Hi,
I live in fresno california where their is absolutly no desert terrien, what kind of practice does it take and how many hours of desert riding to beable to do about a 100mile race? Is thier any racing in mojave, or souther california where we dont have to go to mexico? What would the best quad for the desert? Are king shocks better than any other shocks for desert riding? Thanks

How many people on here have raced deser or a enduro type of racing?

 

Ive raced desert and its a pain, but it was south of the border. I think you REALLY need shocks if you plan on riding more than 5 miles in hard desert terrain. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

There are two kinds. The big endurance races like the Baja 1000 and Vegas to Reno, and the local AMA/ATVA races. The enduracne races take a lot of preparation/support and a lot of money. On the other hand, District 37 has races somewhere almost every weekend. These are often run on rough motorcycle single track. A lot of District 37 races are held around Ridgecrest and Barstow. You willing to make the drive???

Basic equipment- Suspension! You have to be able to eat big desert whoops for breakfast! Full undercariage and swingarm bash plates. Widen the bike to ~50". Big power so you can pass somebody with authority when you are choking on a cloud of their dust. IMS desert fuel tank. Tough tires and rims like ITP Baja and Holeshot XC's or XCT's. Kill switch and nerf bars for AMA races.

http://www.atvaonline.com/race/index.asp

http://home.ama-cycle.org/amaccess/e...te=CA&comp=001

 

Just like in MX racing, you could have the best set-up machine out there but if ya run out of endurance it's all over and the "slow-pokes" ya passed earlier will be reeling you in quick ! Physical strength and stamina training is a must for pounding the big whoops all day. Most of the dez races use courses that have been used by trucks and buggies and the whoops are huge.

I race 2-3 desert races per year (novice-for fun) and pre-run lots of courses for fun (?) and the hardest part for me is keeping from getting totally wiped out. I dont think you could possibly over-train in that area. Riding the whoops often and constant practice would help too. I suppoose it depends how competitive you wanna be. Being built like a small gorilla would be a big plus !!

As for the quad - no matter what ,build it to be relaible and ride safe ! It's easy to be zipping along in the dust and clobber a wash-out at speed. Oh yeah, dust, plan on eating lots of it and passing blind is "interesting".....

I recently began racing (if ya can call it that) my two wheeler in Enduro races. The first was the recent AMA National Desert Mountain Enduro held near Lake Pleasent, AZ. It was single-track from hell and I houred out but had a blast. Plus, all the pros where there - Ty Davis started behind me - talk about intimidating - he got past me real quick ! I was definately out of my league (even in the C-Sportsman class) but gotta start sometime !!

There are a handful of so. cal desert racing orgs (like fudracing.com) but the AMA District 37 stuff is likely the best place to start looking. Whiplash has lots of races here in AZ and Mexico...

Have fun - Eric