We are on board with Coxy at the Tenterfield Terror hard enduro.
This the mid section of the main
track, with plenty of ups, downs, and a long stretch of gnarly creek bed...
enduro heaven!
As usual we will be discussing hard enduro technique,
and also humble versus overconfident riders.
Which one are you?
Not sure?
Enter a hard enduro and you will know soon enough!
Lets see how Coxy is going.
As mentioned in the last episode, Coxy is a super helpful guy.
If a crashed rider is causing a hold up, most riders will just sit there and wait.
Not Coxy.
He's always keen to help any rider having trouble.
Way steeper than it looks.
When in doubt you should always walk your bike down hills like this.
See our training vid on how to bull dog.
Today's topic.
Are you a humble rider?
Or an arrogant rider?
And by arrogant, I mean you overestimate your abilities.
At Traction eRag events in Canada, we usually offer three groups to ride in:
basic, intermediate, and advanced.
The weird thing?
So often we have guys saying I'm a great rider, I better go in the advanced group.
And during the week they struggle so much they often end up in the basic group.
On the other hand, we get these incredibly experienced guys who say "I'm not a great rider".
They place themselves in the lower group.
And we say "dude you are good, get into the advanced group!"
And we see it a lot with hard enduros.
Riders with almost no technical skills
enter silver class, then struggle so much they clog the track for others.
Or start cheating and riding around obstacles.
Or complaining when the marshals won't let them avoid the tough bits.
These guys are often the carpark heroes.
They can roost and ride fast on smooth straight tracks.
And usually have reasonable speed on flowing tracks.
But they moment they hit gnarly terrain they fall apart.
And I'm leaving women out here because they almost never been hurt themselves.
You ride sports bikes?
You can spend a fortune on a crotch rocket
and a set of expensive leathers then accelerate hard in a straight line to try and impress others.
Ditto if you are into Harleys.
Spend a mozza on your hog, the leather vest,
all the riding gear to make you look like a bad boy, even though you are a chartered accountant.
But
dirt riding, and especially hard enduro,
is tough if you try to 'talk the talk but can't walk the walk'.
A classic case was when one of the Traction eRag guys entered the Corduroy,
Canada's main hard enduro, on a $300 Honda XL185.
He was constantly overtaking guys who had spent
thousands on their brand new Eurotrash two strokes and their flash riding gear.
And he was constantly walking back down hills to help these guys, riding their bikes up for them.
If you are a carpark hero, a poser, or just generally a wanker, then
hard enduro will probably not be the right sport for you.
However if you suffer from any of those medical conditions
and you're looking for the cure maybe you should just jump right in.
That's more than enough talking from me so I'll sign off.
Remember to check out coxy's videos of his prologue lap
and also the first part of this main event, and check out his Youtube channel Muppets Inc!
It's a really good insight into hard enduro events
from a muppet's perspective, that's all from the muppet show!