Category: The Comeback

Found a KTM 300 on vchss.net. A 300 wasn’t even on my radar….no particular reason why it wasn’t, but I was looking mainly at 250 XCs and XC-Fs. Anyway, the bike was up in Virginia, so I asked a friend of mine to come along for the ride (always good to have backup when you’re meeting a stranger and have $3000 cash in your pocket).

The bike wasn’t terrible. This was the second owner; both he and the first owner were hare scramble racers and the bike had a distinct ‘rode hard and put up wet’ thing about it. All in all though, the asking price was very good even considering the money that would have to be put into it, and it came with a brand-new tag-still-on-it pipe, since the stocker was bashed all to hell.

So, deal was struck, we loaded the bike on the back of my truck and home we went.

Ordeded a bucket load of parts this evening, with any luck they’ll be in before next weekend so I can get it put together and see what it (and I) can do.

I did take it for a quick buzz up and down my street. Just about ripped my arms out of their sockets.

My first KTM.

Today, I am a man.

-Bob

Wow….I knew there’d be some rust, but this felt like I’d never ridden before. It was a really odd and unsettling afternoon, even the simple act of balancing the bike required thought. Rode around the parking lots for a bit to get familiar with the feel of the bike, positioning of the shifter and rear brake levers, and to see what, if anything, would need to be adjusted (bars/levers/etc…). After twenty or so minutes of this, it was time to hit the woods.

I hadn’t ridden these woods in almost a year. Much had changed – many of the trails I had ridden were closed off in order to self-repair, and the new loop was pretty much the course Mark (Czysz, owner of North Carolina Motorsports Park and one of the best trail cutters you’ll ever find) put together for the summer VXCS race.

I probably shouldn’t have expected much, but this was pretty bad – I was stiff, hesitant, thinking too much…..and afraid of hurting my leg. The topper of it all was when I came to a small creek crossing. The bridge that is normally there was gone (washed away? who knows…) and in its place was a 2×6 plank. Normally I’d sail over something like this with nothing more than a minor line adjustment, but I hesitated, blew the line and ended up in the creek. No biggie, it wasn’t deep, but it took me maybe 10 minutes to get it out and get rolling again.

Despite all of it though, I could not get the smile off my face. Yes, I sucked out loud today, but it was only a few short months ago that I thought I’d never ride dirt again. In that context, this was one seriously awesome day.

Anyway, did a total of about 5 miles before heading back to the pits and loading up.

Got some more work to do. The forks are too stiff even on the softest settings and the carb jetting is way off. As for the rider, got some work to do there as well.

But it’s great to be back on the dirt again!

-Bob

Went up to NCMP today for ride #2. Forks revalved, new piston & rings, carb rejetted, ready to rock.

I did one relatively easy loop, aprox 7 miles. I didn’t get very aggressive, but already things were much improved over two weeks ago. Still hesitated a bit at the washed-out bridge, but made it over this time without going for a swim. Noticed I’m still not putting my leg out when necessary. Need to get past this little psychological stumbling block….it’s been six months since the last operation. It’s healed.

Back at the pits, took some time to sort out the suspension settings and fine-tune the carb, and then it was back to the woods for a real loop.

I hit it hard this time. Focused and went for it. This was more like it – the suspension was much, much better and the throttle response was crisp and instantaneous. Almost looped it at one point but was able to save it before anything bad happened (throttle control is super important with this beast. Working on it…). Otherwise, everything felt great. Confidence was good, technique and speed were coming back, and I rode nearly as fast, if not as fast, on this one loop as as I ever did before the operations. This bike just absolutely rips.

I finished off this one last loop and called it a day on a good note. Didn’t want to push too hard yet.

Got a good feel for what this bike is capable of, but still need to sort out the suspension some more. It’s good, but not yet great.

-Bob

Back to NCMP for another workout. Today’s goal was to go non-stop as hard as I could for 3 laps (aprox 22 miles). Probably wasn’t going to make it but wanted to get an idea of where I stood endurance-wise.

First loop was OK but a little sketchy. Front suspension is still deflecting all over the place on small stuff yet it’ll roll over an 18″ log like nothing…. There was stil enough mud in spots to keep things interesting.

On the second loop is where things started to fall apart. Legs and knees were OK but my triceps and forearms started to get tired. The first crash came about 11 miles in. Semi-sharp muddy right-hander, front wheel washed out and sent the left side of my body into a tree. No damage beyond a few bruises and a bent hand guard….took a minute to regroup and got back at it. Another mile in and down I went again over some wet roots. At this point I knew it was time to stop, upper body was going away in a hurry. Decided to ease up the pace and just ride back to the pits. Of course, being me, that ‘easy pace’ lasted about 50 feet before I was back on the throttle again. Sho’nuff, another mile down the trail and I bit it hard. Didn’t get the front wheel up high enough over a mud puddle; when it came down it hit the side of a root and skated right out from under me. I landed face-first in the puddle, the opening in the front of my helmet scooping up what felt like a gallon of mud. There was mud everywhere – my mouth, ears, hair, goggles, in my gloves, soaked into the left side of my jersey and pants, packed into the vents of my chest protector…. Cleaned up best I could, rode back to the pits and called it a day.

-Bob

Haven’t ridden in a couple of weeks, but have been working out, concentrating on cardio and upper body strength and endurance. These are areas where races are won and lost, and i’m gonna need every advantage I can get.

Didn’t do anything to the bike between last time and this time, because I wanted to be sure the suspension problems were real rather than just the result of a tired rider having trouble controlling the bike.

The plan today (again) was to go three loops flat-out.

Boy was it muddy today. It had raind a lot between last time and today and the woods can take forever to dry out when the weather cools off like this.

Did a quick lap around the flat track just to warm up…halfway down the first straight, front wheel comes up …. in third gear. This bike is crazy powerful, still getting used to it. Throttle control…throttle control….throttle control………

Anyway, had a decent first lap. Had to stop once to back off the fork rebound adjustment a little. With the extra weight of the mud building up on the bike, the forks were packing a little and causing some problems through the choppy stuff. After that, not too bad, though the deflection problem was still there. Looped it and landed on my ass courtesy of a bit too much throttle while wheeling over a mud puddle at one point, but other than that, a decent lap.

Completed the first loop and headed back to the pits to work on the suspension a bit. Spotted a friend of mine and asked him to help me set the rear sag (ride height), a two-man job. The sag turned out to be off by a rather significant amount. Got it sorted out and then headed back out.

Noticed a pretty big improvement right off the bat. The bike was tracking a little better but the turning was definitely sharper, which would hopefully help the bikes tendency to wash out (push) in the mud.

Ran two loops – approximately 15 miles – non-stop, flat-out. Felt good. Getting some speed back, should at the very least not embarrass myself too badly at first race in two weeks.

-Bob

Pulled the forks apart again this past week trying to hunt down and kill the source of the deflection and think I may have finally gotten it. Softened up the valving considerably and then, in a last-ditch effort to eliminate the stiction that many people claim is the main culprit with KTM fork deflection, shot some Pledge -yes, furniture polish – up between the dust wiper and fork seal, and damn if that didn’t seem to fix it. And, the shine and lemony-fresh scent are the envy of the neighborhood!

So, headed out to NCMP this morning to see where things stood in terms of the bike and the rider. Still haven’t been able to complete three laps straight due to various factors (not the least of which was riding like complete spaz a couple of weeks ago), so maybe today would be the day.

It was beautiful out. Temps somewhere in the 70s, sunny, light breeze…just a great day to be outside. There were a bunch of people at the track already including several woods riders. I always get nervous when I see unfamiliar woods riders, because you never know when someone’s going to go the wrong way down the trails and crash you head-on you around a blind turn. We have our share of occasional wrong-way riders, but fortunately no serious accidents yet. I’ll need to stay extra sharp out there.

I got geared up (including my new, super-trick custom-made carbon fiber knee brace, which is teh awesome), spent a few minutes warming up and then hit the trails.

Almost immediately I sensed something wrong. The  steering was twitchy and it felt as though the front tire was built by Fred Flinstone. I cut my loop short and headed back to the pits. Upon checking, it became apparent that the genius who put my forks back together (me) forgot to adjust the compression screw and had it turned all the way in, which is full stiff. Fixed that and headed back out.

This was more like it, small roots, stumps and doll-head rocks – the things that had me pinballing all over the place the last several weeks – now just disappeared under the front wheel with barely a twitch from the forks. Smooooth sailing…time to get on it.

Banged out 3 laps in a row, somewhere between 21-22 miles with only a sub-3 minute stop to fine-tune some suspension adjustments, at full-on race pace with zero problems and barely breaking a sweat. It’s hard to gauge your speed when there’s nobody riding with you, but if I’m any judge at all, I should easily be competitive in my class.

First race back is this Sunday 10/16/11 in Cartersville, Virginia at the VCHSS Cross Trails event. I’m about as ready as I’m ever going to be.  Putting a fresh set of tires on, oiling/greasing everything that needs to be oiled/greased, and then we’re ready to rock!

-Bob