An insight into my experience as a hobby rider at this years Xross Hard Enduro Rally in Serbia which was the third round of the FIM world hard enduro championship. Day one was a usual prologue format to determine a start position for three consecutive 100 kilometre days of riding in the mountains surrounding Zlatibor. The riding conditions were dry but very hot up to 38 degrees celsius at times. I faced a few physical, mental and mechanical problems along the way but I made it to the finish line every day in reasonable time. The GPX TSE 300 is still the bike for me.
There will be a more detailed follow up video about the bike soon before it’s next use.
Robbo
#eurotek #gpxmoto #Xross #ridenutrition #hardenduro
hi guys welcome back hope you’re all well just a little bit of an update on YouTube now if you have been following me on Instagram and Facebook you will know that I’ve just recently been to the xross hard uro rally in Serbia as a hobby Rider that was round three of the F World Enduro championship and let me tell you what an event it was it was it was a real tough one what a journey over the sort of time I was there physic mentally and mechanically as well we had a few issues along the way and I have Come Away with a little bit shoulder injury so that might just stop me riding for a little a little while hopefully not too long but this is one of those videos it’s like where do you start and cuz that much went on that much happened um it’s like trying to condense it all is quite difficult so I’ll try and do that very sort of briefly now so basically everybody knows that I work at Eurotech I work at the shop two days a week I’m part of the team there I work in the workshop as a as a if you want to call it a semi- skill technician mechanic whatever you want but I do quite a lot we traveled out to Serbia as a as a team there was three vans and I traveled in one of the Vans with my friend Allen three-day journey across Europe to as ltib we got to zore on the Monday night prior to the event starting hotell it uh following day which day before the prologue we got the paddock set up and then I went out for a climatization ride it’s important you know when you go to these places that you at least try and get one day riding in before the event starts so you can see how you feeling yourself but also make sure that the bike’s okay as well and during that climatization ride which I’m going to show you some footage of now CL off the road there goone another over there hang on remember we through trees here [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so during the ride uh the first thing that became evident was that to the lap of the ride was that the the fan seemed to be taking too much draw from the battery or the battery wasn’t being charged up properly one or the other and I ended up have to kickart the bike so this issue we’ve had previously and we thought we sorted it but it was it was not quite evident we hadn’t sorted it properly so that was one concern I had is the bike going to be fit to do the whole event will it mechanically make it to the end of the event without breaking breaking down the second thing was I felt ill what I didn’t realize was that during the first day there i’ burned the back of my neck and I was starting to experience the the early onset of sunstroke and I’ve had sunstroke before it’s not nice and I felt pretty bad after the ride when I got back to the paddock I had to sit down in the shade try and just get some more uh fluid down we to keep myself hydrated and you know it took me a while to come around it took me like three or 4 hours before I started feeling something like so that that night I was uh back to the hotel reasonably early uh having had some food out and then uh the following day which was prologue there I felt quite a lot better I did feel quite a lot better but the things in the back of my mind were is the bike going to be all right am I going to recover enough to do the event because I was you know although I’d recovered quite a lot I still wasn’t 100% So the plan on the the prolog day was do one run on the prologue and then we can relax a little bit spend some time looking at the bike keeping out the sun uh just keeping hydrated as well you know while I’m working on the bike and hopefully we can resolve the issue with the bike and I will be ready physically and mentally for the first day Offroad [Music] [Music] go a [Music] [Music] get out d all right no issues I’ve done me prologue Run 1 minute 50 seconds thereabouts uh happy with that that was the first run not going to do another one because we’re just dealing with a a little bit of an electrical issue with the bike I think we’ve found what the cause is um we’ve had a a charging issue where we’ve got power coming from the state we’ve got some power coming out of the regulator it’s wanting to charge the battery when the uh lead or the when you take the positive lead off the batter and you do a multiv multimer reading test between Earth and that positive lead you’re getting 14 sorry get 14.4 volts but as soon as you put that lead back onto the battery it drops down to 12 and then it just only creeps up very very slowly and we’ve just got the wiring looming bits now we just got the wiring loom fully out we found some corrosion here so we’re going to address that and then test it and yeah we’ll we’ll we’ll fix that address that and uh test it and see where we go back soon hi guys welcome back we just a bit of an update on the bike and just show you what’s been going on so as you saw in the last video we have uh had an electrical issue we still got an electrical issue to a degree but I think things will be okay we what we’ve resorted to doing is putting a an isolator for the fan on so I can control the draw on the battery so basically um we are getting some charge to the battery but not it’s not going quickly enough so from what we we’ve uh deciphered or concluded from the the examination earlier that you know the shpping that Loom down there must be a fault in the loom somewhere which is causing some sort of resistance and restricting the flow from the voltage regulator to the battery so if we just do a bit of fan management we should be okay I think for the the rest of the week but otherwise the bike’s good you know the bike’s pretty awesome otherwise um so it’s just one of the things we now got 90 hours on the bike and uh suppose you know these things do happen so when we get back home it’ll be a complete new wiring loom on and we’ll we’ll go from there and hopefully that should should sort the uh the charging system out properly so it’s quite happy with the prologue I went in there cold it’s not the sort of thing that I practice but we got round I did it I know I can do it if I need to and uh we’ve got a starting position for day one Offroad now day one off-road came physically I felt a lot better hi everybody welcome back we’re at the uh the start of day one off-road xross 2024 I’m just with uh my friend from New Zealand here Adrien Bron Adrien it’s good to see you we first met in 2019 didn’t we yeah we when you laras you went to latre yes and uh a good trip like that bik P minutes with the engine got a lot of noise at the moment um so yeah I know you’ve got uh your wife’s family in Czech Republic yep you’re over here on holiday at the moment yep and uh Serbia xross expert class yeah yeah I’m not quite sure what I’ve taken on yeah it’ll um it’s going to be real interesting it is so warm like wow yeah I think I think the key for the first day with a heat te your steady in just get a rhythm going and just go with the floor yeah yeah yeah yeah it’ll be an endurance of any thing because it is um like yeah I think it’s going to be 35° and it’s pretty open going so yeah that what do you think of the prologue yeah I thought the prologue was pretty straightforward actually yeah I should have ridden both um both uh both uh heat but um anyway that’s uh mistake number one but there’ll be a few more mistakes along the way so not get too worked up about that yeah yeah yeah looking forward to it yeah good luck today mate good luck all right thank you yeah that’s us checking in from extros at the start of day one my start time is uh 8:37 I think Adrian you’re just a little 5 minutes after me yeah that’s that’s it so wish good luck guys see you soon update later so feeling good for day one went out there really enjoying the ride like anything or like any of these events that you go to you take part star in the uh the adrenaline’s flowing you’re on the start line you forget things have I forgot have I got this have I got that what haven’t I got what I’ve forgotten and uh hely I usually forget to switch the camera on so it’s about two or three miles before I actually got to switch the camera on on the uh on the helmet [Music] [Music] w [Music] but we got going day one was a good day quite flowing course um the first half was uh I won’t say easy but you have to be on your game you have to be really sort of on your A game well every day there because of the terrain it’s very Rocky it’s green there’s a lot of greenery in Serbia where we were as latio but there’s also a lot of rocks as well in the grass and this soon catch you out and spit you off that bike within within seconds so day one was was pretty good um enjoyed the ride I just wanted to stay safe here’s a little clip of me just coming to the service point now okay thank [Music] [Music] you all right R how’s the electrical situation all right so far over to you no problems uh I’ve just had to straighten me front end I’ve just laid it down a couple times but other than that we’re good this is going to put me back out this there you were so we’ve got 20 minutes here aren’t we yeah to if you keep it PA’s got his clocked in listen to Paul Paul will tell you when you need to go back out okay Rob just your bags top there yeah thank you take that chair if you want it they didn’t they didn’t give me a time when I came in or anything that’s what I’m trying to get i’ll basically give you a minute before yeah so you just come in at 10:25 you’re out 10:45 sh you right thank you welcome back everybody we are at the halfway point at day one off-road xros 2024 at the service Point uh everything’s going fairly well this morning um nice flowing track a little bit like Red Bull romaniacs day one in 2022 um show a little challenging uphills and things but no no real problems um bikes going well as well so slid it down a couple of times on some really some really Rocky sort of grassy sections and on the downhills and if you are just not careful you can soon just pull a lift a rock out and the you know s side swipes the front wheel a little bit and they just end up laying it down on the grass but other than that all good let’s have a look so the guys are add at it Paul Mai’s there just had a chat with Paul um I don’t think Paul’s liking it too much with the heat at the moment um but otherwise pretty good yeah yeah yeah it’s just very hot it’s just a heat in yeah yeah we’ve got our service we’ve got uh black Al and uh Paul auger we’ve got Jordan down there that’s Richard mson with the Riders Nick’s in the van doing his stuffs and they’re just sorting out Rich’s bike at the moment he’s got a front break issue but so far with the GPX it’s uh it’s all looking good just keeping his fingers crossed that we can just keep the bike running without using the fan too much and we don’t have to use a Kickstart so that’s it an update when we get to the Finish see you soon [Music] guys [ __ ] d a [Music] a [Music] awesome steady steady way [Music] [Music] oop here [Music] [Music] goggles off a minute starting to get warm in this SL moving stuff [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] hi guys welcome back we’ve made it to the Finish day one off-road xross um I think they described today as quite a flowing day but uh you know the first certainly the first half up to service point was was pretty good pretty good going and then uh after service Point things got a little bit t particularly one um sort of Ravine section had to uh just check a different line to everybody else there was uh quite a bit of queue getting getting up and um for that bike to go yeah was there was a queue developing and I just looked at what my options were and the rules are you know 30 m i you see either side of the track and um there was like an off camber slippy Stone section ahead of us and and uh I just decided to take a left hand line up into the trees uh on the uh left side of this Ravine and then drop back in above the rocks and then manage to get going again is the track where which way does the track go straight up so you want to try and get up here do you think we can go up here and other yeah maybe behind you yeah yeah [Music] so you know it took a bit of Dey but that was quite challenging took me a little bit of time to recover once I got out of that sort of scenario then got back up but made a few place up I think uh and then after that it were fairly good going with um the bike at altitude we’re getting a little bit of overrun um that’s down to carburation so I’m just going to have a little bit of play with that but we managed with uh the fan situation today quite well and um you know R the fan where I needed to where I could and then got it switched up I think there is a problem with the thermo switch I think it’s coming on too early which doesn’t help thing so it’s as well that we did put the isolator on so we can control it manually but I’m happy I’m back lots of stories um particularly one I I think I’ve lost about 10 minutes this morning helping Graham Jarvis now come across Graham with uh a bent R sprocket it was being held by some there stop for a moment hey G sprocket you don’t have an adjustable I don’t what do you want anything to straighten that sprocket I a’t got all to to bend that spanner no any kind of long leverage uh no just got uh a 21 mil spanner that’s all long in there just let me get off the track yeah got ni so is it okay I need a second pair of f oh is it they Brock it right okay right okay I was thinking to bend it i’ bend it I thought pry it from the back turn the bike over and pull it up ah that way yeah okay it will be super hard that [Music] [Music] way [ __ ] hell oh no way no way man [Music] table no no nope no okay it’s bending yeah [Music] yeah sorry grae I can’t do anymore I had a a decent Siz spanner in the til I was carrying we tried to straighten it but which was pretty imp possible to be honest so I had to leave him I don’t know what what happened there and then um at that point I ran with Charles Lamb for a little bit and then I I just got past him and just had to just got got me me uh foot down so to speak and got to service point but otherwise a good day the bike’s held up we’ll back us the padic now hi guys welcome back just at the start of day two Offroad xross 2024 and I’ve got my my friend here Mark H from uh from I won’t say BR say I say eford the the posher part of brf Mark how was your day yesterday all right just uh Dusty fast really for what I can do a bit fast uh short day I think for like three three hours something like that it short day but fast going no not technical just later well second after a few little sticky bits yeah a few wheel but I was one at early starts got got a good prologue so it won’t cut up when I got there so it was just flowing really um today I think we’re doing 6 and 1 half hours it’s quite a long day we knew going on technical bits which but it’s how hot is it’s 32 de today I it pretty hot yesterday wasn’t it I mean towards the back end yeah it got warm so and as hard as bit comes in after dinner so uh it’s going to be a SLO I think and hopefully they after good luck with that mate okay good luck uh just a pan round we’ve got uh Jack price in front of us Jack give us a wave Jack we’ got Ben roer bburg Richard here Richard copsy will mgle and uh the West SC machine there a Away Paul all right that’s it for me at the moment back at the service Point see you soon [Music] [Music] up day two off-road was a hardest day for the hobby class without doubt the the hills and uh the descents were just forever oh all [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh you okay rocks more dangerous [Music] [Music] rocks everywhere it’s okay yeah good [Music] [Music] a [ __ ] out [Applause] [Music] [Music] come on [Music] some wind in me sails all right guys we’re at service Point uh quite a brutal morning so far and uh you know feeling fairly good getting some nutrition down is at the moment uh bike’s doing all right we had to top it up with coolant on a couple of occasions um but uh yeah I think the best thing that I’ve had to do this morning is uh take a dip in a bit of a stream just cool off cuz it just the heat was just so intense so just uh topping the bike up with coolant again and uh the climbs is just is so long long sort of switch backy climbs first gear climb where you just crawling and crawling and crawling um but yeah good stuff so far let’s get to the finish and see where we are back in a bit but I think the hardest sections for me were dealing with the the single track the off camber single tracks you be riding on this on the side of a mountain Stony tracks and there’s no room for error at all you get that front wheel uh wrongly placed and you’re off the edge you are literally off the edge and there was a couple of rid it happened to and it actually happened to me three or 4 kilm from the from the finish on on day two it were brutal day two was a brutal day how’s it going guys welcome back um day two Offroad X Ross pretty brutal I think everyone will agree it was a a brutal day today the heat um really long descents climbs goat track type scenarios Rocky goat tracks Rocky downhill it was just pretty brutal all around and um made it to finish but it w’t without its um how can I put it with his problems shall we say so I’m just uh relaxing a little bit now just uh getting myself together for the final day tomorrow um a little bit of an issue at the end of the day um got through the Finish headed off back to uh slatore got lost stole the Bike by that point anyway I’ve been running the fan that long in places the battery was dead I couldn’t get the bike started after I stalled it so I managed to uh Freewheel it and push it quite a distance into uh zore on the other side of town from The Paddock as you can imagine with the heat I think it something like for 35 degrees I would absolutely bollocked and um luckily have some currency me phone were flat but got some currency say I went into the local Mark mini market and managed to get somebody to ring me a taxi so we left the bike at the mini market while I got a taxi back to the paddock and then we went back and recovered it a short time later put another battery on it and it’s uh Bob on so uh yeah um interesting day lots of foot from from today I’m going have to have a look at it and see what it’s like but um yeah few little spills here and there um but now I’ve had time to recover from earlier I’m feeling fairly good so early night and then uh hopefully tomorrow will be an easy day I think they said today was going to be the hardest day for hobby class and uh yeah I’m glad I’ve got it over with um there a lot of people pulled out as well today which uh I’m not surprised at um one of the biggest things that I did today what helped was every now and again when I come across a street dream I just had a small bottle and cold water just kept pouring water over me my upper body and that kept me cool and just kept me going um but yeah up until the Finish felt pretty good uh it was after the finish that really tied me out with the bike break down and pushing it and all the rest of it in 35 degrees of heat but yeah we’re here we’re doing it back tomorrow guys full up dat as well when I get back home so that’s it for me at the moment see you soon so was pretty did on me fake uh following morning uh day three managed to muster up some energy from somewhere I don’t know where but it was like because we were traveling back uh home straight after the race I had to in the morning make sure all my bags were packed so I was up early I had to transfer my bags from the hotel to the Paddock and then go back get changed got all my bite gear on then take all my bite gear over to the paddock as well which was like a 5 minute walk so that was an effort in itself then got to the start and then we had like 40 or 50 minutes waiting around at the start before I could before I could get my position in the the starting que so can you can imagine even at like what 8:00 in a morning it was like pushing 25° then and the humidity was like it was we’re all sat around me and the guys just wanted it to be a little bit cooler we were really were so we got to go in on uh day three from the start again it took me a while to get get into it I was still feeling tired from the night before took me about three or four miles to start feeling um comfortable and we finally got going I let I let some of the other guys pass me early on like Rob and and Richard maner I just thought there’s no no need to crack any pots here all we need to do is get to the finish and just enjoy it the first half of the day to service point was pretty hard on day three [Music] [ __ ] rocks [Music] is m come let’s goe let go come go go go go go go some of you in front you hey wake up brother go okay here [Music] TR stump w [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you know you’re riding along certain Paths of traff you start thinking please give me an Hill Climb just give me an Hill Climb I go up I feel happy on an Hill Climb but oh no it’s like you’re down a hill and back into trades again you’re on Rocky off Camas again and you’re like oh my God if this goes I’m going to be absolutely knacked but we got to service point on day three um came in off quite a steep drop down uh Rocky ledge and and uh it’s amazing when you’re moving on the bike you don’t feel too bad you know from a from an exhaustion point of view if you keep flowing and you keep getting some air through you you Fe it lift gives you a bit of a lift should probably say as soon as I stopped at service point it was evident how hot it was there cuz it was in out in the open we had the gazebos up but the heat like I sat down on the on the ground under the Gazo side of the Gazo in the shade a bit and within like seconds I could feel it and it was like oh my God this is just like unreal this is stifling pouring water on me head um I needed I needed I needed to I knew I needed to cool down quickly um because if I didn’t I would be I’d be suffering I really would be suffering we’re looking at Paul [Music] cheers guys thank you [Music] [Music] one minute 4 3 go [Music] m [Music] all right Lisa [Music] [Music] right let’s just keep the wheels turning oh oh a bit rough in here Jesus Christ like leave leave Phil stream B is it [ __ ] you know my God that we near there [Music] [Music] thank you that was race perfect the first half was tough second half was nice more flowing so that’s X Ros in a nutshell I think the only complaint I’ve got is that we didn’t get a finishers medal like I’ve got some finishes medals here from dawn to dusk we’ve got three of them and I’ve got some in the house from other events like St to Sky and romaniacs and um even the local events like extreme Ravines um all those medals I’ve kept it’s nice to have them and and display them even the stickers from various places it’s nice to to put them up and just reflect on things what you’ve done but uh yeah that’s it for me at the moment this bike’s not going to be used for a while now it’s going to be stripped down I’ll be I’ll bring some video footage of me uh stripping the bike down and looking at stuff because we’ve got the head O-rings to do um tit to be changed that tire we’ll talk about the tire when I take it off and a few sort of simple mechanical service bits to do on it nothing major but like I said nothing bent nothing broken bikes in one piece and really happy I’ll be back soon with something else see you soon guys hi guys welcome back just thought I’d give you a bit of insight into the type of things that I’m going to be eating and uh s of nutrition what’s going to get me through this event hopefully over the next few days CU it’s so important that you get the calories and you stay hydrated really is important let’s have a look what we’ve got here so I’m just preparing for a climatization ride this afternoon but I’m just having a milkshake at the moment and that is a complete meal shake that I’m having uh you can get hu you can get white food this is in powdered form I’ve got some powdered form uh things for just for the room really so I’ve got a fridge some milk in just down here but for the actual race days we using ride nutrition in intra for the the hydration pack so I’ll be you know drinking that periodically throughout the race from my Rook sack we’ve got some uh electrolyte tablets there for you know prior to and after the event just keeping me hydrated just drinking you know water and putting a couple of tablets in there we’ve got some gels or squeezy squeezy gels carbohydrate gels I’m going to have two of these with me on each day Offroad and it’s also you know with these important that you take your rubbish you don’t throw any rubbish on the on the on the track use it put your rubbish away take it back with you that’s the main thing I’ve got some baraca as well you have that in the morning when I get up with with some water but in this bag here this is my service bag so we’ve got we’ve got bottles of hu I like the uh the strawberry the banana the vanilla vanilla sort of flavors um so I can have one in the morning um pre-race one at service point and this is the sort of thing I was doing in romaniacs a couple of years ago when when I rode that event and I’m pretty sure that it’s this what got me through just getting the calories in whether you’re on huel or you’re on W food or any type of complete meal drink it will it massively helps you because you just don’t know what food you’re going to be getting to eat here in Serbia you know the staple diet is meats and bread and and pasta but you just like I say you just don’t know what you’re going to get so if I know I can stock up on calories with this stuff and then have a a a steady sort of evening meal afterwards Pizza something like that or some spaghetti some sort of carbohydrate meal something what’s fairly safe as well what’s not going to give me a stomach bug um something else well cooked so yeah generally go for Pizza on an evening during the race so I know it’s fairly fairly safe bet um what else we got in here we’ve got preload as well this is preload new ride nutrition preload I’ve been using this now since uh last night just taking it morning and night myself up with uh with nitrates and this will help prevent arm pump and uh just get oxygen to the large muscle groups U and it does work it really does work I’ve used this before I use it quite regularly actually and it’s something that you I’ll be taking morning and night right through the event to the very end and uh say it does work I do feel less fatigued at the end of a day’s riding having been on this for a couple of days prior to you know some intense sort of riding workout and uh we’ve got some protein bars as well uh grenade bars so I’ll have one of these with me as well when I’m riding out on the the offroad days one of those if if I feel a little bit more hungrier if I don’t use it I don’t use it I can have it another time but it’s it’s it’s there in reserve if I need it um when I did romaniacs back in uh 2020 2 in the bronze class I just found that some fruit in the morning uh a full complete meal drink and then a full complete meal drink during service Point got me through it really did get me through that so you know there’s a th calories there plus a little bit of fruit on top as well and getting some good hydration and the hydration does have some carbohydrates in it as well it’s not just electroly is a a carbohydrate based hydration drink which is giving you sugars that’s what you need so there you go that’s just a short insight into what I’m going to be using this week to get me through this event back soon with something else xross 2024 see you soon guys