2011 Montreal Supercross Racing

After getting home from a week of intense training on Friday evening, I packed the wife and kids into the car early Saturday morning and we all headed to Montreal. While the wife wasn't too keen on watching the Supercross races, my 9-year-old daughter was quite eager to go.  So while my wife stayed at the pool in the hotel with the other two kids, my daughter and I went to the Olympic Stadium to watch a full evening of Freestyle MX, Side-by-Side (Rhino racing), VTT (French for Quad Racers), and of course, Supercross.

It's a blast to watch this kind of entertainment in person. The sounds, the smells, the people, the machines. Here are a few photos:

We arrived early and got to watch the Freestyle MX'ers

warming up. This shit is fucked up. Who in their  right

mind would ever think to attempt such dangerous shit? 

Fun as hell to watch, though!

These are the Side-by-Side racers. Basically Rhino's (two seaters).

Not very fast, these things are made for driving around farm land or

fire roads, not motocross tracks.

The quad racers were much faster and more aggressive. In Montreal, they're called VTT Racing (Vehicule Tout Terrain = All Terrain Vehicle)

Finally got to the fun stuff: the bikes.  Fast and furious!

Calabogie Boogie

This past weekend was the 21st Annual Calabogie Boogie.  A record-size crowd of 240 riders showed up for the 2-day ride.

Last year I rode the main trail ride with my buddy Dave and his two friends (who traveled from far, far away). While it was fun and I assumed I would do the same again this year, I heard the organizers were looking for volunteers to work as sweepers for the Dual Sport Adventure Route so I threw my name in.  As a sweeper, you still ride ---- but you ride at the end of the line, following the others to make sure no one is stranded with a flat tire, broken bones, out of gas, etc.  Plus, as a volunteer, you don't have to pay the registration fee.

The Dual Sport Adventure Route is less aggressive than the main trail ride -- which is intended for pure off-road bikes (enduro, motocross, or whatever non-street-legal bike you ride). Parts of the dual sport route share some of the same segments as the main trail ride, but not the really tough sections. And there tends to be some gravel roads connecting one trail to the next. Essentially the DS route is a bit easier in terms of the difficulty level -- which is just fine with me given that my arthritis has been bothering me lately ... and having to muscle a big, heavy DR650 through trails designed for a 250cc enduro bike (weighing 100 lbs less than my bike) is quite a chore.

And after riding the DS route for both days, I have to say the route was amazing. There were definitely some challenging sections but nothing impossible for a porky 650, and some of the gravel roads were a blast to run with a bit of speed (an opportunity the trail riders missed).

After two full days, I was exhausted. Every bone and muscle in my body was sore when I got home on Sunday evening. But I would do it again next weekend.

And a couple of videos from my GoPro camera:

Day 1

Day 2

Ride around Lavant, Poland, Calabogie

After checking the weather forecast on Thursday, I decided Friday looked better for riding than Saturday -- Saturday was to be stinking hot with lots of humidity, while Friday was sunny but not quite so hot.  So I packed up my Pelican 1500 with spare front & rear tubes, my regular tools, 12V air pump, water, Gatorade, energy bars, spare cell phone / camera / GPS batteries, and some fishing stuff.

I brought my GoPro 960 camera along as usual. It was recently replaced under warranty because the old one suddenly developed a bug in which it would randomly stop recording sound. Very annoying how the audio would cut in and out while recording. But I've gotta say that GoPro was awesome to deal with. Once their tech support people agreed that my camera was in fact defective, it was as simple as sending it back to them, and a brand new one shipped out right away. They were great in their communication with me, too, sending me email updates every step of the way (they emailed me as soon as my defective unit arrived at their offices, and another email to confirm that they tested it and confirmed the defect, then another email the next day to let me know that a replacement was shipped out, plus the tracking code for the shipping. All in all, they were great to deal with. They stood behind their product 100% and gave me terrific service.

Got lots of bites at Green Lake but I only managed to lose 4 lures before I moved on.

Testing out my new Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx, alongside my trusty

Garmin Oregon 300. Both are quite similar, but they are also quite different.

Joe's lake. While I didn't lose any lures here, I still didn't catch any fish.

Testing the timer function on my phone's camera.

The two GPS units on RAM mounts, with my new

Tusk Chub Big Bars in the ATV bend. They are nice

and high compared to the lower YZ bend bars I had.  

These are much more comfy when standing on the pegs.

A green swampy hole just off New Road (off Hwy 511)

Somewhere along the K & P rail trail.

Some video highlights from the day's ride. All together,

I managed 300 Kms with about 3 hours of fishing.

I used the GoPro chest mount harness for most of the

front-facing video, plus I used a custom RAM mount I made

for the GoPro camera, attached to the rear luggage rack.

Frankenbike - KTM fairing

Here's a sneak preview of my next project: trying to devise a scheme to graft this KTM headlight, windscreen, dashboard assembly and side fairings onto my DR650.  Having already mounted a GSXR exhaust system, RMZ forks, triples and front wheel, and Yamaha R6 throttle tube, it is really turning into a true Frankenbike.

 

KTM 950 Adventure OEM headlight, windscreen, dash,

aluminium mounting frame and aftermarket side fairings.

 

 

Oh, and a side note:  the RMZ250 fender that was included with the RMZ forks was bent out of shape and covered in scuff marks and scratches. This $19 replacement made by Polisport is a very good replica of the original, and top quality. Holes were pre-drilled and it fits perfectly. Identical shape as the original -- obviously they used an OEM fender for the mould. Bought from RockyMountainATV.com  (Part # 1146680031).  Of course, it goes very well with the Polisport RMZ lower fork guards I threw on there a couple of months ago (also purchased from RockyMountainATV).

The ratty old RMZ fender was looking pretty tired.

The $19 Polisport replica fender is awesome.