Sorry I didn't post this last night, but I was too tired and sore.
Sat and Sun I went to the annual VPGP at the famous Cycleranch (VP) in Floresville, TX. It was about 6.5 miles long and consisted of 2 MX tracks, single track, DEEP sand, fast wide woods section, rocky trail, hard pack, some wide open fields, and everything was wooped out and beat up. The main track is a national caliber track if anyone gets a chance to go, it's very well worth it.
Sat was the tag team race. Each person does 2 laps, alternating each lap. Teams were either an A and C, or 2 B riders. I teamed up with another B rider and we finished 21st out of 41 teams. It was a fun race but we were hoping to do a little better.
Sun was the normal races and HS classes. I raced 4 stroke B which was a 4 lap race and did better than I thought I would and finished 3rd. Last year I won this race, but I have been off a bike for almost 8 months until I bought the Cannondale.
Now to how the bike did. AWESOME. 4 laps took right at an hour and like I said the track was super rough by the time we raced on Sunday afternoon. After hammering the bike for an hour through everything imaginable it performed almost perfect. I had one little problem, but I'll get to that in a sec.
I have my suspension set up with the compression 4 clicks out from stock. Rebound is stock. I'm 6'2" and weigh right at 200lbs. With this setting the small stuff just dissapears. Oh is it so plush and supple. Braking bumps, roots, choppy stuff, whooped out fast straights, rocks, g-outs, and stutter bumps the Ohlins works like majic. I did bottom the forks a few times over some of the big MX jumps, but I also didn't have it set up for that. I'm thinking about adding a little oil height to see if this will cure the bottoming and keep all the plushness. I know I can cure it with the compression clickers, but I really like super plush suspension. If I have to choose one over the other I will go with plushness everyday of the week.
The motor was flawless. Not one hiccup, stutter, bump or anything. The temp ranged from low 30's in the mornings to low 70's in the afternoon. It started and ran perfect all weekend. It was raced pretty hard with everyting from tight 1st gear sections to wide open 5th. I love the tranny. It feels more like a wide ratio tranny to me. In the tight stuff you don't have to touch the clutch. It's geared pretty low in 1-2. 3 and 4 feel like your typical MX tranny. Good gear spacing and I could use 3rd on the whole MX track. Then comes 5th. Wooo Hooo
hang on buddy it's a tall 5th gear. I don't know what the top speed is, but I know I was sucking some seat foam when I was tapped out in 5th. That thing just keeps on pulling. The motor and the tranny really compliment each other. Perfect for the kind of riding I do. I haven't had a problem with stalling, but I didn't come off an XR650 either. 
The one little problem I did have was front brake fade. I'm a big time front brake abuser (I don't use the rear much at all) and it started to fade towards the end of the race. Actually the lever was getting spoungy, so I think I have some air in the line. I'm going to completely replace the fluid before the next race so I'll see if this cures the problem. But remember, this was after an hour of HARD use. I go through 2-3 sets of front pads to 1 set of rear.
One other thing, I'm not too impressed with the Perelli's. They seem to be a soft intermediate to intermediate tire. They didn't like the sand much or when it got really baked hard packed. But I'm going to change them to the 755/756 combo anyway which is my personal favorite.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm still super happy and I'm convinced the bike helped me to a 3rd place finish. Mainly because it's so easy to ride and go fast on. It helped my super out of shape overweight body survive a 1 hour race after 8 months off a bike. Now next weekend is a 2 hour race.
