I’m not sure if one should be posting this story under ‘Ride Reports’ or ‘Racing Section’ … it’s like an adventure bike, tar or dirt, which is it to be?
Anyhow, this MSA Enduro is happening on 2 May, and the organisers are going all out with trail preparation. For enduro, a course director needs to utilize natural terrain in such a way that the average speed of the top end of the field is around 30kph. This differs from off-road trails, where the corresponding average speed is closer to 60 kph.
In addition, for national enduro, there are lap ‘regularity times’ , and timed ‘specials’ within each loop. For this enduro, there is a planned ‘ over the mountain extreme special’ for national riders only. Regional riders will be re-routed around the mountain, so to speak.
As you can imagine, there is a lot on the plate of the course director, and basic helpers are needed. This is where I come in …
A helper’s day starts very early on a Saturday morning; you spring out of bed at 5am, in and out the shower like Free Willy the dolphin, hop like a klipspringer into your cage, and bullet off to Ashton. On the way you eat your prepack brekkie, and tell war stories to your chommie helper (Dave). After going through the Du Toit’s Kloof tunnel, you stop doing mental equipment checklists, ‘cause it is too late to turn around and go home to fetch.
In my next life I want to come back as a jogger. You just pack one item – running shoes. Imagine how simple life would be!
Talking about next life; what’s the worst thing you could come back as? How about a 4 pound hammer … or an enduro bike in the hands of a 18 year old? Toyota Quantum 16 seater taxi maybe?
Back to riding … so you get to Lamont farm, unload bikes and gear, get dressed and ‘tree aan vir werk’ sharply at 8h15am. Today, the course director (Garth) and his chommies (Kerman and Michael) are not even on bikes. Surely the warning bells should have sounded, but it was maybe too early in the morning, and the significance of them being on-foot only sunk in a bit later.
After waving in the direction of the mountains, Garth and his chommies jumped into the double cab bakke, loaded up a gaggle of labourers, and headed off down the road past the dam. We followed on bikes.
Lamont farm is some 10 kays from Ashton, and the land itself is physically divided by the R60 road to Swellendam. There is a more subtle divide, and that is by rainfall. The side under the lee of the Swartberg mountain range gets about 1000mm of rain per annum, and as you move across the road and south, the rainfall drops dramatically, down to less than 300mm annually, all in the space of 7 kilometres (as the crow flies). On the side where the actual farmhouse, the diary and deli are situated, the land is verdant and lush, whereas the other side of the road, it is dry and arid. Both sides of the farm are connected by an under-road cattle tunnel, which is a great safety advantage, as there are no bikes having to cross a public tar road.
In fact, the whole trail is contained within farmlands, and there is no crossing anytime of any public road. The deli boasts a big covered outside decked area, which is great for registration, prize giving, and this year, will also be an excellent spectator vantage spot, as part of the ‘extreme special’ will be staged close by.
Dave and I were directed to the base of the mountain, right nearby the stream that trickles into the upper dam. Garth’s chommies had already set off on foot, to pilot mark the route. Pilot marking is putting an orange sticker in the bush, only every now and again. Once the trail becomes defined, and closer to race day, you remark the trail with orange stickers at closer intervals. Our job was to ride in the route that had just been pilot marked. Going up a mountain on foot, and on a bike, are two entirely different matters.
If you cast your mind back to the climb at the recent Caledon offroad, the parts we had to ride in were no steeper, but …
With a new track, you are riding in thick bossies at petrol tank height, and can’t see the ground at all. There are all manner of things lurking down there; rocks, ant heaps, porcupine holes and so forth. In short, difficult to maintain momentum, which means you are constantly stop-starting, revving, slipping the clutch, and more often than not, spinning that back wheel while it is trying to find grip. Which is great for riding the trail in, as with your bike, you part the bossies, and help dislodge all those loose rocks.
But it is not so great for the rider, as upward progress is slow, and energy sapping. For the moment I am not going to talk about how much you are abusing your bike, go read the part above about what not to come back in your second life as …
What makes these climbs different from the Caledon climb, is that the new ones are only the width of a rear tyre. There is a very small margin of error; if you go off the line, you quickly lose all momentum, and will have to restart your climb from a precarious stopped position. I think the big difference between enduro races vs off road races is this small margin of error technical skill set.
But don’t for one minute be put off entering this enduro, as by employing the “Ghost Rider” technique, you can and will get to the top of all the climbs. Purists may cringe at the crudeness of this manoeuvre, but it works very well.
On a typical climb, you get more and more tired as you go up, and loose more and more momentum. You try paddling with your feet, you start slipping off the back of the bike, the front wheel gets lighter and lighter, and at the death, you either stall and fall, or slip off the back, open the throttle too much and flip the bike over your head, and down the trail.
Now you are poked. Lift up bike, get to the bottom of the climb, and repeat until exhausted. Not so with Ghost Rider!
Most people drop their bikes, or fail a climb at the death, or crux point. Most of the time, things level out a bit after the crux point; you can catch your breath there and consider your next move. The trick is to get your bike up and over the trouble. So when you can see the step up, or rock or whatever crux coming up, it’s too steep, you’re losing it, motor is bogging, things are turning weird … now what??
As the irrepressible Hunter S Thompson once wrote, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
So at the ‘weird’ point, you give it full throttle, and at the same time leap forcefully backwards off the bike. Your bike is now un-weighted by some 80 kilos, the labouring motor is now full of vim and piss and prep, the carb has a full slug of petrol in it, and the back wheel is spinning freely. If you have leapt off the bike without unbalancing it, it will climb up for a good few meters before laying itself down, hopefully having cleared the crux on its own … voila’ Ghost Rider!
For very steep downhills, I employ a similar technical manoeuvre called ‘ Highside Sideways Sarel’ . Cut the motor, bike in neutral, weight over the back wheel, and work front and back brake to control momentum. Remember on downhills, there is no problem with finding momentum; what you want to do is scrub off the momentum. It is very easy to loose the plot, and your biggest fear is going over the bars with the bike following. I balance gingerly on the footpegs, and just at the ‘weird point’ I leap sideways off the bike, to the high side.
‘Highside Sideways Sarel’ means you won’t be falling far, and in all likelihood a footpeg or handle bar will arrest your bike’s downhill journey. By contrast, if you did a ‘Ghost Rider’ by jumping off the back with the engine on, the bike would pick up massive downhill momentum with the risk of big wallet opening sounds.
If you need to see a video on these technical moves, go watch “Ultimate Fails” on You Tube. These moves are completely easy to grasp, even beginners first time out on a bike can do them.
My chommie Dave and I did a few ‘technical’ manoeuvres on the mountain, rode in part of the route, and did some marking. We will be back next Saturday to continue opening up new routes.
Without giving too much away, the trail is set to be a spectacular mix of climbs, off camber, river bed and brand new single track. Entries close on Friday 17 April, see www.racecontrol.co.za – this is one not to be missed!
Anyhow, this MSA Enduro is happening on 2 May, and the organisers are going all out with trail preparation. For enduro, a course director needs to utilize natural terrain in such a way that the average speed of the top end of the field is around 30kph. This differs from off-road trails, where the corresponding average speed is closer to 60 kph.
In addition, for national enduro, there are lap ‘regularity times’ , and timed ‘specials’ within each loop. For this enduro, there is a planned ‘ over the mountain extreme special’ for national riders only. Regional riders will be re-routed around the mountain, so to speak.
As you can imagine, there is a lot on the plate of the course director, and basic helpers are needed. This is where I come in …
A helper’s day starts very early on a Saturday morning; you spring out of bed at 5am, in and out the shower like Free Willy the dolphin, hop like a klipspringer into your cage, and bullet off to Ashton. On the way you eat your prepack brekkie, and tell war stories to your chommie helper (Dave). After going through the Du Toit’s Kloof tunnel, you stop doing mental equipment checklists, ‘cause it is too late to turn around and go home to fetch.
In my next life I want to come back as a jogger. You just pack one item – running shoes. Imagine how simple life would be!
Talking about next life; what’s the worst thing you could come back as? How about a 4 pound hammer … or an enduro bike in the hands of a 18 year old? Toyota Quantum 16 seater taxi maybe?
Back to riding … so you get to Lamont farm, unload bikes and gear, get dressed and ‘tree aan vir werk’ sharply at 8h15am. Today, the course director (Garth) and his chommies (Kerman and Michael) are not even on bikes. Surely the warning bells should have sounded, but it was maybe too early in the morning, and the significance of them being on-foot only sunk in a bit later.
After waving in the direction of the mountains, Garth and his chommies jumped into the double cab bakke, loaded up a gaggle of labourers, and headed off down the road past the dam. We followed on bikes.
Lamont farm is some 10 kays from Ashton, and the land itself is physically divided by the R60 road to Swellendam. There is a more subtle divide, and that is by rainfall. The side under the lee of the Swartberg mountain range gets about 1000mm of rain per annum, and as you move across the road and south, the rainfall drops dramatically, down to less than 300mm annually, all in the space of 7 kilometres (as the crow flies). On the side where the actual farmhouse, the diary and deli are situated, the land is verdant and lush, whereas the other side of the road, it is dry and arid. Both sides of the farm are connected by an under-road cattle tunnel, which is a great safety advantage, as there are no bikes having to cross a public tar road.
In fact, the whole trail is contained within farmlands, and there is no crossing anytime of any public road. The deli boasts a big covered outside decked area, which is great for registration, prize giving, and this year, will also be an excellent spectator vantage spot, as part of the ‘extreme special’ will be staged close by.
Dave and I were directed to the base of the mountain, right nearby the stream that trickles into the upper dam. Garth’s chommies had already set off on foot, to pilot mark the route. Pilot marking is putting an orange sticker in the bush, only every now and again. Once the trail becomes defined, and closer to race day, you remark the trail with orange stickers at closer intervals. Our job was to ride in the route that had just been pilot marked. Going up a mountain on foot, and on a bike, are two entirely different matters.
If you cast your mind back to the climb at the recent Caledon offroad, the parts we had to ride in were no steeper, but …
With a new track, you are riding in thick bossies at petrol tank height, and can’t see the ground at all. There are all manner of things lurking down there; rocks, ant heaps, porcupine holes and so forth. In short, difficult to maintain momentum, which means you are constantly stop-starting, revving, slipping the clutch, and more often than not, spinning that back wheel while it is trying to find grip. Which is great for riding the trail in, as with your bike, you part the bossies, and help dislodge all those loose rocks.
But it is not so great for the rider, as upward progress is slow, and energy sapping. For the moment I am not going to talk about how much you are abusing your bike, go read the part above about what not to come back in your second life as …
What makes these climbs different from the Caledon climb, is that the new ones are only the width of a rear tyre. There is a very small margin of error; if you go off the line, you quickly lose all momentum, and will have to restart your climb from a precarious stopped position. I think the big difference between enduro races vs off road races is this small margin of error technical skill set.
But don’t for one minute be put off entering this enduro, as by employing the “Ghost Rider” technique, you can and will get to the top of all the climbs. Purists may cringe at the crudeness of this manoeuvre, but it works very well.
On a typical climb, you get more and more tired as you go up, and loose more and more momentum. You try paddling with your feet, you start slipping off the back of the bike, the front wheel gets lighter and lighter, and at the death, you either stall and fall, or slip off the back, open the throttle too much and flip the bike over your head, and down the trail.
Now you are poked. Lift up bike, get to the bottom of the climb, and repeat until exhausted. Not so with Ghost Rider!
Most people drop their bikes, or fail a climb at the death, or crux point. Most of the time, things level out a bit after the crux point; you can catch your breath there and consider your next move. The trick is to get your bike up and over the trouble. So when you can see the step up, or rock or whatever crux coming up, it’s too steep, you’re losing it, motor is bogging, things are turning weird … now what??
As the irrepressible Hunter S Thompson once wrote, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
So at the ‘weird’ point, you give it full throttle, and at the same time leap forcefully backwards off the bike. Your bike is now un-weighted by some 80 kilos, the labouring motor is now full of vim and piss and prep, the carb has a full slug of petrol in it, and the back wheel is spinning freely. If you have leapt off the bike without unbalancing it, it will climb up for a good few meters before laying itself down, hopefully having cleared the crux on its own … voila’ Ghost Rider!
For very steep downhills, I employ a similar technical manoeuvre called ‘ Highside Sideways Sarel’ . Cut the motor, bike in neutral, weight over the back wheel, and work front and back brake to control momentum. Remember on downhills, there is no problem with finding momentum; what you want to do is scrub off the momentum. It is very easy to loose the plot, and your biggest fear is going over the bars with the bike following. I balance gingerly on the footpegs, and just at the ‘weird point’ I leap sideways off the bike, to the high side.
‘Highside Sideways Sarel’ means you won’t be falling far, and in all likelihood a footpeg or handle bar will arrest your bike’s downhill journey. By contrast, if you did a ‘Ghost Rider’ by jumping off the back with the engine on, the bike would pick up massive downhill momentum with the risk of big wallet opening sounds.
If you need to see a video on these technical moves, go watch “Ultimate Fails” on You Tube. These moves are completely easy to grasp, even beginners first time out on a bike can do them.
My chommie Dave and I did a few ‘technical’ manoeuvres on the mountain, rode in part of the route, and did some marking. We will be back next Saturday to continue opening up new routes.
Without giving too much away, the trail is set to be a spectacular mix of climbs, off camber, river bed and brand new single track. Entries close on Friday 17 April, see www.racecontrol.co.za – this is one not to be missed!
