Double Day at Enduroland
Hockliffe & Sherboune

I’d been to EnduroLand’s Hockliffe venue once before in 2009 and found it was a good place to practice my flat cornering. It’s not a demanding track, but it is an enjoyable day out. I was once again looking forward to practicing getting the bike pushed down into corners and trying to get it to come naturally, as I tend to forget to do it once in the heat of a H&H.

Tony and I were making the journey and I’d made an appointment to meet up with Darren. He’d been contacting me for advice on getting into the off road scene and was in need of some body armour. I’d offered him my old set so we needed to meet up before he was forced to go out on track – naked. Getting unpacked and geared up I spotted Darren a few cars away so I walked over to introduce myself.

Darren's magic van and his newly bought wr250

Tony and I were both surprised when Darren managed to extract a wr250 that looked far too big to be in back of the mini van. Well not an actual mini that would be just daft, no it was one of those half size vans. We walked over to Steve, Dave and co’s vans to catch up before heading to the catering shed for some much needed coffees.

We were all kind of slow getting ready and I was a little concerned about the 450’s engine, having just repair the issues that put paid to the last outing at Enduroland two weeks prior. It’s a bit of a long story (one which I’ll write about later) but the short story is that I had to replace the outlet rocker arm.

Tony lockwires..........

while Darren kicks........

Tony needed to lockwire his grips so while he did that I clucked around my bike making sure it was going to last. Just as we were going to join the sighting lap I noticed an oil leak, which meant I had to head back to the car to investigate. Tony was keen to find out how his 250exc-f was running since it had the JD jetting kit fitted so he got stuck in while did some more spannering.

Luckily I picked it up (the leak) on the first guess and found the LHS oil filter cap had pinched the o-ring. I had a spare on in the toolbox so I was ready to go in under five minutes.

On my own now I joined the track which starts off with a short straight followed by a few bends along the edge of the trees. Once at the end of this stand you can go left on the ‘easy’ route or turn right into the ‘hard’ route. Well I wasn’t here to take the easy options so I naturally headed into the trees on the path less trodden. Mmm it may be less trodden now but I must have missed the heard of migrating wildebeest that had surely pasted through that morning as the track in the trees was well torn up. Since the last time I visited Hockliffe some evil looking bogs and tree roots had appeared under the trees. I made it through the first few traps but then got a little overconfident at the next one – where I ended up jamming the rear wheel tight up against a tree root with a bottomless bog beneath it. No amount of throttle twisting or four letter words were helping so I climbed off to survey the situation. The bike was resting on the engine skidpan so it was going to mean lifting it out but the mud didn’t want to let go. Luckily I marshal had seen my plight and came walking over from the track outside the woods and together we managed to get it free. Still I came off better than Tony who apparently went head first over the bars doing a superman impression when his front end dropped into a similar bottomless hole.

these mini jumps can catch you out!

I got stuck into a few laps but for some reason I was really feeling the pace. Ok I was trying to go as fast as I could, but when I finished each lap I was bolloxed. My nose had been streaming all weekend so either the hay fever was making me feel tired or I had cold – either way I had to take five at the end of each lap.

This wasn’t so bad really as I could catch Tony, make an overtake, and go flat out for the rest of the lap, thereby pulling a good gap. I’d then pull into the pits to catch a breather and wait for Tony to come past. Once he’d gone by I’d wait for him to get to the trees then I’d head off again riding flat out to catch up. As it wasn’t a race I was able to concentrate on my technique. Pushing the bike down and keeping my weight up I found I carried loads more corner speed and nearly rammed several riders into next week but luckily I managed to avoid it each time by hitting the brakes hard, coupled with lots of sucking in of breath through clenched teeth!

exhaust bung anyone?

oops............!

After the tree section you had a few little ramps to semi jump off and some flat turns followed by a few more (slightly bigger) jumps. I normally take all of these jumps nice and easy, as the old girl doesn’t do flat landing jumps very well. Advice that maybe Tony should have followed, as when I came round the bend I found him inspecting his rather second hand looking bike. I stopped to find out if he was ok and to take the piss. The rear tailpiece was all but broken off and the exhaust didn’t look as if it was lined up in the factory like that! We struggled to get the bike going again as the exhaust was filled with a couple of inches of mud as well. A slow ride back to the pits and we cut off the rear mudguard before it fell off and gave the rest of the bike a quick going over.

snip snip....no problem

WHAT?! £80 for a new one! Nooooooooo!!!!

After the trees and jumps came some high speed runs along the edges of the fields before the track looped back several times in the centre part – again mostly flat turns. A couple of small dips down into a gully brought you back into the top field where you went over the soft hump then got stuck into the hardest part of the track (for me anyway). This top field features natural whoops that really work the suspension, legs and arms. Unfortunately as they are natural they haven’t been sculptured out evenly. This means that no matter what speed you took them at you always felt like you where riding a bike with square wheels – well it did for me anyway!

Video no:1 by Steve

Apart for the whoops my newly repaired bike felt like a missile and I was having a great time on it as it felt really stable everywhere else and I had so much confidence in the front end I could just crank it right over in the turn with me climbing all over the front, leg out. I felt like I almost knew what I was doing. Like I said before I nearly hit so many people up the rear as I was carrying so much more corner speed. Once again the GT 216’s were really impressing me as I’ve never had such confidence in the front before.
About half way through the day I jumped on Tony’s 250exc-f for a quick blast to feel how the new jetting felt. The JD kit had definitely helped as I didn’t get a single bbbuuurrrr moment on the laps that I did - which turned out to be more laps than I hoped for. For some reason Tony was enjoying my bike for a change and stayed out on it. What surprised me was that I wasn’t really enjoying riding his?! The last time we were here I loved it and really gave it a good thrash about the place. This time the bike just felt to nervous and I was getting even more tired hanging on to it on the straights and didn’t feel confident in pushing the front in the bends. Personally I think the AC10 on the front just looks and feels all wrong, if it was me I’d get a 216 on there asap. Tony on the other hand was enjoying my bike loads, and I even caught him pulling a wheelie! He’s ridden it a lot in the past and I’ve had mixed reviews from him, ranging from “piece of shit” to today’s “best it’s ever been”.

Video no:2 by Steve

Next up I took Steve’s Husky 250 4T out for a blast. I ridden it a couple of times and always liked it. He’s recently had the suspension worked on and while it does feel better than the past it inevitably doesn’t feel as planted as the damper equipped 450. What I did notice was the flat spot in the lower midrange was quite pronounced if you got caught out in the wrong gear and too big a throttle opening. He has a 310 big bore kit waiting to be fitted, so roll on the next meeting!

Darren had a good day and I pasted him several time out on track. For a first timer he is riding exceptionally well – but from what I heard he could hardly move the next day! Another great days ridding but boy did a feel knackered by the end of it. Those whoops were just killing me!

Oh yes nearly forgot - Steve's mate did one of those
"oh shit i can't believe i just did that" moments when he tried to load his bike at the end of the day!

...............................................................................................

Sherbourne:

no camera meant i bought all the following pictures from Dave the resident enduroland photographer.
I don't normally buy photos but these came out really well so check out his site.

This was a new track so I was keen to give it a go. Initially when I heard how far away it was I had second thoughts but Tony offered to drive so we made the trip up the M40 early in the morning to get there in plenty of time.
After one small detour we got into the venue and we could see it was going to be a busy day. It looked like half the MX guys of Birmingham had come out to play!
I think the amount of riders coming on the day had also caught out Nigel a bit as well. He’d laid out a track about three miles long, but this meant it go fairly busy out there. Apparently there are another few woods and fields that could have been used and he’ll make sure these are used next time. What with this venue being a fair old trek away from the normal catchment area it’s always hard to judge what sort of turnout you’ll get.

We found Steve and co straight after signing on and caught up with Steve’s story of sorting the gremlins ref his fitting of the big bore kit into the husky. After loads of stripping down and cleaning, checking and double checking he thought he’d gotten to the bottom of the poor running. Time would tell.

the river crossing

Before things started the river crossing was causing a lot of interest. I must admit it looked kind of intimidating as there was a high bank on the opposite side and the water looked fairly deep. We decided to skip it on the first lap and to let others try it out first!

Not having a camera with me I didn’t get any shots of the parking/pit area but we were treated to a lush grassed area that was thankfully still dry despite the rain that had been falling most of the way up the M40. In fact we didn’t have a drop of rain all day, but buy the end of the day most were hoping for some to fall to dampen the dust.

yeehaa !!!!!!!!!!!!

So the track: it started in an anti clockwise direction moving along a farm track that skirted the river on one side and the pits on the other. Then we turned into the farmyard itself and we went through the centre of the buildings turning right straight afterwards on a track between the crops. After a short straight and a left turn you found yourself on a long straight farm track where you could really open the bike up. It did have some iffy humps and lumps in that were slowing some riders down, but the damper on the 450 made short work of them and the exc torn up to the track to the next left turn like a missile. Turning left into a tree covered short straight we were heading back towards the river once more. Just before we all got wet there was another left turn followed by a series of switchbacks, up and downs.

me again

Tracing the river on your left we road along a ridge but half way along it a gap had been cut out so there was a drop back down to floor level, quickly followed by a climb back up. A fast blast between some young trees took you to a tight zig zag and then a sandy run inside a tall stand of trees. Once at the end of the trees we swung left and followed a path cut out and this got nicely banked during the day so you could crank the bike over and nail it out the turns.
Once out of the trees a couple of turns brought you up to a wooden bridge that spanned the river. Everyone took this nice an easy as the drop down into the water didn’t look like a nice place to fish a bike out from! So now we were tracing the river with it on our RHS and we dipped down the banks three times as we made out way to the left hand turn further on. Well we should have dropped down into the river three times but guys were getting so stuck in there that it was causing jams, so after a while most people just bypassed them by cutting across the bend.

Tony with me behind

So after the left turn came a long curved track that could be taken at speed but most were taking it easy. It did have a few ruts and bumps in it but nothing too bad. At the end of the field another left turn had us heading back up towards the general pits area again but first we had a nice little conifer wood to hammer through. The twists and turns were made more exciting by some interesting changes in height.

Exiting the woods once more we were on the home straight as the pits were in site, but first there were a few more tight rocky bends to get through, one on a hump and I managed to cut inside this one very tightly to overtake loads of people.

Once again I was using Tony as something to chase but as there were so many riders out there it was difficult to make ground sometimes. Coming up to the first set of woods I’d pull over and wait for a clear run on the banked sandy corners, it’s always annoying having a quick run spoilt by a slower rider.

Video by Steve again

Later on in the afternoon I was felling the pace a bit so I decided to settle in behind Tony and take it a bit easier. Everything was going fine up till we got to the woods way over on the far side of the track. This was the bit with two fast open tracks leading up to it. The left turn into the woods was a very hard flat turn. Now that I wasn’t ridding flat out I didn’t have my body positioning sorted and the front end tucked on me, dumping me onto the rock hard track. As soon as I hit the ground with my chest I felt the ribs go ‘crack’ and felt the movement. It was such a little tumble but obviously the ribs hadn’t healed properly from January. Feeling the ribs go like that I was in a bit of shock and didn’t fancy picking the bike up just in case it was worse than it felt, so I winced a lot and cursed myself for being stupid. Just then the Ford and Ellis guys came past and they stopped to lend a hand, picking the bike up and asking if I was ok to get back to the pits on my own. After thanking them for the hand I assured them I was ok but just wanted to chill out for a bit. I sat there for ten minutes or so and then took a steady ride back to the pits where I walked down to Steve’s van to chill and have a chat to his wife.

One cup of tea and a horse tranquilliser later I was back out on track but taking it a little tentative (at first). We did have a short enforced break as one of the quad guys had knocked himself senseless just after the farmyard and had to be carted away in a ambulance.
After the break I was following Tony around again for a while and tried to overtake on the back straight leading up to where I fell off, but now Tony was really screwing the life out of his exc-f and I couldn’t get by. I shadowed him into the trees and took a tight line on one of the downward sections and managed to make the overtake stick. By now the bike was feeling slightly under-powered, but it was the end of the day so the bike was packed away. I suspected a clogged filter and when it was removed from the bike it looked like a lump of dirt – yep it was a dusty one!

The ribs didn’t feel too bad come Monday morning but what did hurt was sneezing. I normally use the trick of pushing on the hurt ribs when I sneeze to stop them expanding and causing undue pain. Well on Tuesday I got a bit of a fright. Sitting in front of the TV with the laptop (on my lap) I felt a sneeze coming and was unable to stop it. Pressing on my ribs the resulting expansion hurt like f*** so when I felt another one coming I pressed even harder. The ‘crack’ and the movement of the rib being pushed in at the front of my chest was a rather unpleasant feeling I must say but at least the sneeze pushed it back out again! Phil and Steve have been asking me today if I’m going riding tomorrow but I think I might just take it easy this weekend to let the ribs heal just that little bit more before heading off to Scotland with enduroland on the 16th.

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