My Nitro National Hillclimb Recap Video + Pictures

JM485
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4/26/2016 7:38pm Edited Date/Time 4/28/2016 7:19am
Finally got around to making my recap video from our race about a week and a half ago and wanted to share.

This event was a little bitter sweet for me. Originally it was supposed to be a televised NAHA event, with all the big names from around the country, and it would have been the first TV event I've ever ran. Unfortunately, everyone showed up on the scheduled dates only to be met by massive amounts of rain.Sad Needless to say, the event was called off, and it was decided that the WCHA (our local hillclimb series) segment of the event would be ran the following weekend, with the NAHA round being canceled. That is where my video begins, it's a recap of all of my runs from the event, including a 6th in 450 pro and a 2nd in pro extended verticross, which I was super excited about. Hope you guys enjoy something a little different, as well as a few pictures from the event.



I love this picture, shows how brutal the roost can be if you get behind in a verticross race.







I really like this one as well, feet on the pegs going around the off-camber turn in the hill.




And yes, I like doing no footers, especially when I win a verticross raceTongue


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Old-Man
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4/26/2016 7:52pm
Vid was Cool! Roost looks like it was murder
How often do you go thru a clutch?
JM485
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4/26/2016 7:56pm
Old-Man wrote:
Vid was Cool! Roost looks like it was murder
How often do you go thru a clutch?
Believe it or not, the 450 and 500 are both on their stock clutches. I've never been one to hammer the clutch very hard, and the only clutch I've ever had to replace was on my rm250 after years of hard riding. The 500 is starting to get close to needing one though, I'll probably throw one in before I ride it next just to be safe.
Charper732
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Scottdale, GA US
4/26/2016 7:58pm
That's so sick! All I could think about when you were behind that 2 stroke is how gnarly that roost must be.

I've always been fascinated by the hill climb bikes that had nitro burning 1000 motors in a dirt bike frame. That is seriously some next level shit.
JM485
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4/27/2016 12:32pm
Charper732 wrote:
That's so sick! All I could think about when you were behind that 2 stroke is how gnarly that roost must be. I've always been fascinated...
That's so sick! All I could think about when you were behind that 2 stroke is how gnarly that roost must be.

I've always been fascinated by the hill climb bikes that had nitro burning 1000 motors in a dirt bike frame. That is seriously some next level shit.
For sure, it's crazy how well built those bikes are now, seriously they are like works of art at the top level. For most of the local pros, their open bikes run on regular gas, but some of the big money NAHA guys run nitro. It's crazy to see those guys on the line with a leaf blower in their face, so they don't pass out from the fumes!Blink

A bunch of people have been haggling me about building an open bike but I just don't know if it's in the cards. It's hard to justify building a 5K bike just to race it a few times every year, plus the speeds those things are capable of are downright terrifying.

The Shop

Ardfarkl
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4/27/2016 12:50pm
Great job! Looks like a blast.
500guy
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4/27/2016 12:55pm
Explain whats going on at the event, it looks like you ran a few different courses and sometimes solo then raced someone else.

Really cool stuff thanks for posting it.
JM485
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4/27/2016 1:14pm
500guy wrote:
Explain whats going on at the event, it looks like you ran a few different courses and sometimes solo then raced someone else. Really cool stuff...
Explain whats going on at the event, it looks like you ran a few different courses and sometimes solo then raced someone else.

Really cool stuff thanks for posting it.
Essentially it works like this, with two separate forms of racing:

1. The first races are part of what's called Verticross, where two guys race each other to the top of this hill. The timed run at the very beginning of the video was for qualifying, which determines who has gate pick throughout the event. For example, if the 5th fastest qualifier raced the 3rd fastest qualifier, then the 3rd fastest qualifier would have gate pick. They basically start with a certain amount of riders, then work their way down to the final two through single elimination.

2. The rest of the runs are just standard hillclimbs, broken down into multiple class. I race the 250-450cc pro and 451-700cc pro classes, and get two runs in each to try for the fastest time up the hill. Keep in mind the events in the video are actually in reverse-chronological order, so the 450 class was ran after the 700 class, hence the more blown out hill.

Qualifying, Verticross, and the regular hillclimb classes are all run on different courses. Hope that clears things up a little, it's kind of confusing if you aren't familiar with the event format.
Katoomey
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4/27/2016 1:51pm Edited Date/Time 4/27/2016 1:53pm
Really cool. I've competed off and on over the last 20 years. I've only ever competed in one event. The Great American Championship in Billings, MT. I've done it 10 or so times. Been on the Bentonite Nightmare hundreds of times though. Used to go to BMC and ride MX/SX and always for some hillclimbing.

Over the years my buddies and I have built every kind of open class monster you can think of. Sportster motors, 800cc sled motors, inline 4 sport bike motors, KZ/H2 triple's, Two YZ490's grafted together, watercraft triples, boosted/fuelie/nitro CR500's, ... You name it, we've built and ran them. Hell, when I started you could still run any type of metal traction device you could dream up. you could go bonkers.

Building unlimited bikes was most of the fun of it for us. although no one rver wanted to be the test pilot for some of our creations, we did build a couple of successful bikes. I've been over the top of the Nightmare 6 of the 40 or so attempts during competition, which isnt too bad for some amatuers running the pro class. Some guys have never made it over the hook in their entire career.

Verticross sounds cool. Never anything like that in Billings. Would love to give that a go.
Sidecar
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4/27/2016 1:59pm
That's awesome man, much like you guys don't really have sidecar motocross we don't really have hill climbing in the UK, cool to see and learn about other branches of our great sport.
JM485
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4/27/2016 4:18pm
Katoomey wrote:
Really cool. I've competed off and on over the last 20 years. I've only ever competed in one event. The Great American Championship in Billings, MT...
Really cool. I've competed off and on over the last 20 years. I've only ever competed in one event. The Great American Championship in Billings, MT. I've done it 10 or so times. Been on the Bentonite Nightmare hundreds of times though. Used to go to BMC and ride MX/SX and always for some hillclimbing.

Over the years my buddies and I have built every kind of open class monster you can think of. Sportster motors, 800cc sled motors, inline 4 sport bike motors, KZ/H2 triple's, Two YZ490's grafted together, watercraft triples, boosted/fuelie/nitro CR500's, ... You name it, we've built and ran them. Hell, when I started you could still run any type of metal traction device you could dream up. you could go bonkers.

Building unlimited bikes was most of the fun of it for us. although no one rver wanted to be the test pilot for some of our creations, we did build a couple of successful bikes. I've been over the top of the Nightmare 6 of the 40 or so attempts during competition, which isnt too bad for some amatuers running the pro class. Some guys have never made it over the hook in their entire career.

Verticross sounds cool. Never anything like that in Billings. Would love to give that a go.
Man, I'd love to make it to Billings one year for the Great American, a few guys on our team have gone and said it's a heck of a time. You probably know the Cardwells and the Teylers if you've been there before, both families are super cool and it's great when they come down to CA to race with us! The Teylers usually race all of our local events while the Cardwells just focus on NAHA and Rockwell events.

Billings sounds like such a cool place, I heard they have a Supercross track, Moto track, Endurocross track, plus tons of trails back in the hills, sounds like moto heaven. I've been wanting to get some practice in on an endurocross track and a supercross track, there aren't any around me that I know of and any SX track you need a pro license for though. It's a long treck up there for us CA guys, but I'd love to make it happen one summer!

It's crazy what some guys are able to put into their open bikes, one of those things on nitro and a bolted paddle will scare the hell out of anyone! Seems like the current trend around here is running smaller motors with full exhaust, which allows them to rev smoother and make the bike handle better. Most of the hills have turns on the west coast so power isn't always king around here, especially if the bike is too heavy to handle. It's crazy how smooth the full exhaust bikes are, almost sound electric they are so quiet going up the hill!

If you have any pics of the bikes you guys have built I'd love to see them, and I'm sure others would to.
neverwas
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4/27/2016 4:42pm
Cool story and vid.
Carnegie has some seriously steep hills used to ride at that park as a kid or maybe I was just a wide eyed youth thinking it was steep screaming my 125 Elsinore up them and not making it up most of the time. fun times
Katoomey
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4/27/2016 5:24pm
JM485 wrote:
Man, I'd love to make it to Billings one year for the Great American, a few guys on our team have gone and said it's a...
Man, I'd love to make it to Billings one year for the Great American, a few guys on our team have gone and said it's a heck of a time. You probably know the Cardwells and the Teylers if you've been there before, both families are super cool and it's great when they come down to CA to race with us! The Teylers usually race all of our local events while the Cardwells just focus on NAHA and Rockwell events.

Billings sounds like such a cool place, I heard they have a Supercross track, Moto track, Endurocross track, plus tons of trails back in the hills, sounds like moto heaven. I've been wanting to get some practice in on an endurocross track and a supercross track, there aren't any around me that I know of and any SX track you need a pro license for though. It's a long treck up there for us CA guys, but I'd love to make it happen one summer!

It's crazy what some guys are able to put into their open bikes, one of those things on nitro and a bolted paddle will scare the hell out of anyone! Seems like the current trend around here is running smaller motors with full exhaust, which allows them to rev smoother and make the bike handle better. Most of the hills have turns on the west coast so power isn't always king around here, especially if the bike is too heavy to handle. It's crazy how smooth the full exhaust bikes are, almost sound electric they are so quiet going up the hill!

If you have any pics of the bikes you guys have built I'd love to see them, and I'm sure others would to.
Yeah, I'll have to have some friends e-mail me pics of some of our better builds and see about uploading them. Most were in the late 90's-early 2000's so digital pics might be few and far between. I'm not a real sentimental guy, so I've never been one to take pictures....still dont, even on my fancy-dancy iPhone 6+.

...and I hear ya on the smaller motor stuff. Over the last decade we've been more focused on using a modern chassis and setting it up right. Big bore CR500/KX500 in a late KTM chassis is popular and works well. I know in a lot of the Eastern hillclimbs, that are more about raw speed than technical climbing, that they still use big motor/big power custom chassis rigs, but in the Montana/Utah/Idaho hillclimb scene, the exotic, all handmade unlimited monsters are less and less common every year. The climbing is just too technical and having more control over the bike is more desirable. The hot set-up for a long while now has just been a basically stock Husaberg 650 with a nitrous set-up, which is good for about 80 hp. The KTM 690 motor is a good one too, and fuel injected. That motor can make a 100hp on the sauce. Still a far cry from some of the 200hp machines Ive ridden in the past.

If you make the pilgrimage to Billings you wont be disappointed. Its a huge party. And you'll witness the most extreme dirtbike event I know of. Words cannot describe how gnarly the "Nightmare" really is until your standing at the bottom of it. I didn't even fully appreciate it after riding up it. It wasnt until I volunteered as a "cliff hanger" one year that I really saw how brutally vertical it is.
kzizok
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4/27/2016 6:20pm Edited Date/Time 4/27/2016 6:25pm
JM485,

Cool video!

My first thought was that it looked easy. I know better though.

Personally, I think the highest praise you can give to a rider (of any discipline) is to tell them that they make it look easy or they dont even look like they are going fast!

You make it look easy and it doesnt look like you are going that fast!
ledger
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4/28/2016 12:13am
Awesome !! You did a helluva good job on the bike's and the video, thank you for NOT showing 3-4 boring minute's at the starting gate (video killer imo). Anyway, hopefully this form of racing will get televised, because it deserves recognition. Once again, Awesome.
JM485
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4/28/2016 7:19am
kzizok wrote:
JM485, Cool video! My first thought was that it looked easy. I know better though. Personally, I think the highest praise you can give to a...
JM485,

Cool video!

My first thought was that it looked easy. I know better though.

Personally, I think the highest praise you can give to a rider (of any discipline) is to tell them that they make it look easy or they dont even look like they are going fast!

You make it look easy and it doesnt look like you are going that fast!
Thank you, very much appreciated! I know what you mean, it's crazy how much the gopro flattens everything out, pretty much looks like nothing unless you've seen it in person or have pictures to reference.


Katoomey, I really hope I can make it up there soon, I've heard such good things about it I have to check it out. Our friends that went said something about "the wall", so I'm assuming that's the same steep area you're talking about.

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