Moto X LLC 24 Hour Recap

Last weekend, Team Moto X LLC went up to Alabama to compete in the 24 Hour Challenge at Perry Mountain. Here is the recap from the weekend.

Our trip begins on Thursday two days before the race, thinking we would have road issues with the camper or axles blowing off the trailer, like inthe years past, we starting packing early to give us plenty of time to get up to Perry Mountain in Alabama. After packing 3 bikes, 3 pit bikes, and enough gear, food, water, and gas for 24 hours of riding and 6 riders, we took off.

Besides for the normal trash talk of who was going to have the best lap times, who would be the weakest, and who would cry first, the trip to the track ended up being pretty uneventful. We pulled into Perry Mountain at around 10:30 pm, found a spot to get the camper set up and make camp. After a night of sleep we were up at 8 am, setting up our pit area on pit lane, doing some last minute adjustments on the bike, exploring some of the track and the grounds, ate some dinner, and then tried to go to bed. I say try because the anticipation for race day had begun.

Race day we were up and finishing up our pit area at 7:30. Race started at 10 am with David Johnson our team captain being the first to go, followed by Kyle Johnson, Sam Maritato, Justin Csanadi, Juander Rodrigues, and Nate Madera. Once the race had began we changed riders every two laps, which was about 20 miles and 50 to 60 mins of riding. The team ran very well battling for 2nd place for most of the first 12 hours, but once the night came the problems began.

Lighting is very important when you are running in extreme dense woods or wide open trails. Our lighting came mostly from a helmet light, which went out a few times during the race, and when it goes out all you have is a small light on the front of the bike. This is No Good! We had this happen on several riders which cost us huge in lap times, 30 minute laps turned into 40 min laps. Once we worked through that we had another huge problem happen at around 4 am. This time it was mechanical. The bikes cam chain tensioner cap had come off, and the bike was spitting oil everywhere! Luckily we were allowed a parts bike in your pit area, so we did a swap and the bike was good to go again. After losing another 45 mins we had fallen from 2nd to 4th place. We were disappointed at this time, but at least we were still in the race. Then at around 6:30 am the sun had come up and our bike was not doing so well. The engine was making noises it shouldn’t have been and was down on power. So we ended up pulling our back up bike from the impound area, and continued to ride untill the end. At this point the team was exhausted. We had been trying to get sleep throughout the night when ever we could, and with only a hour or two of sleep, 5 air filter changes, 2 oil changes, and 2 bike battery changes, we pulled through to the end finishing 3rd in our class.

Overall the team did a great job with everyone pulling their own. We came into this race the same way we had in the past two years, just wanting to finish, and ended up being a competitor in our class and in the over all race, we finished 24th overall out of over 140 entries. Everyone rode great, no injuries, and most importantly everyone had a great time. The night time riding is intense and this event is something everyone should do at least once.

Special thanks to:
MotoX LLC in Tampa, Max at WPS, and Our Team Members for coming out and riding hard.

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