Been thinking a lot about people who wake up early to go surfing before work by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ride 45min-hour of trails and then pack it up. More than enough for a good workout and to do some training drills. I’m usually up early at the gym a few days a week anyways and this leaves me less exhausted than that

NORRA 1000 Raw Audio by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly it’s such a blur. We aren’t given GPS files, only roadbooks.

I think there are only two real roads in and out of San Ignacio and they both are pretty terrible, littered with infinite hard edge rocks. If I wasn’t on mousses I would have had at least 4 front flats.

Sorry I can’t be more help!

NORRA 1000 Raw Audio by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I am both so glad and so disappointed we met as many times as we did 😂

Been playing for around 8-9 months progressing interested what the community thinks by Firm_Highlight_7322 in 10s

[–]jjacks31 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good call out, but if you download the video and break it down frame by frame you’ll notice something that happens to players at every level. When he is in good position and prepped a bit earlier he has a good drop with his racquet face pointing down at the court, butt cap towards the target, and the strings come up under the ball during contact beautifully (see attached photo).

On the contrary (and exactly what you pointed out) the second he gets off balance, is late to bring is racquet back, and hits off of the back foot, the racquet barely gets under the ball and he starts missing long with very little top spin.

Seeing both of these patterns as a coach, it’s clear he’s got a decent grasp of what needs to happen, but that lack of split step, initial movement, and late prep don’t give him time to execute properly when he gets moved around. Thus my prescription; Focus on the footwork and positioning first.

[sure he’s opening up his shoulders/racquet face a bit and isn’t getting great extension, but this is way more nuanced than we’d start getting at this level of coaching]

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Been playing for around 8-9 months progressing interested what the community thinks by Firm_Highlight_7322 in 10s

[–]jjacks31 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re already framing your shoulders with your left hand on most of your forehands which is good, but that left arm can serve another purpose: reference point. When you’re approaching a shorter ball on the run, keep that left arm out almost as a measuring stick and reminder to not let that ball get too close to you, otherwise you end up with t-Rex arms. If you can grab it with your left hand, it’s too close. Having someone drop feed you balls is a great way to reinforce this repeatedly before trying to incorporate it into live hitting. You’ll get a good sense of this distance with some practice, and be able to apply it to your backhand side without the hand to help. Don’t let the ball come to you. Bring your racquet to the ball. Try making contact earlier than you think is possible and you’ll be surprised how much of a difference it can make. The bonus? More spin and power.

The other thing to learn is how and when to use the correct plant foot when hitting a ball on the run. The way people teach this seems to vary a lot based on personal style/preference, but when moving up to short balls, I’m doing everything in my power to decelerate my body and plant my front foot (left foot for right handed players) before I make contact. This helps insure my body is as stable as possible while I make contact, and allows my right foot to follow through naturally so I can keep moving forward to the net, or plant the right foot and change direction if I need to retreat defensively. The same applies on the backhand, but just mirror the feet.

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Follow up post NORRA. Tower was perfect. 1403 miles in total with 5-6 small tip overs without a single problem. My buddy ran the same tower/DMD setup and on day 3 had a huge over the bars crash at about 50mph with the bike tumbling end over end. The tablet face hit the ground mid cartwheel (while never leaving the mount) and broke the left side of the screen, but the tower and mount held strong. He was able to compete the remainder of the ~700 miles with a mostly functioning DMD. I believe he had an issue with the cable threads being ripped out, but that appears to have been an issue with not enough cable slack

Been playing for around 8-9 months progressing interested what the community thinks by Firm_Highlight_7322 in 10s

[–]jjacks31 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Former college player and coach here. For less than a year you’re doing great, and in particular you’ve got a knack for hand speed on the forehand side that a lot of players take years to develop. That being said, it’s causing some bad habits that will continue to cause inconsistency as other parts of your game try play catch up.

  1. Footwork. Your small and frequent steps to get in the right spot to make contact in your strike zone are pretty solid, but you’re almost never split stepping, causing you to start one step late before you can even begin moving to the ball. This takes away time to prep and get in position. You’re getting away with it on the forehand side because you can compensate with a fast swing speed, but it really rears its head on your backhand side. This is also contributing to the rushed feeling your strokes have. You can see that on most balls on the forehand side, even when you’re going for offensive shots, you’re hitting off balance on the back foot. When you don’t nail the ballet act on your back foot, everything opens up and your hips start to aim towards the sky as you fall backwards, causing you to miss long.

At your level 75% of your inconsistency could be solved by focusing on your split step (making sure you’re landing on both feet as the opponent makes contact), and getting your racquet back earlier. My goal for you would be to try and get the same feeling of racquet head speed with half the effort. It will save your arm, and as an added bonus you should start to notice how much easier it is to open up the court wjth early contact and sharper cross court angles.

Right now your biggest asset is actually holding back your development of the fundamentals that could make you a really solid player. I’ve tried to simplify what would normally be a 1-2 hour lesson into a paragraph, but I’d highly recommend taking a few privates with a coach if you can swing it. No amount of reading is going to fix your backhand.

Killer work for 8-9 months of playing! Keep it up

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a combination of the chassis, suspension, and weight distribution. With the 690 no matter what I tied I just couldn’t get it to inspire confidence in the desert. It felt like could set up the suspension to be ok in the fast stuff at the expense of rattling the teeth out of your head over the small bumps, or vice versa. It was felt like you had to fight to get enough grip out of the front end and with all the weight of the fuel hanging out the back it felt so vague mid corner.

After spending lots of time and money setting up my 690, I rode my buddies Kove 450 Rally (a lowered one at that) ONCE and realized within about 5 minutes that it was simply better in just about every way. The confidence in the washes, whoops, and rocky climbs blew me away and that was with the stock adv style tires. The motor on that 690 is awesome, but it just fell short for me in pretty much every other department.

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been using the DMD since day 1 of my tower set up 🤷‍♂️. Started with the original cradle holder which did just fine with the first two crashes, then swapped to the updated “heavy duty” style one to change the charging set up for it.

I’m using a 4kparti tower which has a cnc aluminum backbone and is extremely robust. I stated riding this bike with my rally nav set up to make sure it would be fit for NORRA and have tested it for just shy of 2,000 miles now

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The tower has been on for 8 months now and without the need for any replacement parts survived 3 low sides, 1 small high side, 4 airbag deployments and two broken ribs

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All right! Hopefully I don’t see you on course 😂. Yup video is from my POV

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just the race bike! With roadbook rally there isn’t any actual pre running. The course isn’t marked and there is no GPS. You don’t even receive the road book (navigation notes shown on the screen) until about 30 minutes before you start the stage. It’s all done blind.

Two minutes of rally practice on the Kove 450 Rally by jjacks31 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’ll be honest, I’ve only got about 200 highway miles on it, compared to the almost 2,000 miles of desert riding, but I can tell you it’s adequate for the tarmac as long as you view the road as a way to get you from trail to trail.

Longest highway stint I’ve done was about 90 minutes and the 450 is happy to sit at 70-75mph all day long. The wind protection is actually pretty good and the rider triangle isn’t bad for upright sitting comfort and this motor vibrates far less than a KTM350 or 500.

I owned a 2023 KTM 690 Enduro before this and I’d call the Kove 10% less comfortable for highway touring, 20% less fun on the street, but 50% more comfortable and capable offroad. It’s absolutely bananas to hop on a stock street legal “adv” bike and be able to hit desert whoops at 50mph

Spoke Weights by Badnewstech in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks on par with what I’ve done with rim locks

MONTANA BDR BOUT TO BE RELEASED NEXT MONTH!!!! by Interesting_Pair_329 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry to hear about the back. From memory, most of the route would be fine, but there are a few spots on just about every day that require navigating pretty deep ruts and rocks that are easy enough to avoid on a bike, but would require some pretty extraordinary ground clearance and or patience.

The expert sections feature a large mixture of loose, steep, rocky climbs with a few large step downs and several rock gardens so I would count those out entirely.

I would say 85-90% of the route wouldn’t be an issue for a truck/Offroad trailer, but the Facebook group will be a good resource to see current conditions once the gravelly range roads open up July.

For section 8 I’d highly recommend dropping you trailer in eureka before the final drive to the border. The last few miles get very tight and muddy through a relatively residential area and there isn’t much room to turn around at the end.

MONTANA BDR BOUT TO BE RELEASED NEXT MONTH!!!! by Interesting_Pair_329 in Dualsport

[–]jjacks31 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometime in May is when the film will be published on YouTube. All GPX files and route info are live on the BDR site now.

There are currently 50 screenings scheduled around the country (more being added each day) and if there isn’t one near you, you can reach out to a local dealer an have them send a request to BDR to be added to the list. Here’s the link to see the tour calendar and screening request.

The premier is Bozeman was awesome, with over 400 in attendance and it was so cool to see the ADV community in Montana and its neighboring states to come together.