Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
On Saturday I went to Prairie City SVRA in Sacramento while my mother and wife went out.
I brought my new bike with me to test it out. I had to steal the ASV shorty clutch lever off of my YZ250F since the one I ordered for the KTM just hasn't come in yet. I had a blast besides having my first jump crash of my life.
I started the day unloading my bike from the truck and hooking up the endurance computer. I started the bike and warmed it up. The 125 SX starts SOOO much easier then the 250F.
I started off in the staging area. I headed south east from staging area. The 125 was really different. All the power was at the top of the 9,000 RPM band unlike the 250F which pulls from the bottom and builds all the way to the 13,500 RPM redline. I started out flying along rocky and puddle laden trail. The bike was really light and felt almost like bicycle compared to the 250F. I flew through a couple of puddles at full speed making quite a mess. I was making random turns and not really following any specific trail just getting used to the bike. I was confronted with a puddle that occupied the whole path. I hit the puddle at about 30 Mph (I peaked down at the speedometer on the Endurance computer). A wall of water crested over the front fender and then over the handlebars, and finally over the top of my helmet. The water line was up to my knees. I managed to power through the puddle but I got soaked. My googles were soaked and I couldn't see.
After finishing with the puddle I continued flying along the path. I crested a rise at about 30 Mph and suddenly noticed the other side of the very short plateau was veritable cliff. I grabbed a handful of front brake and stopped the bike teetering on the edge. I pulled my one tear off and turned the bike around and headed back to the staging area. In the staging area, I wondered what the hell I was doing there. Then I pulled on a new jersey and my spare pair of gloves. I also bought some Pringles chips and Dr. Pepper and I relaxed.
Once relaxed I decided to try a different direction from the staging area. I headed east by north east. I passed the closed practice track and past the pro track (the one I raced in spring). The tracks were all closed due to mud. I found and area that was wet but not sopping.
There were some great hills some good turns and stuff. All said I managed to put a full hour of time in motion on the bike. Toward the end, I was riding in an area next to the practice motocross track that was setup as a simple track with two jumps and two turns. One was a flat wide turn the other was a highly banked tighter turn. After a few laps I managed to launch the bike into the air with me falling off the back of the bike. I was stunned and amazed as I have been jumping two wheeled and some four wheeled vehicles since I was about 5. I have always managed to land the bike or other vehicle. This time the 125 went straight up (I gave it some gas on the face of the jump and hit the power band raising the front end into the air). The bike want vertical and I fell off the back.
I landed on my feet slash left hip. I slid thought the dirt. The bike landed in front of me on the rear wheel just in front of me and fell to it's side. I was afraid I was going to catch up to it as we both slid though the dirt. When we stopped I jumped up ran to the bike and got it upright. It started up right away, unlike the 250F (I would have had to kick it 8 or 10 times after a stall like that).I rode for another 10 minutes or so. Then I loaded up the truck and left as they were kicking people out. I made two mistakes while packing up. One almost cost my $100 sun glasses, the other cost me the $25 removable side stand for the 125.
I learned that 125 was fun but really high energy. The bike was only fun and ridable when the bike was revved up and on the pipe. It has almost no bottom end, which makes going slow not fun or easy. However, it will fly though up even and unhappy terrain like nobodies business. I also realized that just like skiing, on a dirt bike you tend to get tired and timid and make mistakes. I wouldn't have crashed on the jump if I had just charged it instead of rolling to the face and gassing it up the face. Like wise I came to down hill that I rolled instead of charging that earlier in the day I would have attacked but at the end of the day I rolled down.
Here are some satellite images of the Prairie City SVRA from terra server.
As my engagement present, and because Tonya and I were tired of the starting problems with my 02 - YZ250F I go a brand new 2003 KTM 125SX. The first thought was to get rid of the YZ but it was too hard to find a replacement. So I get an additional bike to augment the YZ and give me time to trouble shoot the YZ with out missing out on riding experiences. The 03 was a dealer hold over that I got for $3999 which is $1000 below MSRP and below dealer cost. It made it cheeper to make the changes to turn it into an 04 then to buy and 04.
So far, on the 125SX, I have changed out the pipe and the silencer along with the reed block. These are actually all changes that KTM made for either the 04 or 05 model year. I have also added a TrailTech Endurance Computer and ASV C5 levers and a PowerNow. I'm also fixing the front fender. For 04 and 05 KTM added a brace to the front fender so it doesn't hit the front wheel off of jumps due to flex. I have the brace on order and will be bracing it up.
The new reed block is a MotoTassinari VForce3 setup. To change the reeds was a pain. I had to take off the silence and pipe (but that was OK since I was changing them anyway) but I also had to pull the rear subframe and the carburetor. The stock reed block didn't want to come out. I pulled and I tugged. I tried to pry and tried to tap, nothing seemed to work. Finally, I took a punch and a hammer and hit it in the side pretty damn hard and it worked free. The new reeds use a gasket that is separate from the cage so it should be much easier to remove when reed replacement is needed.
The next step was the ProCircuit Pipe and Silencer. I went with a Works Pipe and a 296 silencer. The works pipe will add power through out the whole power band and the 296 will make the bike run quieter.
Before the subframe and airbox were reinstalled I installed a ScaryFast Racing PowerNow. Since I had everything apart it was really easy. It did make it harder to reinstall the airbox airboot. The PowerNow along with the pipe and reeds should give the 125 more bottom end, which most reviews say the KTM is missing. The pipe and the reeds are exactly how KTM chained the 04 125 to address the bottom end.
The rest of the changes are the controls and user experience. I changed the clutch and brake lever to ASV C5 levers. I looked at the F3/F1 design as a way of saving money but I prefer the shape of the C5 (I have them on my YZ250F) so I stuck with the C5. I switched the grips to Renthal Dual Compound grips which is what I run on my YZ250F and used to run on my BMW F650GS. The final addition is the TrailTech Endurance Computer. This is largely going to be used as an hour meter so I know how much I'm using the bike but it will be nice to know how fast and far I'm going when trail riding. I'm going to build a better mount system for now it is just clamped to the handle bars.
We are 80% or 85% done with our move from 99 Dude to Sunny Hell.
It was a long and not entirely fun weekend...
Saturday was not good. First thing in the morning the cable guy showed up and said he couldn't install the cable. He had a multitude of excuses and so did Comcast. They still have a multitude of excuses. I'm starting to think Satellite is a good idea and I'll just buy satellite recievers that support serial port control from Tivos. Then we go out to the truck to find someone slashed my left rear tire. Changing a tire on a halt ton truck with 33" tires and 17" rims really really sucks. Then Tonya went to 99 to meet the junk people that were collecting all of the crap I had decided to throw away. I went to KTM to pick up the parts I had ordered for my new bike. We then spent some time packing. I was feeling really bad and was having trouble breathing due largely to the flue that I haven't quite recovered from.
Saturday evening was a lot better. We went Tonya's office holiday party. It was fun. There was a gift exchange/stealing. We got to watch two very young children act as agents for their parents. At one point a 2.5 year old started acting as a free agent and stole the gift she wanted not the gift her mother instructed her to retrieve. There was MUCH laughing. After the party was more or less over we went back to 99 to do some packing and cleaning in prep for the movers in the morning. We were going to stay really late and just finish everything. That didn't happen. I felt really really sick and Tonya's contacts were bugging her so we went home.
Sunday we got up bright and early. Ok, Tonya got up earlier then me and left in the car because I was too slow and she didn't want to miss the movers at 99. I met her their 30 minutes later. This time no slashed tire on the truck. The movers showed up at 9:30 or so. Over the next 6 hours they moved us from Los Altos to Sunny Hell. Not having anything to do while they unloaded the truck in Sunny Hell I spent some time completely pulling my new dirtbike apart to install a new reed block and new exhaust system. The bike now has more power and is a little more quite. I managed to destroy both my hands while doing this work. I skinned several knuckles and bruised both palms and back of hands. But it was still more relaxing that watching two movers move almost all of my worldly possessions. Oh, and to top it off it is more expensive to have movers move your stuff then to have your friends do it and buy them a good lunch or dinner afterwards.
Now, almost all of our stuff is in our new house, none of it is unpacked and we have to clean and tidy 99 along with emptying the garage. We will be doing that this week after work. At least we are almost done!
