Archive for January, 2010

Inside the $22K 300 Mule

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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KTM 250 300 Ignition Vent

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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Installing BPD Radiator Guards

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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Inside the WP TRAX Shock

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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KTM 200-250-300 Cylinders @ Slavens Racing

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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Open letter to all OHV users

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010


The time is NOW to get involved in your local community and participate in the governmental decision-making processes.  No longer can we be wary of participating in the political and local community processes. The OHV Community must have a credible and recognized voice in local affairs which can only be achieved by personal involvement with our elected officials.

In order to increase the visibility and voice of the OHV Community, we must all increase our personal participation in our local and regional governmental decision making processes.  Each of us needs to participate and contribute in local affairs to ensure that our collective voices are heard.  The first step is to join and get active with your local OHV organizations or clubs then consider getting involved in:

  • Your local community collaborative planning processes such as development or review of Community Master Plans or Comprehensive Plans.  This is the first step in getting OHV areas planned and funded
  • An appointment to Citizen Advisory Boards or Committees
  • Volunteering for Parks and Recreation Boards
  • Getting to know your local Economic Development staff and explaining the positive economic impacts that OHV users and activities have on your local economy
  • Public meetings for travel management planning on USFS, BLM or other public lands
  • Expressing the need for local OHV areas and activities to your local Parks and Recreation staff
  • Attending and participating in regular City or Town Council meetings, Planning Commission meetings, County Commissioner meetings, etc.  Learn how these meetings are conducted  and make your voice heard when the decision makers ask for public comment
  • Promoting OHV participation in local events such as parades and other community events
  • Expressing the NEED for viable and safe OHV recreation areas at all levels of government, but focus on your local government.  Skate parks, soccer fields and the like are all being funded with your tax dollars because local constituents demand them from their local governments.
  • Organizing a local OHV TEA PARTY

Do not wait; do not expect someone else to do it.  Every little bit helps and the old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil is spot on.  You yourself must get involved and make your voice heard.  Those that dislike or misunderstand OHV use are at the local table demanding government officials listen to them.  We, the OHV Community must do the same get to the table TODAY and be a voice in our local public processes.

Bill Alspach

Woodland Park, Colorado

Member, Trails Preservation Alliance & Colorado Motorcycle Trail Riders Association

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Tinkeritous and Tuning it Out of the Main Event!

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I was born and raised in central Illinois just a few short miles away from the fastest mile oval track in the world, the legendary Springfield Mile. We lived one block away from the famous Route 66, which went to the track, and every year my dad would load us up and take us to the race. My brothers and I would hang on the chain link fence like a bunch of monkeys as Mert Lawwill, Dick “Bugsy” Mann, Gene “Burrito” Romero, Kenny Roberts and the mob thundered by and the ground would shake. Well maybe the ground didn’t shake but it seemed like it did when I was 6 years old.

If you’ve ever experienced a National Class C flat track race then you will know that the mechanics are constantly tuning and re-tuning every little detail on the bike looking for an edge over the competition. They have quick change hubs and a stack of sprockets that allows them to adjust the gearing to match the track conditions, tire choice, engine performance and many other factors. They constantly change and adjust jetting, cam timing, compression ratios, suspension set-up, wheelbase length, tire selection, tire grooving, octane levels and just about anything and everything else that you can imagine.

So, what the hell does this have to do with the average trail, desert, hare scrambles, or enduro rider? Well the flat track tuners have a saying, I tuned it right out of the main event. What does that mean? It’s when a tuner has a bike that won the heat race, won the semi, but then chronic tinkeritous kicked in. He just had to tinker with it before the main event and ended up making it slower or handle worse or maybe even caused it to DNF.

Today’s high tech dirt bikes offer an endless amount of adjustments and the aftermarket guys offer an endless amount of widgets, gigets, bling, and snake oil. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great products on the market but there is also a lot of useless junk that adds weight to the bike, downgrades performance, or compromises reliability.  It’s a state of euphoria for the chronic tinkerer that spends too much time on the misinformation highway and not enough time in the saddle. It almost ensures that they will tune it out of the main event or at least ruin a good trail ride.

Although I’m not a fan of stock bikes, most manufacturers offer some damn good bikes that are very capable in stock form. Yeah yeah I know, they might not have the best suspension or the best engine performance but they can get the job done.

Every year I ride a lot of owner prepped bikes (I used to test hundreds every year) and some of them are very well prepared. But with many of them the owner has spent a lot of time, energy, and hard earned cash turning a perfectly good bike into a steaming pile..a wiggly, wobbly, poorly tuned, bling infested, overweight pig with compromised ergonomics.

So, my first words of wisdom (and experience) in this Education Post would be to first carefully evaluate your new or new to you dirt bike before adding anything to it or making any changes. Ride it stock for a ride or two or three before touching a single bolt. I know that this may go against every cell in your body and that you may go in to an OCD tinkeritous meltdown, but it will give you valuable information and establish a baseline from which to improve the bike.

All great professional tuners, engine, suspension or chassis, establish solid baselines with the stock components before making any changes. This is similar to what doctors do before surgery to increase the odds of a good end result and not tuning you out of the main event.

Establish a solid baseline then carefully and methodically evaluate all products, services, website guru enlightenment’s, and home tuning ideas before implementing them.

Happy tuning,

Jeff Slavens

Slavens Racing.com

P.S. Please sign up for our free RSS Feed to automatically receive future post and please check out our educational videos on this blog and at SlavensRacing.com.

Upcoming post

  • Spring rates
  • Progressive shock springs vs straight rate
  • Shock bladders vs floating pistons
  • Ergonomics

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AMA Press Release

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

AMA Press Release

Jan. 22, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James Holter
Phone: (614) 856-1900, ext. 1280
E-mail: jholter@ama-cycle.org

Colorado resident and AMA Life Member testifies before U.S. House in opposition to inappropriate Wilderness designation

PICKERINGTON, Ohio – Dennis Larratt, a Charter Life Member of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), offered testimony on behalf of the Association as well as the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives in opposition to H.R. 3914. The bill, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act of 2009, would inappropriately designate 44,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and private land as federally protected Wilderness.

The hearing was held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands of the Committee on Natural Resources, chaired by Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). H.R. 3914, introduced by Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.), would designate about 44,000 acres of public lands as Wilderness.

“Colorado already has 3.5 million acres of designated Wilderness, and does not require additions,” Larratt testified. “H.R. 3914 is a piece-meal approach, with many small areas proposed for designation.”

AMA Vice President for Government Relations Ed Moreland said that the AMA is eager to work with Rep. Salazar and other interested parties to address Larratt’s concerns regarding H.R. 3914.

“The AMA supports Wilderness designations for land that meets the statutory definition of Wilderness — land ‘primarily affected by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable’ — but there are still oustanding issues to be resolved with the local and state OHV community,” Moreland said. “The AMA is proud to partner with organizations such as COHVCO to provide Congress with a local perspective of the impact on riding areas.

“Mr. Larratt provided numerous logical and clearly stated points against the passage of H.R. 3914,” Moreland continued. “We’re grateful for his testimony and looking forward to the opportunity to help better shape this legislation going forward to benefit all Americans with recreational and economic interests in Colorado’s ample natural resources.”

As part of his testimony, Larratt, who represented the AMA, COHVCO and the AMA’s sister organization, the All-Terrain Vehicle Association, cited the massive amount of land being considered for Wilderness designation in Colorado, such as the Hidden Gems proposal that will designate 400,000 acres of public land as Wilderness. Combined with federally protected Roadless and Wilderness Study areas, the acreage in the state that is off-limits, or being considered for protection, is staggering.

“While there is obvious overlap with some of the proposed Wilderness and some of the Roadless Areas, a simple summation results in approximately 11 million acres, or half of all federal public lands in Colorado, being contained in designation and proposals,” Larratt testified.

Larratt also questioned the suitability of the land proposed for Wilderness designation under H.R. 3914.

“Congress has charged the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture through the USFS and BLM with identifying areas for additional Wilderness designation,” Larratt testified. “The sum total of the USFS Inventoried Roadless lands that were recommended for designation is only 11,000 acres. Let me repeat that the USFS only identifies 11,000 acres of 4.8 million IRA lands as suitable for Wilderness designation, yet H.R. 3914 alone is four times that size, and the other various proposals are a total of almost 300 times that quantity.”

Other problems with H.R. 3914 include fairness (some areas would allow exceptions for the sake of helicopter skiing and mountain-bike racing); limits on fresh water projects in a state with limited fresh water resources; vague buffer language that may not protect remaining trails on adjacent properties; and no consideration for historical trails.

“Inappropriate Wilderness designations are often simply a land grab by special interests, and the AMA will continue to vigorously oppose such efforts,” Moreland said. “All Americans have a right to enjoy the beauty of our public lands, including the young, elderly, handicapped and others who may only be able to share in the wonder of the environment by using an off-highway vehicle. Wilderness designations close off these areas to those Americans.”

Larratt has been a member of the AMA since he was 13 years old. In 1987, he helped found the COHVCO (Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition) and has served in various organizational roles, including chairman.

About the American Motorcyclist Association
Since 1924, the AMA has protected the future of motorcycling and promoted the motorcycle lifestyle. AMA members come from all walks of life, and they navigate many different routes on their journey to the same destination: freedom on two wheels. As the world’s largest motorcycling rights organization, the AMA advocates for motorcyclists’ interests in the halls of local, state and federal government, the committees of international governing organizations, and the court of public opinion. Through member clubs, promoters and partners, the AMA sanctions more motorsports competition and motorcycle recreational events than any other organization in the world. AMA members receive money-saving discounts from dozens of well-known suppliers of motorcycle services, gear and apparel, bike rental, transport, hotel stays and more. Through its Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, the AMA preserves the heritage of motorcycling for future generations.

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2010 Dakar Images

Monday, January 11th, 2010

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Help Preserve Colorado Trails

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Trails Preservation Alliance (TPA) 2009 End of Year Report

Before we go into specific details about the work the TPA did this year, we need to present some background information on events and issues that are being faced by the entire Colorado motorized recreation community. This included all of 2009 and throughout the next four years. The radical, liberal, National administration and liberal legislature in Colorado have created an environment that is trying to totally eliminate motorized recreation on public lands.

In the past 30 years of trying to preserve motorized recreation we have never faced a situation like we have today. To make it simple, we are in the worst situation possible.

Examples of these issues are the Travel Management Plans (TMP) of the Gunnison National Forest and the White River National Forest.

Both of these issues have been worked extensively in 2009 and are expected to be published as final plans in 2010. The Colorado Roadless issue was reopened by our Governor (to be reevaluated by a more radical environmental group) even though the State has spent significant time and money developing a Roadless plan that was approved by a bipartisan group. Now that plan is being scrapped in favor of a more radical rule, eliminating more public lands from use for public recreation. Perhaps even more dangerous, the rule changes make fire in roadless areas much harder to prevent and stop. At the same time all of this is being brought forward, we have four new Colorado Wilderness proposals that could remove as much as 2.6 million acres of public land from motorized recreation availability. The existing premise of public access to public lands has been totally eliminated.

The latest major issue that has developed against Colorado motorized recreation is the Responsible Trails America (RTA) attempt to take over the Colorado State Parks, OHV registration grant program. The RTA, using false accusations and local environmental surrogates, is attempting to mandate that OHV registration funds be used to mitigate undocumented damage by legal motorized recreation and spend 40% of the fund on law enforcement!

We have included a list of the major actions that the TPA took on behalf of all its members and supporters. To gauge work and success on each of the below issues is difficult. Many issues are a long way from being resolved. Other issues will end up in the administrative process of protest and appeal, while others may end up in some form of legal actions.

The TPA intends to continue work in support of our sport.

The TPA web page www.coloradotpa.org news section provides specifics on all issues worked in 2009.

Major tasks accomplished in 2009 include:
1. Gunnison NF and White River TMPs. These actions consumed most of the TPAs time in 2009. Both initial TMPs were extremely unfavorable to motorized recreation. The TPA took the lead working with assistance from the Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition and the Rocky Mountain Enduro Circuit. We have met extensively with both NF staffs to present our input on the preferred alternative plan. It is too early to predict what success we will have on each TMP. However, significant work has been accomplished in our efforts to present the motorized concept of what the TMP should be to all users of public lands.
2. Worked with the San Juan Trail Riders in their effort to preserve trail riding in the Pagosa and San Juan areas.
3. Working with motorized clubs in the Moab area, (Ride with Respect, and USA-ALL) and Grand Junction (MTRA), in an effort to help preserve access to public lands in their respective areas.
4. Donated significant funds to organized motorized groups in Utah and Colorado in support of their effort to educate public officials about motorized recreation on public lands.
5. Coordinated a plan with the AMA to add an additional subject matter expert to our combined efforts in responding to all of these various projects.
6. Joined the AMA, COHVCO, and other groups in an organized effort to eliminate and or reduce
the impact of the new wilderness proposals that have been presented for Federal action.
7. Worked with COHVCO and other Colorado organizations in an attempt to mitigate and curtail all actions associated by the RTA as it attempted to take over the management of the OHV funds
8. Managed a Colorado OHV grant that will build trail barriers and signs on multi use trails.
9. Continuing to work with the Grand Junction BLM and local clubs in the area to help develop a motorized recreation area on BLM managed lands in the Gateway area.
10. Provided start up funding for several motorized organizations in Colorado, as an attempt to build a bigger, more active, more educated motorized community around the state
11. Participated in several organized events as fund raisers for the TPA, COHVCO and Blue Ribbon Coalition.
12. Provided operational planning and support to the 34th Colorado 500 Charity Trail ride as a fund raiser for TPA.
13. Worked with Parts Unlimited in preparation of the 16th Rocky Mountain 400, a major fund raiser for COHVCO.
14. The TPA Trail Crew conducted significant tail maintenance during 2009, in the Gunnison NF, White River NF, Pike Peak/San Isabelle NF, and the Rio Grande NF.

The TPA Board of Directors thanks all donors for their support during 2009. The next four years are going to be more critical as we continue to focus on our goal to protect public access to public lands and to maintain our single track trail systems throughout the area. Your help is making it possible!

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