and behold I rode like a grandma in the beginning and I actually had adrenaline coursing through my veins out of *gasp* a little fear of going over the handlebars on landing.  What the heck has happened to me?  Have I turned into a big wuss!!   I have been so chained to my desk I haven’t been doing much of anything at all.  Of course, if he had another dirtbike we would have made time.  So I had to ease back into it.  I am still not incredibly used to the power of a 2 stroke so I putted around for a bit.  I had longed for my TTR so I could so I could just nail it, as I was not really afraid of crashing my TTR since I clearly have much experience in that department.  It must be psychological.

So I pass it over to him and he takes off.  And I cannot watch.  I have even worse anxiety.  I realize that stupid injuries happen most often in the dirt which keeps people from ever making it to the races.  He reluctantly listens to me and takes it easy  as I watch from afar drinking my Monster.  Yeah, that’s exactly what I need, caffeine to add to the overexcitement and nervousness.  Woo hoo!  Go with what ya know.

I got back on it and was going a bit faster and was jumping a bit higher but I was still apprehensive about the landings, jeez the KX has some torque compared to my TTR.  The rear is stepping out all over the place, I am steering into it and keeping on the throttle to keep it upright.  Wait it out….Nice! 

 I come back in and hand it over to Shawn who takes off.  I notice the wind suddenly picks up and I am being pelted by sand from behind.  At this point Shawn is mid-berm preparing to pin it for the front jump that I am sitting in front of.  I later found out that he sees the problem before I realize what is going on and decides to hit the jump anyway.  I then realize we are in a HUMONGOUS dust devil!  The dust devil engulfs the jump where Shawn is now cresting in midair and I am wishing I had the video rolling or camera ready at this point.  But I am trying to watch the expected carnage while covering the opening of my Monster and shielding myself from the sand at the same time.  He is literally in the vortex while airborne and it pushes him over a few feet in the air and he lands, unscathed, and continues to the next turn. 

By this time I am laughing my boots off and I can’t believe what just happened.  As I spit sand out of my mouth, I wonder to myself how many times this has happened to people.  Dust devils have always amazed me, just as tornadoes do but I’d rather not be anywhere near one of those.  But dust devils are so much safer and still leave me in wonderment.  He eventually exited the track and I start laughing again and asked how that felt.  He said he was surprised the dust devil carried him over that far.  He said when it engulfed him all he saw was sand but knew about when to turn in for the next berm.  All I can say is, better you than me, babe! 

I got back on the bike and increased my times and jumps and I was happy with the re-familiarization.  I took a break and watched him slide around up until he lost the rear and crashed.  Thereby breaking the screw holding my pipe to the frame.  Thereby causing a crack in the pipe where it connects to the can.  Yay.  He picks it up and we both have no idea that it’s broken at this point but my bike sounds funny so he eventually pull  off.  *I know what you’re going to be fixing tonight* I think to myself.

Anyway, I really miss riding the trails and ridges.  It is so much more fun to ride next to one another rather than trading off and sharing.  So I hope we come across another bike soon.  In the meantime, I am looking forward to my trackday at ACS Wednesday, with the ever awesome FastrackRiders.