Hancock NY "Quarry Run" Dual Sport and "Bluestone 300" ISDE Qualifier 22June 03

Preparations for the Ride: I only had my Dale for a few weeks and only ridden it twice before. The first outing was only for 10 or so miles and the second was longer at probably 25 or 30 miles. The 2 major impressions I had was this thing is tall (I'm only 5'4" though!) and what I can only describe as "Hard". Everybody here knows what a sadistic torture device the seat is so I'm not gonna go into it again.

One of the main reasons I bought a Dale is to get a bike with a modern suspension (my other 2 dirt bikes are a KDX220 and DR350S with a WB441 kit in it). I was expecting to get a wonderfully compliant suspension that sucks up rocks, roots and square edged stuff like it wasn't even there. That's not what I had for sure! My normal riding buddy remarked to me that the rear end didn't even compress an inch when I sat on it. So the plan was to have another buddy of mine come over Saturday morning to get the bike ready for my first major ride on it. I had arranged for Leave from my military unit for Saturday and Sunday so I had all morning to get the bike ready, and the afternoon would be for getting my friend Ed's motorhome and trailer all ready. Anyway, I called my friend Jim up at 8:00 am Saturday and I know I'm in trouble already! He had went to the Mets-Yankee game the night before and was still a little drunk! Like a trooper he showed up around 9:30 and we got to work setting the sag and clickers.

Since I'm around 155lb (about 15lbs too much!) we decided the first thing to do was set the rear spring up. Static sag was almost nothing! And I had already backed off a couple turns on the preload collar on my second ride! Once we got the static sag in spec I sat on it and checked the Race sag. Damn! It's only about 2-3/4"! Need to back off way more on the preload. Once we got near spec for the race sag, the static sag was way too much. We just chalked it up to the 100kg/mm spring and left the race sag at spec. Front sag isn't adjustable since there is no preload adjusters on the forks so we didn't even bother. We next checked the clickers. For some reason the rebound on the rear was jacked way up (like twice as many clicks as it should be) and the compression on the front was also cranked way up. We set the clickers to what the manual says is normal for an E and hoped for the best. I know I should have changed the oil in the engine and tranny, but like a little kid I was more interested in riding than turning wrenches. I could see the level and color of the oil in the sight glasses and wasn't really concerned as I don't think the bike had more than 10 or 15 hours on it since new. I'm planning on pulling the motor after Hancock to do the stage 8, Evans coolant, check the valves, and inspect the water pump, cam cover and clutch plates, so it will get fresh fluids then anyway. I did however change the fuel filter and make sure the Air Filter was clean (not much dust in the northeast yet this year with the continuous rain we've been getting) before getting all my gear ready. A quick trip across the soggy lawn showed we hadn't wasted our time in making the adjustments. The rest of the day was spent getting the gear ready, checking the trailer, loading up Ed's motorhome and driving from our home to Hanckock about 1-1/2 hours away.

Weather Forcast for Hancock, NY: NO DUST!! A couple friends of Ed's (Matt and Peter) had saved us a nice spot at Firemans field for Ed's motorhome. Good location! Right across from the KTM factory Semi and also next to Aaron Kopp (Current ECEA #1 rider). The weather was the same as it had been for what seemed liked the last 3 months! Cold and rainy! Matt and Peter had ridden the saturday ride and their bikes showed it! They said the saturday ride was a lot of road and some trail, but the Sunday ride was supposed to be the exact opposite, mostly trail and a little road. Our group was still not yet complete. Ken, Deke, and Bill were scheduled to drive down Sunday morning because they had other commitments Saturday night. We knew we could count on Ken to show up, but weren't so sure about Deke and Bill. They had earlier stated that they didn't want to ride 100 miles in the rain.

Sunday morning comes and it looks as if even Matt and Peter are gonna bail because it's still raining and the forecast isn't looking too great! As the Gods would have it, about 5 minutes before the rider meeting it stops raining and Ken shows up. No Deke and Bill though! Oh well, 5 will be enough, but it's gonna be all orange except for me. Ed had his 400EXC, Matt his 520EXC, and Peter and Ken their 250EXC's (the two strokes) and me on my little old E. I looked around and was the only Dale in the place! The guy at tech inspection even joked that I was riding a "collector" bike :)

The Quarry Run Dual Sport ride was started in 1999 and I rode the first one on July 4th of that year on my KDX but hadn't been back since due to the fact they tended to have it on the weekends when I had my National Guard Drill. All I remember from that first time was lots of loose rocks (hence the Quarry Run name) and insanely long and steep hills. To give you an idea of the type of trails we'd be riding consider the fact that many of the dual sport trails were the same ones the pro's who were riding the "Bluestone 300" ISDE qualifer event that was being held in parallel with the dual sport ride. As a matter of fact the sign up sheet that the Ridge Riders MC had on the internet warned you to make sure you had a fresh set of full knobbies on your bike! I was starting to become a little worried when the Trail Boss said the ride would be about 80 miles of trails and 20 miles of road. Then to put my mind at ease he says to avoid the Hero section unless you are a "B" rider or better and even then don't do it unless your having a good day! Oh well, I'm here now, I'll either get through it or someone will find my dead carcass and some strange bike no one has ever heard of on one of those mountain sides along the banks of the Delaware river.

As Ken, Ed, and myself are getting our gear on, Matt and Peter decide they are gonna stay and ride since it wasn't raining anymore. This would prove very fortunate for me later in the day. The Dale starts right up but does that cough and sputter thing once. For some reason the bike doesn't like to run on the E map until fully warm I usually have to start it cold on the X map which has the idle set a little higher.

On the first ride my bike kept stalling when I was using the E map. It would just cough and die. Not sure if it was old gas or it just needed to have the carbon blown out of her. The second ride I used the E map almost all day and it never stalled. The ride started out with a short trip down the road then onto a woodlot road. It quickly went from something big enough to drive a truck down to a single rut through the trees about 18" deep. I'm last in the group (my normal place since I'm usually the slowest) and I see a big hole in the rut in front of me too late. I gas it, but I was only about 2 feet away and even the snap of the Fuel Injected Dale engine isn't enough. The front end begins to lift up and over, but I don't have enough momentum and the bike stops dead in it's tracks! I try to rock myself out but there's no way, the rear is stuck on a big root and the front is in a hole. The rut is deep enough that I can actually flat foot it here. I step off the bike and it remains standing all on it's own! A couple guys see me and manage to get around me through the tree's. One guy finally stops and asks if I need help. He get's off his bike and helps me pull the front end out of the hole. I come around the corner and find the rest of the group just a 100 feet or so away from where I was stuck. We're on a dirt road again and I'm thinking this won't be so bad, when all of a sudden it turns to soup! Real runny mud about a foot deep! I just I decide to just go right down the middle. I take it slow and just keep a nice steady throttle.

After about a mile or so I find the other guys in the group, minus Matt. He is no where to be seen. Seems he had taken a "Shortcut" through the woods around the mud, and had to turn around and backtrack a good distance. I would have thought for sure the bike would have overheated with all this mud and slow speed. but it seems to be doing just fine. Only problem so far is the fact that I can't find neutral to save my life. Sometimes it's even hard with the engine off. Strange since it shifts so well normally. Love that juice clutch as well, so nice and smooth! Maybe some redline tranny oil will help in finding neutral. As soon as Matt showed up and we got rolling again on a woods road I got to test out the suspension adjustments we had made the day before. It's worlds better than the first 2 times I had rode it. The bike now sucked up trail snot and rocks much better. It's still not cushy soft like my KDX, but it also doesn't want to tuck the front end when turning either. The brakes are also way better than my other dirt bikes. Strong and progressive, but not grabby in the least. My KDX's rear brake tends to lock far too easily and grabbing a handful of front brake tends to make the front fork all but collapse. I found myself keeping up a lot more speed into the corners on the dale than I would have on my KDX. It's also a lot easier to move forward on the tank to weight the front wheel, but not as easy as on Deke's WR450.

So far the bike is running great and I'm starting to gain more confidence in it with every passing mile. Some of the time I wish that it geared a bit lower as first sometimes seems too low and 2nd too high. I will have to check into some different sprockets. The road sections show that this thing vibrates like no bike I ever owned before! It is so bad on the short road sections that I have to actually take my feet off the pegs! Unfortunately this makes my butt hurt even worse as now all my weight is on that rock hard seat! The first real problem I have on the trail is when myself and Peter tangle our bark busters up because he is stuck on the side of the trail temporarily while climbing this hill with a 90 degree corner it. I couldn't steer my way clear of him in time and we both are stopped in the middle of the hill. I'm thinking I'll never get up this while stopped in the middle of it because it is about 8 - 10 inches of soupy mud with rocks about the size of your outspread hand mixed in. I decide to try anyway. I hit the magic button and slip the clutch, I bobble and stall again, but a stab of the button and I'm off again. I make it up to the top and kill it to wait for Peter with the rest of the group. He's not that far behind me and everybody is soon heading down the trail again.

I'm last in the pack and I start running down the trail. I go to switch the map to the E setting (it resets to X everytime I turn it off) and the bike dies instantly! My heart stops beating for a second as the horror stories I read about Dales having sudden electrical and ECU failures on the trails fill my head. I was really freaking out for second, because I look down and see the Dash lights on the Map Select panel are all dark. I then look over and realize I had hit the kill switch instead of the map select. One push of the green button instead of the red one and I'm on my way again.

Me and the Dale are doing OK all morning except for the fact that I'm really out of shape and tired. I don't hit the ground once all morning, but then Peter and myself did decide to bypass the "hero" section. We waited at the lunch stop / gas station for an hour for the other guys before we hit the trail on our own. Little did we know that Ed's 400EXC had decided to wear all the teeth off the front sprocket and Matt was riding a little more cautious than normal cause he had a flat front tire late in the morning. Peter had a roll chart but wasn't sure where we were on it, so we farted around for about another 1/2 hour when we suddenly see Matt going the other way on the road toward the gas station. We get with him and ask where Ed and Ken are but he doesn't know, they got seperated while doing the Hero section.

The afternoon part of the ride wasn't as good for me. I ended up on the ground a couple times and had the worst leg cramps I've ever experienced, but my hero Matt was there giving me encouraging words the whole time. I wouldn't have made it out of the trails alive if it wasn't for him. I crashed at the bottom of a very steep hill and was so tired I had to stop for a bit and rest. Matt being the great guy that he was offered to walk down and ride the dale up, but not before riding another guys 200EXC up first. I should have said no as the climb to the top just about drained the last of my strength. Great news when I got to the top of the hill, it wasn't really the top, just a flat section of the mountain! I tried this one on my own but only got about 1/4 of the way up. Matt to the rescue again, he rode my bike and I think 3 others up the hill. Next time we ride together I'm buying his beer for sure! If I wasn't so out of shape I would have made the hills without (much) trouble. While getting even more tired just watching Matt ride other peoples bikes up the hill, who should come along but Ed and Ken. Ed had to tighten his chain up like a banjo string so it would stop skipping. Toward the end of the day I do remember imitating a submarine. We had to cross a deep but relatively narrow stream and the water was right about up to the bottom of the seat. I made it across the stream with out the Dale missing a beat, but when I climbed up the bank on the other side I got a little out of sorts and ended up performing another gravity check.

The rest of the day was just a blur until I we got back to the Firemans Field and I stripped off all my gear and layed in the wet grass for what seemed like an hour. The Dale ran like a champ all day and got my sorry butt home in one piece. When you really think about, what more can you ask of a bike?

Timothy Stark