THIS IS MORE OF A 24HOUR race summary than a rmx report....
the challenge, 6 man team pilot a bike for 24 hours at Perry Mountain Motorcycle Club, AKA
http://www.24hourchallenge.com/24HourCh ... /news.html
Our team consisted of decent woods riders, from 30-52 years of age, one rmx250, and one ktm250exc for backup.
We arrived with RV and setup pits. The other pits were much more experienced, organized, and FAST during rider hand offs.
The rmx250 survived about 3 laps (9 miles each) before pitting with a really bad choke problem that caused fueling issues, poor low end power, very hard starting. You do NOT want to stall a bike with a choke problem !!! (but i did, twice) The course was a 7/10 for challenging, rocky, rooted, rutted terrain. We usually ride much harder terrain (11/10) but rarely at (our) race pace. Normal rides are 5-8 hours of hard stuff, with a lot of waiting for buddies to make it past obstacles, NOT riding the same loop so freaking fast (for us) !
on lap 4 or 5, we fixed the choke issue while changing riders. mulley (yo mullinator!) took off on the rmx and beat the **** out of it in the woods, until it failed around 9pm (race started at 10 AM). one of the ironmen (they ride without relief riders, all night!) allen goodwin's wife ran down and told us mulley was fine but the rmx was dead in the water.... the pit scrambled, and i shot through the parking /rv area on the KDX to find/tow/whatever him as needed.
the bike was dead. likely a power valve + piston contact = DAMMMMMITTTTT !!!!
we lost two laps because of the bike failure:
1 one lap because of not going through the timing counter
2 one more lap because of the screwups at the bike impound lot needing some paperwork or something, and setting up the backup (ktm) for night riding. we had not anticipated putting the lights on, so that was mostly our fault.
the rest of the race was nearly perfect. i HATED the ktm for my first shot of 18 miles of single track. terrible handling, wanted to shoot off the trail and blast over the perfect berms. god i hated it. every second i wanted my super easy kdx instead of the point-n-shoot ktm. hate hate hate.
my rounds were complete around midnight, but i pitted the next rider before heading to my hammock around 130 am. i slept until around 530am, when jim woke me up, and said he couldn't complete another 18miles because of shoulder pain... no problem, he layed down the FASTEST laps of our group, and on the ancient rmx too !
ok, gear on, sun just about to come up over the trees, and mulley came in on the ktm... $#@& i hated getting on that bike....
wait a second
what's this ?
point n shoot ?
ok, bitch, point and shoot it is. braaaaAAAAAAAAAAPPP and off we went. perfect. absolutely PERFECT run ! once the ktm taught me how to ride her, she was absolutely perfect. point there, and BLAST your way to that point ! tight single track is NOT what this bike does well.... this bike does double track, woops, and speed like nobodies bidness ! i had a flawless run as the sun came up illuminating the trails (no lights on the bike now!) to perfection. absolute beautiful, soft, loamy, bermed up and slightly wet perfection !
i went through the timing booth with my fastest time of the event, just barely over 38 minutes for 18 miles. wooohooo !! (ya, i know it's slow, but I"M SLOW, so i was finally in race mode!) and thought i might take on another lap to help our standing...
then my legs started cramping and right hand falling asleep. almost launched into the woods on the last woop heading into a downhill left hander blind... while shaking out the tingles from my throttle wrist.
we'll get the diagnosis from rubyrider this week about the rmx. hopefully it's not anything expensive to kill the bike completely.
to it's benefit, it was a very poorly maintained bike, and it suffered EXTREME ABUSE during this race. the poor running condition meant a LOT of clutch was used to make up for the poor low end (choke) problems. it was overheated (me) and beat like a red headed step child. had it been in better condition on the front end, i think we could have easily completed the race on it.
pros - amazing transmission, buttery smooth shifting, GREAT RANGE OF POWER, and extremely linear in it's delivery, even better than the kdx's delivery.
decent suspension, for a bike this old
decent seat, for a bike this old and stock
gearing - i'm saying it again, this bike with it's wide ratio tranny, is fantastic
cons - just plain old and crusty compared to the ktm offerings of today.
old
it's old
poor thing, it's just old
if you have the opportunity to buy one, don't hesitate. you'll love the wide ratio transmission and great power. it is definitely an upgrade from the kdx in those departments, even if it wants to blow out berms instead of turn 154 times and make change in hte processs like a kdx will. ;-)
Great looking bike.
