He got a good gap on me, and we were about 30 seconds behind after the first lap. Adam was able to make up some time during the second lap, but wasn’t able to make the pass in the dusty conditions. The third and fourth laps stayed pretty much the same, when, at the end of the fifth lap, I could see Dalton just ahead of me on the track. I caught up to him quickly and realized he must have had bike issues. Sure enough, he had flatted — allowing us to start the sixth lap just behind them.

Adam eventually made the pass at the very end of the lap, which put us into the lead… at least for a few seconds. Dalton caught me on the track and flew passed me on the outside of a corner. I knew there would be no way to catch him in the dust, so I backed off a little, hoping he might make a mistake and I could get passed him. No such luck.

It was such a great battle, we didn’t really care about coming in second. The best part was getting to hang out in between laps and BS with other racers and spectators. I think the team race is quickly becoming my favorite part of the race weekends.

Sunday’s race was pretty much non-existent. After a mediocre start, I slid out in one of the corners on the freshly watered track – relegating me to dead last. That’s okay… it’s a long, dusty race and there’s plenty of time to make up positions. Shortly after getting back up and passing a couple of riders, I came into a long, fast straight and heard a loud ticking noise coming from my bike. At first I thought it might have been a branch caught in my wheel, but soon realized it was coming from my engine.

I pulled over and shut the bike off to see if I could see anything obvious. No holes in the clutch cover, no fluids leaking anywhere, nothing caught up in the wheels, etc. I tried starting the bike… no luck. Uh oh. I gave it a little gas and tried starting it again. It fired up reluctantly and coughed and sputtered and ticked… loudly. I shut it right back down and began planning my rout back to the truck.

Fortunately, a course marshall found me pretty quick and radioed back to get me some help. Troy Dyer and Curt Larson soon showed up with the 4-wheeler to load the bike up and haul it back to the pits – those guys rock.

After getting the bike back to my shop, I began digging in to find out what was causing the problem. Mark Blue and I had random speculations, but after pulling the valve cover and checking the shim tolerances, it became immediately clear that one of the valves was waaaay out of spec. After pulling the cams, we realized a shim had fallen out of the keeper – cool easy fix. But after nosing around a little more, I realized that one of the valve springs had broken in half and THAT was what was causing the problem.

I pulled the head off expecting to see major carnage. Usually when a valve or a spring breaks, things begin to smash and bash into each other setting off a chain reaction of destruction. I was stunned to see that the valve had never made contact with the top of the piston and everything was in tact. Whew…

I figured while I had everything apart I would go ahead and replace the piston along with the valve springs and other various odds and ends. I’m just glad it wasn’t any worse than it could have been. Still waiting on a few parts, but with any luck, I’ll have everything back together soon and back in action.

Next up is Round #3 at Angel Fire. This is a tough, rocky and technical course — one of my favorites!

It was also a great day of testing. New GPR V4 Steering Stabilizer, new Jett boots, new Asterisk knee braces, new suspension settings, new ignition mapping, etc. etc. Kinda like Christmas in March!

One of the coolest test of the day – I was able to ride the new KTM 450 SX Factory Edition. Our new friend Don had just picked his up and was generous enough to let a few of us take it for a spin. This bike is pretty incredible. The motor is amazing – instant power and super smooth. The handling is super quick, almost too quick at times, but this also helped make the bike feel super light. The clutch pull feels about half as stiff as my 350 and the ergos are fantastic. My only gripe was with the harsh suspension, but it was set up strictly for motocross, so that would be an unfair judgement.

Overall it was a great day. It feels awesome to be back on the bike. Now it’s time to get some fitness back to be ready for the first race in a month.

Happy trails – Chris.

However, I recently hopped on Bryant Cope’s bike which had one of these babies installed and I really like the stability it added. I’ll be honest… I was also swayed by the fact that so many top-level pros ride with them too (Kurt Caselli, Shane Watts, Destry Abbott, etc.)

Installation was cake. It took about an hour, but I like to take my time and do things methodically, rather than rush through projects like this. You can pretty much pitch the instructions and let common sense guide you through it. Especially the part about using a tie-down to stabilize the front of the bike while removing the upper triple clamp. Yeah, don’t do that. Just slap a zip-tye on your front brake to keep the wheel from turning and everything will be fine.

Fit and finish is awesome. Everything went together perfectly—it’s easy to see GPR has done their homework making sure measurements are exact.

Next weekend will be the first ride back after my injury. I’m excited to test out the GPR to see how it works.

Happy trails – Chris

Recent changes/additions include:

• White plastic kit with gucci eBay graphics
• Renthal original KTM bend handlebars
• New wheelset w/19″ rear wheel, rotors, etc.
• Tubliss tire inserts
• SX ignition mapping
• Suspension mods from KREFT Moto, including stiffer springs, SKF seals and re-valving
• Shorai battery
• Flu pleated seat cover

Got a GPR V4 Stabilizer on the way. Looking forward to riding again soon…

Happy trails – Chris