Birthday Ride

Having a birthday is usually a good thing with all the attention, presents, day off work or school, etc.

Since I am retired I didn’t have to work on getting the day off. I bought myself the birthday present in the form of a slightly used 2011 YZ 450 F. So all that was left was the attention part and that is where my buddies Brian and Chuck-e came in. They invited me to go riding on their personal off road loop in their neck of the woods so to speak. I should emphasize the WOODS part! It had all the great makings of an epic off road ride. I love to ride off road every bit as much as I enjoy the motocross track and the desert. When I do, I usually ride an off road bike like a CRF-X Honda or a KTM XC. Since neither bike was available  I rode the YZ-F 450.  My buddies’ rode their off road KTM’s and took me on what I believe were KTM only trails. I am pretty sure I saw a couple of signs out on the trail edges that said “KTM Parking Only”.  I was beginning to worry that maybe something was not quite right. But away we went and it started out perfectly with some of the best descending singletrack I have seen in months. The trail was moist and perfect traction. No problem this should be a ton of fun!

We hit the bottom of the trail with me trying to keep these two in sight and took a short break. They told me this particular trail was an out and back. So now we were headed back up the off camber, moist, rocky in spots with needles and leaves blanketed trail. What was so much fun coming down on the MX oriented Yamaha was now a complete challenge with the tall 1^st gear, no flywheel to speak of and abrupt power of the big YZ. By the time we got to the top of that trail I think I had stalled the bike 5 or 6 times in tight turns and rocky climbs. The boys were nowhere to be seen and I presume having the time of their lives on this awesome singletrack with their low end bikes that made my 450 seem like a 125. Brian was kind enough to wait at the turn offs for each trail we rode for the next 3 hours to make sure I didn’t become critter bait. So this “fun” kept up for the next 3 hours. I am pretty sure I stalled my bike and crashed more in this half day of riding than I have in the past 5 years! We negotiated side hill trails with less than a foot of trail, Uphill U turns with rocks to make it more challenging and rock faces with moisture to keep me from riding up without pushing! I survived the ordeal, I mean ride, and had a great time and a much better work out than I expected from a “trail ride”. I kickstarted the YZ more times than I want to admit and did more dead lifts after falling over than I would do in a full day at the Gym!  At one point it took me 3 tries to get up one nasty section that was rutted, rocky and moist. I took my goggles off to keep them from fogging and put them on my helmet. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I finally get up with a bit of pushing, cussing and clutch abusing to ride up the trail quite a ways until I could stop to put my goggles back on now that they wouldn’t fog up. I reached up and guess what……Yup, no goggles!  Did I mention the tree branches and brush on this excursion?  So sitting on this singletrack side hill trail I am weighing the value of those goggles that are somewhere back down the trail. Since I have no idea how many more miles we have to go and see nothing but trees in my immediate future I decide to man handle my bike around to get it faced back down the trail. Next time you want to challenge yourself find a side hill singletrack and turn around just for fun. I go back down and find them in the middle of the trail. So now with the goggles recovered I need to turn around once again to get going to catch up with my “buddies”. I thought there was no way I was going to dead lift my bike a second time so I decide to continue down and find a spot to turn around. Good call because there was that one spot that widened out on a U-turn. I turn around and make it to the top to find Chuck-e and Brian there with their helmets off and fully rested up so we can get going back to the truck. Glad they got a short break so they wouldn’t be too tired to open a beer when they got back!

The rest of the ride back was pretty uneventful and more great trail with some spectacular views. We got back to the trucks, loaded the bikes and headed for the barn. I had a great time, got a really good workout dead lifting a YZ 450 and rode with a couple of the best guys you could be invited to ride with. I realized after the ride that I had made the mistake of bringing a knife to a gunfight!  But it seemed like a good idea at the time. Thanks Chuck-e and Brian, give me a call on the next one but only if I have a gun.

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