After a weekend off from dirt bikes, I was raring to get back onto the bike again on Sunday the 16th of August. The weather was predicted to be good and I’d not ridden the Hockliffe venue before so a trip up to this particular Enduroland venue was overdue. Tony was joining me as well. Getting to Tony’s house a little late, we set off for the venue roundabout nine o’clock. Even though we got to the venue later than planned we only had to wait a few moments to get into the site. It looks like the pre-printing of disclaimers have really helped to get the queues moving.

Once parked up there was more than enough time to grab a cup of tea and walk round the paddock/pits. Steve was there as well and we had a little chat about the work he’s had done to his new (to him) husky 250. His 450 TM is still up for grabs if anyone is keen on a top spec’ed big bore dirt bike (see my for sale section).

We were in no hurry to get out on the sighting lap, as that normally grinds down to a crawl as riders get stuck on the first few obstacles. However once we were finally suited and booted we thought we might as well join the throng of quads and bikes that were setting off in groups.

Tony ready for the start of the day

I had the helmet cam with me but elected to leave it in the car until the riders had thinned out and the track had time to bed in. True to form the first sign of a tree root had people tripping over themselves and a logjam formed. We pulled over for a while until things cleared up and got moving again.

The track: while only a few miles long there was enough to make it interesting and it was ideal venue for me to practice my flat turn technique. It was quite a fast track but all the straights were fairly short, so no flat out burns at silly speeds. Mind you that didn’t stop people from throwing themselves into the ground or the nearest hedge! I’ve never seen so many guys bin it at an enduroland event before – there were bodies everywhere!

Waiting for the queue to thin out

Straight after the pits a very short straight brought you to a left turn over some jumps. The first was a sort of weird mix of humps that I never did string together properly, but the next one (which came immediately after the last hump) you could sort of lunch the bike enough to clear the flat and land on the down slope. After a sharp turn to the right followed by another to the left, you entered into the small woods section. The slightly soft going and a few tree roots had people flopping off all over the place and it didn’t get any easier for them as the day worn on!

old school dude - wondering why the hell i was taking a photo of him

Coming out of the trees we turned left and went over some very steep but short ‘jumps’. They are in highlights as these were so steep that getting a bit heavy handed on the gas resulted in some very hard landings on the flats. Turing to the right there were two more smaller jumps that were a bit more easier on the suspension when landing, which took you into a tight left turn and a fast blast up the side (and around the edge) of the field. There were a few manmade chicanes along the edge of the field and then you ducked around some bushes that forced you over a few more roots. Once again plenty of riders were getting stuck.

Within a few yards we ducked through the hedge and once again skirted the edges of the field down one side then up the other with another natural tree chicane on the right hand side.
Carrying on along the edge of the field we cut back into the centre and over another jump. Then came the first really boggy bit that claimed a few riders but it never deteriorated during the day. Turning back on ourselves a couple of times we crossed adjacent wet patches several times. One of these had a little hump that could be used to jump across the mud and this did get a bit cut up later on.

Jumping over the mud
Enduroland Photos
Dave Burton Photography

A few fast flat turns across the field brought you to the first of several deep ditches. Personally I took these fairly easy as one of them was pretty iffy with tree roots along the edge. Steve saw some guys pre-loading the suspension and jumping off the root to clear the ditch. Tony saw one rider get it completely wrong. He came flying up to the ditch and must have thought it was as shallow as the preceding ones. Anyway he hit it at a silly speed without trying to jump across and his front wheel dug in, flinging the rider high into the air on the other side. To Tony’s surprise he got up and appeared to be fine.
The track then looped back and forth over this ditch several times before heading up into the top field where we had some more flat grass turns to practice on in front off the pits. Finally a short straight with some whoop like humps took us to a large pile of soft sand that we road over and back down to some more turns, just before the pits entrance came back around.

Tony
Enduroland Photos
Dave Burton Photography

Once the first few laps were out the way, things thinned out a bit, and we were able to get into the grove, putting some fast laps in. Hammering around for a few laps I settled down and started to concentrate on getting my body positioning correct for flat corners. It’s something I know how to do, but I forget to do it once I start to get tired. I also need to remember to get on the gas earlier when practicing these corners. Once you have the bike and body position correct you can benefit from better traction – but this is only an advantage if you actually give it more gas.

After a fair few fast laps the warm weather was starting to take its toll so we pulled in for a breather and some much needed cold drink. Feeling a little drained I tucked into a cheese roll as well. Not doing any fitness training for about a month hasn’t helped much either.

One full lap and a few extra clips

Gearing back up I took out the helmet cam setup to film the next session. Tony went out ahead of me while I was getting ready, so I had something to aim for by trying to catch him up.
On one of the first laps a rider pitched off in front of me in the woods and I only just managed to stop in time. It wasn’t long before I came across another rider laying sparko next to the track. Someone was there to help and a paramedic had also just arrived so I didn’t stop.
Seeing as there was a bike and a quad there, I wasn’t sure which one had crashed, but later on the chap next to us in the pits told us how he knocked himself silly crashing his quad, so we assumed it was him.
I think it was on the same lap that I went past another quad and a rider buried deep in a hedge along the back field. Again there was more than enough people to help so I didn’t stop.
By the next lap I’d caught Tony but when we came round to join the back field it had been tapped off due to the accident. We decided to head back to the pits for a breather until the rest of the track was re-opened. When we got back to the pits everyone was being flagged down, the track was closed for a period to allow the injured party to be properly cared for.

Tony
Enduroland Photos
Dave Burton Photography

Standing in the pits I took off my camelpack to check up on the camera and smoke was pouring out of the bag!! I hurriedly pulled the battery pack plug out and as I removed the camera from its bag to disconnect the Lanc and signal input cables, I noticed it was the cable themselves that had melted down to the bare wires. The cause was the cam feed cable getting caught up in a tree on the last but one lap and it had pulled out at the connector. This must have shorted the wires and caused the insulation to burn. Time for an Povi upgrade?

Once the track re-opened I decided to sit behind Tony for a while to get some helmet cam footage. Unfortunately I must have left the cam pointing into the sun as some condensation had built up inside the outer lens once more. I though I had cured this by stripping it down and leaving it on to get it nice and hot. I then and re-assembled it while under the drying effect of a hair drier. It had worked fine in the first session, but as soon as I powered it down during the break it came back. Anyway I sat behind Tony for a while and the dreaded “I’m being filmed” curse struck once again as he managed to fly straight into a bush after going through one of the ditches. A bit like Pete smacking into the tree at the Tall Pines event last month (also on film).

one of the last corners at the end of the track

After lunch we swapped bikes. Jumping onto Tony’s 250EXC-F it took a lap to get used to the slightly odd location of everything i.e. levers & bars etc. But once I was dialed into the bike I could start to compare it to my 450. The first thing I noticed was that the suspension was noticeably harder than on my bike. This came to light as soon as I hit the roots in the first section of trees. Now my front end is running a Dr Sox setup (service and clicker settings not re-valve) but that was maybe 18 months ago so I would expect it to be better at woods type riding in that respect. As soon as we were out of the trees I could feel the springy bits soaking up the jumps much better. The weight of the older RFS engined 450 can really be felt when landing from a jump. It sort of thumps down and the inertia works the arms more.
The front end was slightly more lively than my 450’s, but then again I do have a damper fitted. At no point did it feel like it wanted to shake about. On the straights the fact that the ktm has the most poke of all the 250’s, still didn’t mask the fact that it could do with some more go. It picks up fine as long as you don’t expect it to pull from idle out of corners on big throttle openings, keep it singing and it stays happy. This lack of big grunty power does have its advantages and that is rear end grip. After several laps I found that I could get on the gas a lot earlier and this gave some good speed coming out of corners.

a knackered, but happy Tony at the end of the day

By now I was really starting to feel the pace and Tony must have had enough of wrestling the larger bike around as he flagged me down at the pit entrance. I had already decided to take another break anyway and it was nice to chill out for a while and hit back a cold coke and the free Hog Roast that was supplied!

In the next session I managed to crash while tipping it into the flat turn just after the boggy jump. I’d been getting progressively more knackered throughout the day and my style was reduced to ‘sit in the saddle and ride’. Lesson learnt I made more and more of an effort to push the bike down and by the end of the day it more or less improved to the point where I could tell the difference.

The Ford & Ellis guys were there and they came past while I was on the deck. I gave chase and came across one on the deck himself a little wile later. And that was more or less it. I hardly ever saw Steve out on the track barring very early in the day when I passed him in the woods. I know he had his helmet cam with him so hopefully he might have some good footage as well.

Post ride checks: while giving the bike a clean on Tuesday I noticed the rear felt a bit springy at the back. The rebound damping felt way off. I turned it right up but the rear end was still returning way too fast. The compression damping didn’t feel much better either, so it’s been taken off and packaged up ready to be sent off for repairs. I might also go up another weight on the rear spring.

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