Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1514917
20 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Once addi onal help arrived, I hopped back on the KTM to con nue the first half of my two-bike shootout. I know the 400 is heavier than the 300, but that helps it feel more planted and stable, at least to me. I put a Rev-Loc auto clutch in it I'm guessing in 2001 or early 2002. This precedes the popular Rekluse brand but works on the same principle, which Rev-Loc did not patent and Rekluse adopted. I like it because I'm a rear brake dragger in corners, and the auto clutch makes it impossible to lock the rear wheel up and stall the bike. Also, if you're a gear high or a gear low, it really doesn't ma er. Just roll on the thro le and go un l it's convenient to shi . Kind of makes me a lazy rider at mes, but I s ll love the bike, how I'm more "in" the rider cockpit than "on" it like so many of the newer bikes. The RFS 400 has plenty of low end but also over-revs nicely, a handy feature in the intermi ent grass track areas found on most TORCS courses. At the end of the race, I didn't finish dead last as I'd expected, so a couple of other poor souls must have met misfortune or just stopped to rest lon- ger than the 20 minutes and one lost lap I spent with the downed rider. I did, however, meet all of my race day goals, which are to Have Fun, Don't Fall Down, Don't Get Hurt, Go Home Happy. A bonus was I ran into a guy I knew from Kansas City who was down racing in Texas while he was on a civilian gov- ernment contract assignment at Fort Hood, TX. While we were cha ng, a small crew of kids were doing laps at the edge of the parking area on 65s and a couple of electric bikes I'd never seen before. Waved one of the kids over and he was on a Surron which looks like an e-mountain bike on steroids minus the pedals. My buddy said the top of the line bikes are comparable to 125s but weigh about half as much, have a quick- change ba ery system that takes about as long to swap as it does to fuel your bike, and he felt you could probably be fairly compe ve on one in a hare scram- bles. I'm s ll an internal combus on fan, but I go a admit, these things were pre y darned cool. A cold front blew in overnight, and Saturday's 60 degree flag drop temperatures were replaced by 30 degrees on Sunday. I bundled up a bit, and once my hands warmed up midway through the first lap, it was actually pre y good race weather. The Gas Gas electric start is the one thing most people gripe about. The new ones are be er. My 5-year old system works fine in warm weather but I find it lacking in cold weather. I go old school and Photos by WinPic Photography Photos by WinPic Photography