Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

OCTOBER (not November) 19

Monday, 19 October 2009 07:27

Another big weekend. Casey Stoner won the Philip Island Moto GP (I'm not convinced Rossie risked everything to go for the win), Chad Reed DIDN'T win everything at Super X, the Australian's showed themselves to be world-class competitors at the ISDE, and my son won a title in Timor.

The last one will seem a bit strange, but I'm unsure what the exact title is. He went over to Timor to compete in a championship motocross of some kind. He rides so much high-level motocross these days that I'm not always sure what he's up to. He worked his backside off to debut in the Pro Open class at the Coolum round of the Australian Motocross Championship last August and had a disappointing run. Then he swapped back from the 450 to a 250 and last week told me he got whipped at an event somewhere and couldn't believe the actual speed the riders in the smaller class could carry. Then he said he was off to Timor to ride...something. I'm a bad parent, I know, but I forget exactly what it was. He sent a text last night saying he'd won the title. I sent a text back asking "What title?" but haven't heard from him yet.

Bad parent or not, I'm bursting with pride. He didn't get the kick-start into the sport so many of our Pro class riders enjoyed. I could never afford to take him racing when he was younger, so he didn't have a good grounding in 60cc, 80cc and 125cc motocross. When he was about 14 I managed to get hold of an old CR80 for him to compete in the Junior Enduro series. He did no motocross at all, and Dog knows, he didn't inherit any talent!

So he's worked hard and recovered from some serious injuries to become a proficient and capable racer, able to hold his own in fast company, and he's done it all on his own. I can't help barracking for him.

Meanwhile, I've been working on a piece on neck braces for the next issue.

I have a tendency to skepticism where braces are concerned. It's not that I don't believe they work, I'm just not convinced they do all their marketing campaigns claim. This started with knee braces and continued as I watched all kinds of braces offered to gimmick-hungry dirt-bike riders. I do have a pair of knee braces, but I only wear them for motocross. I fully accept they'd be a sensible addition to my riding safety gear for all types of terrain, but I spend so much time pushing my bike up hills and dragging it out of bogholes I just find knee braces too cumbersome - even the PODs I have which are slim and light.

So I had an open mind when I went to look at neck braces.

I'm waiting on a reply from Chris Leatt to finish the piece, but I'm convinced the neck brace is a worthwhile bit of kit. I bought one. You can have a look at the article in issue #31 and decide for yourselves.

I did manage to thrash the DR650 over the first few kilometres of the Longest Day run this last week. The 18" wheel seems okay, but I still have a few bugs to iron out. I was hoping to sprint out to Narrabri and back a couple of times, but I haven't managed it yet, and the next four or five weeks are absolutely chock-full committed, so I may not get to ride any of it beofre the day (as usual).

I'd better get back to work or I'll never get it done.

Huge cheers for the Australian ISDE riders. I'd like to sadly shake my head for the Motocross Of Nations guys,  but my new neck brace makes that difficult.

TF

PS: THe video is the trailer for Phil Hodgens' and Maky Mark's next installment of Motorbikin'. Brilliant, as usual! TF

UPDATE

Maybe I'm not such a bad parent after all. I just spoke to my son. He doesn't know what title he won either. All he knows for sure is he won, and he has a whopping silver-and-gold, hand-made trophy in a glass case that he had to either nurse or buy a seat for on the plane.

And I finally rode the KTM this morning. Last time I went to ride it it'd dropped its lunch all over the shed floor and needed a countershaft seal. I bought the seal and O-ring, and set about fitting it. As I gently tapped away at the seal with my soft-faced mallet, the cow of a thing disappeared right inside the engine cases.

Bastard!

Dan at the workshop tells me the seal doesn't seat. You just tap it in until it's "about" level with the case.

Hmph.

So I had the new seal extracted, paid for another new seal and had it fitted, and went out to ride this morning. This time the bike was sitting there with a flat front tyre.

Pox!

I fixed it, and I off I went, loving the new forks. Instead of deflecting off everything and jarring my teeth near out of my head, the front end tracks well. The forks are supple but resist bottoming, and I'm grinning.

Except now I can feel the shock.

I thought it was okay at first, but after I'd been riding a while it started to feel sloppy.

You can probably guess where this is leading. It was a slowly deflating rear.

Whore!

I rode the prick home - maybe 20km - on the flat rear 'cos I was so peeved.

I can't wait to see what's next.

TF

Comments (1)

1 Thursday, 22 October 2009 13:33

sandy

Pleased to see you worked out what month it is for the latest blog!
Enjoyable reading as usual!!