Calendar

[Lefty]

I'm going to start this ride report as I had a pisser of a day and the ride tested my endurance and ability. I'm thinking a lot of readers will agree that turning up to a ride when you only know one person out of the six others, is a bit daunting especially when having a look at the bikes in the car park of the Dom Dom Saddle look brand new and ready to rock and roll. I'm getting my wr250 off the trailer and wishing I hadn't decided to get another ride out of the back tyre. Then one of the blokes warms up his bike by doing a mono around the car park and I'm pretty sure he was talking on his mobile phone at the same time. Beads of sweat began rolling down my forehead. 'Pictures' Peter Monty came over and said hello as we started gearing up and Freddy arrived in his 4 X 4 and started to unload. Freddy looked like he'd been in a good paddock (no offence Freddy) so I thought I'd be right and maybe not the slowest, wrong, wrong, wrong. Freddy can ride folks. With the safety briefing over and next of kin names supplied (my partners name is not Bryan) off we headed north bound into the wilderness. 7 riders, about 23 deg and little wind. Perfect conditions. The first track we come across is a down hill which seemed to last for ever. You know the one i mean level 2 riders, rutty, red shiny clay and off camber corners !!!! The words are still echoing in my helmet 'Dont fall off, dont fall off, etc,etc' Anyways we keep moving along at a good speed (I thought so) and along some great tracks peaking along ridges and offering great views, get the mood, good. I think i was corner tail man only once or twice in the morning, I was just try'n to keep up and not restrict the others too much. Now, mu memory is fading a bit but we ended up in Buxton for lunch and most had the Buxton Burger. 3kgs of the essential food groups protein, fat and sugar. Fantastic. I'm still tasting the burger. We left Buxton and headed back towards Narby and the Western track and had a blast around the shiny red stuff again. My sphincter never had such a work out on that stuff. A couple of tough up hills and some river and creek crossings thrown in for the day made it all worth while. I'm cutting this short because we are heading out for Thai but we finished up around 3.30 with 115 k's on the speedo. I had a great day and sang all the way home. I'm hopeless at names but never forget a face or a smile. Cheers to the faithfull 6 who helped me have an unforgetable day..

Stuart.         

[Peter Monty]

Nice report mate, Seemed like flat tyres or 300lb pressure in the tyres on a lot of this ride. LOL Damn great day for the ride as the weeks rain had stopped & the tracks were cleared of loose mud. Some of the tracks had trees down but everything was overcome with some excellent lead riding. I must say the ride moved well and the cornerman system was applied perfectly. I dont think we had anyone lost or had a back track in the day. I did get some video of the ride & I will post it this weekend, some good footage may be had of a husky staying out of a creek while the rider had a bath! A berg removing 10km of stringy bark untill the back wheel looked like a giant ball of string and Lefty at the bottom of a very slippery down hill. Did I mention it was slipery?

oh and there might be a second or 2 of some dickhead falling off a KLX450 on a reasonable hill! Guess who that was!

The arvo saw the temperature rise quiet a bit, this saw the tracks dryout a lot. ALthough the first track after lunch looked like a creek for about a kilometer. At least it washed a lot of the mud off.

The second track after lunch and we where heading towards marysville & what a sweet ride. This track was freshly graded and was soft, stickey & wide. The water bars were like jumps & everyone was enjoying it! But like all good things this had to pass and then we hit up a few K's of fresh graded 300mm deep mud, sweet! no brakes as the bikes sunk in the mud unless you were had the throtle open, water bars were even more fun. I saw two wheel marks ahead of me & noted on a water bar that both of these were sinking 200mm into the face of each water bar, no problem I thought just line up a firmer patch on the next one & it will be good. Hahaha I nearly ate crap as my bike tried to tunnel through the water bar rather than go over.

The rest of the day was at a nice pace, dryer roads & no dust. Fantastic sceney & friendly riders made the day most memorable. Thanks Pete