Kenny Carlile

My friend Jeff and I hit the Washougal motocross park last Sunday for the last practice session of the season. I'd never ridden Washougal before, although I've watched four AMA National motocross races there. What an amazing place! Being on that track was a childhood dream come true. It's such a surreal place for me having seen my childhood idols race there as a kid. Riding that track seemed so unimaginable and now I'm in a position where I can just pay $30 and ride it a few times a year.

My bike actually did better than I was afraid it would do. Don't get me wrong, the handling was pretty bad, but power-wise it did okay. That is, it worked. It didn't work well, but it worked. I was able to pull Horsepower Hill better than I expected and it worked decent in the ruts.

In practice round 1, I passed about four other riders before I tried to avoid a big jump, mistimed a smaller jump, jumped off the track, smashed through a hay bale, and landed facing into traffic on another part of the track. I technically "passed" about another dozen or so riders, but since I cut a huge section of the track out, I don't count those passes.

My second time out, I passed a couple riders before taking a nasty spill. I was coming out of the corner right before Horsepower Hill when I got cross-rutted, tried to power out of it, the bike started swapping, and then I high-sided. You can see this crash in the videos below, but unfortunately for me, the angle looks like I just tipped over for no reason. I can assure you, I was trying to save it before I crashed. After my little crash, I took the rest of that round easy.

My third round out, I didn't push myself very hard. I was getting tired and starting to feel what a pig my bike had become on the track. The more tired I got, the worse my trailbike worked as a motocross bike.

Despite my two gaffes, I had a great time. The motocross bug has really bitten me. It was something I always wanted to do as a kid and just never was able to do it for one reason or another.

Another very positive experience was meeting the people I rode with. Jeff is a great rider and a really nice guy. I also finally got to meet another friend from the forums, Eric, who is also a fantastic rider. My previous experiences with motocross riders, when I was growing up, were fairly negative. They were always very competitive and arrogant. However, this group of guys was compeltely different! They were all extremely supportive and encouraging. I know that I was relatively slow and awkward on the track, but they all told me how great I was doing, which was really nice to hear. I'm very happy to have met these guys.

My latest scheme–I mean, plan–is to train and save over the winter, buy a gently used CRF250R and do some racing next year. I don't care if I come in last place every time, I just want to ride and have fun. I never got to do it as a kid, so this is my chance to fulfill a childhood dream. Wish me luck!

When I recently slapped some new graphics on my CRF250X, I asked my friends for tips as I'd never applied fancy graphics before, just stickers. I had heard about using Windex before, but I didn't fully understand how it worked. My friends said to spray the plastic with Windex, then slap the sticker on, position it, and let the Windex dry and the sticker will set perfectly.

The first sticker I tried was the front fender sticker. I slathered the fender up with Windex before applying the sticker. I couldn't get it to stick at all! It was just sliding all over and it wouldn't even form to the fender's curve. I pulled it off and sopped up some of the Windex and tried it again. It still wouldn't stick; there was just too much Windex on the fender and sticker. I sopped up as much as I could, reapplied the sticker, and went to get a hair dryer to try to help the drying process. BAM! This did the trick. The heat from the hair dryer warmed the sticker up even more so that it was much more pliable. It also made the glue tackier and the Windex dried faster.

After experimenting on the front and rear fenders, I learned the real trick to using Windex to apply graphics.

1. Spray your hands with Windex and wipe down the plastic with your hands. The reason for doing this is that you get just the right amount on the fender. If you spray it directly on, you have to use too much to get good coverage.
2. Apply and position the sticker. Don't worry if it doesn't lay along all the curves and shapes of the plastic, just get it aligned correctly.
3. Use a hair dryer and start at one edge of the sticker, smoothing and shaping the sticker to the plastic with your hands as you go. The heat will let the graphics mold to the plastic. Alternately, you could probably start from the middle and work your way out. The important part is that you start in one place and work across so as to move air bubbles with your hands out to the edges.
4. Go back and reheat and work out any bubbles with the hair dryer and your hands. If you really can't get one out, you can use a needle or the edge of a razor blade (CAREFULLY!!!) to puncture the bubble and get the air out. Use LOTS of heat from the hair dryer if you are trying to work a bubble out.

Just know that your hands are going to hurt…a lot, especially if you are doing a full graphics kit, not just shrouds.

I was also advised to use clear nail polish along the edges of the graphics to keep them from peeling and keep dirt out from under the edges. I didn't do a particularly good job and I didn't find great nail polish, but this seems to be helping so far.

I also put on a new seat cover, but I'm not happy enough with how I did it to give any tips. It's a pain in the butt to get all the wrinkles out.

Good luck!

We hit Crazy Acres this week to get some track time in and to help support our friend Steve Corrie from Trackmasters, who is going to ride the Baja 1000 this year. Half of the profits from riding fees at the track on Saturday went to help fund Steve's expenses. I also bought a t-shirt he was selling. We had a great time and got to practice some techniques in the way that riding the track allows you to. In the woods, you see new terrain constantly, so you can't try things over and over again the way you can on a track. Track and trail riding are very different and they both have their place.

Steve had done some work on the track to improve it, including adding two more "whoops" to the "whoops" section (I have "whoops" in quotes because, to me, they are bigger than whoops) and he double-stepped the larger tabletop jump so you don't have to clear the whole thing now, which is kinda nice. He also beefed up the small tabletop rhythm section.

On my third time riding Crazy Acres, I finally got the guts to try doubling up the "whoops" section, although now there are six instead of the previous four. The first time, I under-jumped and cased the second jump, then awkwardly singled out from there. The second time, I cleared the first double set and then cased the fourth jump and then singled out from there. After that, I was mostly able to double-double-single-and-a-half/half-case the set. I just couldn't keep enough speed to clear the last set, although one time I managed to mostly clear it, though not terribly cleanly.

I spoke to a friend later who has a lot of track time and he gave me the advice to rev in the air between the doubles so that the revs are already going to maintain momentum. That makes sense because I couldn't get enough romp on the throttle in between the whoops to build speed for the next set. I was essentially coasting them after the initial build up.

Anyway, I was really happy to have finally tried those whoops the way they are supposed to be ridden. They are harder than good riders make them look, but they are easier than it seems when you are first coming up on them.

I heard a rumor, which was later confirmed, that Crazy Acres has been issued a shutdown notice from the county. They are trying to fight it or find a way around it. I sincerely hope they are able to as this is a great track and pretty close to my house. I'd hate to lose it.