Here’s Adam, Mark, and I getting in some early practice at the Dunes in Farmington, NM. Nice swap out off a headwall a couple of minutes in. Although you can hear me laugh on the video, it really frickin’ hurt. Smashed my nose… Enjoy!
This is the result of coming up short on a small gap at the Dunes over the weekend. Cased a rock ledge and did some damage to the water pump guard and the brake lever. Luckily nothing else was broken..
Happy trails – Chris
For those of you who don’t already know, I’m the guy who does the t-shirt designs for the Webe Racing series. Brett has been great to work with — basically giving me carte blanche, and letting me run wild with it.
With The Dunes race coming up in a couple of months, I’m putting together ideas for this year’s design. Here’s the first pass:
Orange for the KTM dudes:
Let me know what you think. If you’ve got something you’d like to see, let me know and I can try to work it in.
- Happy Trails – Chris
As much snow as we’ve been getting in Durango, Farmington has been maintaining pretty good conditions. Last week’s rain melted most of the snow, and made the sand nice and loamy. Although we’re still over a month out from spring, the 50° temps in NM have made the colder days in Durango more tolerable. We can just sneak down for the day and forget about the tundra here at home. Where else in the world can you ski and moto in the same day? Pretty sick…
Durango has been getting pounded with snow.
Just an hour south... nice and loamy.
Moist sand, sunny conditions. Life is good.
Mark gettin' down on some loam.
Braaaaaaaatt!
Stretchin' out my hamstring.
Bluebird day. Nice!
Chin up boys! Winter is almost over, and spring is right around the corner. Before we know it, we’ll be complaining about the heat and the dust.
Happy trails – Chris
Webe Racing has posted the “Official” 2010 Hare Scramble schedule. I’m stoked because combined with some of the other races, we’ll have a solid 8 months of racing ahead.
I’ll be heading back to Grand Junction to do the Bookcliff Ratters’ hare scramble next month. Pretty fun course — fast, rolling hills, and they throw in the MX track to make it interesting. Not much of a track really, but at least there’s a couple of fun jumps. Also gives you a chance to scan ahead and see who’s in front – or behind you. The only down side of last year’s race was the wind and dust. I’ve never seen such bad dust storms.
Here’s a list of the Webe schedule for 2010:
Check out more info on their website here.
Happy trails – Chris
This is an old post from the Lab section, but since I’m still crashing, I thought I’d move it over to the blog.
Okay, I’ll admit it—I’m not a tough-guy. Tenacious, yes. Tough, no. More than anything I probably lack the sense of better judgement to quit while I’m ahead. But that’s how dirt bike riding is… it get’s in your blood. It’s addictive. And, it’s so mentally disarming, it’s hard to think about anything else while you’re in the moment. Plus, I’m usually having so much fun I don’t realize I’ve mangled something until the drive home, or the next morning (part of getting old).
Having white skin makes bruises even more impressive. This one on my belly was from a minor get-off in a corner, but the bars swung around right into my gut. The cool thing is you can see a sweet imprint from the grip!
Blisters suck. And until I found Palm Savers I seemed to be plagued with them. Every rider gets them at some point, but mine seemed to be most impressive. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a computer dork who sits behind a monitor all day. Either way, it’s no fun trying to hold on to the bars in the middle of a race, when you feel those first couple tear open. If you get ‘em too, get a pair of palm savers. Best 6 bucks you’ll ever spend.
The upper right bruise occured during a head-on collision on a training ride in Aztec, NM. I wasn’t even the one involved in the accident—I was second in line, and trying to avoid the whole mess when I clobbered a nearby bush and the bike landed on my leg. Nothing broken, just looks fairly impressive.
About the only thing worse than blisters is burns. This one happend during the Bull Hollow race in Monticello, UT during a traffic jam on a hill climb. I tried to get around a stalled rider and got hung up on a rock ledge where I lost my balance and fell over on a fellow rider’s nice, hot CRF450 head pipe. It only took a split second to go right through my jersey and into my arm. Made finishing the race interesting with sweat, dirt, and melted jersey gnawing away at it. It also made showers interesting for the next week.
I learned a valuable lesson about buying cheap boots when I injured my ankle at the end of the season. This one occured while dropping into a sand wash through a rut on a training ride with some buddies. My foot got munched between the bike and the side of the rut. A good pair of boots (like Sidi’s) would have probably absorbed/deflected most of the impact, but the Fox Trackers I had on at the time, mushed like a fresh loaf of Wonder Bread. And so did my ankle. It wasn’t too bad until the area got infected, which forced me to miss the last WORCS race of the season. Bummer…
I think that’s the suckiest thing about injuries… time away from riding. It’s hard to let your body heal right when all you can think about is next weekend’s ride or race. Now, I like to ride fast, but I think Mark Blue put it best when he said “Ride just fast enough to not crash and you’ll save yourself a lot of time in the E.R.” Be careful out there.
- Happy trails – Chris
Here’s a sketchy little hill climb called “The Keyhole” at the Dunes in Farmington I’ve been trying to conquer. Amazing what you’ll find entertaining when riding is limited.
Happy trails – Chris
As a dirt biker, I dread the winter months. It drives me crazy to go into the shop, stare at the bikes, try and figure out something to tinker with, and dream about warmer temps and loamy corners.
Today we decided to make the best of it and head to the Dunes in New Mexico in search of some signs of not-so-frozen dirt. When I left the house, it was 14° and 2′ of snow — not very reassuring. By the time I rolled into the Dunes, it had only warmed up to 27° and there was snow/ice pretty much everywhere except a few quad hill climbs.
I almost bagged it and came home, but Phillips had just picked up a 2010 YZ450F and I was anxious to check it out, so I decided to wait to see the new beast. Greg Herbold and Miles Rockwell were also on their way too, and HB had just gotten his new YZ and was dying to break it in.
I gotta say, the new YZ is killer. When Phillips rolled it out the trailer, the heavens parted and the angels sang. The bike is absolutely beautiful. Then he tried to start it… after about 20 minutes of kicking—dripping sweat, and out of breath, the beast finally decided to awaken.
Not to be outdone, HB showed up with his new monster, already decked out with fresh bling and bad ass.
After warming up the bikes we suited up and headed out in search of an area to burn in a turn track. The dirt gods must have been smiling on us, as our typical spot had pretty much thawed out over the last few days. It was an abbreviated version of our typical track, but it was enough to get the heart rate up and satisfy the riding itch.
Phillips was generous enough to let me have some seat time on his new baby and I gotta say, it was awesome. The new YZ handles incredibly. Cornering is obscene, and the throttle response is instantaneous. The motor is strong but not violent, and the suspension feels great out of the box. I’d love to have one, but I think next year will bring more changes and refinements, and ultimately a better bike. I’ll hold out.
So, all in all it turned out to be a pretty great day. We were able to get a decent ride in, the temps warmed up to the upper thirties, and I was able to check out some new bikes. Not too shabby.
As a bonus, the views of the mountains on the ride home are sweet.
Happy Trails – Chris
The race season is finally over — now we get to have some fun! Just about ate it on the first run up!
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