Saturday I went out dirt bike riding with six people from the NCTR club members near Albany, WY.  This turned out to be a very treacherous ride.  The ride was planned for 60 miles but I ended up having to bail at around 18 or so since my bike was overheating and boiling the water in my radiator and reserve.  When I did bail I was out of water in my camel back, had been refilling the reserve with it, and only had a bit left in my reserve.  Last time I went riding I had the same problem, but I replaced my radiator cap, flushed the system, and put in Engine Ice… Looking like a trip to the shop is going to be needed and soon, I leave for Taylor Park\Crested Butte area on Thur for a four day ride.

Today I went with my neighbor Ed to help at the Seismic US Nations Slalom Skateboarding competition in Lafayette, CO (local article on it).  Ed had told be a few days before that a friend of his, Chris ?, was competing and they were trying out a new bungee pull\slingshot system and needed some people to help pull the bungee back for the riders.  (YouTube video on the event) This turned out to be a lot of fun and work.  They had two bungees (from Banshee Bungee) hooked to two trucks with two handles and 15 lines, about 2’ apart starting about 20’ from the trucks.  We started out alternating launch boarders from each side but figured it made more sense to just have one team of pullers.  Ed guesses that at the “15” mark there was probably around 300lbs pounds of pull on the bungee.  When we let go it launched the skateboards at up to ~30+ mph.  The final system we worked out had Ed, Mike (some guy that just happened to be running by and offered to help when they were looking for pullers), and myself pulling the bungee to the skater.  I then transferred my handle to the skater and helped get that cord taught by holding their board, if they wanted me to.  Then Mike let go, easily and Ed held the static pull until the rider counted 3-2-1-GO!  On go Ed would take two or three long strides to help smooth out the launch and the skater shot down the hill.  50’ or so past the trucks the slalom started and continued for ¼ mile at a 9% grade.  Within the first hour we had a smooth launch system going and the three of us with a fourth person swapping out one of us sometimes for a break did this for about four hours non-stop.  It was a heck of a work out and a lot of fun.

I didn’t think to bring my camera but there were several cameras and a few people said they would post some videos to YouTube.  If I get pics\videos I will post links here.