Rusty Riders

[Graeme M]

Does anyone else suffer this? It has to be the number one cloud on the horizon of my vintage motocross golden years... Here I am, almost 50 and with a few nice bikes in the garage to go riding on, and more race meetings than you can poke a stick at. So this should be some sort of nirvana, shouldn't it?

But for all sorts of reasons, I just don't get the time to ride. For a while there I made up for that by getting out on the MTB for a trailride or run over the local X-circuit. Lately though I don't even get to do that. So the upshot is, I'm rusty.

Now, this is not so bad if you're an ex A-grader - if you have talent to burn a bit of rust is easily blown off within a couple of laps. But if like me you have all the riding talent of an Arctic Elephant Seal, well... the rust aint going nowhere. I got to ride maybe a dozen times last year, possibly as much as 5-6 actual hours of riding. Maybe it was a bit more, 10 hours? But what I do know is that every time I went to a race, I spent the first several races just trying to feel comfortable out there with all these other fast nutcases.

This is really bad if the riding in question is in with the local club day riding Over 35s on a 1975 RM125. I won't even go near practice for fear of being landed on, taken out, or just plain roosted into oblivion. Do you have any idea how much slower than a CRF450 a 1975 anything is?

Usually, I don't feel like I am even able to ride until about the last lap of the day. Then it's all over until the next time I get to go out and gumby my way round. The only time it's any better than this is on a HEAVEN race day at the local track, when they have practice on Saturday. Then come Sunday, I am just plain slow. Comfortable, but slow. I need to practice.

But how?

Family, home, work and all sorts of other demands leave me without any decent time to go practicing. As a kid, I rode EVERY weekend. These days, I'm lucky to manage one day a month. And that's not a full day either cos just getting a leave pass for a morning involves a sad, emasculating process of sucking up and downright begging.

I don't see this improving either. At least not any time soon. And that's a shame. Cos I watch the Over 35 and Over 45 class, and while some of them are quick-ish, most are not. And at vintage meets, the average guys slowness is really slow. And yet, I am still last! Surely, just a little practice would see me up in the pack and going home feeling like I've just beat Bubba. Instead, the usual drive home involves lengthy dissections of how poorly my racing went and marvelling at how the heck anyone can actually feel comfortable being more than 18cm off the ground on a dirtbike, much less jump a double...

Don't get me wrong, I have fun. I love this stuff. But it'd be nice to go along and race, feel OK doing it, and leave satisfied with my performance, even if I don't figure in the results.

To give you a sense of what I mean, take the last time I rode a bike. Last November, I think. I borrowed Mr 555 KTM's 250 to race in the Over 35s and Classics at Canberra. He'd loaned that bike out to some kid a few months earlier and the kid had promptly laid waste to everyone in the Classics. The bike was clearly a winner.

So off I went, actually took it out in practice. And I was hooting. Or at least, I was moving and only three people had passed me within the first lap. I started to think I was good. Down a short straight and my practised eye spotted a nice inside line everyone else was ignoring, so over the little kicker jump I dived to the right. And stopped dead. Then toppled over. Under the bike. In about 3 feet of thick, treacle like mud.

So THAT'S why no-one was using the downhill, righthand side of the overwatered track! By the time I struggled clear, practice was over. The day didn't get any better from there either. I won't bore you with the details of how the rest of the racing went, except to say that in my 3rd race I left the canteen ladies worried that their favourite vintage racer (that's Mr Personality Dennis, not me!) was dead. That's because a guy on a 555 white KTM had just been highsided violently when he cross-rutted right in front of them and didn't move at all after he hit the deck. Yep, that was me.

So, the drive home involved lengthy dissections of how poorly my racing went and marvelling at how the heck anyone can actually feel comfortable being more than 18cm off the ground on a dirtbike, much less jump a double...

I need to practice. Or, I need to find some form of racing that is carried out with people who are happy to plod around on an oval grasstrack with plenty of run-off. But of course, we all know that isn't at all satisfying. So, I need to practice.

Which brings us back to my question. How? Or am I doomed to a slow, creaking descent into rusted immobility? Should I give up now, and just take to watching and observing how much better racing was 'back in my day'. And picking on kids for having too many piercings?

I honestly don't know. But what I can say is that after my highside off that rotten KTM, I decided I was retiring. But you know, 4 months off a bike can do strange things to a man. For some reason, I am hanging out to go race. And I really, truly, BELIEVE that I can go fast. So, this weekend, I'm off to practice. Wish me luck...

[holeshot buddy]

go for it graeme
remember its not where you come
it the enjoyment of building and working
on a vmx bike then riding it
nothing better

i thought i was rusty


cheers rusty

[Freakshow]

Spend more time on the Dirt track, Fairburn park has a great track and even if the big boys come out there is so much room they can find there own way past.  you get to fly around at your own pace, and enjoy your 2 stroke ringing in your ear.

I get maybe 2 rides in a year on the MX and maybe 8 on the DT, the mx smashes me and the bike to bits, on the Dt rounds i just turn up in the morning, Fuel up and ride, after  just cruise home with coffee in my hand and wake up revved to go to work on monday.  bIkes not real dirty so dont even wash it.

MAybe you just need to find differant options to ride your bike in ?  change of scenery and an easier pace ?  I wont ride my PRe 75 on any modern tracks or with modern , its just not work the effort before , during or afterwards.  Find a nice big hillside and ride you pre 75 and the love will come back.

If you choose you moments i think you'll get better rides out of it and more results.

[ted]

Same story here Graeme....turned 50, kids are all but gone  and built myself a VMXer.Finished it the day before CD 5.Figured it would take a couple of meetings to sort out and be ready for 2009.

Well i must have kicked a chinaman. Because of the downturn in the Sydney building market we decided to undertake building Medical Centres right across Australia. It seems every Heaven meeting is on when i am interstate. Heading to Townsville next week so will miss the first two Heaven meets and the MA turnout at Broadford. Whether i could have ridden these meets is probably unlikely anyway ( would have enjoyed flagging though ) as in November `08 i snapped the schaphoid implant that was put in my wrist in 1979 clean in half. Three orthapaedic surgeons that i have seen all recommend fusing the wrist. Locking it solid with absolutely no movement whatsoever. I`m not real keen on that idea.

So i guess for the moment i will continue to build more bikes and see what happens in the future

[Sue]

Hi Graeme

Good luck on the come back trail.
Hope you have a great ride and it washes away all those thoughts of retirement out of your head.
We have some much time for everyone else, We forget ourselves in the process.
We all need to take time out. So get on that bike ride till the sun goes down or until your ass is so sore you cant sit on the  seat anymore and watch the smile come back on your face.
Im missing our weekends out riding my other half is working sevendays a week at night and im work during the day so at the moment we are like ships in the night just passing each other, so no time for riding our bikes. With Broadford coming up in six weeks i will be going with no practise i need to blow the cob webs away 

[cyclegod]

I bought this (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230317275341) to commute and blow away a few cobwebs. Now I am back to my ducking, weaving, short cutting, traffic dodging, curb jumping ways 

[brent j]

Put my name to that and call it something I wrote. I know just how you feel.

Like you time is my biggest enemy. And for me it’s hard to say where it all goes. We have no kids but still can’t find time to do the things we enjoy.
Just getting ready for a race takes the best part of the day before. Sometimes I’ll have to re-write a month’s worth of call out rosters for work so I can get a certain weekend off. Then there’s getting the weekends “jobs” out of the way and finding all the riding gear and spare parts to take.
I also find that now I’m one of “them” or “they” You know the ones who set out the track and all that goes with running an event. When the young guns say that “they” should have done this or that differently, well that’s me now.

I race, and I use that term loosely, when I can. Throw in a few trail rides and it could be 10-12 times a year or as few as 3. Practice? That’s usually the sighting lap, if I’m lucky. Drop it on the way round and it’s all over before I get restarted.

We’re fairly lucky here in that we can ride our vintage bikes in C grade and have our own little races at the back. There are a few of us who are about the same speed and a few of the hot shots (in C grade for F’s sake) have found that the old guys on heavy old bikes are not soft targets and that they will lean those heavy bikes on you if you try it on too much.

My mate Muz is one of those infuriating type who has more talent than any three people need! He rides just a little more than me but then runs up to 4th place in a local B grade event on a YZ250G. He joins in C grade with the other vintage bikes and wins the race (including the moderns) by half a lap, ON A YZ125C!!!!!!!!!!!!
As kids he was the guy who turned at a local hillclimb on a Suzuki A50, and got to the top.
I marvel at guys like him, their ability to make a motorcycle turn a corner where I end stopping for a lie down. Their ability to hang on to a motorcycle at the limit of it’s stability and still stay in control, and GO FASTER!

I think I’m lucky in that I enjoy working on my bikes as much as riding them. To go for a ride means time to prepare, travel, ride and clean up afterwards. Probably more than the riding time itself. At least I can do a few minutes or hours of tinkering when time allows.

As slow as I am, and I was never fast, I enjoy my little slow races with other old guys more than I enjoyed trying to race in the 70’s.
I enjoy making little improvements to my bikes and being able to notice them.
The only pressure I feel now is to have fun.

If you ever come to Darwin Graeme I can see some epic battles for last place coming up.

Neil Young said “rust never sleeps” but I’ll tell you it gets thicker!

Brent

[VMX247]

Graeme
I think maybe your expectations are too high. 
Ride where you like to ride  ,hang out and ride with people on the same level with the same era bikes

The younger riders will be writing and saying the above in 20 years time,(that as we know! is not far away).

Be more disciplined,pack the car Friday night/Saturday morning- don't sit there thinking about it  -get high-   get excited  -get mean  -like when you where young-come on 50-don't make excuses-just do it 
sorry if it upsets you,but that's how I feel 
think of it like this,if your up the front you have more chances of being run over   
keep at it and have a good year,no matter what eventuates. 
alison 
ps this is personal cheer squad kinda stuff 

[mainline]

graeme, like brent said, change the name you have something I could have written. Although not as well.

I know I was average at best when I was riding as a kid, and I've only been back on the bike half a dozen times since my my "comeback" last year. But it's still frustrating when you don't seem to be noticing much of an improvement.

I've been trying to fit in as much mountain bike riding as I can on the way home from work. At best it's a couple of times a week, and I'm trying to stick to the tight single trail kind of tracks. It certainly can't hurt, I don't know whether this is a training option for you?

[jimson]

Rusty I'm seized I can't bring my self to ride at all  :'( I've taken my son Tom to a couple of Heaven meets and he rides but for me it just dosen't happen    my job is very physical and injury is always in the back of my head. The local track is set up for moden bikes so thats out plus the people there are of a new era that I don't fit in  jimson

[Noel]

Yep.
I circle the events on the calender at the beginning of the year


I don't get to ride at all between race days,

that's why I like the Heaven meetings .I know some people complain about to day events,
But
with free riding sat and Racing Sunday , I try to put primer on the rust
I try to get to the track as early as possible Saturday,
and I am often the first on track, I then practice slowly ,riding  a different line or off  line  every lap .and as
 many laps as I can get, sometimes on other peoples bikes while they ride mine, or lend my bikes to fast guys and watch them,( thanks Paul),  or just circulating, even if I'm being a roaming Marshall,  ,sometime watch what the fast guys are doing, wait for them to pass me on the track at a particular corner etc.

Sunday racing. and finishing rather than falling off is the name of the game. and some times I'm even at the Pointy end.
then physically  I pay for it in the following week
cheers
Noel

[Marc.com]

yep the local chiropractor should sponsoring VMX events not the struggling motorcycle industry. I don't know, try rubbing in a heap of denko rub first thing in the morning before the event, for an older dude its like wearing tyre warmers. 

[Nathan S]

....I left the canteen ladies worried that their favourite vintage racer (that's Mr Personality Dennis, not me!) was dead.

I think this is the funniest thing I've read on the forums. Ever.

But getting back to the topic, I know the pain. As a kid, I too would get to ride every weekend, but I've been riding three times since September - and two of those times were just faffing around on the moderns at a mate's property.
And I also know from the rally car the recent experience helps me heaps. I'd always thought of myself as a 'slow starter' until the year where I made the effort to get to every event - and then discovered that in the first few stages, I was snotting the guys who would equal or beat my stage times near the end of the event.

One thing that has helped me, is thinking about riding in the days before hand. "Mental Rehersal" they call it. Imagine yourself on the bike doing everything as well as you've ever done it. Imagine the jitters before the gate drops. Imagine the noise of the other bikes are you scream toward the first corner, etc.

It helps a lot more than you'd think.
One thing that took me a while to get right, was not being overly optimistic in my mental rehersal - you want it to reflect reality, not some pie-in-the-sky roosting Chad Reed nonsense that will be blown out of the water when you're actually at the track.

[Graeme M]

Ah, so there you go. It's not just me, huh?

My piece above is a little tongue in cheek, brought on by a conversation with young TwistnShout on the way to Mr KTMs place for some bench racing and Honda repairs (Dennis had to fumigate the garage after we went - good bloke he is, letting that bike into his KTM palace). We both find it hard to make the time for riding for all the usual reasons, so we spend a lot of time thinking about it rather than doing it. Most days we email back and forwards, imagining how nice it'd be to be able to ride whenever we want. Or even... to be able to ride FAST.

Then we have to read stuff on this very forum by blokes with unlikely names like Magoo who describe trips to Queensland that involve more bikes and bench racing than we'd experience in a couple of years.

And yes, like Brent we know plenty of people with more natural talent than is entirely reasonable. In fact, most of the guys I rode with way back when were fast. They had the trophies to prove it too. All I had was a Snoopy trophy given to me, out of misplaced pity, by my then girlfriend. She always used to say "Don't worry, just relax and it'll happen. Sooner or later"...

Though come to think of it, I don't know it was the bike racing she meant there.

Still, I relaxed and tried to be at one with the bike. I took up meditation. I did my affirmations. I silently imagined myself winning at every moment I got. Especially before I went to sleep. My girlfriend started staying out late, but I didn't care. I was gonna get FAST. But of course, I never did. I had to put up with endless stories of race victories from my mates. In the end, I just kinda accepted my lot in life and took to chucking endless wheelies, the only thing I was ever actually good at.

So when I took up vintage, I thought, here's my chance to revisit my youth and go FAST.

But, as you've seen, that's been foiled by the lack of time to practice and the aforementioned lack of talent.  And young Twisty, who never raced before he got into VMX, is in much the same boat (except that he is faster than me - goes without saying hmmm). Still, I exercise religiously. I spend a fortune on my old shitheaps. I read every dirtbike mag I can get my hands on. I've even... done a coaching school.

And, of course, I love it. There is nothing quite like it, the thrill of restoring, riding and racing vintage MX bikes. So I will keep on doing it for as long as I can. Just not often. Or very quickly...

Wonder where my girlfriend is now?

[oldfart]

Graeme , Go out and enjoy yourself and have fun .

life is too short to sit back and watch it pass by