Still, I was having a good time chasing Chris and a couple of other friends through the high desert woods and chaparral. Then I got a flat. First time I can recall getting a flat during a organized ride in 40+ years of dirt biking. I was going to put my 21" spare in but Chris handed me an 18". I noticed it had a bit of rust on the stem so figured well it's used but if Chris is carrying it, it must be good. It wasn't. It cost a CO2 cartridge. I was going to put my 21 in but some other guys had ridden up and put a "scab" on my original tube so I put that in. Used three more CO2's and it was holding. Chris told our two friends to ride ahead and we'd try to catch up at the lunch/gas stop. So Chris and I got my bike back together and took off. Quarter mile later it was flat again. Crap! So we ended up putting my 21" tube in anyway, biggest worry was we were down to one CO2 and it wouldn't be enough to get much pressure, it would have to be good enough, at least till the gas stop, about 30 miles away. I screwed together the last CO2 while Chris put the tube in and the bead back on. The rim lock didn't look just right, so we wiggled it around until it felt seated. Chris put the CO2 to it and the tube popped. It must have still been pinched in the rim lock. I thought about stuffing grass in there but Chris gave me one of those "that does work" looks so I decided to put all three dead tubes in, just to add some cushion. It was better but still not good. I was holding speeds down aroun 10-15 mph and we should have been leaving the gas stop about then. We finally hit pavement and got to the gas station somewhere after 3:00. Luckily Don was still there with his van so we weighed the options and put my bike in his van. He drove me to Topaz and Chris filled his bike and rolled in a few minutes later.
Despite several offers to fix my flat I thought the tire was too far gone to run, it was I found, after I replaced it yesterday. That meant the ride was over for me. Too bad too, Sunday's route was only about 70 miles and the soil and terrain was much more familiar to us guys that ride more oak and pine filled woods than the desert stuff. They had several water crossings deep enough to drown several riders and a high ridge at around 10,000 feet where I was told they could see all the way to Utah.
The rest of our team made it through pretty much unscathed although one had a fast fastish crash in some rocks and was sporting a good bruise on one of his butt cheeks. At least he said he was, I didn't want to look.
)There were about 70 riders and probably about a dozen Betas. The distributor was there too with two bikes and riders. That made Beta the second most popular make to KTM. Not bad at all.
Now all I can do is look forward to the next one.
(The studded tires make it FUN and on warmer days you're working hard so you aren't cold. No bugs, no dust, the bike crawls over trees and you can RIP on icy trails).