Kevin Merlo

Hey Guys, If you're headed to Supercross at Petco on February 7th we're running several trains to get you there, including an extra 3:35 out of Oceanside, and a special train leaving downtown San Diego at 11:00 pm. Skip the traffic and parking issues and take the train! It will be posted on www.gonctd.com soon. Thanks,

I turn my head every time I see one of these, and I've got this picture saved on my phone. Sorry for your loss.

That it's almost cheating...it's that good. It's not fantastic in mud, but I think it's so good everywhere else that it makes you think it's worse than it really is when it gets muddy. So far it served me well on the Big Bear Trail ride, Moab, and this week in Colorado. Without a doubt it was the right tire choice. We need to ride again buddy!

I don't blame you Bagstr...GoPro doesn't do it any justice anyway.

It's called American Flag Mountain, or Flag Mountain. It's about 12,350 feet of elevation.

No, I'm a lifetime SoCal guy...but I'm meeting a lot more people with my last name. It was unheard of when I was a kid, but there's an Italian element in New York/New Jersey that I seem to cross paths with.

I had the opportunity (thanks to a local buddy in Colorado) to get in five straight days of riding some beautiful territory near Aspen and Crested Butte. This was my first time in Colorado, and other than some riding with Crusty in San Marcos the first time trying any single track. I tried to stand as much as possible, desert style, and learned quickly you have to be ready to sit, sit back, duck, move to the side, dog paddle, and basically be ready for anything! Also learned that hitting roots at anything other than perpendicular will squirt your rear end around pretty quickly. Many of the basic riding fundamentals are the same though, such as look as far ahead as you can see, COMMIT, and don't spend too long thinking about the best line just go! Here's the itinerary: Day one: riding local on Basalt Mountain, back to my buddy's for the night Day two: Ride from Aspen to Crested Butte, stay the night at a hotel Day three: Crested Butte back to Aspen Day four: Spend a few hours riding Rifle, Colorado. Desert-like terrain Day five: an awesome ride near Triangle Peak, just after some rain Below is a link to day one video, with me messing around with some iMovie production stuff (learning that too...) This is a video from day five, which is really just some fast two-track and me riding like it's the last day I get to! This is zero production, just a raw five minute ride video This was a bucket list ride that I'll never forget. There were three of us, and my buddy Dave was an awesome tour guide making the whole thing possible. We had fantastic weather, no injuries, no breakdowns, not even a flat tire amongst the three of us! It's a beautiful place...can't wait to do it again, and hope you all create an opportunity to ride there.

I have that harness and you can borrow it if you want to. I'm in Vista but I could probably put it on a Coaster train and get it closer to you. Shoot me a PM.

I'll let you know Crusty. With the holiday on Friday I'm not sure I'll get them back in time. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I'll keep an eye out for the next one that gets firmed up. Hopefully my radiators are back from being straightened and my radiator braces come in. Still rebuilding from the carnage at the Big Bear Run...

Thanks a lot buddy. I will indeed line up again next year and hope to do much better. I did pretty good on the obstacles, but after it got hard to hold on I found myself falling over for stupid reasons...then cussing loudly inside my helmet! I learned that the flattest line up the hill isn't necessarily the best line: that back tire wants to get traction on rocks, not in the pebbles and sand next to the rocks. Aim for the boulder, even though your mind is telling you it's an obstacle to go around. I also learned that if you get deflected off of your intended line, let up on the throttle to think about it, and go to dab your leg there won't be anything there for your foot to find and you WILL fall over. When you feel like it's not going right and you want to chop the throttle and put a leg down you should do the OPPOSITE and just open the throttle. That new momentum will keep you upright and you won't have to put that leg down. You may crash anyway but your best shot is to gas it until the bike spits you off or you make it up the hill. The cool thing about doing a really hard run is that you will certainly learn something, and it also re-calibrates your definition of "tough." I'll be back!

Home now from the Big Bear run. Thanks for the advice...the MT43 was absolutely the right way to go, in addition to the advice to keep moving. This was my first time at this event and it was pretty gnarly in spots. Those steep, boulder strewn uphills were pretty rough, and I'll bet I picked up my bike 8-10 times. I went for the hard loop and made it 85 miles to the first gas stop. Along the way I bent the radiators on both sides, my SAS (smog crap) canister broke off of the side of the cylinder, and I punched a hole in my stator cover on the gear shifter side. My radiator was spitting water and I couldn't tell if it was overflow or I had a hole, so I would shut off the engine and coast on downhills just in case. I did a trailside JB Weld on my stator cover and moved the shifter to a lower position and helped one or two guys along the way. I've been tired before, and I've had my arms turn to jelly on the track before, but this was the first time I've ever ridden to the point of serious muscle cramping. The back of my thighs, my triceps, and even my index finger curled up and locked in a "trigger pull" position! I had to bend and straighten it on the seat, and then make myself move when the cramping started. I didn't quite understand the time limitation, so I pulled into the gas stop just about the time the sweeper was about to leave. He told me they were heading out and the checkpoints would be closed as they got there, so I wasn't going to make it. I intended to keep trying after the gas stop, but maybe this was how it was supposed to end for me. For next year I'll hope to be in better shape, I'll keep moving no matter what, take more water than my Camelbak will carry (I ran out, and the Jeep guys hooked me up along the way) and someday I'll actually buy radiator guards BEFORE I bend my radiators for the first time. The course was pretty awesome, and in spite of getting my ass handed to me I had a great time. Hope everyone else that went had a good time as well.

This would be my first shot at this, and I plan on doing the hard loop. Can you tell me how much riding time could I expect at night? I'd say I'm an intermediate rider and don't expect to stop too much. Secondly. what do you think of a new Dunlop 606 for a rear on my 500 EXC? Thanks for the info! The Sickness is a special kind of dude/rider......I'd ignore his 9hr mark and plan on 12........leave at 6-6:30am and hopefully you'll be back by 5 or 6pm. Lunch is a power bar at the gas station.... It's not about speed but you don't have time to dally at lunch, photo stops, BS sessions, etc.......you don't need to ride fast but you do need to keep moving........be patient, smile, keep a good attitude, and hopefully no bad breaks will set back your timing (log jams, mechanicals, etc) I'd recommend a MT43 rear with ultra heavy duty tube at 8-10PSI........FAR superior to 606 in that terrain......take a look around when you get up there.......the riders "in the know" will have removed their desert knobbies and thrown on MT43 rear tires..... http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/742/32650/Pirelli-MT43-Trials-Tire?term=mt43%20pirelli%20tire This was actually a timely reminder......I just ordered a new MT43/Bridgestone Ultra Heavy Duty Tube.......they'll be here Thursday..... Beautiful, thank you! I actually took off my MT43 that I installed for Moab thinking there might be some sand. I'll just put it back on and be ready to go. I've got the MT16 up front. Thank you as well for the "recalibration" of the run time. From the videos I saw that 24.3 mph average speed Sic posted had me coming to the same conclusion!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply and offer the advice. I'll try not to follow and pay particular attention to line choice. Thanks again Sic!

This would be my first shot at this, and I plan on doing the hard loop. Can you tell me how much riding time could I expect at night? I'd say I'm an intermediate rider and don't expect to stop too much. Secondly. what do you think of a new Dunlop 606 for a rear on my 500 EXC? Thanks for the info!