Saturday ...... "Sun" day

There is talk of droughts and snow and crazy weather everywhere.  I was not concerned with the relatively dry fall and early winter we have been experiencing.  As of late it has been feet of snow, ice, and rain.....  Days on end filled with rain, rain and wind, and finally fog and rain...  

Or, "Welcome to Oregon".. its winter and once it starts to rain, it isn't likely to stop any time soon. 

Today, the sun shone down upon us and graced us with its radiant brilliance.  Time to get the bikes and have a little practice session in the yard.
 Well, that, and the fact that I needed an excuse to test out some recently acquired obstacles to play with

So, I got the cub out and had a little fun a little offroad slalom using the cable spools and a long 4x4 timber that I acquired.  I tell you what, it is a lot harder than it looks.  I think there was 1.5 - 2 meters in between them, and they are almost a meter in diameter.  The ground is very uneven, holes and ruts.  The soil is super saturated clay, that kind of squishes out water when you step on it.  Today was a lesson about clutch control and steering.  The exercise  was to enter down either side of the 4x4, cross over between that and the first spool, slalom the next spool, circle around the last spool and reverse the pattern.  Ohh... did I forget to mention.. Don't hit the van or the fence... and that he has the attention span of..., well,.. a 10 year old.

 Yes, it was a challenge for him.  He was learning the importance of covering and pulling in and releasing the clutch to smoothly apply and take away the power.  This is a very important skill to have since traction tends to be at premium around here.  Just ask Troubadour.  After a couple of hours, he was starting to get pretty comfortable with the clutch and how slowly or quickly it needed to be applied as well as some throttle control.  It is a little 2 Stroke Honda CR60R and revs really quickly.  We were outside in the sunshine and that was good.

For myself, I upped the ante.  My goal was to enter, circle each spool, reverse it and back out, without putting a foot down.  This too, is harder than it looks.  The front wheel would get stuck in a small hole or up against a rock and throw my balance all off.  Its all about practice, right?  If it were easy, it wouldn't be any fun.  I did manage to clean the section a couple of times.  That is a phase I hope to use much more often in the future.  Trials is about control.  Slow deliberate movement and balance.

Yes the best in the world have figured out how to overcome amazing obstacles with ease, (Check this out)

 But for the rest of us mortal men, Trials is test of ones skill against himself and his environment.  A test of how well you have mastered your motorcycle riding craft, and every foot down is another lesson learned.


PolarBear and Bud E.