The Practice Loop

Traveling with a band limits my ride time, especially weekend ride time when all my buddies go riding, so I cut this loop on 10 acres of land just a few minutes from the house so whenever I’m home during the week I can hit this for some saddle time. This is one lap around my “close to the house” woods loop, right at one mile long. It may look like there isn’t a trail but it’s there, just haven’t ridden it in a while : (
Maybe one day I’ll be able to carry my bike with me on the road (like Craig Morgan does)! Maybe…
The music bed is some instrumental stuff that I recorded for fun, enjoy!

A GREAT Day In The Saddle

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to join a few moto buddies for the 6th Annual Armenia Dual Sport Ride, an all day ride fund-raiser to benefit the Armenia United Methodist Church.
For those unfamiliar with “Dual Sporting”, a dual sport ride (at least the ones I favor) is a self-guided off-road event consisting of mostly trail sections with paved roads connecting these off-road sections. The event coordinators provide you with a roll-chart that has turn-by-turn directions, estimated mileage between turns, gas stops, hazard warnings, etc. It’s not a race, just a great day of riding. Most dual sport events require a “street-legal” motorcycle, meaning lights and a tag. I’ve seen all sorts of bikes at these events, from a BMW 1200 which was way to large for most of the off-road sections, to a motocross bike with a flashlight for a headlight and a tag taped on the rear fender.
The Armenia Dual Sport Ride is located just a few miles northwest of Chester, SC, is limited to 100 riders and consist of some of the best trail I’ve ever ridden through tightly wooded sections of privately owned land, places you would never get to ride otherwise. The event is organized by Marvin Grant, a long time Cross Country Racer who works as a trail consultant building trails when he’s not riding.
The day starts with a country breakfast and riders meeting where Marvin explains the schedule for the day, the use of the roll-chart, the warning signs, arrows, etc. After breakfast it’s on! A quick tech inspection to make sure your bike will pass for street-legal, that the exhaust is not too loud and you are wearing the required minimum of protective gear and your off. We rode for about 3-4 hours before making it back to the campsite where we were served a fantastic BBQ lunch, and then back on the trail again for another 3-4 hours. By the end of the day we had logged close to 90 miles, which may not sound like a lot to the uninitiated, but once you see the type of riding you’ll understand why it takes all day to travel that 90 miles!
Many thanks to Marvin Grant and the community of Armenia for putting on such a great event. I’ve attended two years in a row and don’t plan to miss any in the future.
This video is in two parts, so if you dig the first one go to my YouTube page and watch the second half.

Ridin’ Brushy Mountain

Too few and far between are the days I can make time to do some ridin’!

I got the word on March 25 that our drummer (David Lee) would be going in for surgery on March 31 to have some work done on some nerve damage/problems he was having (at the time of this writing Dave is back home recuperating and doing well. He’ll be out of commission for a while and we have starting working in his fill-in, Steve Arnold). So knowing we had no time to find his replacement and work him in before our scheduled show at Miss Kitty’s on April 2, we had to cancel.

This sudden cancellation created one of those few and far between days I was talking about. I had already gotten a call a week before from Jeff McDonald (moto-buddy) about a group going to Brushy Mountain Motor Sports Park on April 2 and at that time I told him I would have to miss out. So now with that day off I called Jeff and said “I’m in!”.

We had a total of seven that made it to Brushy for a perfect day of riding. I recorded the majority of the ride with my helmet-cam and have started posting the footage to my YouTube channel so check ‘em out when you get a chance. Some of the footage didn’t record the audio so there is some self-generated music added from my editing software that isn’t the greatest but better than silence. And not having or wanting to take the time to do any fancy edits, I’m posting all the footage in 10min episodes. The video below is from later in the afternoon while Jeff was wearing the helmet-cam following me. By this time some dust had made its way behind the lens cover and with the afternoon sun, things are a little hazy. But most of the others are crisp and clear. Hope you enjoy…

Denver – NCHSA Round #9

The race: hot and humid! The track, 7 1/2 mile loop, was tough due to all the rain earlier in the week, deep ruts in most of the turns, rocks and roots exposed and the bottom sections were pretty soggy.
The morning race (Pros, AA and A riders) knocked all the water out of the holes so it wasn’t too muddy, but that created a lot more ruts and braking bumps.
The afternoon race. Best start I’ve ever gotten, fourth going into the woods. I fell once on the first lap (got cross rutted and dropped it) and lost two positions. Fell again on the second lap (got cross rutted and dropped it, again) and lost another position. The afternoon race is supposed to run for 1 1/2 hours. I don’t know why but we ran a little over two hours. I was still in 7th starting the last lap (which should have been the end of the race) but fell again and this time I was too spent to get up quick. In fact I laid there for about two minutes to catch my breath, bike still on top of me, waiving the other riders past letting them know I was OK. I finally got up and going and cruised in for a 10th palce finish. And as I come out of the woods at the finish it’s a downpour, which was actually welcomed, a great way to cool down. Loaded the bike in the van and stood in the rain to undress. Felt GREAT!!!
All in all it was a fun day. After all, with my schedule I don’t get to race much, or even ride much for that matter, and just to spend some time with my motohead friends and ride some good trail is all it takes to keep me happy!
Look for my next race report in to weeks from NCHSA Round #10 at the Brown Jug, Union, SC.
Or better yet, show up and enjoy it first hand!!

That’s me #565 – GO GREEN!!!