"Endurofest 2009" at Enduroland

It was only the week before the big weekend that I decided to camp out at the second running of ‘Endurofest’ at Enduroland. Nicky was going away as well, so it gave me the opportunity to camp over with some of the lads. I’d been to the first ever Endurofest back in 2008 and we all had a good time then, so we expected to have an even better time in 2009.
Enduroland’s home venue at Adstone has matured over the last year and Nigel has spent a lot of time adding extra obstacles and building up the ‘rock garden’. Of course the big addition to this event was going to be the ‘extreme challenge’ obstacle course that had been specially built for the Saturday evening’s entertainment (more about that later).
I took the Friday off work to sort out all the camping gear (got loads of days left over as no holiday for us this year). After a good rummage around the loft I found my sleeping bag, tent (or wind sock as Tony calls it), and sleeping mats. I also found my old army mess tin (for coffee) and one half of the food container. I managed to break the gas stove while taking that apart to replace the gas bottle, but managed to repair it with lock wire. The final addition to my weekend’s camping trip was a single blow up mattress (£10) from a local outdoors shop in Amersham. Coupled to the two sleeping mats I was convinced I’d be as snug as a bug – oh how wrong could I be!

Steve and his mate

I got to the venue by about half past ten I think, a little later than planned but I first had to make a pickup at Tony’s place. He wasn’t keen on camping, so I had to pick up his bike to take with me and he’d meet me there on the Sunday. There was only about two cars in front of me when I got to the gate and getting in wasn’t a problem. I managed to find a good spot right next to Steve and his mate. He’d already been out on track so I hurriedly geared up so I could join in the mayhem. The format for Saturday was two separate tracks, one for the quads and one for bikes. There was another one for children run in a separate field.

Pits/campsite on Sat morning

I joined the track and as it was still during the morning session I took the right hand side entry into the thick of things. Within a couple of corners we were taken away from the pits and round to the water splashes to the right of the venue. There was an option to skip the water, but on the first lap I road through them. We then headed out round the perimeter of the field in an anticlockwise direction. Very high speed stuff and apart from one kink on the back straight fairly safe going. Once we started back on the other side of the field there were a few damp patches, ruts and bumps to keep you alert, just before peeling into the trees for a couple of tight bends. Coming out of the trees we had some flat turns in front of the pits before going into the mini ditch then pulling back round to the timber yard. Once through the log obstacles we had the high speed (but very bumpy) run down to the bottom of the field. This part has always been bumpy or whooped, but it can still be taken flat out if you hang on tight enough and pick your line. We then swung to the left and came up the track with the jumps in, another tight left followed by a long bumpy right, followed by a short straight (again very bumpy) into a tight right corner. This in turn led to one of the first drops down into the railway cutting, these steep drops and climbs are always fun but can catch you out if you lose momentum or don’t follow the correct technique, as many novice riders found out, and some ‘not so novice’ riders - eh Steve! After several ups and downs through the cuttings and a few more fast bits that was the lap over.

me on the tyres (thanks to dave burton)

After several laps I pulled in for a while to take a breather at the car, and have a few nibbles. I got in another handful of high speed laps and was just chilling out in the pits when Steve came past. Getting back out on track quickly I slotted in behind him and I think he knew I was there cos his speed picked up suddenly. However it looked a little frantic with several mistakes creeping in. Back round for another lap and suddenly the mistakes stopped and Steve was really ‘on it’ for the whole lap. We all met up back at the car and Steve was really buzzing from his quick lap. I suggested he try and practice sitting further forward in the seat, as it looked like he had his bum near the back when I was following him (not that I normally tend to look at guys butts you understand!) Anyway I jumped on his bike to demonstrate his positioning and noticed the rear end was really soft with almost no damping at all. It wasn’t long before the tools were out and I set up the static sag as it was about 20mm out. Next up was the rebound and compression damping. I set it up more or less how’d I’d like it then tucked into some ham and cheese rolls and a coke, mmmm cheese.

After lunch the tracks were swapped over, so after a couple of bends it was straight into the tyre obstacles and then across the rock garden. These rocks were having loads of guys off and I managed to snap a few pictures during one backlog. From here it was a short’ish straight, a right/left bend and over the jumps followed by another short straight where we then dropped down into the railway cutting again.

the rock garden - tricky for some

This part of the cutting isn’t quite so deep but it’s just as steep and you flick up and down the edges a handful of times before entering into the woods. This part hasn’t changed much and is getting very rooty now. However being dry this wasn’t a problem and by following the right line you can get some really good speed through the trees. Breaking out of the trees we skirted the field clockwise. At the top of the first leg there was a separate field that could be accessed by pushing your bike across a byway. I tried this once, but wasn’t too impressed with the loop as it is was fairly fast, but was filled with grass covered mini ruts that would have the front end away quick smart, so I gave it a miss after the first lap. Still skirting round the two big fields we made our way back to the straight near the railway cutting. This is on the other side of the wire fence and a site of an accident a few meetings ago, so three logs were placed across the path to slow riders down.

the flying wonder - wonder when he's going to land!

checking out the damage

They were clearly marked by two posts on either side that had bright orange markers on – but this still wasn’t enough for several riders! On the first lap I was behind a couple of bikes when the first rider hit log number one at full speed. The bike cart wheeled through the air several times and I sucked my breath in as it slammed into the ground and bounced back up flipping over several times. The dust and other bikes obscured the rider but I pulled up sharpish and ran over to see it he was ok. He was already on his feet and gabbling fairly lively about being ‘ok’. Seeing as he was fairly vocal I knew he was more or less ok, but he did look comical as his goggles were half cocked at an angle and he was bouncing around saying “I’m ok”, “I’m ok” quite loudly – I think he was pretty surprised that he was ok actually (so was I).

yep he really bounced that far!
he bounced from the log in the background

I picked up his bike and the rear mudguard came off in my hand, apart from that and the fact that the handlebars were squished down into a cafe racer drop down position, it looked like the bike had come off all right. A young marshal came running over asking everyone if they were ok. Once we ascertained who exactly was hurt (or not), I suggested she go stand further down the track and get people to slow down. The rider who had the misfortune to go flying instead of riding over the logs said that the last time he was here, this bit was flat out. I told him about the need to slow things down a bit and then seeing as he had some friends there and he looked ok I carried on.

some more spills on the rocks

After the straight we dipped down into the railway cutting again, pulling back up on the same side and crossed the bridge into the small wooded bit that exited near the pits. I kept on putting in the laps for the afternoon and pulled in ever so often for a breather. Come four in the afternoon the track was closed and we all met up at the cars for a chat & cool down. I set about getting my camp sorted and the cold beers out of the cooler box went down a treat after the hot days riding and all the dust. Steve was unsure if the rear shock adjustment had made any difference cos it felt a bit strange to him now.

my tent or 'windsock' as Tony calls it!

Once the tent was up I joined the others to watch the quad ‘extreme challenge’ on the purposed built obstacle course. It was good watching them tackle the jumps etc. as several made some spectacular mistakes by flipping their quads. One guy lost it big time on the high ‘up and over’ framework as he hit it too hard and the quad launched itself skyward. Everyone went, oooh as it looked like it was going to squish him, but luckily it fell to one side. Once the quads had finished, the Saturday bike riders could have a go and some of the riders got some pretty impressive airtime off the pipe jumps.

Video of Extreme Challenge courtesy of Lee Bartram

darkness falls at endurofest 2009

Steve and co chilling out for a while before hitting the beer tent

Then it was down to the burger van for a cheese burger and into the tent for several beers. I must say we were very good and didn’t stay up until stupid o’clock, but we did have a couple, enough that there was full round of chicken kebabs ordered when we left the bar. Oh yes we did bump into the guys that had the big head over heels trip by the logs. Turns out he wasn’t too ‘ok’ after all. His hand/wrist was badly swollen and he could hardly walk – but he was still in good spirits and having a laugh! Before getting tucked up in the tent I blew up the mattress and brewed a cup of tea. Once I’d managed to squeeze into the rather small tent, I was please to find I could pick up Kerrang radio on the little fm portable I’d brought along. So munching on some soreen cake and drinking tea in bed I settled down for the night, or tried too.

mmmm a few beers then the kebab!

Steve all wrapped up for the night

I must say I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep at all. I’d closed the fly sheet by my head and due to there being so much moisture in the air, my breath formed loads of moisture on the inside of the tent. I noticed this once I woke up from one of the fitful bits of sleep I did get. Then I heard a ‘twang’ and realised the fly sheet had come off the locating point and was now resting on my sleeping bag, making it wet. In the end I was forced to unclip the inner fly sheet in the middle of the night and slide down to the bottom of the tent to re-attach it. Another bit of sleep was interrupted by someone losing their dog, so they fired up their generator and started to call out the dogs name! This went down well with everyone else as you can imagine! A bit more tossing a turning and the beer needed out, so a quick walk to the hedge was required. I drifted off then but woke up later and it almost sounded like it was raining slightly but I’m not sure. All I knew was that I was dam uncomfortable as the mattress was too hard. I let some air out and that helped a bit.

morning at last!

The morning couldn’t come too soon for me and I brewed up some coffee and then some bacon butties for me, Steve and his mate. Several cups of coffee later Tony arrived, he’d had no problems getting in, but said that shortly afterwards this changed as loads of people arrived at the same time and massive queues formed. While getting ready we wondered where Phil was and he never did turn up. He was still a victim of his burnt toes from the previous week’s rideout, when he set himself on fire trying to take an arty shot of his bike, near some smoldering farm waste.

Video Courtesy of Lee Bartram

The format for Sunday was slightly different in the fact that you could choose which track you wanted to use at any time. Sitting at the track entrance it looked like the track was absolutely rammed with people, but once you were out on track it really wasn’t an issue and we enjoyed some great dices with one another. After a morning of blasting around I got all the helmet cam gear on and sat on Tony’s rear wheel for several laps, hopefully getting some good footage for the website. Unfortunately a poor connection, (that was a result of the cabling getting pulled at a previous round), caused the picture to fail. At first I thought the camcorder had given up the ghost, but it was later traced to a broken wire in the bullet cam plug.

another rider that went flying!

During lunch I asked Steve how his bike felt now, but he was still unsure. I suggested we have a swap so I jumped on his bike (husky 250 4T) and he got on mine, a KTM 450exc. I shot off after Tony who was aboard his KTM 250sxc-f and had a few corners to get used to the boggy nature of 250 four stroke throttle delivery, if you don’t wring their necks. First impressions? The brakes were awful at first, so I turned out the span adjuster a bit to get more leverage. They must have been slightly glazed I think cos they did get better in time. I’m fairly heavy on brakes as I like to brake quite late into corners from high speed, so they got a good workout. Once I got used to the engine characteristics (of going bbuuurrrr when opening it up in the wrong gear) and started to really scream the engine at all times the bike felt good. I flew past Tony on the back straight and once into the woods (we did both tracks) the suspension on both ends felt fine. I was always aware of the front end being less stable than my damper equipped bike, but it was only really felt when crossing the rock garden. At one stage we stopped in a queue when someone had lost it in one of the steep dips. Tony laughed and said it was Steve crashing my bike! I laughed as well when told him to **** off. Getting back to the pits Steve was very apologetic; he’d crashed my bike in the dip! No harm done, that’s what they are built for.

me chasing Tony - taken by steve and then cropped down

Dan who rides an older RFS engined 250 exc with a 280/290 cc kit fitted, was complaining that it still didn’t have the legs on Steve’s 250. We had a quick swap again and I jumped on his bike for a lap or two. I was a little wary at first as it had a steeper offset triple clamp fitted, so I held on a little tighter than normal. Indeed the bigger kit didn’t give it any more legs on the other 250’s (on the straights) but once into the trees and in the tight going, I noticed the extra pull of the engine straight away. The ability to pull cleanly in a higher gear in the tight, root infested woods is a big plus over the standard 250’s. I think the extra pull would really make itself felt at a track like Sevenoaks, or in any Welsh enduro where there are plenty of climbs and bogs to grunt up or out of.

me chasing Tony - this time on the tyres

Getting back onto my 450 I immediately realised just how good it is. In the dry the bigger bike is an advantage and now that I’m getting used to putting the power down the bike feels better and better. The grunt from the big engine and stability of the bike’s chassis is a real plus in the dry, and I don’t think I could have gone faster on any other bike. Steve and Dan were equally complimentary of their time on my bike, with both thinking up ways of getting one. Both loved the easy power delivery and the soft’ish suspension that is set up for local H&H’s. Rubbish on jumps though.

Back out on track and just as I popped out of one of the dips I noticed a rider flat on his back with guys standing around. Stopping the bike I jumped over the fence and went to see if he was ok. He had a bruise/mark on the side of his face, so I asked another rider to go fetch a medic. He was complaining of a sore side, then tried to get up. I persuaded him not to move, but helped him get comfortable leaning against a fence post. His bike (crf) looked unmarked and once again it was the logs that had caught him out as well. The medic arrived so I headed off again, he seemed ok but I’m sure he’ll have some lumps and bumps.

 
the proud dad and his son who just won the quad!!

I’m not sure what time we packed up but a great day was had by all. I went down to have a word with Nigel and watched the prize draw of the little quad. An Enduroland marshal’s son won it, so he was a happy little chap.
A great weekend was had by all once again, a ‘must do’ for 2010.

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