Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ridin After a long night, we're still going. Here, Kim hands the bike off to Rod, while KIt performs a routine air-filter change. During the 24-hour race, all we did to the Honda was replace two tires, one clutch and a zillion air filters. ness: Encountering an especially thick dust cloud, Kit slowed to a crawl and finally stopped, waiting for a glimpse at the trail. After a few moments, Kit realized that it was not a beige dust cloud blocking his way, but a similarly colored uphill, so he dropped the clutch and continued on his way. ROD: A sales manager for Personal Watercraft illustrated (CN s sister publication), Rod Hipwell was by far the most highly strung member of our team (we call him "Rod Bull" because of his fondness for the similarly named energy drink), but since he's a nice guy who had proven in Glen Helen's six- and 12-hour races to be a dependable and fast rider, we invited him out to the 24-hour event. We let him work off some of his nervous energy in the chaos of the first stint, and he did a good job of getting through cleanly and returning the bike in good condition while simultaneously giving a quick report on the course between quaffs from a fresh blue-and-silver aluminum can. On his next stint, Rod's high point was getting to see heroes like Ty Davis and Shane Esposito as they passed him (by this time, the raceleaders were lapping us), and he said that the coolest part of his night session was its "freaky, surreal" nature. Rod rode the most laps out of anyone on our team, and if anything, he was team until minutes before the start, when another team member canceled. When contacted by cell phone, Lance was watching his kid's soccer game, but he gamely agreed to show up in the afternoon and give us a hand. Despite the late notice, Lance was the calmest member of our alreadysedate group, and he remained that way by avoiding any high-altitude bailouts like he had experienced at the 6-hour race (ouch!), though he did get out of shape in the nighttime dust and shoot off the course at one point. Lance's late arrival meant he only got to do two stints. but again, he was too mellow to complain. K[M: Though he used to be faster than his brother Kit, Kim Palmer doesn't get much saddle time these days, and he was visibly anxious as he suited up for his first stint - understandable, since he hadn't ridden in over a year. We reassured him that he'd be fine, and pleaded for him to not worry about his speed and instead concentrate on bringing the bike home in one piece. Not one to quibble, Kim putted around the course at a pace that can charitably be called "conservative: taking great pains to not get any air over any of Red Given the relatively tight nature of the Glen Helen course, the XR may seem an odd choice, but we knew what we were doing. Sure, the bike is heavy - at nearly 300 pounds, damned heavy - but it had everything we were seeking in a 24-hour mount. What is everything? Well, we're not big on excess wrenching - in the garage or in the pits - so the XR's reputation for dependability was a big consideration. We wanted to ride the bike, not work on it (with a start-up children's magazine and a few personnel changes, we've been pretty busy here at the office for the past few months). We also appreciated the fact that the XR is a true green·stickie-Iegal off-road bike, as opposed to a more hyper motocrosser that we would tire of over the long haul. We had ridden Honda's CRF450R in Glen Helen's six-hour and 12-hour endurance races, and although we really liked it for those events. we felt that the mellower XR was better suited to the longer event. Though we wanted to minimize modifications, there were a few things that we felt it was important we do to the XR before we lined up for the green flag. Since a significant portion of the event takes place at night, the most important item on our list was to make sure we had sufficient lighting (last year. we screwed up our headlight setup and had to endure hours of riding by brail - not an experience we were eager to repeat). Many people utilize full-on Baja lighting for the 24 Hour, but we were content to have Honda's Eric Crippa swap the stock plastic lens for a glass unit from the dual-sport XR650L, which in tum enabled him to use a brighter bulb; we also supplemented the setup with batterypowered. helmet-mounted NiteRider HID lights. The result may not have been bright enough for the heroes competing for the overall win, but once we dialed in the direction of the headlight beam the night before race day, we were pleased with visibility - especially compared to our firefly-in-a-jar setup from last year. Crippa also offered to provide us with the same Precision Concepts suspension that Campbell runs on his XR race bike, and we enthusiastically accepted. Again, we had screwed up our suspension setup the year before. and since a significant portion of the Glen Helen course was motocross-esque, we didn't want a repeat experience of dealing with overly soft suspension. Besides, we knew that the mods (lighter valving for absorption of square edges, and stiffer spring rates to keep the proper ride height; also, a '97 CR [25 shock body is used to increase oil volume) wouldn't adversely affect reliability. Precision Concepts specializes in off-road suspension, and it shows. With its mods performed, the XR didn't sag out when we sat on it, so we had the entire suspension stroke to work with. It felt plush and eager to absorb impacts (everything from small rocks and ledges to the MX track's doubles) rather than deflecting. but it was almost impossible to bottom. In an effort to minimize pit time, we had Maxxis' Mike Farmer replace the stock tires with his employer's long-wearing Maxxcross IT donuts, and we also put the big Maxxis meats on our spare wheels (we had borrowed our buddy Cliff Ranney's XR650R as a parts bike). This proved a good move, as the Maxxis tires found good traction in the bone-dry conditions and held up surprisingly well (we swapped the wheels one time, and probably could hllve gotten away with running one front tire the entire race). Our final "modifications" were to remove the sidestand and muffler baffle - that's it. We used the stock tank (not wanting to carry around a ton of fuel), and the motor was left stone-stock. We never felt the need to increase or alter power, the exhaust note was acceptable, and the bike could torque through technical sections and attain fire-road velocities that were plenty fast for us. Though it was only tumed off for a total of about 30 minutes, the bike never even hiccupped. Because of extended clutch-slipping on the dusty uphiJls, one change of plates was necessitated (fortunately. we had pitted next to Honda, and they performed the duties - thanks, guys), and we repillced the air filter every couple of hours (a five-second task ,thanks to the Dzus fasteners). We didn't even perform an oil change, and after a wash job the day after the race, you'd never have guessed the thing had just done a 24-hour race. the second year in a row, Chris got to be the lucky rider who was on the exception of two pulse-quickening moments: The first was when another bike during the dramatic transition rider pitted ahead of schedule, forcing from night into day. Chris has been doing some endurance training on Honda fourstroke personal watercraft, and now free from the threat of sharks and Chris to suit up at world-record speed, and the second was stalling the XR in a rut in the woods, then struggling to refire the bike (his kicks were shortened by his boot hitting the ground) while a traffic jam backed up behind him. eN moving whoops (i.e., waves), he had a relatively uneventful day, with the the jumps, and handing the bike off after just two laps. The freaks come out at night, however, and as the light disappeared, Kim underwent an amazing transformation. His nighttime laps were among the quickest in our group, and the guy recovered from his case of the nerves, having so much fun that he only pulled into the pits when the bike was threatening to run out of fuel. even more amped-up at the finish than he had been at the start. Apparently, Red Bull really does give you wings. LANCE M.: Lance McRoberts is another pal of the CN staff (apparently, we're fond of people named Lance), but he wasn't named to our CHRIS: With eyes that had recently undergone Lasik surgery, Associate Editor Chris Jonnum was unsure how his nighttime vision would be, so naturally, he was the one team member that ended up with the most laps in the dark. Fortunately, his peepers ended up functioning just fine, and for The winning._. err, midpack crew: (Left to right) Kit Palmer, Rod Hipwell, Kim Palmer, pit boss Ted Gablin, Chris Jonnum, Lance Gorton, and Lance McRoberts with the indestructible '03 Honda XR650R. cue I e n e 'IN S • NOVEMBER 13. 2002 25

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