And so my journey ends . . .
Mar 12, 2003 | 12:00 AM
#1
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And so my jouney ends . . .
Some of you may remember my post last week about my upcoming vacation. Well, vacation is over and I am, unfortunately, back in freezing cold Michigan. Here is the story of my vacation.
I left Midland, MI at 10:00 pm on Thursday. I picked up my brother at college in Ann Arbor at about midnite, then we headed south. Probably because we were both sleep deprived and a little wacky, somwhere throughout the night of driving we compared tales of college partying, substance use/abuse, sex, more college parties, and so on. I learned alot about my brother that I never knew, and probably never should have known! We drove all night and all the next day, through Ohio, Kentucky, North and/or South Carolina, Georgia, and finally Florida. That whole day is still a little foggy. We got up Saturday morning to a nice warm drizzle of rain. I drove to the Yamaha shop in Jacksonville to pick up a starter relay that I didn't even need (long story - damn kill switch!). We then made it to Palatka, Fl and the race track for Round 1 of the 2003 GNCC circuit.
Now, the term "race track" is a little misleading. It was more like a swamp with a few arrows and banners. I can deal with thick mud, and so can my open airbox, but this was swampwater and silt. Plus it had been raining for 2 days before the race. My airfilter was soaked for about 90% of the race and my engine wouldn't rev past about 3500 RPMs. In the high ground where there wasn't any water, the trails were strewn with fuzzy bowling ball sized palm tree stumps. Now, I have Elkas' all the way around, and a steering damper, but this was nuts. I admire the guys with arms of steel that could pound through that minefield, but after sitting on my *** all winter, I just wasn't in shape for it. I finished one 13 mile lap, stopped to rest for a minute, shut my quad off, and that was the end. It wouldn't start again. Water or mud or both had found its way behind my starter button. After 5 minutes of pushing and pounding it, I got it to start. I decided that I didn't want to get stranded out in the middle of the swamp, so, as much as I hate to admit it, I quit after only 1 lap. That 1 hour was the worst riding or racing experience of my entire life.
The race wasn't the worst part of that first weekend. The entire field where people camped and parked had 2 BIG problems. #1 - until that weekend it was cow pasture land, so there were cow pies everywhere, #2 - the whole place was infested with red fire ants. I still have the scars on my feet and legs to prove it. It was a completely miserable experience.
After the race we took the quad to a car wash and cleaned it up. After the quad was clean, I stripped down to my boxers and had my brother spray me off. That high pressure spray is NOT very comfortable! After we got everything loaded back up and I got dry clothes on, we headed south to Orlando.
Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of, "And so my journey ends . . . "
RR1
I left Midland, MI at 10:00 pm on Thursday. I picked up my brother at college in Ann Arbor at about midnite, then we headed south. Probably because we were both sleep deprived and a little wacky, somwhere throughout the night of driving we compared tales of college partying, substance use/abuse, sex, more college parties, and so on. I learned alot about my brother that I never knew, and probably never should have known! We drove all night and all the next day, through Ohio, Kentucky, North and/or South Carolina, Georgia, and finally Florida. That whole day is still a little foggy. We got up Saturday morning to a nice warm drizzle of rain. I drove to the Yamaha shop in Jacksonville to pick up a starter relay that I didn't even need (long story - damn kill switch!). We then made it to Palatka, Fl and the race track for Round 1 of the 2003 GNCC circuit.
Now, the term "race track" is a little misleading. It was more like a swamp with a few arrows and banners. I can deal with thick mud, and so can my open airbox, but this was swampwater and silt. Plus it had been raining for 2 days before the race. My airfilter was soaked for about 90% of the race and my engine wouldn't rev past about 3500 RPMs. In the high ground where there wasn't any water, the trails were strewn with fuzzy bowling ball sized palm tree stumps. Now, I have Elkas' all the way around, and a steering damper, but this was nuts. I admire the guys with arms of steel that could pound through that minefield, but after sitting on my *** all winter, I just wasn't in shape for it. I finished one 13 mile lap, stopped to rest for a minute, shut my quad off, and that was the end. It wouldn't start again. Water or mud or both had found its way behind my starter button. After 5 minutes of pushing and pounding it, I got it to start. I decided that I didn't want to get stranded out in the middle of the swamp, so, as much as I hate to admit it, I quit after only 1 lap. That 1 hour was the worst riding or racing experience of my entire life.
The race wasn't the worst part of that first weekend. The entire field where people camped and parked had 2 BIG problems. #1 - until that weekend it was cow pasture land, so there were cow pies everywhere, #2 - the whole place was infested with red fire ants. I still have the scars on my feet and legs to prove it. It was a completely miserable experience.
After the race we took the quad to a car wash and cleaned it up. After the quad was clean, I stripped down to my boxers and had my brother spray me off. That high pressure spray is NOT very comfortable! After we got everything loaded back up and I got dry clothes on, we headed south to Orlando.
Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of, "And so my journey ends . . . "
RR1
Mar 12, 2003 | 01:19 AM
#3
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And so my jouney ends . . .
Ok, back to the story -
On our way down to Orlando on Sunday night we stopped at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Sanford. They were kind enough to let us use their shower to get cleaned up. Then we drove down to Kissimmee (by Orlando, where Disney is at) and stayed at a hotel for a night. The next day we hooked up with my step-brother, Brent, and 8 of his friends. They were renting a fancy mansion for the week. Brent, Scott and I went shopping with the 4 girls while some of the other guys went to play basketball. I fugured this would give us dome time to "get to know" the girls. That night we bought $100 worth of beer and liquor and partied in the pool and hot tub all night. Tops came off, video cameras came out, some girls got friendly with eachother. It was a fun night. That's all I have to say about that. Night 2 was pretty much a repeat of night 1. Too bad I don't have a digital video camera that I can load onto the web. Wednesday morning we left "The House" and drove over to Tampa to meet up with 2 of Scott's female friends. Let's just say that they are complete raving lunatics. Between the boose and the prescritption meds for ADD, these 2 girls were quite a trip. We went to the beach one day, and went out to a couple night clubs one night, then Friday morning we headed north for Georgia and Round 2 of the GNCC circuit.
We got to the hotel at about 10pm. It was only about 15 miles from the race. That's when I decided I shold probably clean the airfilter for tomorrow. I was not ready for what I saw next. When I pulled off the seat, I couldn't see then airfilter! It was completely covered in silt and leaves and gunk. I thought to myself - "Glad I had an Outerwears over my filter!". Wrong! When I pulled the Outerwears off - there was even more gunk under it than on top of it! I was amazed. I had never seen such a big wad of nasty stuff before. After about an hour and 2 rounds of filter cleaner, I had it looking halfway normal again. I just wonder how much dirt made its way into my carb and engine. If I start losing compressin in a couple weeks and have to have my engine rebuilt, I guess we'll know why.
On to Saturday, the morning of the race. It was foggy and cool, with a slight drizzle in the air. We made our way to the racetrack. I was in a frenzy trying to get everything ready for the race. Registration, lubing the quad, fixing the starter button, using the portapotties, going through tech inspection, etc. I pulled the holeshot coming into the first turn, but I got off the throttle too soon and a few guys slipped insde me. My brother said I was in the top 5 going into the woods. The track was really muddy in places, but it was the thick red Georgia clay mud, so it didn't cause any problems for my open airbox. There were big ruts that got worse as the day went on. Some parts of the trail that started off as one 6 ft path, grew into about 60 ft wide and 8 different lines. I ran over my fair share of 1-2" thick saplings trying to find a new path around stuck people. Pick the wrong line and you would be stuck for 10 minutes. One cute female rider pleaded as I came up to her on the trail "Will you PLEASE help me?" It looked as though she had been struggling to un-stick her quad for quite some time, to no avail. I jumped off my Raptor, picked her quad up out of a rut she was high-centered in, and away she went. I wish I had asked her name.
My lack of conditioning reared its ugly head again. After the first lap I had the worst case of arm pump. I couldn't make a fist, I couldn't hold onto the bars, my hands and forearms were practically numb. I sat and shook it off for about 10 minutes, then kept going. By the end of the second lap I could feel my hands again, they were just weak and tired. About that time I had a run-in with the ground. My front tires went into a diagonal rut that went right. My front tires followed the rut while me and the rest of my quad went straight. I got thrown off and bashed my head pretty good. Thank goodness for my fancy TLD Shoei helmet. I got up slowly, gave a thmbs up to the spectators that saw my mishap, and kept going. Sometime during lap 3, as I was blazing another new path aroudn a mud pit, one of those little sapplings faught back. It wedged itself between my chain and rear sprocket and - you guessed it, off came my chain! The chain packed up into the case saver, which I can only assume did its job and saved my cases from severe damage. I tried unsucessfully to get the chain back on from the top of the rear sprocket using reverse. I tried and tried but could not get it back on. I sat there for about 20-30 minurtes, waiting for womeone to come tow me back home, when another broken down rider came over and started talking to me. He told me to try again. I decided that I was either going to get that chain back on or destoy it or the sprockets in the process. I started it on the bottom of the sprocket, let the clutch out in 1st gear until the chain was tight, then reved it up and dropped the clutch. With a loud POP the chain snapped right in place. I hopped back on and took off to finish the race.
After all was said and done I finished 27th out of 39 racers in the 4-stroke C 25+ class. If I hadn't wasted 30 minutes on the chain I would have been in the mid teens for ranking. For the overall, all morning classes combined, I finished 125th out of 210 racers. I am pretty happy. I know I can only get better as I get back in shape and my skill improves. It is now Tuesday and it still hurts terribly to walk because my legs are so sore from the race.
Well here are a couple things I learned on my travels -
1) Roll off goggles are vastly superior to tear-offs in muddy and wet conditions.
2) I need to find some way to run a closed aluminum airbox for wet conditions.
3) I need to find some way to keep mud out of my radiator in muddy conditions.
4) I will never race that track in Florida again.
5) Raid ant killer spray really works great.
6) Drunk people + video camera = fun for the whole family!
7) Michigan winters suck!!
RR1
On our way down to Orlando on Sunday night we stopped at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Sanford. They were kind enough to let us use their shower to get cleaned up. Then we drove down to Kissimmee (by Orlando, where Disney is at) and stayed at a hotel for a night. The next day we hooked up with my step-brother, Brent, and 8 of his friends. They were renting a fancy mansion for the week. Brent, Scott and I went shopping with the 4 girls while some of the other guys went to play basketball. I fugured this would give us dome time to "get to know" the girls. That night we bought $100 worth of beer and liquor and partied in the pool and hot tub all night. Tops came off, video cameras came out, some girls got friendly with eachother. It was a fun night. That's all I have to say about that. Night 2 was pretty much a repeat of night 1. Too bad I don't have a digital video camera that I can load onto the web. Wednesday morning we left "The House" and drove over to Tampa to meet up with 2 of Scott's female friends. Let's just say that they are complete raving lunatics. Between the boose and the prescritption meds for ADD, these 2 girls were quite a trip. We went to the beach one day, and went out to a couple night clubs one night, then Friday morning we headed north for Georgia and Round 2 of the GNCC circuit.
We got to the hotel at about 10pm. It was only about 15 miles from the race. That's when I decided I shold probably clean the airfilter for tomorrow. I was not ready for what I saw next. When I pulled off the seat, I couldn't see then airfilter! It was completely covered in silt and leaves and gunk. I thought to myself - "Glad I had an Outerwears over my filter!". Wrong! When I pulled the Outerwears off - there was even more gunk under it than on top of it! I was amazed. I had never seen such a big wad of nasty stuff before. After about an hour and 2 rounds of filter cleaner, I had it looking halfway normal again. I just wonder how much dirt made its way into my carb and engine. If I start losing compressin in a couple weeks and have to have my engine rebuilt, I guess we'll know why.
On to Saturday, the morning of the race. It was foggy and cool, with a slight drizzle in the air. We made our way to the racetrack. I was in a frenzy trying to get everything ready for the race. Registration, lubing the quad, fixing the starter button, using the portapotties, going through tech inspection, etc. I pulled the holeshot coming into the first turn, but I got off the throttle too soon and a few guys slipped insde me. My brother said I was in the top 5 going into the woods. The track was really muddy in places, but it was the thick red Georgia clay mud, so it didn't cause any problems for my open airbox. There were big ruts that got worse as the day went on. Some parts of the trail that started off as one 6 ft path, grew into about 60 ft wide and 8 different lines. I ran over my fair share of 1-2" thick saplings trying to find a new path around stuck people. Pick the wrong line and you would be stuck for 10 minutes. One cute female rider pleaded as I came up to her on the trail "Will you PLEASE help me?" It looked as though she had been struggling to un-stick her quad for quite some time, to no avail. I jumped off my Raptor, picked her quad up out of a rut she was high-centered in, and away she went. I wish I had asked her name.
My lack of conditioning reared its ugly head again. After the first lap I had the worst case of arm pump. I couldn't make a fist, I couldn't hold onto the bars, my hands and forearms were practically numb. I sat and shook it off for about 10 minutes, then kept going. By the end of the second lap I could feel my hands again, they were just weak and tired. About that time I had a run-in with the ground. My front tires went into a diagonal rut that went right. My front tires followed the rut while me and the rest of my quad went straight. I got thrown off and bashed my head pretty good. Thank goodness for my fancy TLD Shoei helmet. I got up slowly, gave a thmbs up to the spectators that saw my mishap, and kept going. Sometime during lap 3, as I was blazing another new path aroudn a mud pit, one of those little sapplings faught back. It wedged itself between my chain and rear sprocket and - you guessed it, off came my chain! The chain packed up into the case saver, which I can only assume did its job and saved my cases from severe damage. I tried unsucessfully to get the chain back on from the top of the rear sprocket using reverse. I tried and tried but could not get it back on. I sat there for about 20-30 minurtes, waiting for womeone to come tow me back home, when another broken down rider came over and started talking to me. He told me to try again. I decided that I was either going to get that chain back on or destoy it or the sprockets in the process. I started it on the bottom of the sprocket, let the clutch out in 1st gear until the chain was tight, then reved it up and dropped the clutch. With a loud POP the chain snapped right in place. I hopped back on and took off to finish the race.
After all was said and done I finished 27th out of 39 racers in the 4-stroke C 25+ class. If I hadn't wasted 30 minutes on the chain I would have been in the mid teens for ranking. For the overall, all morning classes combined, I finished 125th out of 210 racers. I am pretty happy. I know I can only get better as I get back in shape and my skill improves. It is now Tuesday and it still hurts terribly to walk because my legs are so sore from the race.
Well here are a couple things I learned on my travels -
1) Roll off goggles are vastly superior to tear-offs in muddy and wet conditions.
2) I need to find some way to run a closed aluminum airbox for wet conditions.
3) I need to find some way to keep mud out of my radiator in muddy conditions.
4) I will never race that track in Florida again.
5) Raid ant killer spray really works great.
6) Drunk people + video camera = fun for the whole family!
7) Michigan winters suck!!
RR1
Mar 12, 2003 | 01:51 AM
#4
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Joined: Jul 2002
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And so my journey ends . . .
yes, yes they do. i really do not like michigans weather. and yesterday, i was out on the kawkawlin river, and my dirtbike dies all of a sudden. i checked the gas, and i hade plenty of gas. then i try to turn it over, and it doesnt move. the dirtbike got so hot, it melted the rings, and they just stuck to the sleeve or whatever is in there. after it cooled about 20 minutes of walking down the river with it. i tried to turn it over and start it. it turned over, but there was 0 compression. it was pretty lame. cause i had to walk back so far, then push it up a hill on the bank. then luckily my friend down the road towed me back with his quad. so now i have to tear apart my engine and see exactly what i did.
Mar 12, 2003 | 07:50 AM
#5
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Joined: Jan 2002
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And so my journey ends . . .
Absolutely wonderfull story!!!!!!! I greatly enjoyed reading that, especialy about the fire ants.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] You need to take them freakin things back up to Michigan with you.
Again thanks for sharing!
Live, Learn, and Lift Weights
Again thanks for sharing!
Live, Learn, and Lift Weights
Mar 12, 2003 | 11:37 AM
#6
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 1,191
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And so my journey ends . . .
Bha.hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahaha..cough cough...hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahah...Gas p! gasp! .hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. he he he! fa fa fa fire..ants? Bha..hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! !
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Mar 12, 2003 | 06:03 PM
#8
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 999
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And so my journey ends . . .
man, great story!!!
i always am in the mood for a good story!!! i am from lower michigan, warren to be exact, and i know the feeling. i have a grizzly though, so i can play in the deep stuff.
from the story in florida, sounds like a 4x4 would have been better, lol.
hope the rappy is in good shape, and thanks for sharing!
i always am in the mood for a good story!!! i am from lower michigan, warren to be exact, and i know the feeling. i have a grizzly though, so i can play in the deep stuff.
from the story in florida, sounds like a 4x4 would have been better, lol.
hope the rappy is in good shape, and thanks for sharing!
Mar 13, 2003 | 12:18 AM
#10
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And so my journey ends . . .
Hey guys, thanks for all the support! It really was a great experience. Hopefully next year I will get to travel out west to the big dunes! I will keep you posted on my further adventures.
RR1
p.s. as for the videos, those are for my , uh, "personal" use!
RR1
p.s. as for the videos, those are for my , uh, "personal" use!
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