As many people can
attest I an an AWESOME off road rider. BMW comes to me on a regular
basis with questions on how to improve the GS line of bikes. Other
manufacturers reach out to me almost daily with questions on how to beat
BMW at their own game. This year, I will forgo entering into Paris - Dakar, just to give the other riders a chance to win, but I am still the odds on favorite to win.
It is a burden to be this talented.
These are the statements of a person who has a chance at competing in this year's qualifying event for the US in South Carolina. These are not statements that refer to me.
I have owned a GS for about a year now. Captain USA is well kitted out with farkles and such.
I am well set up with some snazzy gear.
Picked up my Rallye edition from Max BMW. Up until July of this year, I had no offroad skills at all. I took the Max BMW Offroad class and learned a ton. Really picked up my abilities and confidence.
BMW does the GS Challenge every other year. They take teams from several countries, fly them to some exotic locale and the teams compete on identical GS motorcycles to see who is the best in the world.
This year, September 20-22 there is a qualifier at the BMW Facility in South Carolina. I had such a good time learning how to ride my bike offroad, I signed up for this event. While there is about a zero chance of me making the US Team, I KNOW I will have fun.
There are many crazy drills and challenges for GS riders.
Here are some I found:
So yeeaaahhhhhhhhh........
Anyway, part of the challenge will also be social media interactions. This is where I hope to really shine, since my skills will probably be my weakest point. It is not terribly important that skills are the most important part of the challenge. Bah! I will win with my word smithery! (smithing? smithness? smithitude? WRITING!)
I will be heading down to SC Thursday the 19th. Will be bringing a fresh set of tires with me, or getting them down there. Once I get down there, I will strip Captain USA to the bone, for the competition.
I am really looking forward to the stupidity and fun. If you could follow me on Twitter, Friend me on Facebook, or keep an eye on this page for updates, I would really appreciate it!
To continue my gripping tale of riding in a rally, that literally tens of people read and two learned something, we move on to (fanfare of trumpets)
PART 2
In the first installment, we covered many areas, including planning, time management, strategy and other amazingly insightful points. We then moved on to an imaginary rally and how time is lost while out on your route. We will now move on to more pressing and interesting matters.
I am behind. Now What?
As you go through the rally, if you are the anal Type A persona, you will know when and where you are supposed to be. There will most likely come a time when you realize you are behind and won't make your planned route in the time allotted. Something has to change.
There are several ways to deal with this situation.
If there is a penalty window, determine if you will still finish, without dropping anything off your plan. If so, I say, go for it!
Riding faster is not an option. Many people ride a little over posted limits. In order to determine if you can gain back time, you really have to look at percentages. For example, if a rider rides 10 MPH over in a 50 MPH zone, he is gaining 20%. If you ride 10 MPH over in a 25 MPH zone, you are gaining 40%. So as you can see, riding a little over in the lower speed zones gains you a lot more time, than doing so in a faster speed zone. If the balance of your ride is made of slower zones, then maybe you can pick up a little, but if you are staring at a lot of highway, you are up a creek and that creek doesn't smell so good.
Drop some bonii. No one likes doing this, but sometimes you have to do it. Now, there is a science or art to dropping bonii. It takes careful up front planning to figure out which to drop. Let's explore this.
Dropping a Bonus
In designing your route, you should know how much each bonus costs, relative to time. The points per minute value of each bonus should be known. For instance, if there is a bonus that takes you 10 minute to gather and it is worth 2,000 points, the value is 200 Points Per Minute. Now lets assume there is a bonus that will take 30 minutes, but is worth 9,000 points. The value of that bonus is 300 Points per minute.
Clearly it is cheaper to drop the first bonus rather than the latter. BUT, you only gain 10 minutes vs 30. How much time do you need to make up? As an added quandary, WHEN can you give up a bonus? Does it make sense to drop a bonus early in the rally to get back on track, time wise, or continue the rally behind the whole way and drop a bonus later in the rally? What if you have time constrained bonii?
All of these factors must enter into your calculations.
In my case, I know which bonii I MIGHT drop and how much time I will pick up and how many points the drop will cost me. I also have them scattered throughout my route. If there are time constraint bonii, I pay very careful attention to my drops and exactly how much time I can pick up. To make it even more complex, I may have two, three or four separate routes for each segment that might only be different by a few points, but several minutes, and as we have found minutes matter.
For example, let's say I have a bonus that can't be missed because it is so valuable, but it is time constrained. I will put this bonus as 25% of my total plan, but it must happen between midnight and 1:00 AM, in our hypothetical rally. If our rally started at 6:00 AM, that bonus is 18 hours away.
Time to do some work.
While on the route, I may find myself 30 minutes behind. I will know which bonus I need to drop to get that 30 minutes back. That is easy. But what I probably will also have is a different route that may drop a bonus that gives me 45 minutes and picks up another that takes another 10 away for a net of 5 minutes. Now the most important part here is WHEN I find myself behind.
If I am behind very early in the rally, I will not panic. I will not start dropping bonni. I WILL keep a close eye on my times. If I am falling further behind with the passage of time, my planning will change. If I stay 30 minutes behind, and don't lose any more time as the day goes on, I have my plan, and it was ready to go since before the start of the rally.
Is some of this over the top? Yes. But it is how I have managed to win. It may not work for you, and it may not be the best system, but it is what has worked for me so far.
You can easily participate and enjoy rallies without going to these extremes. You may even do well and get into the top 5-10. But if you want to win, against the serious competition that is out there, you will need a system, plan and tenacity to get there.
I purchased a 1200 GS, Captain USA, at the end of 2012. I had seen "Long Way Around" and "Long Way Down" and had visions of riding the world in my head. What better way to spend a year or so, but to hop on a bike and go adventure?
Only a few things stood in my way:
I am broke. Can't afford to take off a year
I have responsibilities I can not put on hold
I have ZERO off road riding experience
The first two are easily overcome. I have a plan to handle those two. Can you say POWERBALL? I know, I know, I am a genius.
The third item requires actual work on my part. UGH.
My friend Bruce pointed out that I was the only person in the world who
owned a GS in case I ran into dust on a paved road somewhere.
So where to learn how to ride off road? Why, Max BMW, of course! Best. Dealer. Ever.
Bill Conger was the instructor and he was excellent!
Kate, on Herbert,
and I got into the class. We needed to get knobbies? knobblies? off road tires. Both our bikes were about due for a 6K service, so we headed up to Max's in CT on Saturday. Had our services and tires done and Kate had an upper crashbar added to Herbert.
Notice how Herbert looks like a proper adventure bike now?
We had decided to go right up to Hunter Mountain from CT instead of riding home to NJ only to ride up to Hunter the next day. The plan was just to sit and relax on Sunday in prep for two hard days of class. Sunday morning came, and that plan lasted 15 minutes.
So we are on the bikes, headed out looking for adventure. NY shares something in common with NJ. Overzealous tree huggers and "Keep Out" signs. We went to breakfast and I jumped off at every dirt road, only to be met with "No, you can't ride down here and have fun" signs. Ah well.
We did, however have a nice little ride around the area.
We rode a dirt(y) road and found some fun stuff. At the end of this road was an entrance to an old Jeep trail. Which, of course, was closed to motorcycles because people want to hike. So we stopped and I took a few cool pics of Herbert.
I thought the two bikes looked cool together on this road, and Kate looked particularly hot in her gear with her adventure bike, so more photography commenced.
All this photography was wearing me out (how DID Ansel Adams do it?), so we went into the woods and had hot sweaty monkey love.....I mean we hung out by a stream and cooled off.
Somewhere along the road was this cool flower bed, flowing out of the back of a dump truck. I thought it was neat, so I took a few pics.
Later we came upon a home made memorial to 9-11. Very simple, but tasteful and touching to find in the hinterlands of NY.
But enough of this artsy farsty, mushy, lovey dovey crap, on to the class!
Bright and early Monday AM a group of intrepid riders gathers for what will be a day of abuse, I mean learning.
There were two other women riders besides Kate and one other 1200 GS besides Captain USA. The balance of the bikes in the class were F650s, F700s and F800s with a KTM and a 450X for good measure.
The class was taught by Bill Conger, an accomplished rider and instructor. Here is is demonstrating how to do a fist pump at the disco, while Ben Stratton shows the proper technique for standing against the wall and observing in said disco. (insert base line here. unta unta unta unta)
We eagerly lined up and learned a bunch of skills. We went through slow riding, Trials stops, slow turns, fast turns and emergency braking.
It was a hot one and everyone was enjoying themselves.
Kate was having a good time. Any time you get hands on the hips, it is a good time.
Ben played the part of "Water Boy" while riding, um, female dog behind Max.
Here we have Kate doing her cone weave. Notice how much prettier she is than I.
And here I am. tadaaaaaaa.
We then went for a short ride up and down the mountain. Nothing crazy, but a good exercise of the skills we had picked up so far. This culminated with our arrival at a large grass field where we proceeded to run around a course laid out by our instructor. Part of this course was a muddy area, about 20-30 feet long. You had the option of crossing over it, or riding through it. This was an offroad class, so I tried to run through it.
I was never successful in riding through without having to touch down, but I did manage to get through 4 or 5 times. Captain USA was now properly christened as a GS.
Now here is an important tidbit about that mud.
You see, it wasn't all mud.
Uphill from the mud area was a stream.
And uphill of that stream was a barn
And in that barn there reside horses.
And as you know, horse poop and pee.
And water transports said poop and pee to the lowest lying area.
And here I stand, smiling, my bike and I covered top to bottom in mud. and poop. and pee.
Gross.
A bunch of us got together at the hotel pool, then had dinner and drinks. A very eclectic group of people, and great company. By the end of dinner, my energy reserves were tapped and I just passed out, once we were back in the room
The following day we worked on some more advanced skills, recovering from a stall on a hill, turning your bike around on a hill, picking your bike up on a hill, high speed turns, slalom and so much more.
We then rode to the top of Hunter Mountain and rode some single track stuff that was very intimidating. Due to this excellent nature of this class, I was able to handle the single track stuff, which was pretty tricky, without any major issues. I would NEVER have even thought about trying these trails before the class.
My skills increased more than I can count and my confidence level sky rocketed. I was willing to ride a dirt road before the class, but would not have been happy. After the class, I am willing to go anywhere the bike is capable of being ridden. I am no expert by any stretch, but I now am confident I can make an effort at most anything.
Sunday, Kate and I went for a nice leisurely ride. We went up to High Point State Park. The name, while not overly creative, is accurate, as it is the highest point in the state of New Jersey.
After arriving at the park, we went for the "scenic" drive, .6 miles, instead of the "direct" drive, .5 miles, to the monument.
While meandering down this long and winding road, I noticed a trail to the right, with a sign that said "observation deck". Hmmmmmm. Looks like a walking trail, but no signs about not taking vehicles. I have my GS. How bad could it be?
Well, after this slight incline with a little dirt and rocks, it became a 3' wide tree lined boulder strewn, bike eating, what the heck were you thinking, trail.
And I promptly got stuck. Tree to my right, death giving cliff to my left. I IMMEDIATELY regretted this decision, which, BTW falls under the "poor choice" category, NOT the "bad idea" category.
So I am stuck, trying to figure out how to back my 700 lbs behemoth out of this situation, and almost drop her about 5 times in the 6 inches I managed to move. Luckily for me, 3 large men happened by. Even more luckily for me, they were neither inmates nor cast members from Deliverance! They very kindly offered to help, and with some grunting and groaning, we managed to wrestle Captain USA to a spot where I could get him turned around.
Naturally, Kate was extremely helpful in documenting the whole procedure.
The rest of the day went fairly uneventfully. So naturally, I had to do something more, um, dumb, today.
Today is "Ride your Bike to Work Day", which came as a surprise to me, since I though that was most days during the year. But apparently there is an official day.
ANYWAY, Revzilla is hosting a contest. The contest is to put up a picture of you "dominating" your work. Challenge Accepted!
So add one 42 year old child, a Rallye GS, a giant American Flag, a forklift and a 6 foot pallet and what do you get?
