AMTRA.com.au

Ride Report Marysville 9th of November 2008 by Brad McDiarmid.

There were 22 starters for the day in drizzle conditions as we headed off just after 9am.
The first hill was “Telegraph Hill” which in the slippery red clay conditions proved a challenge resulting in six people getting to the top, one via and alternate track.
A call was made to regroup back at the bottom of the hill and head off into the triangle in search of more suitable tracks in the greasy conditions. We did a run around the small loop track and as the weather was improving and we headed north across to the Narbathong side.
Everyone was traveling well, no major issues until the Narbie side lived up to its reputation for being tricky when wet. A few spills along the way yours truly included and a KTM found itself down the side of the road after a corner.

At around midday we were on a section of narrow track that was extremely slick and a challenge for all of us. It was stop start as we tried to work our way up the track.
Reward for the effort was some track clearing at a tight section of track where we moved a fallen tree and timbers off the track. At this point the tail man arrived and advised there were four bikes on the track that we needed to go back and pick up.
We headed back down and collected the KLX, an overheated KTM and DRZ and a KTM with a clutch problem. Decision was made to go another way and regroup back on the road.
It was about 2pm and we headed towards Marysville for lunch, upon reaching the bitumen some folks decided to call it a day and headed for the cars. The rest of us continued on to the cake shop where we found a Police bike unit from Pakenham waiting for us. The two officers were through and checked us all for license, registration and number plate and apart from a few minor issues let us all go to get some lunch. It goes to show that the some of the Police force are nice guys because if they wanted to make money they could have stuck to the rule book instead they were focusing on safety and the major items I mentioned.
Lunch was good, finishing around 3pm when we got back on the bikes. Phil had a broken spoke that punctured his rear wheel and was heading back to the cars. Most of us went with him leaving a small group of 4 to continue on for the remainder of the day which had turned out to be a sunny 24 degrees.

Thanks to Phil and Mark for thier Leading and Tailman duties, it was a great day out.

See the AMTRA web site under Gallery and then “Ride Pictures” for the 14 pictures I took on the day.

Ride list:
Phil Randall      CRM250 Ride Leader
Paul Smith      TE550
Leo Giannini      CRF250X
Brad McDiarmid   WR250F
Darren Clark      WR450F
Simon Kermode   WR450F
Paul Mayhew      KTM200
Leo Pozzebor      CRF450X
Adrian Batistita   CRF450X
Marc LeBrun      CRF450X
Charlie Grima      KTM450
Steve Bennet      WR450F
Eric Lama      TTR250
Alister Parlby      WR250F
Mat Richmond   WR426F
David Thiele      WR250R
Trevor Maddicks   KLX250
Sue Emery-Smith   KTM250
Grant Taylor      DRZ400
Mark Clark      SM450 Tailman
Peter Ross      RMX250
Ian Elliott      TE250