Beautiful day to hit the trails in SW PA.

[subxero]

Not a ninja ride report but regardless had a pretty fun day on Saturday at dirt trail park near by and felt it was worth sharing. Here is my little novel

Quick back ground. I ride my dirt bike a fair bit at a trail system a few miles up the road from where I live. Typically ride by myself which has its pro's and obviously its con's of course but I typically like riding these trails alone because of dust among other things.

It was pretty packed day at the trails which was a little surprising for a non holiday weekend. I pulled in and parked the suv and trailer in an open spot next to some middle aged - older guys with some awesome vintage 2 strokes dirt bikes

Getting things ready, talked a little with them, commented on their cool bikes mid late 80's 2 strokes. a cr490, a yz490 and 2 cool mid 80's 250's

3 guys, one guy in his late 40's ish?, one in his late 50's? and another in his 60's.
(I hope I am still riding mean ass machines when I am in my 50's and 60's )

Convo was short, I can tend to have a lone wolf personality and don't always feel the need to interact, I'm their to ride, so I want to get to it. Soon after they were on their way, and I was on the trail shortly there after. I had a game plan for the day. Wanted to practice my jumps for a bit on a large table top at one area of the park to build confidence and control as I haven't been jumping much as of late and my as of 2 months ago new suspension throws the bike completely different and I need to get it dialed in. Was hoping to be hitting the jump consistently perfect and then I would go and hit one jump in particular on the crappy track they have that I haven't doubled yet as it is pretty big and landing leaves little room for error.

I was less than pleased with how the table top was going, was having a hard time hitting the sweet spot of the landing consistently, the new suspension is softer and I was finding out I needed a good bit more speed to get the same distance out of the jump vs my old suspension. The higher speed was putting me higher in the power band which is more difficult to control.

After quite some time of hitting that jump and doing a few laps on the track (not hitting the large double) it was time for a break. Headed back to the trailer, the older gents must have recently got back as well they were set up for lunch break. The one guy started chatting me up so I began to shoot the **** with them, I had questions about their vintage bikes, some pretty interesting stuff on them (the brakes in particular) One had a cool rear suspension set up, the shock was under the tank with a cool linkage set up that attacked directly to the top of the swing arm. (guy said it felt really good especially on the big 490 2 smoker) Chatted about other bikes, how they buy these vintage bikes and rebuild them. all good stuff

Started suiting up after lunch, trying to think of where I wanted to ride, what trails (feeling a bit tired and lazy) The one guy asked me if I wanted to ride with them. At first I was like ehhh, I kind of like to do my own thing, but at the last minute I decided why not, I wasn't in much of a mood to be racing around like a manic plus I was a bit curious as to what these over the hill guys were capable of on the trails with their monster 2 strokes

We were off, I brought up the rear, the thick smell of burning 2cycle oil in the air (mmm delish!) Once we got on some of the single direction trails they picked up the pace and you know what? They were pretty quick, I give them props, out dated suspension, drum brakes front and rear, old school looking smaller sized tires, air cooled monster 2stroke engine and all. They moved at a pretty good clip, I certainly wasn't bored following them. After some time riding, the one guys clutch cable busted, due to factory defect, (he had just replaced it with a new one and it must of not been the exact one for that old bike) Futzed around help them try to mend the problem to no avail, we all headed back to the trailers. It was time for me to call it a day anyway.

In short, pretty awesome day, went out riding with a game plan, ended up doing something completely different, made some friends, got to see some cool bikes (should have asked to take one of the 490's for a quick spin ) Pretty impressed with how the old 2strokes hold up and ride considering the design is 30yrs old. Brakes and front suspension are about all you would really have to do to those bikes to perk them up a bit

Like I say, any time spent riding a motorcycle is a good time and time well spent

[csmith12]