Dirt riding on the yz

[subxero]

Finally got my bike all back together and got a little video of riding at the local trail system, no editing.

Had lots of fun, everything was really slick hard pack and dusty, it was nice to be there by myself as following anyone sucked. During this run on the trails i caught some people in front of me, pulled off for a good 10 minutes to allow them to get ahead, caught them again and repeated that 2 more times just to avoid the dust and so i could go a little quicker.

Like i mentioned the trail was hard pack and slick, the rear was really loose which was fun but at the same time made any turn that wasn't burmed an easy place to slide out.

did a lot of riding a gear high because of low hook up and because i'm a pussy and out of shape

Transition into the more wooded areas was tough, my eyes could not adapt so anytime there is a short woods area i was practically riding blind.

In the video not being able to see the front tire or rear takes a little away from the ride, lots of slipping and sliding, steering with the rear, hard to tell in the vid when the front wheel comes up as well but if you can hear the bike on the pipe that is a good sign

First clip has some of the parking area and little bit of a view of the wind farm and the highland plateau
P.S. don't knock the trailer i borrowed off the bro in-law, it was interesting to say the least. I still need to buy one

2nd vid has 2 small hill climbs that were fun, fairly tight and technical, hill climbs are about my favorite thing to do on a dirt bike

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[csmith12]

Nice! Who were the kids? Family members?

[subxero]

^ any people in the vids were other riders dunno who they were.

Kinda felt bad when i passed that trio on the left, probably freaked that dad out, but i saw an opportunity to get around and took it.

I have a few other clips, one of some riding and hitting a table top jump but it's not as exciting on video, and one of more riding and i came upon 3 sidexsides, one was stuck, beached the frame in a big rutted out puddle. Stopped and help them a bit. Was a good day.

Most odd noise you might hear from the bike is the kicker rattling and a little bit of the clutch. I have a barnett clutch basket with steel inserts where the clutch plate notches go, they make a good bit of noise but all is well.

[kdogg2077]

The video is good quality. You should be happy with your camera. That's the most dust I've ever seen in PA.

[verboten1]

I wish I had a place like that around me to ride my KLR. Looks fun!

[subxero]

Originally Posted by kdogg2077

The video is good quality. You should be happy with your camera. That's the most dust I've ever seen in PA.

i was impressed with the video quality, especially after i realized the lens was totally covered with dust. After i saw that i was concerned it was going to be crap, but you can barely notice.

[tnr4]

Dooooood, that looks so fun. I've never ridden dirt, but learning is definitely on the list. I'll let you know if I discover a buried treasure and decide to buy a dirt bike.

[akima]

Great vids. Looks fun. I do the same thing on my MTB. I have to pedal though! In some ways it looks tougher riding an mx bike. Haven't done it before, but I'm guessing you have to muscle it around things: which isn't difficult with even a heavy mtb, but an MX bike - that must take some work. I guess you can absorb some of the stuff I have to go around, using your giant shocks. I want to try it when I have the money. My current set of hobbies already eats through my paychecks though.

Originally Posted by subxero

Kinda felt bad when i passed that trio on the left, probably freaked that dad out, but i saw an opportunity to get around and took it.

Looked all good to me. I was surprised those quad riders in the first video didn't just let you pass. I always let people that fly up behind me (rare!) pass if I'm holding them up.

[TnNinjaGirl]

@subxero if you ever find your way down here we've got tons of riding. And plenty of free places to stay. Royal Blue and Windrock are pretty killer places.

[subxero]

Originally Posted by akima

Great vids. Looks fun. I do the same thing on my MTB. I have to pedal though! In some ways it looks tougher riding an mx bike. Haven't done it before, but I'm guessing you have to muscle it around things: which isn't difficult with even a heavy mtb, but an MX bike - that must take some work. I guess you can absorb some of the stuff I have to go around, using your giant shocks. I want to try it when I have the money. My current set of hobbies already eats through my paychecks though.

Looked all good to me. I was surprised those quad riders in the first video didn't just let you pass. I always let people that fly up behind me (rare!) pass if I'm holding them up.

You really don't muscle the bike around to much, really just point and shoot , after that let the bike go where it wants for the most part and that ties in with the absorbing rocks ect... There really isn't much of anything you cant just ride over especially if you have the skills. On more powerful bikes you really just give some throttle and float the front tire over most everything then absorb with the rear and your body, Only things I make it a point to try to avoid are stray/rouge roundish rocks bigger than soft ball size on hardpack smooth trails, they really give you a good buck especially at speed

Dirt riding is tiring and can be exhausting if things are not going your way and you have drops or frequent stalls in difficult areas. The bike you are on has a lot to do with it as well. Smaller bikes are easy to ride, and don't wear you out quite as much, the bigger bikes 250 2strokes and 450 4strokes and up wear you out because you literally have to hang on sometimes, and with all bikes your legs will get tired as you stand a fair bit with your butt just off the seat helping with absorbing impacts ect...

It's really great fun, It's nice to finally see a video of some of my riding but I still think its crazy how slow and boring it all looks from the camera What you don't see is me legs flailing about trying to keep the rear end stable coming out of the turns, coming into an unexpected non burmed turn way to hot and steering the bike in with the rear end praying the front stays hooked up, it's really never a dull moment.

[alex.s]

the other day i was on my cr250 and stalled it and the god damn thing just would NOT start up again. i wound up just coasting back down the hill

[csmith12]

No kidding on the stalling part! When I brought the 125 home, it is like a total different beast. I learned I am not as good with the clutch as I thought I was. 2smokes, creek beds, large rocks, down trees and steep hills will humble you. I am 10 or so drops in so far. But that just means I am riding it right.

All this track has spoiled me.

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by alex.s

the other day i was on my cr250 and stalled it and the god damn thing just would NOT start up again. i wound up just coasting back down the hill

Been there... done that, but look on the bright side. You didn't have to push it!

[subxero]

I pulled the wife's KLX125 out of the pole barn the other day to give it a good flogging because it doesn't get ridden much and it turned into an hr long leg work out before I even got the damn thing running.

The bike is known for getting flooded easily on cold start ups and I know this but it was a hot day so I kicked it over, gave it a little throttle and figured I would be on my way, it would warm up as I rode.....nope. Stalled. Spent 5 minutes kicking it dry, flooded it again, another 5 minutes then it just wouldn't start. Pushed it to the shop and cleaned the air filter/box, check spark plug and still no go. (the whole time kicking it countless times between each adjustment, switching which leg I used when one got to tired) Finally figured the fuel was probably bad so drained it and put new in and it started after another 5 minutes of kicking it I was sweating like a pig by the time I was done and my legs were sore as hell the next day. Damn 4 strokes, at least the compression on it was light, kicking over the 250 to many times starts to hurt my foot. thick sole boots are mandatory for that job

Next time I go to the trail system I am going to hit up some of their rocky stuff, it is good, it will definitely test my endurance and skills. I just need to make sure I get my warm clutch adjustment decent so I don't stall every 30 seconds like last time

[csmith12]

Some days.....

kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, FLOODED! kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, FLOODED! kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle, kick, bump throttle

ring a ding, ding, ding..... ring a ding, ding, ding

[subxero]

Originally Posted by csmith12

No kidding on the stalling part! When I brought the 125 home, it is like a total different beast. I learned I am not as good with the clutch as I thought I was. 2smokes, creek beds, large rocks, down trees and steep hills will humble you. I am 10 or so drops in so far. But that just means I am riding it right.

All this track has spoiled me.

I've said it before, if you can efficiently ride a 125mx'er in the hilly wooded trails then you are officially a master of the clutch.

The 250's are so much nicer for just lugging which is impossible on a 125 but even still I work the 250 clutch a good bit but no where near to what is needed for a 125. I kinda wish I had a camera just on my clutch hand just to see all the movement, switching of grip mid turn, feathering ect... it's a very busy ride.

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by subxero

I've said it before, if you can efficiently ride a 125mx'er in the hilly wooded trails then you are officially a master of the clutch.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess my acceptable level of "efficient" is different higher than average.

EDIT: I feel I still have much to learn, but it's fun none the less.

[subxero]

New vid from Saturday went riding for a little bit. Hit up some of the harder trails, put me in my place and really highlighted just how out of dirt bike riding condition i am both technique and endurance wise.

I take a little spill with in the first 2 minutes and another one somewhere in the middle (16:45ish). That was the extent of my actual off bike mishaps for the day, the second one i never technically fall and or drop the bike though
It's pretty rare for me to actually crash, and fall off the bike like in the first 2 min, i'm pretty good at hopping off and landing on my feet and catching the bike, but when you actually crash and go down that's how you know you were committed

I ran out of memory on my card while riding/recording, my dumb fault, i thought i deleted everything off it but did not. Ended up missing some really sketchy sections and riding with a few high speed close calls later on after the video cuts out, more than enough to get the old heart pumping. Oh well maybe next time.

Video is long, i take a handful of breaks because I'm not a young buck any more, need a hydraulic clutch like dem der KTM's

Link to original page on YouTube.

[subxero]

Took off work yesterday to go dirt riding around a bit at the local trail system. Was their opening day and my first day riding the yz this year. Everything was great, the bike felt great, i felt pretty good... surprisingly and the dirt was decent, a little slick in some spots but that can be fun in it's own right. Oh, i did forget my riding boots sneakers it is

Here are some vids of riding, One of some small hill climbs, another me practicing a table top jump and one of a short trail ride. Towards the end of my riding i had thought i recorded 2 more videos of me riding at pace on some trails and thought they would have turned out great but they didn't record, i must have ran out of space on my SD card. Oh well, next time.

One thing i will say, the video's look great when watched on the computer off the SD, but once they go on youtube they get all grainy at times.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.


Not sure why stupid thumbnail images for the videos are not working... stupid youtube

[csmith12]

[subxero]

Been off the dirtbike for probably close to a month now with hip pain. Finally back on it this weekend after some healing and a new rear tire, new rear rotor + pads and a new front brake system.

Everything felt good, I wanted to do some tough trails so i headed to one of the rockier sections where there is some single track as well. I felt pretty good, i rode ok, still need to stall less and keep up the momentum more and go a little faster at times.

My front went flat somewhere in the rocks, it didn't bother me much in the rough stuff at slow speed but anytime i got on it a little bit it obviously felt like garbage.


All in all decent day riding, was nice to get back on the bike. I also took some time to work on my slow speed technical type wheelies and various preloading scenarios which all helps in the slow big rocks.

Probably doesn't seem all that exciting to watch and it looks really slow, which it is compared to where i want to be but for anyone who has never ridden terrain like this it is a lot more difficult than it looks and really tires you out especially if you are not doing it correctly.

offer always stands, anyone who wants to travel this way for some off road let me know we can ride from sun up to sun down. I might even be able to dig up a bike for you to ride.

Link to original page on YouTube.