When your dearheart agrees to ride your 150R so you can go riding at Hollister.
Backstory…Shawn’s CRF450R chewed up the clutchbasket cushions. When I say chewed up, they are gone: I saw some remnants under the pressure plate and the rest was in the crank case This was after the majority of it was cleaned out.
He heard it making noise two weekends ago at Hollister but thinks it occurred at Woods Ranch the weekend before that in some really tight singletrack right off the road running through the campground.
We had ridden for about an hour at Hollister and he said he could hear it pretty loudly so we packed it up and went home. Lo and behold, shredded cushions.
Anyway, I really wanted to go riding so I asked him if he would mind terribly if he used the Champion Machine while I rode my YZ. I did promise to let him use the YZ at the end of the day. He agreed…
I could not stop laughing at the beginning of the day because he was flying on that thing, jumping everything. He is about 6’3″ or so so it was quite hilarious. He was passing people on bigger bikes and I just don’t know how that’s possible. I would take turns and I would look over and he’d pass me on the outside on the berm pretty high up. He would jump and I thought surely the suspension is going to bottom. It only did a few times, he said. He is lucky he is so light. Many times I laughed so hard I could barely ride!
Then when we traded bikes, omg. I cannot believe I used to ride that thing all the time. All it wants to do is wheelie and it has no brakes. It is far more zippy than the YZ. It was crazy. This bike is so much fun! I was faster through singletrack because you can really throw it around; instead of braking, you just have to throw it in and gas it. It’s not like the brakes work that well anyway. Speaking of which, we need to look into that because Tabitha is here and now I know why she didn’t brake much last time we were at Hollister or when she raced the Elsinore GP. She couldn’t.
This past weekend was the most fun I have had on two wheels in a very, very long time. It was muddy in areas, but I rode faster than usual. It was just FUN.
His part came in and everything is fixed. We rode the next weekend and it was super dry already. There were a lot of quads out so I had to maneuver around some and endure the dust bath until I found some single track that wasn’t closed.
Unfortunately he had to break down my forks again on Thursday (2/8) and install spacers. Just like we did on my CBR so long ago. I had slop in the tubes and could hear it banging every time I reached full extension. And it felt like crap. All that work and I was worse off. He also added more fork oil (350cc to spec). I hope to goodness it’s better. My hands were bruised last weekend from the washboard at high speed. We’ve never had this many set up challenges on a bike before.
President’s Day is coming up and I see a three day dirtbike camping trip in my future. I know it is early in the year but the weather has been amazing! And Hollister is completely washboarded out. I want me some Mendo. But MX open practice is today for Shawn and he will meet us (me and Tabi) afterward at lower ranch. Off to ride…
(4/6/2018) UPDATE: The spacer idea sucked. So did raising the forks ~20mm. It is all apart now and my stack was all crazy for MX for the last rider, plus no oil was getting through, plus the spring perch clip holders were chipped up somehow (see below). Anyway, now I have new ones from SDI and they were revalved. Also, we discovered there was no damn nitrogen in the rear shock–a couple psi, tops. SO that has to be revalved and .recharged Plus the spring was a RaceTech 6kg so I have a 4.6kg on the way hoping that is sufficient. Seriously, I notice no issues on Mendo-type riding, really. It is just 3 inch braking bumps in succession at about 35 mph which brakes my hands practically or higher speed bumps that cause severe but shortlived headshake.
Ms XX FAST - Life in the Not-So-Fast Lane 
Those Hollister Hills sound great