Less Moondust on the Moon

Saturday I decided to get some dirt time and ride 5-mile pass. I thought by waiting until late afternoon I could avoid most of the ATV traffic but it was still pretty heavy at 3:00. I wasn't sure what kind of condition the trail was in besides dusty but after doing a quick warm up run to the start-finish area I decided that will the inches of sandy dust I should run low tire pressure for some extra traction. This proved to be a problem since the benefit of having more surface area was counteracted by not enough pressure to keep my sidewall from getting pierced by a rock on the really loose decent through the dry creek bed. I was able to keep sealing the tire with my Big-Air until about 1 mile from the finish at which point I decided to walk rather then take the time to throw my spare tube in.

Sunday I decide that I didn't want to start this week's race with the bad taste of course defeat and threw on a new rear tire to pre-ride the course again. This time I ran 35 psi on the rear tire and even though I could feel a little less control in some of the corners it felt good on the rocks and gravel for two laps of about 1 hour each at a fairly easy pace.

Ed's warning about the course is correct, it's really loose there has been a lot of traffic on the course which has left a lot of loose rocks and a lot of deep moondust on some of the corners. Unless we get some good rain the day before the race to pack it down I think times might be slightly slower than last year.