KDX in National Enduro Series

[KDXGarage]

You keep healing up!

[doakley]

Aye, aye, Sir!

[MoonStomper]

Doakley, how are you healing Sir? Hope you are continuing along and enjoying steady progress.

A buddy of mine wants us to go down for the Sumter Nat'l Enduro in February. Any advice for getting signed up? I know it's like trying to buy tickets for a rock concert and difficult to get in.

Thanks in advance for any tips you can offer.

[doakley]

Moonstomper, sorry, just saw your post. ALL entries MUST go through Livelaps.com . There will be NO on site registration this year. However they have raised the limit to 900 entries this year. Go to national enduro.com or livelaps.com to enter. I believe the entry date is 1/6 at 8PM. If you want your desired row, or close to it, be poised over your computer at 7:59 (seriously). The first 500 or so spaces will go in about 10-15 mins.
Have your AMA number ready and a PayPal account set up.

Live laps has a practice registration so you can get comfortable with the process before actual registration. I’ll be working the event this year and hope you will look me up there. 910-471-77one zero. Txt probably best.
Perfect event for a KDX woods bike. Very tight!’

[doakley]

Soooo... What’s the Old Guy Racin’ doing in the 2021 National Enduro Series? Can’t race any more, can’t even ride (yet). I decided to volunteer at some of the closer events doing whatever I can to help. Time for a little pay back!
I’m really looking forward to this. I’ve helped out at some HS races but never an enduro, much less a National. No clue what they will have me doing. Maybe helping at a check point or a section start? Maybe parking vehicles? Maybe picking up trash? I don’t care, whatever they need.

I’m really hoping we can get some KDX participation this year. Our bikes were made for this type of event and can still be competitive. First race is in Sumter, SC again, on Feb 7. This course is in the Sandhills region of SC so expect plenty of sand (not as much as FL). Because the trails are in a mature state forest there is a mix of rich soil in most of the sand giving ideal traction. Not known as a mudder even if it rains. In fact some rain is desirable for best soil conditions. No big hills but a few gullies. If you like tight, bar squeezing single track, this is your race.
Go to nationalenduro.com for more info.

[doakley]

Here's the 2021 AMA National Enduro Schedule. I've ridden most of these. As they come up I'll try to add my impressions of each course and facilities.
ALL of them are excellent opportunities for you to go out and test your self and your trusty KDX or just to sign up with some buddies on the same row and enjoy a nice, well organized, trail ride. A stock KDX 200 or 220 is well equipped for these events; or, you can do like some and create that $5000 "updated" KDX if you like. Either way it is a blast to ride in these and if one is relatively close to where you live, you will not regret giving it a try!

Y'all keep brapping!

Old Guy Racin' (ret)

2021 National Schedule.JPG (126.19 KiB) Viewed 383 times

[MoonStomper]

Thanks for the tips Doug! Hopefully see you there.

[doakley]

Moonstomper, check out round 3, in Arrington, VA. Right in your backyard isn’t it?

[MoonStomper]

Yeah that’s not real far - near VIR I think. We’re close to Blacksburg. Planning to hit Sumter though - the course videos look interesting.

[doakley]

Well, horse feathers! Looks like I'm having one more operation which means I won't be able to volunteer at the Sumter National Enduro in February.
In case you guys missed it, online sign up via livelaps.com has been delayed until 1/13 at 8PM. They must have had some computer issues or something; don't know.
I had promised a summary of the course and facilities so here you are:
From my earlier post:
This course is in the Sandhills region of SC so expect plenty of sand (not as much as FL). Because the trails are in a mature state forest there is a mix of rich soil in most of the sand giving ideal traction. Not known as a mudder even if it rains. In fact some rain is desirable for best soil conditions. No big hills but a few gullies. If you like tight, bar squeezing single track, this is your race.
Go to nationalenduro.com for more info.

As far as facilities, primitive camping is the way to go. The nearest motels are 15-20 miles away. They have a clubhouse with covered tables and usually serve a Saturday night spaghetti dinner to benefit a local kids' charity (Burnt Gin Camp). You could find yourself sharing a table with some of the top pros in the Enduro world. Also typically serve breakfast. Parking can get tight in the main area quickly but there is an overflow area across the dirt road so space isn't usually a problem.

You guys from up north don't kid yourselves. It can get uncomfortably cold at night this time of year in SC so bring your warm sleeping bag! I camp in my race cargo trailer (too cheap to buy a camper) and usually wind up running a small generator all night to stay toasty warm. Can't race well if you don't sleep well! Sorry I'll miss you this year and hope to hear about a large turnout of crazy people riding old KDX bikes!

Y'all keep brapping....

Old Guy Racing (ret)

[MoonStomper]

Sorry you can’t make it Doug!

So yeah the sign up for Sumter was a real cluster. Had everything ready to go and at 8:00 started clicking but every time we got ready to pay for our selection, PayPal would crash and give a 505 error. After 6 minutes trying to get me and my two buddies on the same row, but getting errors I finally got through by trying to register myself and even had a verification in my account, but my buddies didn’t get through. Then the system completely shut down and they canceled all of the entries.

So we’ll try again next week I guess. Any advice for row selection? My buddy is A, his son is B and I’m C.

[doakley]

I prefer being up front in Sumter, somewhere in the first 10 rows (3 was our lucky number). The sandy soil can develop significant whoops and breaking bumps so later rows can be a bit rougher. The trails are generally well marked and ridden in by the club. Having said, the rear rows have the advantage of all the hot lines are well marked!

[andrew825]

Any race updates? I'd love to hear how you liked the changes you made to the bike, especially the EFM Autoclutch!

[KDXGarage]

andrew825, welcome to kdxrider.net. Thanks for joining us AND... participating! :-)

[doakley]

Andrew 825, welcome! Update on Sumter is due to some problems with PayPal, entry was delayed until 8PM, Jan 21st. Basically the surge of entries overwhelmed PayPal’s systems. This time it is set up so your requested row is held while you are waiting on PayPal instead of assigning a row after PayPal confirms your payment. Ought to work?

As far as how I like the bike changes, I really like them. The bike is an incredibly effective woods bike. The only thing that might make it better would be to put the motor into a KX 125 frame but I’m just not up to building a hybrid. Not sure I would notice the difference anyway.
The Autoclutch I absolutely love. Sometimes I did miss being able to pop the clutch if coming out of a corner in too tall of a gear, but never a problem. I was never that good with the clutch and the EFM made up for a lot of mistakes. I seldom stalled the bike any longer, even when dropped. It made tight woods much easier.
The left hand rear brake takes some practice before it becomes intuitive but offers much finer control, especially downhill.
Speaking of downhills, the EFM free wheels downhill unless you punch the gas just a bit to get the clutch engaged. That often took more balls than I have on a steep hill so in that case I had no engine braking. Had to learn a different way to ride downhill.
Last thing on the EFM, if you do not make the hill and have to stop, you’d sure as hell better have two handfuls of brake locked down. It only takes one experience of freewheeling backwards down a hill, especially with trees or rocks, to figure this out!
I put a lot of money, time and thought into this bike. If I had to pick the most important mod, it would be the suspension. I don’t know much about tuning suspension components so decided to use a suspension pro to revalve and customize for me. Worth every penny!