Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1544609
10 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com minimal payoff, that fell through. So I road cycled and swam, and trail rode on a borrowed (censored). The (censored) was very fun to ride and sort of made me miss when I rode a (censored). But (censored) (cen- sored) (censored). I've had to make some adjustments to get used to the fuel-injected Rieju. Last year, I thought I was regularly uncomfortable because I had no EFI bike at home, just a carb, so every round of EnduroGP I had to get used to a completely different engine. Turns out, upon receiving the EFI bike in the States, no. I just didn't like how the stock EFI ran. Lots of people do. But I have an unusual riding style, which requires an unusual setup. I don't really care what the bike does from half-thro le onward. I want it to pull fast and strong right off idle. If there is the slightest hesita- on, I hate the bike and do unspeakable things to my clutch. Basically, I just need to be three inches taller and thirty pounds heavier to race a 450. But I digress. Then there were the usual issues. I forgot my Mousse Balls, so I had to contact my InnTeck guy here in the states (Thanks, James!) to get in touch with InnTeck Europe. My gear arrived a day a er I'd le , so I had to peel off the old logos and heat-press on new ones, or risk the wrath of my team manager. Y'know, just another Tuesday in the life of a privateer. So I was stressed. I had maps, cylinders, heads, pipes, base gaskets, Mousse Ball quan ty, res, suspension tweaking, a million things I wanted to test, and no bike to test them on in Portugal. But thankfully (and the reason I'm comfortable speak- ing openly), it is because Rieju Spain understood exactly what I wanted, and to my surprise and relief, came with a bike that was ready for me! With the addi on of a special OXA pipe, a thin base gasket, and some mapping magic from Rieju Spain, they made the bike hit like Mike Tyson right off idle. If anything, they went a li le too far, as every me I was a bit careless with the throt- tle, there was such a massive low-end hit that I'd spin the back end/accidentally wheelie/nearly yank my arms out of socket. So more fine-tuning is required, but I was happy with it, and for the first me this year, I was actually excited to go racing! On the test track (Which admi edly was noth- ing like the actual special tests; the Europeans take perverse pleasure in this), I stood head and shoulders above the other women. Let's goooo (vamooos, as the Spanish Rieju mechanics say). I fell asleep that night with dreams of winning both days dri ing through my head.