bumps, jumps, muddy sections, and, worst of all, PUNKS. That was our name for the 14- to 18-year-old kids riding better and faster than we could ever hope to: flying off the jumps, somehow defying gravity – without fear, unaware of the bad things that could happen. (Calling them names behind their backs made us feel better about ourselves.) There was a small kid-sized
track (the “baby track”) which was much simpler, less crowded, and easier to navigate. We spent our whole first time there on the baby track, getting a feel for the bikes. The bikes, mine a Yamaha
YZ250 2 stroke, and Dan’s a Kawasaki KX250 2 stroke, were unlike anything we had ever been on. My Buell street bike has a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges, but this Yamaha YZ was a whole different animal. It was loud, it coughed, sputtered and snorted, didn’t like low rpms, and went from reasonable power to full-on power like flicking a light switch. It was wild. And my positioning on the bike
was quite different too – on a street bike, I feel a part of the bike. On this one, I felt like I was wa-a-ayy up there, and the bike was down here. I’m not a tall guy, and could barely keep the bike upright with my tiptoes on the ground. Even starting it was a challenge for me. I had to stand on my bike-stand to prop myself up to get enough leverage to kick-start. We crawled around the baby
track for a few hours that first day, and got sore hands and wrists and forearms. We felt and looked like our grandmothers would if they tried riding around that track. The next week we returned,
and again spent most of our time on the baby track. But the big track was calling. We spoke to a few people who thought it was great that we would
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www.bounder.ca BOUNDER MAGAZINE 49
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