Two noobs and a season of cross country racing.

Last year, Oregoncoast went up to watch the Desert 100 in eastern Washington. He was bitten by the bug, and decided to race this year. It took about 5 seconds of fast talking to persuade me to join him. We signed up for the OMRA cross country series, which consists of 10 races. They are a mix of desert races, enduros (including two ISDE style events), and a hare scramble.

Here's the schedule. The Cross Country races are highlighted in green.

Since neither of us have raced before we'll be in the beginner class. Our goal is to finish a bunch of races and enjoy it enough to want to do it again. This thread will be an ongoing report of our racing, documenting the preparation and results. Hopefully experienced racers will be able to provide advice, and that in turn this thread will be useful to other beginners who want to start out racing themselves.


Alright. Let's introduce the contestants.


Oregoncoast, #12c:




and Yours Truly, #13T:




Our numbers were issued by OMRA, C and T refer to the class we're riding in. Beginner, aged 40+ and 30+, respectively.


We both have pretty similar riding skills. A lot of street and dual-sport experience, but not as much real off-road time. That's changed in the last couple of months, though. We've done a lot of riding in the Tillamook woods and at the Sandlake dunes. Our skills are pretty equal. OC's got more experience, I've gone to a couple of off-road schools. Who's fastest varies, depending mostly on who's in better mental shape at the moment.



OC will be riding a DRZ400S, I will be on an XR400. Neither of us were in the position to buy a bike to race on, these are our dirt bikes. They seemed like better choices than a 640 Adventure and a V-Strom. We'll post up details on preparing the bikes later.


Ok, that's it for now. Stay tuned.....

Go boys go!
Looking forward to a great season: clap

+1 I love when guys who've never raced before dive into a season. Gives me hope for myself.

GO TEAM (insert team name here) GO!!!!

I'm glad Luke got sick of my procrastination, and started the thread. The thing I have to add about my background is that I've actually had dirt bikes from age 12, not that you could tell by my riding

This is a true "Ride what you brung" concept.

We know there are much more suited bikes for this endeavor, but we don't own them So, we'll see how long we last before things start falling off (us, or the bikes). We are hoping for finishes and a completion of the XC series with a minimum of DNF's.

I have a few random videos of some of the training so far, and we are now trying to document the process more throughly.

We will cover a bit of the registration process, training, bike set-up/mods/repairs, costs and traveling associated with racing a series, in the hope of showing what goes into a total noob trying to race their first season

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some random stuff from the beach:
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This is gonna be good...

Subscribed. Good luck!

SUBscribed. This thread has all the makings, to be a thread full of win. If not win, then it could turn into a thread full of EPIC FAILS. (Me doubts that tho)

Good luck, stay strong, ride HARD!

Good luck guys.

Have fun.

Cheers!

Last year, I went to the Desert 100 in Odessa, Washington to film some footage for Raindog’s “little film project” as seen here www.whatittakestorace.com

Being originally from Boston, this was something new for me. It was a circus. A big, loud, smelly, dirt bike riding circus :eek1 It was freakin’ awesome!! (more footage of this to come)

As Luke said, I was bitten by the bug. I didn't know the extent of this bite, and thought I was just picking up a good deal when I bought a 2004 Suzuki DRZ-S from Craigslist in Idaho, sight unseen for $2,500 bucks, plus the gas for MotoKat to haul it out for me




The bike had many of the standard DRZ fixes and mods already done…but the PO didn’t do any of them, so he was unsure what exactly was done by the first owner. So, its like a little adventure, seeing what is done, and what needs to be done.

Bike 12C

2004 Suzuki DRZ400S


Mods and accessories I can think of now:

3x3 airbox mod
case savers
skid plate – Unknown brand…beefy and lots of protection though. I drilled out the holes a little bit to ease removing and oil changes.
radiator guards Unibiker
clutch/kickstand safety’s removed

Cycra Pro Bend barkbusters with triple tree mount – I replaced the plain-jane bar ones because I broke my hand in August on that type when my hand hit the bar when I went down.


Rejetted the bike for sea level
Removed all stock blinkers and taillight assembly and replaced with cheap WPS “winkers” and an Electrosport LED taillight that Luke broke last week at Sandlake when we switched bikes for awhile.

Removed mirrors – alright, a mishap when the bike jumped the trailer and slid down the pavement at 45 mph removed them for me..as well as damaged the speedo/odom and plastics. I was going to go with the Vapor, but with keeping costs down, I located a stock one in great shape for a great price from a member of a DRZ forum.

Tubliss tire system front and rear – more on this later, but I will say that so far, I love them!

Also way-easier to change tires with the Tubliss system

Right now I’m running a cheap Cheng Shin tire up front and just changed out the back to a hand-me-down Michelin I got from DocSprocket during one of our training days.

The Cheng Shins are pretty amazing cheap tires. The front has been abused on sand, single track mud, gravel and asphalt for several hundred miles and still looks brand new. For around $35 bucks…nice.
The rear Chen Shin I bought was too small (my fault) but I ran the shit out of it anyway and it did everything I asked it to do. No flats, even before switching to the Tubliss system.

Ok, for you Oil Nazi's, I am running cheap-assed dino Valvoline 20/50 4 stroke motorcycle oil...about $3.99 from Shuck's :huh . It's the same stuff I have used in my V-strom (20K+hard, trouble free miles) and my old subaru (for 175k+ trouble-free miles). I believe that the most important thing about oil in motorcycle motors is to have some :eek1 Luke might have some to add about this

This bike was bought as an upgrade for my plated 1987 XR250R and I had no intention on racing the bike when I bought it. It was important for me to have a plated dirt bike because I often run down the road when out riding. This DRZ is a just that, a plated dirt bike, I have no intention on using this as an adventure touring bike…I have a wee strom for that.

Alright, I’ll think of more, but I’ll leave you with this:

Although it is a heavy pig, I am impressed with the performance, reliability and ease of servicing this DRZ more and more with each passing day. I am no mechanic, and probably have no business doing any of it, but this bike almost makes it easy.

And anytime I get crap from someone telling me this bike won’t last and is totally the wrong bike to race, I keep going back to some of these early films. http://motorbikearchives.com/Video-Gallery/High-Resolution/1951-Sunbeam-Point-to-Point.html

Those guys are riding faster than I will ever ride on Matchless’ and BSA’s with about an inch and a half of travel and crappy reliability!

It is our hope to show that anybody can go and race on the weekend and have some fun on the bikes they have. You don’t have to dump 20K on bikes, mod and gear just to go out and run a few races.



Ride what ya brung, Indeed.

What Cheng Shin's are you running? I've thought about getting a set for dirt cheap and see how they do. Changing tires doesn't bother me and I like fresh ones anyway.

subscribed!!

These bad boys right here:

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/2/29/392/15074/ITEM/Cheng-Shin-C755-Off-Road-Front-Tire.aspx

$27.99 :eek1

They are very soft compound so probably won't last too long on rocky stuff...but they're $27.99 for a front!!

...and easy to mount.

Yay! n00b racing thread!

Hey Luke!

Are you running the 755 on the rear as well? How does it do on the road? Does it wear fast and/or is it predictable? Can you compare it to a Trakmaster II or 606? I might try one! Do you have a good pic of the rear tire? Thanks!

PM sent. I run 10psi....its all mush on the pavement.