Vintage XC in PA starts this weekend

Here's the sled I rode:

Had a great time. The weather was very cooperative, with some showers a couple days ahead, and sunny and high 60's for raceday. That probably contributed to what was a record turnout for this club- 30 some vintage bikes and 60ish post-vintage.

The race format was two races- vintage ('74 and earlier) in the morning, and post-vintage ('75- '84) in the afternoon. They also now run a pre-modern ('85-'94) with the Post bikes.

The club laid out a 4.5 mile course with constant elevation change, lots of single track, a little bit of rocks, some wicked off-camber, a sweet hillclimb featuring a very steep tree-root section in the middle, and a couple high-speed breaks to give your (my) hands a break. There was even an "easy way around" for two of the more challenging areas. At the rider's meeting, they said these were for the novices only, and the easy routes would not shave time, but I think they were lying. More than once I had worked my way around a slower rider before the trail split, and they would squirt out in front of me again where the trails re-converged.

Lots of cool old bikes there- Huskys, Can-Ams, an occasional Ossa or Maico, and a platoon of old Japanese bikes, including my old KLX. Met some cool dudes, including multi-time ISDE vet Drew Smith.

Races run an hour plus a leader lap. The vintage class leader was running about 15 or 16 minute laps, so I figured for my race the leader would likely catch and pass me before the end, so he'd get 5 laps and I'd get 4. That would be fine with me.

The club takes everyone out for a parade lap prior to the race. Having not been in any sort of competition for years, my adrenaline was pumping even on the parade lap. After that, there's a few minutes to regroup before the start, which I used to replace my fuel tank vent hose as the old one would not stay put and my full tank was spewing gas out the vent hole, all over the bike and me.

Races are a dead-engine start, so I fired the old 4-stroke up a couple times prior to the start to make sure she would light off. She lit easily and quickly every time. Well, except for that one time when the starter's flag went up. So I spotted my line the start, and followed the trail of blue smoke into the woods. I was so pumped up I figured I'd better get moving and around as many riders as I could while I could. The single track made it tough, and the old KLX didn't have the top-end steam to make passes in the fast sections, so I would do what I could in the tighter stuff. I picked off a ton on the first lap, but somewhere on the second, my conditioning started to show. Knowing I was going to do this series, I went back to the gym back in January. Those 15 minute sessions on the rower or elliptical had me going strong for, well, about 15 minutes. I had to settle down and treat it like a trail ride and regain my rhythm as much as possible on the second and third laps.

The bike, despite its anemic power, actually worked pretty well for this type of racing. The power was mellow but torquey. It had enough for the hills, even the big one- second gear wide open. The mellow power saved my bacon more than once in slippery conditions on side-hills and tired-armed direction changes; just lug it down and roll it on. I'm not a 4-stroke guy, but thank God that bike had engine braking 'cause that's about all the braking the bike had, especially once my hands and arms got tired.

The leader caught and passed me right before the white flag, so I only had to soldier on for one more lap. Turns out I was not the only one feeling the "first race of the season fatigue". On that last lap I must have gone by three or four white-haired dudes pulled off to the side, helmets off, lying down beside their bikes. I'd shout "You OK?" as I approached, they'd give me the Travis thumb, and I would continue.

Overall it was a very cool event, and lots of fun. I'm looking forward to hitting some more of them this year. Lots of cool and friendly people, cool bikes, the sweet smell of two-stroke oil hanging in the air, and a day in the saddle. It doesn't get much better than that.

H