Ride report - 1st in Tucson (for me)

Well, as some folks around here know, I relocated from San Jose CA, to
Tucson AZ last spring. Wih the move and all the assorted "stuff" that
entails, I didn't get a chance to ride before the blazing hot summer
pretty much shut that down (at least for me. Maybe in a couple of
years, I will have acclimated enough to ride when it is 110 out)

Yesterday morning, I hooked up with two co-workers for a ride at one of
the local spots. My friends are a 40+ C class rider (but he has earned
a 2 digit number, so he is FAST) and our local IT wizard, who races c
class MX and does some trail riding. I am on the pig (the last dirt
ride for the beast?), an XR600R, Mostly stock, but with wrked suspension.

The place: State trust land, about 8 miles from down town on the south
side of the Federal Prison, off Wilmot Avenue. AZ has an enormous
amount of state trust land. Around Tucson you find lots of it. Much of
it is open for public use with a rather inexpensive permit.

We did two loops, each 22 miles. This loop is what JOhn, the expert
racer, uses to keep his skills honed. Lots of great single track, scrub
brush, tight twisty trails. A couple of long, power robbing sand washes
, and some real fun/fast/furious open spaces.

Most of the loop is tight enough that the quad riders just ignore it.
The first thirs is on a flood drain plain, so there is lots of silty,
wash everywhere. Stuff the XR hates to turn on.

A word on my physical condition. Last fall, I finally bit the bullet
and had the XR's suspension revalved and sprung for my svelte 260#
weight. A phenomenal improvement in handling and general ridability.
Fast forward to today. I am down to less than 205#. As you can image,
the pig is now way over sprung for my weight and boy could I tell it. I
have also been spending a ton of time at the gym and on the bicycle, so
my aerobic capacity is as high as it has been since I was in my early
20's. It is a good feeling, I will admit. Back to the story...

As I was mentioning, the first third of the loop is a lot of flood
drainage, with lots of that fine, silty sand. The XR hates that stuff.
Add in the admittedly good-for-street-legal-knobs, Pirelli MT21's, and
you have a recipe for major front end wash out, and even blazing some
trail as it refuses to be bent around some corners. No fun. One corner
that it refused to turn for, forced me to plow through a large bush with
lots of thorns. Ugh.

I will keep this family friendly and hold back a little bit on my
assessment of the Pirelli's on the deep sand washes. Lets just say that
they are really poor performers. I could easily get them up and
floating, but there was almost no control over direction. I also now
know why people put scott's steering stabilizers on XR600's. It is for
sand washes, dummy. I have one that I never installed, since I never
had it feel twitchy back in CA.

By the middle of the second loop my clutch arm was cramping up, so I was
resorting to clutchless shifting just for survival. I will treat the XR
to a bath of fresh engine oil.

This was only my second experience of riding in the desert. The last
one was a few years ago, where Baxter and myself trekked to the white
tanks ride near Phoenix. This was a lot more technical, and really a
better ride. The only thing missing were any hills to speak of. I
would have been as fast (or faster) on a 125 MXer. Still, it is
technical, challenging and a lot of fun. I will need to ride it a few
times more to get the lay of the land, as this time I was focused on the
trail and not losing my partners...

It feels good to be back in the saddle after too many months, and to
have such great riding only 20 miles from home. Life is good...

Geoff

Geoffrey Anderson wrote:

 > Well, as some folks around here know, I relocated from San Jose CA, to
 > Tucson AZ last spring. Wih the move and all the assorted "stuff" that
 > entails, I didn't get a chance to ride before the blazing hot summer
 > pretty much shut that down (at least for me. Maybe in a couple of
 > years, I will have acclimated enough to ride when it is 110 out)
 >
 > Yesterday morning, I hooked up with two co-workers for a ride at one of
 > the local spots. My friends are a 40+ C class rider (but he has earned
 > a 2 digit number, so he is FAST) and our local IT wizard, who races c
 > class MX and does some trail riding. I am on the pig (the last dirt
 > ride for the beast?), an XR600R, Mostly stock, but with wrked suspension.
 >
 > The place: State trust land, about 8 miles from down town on the south
 > side of the Federal Prison, off Wilmot Avenue. AZ has an enormous
 > amount of state trust land. Around Tucson you find lots of it. Much of
 > it is open for public use with a rather inexpensive permit.
 >
 > We did two loops, each 22 miles. This loop is what JOhn, the expert
 > racer, uses to keep his skills honed. Lots of great single track, scrub
 > brush, tight twisty trails. A couple of long, power robbing sand washes
 > , and some real fun/fast/furious open spaces.
 >
 > Most of the loop is tight enough that the quad riders just ignore it.
 > The first thirs is on a flood drain plain, so there is lots of silty,
 > wash everywhere. Stuff the XR hates to turn on.
 >
 > A word on my physical condition. Last fall, I finally bit the bullet
 > and had the XR's suspension revalved and sprung for my svelte 260#
 > weight. A phenomenal improvement in handling and general ridability.
 > Fast forward to today. I am down to less than 205#. As you can image,
 > the pig is now way over sprung for my weight and boy could I tell it. I
 > have also been spending a ton of time at the gym and on the bicycle, so
 > my aerobic capacity is as high as it has been since I was in my early
 > 20's. It is a good feeling, I will admit. Back to the story...
 >
 > As I was mentioning, the first third of the loop is a lot of flood
 > drainage, with lots of that fine, silty sand. The XR hates that stuff.
 > Add in the admittedly good-for-street-legal-knobs, Pirelli MT21's, and
 > you have a recipe for major front end wash out, and even blazing some
 > trail as it refuses to be bent around some corners. No fun. One corner
 > that it refused to turn for, forced me to plow through a large bush with
 > lots of thorns. Ugh.
 >
 > I will keep this family friendly and hold back a little bit on my
 > assessment of the Pirelli's on the deep sand washes. Lets just say that
 > they are really poor performers. I could easily get them up and
 > floating, but there was almost no control over direction. I also now
 > know why people put scott's steering stabilizers on XR600's. It is for
 > sand washes, dummy. I have one that I never installed, since I never
 > had it feel twitchy back in CA.
 >
 > By the middle of the second loop my clutch arm was cramping up, so I was
 > resorting to clutchless shifting just for survival. I will treat the XR
 > to a bath of fresh engine oil.
 >
 > This was only my second experience of riding in the desert. The last
 > one was a few years ago, where Baxter and myself trekked to the white
 > tanks ride near Phoenix. This was a lot more technical, and really a
 > better ride. The only thing missing were any hills to speak of. I
 > would have been as fast (or faster) on a 125 MXer. Still, it is
 > technical, challenging and a lot of fun. I will need to ride it a few
 > times more to get the lay of the land, as this time I was focused on the
 > trail and not losing my partners...
 >
 > It feels good to be back in the saddle after too many months, and to
 > have such great riding only 20 miles from home. Life is good...
 >
 > Geoff
 >
 >
Hey Geoff, don't suppose you could post or email directions to that loop?
I'm always looking for new riding places. I outside of Sierra Vista, so I
think that loop is within range.

Eric
--
2000 XR250, '74 Elsinore MR50 (original owner),
'99 CR80 (11yr old daughter), '96 RM80 (14yr old son), 2000 DS80 (visiting
kids).
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