2024 is slowly spinning up and there are some big changes afoot. Last weekend I finally installed my long-planned custom bike rack in my truck and tested it. This rack will allow two bikes to ride in the bed with the tailgate up in spite of the 110 gallon diesel tank. Also leaves plenty of room for gear.
Very happy with the results so I’ll be cleaning up the welds and painting her soon.
It’s really nice having a buddy with welding skills and lots of scrap material laying about!
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Although things have been quiet on the racing front, I’ve been practicing (won’t call it ’training’) and trail riding consistently since November and doing a lot of trail work since January. I handbuilt some new hare scramble trails on my neighbor’s 350 acre farm (he races 50+A, his son 250 A) and have planned another challenging section of trail to add before spring fully pops here in the SWVA mountains if I can just get home long enough to do it.
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There are also major changes afoot to the fleet…
Last summer I bought a 2011 Vulcan Classic 1700 for 2up riding with my wife and we love it (it’s also a real blast solo!). It’s my first street bike and with my kids in college, this has created really great time reconnecting with her and doing fun date things with just us and sometimes with friends like we used to do before kids. We’ve gone on hikes, blueberry picking, long all day adventures, carving Back of the Dragon, and explored many other fun mountain roads. We’ve had picnics and visited restaurants, it’s given us many very special days and memories already packed into just a few short months.
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With the new bike rack, I’m beginning to plan some work trips out west to deliver new travel trailers while bringing a friend along. On the way home the goal is exploring trails in Idaho, Montana, Utah and Colorado. I haul new factory units from Middlebury, Indiana to dealerships from Virginia to California - that’s why I have the big diesel truck with the 109 gallon fuel tank. I’ve been taking the mountain bike with me on trips, and that’s super fun too.
Today I picked up Doug’s (Doakley) very nice Jeff Fredette / Ron Black worked ‘99 KDX 220. It’s street legal, plated and ready to race. The added flexibility will be advantageous to planning trips, especially poaching sections of Tour of Idaho and other trails. Now I will need to let my ‘03 200 go to make room. Wish I could keep both, but it doesn’t make sense. I’m going to ride both this month and see what the differences are between these two bikes that are both built woods weapons. I’ll plan to write about what I discover as I get some seat time.
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I’m planning to race the 220 in some more VCHSS races this year and hopefully a National Enduro or two. I’m not going to push for points this season because I want the freedom to experience a lot of different things on those weekends when I’m home. I’ll probably be a fair weather racer and just go out with a goal of having fun. We’ll see what that does for my results!
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