How to be a beginner... again

   I keep starting blog posts and forgetting to finish them until long after they've become irrelevant, so with a little extra time on hand I figured I'd get this one out there. We seem to have blown right past 2015 and into February of 2016 already. How'd that happen so fast?? The skiing was incredible from December until the end of January when things warmed up a lot, and we've more or less had spring for a few weeks now.  Great corn skiing and perfect beach afternoons with the dog have been in abundance. Also, nice weather means spending more time with my new obsession: dirt biking. All of this is great, but we could probably use a little more snow before spring really begins to warm things up, and help the lake fill up some more. Lake level is looking much better than it has in several years but still has a long ways to go before many of the piers on the north shore are back in the water.

   On to the whole beginner thing... For Christmas Kit absolutely nailed gift-giving, and though it wasn't much of a surprise because we discussed the options at length, he brought me home a new dirt bike. I thought it was pretty funny how I putted along happily on my little Honda CRF-230 without complaining but when Kit hopped on to try and get it un-stuck from some situation I'd gotten it into, he declared it was a giant heap of junk. Taking a spin on his bike I realized quickly that yes, brakes ARE actually supposed to work to slow you down. And a bike without a kick start is no good when the battery refuses to stay charged. At least I got really good at figuring out how to bump start the bike in all different kinds of terrain.

The new shred-mobile!

   I almost ended up with a 4-stroke 250 trail bike, but before we went to look at any it was decided that one of those was going to be way too heavy; me not being very big plus the number of times I would probably be lifting and lugging it around after wiping out. The new bike wound up being a 2-stroke Yamaha YZ-125, almost identical to Kit's bike but with a smaller engine, almost 80 pounds lighter than my CRF and supposedly easy to fix if I blow it up. Finally a real "grown-up" bike! Having friends who ride 2-stroke bikes I had heard plenty about how different they can be to ride and I couldn't help but be a little nervous about the whole situation. Riding my CRF was sort of like riding an extremely heavy bicycle with a motor, very predictable and would crawl up most things I'd care to point it at. It also sort of didn't seem to care what I did with the clutch lever and wouldn't exactly leap forward with the throttle open.

   So, for my first time on the new bike I was slightly terrified, although the first 10 minutes was an anticlimactic comedy of stalling every time I tried to take off in first gear. Apparently, modulating the clutch does actually serve a useful purpose, unlike on my old bike which seemed to go no matter what--stalling and/or popping unintentional wheelies was a frequent occurrence at first but I've been getting much better lately. A slight twist of the throttle will send the bike jumping almost out from underneath me, requiring constant attention to my hands and positioning on the bike. I would compare it to riding a skittish horse that might spook at any moment but can be kept somewhat under control with the right technique. A different animal entirely!

   Once I got a little better at actually controlling the bike things got even more fun. The YZ even feels way lighter, handles so much better and is getting more and more rad to ride every time, though I'm still working on the clutch-throttle control for trickier hill climb conditions. When things don't go as planned, it's also noticeably lighter to pick up and get turned around, though still a heavy beast compared with a mountain bike and will wear me out in a hurry!

   Oddly enough, it turns out, my nemesis is going downhill, which I discovered pretty early on. Strange for a pro-ish downhill mountain biker, right? I thought so too. For some reason, staring down a steep long hill strewn with loose shale with a long ways to go to the safe runout turns me into a blubbering weenie. The brakes are weird--right foot rear brake is the farthest from making any sense at all! Then I freak out and forget that the clutch lever is not a brake like on a mountain bike. I discover that engine braking on 2-strokes is not quite as strong as on 4-strokes, and the engine keeps dying and rear wheel locking up, sliding sideways in the looseness. If I accidentally hit the throttle, nothing good happens. Way too much going on, when the last thing I want to be doing is picking up more speed! What do I do then? BAIL!!!! This is not the recommended solution, however, especially when one's leg might get twisted funny and result in a sore knee for a couple of weeks. Acquiring a brace seemed like a good idea after that experience. Eventually I will conquer this irrational fear of descending, but until then I might wind up coasting down many things with the engine off to feel more like a bicycle.

Kit gets sideways in the sand.

   All sports have inherently frustrating moments but I haven't been so thoroughly humbled in a long time as I have learning how to ride a dirt bike... though I've progressed a lot in the year and a half since I started, it still feels like everyone else is miles ahead of me. Perhaps if I was able to pay my way to a World Cup downhill I would experience a similar level of complete ass-kicking. Not all trails are quite as gnarly as what I got dragged through last month, but there are constant challenges to figure out, and occasionally a chance to celebrate getting through something I didn't think I could do. Riding with awesome friends who wait for me and make sure I don't get hopelessly lost or stuck also helps a lot. Trials and tribulations haven't seemed to ruin the fun yet and I find myself grinning all the way home after a ride, uncontrollably excited for the next time I get to get out and test myself on the same hill or techy trail, unable to stop talking about what a great ride it was! Somehow the allure of mastering something completely new has become an obsession the likes of which I haven't felt in some time. Not that I've completely given up on mountain biking yet, don't worry!