Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
The second weekend of the year I spent the entire weekend on my KTM 525 EXC. Saturday the 7th I went riding with a friend and his kids. This trip was set to coinside with Tonya's baby shower from her co-workers. We carpooled down to Hollister Hills in my truck, all four of us. My bike was in the bed of the truck as was everone's gear since the cab was full of full sized people and Kathryn's car seat base. The other three bikes were on a trailer. We almost didn't have lights on the trailer because I left my 8pin (truck side) to 4pin (trailer side) adapter connected to my tailer. Luckily I had a spare that I had forgotten about until I was digging in the truck for some other stuff. The ride to Hollister was uneventfull. We didn't do too much talking. Even though it was almost 10am by the time we left San Jose everyone was still kinda tired and morning oriented.
When we got to Hollister it was a zoo. We noticed a little parking in the first lot but decided not to park there since that part of the park was closed due to mud. The lower part of the park is adobe mud and when it is wet it is slicker then snot and twice as sticky. So we spend a good 15 minutes driving from parking area to parking area trying to find a place to park a 1/2 ton truck and tailer. Eventually we found a place to park that wasn't too bad. The front of the truck was down a muddy hill but with a V8 and 4 wheel drive I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get stuck. We unloaded and warmed up our bikes. This when I discovered the little battery in the 525 had gone bad. I had topped it off when working on the bike in the garage the week before but the little battery just didn't have what I needed anymore. Lucky for me with freshly adjusted valves the 525EXC kicks to life prety damn easy (provided you have the gas on, more on that later).
We spent a few minutes getting our grear out and then getting dressed in our gear. Then we roared out. I stayed on the back like I normally do. I stay in the back no matter what I'm riding but especially on the 525. It has enough power to really shower the unlucky SOB who is behind me when I crack the throttle a bit. We hit some muddy trails on our first loop. The mud resulted in a XR400 on it's side on a hill. The XR400 is a kick start only bike, so we had to kickstart it on a hill in the mud. Lots of fun! It was one of two mud related problems on the trip. After we got going again we headed back down and had lunch and relaxed.
This is where that gas on comment comes in. I decided when we stopped for lunch that I would turn the gas off on my bike and I WOULDN'T forget to turn it back on, even tough I aways forget and end up with a bike that suddenly dies when all the gas in the float bowl gets used up, but this time it wouldn't happed! Lunch was good. Tonya got my coldcuts and rolls to eat, ham and salami! I drank two redbulls (bull come!) and a gatoraid. It was good.
After we had lunch and got ready to go again we started out. We road along the main rode to get to the trail we wanted to ride. Flor some reason my bike wouldn't run with out the choke on... I figured it had just cooled too much during lunch. We stopped at a traffic control (the normally seperate two way traffic was being synconised because 1 lane was closed because of a broken trailer). While waiting my bike died and wouldn't start! Guess who forgot to turn is gas back on after lunch! Yeas, I'm just that cool! We went for a big loop and had a good time. We hit anouther muddy section. While we were riding along two CRF250Rs crashed together in the mud. We were riding along a normally wide trail. However, with all the recent rain there was a LOT of mud and efectively only 1 good clear lane to get through it. Well these mental giants decide to pass my buddies oldest at the same time two abreast. Well the kid (sort of he is 17 or so now) was in the only dry grove so the 450s were out in the nasty mud and they slammed together and both went down. One guy went over his bars and got his helmet stuck in the mud. Once it was clear he was OK it was just commical. The other guy was less funny. He was just a little mudy. However both 450s were in a pile on top of him. Quickly the bikes were moved and he was fine however, he got really pissed about the accident and the damage to his bike. It wasn't really bad but he was pissed off and turned around on the 1 way trail to go back to his car. We continued on our way. My friend's yongest son crashed his CRF230F in the mud some time later. It was aparently spectacular, I didn't see it. I was riding with his oldest sone ahead. He flipped over the bars when his front end washed out. He thought it was great. He was a little muddy and grinning from ear to ear when he cought up to us. He was dissapointed he didn't get more muddy. (He always takes an odd amount of pride in his crashes!) We finished up the loop and headed back to the truck for a drink and to relax.
Now that the 525 was ridable (with the lowered gearing of 14:52) I offered the bike around for test rides as all three kind of want to get some variant of the KTM 4stroke EXC bike. My buddy passed on the offer as he has ridden one and won't do it again on the stock seat. He loves the bike, but hates the seat! His youngest son also passed. Even though he is a few months from getting his first adult bike (he wants a KTM 400 or 450 EXC) he was intimidated by the 525. The oldest was all game. I rode his CRF250X and he rode my 525 EXC. It was very funny, we both had a blast on the others bike. He rode better on the 525 since the lowend grunt of the 525 was more like the bikes he learned to ride on then the 250 four stroke he had now. He was cornering faster and riding better. I was having a blast. His 250 felt like a toy. I was winding out the motor and using all of the suspension by hitting whoops in 3rd gear with the throttle all the way open... It was great. While riding his bike and listening to him ride mine and then talking to him I pin pointed the problem he was having with his 250. He was wasn't riding high enough in the powerband to really use the motor so the bike was harder to ride. Next time we go out I'm going to try and remind him to stay a gear low on his 250. We did a great final loop. It was a blast. No one fell or crashed or dropped anything. We got back to the truck about 30 minutes before sunset.
We loaded up in the last of the light and headed for home. The ride back was much more animated. We talked and joked and laughed. It was really great. The plan from now on is to do the carpool thing since my truck works so well.
When we got back we had dinner composed of leftovers from the party and Tonya and I headed home. When we got home I packed and arranged for Sunday. Sunday was a Doc Wong/Cal BMW dirt clinic.