As Joe points out in his latest entry, it’s the off season here in WI. With unseasonably dry weather and warm temperatures we could have been riding or racing but I didn’t plan for that so it hasn’t happened. I can say that I’m bummed that I haven’t been riding because this time of year [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: Harescrambles, suzuki, gncc, wisconsin cross country, WIXC, RM250 Vesrah Suzuki, Mark Junge, Vesrah, factory conneciton, D16, moose racing, RM-Z250 | Leave a Comment »
The Ironman race has come and gone and the experience delivered its usual plethora of emotional ups and downs. I’m riding shotgun to Joe as we make our way back to Madison, around Chicago in the pouring rain.
Joe and I did our usual course inspection, race registration and GNCC friends check in before eating some [...]
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Joe and I are on our way to the last GNCC race of the year. This will be the only GNCC race that I’ve done this year which is has sparked conversations about the complete GNCC calendar that we did last year. We’ve been reminiscing about the fun times, the challenging times, and our favorite [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, gncc, Harescrambles, ironman gncc, Joe Vadeboncoeur, moose, offroad, OMA, RM-Z250, suzuki, trail riding, Vesrah, Vesrah Suzuki, wisconsin cross country, WIXC, woods racers, woods riding | Leave a Comment »
Here are some of my favorite shots from the race we did a few weeks ago.
Ready set go
sandy climb
navigating the sand track
JD at speed
fast downhill
Marquette fast guy Ben Bernard
Teammate Joe
sand jump
race winner Brandon Houts
OMA superstar Chuck Garritson
fellow Trek employee and veteran racer Roger Bird
Thanks to Brian Terry for posting these on Smugmug for all to [...]
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There are a fair number of people voicing their opinions on-line and at WI hare scramble events about how the racing has been this past season. Its my opinion that two clear topics of discussion have surfaced throughout the year – that the races are poorly attended and that the two series don’t get along.
There [...]
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Joe and I were billing the final race of the WI hare scramble calendar as the World Championships. That’s because we both felt like we could do well at Dyracuse, and it was the last race, I suppose. I definitely prepared my bike, body and mind to do well there and nearly pulled off a [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, gncc, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, moose, mountain bike, offroad, pirelli, RM-Z250, RM250 Vesrah Suzuki, Trek, Vesrah, wisconsin cross country, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
My brother Patrick came to visit me last week. We cleared our family schedules, promised not to get hurt and spend the better part of the day roosting at Dyracuse. He owns an 07 KTM EXC 530 so he isn’t new to motos but he lives in Sacramento, CA where the riding is hot, dry [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: district 16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, moose racing, offroad, pirelli, RM-Z250, RM250 Vesrah Suzuki, Trek, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
Brian Mullane posted a bunch of photos on smugmug.com from the Hixton race. This links to my favorite in the gallery but there are lots of great photos showing the variety of terrain and skills from that day of racing.
Here’s one from the radical start we did!
Thanks for posting those photos, Brian!
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, gncc, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, offroad, RM-Z250, Vesrah Suzuki, wisconsin cross country, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
Finally back racing the moto after a long summer break and lots of work and family commitments. I’ve really been looking forward to riding some this fall and today’s race in Hixton, WI totally satisfying. I won the AA race but it’s a little bit of a hollow win, as I’ll try to describe.
Hixton is [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, Dyracuse, factory conneciton, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, moose, offroad, RM-Z250, suzuki, Vesrah, Vesrah Suzuki | 1 Comment »
I was too busy riding to take any pictures so if you need pictures to get through my blog, skip this entry. Joe’s recent post has some photos for to ponder.
The dirt at Dyracuse this past weekend was pretty phenomenal. I was thinking, as I lay in bed the evening after my 2.5 hour ride, [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, district 16, Dyracuse, offroad, RM-Z250, suzuki, Vesrah, wisconsin cross country, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
I work for a bike company – Trek bikes, to be exact. We recently debuted several 2010 mountain bike models to a group of magazine editors and select dealers in a tiny ski hill town named Altausee, Austria. I was along for the trip as a technical advisor and race team liaison.
Austria is beautiful. The people are super [...]
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Since I haven’t been racing motos, let alone riding motos, what have I been up to? Family commitments have kept me busy between work outings that’s for certain. But that’s time I like committing to. It’s the hours and hours of time spent in airports and planes that drives me nuts.
Over the past five weeks [...]
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Holy cow I’ve been busy and out of the moto scene. I haven’t ridden my RM-Z or RM since Lakewood – more than five weeks ago. But I’m back and plan to be hitting my weekly routine hard in preparation for some September and October events!
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Opportunities to go racing are less frequent this year compared to last year so every time I get on the bike it’s a big deal. This past weekend was especially exciting because it was the first time I’ve been able to race my 2009 RM-Z250.
Lakewood, WI in the Oconto forest was my destination. Joe wanted [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, factory conneciton, Harescrambles, Mark Junge, moose, offroad, RM-Z250, RM250 Vesrah Suzuki, rmz250, suzuki, Vesrah, wisconsin cross country, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
With the 2-stroke motocross platform all but abandoned by the Japanese manufacturers the day was going to arrive for Joe and me to come to terms with the 4-stroke. Our 2009 RM-Z250 bikes arrived late last week.
I had been doing some research on how to minimize what Joe and I consider as the four main [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: arkansas, D16, Dyracuse, Enduro, factory conneciton, Harescrambles, Mark Junge, mountain bike, offroad, RM-Z250, RM250, RM250 Vesrah Suzuki, suzuki, Vesrah, WIXC, zipty | Leave a Comment »
I’m not able to do as many races this year as I would like to but the National Harescramble in Rhinelander, WI was one I earmarked as a must do. I’d done it in year’s past with mixed results but the course has always been challenging and Rick Anschutz always puts on good events. The [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: D16, Dyracuse, Enduro, factory conneciton, gncc, Harescrambles, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Mark Junge, moose, MXC, offroad, OMA series, RM250, suzuki, Vesrah, Vesrah Suzuki, wisconsin cross country, WIXC | Leave a Comment »
It had been a long time coming but it finally arrived: race day! It’s a little embarrassing to be so emotionally attached to my hobby but I’ll cope with the abuse I take from friends and my wife. I’m not alone, obviously, since there was 16 other AA riders on my starting line [...]
Filed under: Scott's blog | Tagged: arkansas, D16, district 16, Enduro, gncc, Harescrambles, offroad, RM250, suzuki, Vesrah, wisconsin cross country, WIXC, woods racing | Leave a Comment »
My bike is completely in pieces this week as I prepare for the opening round of the D16 season. I’m bolting on new top end, clutch and Cycra plastic as well as Pirelli tires, grips and miscellaneous bits that will make the bike feel like new. I’m super excited to see the local [...]
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I finally got the opportunity to put my RM144 project bike up against my RM250. I have a lap timer that I used during supermoto practice years ago that comes in handy when I’m evaluating parts or my own body’s performance.
Homann’s was dry enough to put in an hour and a half of comparison riding [...]
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Joe and I played hooky from work yesterday afternoon to ride at Dyracuse. Actually, I have to include Roger on that list,too. Roger suffered an ankle injury in a race years ago then suffered a debilitating shoulder injury that’s kept him off the bike for far too long. Having Rog along for the ride yesterday [...]
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Mary Daubert has worked with us over the years, to have us ready for the season. She is magic and easy to work with.
She has a new website for her fitness training business.
check it out.
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AJ at Victory Circle is a magician. Check out the cool graphics he sent to Joe and me for our bikes this year.
Joe and I gave AJ some suggestions on what we were looking for but it was AJ that came up with the design and colors. It’s a little reto looking with the [...]
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Third week of March here in south-central Wisconsin and it’s finally getting to the point where I’m ready to try riding outdoors. Studding up and riding the local trails sounded like a good idea at one point but I never got my act in gear and gumption up to actually pull it off. At least [...]
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Just remembered I have a link to the photos that were taken of us during our time at Autobahn last October. Big thanks to Geoffry for the shots!
Mark is on the 57 bike, Tyler is on the 1 bike and I’m on the 49.
http://homepage.mac.com/gravityproductions/autobahn
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Last ride for a while today so we made the best of it. We’re heading back north for a few more months of winter and don’t expect to be back on dry dirt for far too long. St Joe was a hoot and we’re both glad we drove all that way, despite the cold temps [...]
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Put in a good 4 hours of riding today. It was superb to be back
on the bike, dodging trees and navigating ruts. Smiles all the
way around.
And the 144 has some poop after all. The Fatty pipe made the
biggest improvement of the parts I had on hand to compare but the
flywheel helped a little as did [...]
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After some back and forth about how the weather might adversely affect our riding, we opted to drive 7 hours south anyhow. The forecast is for 32F and snow accumulations of up to an inch. That doesn’t sound like much, especially when you compare it to the ice and mud in central Wisconsin right now, [...]
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The weather is crap in St Louis but we’re headed that way anyhow. Joe and I can’t make a free weekend later on this spring to do it so we have to go now and deal with the cold temps and precip. As Tom K says, one man’s rainy day is another’s badly [...]
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Early last week I was invited to race with a team at the 12th annual 3 hour ice race on Fox Lake, about 1 hour north of here. I’ve ridden on the ice but never raced but I have raced Supermoto and I just spent a summer having to learn how to navigate high-speed corn [...]
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Vesrah Suzuki’s Mark Junge helped me dyno my RM144 project bike this afternoon. I’m trying to get more mid-range power out of an engine that’s designed to make power at high rpms. Why more mid-range? So it’s better in the woods. The challenge might be insurmountable but it’s been fun trying to change the way the engine [...]
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Joe and I made it to Waterman, IL yesterday. Waterman is about 2 hours south of Madison and about the only place within a reasonable drive that has winter riding. Its a converted warehouse that has poor lighting, ineffective ventilation and relatively high cost of entry. But when you haven’t ridden for months and you [...]
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Much to my delight and amazement, my Project 144 bike started on the 3rd kick. My amazement is born from the fact that the piston, cylinder, port work and my limited engine knowledge all came from their own origins yet the combination functions as if, magically, there were all mashed from the same piece of [...]
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I’m not sure I can pin down the day or event that coaxed me into thinking that a lighter bike with less power was the way to go but somehow that combination has stuck in my head. Months ago I started hunting for an RM125 to build into a tight woods weapon. It might not [...]
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Mark Junge at Vesrah Suzuki invited Joe and me to a day on the track at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. Unfortunately Joe is in Asia on business but I got to go.
Mark brought along a Supersport 600, a Superstock 1000 and an SV1000 as samples of his road racing world. He also rented a BMW135i [...]
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The guy driving this truck is an EMT. The front of his truck was covered with confederate stuff.
End of a long season today. Luckily we are only 5 hours from home. I’m pretty tired and ready for some down time, in the big picture of things. Didn’t realize that until half way through the [...]
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This stuff was difficult to walk in. Quads just pushed their front wheels along without them rotating.
At about 10pm last night while I was trying to ignore the loud campers to our west a shower blew through and totally saturated the parking lot. Just after that happened several redneck fired up their pickups and jeeps [...]
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You know you’re a redneck when you blow up your air mattress by holding it up to the exhaust pipe of your quad and revving the engine. Make that an innovative redneck.
It’s now 9:30pm here and we’ve shut ourselves inside for the night. The rest of the parking lots is abuzz with hooting, hollering, beer [...]
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My wife (and coach) says my van is a money pit and not worth having. This was spurred on after a pulley wheel on the serpentine belt tensioner crapped out and cost me several evenings and $90 to repair. The pulley had been making noise for months but I never considered it to be on [...]
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I’m worked over. We’re in the van driving west on I-70 and will be for the next several hours as we make our way home. We’ll stop at a cheapie hotel somewhere later tonight for a shower, Internet interaction and some Zs. Can’t happen soon enough.
Cross another off the list. The Powerline Park GNCC is [...]
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As we expected we spent the entire day doing bikes. Joe worked on his clutch and I dinked with tires, brakes, front suspension and new graphics. We’re pretty close to the course and the dust was bad while the quads raced. I was wiping dust off the bike and tools most of the day.
It’s warm [...]
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Last fly-to race this weekend. No more $20 carwash Monday mornings, no more biscuit and gravy Denny’s breakfasts. We’ve only go the Ironman GNCC in Indiana after this weekend. IN is only 5 hours from Madison.
I’m writing this post from the passenger seat of the van while Joe drives. We’re somewhere in Maryland making our [...]
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I finished second in the Vet A! Super happy with that because the Unadilla course grew to be a piece of work with the rain we endured the entire race. More on that in a bit.
We woke to perfect conditions to be up and about but there was enough humidity in the air to fog [...]
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It drizzled for most of the night but the air temp was warm. I got up to pee a few times and walked between all the popup campers, pick ups and motorbikes in near complete silence. No one had generators running because it was so warm. It’s a little eerie passing between all the metal [...]
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We made it again. We flew from Madison this morning through Detroit and into Harrisburg, PA. Harrisburg is where Three Mile Island is, by the way. We grabbed the van, stuff a box of goods we shipped down here from the great folks a Fitness and Gear Bike Shop, fired up the (now) trusty van [...]
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Race day. Great weather and from what we had seen of the course it looked like a good one. Joe and I felt that what we’d seen and heard was that the loop wasn’t going to be as formidable as last year’s humdinger. We heard of a huge mud hole some where on theloop but [...]
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We made it. The van is running great (since I replaced the gas tank that stranded Joe down south in June). The weather is super and the GNCC circus is just like I remember it from earlier this year. I’m super excited to be here.
To continue with the tradition of getting the van stuck in [...]
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Back on the road! Hard to describe the feeling but it’s wonderful. I left the family at home and that feels awkward but I really enjoy traveling to these GNCC races.
Joe and I set sail late this morning with the plan of getting to somewhere in OH before stopping for the night. Joe’s GPS thing [...]
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It’s been far too long since our last GNCC event. With my wrist injury and family commitments it was impossible to make the races before the summer break. But now I’m healed up and family life has stabilized so Joe and I are back on track and plan to finish up the season strong!
My last post was [...]
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Back to what Dirt Bike editor Ron Lawson told me earlier this year – local races are the most fun.
And Hixton, WI is one of my favorite places to race. The undulating terrain, clay and sand mix, dense woods and short drive distance all add up. I’ve had good results there, too.
This year had races [...]
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As you may have read on Joe’s blog, there’s this thing in France called L’Etape du Tour or “a stage of the Tour de France”. Trek, the company Joe and I both work for, sponsors the Etape so we were on hand, in different capacities, and got to participate. Yes, this is a moto blog [...]
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