27 September, 2010

Granite Trials - PITS Property

I ventured off to my second Trials event on Saturday, back up to the PITS property outside Grass Valley. As shown in some posts below, I made a few small changes to the little Honda, and one big one (new carb.) I have been "practicing" quite a bit riding around in the front yard. Mostly just going very slowly, getting better at turning, and bouncing up and down curbs. So I was all prepared to suck less.

As it happens, I sucked way way way less. Long story short, after 24 sections of riding (three loops of the course, each course having 8 sections) I put a foot down once. So I ended this event with a points total of 1. As opposed to 28 last time.

This earned me a first place trophy towel:


Some of the sections were fairly basic on the #4 novice lane, but a few were tricky. All my practice of standing on the pegs going super slow paid off. Also, the bike was running better too. I turned the fuel mixture screw out half a turn to compensate for the higher elevation, and that was that. Never touched the bike the rest of the day. It started perfect every time, ran great, and had more balls running up the main service road between sections.

I've decided to move up to the #3 lane for my next events. I actually walked several of the #3 lanes during the event, and think I can manage with just a bit more ground clearance. There were a couple logs and stumps I would have bottomed out on with the current ride height.

So I'm already sketching up a few simple ways to raise the bike a couple inches, and will continue to practice. There is one last event on October 9th. But since that is the day before Susan's birthday, I may have to beg to attend it.

:)

C'

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