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Respect For Hare Scrambles

By arel451,
in General Dirt Bike Discussion

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arel451

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Hey guys last Sunday I rode my first hare scramble (local). I've had a cynical attitude towards these guys in the past, thinking it was easy racing compared to MX. Was I wrong! What I learned. :applause:

1. Bark busters are a must if you want to get anywhere quickly without having to think about it. I mashed my knuckles into at least three trees.

2. Hydrate yourself days before you race, and use a camel back, or some kind of strap on drink apparatus.

3. Remember you're racing for at least a couple of hours not a 15- 20 min moto. Pace yourself- I learned the hard way. :ride:

4. I'm not sure how callused your hands are, but you may want to look into some creative taping to save from getting blisters. I scored some beauties!

I'm sure there is more to add to this if any one wants to. Its now Wednesday and the aching is finally subsiding. Would I recommend anyone trying this for the first time? Absolutely! I'll do it again! For those who race hare scrambles I tip my hat to you, you have my respect! ?

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arel451

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Its basically a race on a circuit of tight trails, fields, hills, mx track etc. The entire loop can vary from 7- 30 kilometers (or more) in length. You are given roughly 2 hours to complete as many laps as you can before your time is up. Best time over most distance wins.

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SV_Rogue

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Its basically a race on a circuit of tight trails, fields, hills, mx track etc. The entire loop can vary from 7- 30 kilometers (or more) in length. You are given roughly 2 hours to complete as many laps as you can before your time is up. Best time over most distance wins.

Sweet! So, like a race with endurance. I love endurance stuff. Planning an Iron Butt ride on my street bike soon. ?

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ncj01

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The topic of which is more physically demanding (MX or HS) has probably been beat to death almost as much as which oil to run. They are just different. An A-class MX'er would get his arse handed to him by a B-Class HS'er. The reverse it true, an A-class HS'er would get his arse haned to him by a B-class MX'er.

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Grand Master

mowtown

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I race motocross in B class i wont to do a hare scarmble and was thinking that i have the skill of A but race B in motocross which iam 4th in points can i run C class in a HS i have the skill of woods rideing but not the energy to last 2 hours o yea and how would my 05 rmz250 do in a hare scramble

How about throwing a period in there somewhere ?

It makes it a lot easier to read and understand.

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Grand Master

mowtown

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Hey guys last Sunday I rode my first hare scramble (local). I've had a cynical attitude towards these guys in the past, thinking it was easy racing compared to MX. Was I wrong! What I learned. :applause:

1. Bark busters are a must if you want to get anywhere quickly without having to think about it. I mashed my knuckles into at least three trees.

2. Hydrate yourself days before you race, and use a camel back, or some kind of strap on drink apparatus.

3. Remember you're racing for at least a couple of hours not a 15- 20 min moto. Pace yourself- I learned the hard way. :ride:

4. I'm not sure how callused your hands are, but you may want to look into some creative taping to save from getting blisters. I scored some beauties!

I'm sure there is more to add to this if any one wants to. Its now Wednesday and the aching is finally subsiding. Would I recommend anyone trying this for the first time? Absolutely! I'll do it again! For those who race hare scrambles I tip my hat to you, you have my respect! ?

Great advice...I want to do an HS so bad but my arm pump is damn near excruciating after 25-30 minutes. I would hate to have to stop so my wimpy arms could get their feeling back. Still looking for that miracle cure...

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Grand Master

642MX

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Great advice...I want to do an HS so bad but my arm pump is damn near excruciating after 25-30 minutes. I would hate to have to stop so my wimpy arms could get their feeling back. Still looking for that miracle cure...

Here is your cure......Rekluse Auto Clutch. I haven't had any arm pump in the 2 years that I've had the auto clutch.

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Rising Star

Homey55

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Still looking for that miracle cure...

Steering Stabilizer ? I never had one untill a few months ago, and now that I started riding after about a 1 year break, I don't get arm pump anymore. I should also mention that I went from a CR250 to an XR400 and I ride the same terrain as I did on the CR.

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matte

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I went to a riding camp once with a bunch of guys who race HS regularly. It was the middle of summer and everything was really dry. We were riding this fire road to get to some singletrack and we hit a section where there was tons of talc and the first bike thru made a cloud so thick you could barely see. All the HS racers just bombed thru it, didn't even slow down, I slowed to a crawl for fear of hitting something/someone I couldn't see. Later I asked them about it and they all shrugged their shoulders and said basically, "oh yeah, that happens all the time in our races, you can't slow down, you'll get smoked.". ? I don't think I'll ever race HS, at least not during the dry season.

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YZ426F Rider

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Great advice...I want to do an HS so bad but my arm pump is damn near excruciating after 25-30 minutes. I would hate to have to stop so my wimpy arms could get their feeling back. Still looking for that miracle cure...

You have to pace yourself...you can't go ballz out like you can during a moto (except when you're on the mx track part of the course! ? ). After a couple races your arms will get used to it. Concentrate on balancing on your feet also...don't try to muscle your bike through whoop sections, try to pick a smooth line and let the bike float underneath you. Make up time on the sections of the course that you're best at and don't try to force it on the sections that you are not so good at.

Get out and do it!

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3TV

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I race the B class in GP, Hare Scrambles, and Hare & Hound desert races. Around here a GP race is a timed race where you race the same lap as many times as you can in a fixed time. A Hare scrambles is a fixed number of laps, usually two or three, around the same 20 to 30 mile lap. A Hare & Hound is two or three separate laps that are typically 30 to 50 miles each.

My experience has been that arm pump tends to peak at about the 20 to 30 minute mark. After that point you usually start to relax and get into your rhythm, and by the end of the race there is no arm pump whatsoever. I tend to get faster and faster as the race goes on, and in the last GP two weekends ago I ran my first lap time in 34 minuets, second lap in 31 minutes, and third lap in 29 minutes. We raced for 1 1/2 hours on that GP

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