Dave Pickett announced yesterday on our boards, the Press Release is posted here, and lots of chatter on BARF about the announcement of Clear Creek closure indefinitely for “EIS study”.
http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6a8aec3f27c7bf43eaf5f750d0792d97&t=57625

Just a quick heads up that the date of the Polecat Enduro has been moved back. It will not longer be in May and instead will be run on June 8th (view calendar).

Here is the 2008 D36 Operations Manual. 2008operationsmanual.pdf

Season Passes are one of those Love/Hate things in life. If you are affiliated with the group issuing the pass… you “LOVE” knowing that a good portion of money for the season is already in the bank no matter what the conditions will be like (think Skiing or 49’er Tickets)… But you “HATE” to be the guy having to shell out the money for the pass up front, knowing that you have best intentions to use every last dollar out of your pass, but never 100% sure what life will throw at you; so the Question is… do you hedge your bets and go “all in” for a Season Pass… or pay by the day?

If you’ve ever been a die hard Ski bum… a Season Pass is the greatest idea in the world… it’s costly up front, but works out well if you live near the mountain or have spot that you prefer over all others. You can ski for a ¼ day, a lunch break, a full day or even 1 day a week and still make out pretty good… Now flip sides… What about the dedicated fan of a football team (or baseball or basketball)… their team was awesome last year – made the playoffs, the big game, the whole deal…but then this year, the year you decided to buy a 4 pack of seat at the 50 yard line to be a part of the winning action… are just miserable losers… not even worth going for the beers and hotdogs. Again…LOVE/HATE… sometimes you win having that “Season Pass” but sometimes you were better off paying as you go.

What about Off Road riding? Is a Season Pass the way to go? There are already great Pass systems for the CA OHV locations - Hollister, Carnegie, Pismo, Prairie City and about 40 other places. The cost: 50 bucks and you get a pass that is good from the date you bought it, to that date a calendar year later. So for 10 visits to a State OHV park you break even… because otherwise it’s a 5 dollar fee a truckload to get in. You can also get a Season Pass for County parks like say…Metcalf … But that lets you into all Santa Clara Country Parks… not just the riding parks but also hiking to boating to camping…a full year from the date you pay up.

Which leads me into this question? Have you been to Clear Creek yet in 2008?

If you’re reading this, I would consider a good portion of you to be more heavy duty than the normal “weekend warrior” type, more like a “week-day warrior” if the conditions are right. So we all know when it’s been raining hard all week long and Thursday night the local weather guy says… “Should be a great “blue-bird” weekend folks… get outside and soak up that sunshine” … it does not take long for the phone to start ringing with riding/race buddies on the other end claiming…“CLEAR CREEK THIS WEEKEND, RIGHT…YOU IN?”

Back to that LOVE/HATE part of life… up to this point BLM areas have never been known to charge for entry…Stonyford – free, Cow Mountain – Free, but since Jan of 08’, Clear Creek is now the newest “pay to play” riding location. No one is saying that is a bad thing… The BLM in this location is up against all types of people trying to shut them down, and close areas of that park from every side of the property. So it’s a HATE to have to buy a pass specifically to ride at only one of several great winter time BLM spots, but LOVE the place so much, it’s worth it! - Just for the simple fact of supporting the cause!

The new plan is exactly that… NEW, so its needs a little cultivating to get it right and we hope time should fix all the little issues, but here’s how it works… You have 3 options:

OPTION A - Go for the day and pay 10$ for each bike, not truck, but bike - record your VIN (or Registration) number on a little round sticker that is to be visible on your fork. That 10 dollar pass is good for 1 week and after that the color of the sticker changes or…

OPTION B – Buy a season pass…80 dollars – good for 1 truck “placard” that you hang from the mirror PLUS 2 bike stickers… but these stickers have to be pre-registered to the bikes… you just can’t take any bike you want, it has to match the corresponding issues sticker or…

OPTION C – You buy the day pass and realize how much you really love the place and on the drive home…decide you want the season pass – so within that 1 week window that your recent 10$ pass is valid… you can still call up the office and share the serial number off the 10 bucks pass and apply it towards the 80 dollar Season Pass and then call your riding buddy and offer him the 2nd of your 2 bike passes for 40 bucks and now you and one of your riding buddies have season passes and a placard for any truck to get you in the door at Clear Creek!

All and all… not a bad deal, right? Let the BLM get the money up front to help with legal funds, trail help, more bathrooms, maps, tractors… and such. But when you go… ask them, nicely, to consider changing it to model other available season passes for Off-Road riding… MOST IMPORTANTLY - 1 year from the date you bought it because as of now…the “Clear Creek SEASON PASS” for 2 bikes & a truck is good through 2008 only - meaning Jan 1st 2008 to Dec 31st 2008, not say…March of 08 to March of 09. You can quickly see the issue… Soon there is the point of no return with this system… come OCT or NOV of this year, very few season passes will be sold until the 09 ones are offered in JAN… because the timing just will not work for people. The park will lose potential cash flow because of this.

Bottom line… if you plan to ride Clear Creek more than 4 times (Math: you and your buddy split an 80$ pass @ 40 each or pay 10$ per trip 4x’s) I say hurry up and buy it now while the year is new and let the BLM get the money up front to help the cause, our cause! For the record, I went with Option C – showed up not sure about it… and now I have a Season Pass on the way! It only took about 10 minutes on my first 2008 trip to C.C. and I had already made up my mind.

See you on the tight stuff!

For more info visit: http://www.blm.gov/content/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/hollister.Par.18634.File.dat/bulletin.pdf

We know you have all been itching to get the 2008 schedule of events so you can plan your year around all the great events we have lined up for 2008. It is possible that things may shift around slightly, but this is pretty close to being set in stone. It should be up on the site itself soon, but in the meantime here is the 2008 D36 Events Calendar in pdf format.

Here are the entry form and rules for the 2008 MSR/Answer Rider Contingency Program - D36 riders earned well over $4,000 from this program in 2007 - sign up now to get the maximum points/$$$ for 2008 !!!!!  ENTRY FORM - 2008 - 1-10.pdf   RULES - 2008 - 1-10.pdf

Here are the instructions/fees for changing you D36 Membership number.  Number Change Instructions for Web.pdf

Here is the form for clubs to fill out for the upcoming D36 Sanctioning Meeting . . . Copy of D36 Charter Application.pdf 

By Dr. Mark Lucas, D.C. aka “TheMotoDoc”
TheMotoDoc.com

Part of racing is the expectation that you are going to get injured.  Injuries happen in many ways. Injuries can be costly so here are a few tips to help minimize the financial impact:

1) Join CALSTAR.   CalStar is a California emergency air ambulance company.  For a $40 annual membership fee ($45 for the entire family) you can get airlifted from anywhere in California, Western Nevada, and Southern Oregon for free. The average charge for an air ambulance is around $7000.  So whether you are injured at a track or mountain biking or even in a car accident the $40 a year is cheap insurance.

www.calstar.org

2) Add med-pay to your auto insurance.  For only a couple hundred extra dollars you can add a med-pay addition to your auto insurance policy.  Whether you have health insurance or not financially the med-pay option makes sense.  What this assures is that if you are in a car accident you can receive initial care anywhere with out any hassle.  If you have health insurance you may have deductibles and will have co-pays and may only get access to certain medical facilities.  With med-pay you have coverage anywhere you go, and you will not go out of pocket until the limit is met, at which point your health insurance will kick in and cover the additional expenses.

3) Work out on a regular basis.  Proper conditioning is the best insurance for not getting hurt while riding. Sure a lot of crashes happen because people ride over their head or even tangle with another rider on the track. But the most common source of crashing is fatigue. You can even sustain injuries with out ever crashing.  These injuries are muscle strains or tears and can happen from over use or repetitive stress.  This type of injury can also happen from riding with tendonitis or fasciitis, conditions where the soft tissue is weakened from chronic inflammation.

The single most important area to exercise is the cardio vascular system.  When the cardio vascular system is fatigued the result is overall body weakness and mental weakness.  In my book mental weakness is the worst because it causes the rider to mentally be a split second off the pace of the action. The rider’s reaction time then lags and instead of anticipating the track the rider now reacts to the track.  This phenomenon is regarded to as “riding behind the bike”.  This is where people usually start getting in trouble. Common signs that this is happening is an increase in little mistakes usually caused by slow reaction times and sitting more in the middle or slightly behind the middle of the bike. This usually causes the front end to be less precise and little mistakes start popping up.

FYI: Wednesday nights between 7 and 9:30 p.m. I hold two integrative circuit training classes geared specifically towards the demands of motocross and off-road racing. The price is $15 per 75 minute class and class size is limited to 5 people only. If interested you must schedule.  408-294-4074, or email through themotodoc.com

4) Antioxidants.  You might have read the article in racerxill by Aldon Baker.  He plugs a multi level marketing product called Monavie.  It’s marketed as a super antioxidant fruit drink.  The reason he talks about it is it benefit to breaking down free radicals in the body. Over the past couple of years there has been a lot of research on the oxidative stress to the body from exercising on a large scale. This research has been going on for years, but really took a step forward when Lance Armstrong developed cancer. Common sense drew the question of how can a guy, who eats good, trains religiously, has probably the most efficient metabolism ever seen and has the best preventative healthcare at his fingertips get cancer?

Well one of the answers leaned towards oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a bi product of your tissues consuming oxygen.  Essentially what happens is when O2 (oxygen) is broken into 2 O’s a negatively charged ion (also know as a free radical) is left over. This ion can cause damage to surrounding tissues and is suspected to be a cause of aging and most disease processes.  Now oxidative stress is not the only way free radicals are formed, there are other processes, the most important being the type of food that a person consumes. Anyway…..the result of most research indicates that anybody exercising in an aerobic capacity over one hour per day should take some form of antioxidant.  Subsequently, the more you work out the more susceptible you are to free radical formation.  In comparison to us mere mortals most professional athletes train and/or compete several hours per day 6-7 days a week and run a higher than average risk.

There are other ways of getting antioxidants or stimulating antioxidant production in your body.  First of all any consumable plant, fruit or vegetable is loaded with antioxidants. Every plant that grows produces it’s own form of antioxidant.  This is actually part of the plants immune system. Vitamins A, C and E are the most common plant based antioxidants.  Fortunately our own body produces it’s own antioxidant.  It is called Glutathione.  Glutathione is actually the bodies most efficient antioxidant.  But, taking glutathione is not the most efficient way of increasing glutathione in the body.  To improve glutathione production it is better to take the precursors and let your body produce the actual glutathione molecule itself. And with that said I think I will continue this conversation in the next news letter where I will explain some of the processes that antioxidants are actually involved with……..

See ya out at the track!!!

Team Hawg Racing Products is offering D36 members an outstanding deal on their awesome lift stands and other products.  Check it out!  Team Hawg Offer.pdf

Head over to the Timekeepers MC web site and get your copy of the route sheets for this weekend’s events.  With the recent weather it looks to be perfect weather conditions!

OFF-ROADERS challenge OFF-HIGHWAY MOTOR VEHICLE RECREATION COMMISSION OVER arbitrary & capricious

abuse of authority

Grants were approved or denied at the toss of a coin.

BAKERSFIELD, CA (January 29, 2007) On January 26, 2007, EcoLogic Partners, Inc., the Off-Road Business Association (ORBA), the San Diego Off-Road Coalition (SDORC), the California Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA), the American Motorcyclists Association District 37 (AMA D37), and the American Sand Association (ASA) filed suit against the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Commission alleging the commission acted in an arbitrary  and capricious manner during its December 8-9, 2006 meeting when it rescored law enforcement grants without any evidentiary support for the new scores. Those actions resulted in decreased law enforcement funding for areas where many California families recreate.

The lawsuit specifically challenges the OHMVR Commission’s action to dramatically reduce the score of the law enforcement grant application submitted by Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) El Centro field office. Despite receiving a score of 82 from Division staff, the BLM El Centro grant application was downgraded to a 69 by the Commission. 

Although more than $10 million in law enforcement grant requests were submitted to the OHMVR Division, the Division was able to allocate only $4 million in law enforcement grants. Once The OHMVR Commission rescored the BLM El Centro law enforcement grant, the $4 million allocation was almost gone. BLM El Centro and another grant applicant with a score of 69 were vying for the remaining dollars.  Rather than analyze the two applications on the merits, the OHMVR Commission simply tossed a coin!  El Centro BLM won the coin toss and was awarded the remaining $387,349.  Still, even this award was more than $1 million less than that recommended by OHMVR Division staff.

Recently the OHMVR division staff implemented a competitive grants process to ensure that the limited funds available are disbursed in a fair and equitable manner. By subverting that new process, the OHMVR Commissioners not only flouted the law, they placed in jeopardy the safety of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA) each year.

The ISDRA, the area for which the El Centro BLM was requesting funds, receives approximately 1.4 million visitors each year, the majority of which are families.  OHV grants are a central component in providing law enforcement for this area which is one of the most heavily visited OHV areas in the entire nation.  It is difficult to understand why the OHV Commission would substitute a game of chance for sound analysis and scoring of OHV grants for such a popular area, rather than the scoring criteria established in regulation they are legally mandated to use.

# # #

ORBA is a national trade association composed of off-road related businesses united to promote common goals that support the prosperity and growth of the off-road industry. 

A positive article was recently posted on the Union web site about NCWR. Take a look http://www.theunion.com/article/20070126/TODAYSFEATURE/101260174

The 2007 rulebook is now available. Download your copy here.

Here are the rules and entry form for the 2007 MSR Rider Contingency Program - Look at the “extras” you can get!!!   MSR Contingency Rules - 2007.pdf   MSR Contingency Entry Form - 2007.pdf

Here is the December article to all of us from Chaplain Fred.  Freds December 06 Letter.pdf

October 28th and 29th will be the first D36 Supermoto events.  Here is the website where you can find out the information -   www.supermotoproductions.com

There will be an autographed helmet going up for auction to raise funds for the District 36 LAO. It is a One Industries Kombat Helmet, black and silver colored.

The helmet was donated by CYCLE GEAR STORES.  The signatures were obtained at the 2005 Dirt Rider 24 hour event and the first two GNCC rounds of 2006.  The helmet was also taken to other events by Rodney & Lori Smith.