Well that was just painful!

[Piney Woods]

21 hours ago, lowmass said:

Imagine the pressure on the team to avoid a mechanical. Hes due

Remember that issue Eli had with his front brake earlyer this season? The other day was at a practice and my front break was intermitantly dragging. I would stop and check and it would be free. Back out and could feel the drag again. Very strange feel when scrubbing BTW. As if the front wheel was loose. anyway get back to pit and it was free again.

After full inspection I found one of the steel pins the caliper rides on had its treds torn out from a hit. It would move back and forth on the stripped threds so caliper going in and out of alignment.

Anyway its all still on the table and anything can happen

Got a pic of that thread damage, kinda hard to imagine.

[Piney Woods]

6 minutes ago, Hendricus said:

Beat senseless and loving it! That's what I say. Keep riding brother, keep riding.

Politics, the wrangling, the rhetoric, the deception..., and solving all the "big" and "important" problems in the world goes nowhere. There's a reason for this, but I will save that exploration for another day.

It really is time to ride. A month from now So Cal will be toasty.

Yep, we hit 87 at the end and the sweat was flowing. At best another month for us.

[Hendricus]

38 minutes ago, jcm3 said:

I'm not going to say Eli choked, as I have never done anything at that level and don't understand the pressure.  But, considering he's gotten about an 18th place start and still come back to WIN (damn), we know he's got that kind of speed.

Last weekend he was in around 15th place, and four or five laps later he'd only passed one or two guys.  So, the pressure definitely got to him, he had an odd bike issue (things out of alignment, it's happened to all of us), got the wind knocked out of him (based on how long it took him to get rolling), or something else.  He was not himself, for sure.

My guess is pressure, and probably got arm pump.   He didn't look himself all day, and had to battle just to not go into the semis.  But, I'm just sitting on the couch watching like the rest of us, so what the hell do I know?

I watch the race again last night. The track looked to be a tough one for Eli. He could not flow for the life of him. Something got the better of him. A tough track is most certainly a part of MX and SX. I'm no fan of silly obstacles such as sand walls, and wall jumps in general, and there are other track features I would vote against as well, but a track getting tough/rutted/tricky has always been a part of MX.

Marvin was clearly the fastest rider in Rutherford. Fool should have gaped Dungey while he had the chance. I think he could have. I think he slowed up in order to help his pal/teammate out. Marvin's strategy was to finish between Dung and Tomac, and widen the point spread. 

[Hendricus]

9 minutes ago, YHGEORGE said:

Yep, we hit 87 at the end and the sweat was flowing. At best another month for us.

Nice! 87 miles is great day! Sounds like a portion of it was in the rough too - the goods stuff! Someday I'd love to learn more about Texas riding. I really have no idea what you all ride there.

[motrock93b]

Give Tomac a break. He's ridden with nearly McGrath-like dominance and consistency from the fourth round. Even MC didn't often (ever?) have to come from nearly last to gobble up the competition and gap them all. We've been treated to impressive riding from the young man. Even while being burried in the field last week he was causing concern at the front. KTM wants the Championship, so either Marvin or Dungey needed to open the largest lead possible to avoid Tomac putting three points on Dungey. So, Marvin couldn't wait around. They know painfully well how capable Tomac is. To their surprise and relief, Tomac was contained and they had to adjust their tactics in an almost embarrassing manner. All because Tomac is a bad a$$ rider like we haven't seen since the first two rounds.

 

Tomac can easily win this Saturday, and I expect him to. Anything can happen. Dungey can get a fifth place. I hope not, but SX is unpredictable. We just may be treated to a nail biter of a final round. Dungey may need to make late race passes. Musquin may need to hold off Tomac. Tomac may find Anderson to be a hazard while leading. Josh Grant is always capable of one great ride per year. Etc.

 

Isn't this what we've all wanted? A hard-fought battle to the bitter end? Both "deserve" it, and I can't wait.

 

Oh yeah, the 250 East is the cherry on top. Three guys, one point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MANIAC998]

32 minutes ago, motrock93b said:

Give Tomac a break. He's ridden with nearly McGrath-like dominance and consistency from the fourth round. Even MC didn't often (ever?) have to come from nearly last to gobble up the competition and gap them all. We've been treated to impressive riding from the young man. Even while being burried in the field last week he was causing concern at the front. KTM wants the Championship, so either Marvin or Dungey needed to open the largest lead possible to avoid Tomac putting three points on Dungey. So, Marvin couldn't wait around. They know painfully well how capable Tomac is. To their surprise and relief, Tomac was contained and they had to adjust their tactics in an almost embarrassing manner. All because Tomac is a bad a$$ rider like we haven't seen since the first two rounds.

 

Tomac can easily win this Saturday, and I expect him to. Anything can happen. Dungey can get a fifth place. I hope not, but SX is unpredictable. We just may be treated to a nail biter of a final round. Dungey may need to make late race passes. Musquin may need to hold off Tomac. Tomac may find Anderson to be a hazard while leading. Josh Grant is always capable of one great ride per year. Etc.

 

Isn't this what we've all wanted? A hard-fought battle to the bitter end? Both "deserve" it, and I can't wait.

 

Oh yeah, the 250 East is the cherry on top. Three guys, one point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

AMEN!!!!!

[Piney Woods]

58 minutes ago, Hendricus said:

Nice! 87 miles is great day! Sounds like a portion of it was in the rough too - the goods stuff! Someday I'd love to learn more about Texas riding. I really have no idea what you all ride there.

87 degrees, 78 humidity. OK, back to poor ET.

[MANIAC998]

That's pretty tough!!!

[lowmass]

On 5/3/2017 at 1:20 PM, YHGEORGE said:

Got a pic of that thread damage, kinda hard to imagine.

no pics

there are 2 steel pins that the caliper rides on. The upper pin threads into the caliper bracket at its base. The assembly apparently took a hard enough hit to rock this pin over to point where the threads were stripped allowing the pin to move out of perpendicular with the bracket.

Strangest feel was during scrubs. Felt like the front wheel was coming off.