Western, MD Camp & Ride Oct. 15,16 & 17

[Wingfixer]

It sounds like you put a lot of hard work into the trails! I am sure it will all be worth it! I know I can't wait to re-aquaint myself with your property, especially the hill climbs! Right Bucho?!

[BigBird]

Looks like it is going to be cool and VERY windy this weekend.

Saturday high 61 low 40 wind WNW @ 18MPH

Maybe we should camp down by the building???

[Bucho]

As long as its not raining. Camp up top or down below, doesn't matter to me.

[Fur_Pig]

Hey guys,
I am relatively new to maryland (lived here 5 months) but am always looking to meet more people who ride. Is this an open event or do I need to be a member of any organizations to ride with your group?
If its an open event, is anyone going to be riding on Sunday or is the big ride Saturday?
I'll be coming from Hagerstown but can only do a day of riding, no camping this weekend unfortunately

[Joker]

Hey Fur_Pig, this event is open to all every DAMN member, which you so happen to be. Most of the riding will take place friday-saturday. Sunday most people are gone bout noon. Sorry.

[Bucho]

My dog isn't too smart, but he knows I'm going somewhere this weekend. I laid all my gear out in the front yard waiting for patrick to show up. Dozer is now sitting out there w/ my gear waiting patiently.

[webmost]

DAMN! All packed up ready to go. Ran Biffy Bullfrog down the way to get gas. Chain sounded funky. Paused to adjust the chain and saw the rear sprocket is all chewed to hell. I mean down to nubs. Swapped out for an old sprocket I had. Spun the wheel. Bummer. Every second revolution of the rear wheel, the chain comes up tight as hell. Mark the chain, rotate the wheel, and, yep, it's once round the chain it comes up tight. I don't mean a little tight either; I mean tight as a new midget nun. Shit. Barton is 250 miles from here. If I go yanking that chain hard each time round for six or eight hundred miles by the time I get back, I am apt to bust the seal round the drive shaft. I think I will have to replace both sprockets and chain before Biffy goes anywhere. Shit.

This is where you would rather have a shaft drive. I bought Biffy used with 13k on the clock. I have put about 19k on her. This will be the second time I have replaced sprockets and chain. At a couple hundred bucks each go round, by the time I get eighty thou on this neast I could have bought a BMW final drive. But the people complaining about failed final drives are talking about a one in a thousand occurrence; whereas chain and sprockets seem guaranteed to crap out.

I am bummed. I wanted to go. Beautiful day, too.

[CapoGreg]

I never heard back about how to get there this weekend, so I'm out. Have fun guys, maybe I'll get to go to another gathering.

[Boom Boom]

Webmost, check your axle bearings on the sprocket side.
My trials bike just done the same thing and the bearing failed and all the balls from the bearing wedged inside the hub on one side of the axle making it turn out of round. This might have also been why your sprocket was chewed bad.

[Bucho]

Sorry, some of you guys didn't make it. Patrick and I got out there around two on Friday afternoon. There were already a few people there, but I think we were the first ones to ride that afternoon. It was a little tricky finding the trail as it was buried under a fresh coating of leaves and pine needles. But we had a great afternoon ride. After we came back Granville himself led Patrick and I on a tour of all the trails. Then we finished off the day light w/ some nice shooting. Someone even had a Kalishnikov to let us fire off a magazine. (Was pretty neat, I've never shot one before!).
That night we went on a tour of the pine forest, some of the hillclimbs, and the billygoat trail. It would have been nicer w/ more/better lighting. But luckily I duct taped a small hi power flashlight to my helmet, when the pitiful battery on my bike died after barely 20 minutes I could still see. Was really fun, even though one of the hill climbs gave us some trouble. Patrick might need some new clutch plates.

The next day we had another great day of riding, we even did the (blackbear?) which we had skipped the day before. It was amazing how muddy it could be on top of some of those hills. If you lost momentum you were done.
Later in the afternoon BigBird showed up and joined me on a last loop before I had to head home.

Was a great time and thanks again to Granville for letting us come out and ride, (and shoot).