New supermoto rider, goal is Mint or similar next year. Advice/beating appreciated

[Stingray63Vette]

Hey all! I've been quiet on here for a long time. I'm "the Virginian" over in the Desert Racing section, mostly an engineer but also have been off roading for a long time. Not sure if you can see my post history or not, but those projects are yes, still in motion! I'll update those interested in a bit.

Meanwhile, I've been either mountain or XC biking nearly every day up here in the hills and trails and riding sportbikes (motorcycles) with friends. Going to pick up a supermoto rather than a dirt bike soon since my commute is a non-highway paved route, but I'll hopefully be riding out in the western desert early next year. Waiting for my shop to get the Ranger prerunner together, but that's taking a while.

Any specific ideas for an East Coast enthusiast in preparation for the Mint (or any better entry race around that time)?

 

[cynicwanderer]

do as many local hare scrambles/enduros as you can, before going out and doing a desert race. you might want to get some dirt bike wheels/tires and re-tune the suspension on your supermoto as well (if you haven't already). if you can, practice high speed sand riding without paddles, the deeper the sand the better. if you get a chance, do some shorter desert races out in the west, like D37 or MRANN.

 

[AZ KIRBY]

Pedal as much as possible. Race all the local races that you can make it too. Get comfortable being in races and at race speed. Have fun with it


Sent from my iPhone using race-deZert

 

[BajaboundMoto]

@Stingray63Vette - Mint is going to be a more technical course than typical BITD courses, even more technical than SCORE Baja courses. I'm hearing the motos only race (not even room to fit quads on the course) is going to be a lot of good rocky trails and just a little bit of the fast and beat up car course to get into and out of the pits.

If you come out this way (you're from Virginia?) and race any other BITD or SCORE race it won't be anything like what I'm hearing we'll get for Mint.
If you come out west and race a National Hare and Hound (a few western States, CA, AZ, NV, UT, and ?) that will be more similar, and it'll be hard core.
Or at least come out and race a D37 desert race (southern CA) for a sample before Mint.

If you're looking for typical BITD or SCORE race stuff I like to suggest doing Parker 250 in January because it's got a little mix of really fast dirt roads and some rugged choppy stuff but you do not race on the same day as the cars so you don't have to contend with them passing you. It's also simple logistics with only 2 pit locations.
That race IMO gives new "desert" racers a good taste of what it's like to go really fast on a car race course, see some trashed/rugged car race course, and learn basic pit logistics. And it's cheap too.

 

[Stingray63Vette]

I've been very busy, sorry for the late reply! Thank you all of the good advice.

There's no shortage of MX here, enduro's harder to find but trails are within one state in every direction! Definitely good practice @cynicwanderer and @AZ KIRBY! Kirby, does MTBing actually help that much? (It got me into off-road motorcycles and speed for sure.)

@BajaboundMoto, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Out in Moab the trails are slow, but I got a taste of desert riding. Endless speed would be amazing the first time. I'm looking at the Parker 250 right now, and pit logistics are the only thing I'm worried about. I've always been a lone racer. Any suggestions on resources to learn how that works in reality?

 

[slim01]

If you want a hassle free race that you arent sure about, I would highly recommend contacting Tim (BBM) about an inclusive race package if its an option for you. All you have to do is turn up with a helmet and the rest is organized, bike supplied and prepped, chase guy for fuel and pit etc.

I have used Tim for the B1K & V2R but I was travelling from reasonably from far away so a DNF would have been extremely disappointing given they were likely being one-off races for me.

Having done it 'right' the first time, Ive got a much better idea of how it should be done next time and when recommending to my friends when they've asked these types of questions. My advice is the same as what was first said to me on this forum in 2013 asking about the B1K, do a ride/race with Tim first and go from there.

I had raced desert stuff over here but the logistics and bike set-up were completely different from what I had experienced before. A plus is you'll meet some awesome like-minded guys.

 

[Stingray63Vette]

Hm, @slim01 I'm not sure if that's the route I want to go. I already have my machine and am looking forward to being able to prerun on my own, or at least bash for a few weeks before the race. Thanks though! (I may do that in TrophyLite if my Ranger isn't around soon enough)

 

[slim01]

Understandable bud, I know where you're coming from. Those shorter type races are good to just turn up with a few mates, and just camp and ride, (atleast over here in OZ they are).

Flying over to do specific races, Tim is a great option for us, as close to a guaranteed finish you're likely to get. Keen to hear what you sort out.

 

[Stingray63Vette]

I'd love to fill you all in! Might put some updates on some media platform or something.

 

[BajaboundMoto]

@Stingray63Vette - Parker is simple, so don't worry.
Get on the BITD mailing list, pre-enter the event, and you'll get bombarded with mailers and info from BITD explaining too much. They won't explain how to pit, but no worry.
So you mean you're going to do the race as a solo rider? If so, you race 2 of the 3 figure-8 laps (some classes do 2, some 3).
You really need to have at least 1 person there at the race with you if for nothing else safety (like if you were injured).
You can either keep that 1 person with your truck in the main pit (same area as start line) or send them out to the remote pit.
You can easily find someone to haul gas out to the remote pit. Even the day before if you had nothing BITD would ask the crowd at the riders meeting who can haul a can and lots of people will volunteer.
If you just dropped off your gas and supplies (gas can, goggles, spare wheels, whatever) in the main pit and left it unattended and sent your truck to the remote pit that would totallly work too. Nobody would mess with your stuff, no way, it's totally safe. Just ride in and pit yourself, easy deal.
Don't over think this stuff, it's not hard in the US.
But if you ever consider Baja, different story.

 

[BGRANT]

I've been very busy, sorry for the late reply! Thank you all of the good advice.

There's no shortage of MX here, enduro's harder to find but trails are within one state in every direction! Definitely good practice @cynicwanderer and @AZ KIRBY! Kirby, does MTBing actually help that much? (It got me into off-road motorcycles and speed for sure.)

@BajaboundMoto, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Out in Moab the trails are slow, but I got a taste of desert riding. Endless speed would be amazing the first time. I'm looking at the Parker 250 right now, and pit logistics are the only thing I'm worried about. I've always been a lone racer. Any suggestions on resources to learn how that works in reality?

If you ride out near Moab, ride the "Enduro Loop" out towards White Wash, that will give you a good idea of what BBM is talking about with the MINT.

 

[Stingray63Vette]

Sweet pit strategy crash course there, @BajaboundMoto ! That's exactly what I needed. Cool to know it's that simple, maybe I could meet up with a couple friends with pit trucks over in the four-wheeler area of RDC.

@BGRANT , my technical skills are built on downhill biking ballet- a lot lower speed but also less forgiving on the machine. It'd be interesting to compare the two.