July, 2009 - Al's Moto Log

Beaver – Highline – Snowslide – St. Charles

This is a great after-work ride when you just need to get away. Thankfully Chaz and Lance were able to sneak out and enjoy it with me. Chaz’s bike is running a lot better after he tuned it up, but I think Lance was ready to bury the trusty ol’ CR500 on the side of the trail by the end of the ride. He completely lost his clutch with about 10 miles of trail left and it got to the point that if he tried to pull in the clutch something would catch and it would die… going down from Egan Basin back to the truck in the dark with no clutch was just a little shy of fun for him. Not to be mean, but I found it entertaining and I’m sure it will make for good memories in the future.

Conditions were dusty, don’t forget mosquito spray.

Anyway, Lance is now on the hunt for a smoking deal on a KTM 2-smoker 300 or possibly 250 if any of you know of some on the auction block?

Crew: Chaz, Lance and me.

Posted by al on July 28, 2009 in Trails

Comments Off

Hyde Park workout rides

July 24

If I think it’s going to be a while before I get to ride again, I’ve been trying to get out for just an hour or so and get a little workout ride in to try and build up a little stamina, or at least delay the arm pump. It’s nice to be able to ride straight from the garage and hit some local trails. If I ride it hard I can wear myself out pretty well too.

Anyway, here is a sample of one of my workout rides. It’s pretty rocky and there are a couple of steep loose climbs, but it’s pretty and the views of the valley are awesome from the tops of the ridges. I wore one of those calorie counting watches with the chest strap and it said I burned 900 Calories, I think that was pretty generous, but I did come back tired.

Posted by al on July 24, 2009 in Trails

Comments Off

CVMX with the kids

July 23

I’ve taken the kids out to the Cache Valley MX track a couple of times this month. They’ve really enjoyed it and I think it’s helping them feel more comfortable on their bikes and it’s a pretty good deal @ $5/bike for all day. We went before noon on weekdays and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Logan scared the crap out of me on his first loop around the big track. He’d watched the big boys go around a couple of times and figured he just needed to gun it over the jumps. I stood helpless as I watched him hit the gas on some steep 4′ jumps, catch air, land in the flat, bounce his helmet on the handle bars, recover, and do the same thing over the next 3 hits… I couldn’t believe he was able to hold on. When he came back around, I had calmed myself down and tactfully told him that maybe he should start on the smaller rollers… whew.

Landon’s little bike is still a handful for him and that backend loves to get away from him in the corners. I think I need to figure out how to adjust that clutch so the power isn’t so on or off. He did a lot better the second time out and only laid it over a couple of times.

Posted by al on July 23, 2009 in Tracks

Comments Off

Worm – Turkey – Lil Bear

July 16

Well, this ride was cruddy compared to all the others this year, but at least it’s still riding… It was dusty, I got a flat and had given my tube away the last ride, I was sweating like a pig and Nate and Zac must have thought I was going into cardiac arrest so they kicked me off my own tire and took over changing it… or they didn’t trust me with their tools, either way I appreciated it. Then when I put the tire back on, somehow I didn’t get the brake rotor in-between the pads, went about 100 yards and about went over the handlebars when I tried to use the front brake and the pad flipped out and got caught in the spokes… bent the crap out of the inside pad and ripped off most the pad material. Once again, Zac and Nate helped me get it apart and bent that pad back to factory-straight and put it back together. Finally we were able to ride the rest of the ride.

It was a pretty big group. Zane brought his girlfriend, Katie, and she could ride! *Not that I’m sexist or anything, I’m sure there are tons of girls out there that could kick my trash all over the trail… you just don’t see them out in the wild very often 🙂

Posted by al on July 16, 2009 in Trails

3 Comments

Card – Richards – Cart – Seep

July 14

This is still one of my favorite combo rides to do after a day of work. The trail is starting to get pretty dusty and grown over, but good nonetheless.

Chaz brought a long a new guy to singletrack, he did really well for his first time and Card is a heck of a trail to cut your teeth on. Nice job Shaun, hope to see you out some more!

Crew: Chaz, Shaun and me.

This is some “survival man” shelter on the side of Richards, Chaz said he hunkered down here with his little brother when they got caught on the trail in the rain.