Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

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Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by MoonStomper »

MY BIRTHDAY MONTH IS OCTOBER and about 21 years ago, stunned by the fact that I had made it to the advanced age of 30 I vowed to begin celebrating the entire month every year. And why not? October is for a fact - the best month of the year: allow me to demonstrate... you have college football season (Go Hokies!!!) - thus tailgating, Oktoberfest, perfect weather for playing outside in Virginia where I live, amazing colors in the woods, the bugs are mostly gone, the air smells so good, you're feeling great from all the fun stuff you did all summer (biking, swimming, kayaking, fishing, etc.), and mostly the weather is dry and trail conditions PRIMO.

This year was no exception but for the stupid Wuhan flu restrictions killing tailgating and actually attending the football games... AND the WEATHER!

I've ridden 4 hare scrambles now and every single one of them was in wet to hurricane conditions. Two of them looked to be dry races until the forecast changed last minute after a dry week preceding as happened again this weekend at the Virginia Championship Hare Scramble Series Finale, Hillbilly Hare Scramble held down in Rural Retreat, Virginia. ... http://www.vchss.org

This event goes down on a working farm in south west Virginia where they predominately raise cattle, corn, and pumpkins. It's a beautiful place with rolling hills, creeks, woods and FAST trails. Somehow once again we managed to have rain showers the night before the event, but thankfully the wind was blowing by morning which helped dry things out even with temps only in the mid-40's race morning.
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Hillbilly was only an hour south of us on I-81, so we loaded up the night before and had a pretty easy morning getting down there to sign up. Though the time change really messed with me as I was awake at 4AM.

The week preceding the race was a bit of a scramble as my son Henry (15) and I both had major mechanical defects to remedy. His '08 KTM 144 had a wrecked clutch slave cylinder, and seized rear brake issue, plus on Wednesday I discovered my steering stem bearings were shot. RMATV overnight and YouTube to the rescue and with a couple borrowed tools and two good friends (and beers) everything got fixed by Friday night.

Kind of a stressful week for my favorite month of the year.

It was good though, I learned a hell of a lot about bleeding his rear brake (he had his sensitivity dialed up too high and locked it up, fresh fluid and pads and he was good to go). The slave got wrecked at Pipsico last Sunday when his master clip failed on his chain from wear after his guard was pushed inward. We put a fresh cylinder ($117) on and added the billet aluminum Enduro Engineering guard - that's nice kit right there. I reverse bled the clutch and he was mostly good to go. Installed a new master link on his X-chain running the clip on the back side this time in case he smacks his chain guard again. Found that pro tip on YouTube somewhere.

Those repairs worked and he got through the race, but complained that the clutch isn't engaging exactly where he wants it - we'll get'er dialed by next season I bet. It must not have been too bad - he was 4th in the hole shot out of about 31 guys in 200C yesterday, and looked pretty good - I think he finished top 15 after stopping a few times to try and dial his clutch adjustment in and wrecking some.

I'm beginning to think wrecking is just part of racing. This is my conclusion after coming through for my last lap and seeing I was in 5th position having moved up from 6th after my first two. Knowing it must be close I thought to myself - 'ride conservative and smooth, but fast!' In the first half of that lap I dropped her 3X, got passed by the guy chasing me and passed him back. Second half my lap I did better, but still dropped it twice because my goggles (still figuring out laminated tear-offs) were giving me depth perception issues and I was distracted. Henry told me after the race that his new 100% Accuri roll-offs worked perfectly and he never took them off the whole day.
ruthie.jpg
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Ruthie and her boys


But hey, I got ahead of myself... the START:
After warming the bike up for 20 minutes and trying to get a feel for corn field mud riding, I picked a starting position high to the right and outside between a couple C class vets, they weren't very talkative, I figured by their $10k Austrian machines they were taking this pretty serious (for C class!!!). For some reason I just wasn't feeling really good about the start, the mud was pretty slick in this freshly chopped cornfield and it was hard to get a good push off. I just knew I needed to be conservative till I got into the woods - there the soil was sandier and traction for days.

I watched my son get a great start and saw him disappear into the woods 4th back in the lead pack with 30 or so in his class. When my turn game the flag man held the wind whipped green flag high and then swung it down - I kicked and my foot slid out and off, quickly flipped the starter out again, kicked and fired - I was in the last three of nine and last into the corner as a minor pile up went down at the turn. Eyeballing this I crossed left, down and wide around them, then hard right and let her rip up the hill into towards the treeline getting by 3 or 4 guys before punching into the woods. It's a long race so I tried to settle in and quickly began working on catching up to the riders ahead. This was really nice flowing single-track, narrow in spots with saplings and large hardwood trees but with plenty of passing opportunities and line options, some sharp turns and elevation changes. My plan was to just avoid bottlenecks and bad lines the first lap, and don't have a stupid wreck. No one was yelling behind me and I slowly gained on the guys in front elbows up, feet on the pegs, clutch and brake covered, squeezing the bike crouching over the fender. This foreign outlandish exercise is becoming more familiar. The KDX bent and weaved as we danced through the woods 3rd and 2nd gear lugging along to the chorus of ripping tires and whirring motors, the smell of burning ester perfumed the air and quite honeslty annoyed me. Why the heck doesn't everybody just use Yamalube 2S?

There were several drops into small muddy creeks with steep banks climbing out - my KDX handled them with vigor, often in third with plenty of clutch and throttle. I made some position moves in these spots by looking ahead and finding the open hole like a running back through the line and charging through. The hill climbs were pretty steep with off-camber drier dirt and some roots, but I clutched just right and kept her straight usually lugging third. I was surprised by how well I was riding. Standing on the pegs with my nose over the fender was really paying off. My confidence began to grow. When we popped out of the woods into a big mudhole, over a bank, right through some shallow brown slop and then turned hard left around a brush pile and into the first pumpkin field - I opened her up pushing wide into a pretty long power slide, but held on finding a higher gear and sliding my weight back - full tilt down a narrow open lane with pumpkins lining the way.

As I flew past slipping into 5th, I wondered what the consequences would be if I crashed there - the thought made me shudder, at least they weren't frozen. This straightaway was about 1/8 mile long, I had to be doing 70 here, it was 8 feet wide and flat over grass, but didn't seem too greasy. There was a good hump in the middle and a cameraman was shooting riders catching air off it - I caught some minor air here and looked forward to hitting it each lap. In one of the larger pumpkin fields on one of my last laps a pumpkin had rolled out into the middle of the line - that was interesting @ 70+, but I kept her pinned. This green machine likes to eat.

Funny thing is, I haven't gotten much seat time on her in WOT situations, especially where it's wide open and flat - so I haven't achieved a good comfort level yet. Not to mention my forks aren't tuned yet and feel a little too soft to really crank it, they seem a bit harsh over some of the bumps. But this was relatively smooth for a farmer's field and I had decent grip so I found myself really enjoying opening her up. Or at least I thought I was until the leaders came by me later like I'm having a picnic at a rest stop on I-95. I tried to follow them and did get a little better.

I was having so much fun on these longer field passes that I'd forget all about the fact I was about to change direction and blew a few turns - good run offs though, no fences or ditches to worry about thankfully. I'd charge in, think 'oh crap I have to go left/right here, and if I got it right release the throttle, downshifting a couple, stab the rear brake and start pulling front with the tail wagging - just trying to keep her straight till I could turn in, drag the rear into a slide and then start pulling power and drift out - a dirt track hero in my own mind! If I got it wrong which was more frequently the case I'd just about slide through the turn locked up off the track then down shift and tear out in my intended direction while one or two skilled riders passed me on the inside. It was so fun, I could just play there all day, even doing it wrong was fun, I wasn't super disciplined there. I did things better on my last lap under pressure of holding fifth. In one of those fields later on as I approached a flat, shallow creek crossing, a fast guy overtook me as I hit the waters edge and about blew my face off with the cold water splash - my goggles were off so I got ALL of it. There was a left turn in the mud immediately after, which I somehow managed to ride mostly blind and then WOT again through another field.

The second half of the course on the other side of the farm led into some steeper hills with big trees, wooded lanes and more rocks than roots.
One super deep creek crossing really caught me by surprise - it shouldn't have - the cold-bluish water color told you it was for real, plus there was a crowd with cameras ready...
creek.jpg
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Deep creek crossing, COLD water.

FIRST LAP - I'M REALLY SORRY. I didn't see your number, or even notice the color of your bike (probably orange?). You slowed up approaching this creek as we barreled down the gravel lane out of the field. I could see a muddy left turn in the field on the other side of the creek and I was behind you to the right. I was making passes and it was just your turn. As I closed on your outside I reassessed the creek and noticed it was about 12 feet across and at least knee deep all the way across. Not a place to stall my kick-start-only KDX . The guy we saw leaving it as we rounded that corner turning toward this foreboding mountain stream made quite the splash with lots of steam. So yeah, not a place I wanted to spend a lot of time thrashing - so I downshifted to 3rd and LET HER RIP as I pulled along side. I'm surprised my KDX's jet wash didn't drown you as I broke the sound barrier hip deep in this cold-assed creek. If I'd had any skill I would have wheelied it like the AA riders (Derek Klotter 4AA) did later that afternoon - but I'm not there yet. I heard the crowd scream over the roar of our bikes as we left that watery hole - man was it COLD! I really need to order those Jeff Fredette Deflectors for my bark busters soon, my gloves got SOAKED.
https://shop.frpoffroad.com/productdeta ... Id=-153432

We crossed that thing 3 or 4 times - I honestly still don't know how many laps I did - probably three because it felt like four. It never did get lower or warm up, and I never did slow down before hitting it, just stood on the pegs and moved low and back hoping to miss the big rocks I couldn't see.

Exiting that bike wash station we went up into a pasture turning left in a mud rut - through a gate - hard right in more grassy mud and then bending left up a steep open hill into the woods and climbing onto a tall narrow, wooded ridge. This was all WOT after punching through the gate chicane and pretty muddy, but really fast and fun. Somewhere in there I came up on the only real bottleneck I saw all day, and patiently worked my bike into a position to take the most direct line up over some roots then up the short very steep rutted section. Everyone was pretty cool here as we were mostly done with the first lap - on my last pass I found the French line left and above this obstacle that had finally opened up.

After a steep, leafy downhill into a muddy and winding shallow creek ride then zipping up a small slimy bank and more scrambling and bouncing over baby-head rocks with well worn lines everywhere through big oak trees, we eventually popped up and out of the forest into the cornfield across from the scoring tent and charged to the last left hand turn at a large white-wrapped round hay bale. Screaming towards this hay bale and braking hard - trying not to throw it down in front of the crowd, before bending into the 90 degree left turn followed by a short throttle blast and into the scoring chute.

I really enjoyed this course, and am super pleased with the progress I am making on this bike. Definitely feel I can learn to earn some top finishes with it. It always leaves me feeling like I could race another lap or two if I got the chance. After the race I got to visit with my wife and daughter who just got accepted early admittance to Virginia Tech's Biological Science program. Then my son rolled in behind me just a few minutes behind having finished one more lap, but not quite lapping me. Afterwards, we loaded the bikes, got dried off and into warm clothes, and finally enjoyed some hot BBQ sandwiches and a Coke.
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Hans and Frans - 200C Racers (Henry and Mason hanging out before we headed home)

After watching the afternoon Main, we strapped everything down and rolled home, managing to power-wash the bikes and unloading before dark. It was another great day, may as well have happened in October!
trophy.jpg
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Hillbilly Hare Scramble 5th Place Trophy
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Let the good times ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘99 KDX 220 / '03 KDX 200 - @%@ '18 Trek Slash 8 @%@ ‘22 Rieju MR300 Racing

BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA USA
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by Liv2Ryd »

Nice writeup. Looks like you guys had a great time.
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by doakley »

Outstanding!
Just a suggestion, but if you intend to continue racing that KDX especially in fast HS events, you might want to consider swapping to a set of KX forks instead of putting money into the stock forks. Tremendous difference.

Another suggestion, consider making a small donation to help support this site. That will give you the ability to send and receive private messages. I’d like to be able to reach out to you.
Last edited by doakley on 02:15 pm Nov 04 2020, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by SS109 »

Good job! Nothing like a wet and muddy race!
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by KDXGarage »

WOW! Great write up as usual. Thanks for mentally taking us along.

That looks like a very nice trophy you have there. Take every fifth place trophy they offer / you earn. Don't be afraid to take them.
Thank you for participating on kdxrider.net. :bravo:
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by MoonStomper »

RACE REPORT FOLLOWUP...

So after waiting a week and collecting some of the pictures taken around the course I finally have some details to add. Turns out I did complete four laps (it wasn't just my addled brain)! So that was awesome, I managed to stay on the lead lap! After looking at the posted lap times I also learned that I was only 26 seconds out of 4th and just 3 minutes out of 3rd place. That lights my fire right there. If I had stayed off the ground and had my goggle-game tightened up, I could compete with these orange bikes in my weight class. They are all on 250's and 350's too - which really should play to my advantage anyway. I am already working towards the 2021 season opener in late March - that's only 5 months away. It's really fun learning something new and having a goal to chase.

HILLBILLY MORNING RESULTS FOR THE 50+ C CLASS
---------------------------------------------------------------
PLACE RIDER LAPS FINISH DIFFERENCE NAME AVG SPD Tot Time MFG LAP TIMES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1T 4 12:04:08.20 --:-- BENFIELD,TIMMY 25.06 1:07:01 KTM| 2 / 14:55 / 0:43 | 2 / 17:25 / 0:05 | 2 / 17:27 / 0:20 | 1 / 17:14 / --:--
2 47T 4 12:04:39.74 0:31 WINNEBERGER,JEFF 24.87 1:07:32 KTM| 1 / 14:12 / --:-- | 1 / 18:03 / --:-- | 1 / 17:12 / --:-- | 2 / 18:05 / 0:31
3 25T 4 12:10:59.12 6:20 WRIGHT,TROY 22.74 1:13:52 KTM| 3 / 16:26 / 1:31 | 3 / 19:08 / 3:14 | 3 / 19:01 / 4:48 | 3 / 19:17 / 6:20
4 44T 4 12:13:47.06 2:48 PHILLIPS,GREG 21.91 1:16:40 KTM| 5 / 17:38 / 0:26 | 4 / 19:23 / 1:27 | 4 / 20:19 / 2:45 | 4 / 19:20 / 2:48
5 99T 4 12:14:13.22 0:26 BROWN,BEN 21.78 1:17:06 KAW| 6 / 18:31 / 0:53 | 6 / 19:54 / 0:58 | 5 / 19:22 / 0:27 | 5 / 19:19 / 0:26
6 55T 4 12:14:41.46 0:28 LUCIA,FRANK 21.65 1:17:34 KTM| 4 / 17:12 / 0:46 | 5 / 20:15 / 0:26 | 6 / 20:24 / 0:04 | 6 / 19:43 / 0:28
7 24T 4 12:16:42.59 2:01 WILLIAMS,HAROLD 21.10 1:19:35 KTM| 7 / 18:44 / 0:13 | 7 / 20:03 / 0:22 | 7 / 20:31 / 1:27 | 7 / 20:17 / 2:01
8 21T 2 11:46:25.38 --:-- WELCH,TERRY 17.03 0:49:18 YAM| 8 / 22:02 / 3:18 | 8 / 27:16 / 10:31


Here are action shots from my 'wet pass' in the creek that I described earlier in glorious detail:
Creek1.jpg
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creek2.jpg
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creek3.jpg
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Here's a couple of the Cowasocky KDX in action - what a great costume!!!
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cowasocky4.jpg
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It's really fun seeing other 'not quite vintage' bikes out there. There's a couple guys with older XRs and some other bikes from our era that compete too. They usually do really well and so that's great to see.
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Let the good times ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘99 KDX 220 / '03 KDX 200 - @%@ '18 Trek Slash 8 @%@ ‘22 Rieju MR300 Racing

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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by KDXGarage »

SPLASHDOWN!!

Cow suit on the Kawasaki, awesome!
Thank you for participating on kdxrider.net. :bravo:
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Re: Last Hare Scramble for 2020 season - VCHSS Hillbilly @ Rural Retreat, Virginia

Post by Goatfish »

This is awesome! Would have been so much fun. :grin:
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