Hi!
Yesterday I went for a ride. A very fun ride!
Well, I stayed up friday night up to 1 am, installing new sprockets & chain on my XR250. It was the
first time for me with a 48t rear sprocket. I was using 13/44, and happens that I had a brand new
48t rear, I bought that I thought it was too big and got another 44 and kept the 48 for future use.
Well, I decided it would be great not spending extra money on a part I already have at home, so I
just bought a KMC chain (made somewhere on Asia) and a Riffel (national product) front sprocket.
Also, replaced rear wheel bearings. Saturday morning I installed the chain (and took only five
minutes to remove 3 extra links with a hammer and an old philips screwdriver) and went to a birthday
party, lotsa cachaca shots with a trully great feijoada. That was so good!
Sunday came and by 7:30 am (late half an hour...) I was at Neto's place. Neto rides a red 03 XR250
(note: the XR250 from here are not those 1970's XRs the world have, ours are an entire new product,
except by the name). Luis Paulo and his DT200R (a sweet enduro bike, great suspensions!), Danilo and
his 03 XTZ125 (a little 4 stroke Yamaha, the best 125 offroader around), Jr and his 03 NXR125 (pos
bike, with CRF frame and a very weak and outdated OHV 4T engine. 19" front wheel...), Robao and his
XR200R (again, an entire different bike from world's XR200Rs), Chico and his ratty but mecanically
perfect 82 DT180 with extended swingarm and XL250 front end, Rafael and his 85 DT180 and Andre and
his 87 XLX350R. I was riding my 02 XR250, dark blue plastics.
As we were there deciding about the ride, three more lunatics arrived. Another XR200, a XR250 and
uummm, whatwashisbike? Well, I don't know those folks, but they live on our neighborhood, I've seen
them around other times.
Gas station, fill'er up, put right pressure on the tires, and by 8am we were on the trail!
The folks who arrived after showed us another entrance for the trail. We usually rode through Ponte
dos Carvalhos village, right through the bus station. Their way started climbing a nice hill and
crossing a river. Fat rider (Jr...) broke a board of the bridge and the crossing got really
interesting... I was the last, I had to rode over the gap....
Off to the Jar Trail! Twisty single track, and weather has been mean these days, since the hurricane
that hit southern Brasil, we got these night rains. It was wet! I let everybody go ahead and started
looking after the most inexperienced riders, Chico with a trully classic DT180 and Robao XR200R,
were slow and cautious and I was there, making sure they were ok. Damn, that's boring! So, I yelled
to Chico to behave and take care and I started going fast on the single track, chasing the rest of
the guys! I got behind Andre. He was very fast when he had a two stroke, but now with his large four
stroke, he's slower. Not that much! A pair of new tires on that beast (I got a orange sized rock
thrown on my chest protector...) and he was blazing the trails, until he bike stalled and refused to
start. Man, I can't believe. If there was any bike that would go sour it had to be Rafael's DT180.
After lots of attempts we found it wasn't sparking. We cut a couple milimeters off the spark plug
cable and it fired right up! But mind you, we tried everything, we lost almost one hour there. Well,
it was fixed, so there we went! The unknown folks decided that we were holding them and they decided
to leave us and ride alone. Rafael had to go back home. He crashed and his 19 years old fuel tank
didn't resist, developing a severe leak around the seams.
Off to Itapuama beach, for a hill climbing session and woods riding. We were going to cross the
paved road for the cane sugar juice. The bad thing about riding with lots of guys is it's hard to
keep an eye on all of them. When I looked back, Andre, Robao and Chico were missing. I returned,
just to find out that they turned RIGHT while still seeing us! They thought WE were wrong and turned
and waited. When they saw a noisey blue blur on the woods, they returned. Well, everybody together
again, let's have cane sugar juice! Refreshing stuff. The owner of the booth even gave us a
graviola, a tasty and sweet local fruit. Chico bought some bananas from a store right over the road.
Then, we went to a very steep downhill, with a deep erosion on the left. Scary stuff! I was the
first to go down and watched people try. Neto fears heights hehehehe. Luis Paulo crashed when
already on the bottom and Chico froze over his bike and we had to insist on him to go down...
Then we went to Zombie Woods. Neto leading, Jr on my front and I chasing them. It was fun, until I
passed Neto, who waived for me to stop and wait the others... duh, just because I was first...
We waited them, seems that Luis Paulo crashed back there... The hill we have to climb on zombie
woods is nasty, the roots make it hard to climb. Of course I crashed. Well, no, I dropped the bike
(sounds better say "drop" than "crash"
Yeah, I picked my bike on myself and got up there with no
help. Neto climbed with no trouble. Jr crashed, we had a bad time making him go up again. Danilo
made it great, so did Luis Paulo. Andre crashed and every bad thing have a good part: He broke the
dried root that made that climbing so hard! Chico had less trouble than anyone else to climb that
hill...
Over the grass hills, there are lots of araca trees. Araca is a fruit like a guava, just smaller,
about the size of a big grape. We stopped there to rest and eat lots of fruits...
So we went to a bar, we had some beers and lunch: to gigantic fishes, with rice beans and salad.
That was good! For the return, we decided go explore some other unexplored trails. Again on the
zombie woods. But it was already night, and I missed the entrance for the trail, we ended up lost
(more or less) and we found ourselves back on the paved road. Well, no problems... Missed a great
trail. It was very dark when we hit the jar. Chico crashed a lot of times, his headlights aren't
good. I had to ride behind him, making light...
We arrived home almost 9pm. It was a great ride, unfortunatelly, I could not carry my camera... No
pics this time.
Next ride already set: Next sunday, the girl who had b-day last saturday convinced me to take her
for a ride (I'm too "kind" after the fifth shot of cachaca...
I'm going with another couple, I'm
*not* going on the Zombie Woods just me and her. Too dangerous...
--
Tiago Rocha
Recife - Brasil
www.diariodastrilhas.cjb.net
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