2003 CROOM ENDURO ( WHAT WAS)
It was a great day to be in the woods and a fine day for my last adventure in Moto. 26 years ago in July I started my moto adventures at Croom on a Suzuki TS185 trail bike, so finishing that part of my life on a borrowed Suzuki was a strange coincidence. Having retired in 1992, I had been wanting to ride this event one more time, see the FTR website article on my aborted 2002 attempt. Croom Enduro.. what almost was
Good Karma?
Two things happened in the month before the event that seemed to show that the powers of the Universe were pulling for me to finally ride again.
1) While loading up my Mountainbike after a local club ride in September, up rides a long lost fellow Suncoast Trailblazer and his wife, just finishing their MTB ride. Larry Fuller was one of the reliable SCTB trail dogs for quite a few years when I was involved with the club from 77 to 92. Larry had moved to Maryland a number years ago. Unknown to me had moved back to Lakeland about 4 years ago.( I live in Valrico)
He asked what I had for a dirtbike today, I pointed at the Ellsworth bicycle, he said no, I mean a motorcycle... I explained my retirement in 92. We caught up a bit and he advised he had three bikes, which one did I wanna ride? I finally told if he was serious I'd love to ride the Croom Enduro one more time. (Pure Karma huh?)
2) Next weekend I get a call from another long (er) lost Suncoast Trailblazer, Tom Cole... who says, let's go ride the Tallahassee Enduro cause he just bought a leftover 2002 KTM 300.( I think he's been retired from FTR for about 18 years) He had just read my aborted 2002 Croom story from last year and was thinking I had bought another bike. (There's that KARMA again!)
Seeing as how I've been off anything with a motor for 12 years I advised him that he's beyond crazy if he thought I would go back to ride Tallahassee in my current state of moto (un) readiness,( I may have hit my head on a lot of trees over my 15 years of FTR events, but none of them erased my memories of what Tallahassee is like) so I committed to go make like a pit crew for him and then go to Croom the week before the Croom Enduro to see if I could figure out what the gear pattern is on the DR400.
Last Saturday we ( Roadracing co-worker Dale on his WR450,Tom on his KTM,another MTB rider and former MX racer on his KX250) went to the park for some badly needed practice... I did all of 20 miles before trying to move an Oak tree with my foot used as a wedge between the tree and bike at speed. It had been about 15 years since I last had 5 toes that had that particular color, size and shape. So practice was cut short for what would be about 70 miles of race the following weekend.
Sunday am ,from row 3... there were a about a grand total of eight riders ahead of Tom Cole, Dale,me and an unknown Yamaha rider... so I was already thinking about how many times I'd be pulling over to let people by so I would not get run over.(I use a cochlea implant because I'm pretty much deaf today, and would not able to hear without it and it would not fit under the helmet, so I would not be wearing it)
The first half proved to be kinda tight, I believe that it would have been tight on the Id( my Mountain bike). Was especially tight on the borrowed Suzuki 400 that weighs considerably more than me and had bars that were about 33" wide. ( seemed like the trees were 24" apart.)
But oh... that four stroke power and modified suspension was sweet though!
(Thanks Larry Fuller, the bike was great and thanks to Larry Crouch for the full set of gear!)
Man did the bike eat whoops... I actually stopped once to see where Tom and the other guys were after heading out for the second half... trails were faster, more open and had deeper whoops. I thought I had went down a wrong trail, turns out that I was just consuming whoops at a pretty good pace.
Having entered in the Super Sr C class.. my scores were not as bad as what I had expected, especially feeling like my corning speeds could have been beaten by a pregnant elephant had there been one on the same trail.
So first half.. it lived up to the "Endure" part of Enduro.
(Smiley, rumor has it, you laid that route out last year, good on ya!)
2nd half...my co-worker said only people that did not pass him were the ones that started ahead of him. ( he is VERY GOOD at Daytona though, at speeds of 180 mph... but there are no trees or WHOOPS at Daytona either) So he bailed at the gas.
Tom and I had BIG FUN in the second half for about twenty miles or so, until we were going down in the big pit in my old Enduro layout area, this is a place where me and some of the other course crew used to gather and make fun of the total squids that seems to always crash going in those pits. ( and watch Jack Huffman taking pictures, man I'm glad no one was there Sunday taking pictures) Justice... guess who was following a little close to Tom when he slowed down too much on the first downhill?
( Suncoast crew.. whoever did the routes through those holes, GOOD JOB!, you used many different routes than I did working that section for about 15 years... BIG FUN!)
Yup, I probably looked like the "KING OF SQUIDS", too much front brake, bike falls about 12" into the bank, I continued to the very bottom...( I did 360's like those guys on X-Games, just not on the bike)
Body check showed nothing dented other than my pride, back up the hill while avoiding other riders, do the heaviest deadlift ever, get back on bike, fall off other side, repeat above.
Stop at bottom try to regain air.. realized I was not tired a few minutes ago but now I'm whipped.
About a mile later repeat the above only going up a little hill that I've ridded up on the Id(my mountain bike) at least 50 times.
A short while later,a few thoughts came to me:
1) I can't believe I used to blitz these trails like the A riders now passing me.( Lee and Scott for example, even SSB rider Bob Wilcox)
2) I'll be glad when the next 15 miles are over because my race pace and attitude has evolved into a pace that might have been just a little bit faster than the pace I have on the Id.( bicycle)
3) This was a fun day.. but I'm over it, I'll not do moto anymore after this.. would take to much time and work to get good at it again.
4) We probably did about 15 or 20 miles of the MTB trail and for the some parts I would have enjoyed those trails better on the Id.(bicycle)
5) I can't believe I had done this for 15 years and had actually WON the overall once and tied for the overall 5 or 6 times with a number of 1st place trophies to my credit.( based on my current trail speed today, where did my mojo go?)
I had a really fun time, this was the just about the most fun I've had at an Enduro since my one and only Hipoint, at Daytona in 92.
Great Job Suncoast!
* Tom got 2ed place Master C with 60 points... I gotta find my scorecard and see how bad it was, I did not even look at the board before leaving.
The look of a Master C rider after the race.. with a white van just like in the old days, yes he looks the same as years ago, must be that two mile run every day he's doing. He looked even happier I bet when he found out that he got second place for the day.
I'm back to being a MTB rider,Mountain Bikes are a bargain for so many reasons....(even though my current MTB cost more than my CR 250 and KTM 250 combined)
* A note to all, the MTB trails in the Croom Forest are open just about year round, find a MTB and go ride them if you want practice for next years Enduro.
Strange to go race and not really race, or try to go as fast as possible... so that's what all those guys were doing that I used to wonder about, just having fun?
Actually except for dropping that DR about 4 times at 5 mph or less( and having to pick it up!) the day went pretty much how I expected it to.
It was a really good day, could have been a fantastic day,... with about a months practice, ok maybe two months.
All in all.. a good day.
Frank Truluck
