The trip that changed into another trip

Hey everybody! This is a blog about a trip that changed into another trip. No, not a fall over kind of trip. I'm talking about a drive-around-in-a-van trip.

On Saturday, Norman and I went to shred at Mount Carroll. It turned out to be awesome! I saw some other friends there, and I got to try out some different settings on my new 450. We borrowed a GYTR power tuner and I messed around with that a little bit. I think it's pretty awesome how the power delivery can be moved around.

Anyway, after that riding day we had to get back home and pack for "the trip.". We had to wash the bikes, change some tires, pack everything, and not forget anything. We had supercross recording at the same time.

When we got done we watched the action from Toronto and tried getting the momentum to get off the couch and start driving to Wildcat Creek. Area qualifier!

Fast forward 8 hours: our dad's were tired from driving through the night. Norman and I were getting ready to ride. Practice was good for me. It's the Motos that should've gone better...

The track was rutty and bumpy. My arch-enemies. Both my 2-stroke Motos involved ok starts and then tip-overs. Not that good.

The collegeboy Motos went a little better. I rode my new 450 in that class! We didn't have numbers for it yet, so I decided to just run the #1. Yes, I was ready to get the holeshot, whip it off the jump, pull a tear off, and fist pump to the thousands of fans cheering me on.

Unfortunately that was all in my imagination. 12-12 for 10th overall. What to do..

Norman had a day that involved crashing into a group of downed riders and cracking his radiator. Fun!

I somehow felt more relaxed at this race than at past qualifiers. That's a good thing in my book!

What was I talking about again? Oh, right. The trip that turned into another trip. Our plan was to go down south for the week and then hit the GNCC in north carolina next weekend. After getting some delicious chili's food,(Philly cheesesteak sandwich OMG) we made the decision to stick back in the land of Lincoln for the week and ride near home.

But we're still doing the GNCC!

See ya. -Greg

Joliet Mx Helmet Cam

Hey guys!  A week ago Norman Madiberg came here from Estonia to ride some mx.  Here's a little video I made from our first day riding at Joliet.  Check it out!



Since then we've gone shredding at Kody Kamm's track, which was sick!  Riding until dark for two days was epic.  I also got a new 450, which I rode out at Kamm's.  Maybe another video will be coming next week with some 450 action from Georgia. ;)

See ya! -Greg

Joliet Mx practice

Hey everybody! Today is the day of the Indianapolis supercross. Norman Madiberg and his dad arrived in the US last night. A good way to start the trip, right?

So anyway, after finishing my homework and getting about 6 hours of sleep, I was expecting to just go straight to the supercross. But my dad came up with this idea to go ride somewhere before going to watch!

We packed up and left for Joliet Mx. I had never ridden there before. I've only been there once before, but it was just when my dad was riding around there.

We arrived and started shredding soon after. The track was super hard packed with quite a lot of jumps. There were two tabletops that you could actually double over, too! That was kind of scary.

While there I got some helmet cam footage, rode with "mad" max malatia, and just plain shredded.

Since we're going to a place with a lot of people now, we had to get a little cleaner. Nothing a little dip in the lake couldn't fix.

That's it for now. Indianapolis sx, here we come! -Greg

Keithsburg Hare Scramble hell, in a good way

Hey everybody! Today I did my first race of the spring, and it couldn't have gone better. After watching James Stewart destroy everyone at Daytona, my dad and I decided to leave right then at midnight.

We were off, and I was sleeping in the back of the van. I woke up when we were driving through some sand bumps. I knew the track was supposed to be sandy, so I thought we were close. It turns out that there isn't really an address to the track, so I actually just picked it out on the map on our gps. We went a little off course... We were almost getting stuck in some of the deepish sand. Uh oh! Luckily we got out of there and back onto some real roads. We got to the track at about 4:30 AM.

The morning was filled with observing how everything was run. Dead engine start. And then banzai for the rest of the time! Except for the checkpoint, of course.

My start was at 11:45 AM. I was all geared up, camelbak ready, gas to the brim. I was in the third start of the 11:45 race. 201-Open B. In front of me were AA and A.

Start, holeshot, go! I didn't even see anyone in my class for the whole race, except for when I was lapping people. In the second lap I fell over twice after getting past some A guys. That wasn't fun.. But I got back up, passed them, and kept chugging along.

I ended up falling a third time, as well. Up to the gas fill-up at about 50 minutes (which I had to do because I was running a stock tank), I hadn't found my camelbak tube. Oh boy. I found it later on, though. The last couple laps were pretty much hell. It's just sand bump after sand bump there. Before the last lap I came in at 1 hour 43 minutes. If I would've been just 2 minutes slower I would've finished!

So the last lap was filled with thoughts of finishing and battling the leader of the A class, who I caught up to. I passed him, felt dead, he passed me back. Going through the last section I caught up to him. We were side by side in the last turn! He ended up edging me out to the check point line. Yes, a check point line. All I wanted to do was go lay down at that point...

I couldn't lift my arms at all anymore at the end. The constant whoops had killed me. I felt almost as bad as when I had heat exhaustion last summer. These races are tough!

My 100% goggles were just awesome. Somehow I didn't even pull a tear-off. My AXO gear stayed strong, my AGV helmet kept my noggin safe from the trees, and my TZR tuned suspension worked awesome. A lot of my passes happened through the deep sand whoops sections.

My dad actually spent all last week rebuilding my bike with Tom Zont at his garage. Thanks guys! Like Tom said, it would've meant that I sucked if I didn't win with the totally rebuilt bike. Luckily I didn't suck. :D

So my experience at the Keithsburg hare scramble was really good up to the riding part! I need to work on my fitness some more.

Last week I jogged for 1.5 hours. I thought that meant that I could do this race fine. It's so different trying to push all the time in a race...

Later guys! -Greg

Fred Bud Helmet Cam

Last weekend I ventured out to an awesome sand track in Illinois for some practice.  I also wanted to do a helmet cam of it after my last attempt failed with the camera crashing to the sand following an incident with a tree branch.  The track at Fred Bud is roughhhhh.  Believe it or not, it was actually groomed a week before this ride.  Check it out!  There's a little bit of trail riding on the track as well. :D



-Greg