Recently I caught up with Mike Kiedrowski at a track close to his home. I think he was glad to take a breather from the 102-degree weather, and sit down for a chat.
DR: What are you doing to prep for your International Six Day Enduro adventure?
MK: Just making sure I have all my parts, tools, and my fanny pack is organized. I'm not taking anything I don't need. We've been making sure we have tires and mousses and figuring out what suspension we want to use. There's not much else I can do at the moment.
DR: Have you done any special testing in that regard?
MK: No, not really. We did the qualifier, so I got an idea how it's going to be. I leave on Wednesday the 10th for the ISDE, so that's pretty quick.
DR: Have you ridden the RMZ250/280?
MK: Yep, it felt pretty good like a 125, not like my DRZ400. It felt good, light and flick-able. You gotta rev it a little bit.
DR: Has Rodney Smith given you any advise?
MK: Yeah, he has. He has pretty much told me everything I need to know. He has helped me out a 100%. He told me what I need to have in my fanny pack, and why. Also what tools to bring, all kinds of stuff like that, yeah, he has helped out a lot.
DR: What are your plans for next year?
MK: I'm pretty sure I'll be riding the RM250. We'll be doing the GNCC again, so it'll be about the same as this year.
DR: What do you think of the GNCC series?
MK: It's good, I have a lot of fun racing it. This year has been kinda bad, because of all the wet weather back east.
DR: Is it hard to go from California dry to rainy conditions?
MK: Yeah, I was never really a good mud rider because I'm from California, but I've learned to know what's coming up, if it's going to be real slick or real muddy. Sometimes I get into situations that I wish I wasn't in, but somehow the guys back east get through them. But it's not that bad, I look at it as a challenge.
DR: Do you ever seek out rain and wet weather to train in?
MK: Yeah, at the beginning of the year I went up to Rodney's house, he lives in the bay area. We in the mountains where it was wet and there was moss on the rocks. I enjoyed that.