Kenny Carlile

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.

We had a great weekend camping and riding out in East Fort Rock out of the 2510 campsite this last weekend. We met my dad, his girlfriend, and the rest of the NWDR crew out there on Friday afternoon and we stayed in my dad's camper trailer, which was much nicer than the tent we would have had to have slept in without him there. Thanks, Dad!

Friday night it rained, which made the riding on Saturday fantastic, although it still got a little dusty by the afternoon. I did two hard and fast loops with my dad and a few fun and shorter loops with Dena over the weekend.

This was my first ride with the new jetting, QuickShot, and taller bar mounts and they REALLY made a difference. I was able to go so much faster with a snappy response and taller bars. I felt like I could just flip the bike around wherever I wanted it to go. It's really interesting: the faster I went, the more time seemed to slow down. (Technically, that is accurate, according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity.) I stepped it up and rode faster and cleaner than I ever have. It was so much fun.

On Sunday, we high-tailed it out of there just ahead of a major rainstorm. It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun. No one got hurt, no mechanical problems, and lots of learning and improvements!

After doing my most recent mods and putting on my new graphics kit today, I took some pictures of the bike all shiny and pretty. My latest mods include:

• N-Style graphics kit and gripper seat cover
• Applied Racing +15mm red bar mounts
• Boyesen QuickShot
• Boyesen clutch cover
• Hammerhead case saver
• JD Jetting kit

Someone pointed out that my tail light wasn't working. I did a little digging on Thumper Talk and found this thread.

Since my battery is dead, I took it out. Without a working battery (or without one at all, in my case), the tail light doesn't work on the 250X. Whew! Now I don't have to worry about tracking down an electrical problem.

I did a little after work riding with Brandon and Theresa this week at Brown's Camp. I'd been out there a couple times before, but I didn't know my way around and had a pretty bad time. This time was much better having someone to show me around. I did a few loops with Theresa and some good exploring with Brandon. The main trails we rode were Clyde's and Military, which both had some really fun and interersting areas, especially the uphill jumps section of Military, although it was much more fun on the second loop when I could expect the jumps.

Theresa and I did a loop right as it was getting dark. My headlight helped, but it was still pretty tough to see. We had to go slow, but it was a lot of fun to ride in the dark. I'm really looking forward to getting back out there and doing some more exploring further away from camp.