Desert Racing for the Enduro Being
The MRAN (Motorcycle Racing Association of Nevada)dezert racing series kicked off in January with the Bitter Springs Harescramble, put on by the Gamblers MC from Las Vegas. This was also my first race in the expert class, and my first real mass-start dezert race, since the 2 races I did last year had pretty tight starting areas and were started by age/displacement classes. I had an idea of what to expect, since I had ridden in that area a few weeks before with some ktmtalk.com members from LV, and we came across some pre-flagging and rode bits of the course (mostly backwards, it turned out). The race was 2 laps of a 33-mile circuit that started off in a wide sand wash, went through some more wide sand-wash, then some twisty sand-wash, then some rocky fire road, rocky singletrack, more rocky fireroad, more sand-washes, some real rocky singletrack then more sand-wash, followed by some really destructive whoop and g-outs, then a bit more sand_wash to the finish. I would rate the course as interesting, but not technically difficult. There were no sections that seemed to be causing bottlenecks, at least for experts. There was a fair amount of high-speed riding (i was going 50-60 and getting passed in wide spots), and most of the lower speed stuff was tight and twisty sand-wash where passing was difficult. I found the course physically demanding since there was so much high-speed terrain, and few places to rest. The recent biblical deluge suffered by Southern Nevada, coupled with a warming trend, led to course conditions that were about as perfect as dezert racing gets. Temps in the 60's, good traction everywhere, almost no dust. Sweeeeeeeet. The course was also extremely well-marked imho, and at no time did I have any concern as to whether or not I was on course.
The start was not as bad as I thought, mostly because I was a puss. I lined up about 30 mins early, and squoze in between 2 bikes that turned out to belong to people named Gabbert, who were apparently related to each other. They were friendly and we chatted for a bit. The start was delayed 15 minutes or so while we waited for the medical crew to arrive at the race site, so that gave me extra time to have butterflys. The start line was crowded due to the excellent turnout, and my plan was to take it easy at the start, since I wasn't really sure how everything would go, and I didn't want to charge out there and immediately do something stupid and take someone else out. So i lined up a foot or so behind the Gabberts, since there wasn't quite enough space for all our handlebars otherwise. All was going according to plan until the flag dropped, and my bike lit up and was in gear before they got their 4-strokes going. So I launched forward, caroming lightly off of each of them. Hopefully I didn't knock anyone over. At any rate, they both finished ahead of me, and they didn't go out of their way to knock me over on their way past, so it couldn't have been that bad.
The first 5-10 miles was pretty hectic. I was trying to get past a few pokey riders, and guys that suck less than me were trying to get past me, but pretty soon things settled down and I could get into a rhythm. I was pretty amazed at how fast I could go in the open stuff and still get passed, but usually I was holding my ground or making up time in the tighter stuff. 10-12 miles in I passed a big lump of a guy lying on the ground moving (a little) and moaning. I didn't see any arterial bleeding, and i figured before long someone would come along that was already getting tired or having a bad day and would need an excuse to stop, so I kept rolling, along with everyone else around me. Kinda made me think about how hard some of these rocks might be tho. I managed to tip over once for no good reason, just by not looking through the corner, and getting off the gas at the wrong moment so the front wheel pushed through the berm. No harm, no foul. I stayed on my feet, and just picked the bike up and got going after 2 guys got past.
By the end of lap 1, my hand and forearms were starting to get pretty hammered. I was trying to find a spot to turn up the damping on my shiny new GPR2.0 steering damper, but i was kind of afraid to take a hand off the bars to do so, and the dial on the 2.0 is a little more out-of-the-way than the one on my old bike. I finally got it adjusted a little stiffer going through the pits, where I was trying to comply with the speed limit of 'slow'. Starting out onto the second lap, I started thinking about smoothness, starting wide in the corners and cutting inside at the apex to skip the worst of the braking and acceleration bumps, and sitting as much as I could (without slowing down) to give my arms a break from the pounding. My throttle hand seems to cramp up and get sore before anything else, and that day was no exception. I figured I'd better try to shake it out and relax when I could, so it didn't suddenly cramp up and stop working with the throttle pinned. My girlish and conservative riding style, combined with the 2.8 gallon exc tank on my bike allowed me to skip the pits and pass a few guys that had stopped for fuel, goggles, beer, and whatever it is that guys stop for when they're racing. As guys started tiring out, I even started passing a few fellows, which was a nice change of pace from the first lap.
There was a mile or two of course after the pits and before the finish, and coming out of the pits, a guy on a big 4-stroke passed me. I heard another 4-stroke behind me, and figured it would be polite to let him by too, and let the two of them duke it out, but then the 2nd guy stopped going fast. I kept looking for a place to pass him back, but all I got for my troubles was huge faceful of wet dirt, I mean like a freakin' bucket full of dirt, off his back tire as he crested the last short rise before dropping into the wash for the finish line. All that time I had stayed clean, but now I had dirt in my mouth, dirt down my shirt, dirt everywhere. Next time I'm not pulling over.
All in all it was a pretty fun race. I certainly would like to see a more technically demanding course, but I'm sure there'll be some of those later in the year. For more information on dezert racing in Southern Nevada, check out MRANracing.com.
I rode my 04 250sx, with 6oz flywheel weight, GPR v2.0 steering damper, and suspension valving by Pro Racing Suspension. I used a big fat 120x19 Maxxis IT rear tire at 10-11 psi. This was my first race with the steering damper, and it definitely allowed me to speed up in the open parts without fear of death. Well, less fear of death, anyway. The bike had stock 13-50 gearing, which is only good up to around 50-60mph, so I'm going to try a 14t countershaft sprocket next race. I think I'll go one click softer on the compression damping as well. Otherwise, everything was perfect.
As if anyone cares.... After getting a couple trophies in Senior Amateur (40+) last year, I moved up to expert class. Holy *#$&! those guys are fast. I ended up 10th in my class, 57th overall. It appears that I would probably have won the amateur class pretty easily, so I'm glad I upgraded, but I think there was only one other senior expert behind me, so I have my work cut out for me.
Next race is either the Valley of Fire Harescrambles (MRAN), or the Firewalker 100 (MRANN). Watch for a report next month.
If you hate this page, don't email mark weaver, just read something else.