Sidcup + District Motorcycle Club Canada Heights Enduro

Venue : Canada Heights Moto-Cross Circuit, Button Street, Swanley, Kent.

Had an excelent day at this Enduro. Found the track to be just the right mixture of tight, tough, sections and quick bits where others (not me) could overtake. If some one was trapped behind me it wasn't too long before they had space to overtake without having to shove me out of the way.

The track started with some fiddely woods bits including going up and down cliff faces. I did have to 'cheat' a little on a couple of the upward cliff faces, I'd attack them, launch at the top then the course made you do a sharp right hand turn to go down again. On a couple of occasions I'd launched to the point where ther was no way I'd make the tight turn so an extended turn across the already flattend tape and throught the spectators (very slowly ofcourse) ment I didn't have to get off and do a three pointer.

After this was a fast bit across a flat (to start with) field where we all had fun opening the throttle and playing with the gearbox. Follwed by anothe tight wooded bit and then we were back at the pits, not to end the track though, you just passed by them and could openly see the burger bar tempting you to just call in for a quick coffee. Those of us the resisted the urge for a mid lap snack were then confronted wth an exaust bending lump/root imediatly follwed by a narow gap between trees. Interestingly later in the day the bark seemed to vanish from these trees at foot rest height, I guess it just got frightened and ran away?

Another bit in trees but fairly stright led you once again onto an open bit of land where others could pass, then back into the trees again. All fairly stright but narrow enough to slow you down or test your bark busters, knee pads, body armor etc. then it was onto the MX track at about the half way point.

At the start of the Day I'd walked part of the MX track and got very scared. The ground appeard rock had and full of ruts, the 'jumps' made Evel Kenevels Caesars Palace jump look easy and the divided carigeway looked like it was there just to spear/slice unsuspecting riders who lost control! However, when I got to the track the other bikes had losend the ground and the jumps didn't look so bad when you could only see the face you were going up. When you got to the downward side it was too late to worry about them :o). By My last lap I'd learnt a lot about these jumps, how to blip the power at the crest wheter going up or down. One did keep catching me out though. Each time I'd take of just fine but the landing zone was dead flat and lower than the crest so I'd land both wheels together suspention trying to (if not actualy) bottom out and I'd leave a gonad shaped dent in my rockhard saddle. From here it was a fairly strightfoward run back to camp and tick off one more lap.

I chose to run an Endoro rear tyre at around 7psi. This was an excelent choice I think. Some of the others with trials tyres and 10+ psi seemed to have great problems with some of the hills and the sandy conditions. I suffered in the faster sections and I'm sure that if I'd jumped too high/hard I might have lost a rim but for my abilitys the traction on the lose stuff made for a very nice day.

I should have gained just 5 miniutes throughout the day which, although I know wont be good enough to get me an award, was good for me.