Title: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: Willbar on September 26, 2010, 12,42:00 AM Ride leader Will Munro KTM 525EXC
Morning Tailman Al Mason Yamaha WR250 Afternoon Tailman Mat Creasey honda CRF450 Nicole Dean 1/2 of morning only Honda CRF230 Frankie Reefman BMW 450 Rossi Ranyard Honda CRF450 Gary Clarke Honda CR250R Daniel Tasci Morning only Honda XR400 Ronnie oRorke Honda CRF450 Nathan Stott Husky TE310 Zeb Colic Morning only Husky WR250 Alistair Barrett Yamaha WR250 Alex Ibrahim Husky TE310 David Petroff arvo only Berg FE570 Brad McDarmid 1/2 of arvo only Yamaha WR250 Darren Lynch arvo only Honda XR350 What can I say, for them who did not go for a ride yesterday you truly missed out on perfect weather conditions. I cannot believe how much Neerim had dried out in just two weeks. Dust was the order of the day for the riders behind me, we started the day a little slow with Nathan having a soft rear tyre but managed to get it pumped up eventually . I did things a little different this time since we really only had one level 1 rider this time around. I partnered up the less experienced riders with the more experienced with only Nicole having a bit of trouble . We started with the warm up track out of the carpark which certainly warmed us up as it was so dry and rough, we then headed up lizards were I stopped to make sure everyone had got up safe and sound but as I had my back turned Alistair and Gary went flying past me, I new not to be concerned as Gary knows the area as well as anyone and he knows my loops so I figured he would just stop at the next un maned corner or the usual regroup spot so we continued to and down Sawdust for the usual regroup, no Gary or Alistair, a well he and Al can do there own ride if they do not turn up as Gary knows the area well enough, next minute they both come down the clay on Sawdust explaining that as they did not find me they thought they would do the loop again. Anyway once everyone was down and safe we headed for a overgrown 4wD track which Steve shows me last time, once everyone was through the Bog hole at the start we climbed the hill back to Sawdust with Nicky having to do some major clutch work on the little CRF. We then headed back down Sawdust and then onto Whitelaws, a track which Gary recommended, With a rutted 30 odd degree long climb we were all up accept for Al and Nicky, the message came, Neerim had claimed another clutch , the poor little CRF had fried its. Anyway we all headed back down and got Nics bike back down were we gave the clutch some free play and although the clutch felt like it was not slipping now it felt strange when it released. I instructed Nicky to try and not slip it anymore and we would do some nice easy tracks so we headed up Bilsons to Memory were I set corners and headed for Square track which crosses the plantation. Since we have had so much rain this year every time we do this track there are always trees down so as I was moving branches Rossi had caught up with me to inform me that Nics clutch was dead so we headed back picking up the corner people as we went. Once back at the group Al and I decided to escort Nicky back to the carpark and help her load up. Pommy Mat had just arrived as he had to have a sleep since he worked till 3am, he quickly geared up as we helped Nicole . We then headed back to the group at the bottom of Bilson's and we then headed back to were I had left of with the downed trees which then seamed to be the order of the day, going over or around them. We headed down to the Shady track area and did some of the usuals then up to Beards and down into the conservation area and did a couple of our loops including taking Frankie back to the spot were he did his wrist. We then headed for the bog holes and for the rocky hill climb then worked our way back to the cars for lunch covering around 50klms for the A.M. The arvo ride we had a couple retire and we were joined by Dr Brad and Darren and Zeke, we headed of to do some new tracks and headed up the clay hill at Spike track and found some great overgrown 4wD track with some good bog holes which I managed to check the depth on one of them, with the help of Al we pulled the bike from the quick sand and continued on over more fallen trees and exposed roots to find the Fence line track which we found last time out. Eventually we were on Spike and then down Whitelaws and then we headed for the Stair case but as there was a huge tree down across the track before the creek we did a nice looped overgrown 4wD track just over the road from that one, once we came back out of that loop we decided to have a look around the tree where Dr Brad found away around. By the time I had walked back to get my bike and the rest of the group some had already made there way to the stair case . Nathan and I think it might of been Al were already up so with shear guts and determination straight up I went. It was then our turn to encourage the rest of the guys up. Brad had to have a few go's as did Alistair and Frankie and a couple of others with only Darren needing help with his old banger to get up. Frankie also needed some verbal help to get up as he reckoned that the track at the top did not go anywhere, Nath and some of the others went and did a recky as we encouraged Frankie up and got the rest up with Nath returning to tell us that it ended at a 4 lane hwy. It was ace to get up the stair case as two weeks a go it would have been way to slippery for most to have gotten up. Onwards and up the hill we went back up onto Sawdust. We then headed to Memory and took one of the tracks back to Paris and back to Shady were we took the Harder of the five tracks to Beards and onto Sweetwater and into one of the many disused 4wD tracks and down to the far end fenceline tack which has some great fast ups and down hills which is were I was starting to get worried about the lack of Brakes on Ronnie's bikes, boy I have ridden with some fast down hill guys but I think this guy may be the fastest. Anyway once back at Beards we took another overgrown 4wD track which brought us back to the far end of Beards. We then headed up Beards and waved good buy to I've had enough of falling of my bike today Dr Brad and I've got a birthday party to go too Rossi, more like I've got a date with some wild turkey Rossi. We took one of the most technical of the unused tracks in the area and then headed for Young track were we then did the Rocky up hill climb and turned left onto Hard Up were we did Hard down and then found some more unused 4wD tracks were I did some more Bog hole depth testing, thanks to Zeke we dragged the big Kato out once more. A big thanks must go to everyone who went past using the side track, for there kind words of inspiration. Hey Fatboy this is a better track than yours. Anyway we ended up on Ext track which is the one with about 20 sets of Triple erosion mounds. It was at the end of this one I realized that I had given the lads enough character building for one day so I took them down Hi tree which I had never dun before and back onto the Latrobe river rd and back to the cars about 4.45pm covering a further 70klms. In a quick wrap up we had level 1 to clubman tracks, we had snail pace to blister warp speed pace, we did a lot of tracks both well used and disused tracks and I do not know about the rest of the guys but I had a great day out. We had some bench racing it the carpark with Frankie telling me how lucky I am, for a minute I thought it was my wife talking as she says that to me all the time. Seven of us then headed of to the Robin Hood for a quite dinner, thanks to all that came and I hope I gave you all enough Character building for one day. Will Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: AL on September 26, 2010, 01,01:18 AM Cheers Will for a good day on the bike. Someone told me there was some kind of important footy match on, but i didnt notice! First- thing i would say is how much Will's riding has improved, especialy in the hill climbind and decent dpartment. Second- would be i would be happy to have him on any track i did with big, deep and smelly bog holes. His the best depth guage ive seen, and puts a real effort into empting out the water from the holes! Didnt mean not to help you out of that last bog hole, just felt as i'd done my share. That Katto is heavy. Good job Will with the ride and taking the time to bring the less exsperanced riders get a bit closer to a clubman level. Cheers Al
Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: Zeb Colic on September 26, 2010, 04,05:04 AM Hey Will ,
You are correct was a perfect day for a ride , thanks for the tour of Neerim was my first time in the joint and I really enjoyed it , even though i ran out of puff and didnt do the afternnon session I still fell asleep on the couch and 7.30 so i reckon I musta had a go by my standards at least anyway ( maybe an exersize bike might help ) Really enjoyed it thanks for putting it on and it was great to see some of the better riders showing us what is possible on a dirt bike. Oh YEAH thanks Rossi for watching my back hope I didnt slow you down to much. ;D Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: Nic103 on September 26, 2010, 04,15:05 AM Another great ride Will! Can you order that wheather for next time too, what an amazing day. The warm up track was good, I could tell I hadnt been on the bike for a few weeks, I started to go a but quicker and stand up where I could, and soon got my confidence back up. I had been gearing myself up for Lizards to be wet and slippery all week, and kept up the positive thinking (ie: I think I can, I think I can hahaha) and 1/2 way up I thought, it must of worked cos I was doing great! Came off about 3/4 up getting stuck in two different ruts, but other then that, that was the only fall of the day :) Sawdust was a bit messy the first time, but thanks to Al, was a bit easier the second time. The bog hole and track was fun, but I kept having to rev the crap out of my bike to get traction, after a few fallen logs we got to the top and things felt ok, we rode round to the next hill, again 1/2 was up somthing wasnt right, I got stuck in a nice rut and thought id stay in it to get to the top, rev, rev rev..... nothing happening. Thanks again to Al for helping me turn around. When we got back to the bottom, the boys had a look and played around with the clutch, we thought we might be able to get through the day, but 1/2 way up the next hill it packed it in.... it was home time for me. Thanks to Will for putting on a great ride and getting me back to the car with the bike in one piece. Back to the bike shop tomorrow so ill be right for the next one :D :D :D
P.S What sort of clutch should I get? Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: Frankie-boy on September 26, 2010, 04,52:36 AM Hey Will , even though i ran out of puff and didnt do the afternnon session I still fell asleep on the couch and 7.30 so i reckon I musta had a go by my standards at least anyway ( maybe an exersize bike might help ) Glad I wasn't the only one feeling like that, I was starting to think that my riding was coming to an end :D Thanks Will for leading another great ride & AL & Matt for doing the sweep. The ride was quit hard! maybe I thought it was because my wrist is still not a 100%, I know what you are thinking Will ( bloody complaining again )I'm not really it still hurts I tells ya ;D anyway it was still a great day thanks everyone for making it so. Oh year talk about the staircase, I'm sure that Steve said that when you get to the top it doesn't go anywhere, thats way I was quit happy to stay at the bottom, when I was 30 years younger I would be going out off my way to fined hill climbs like that, but now at my age you size thing up & take the easy way out if you can ;D Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: daniel tasci on September 26, 2010, 06,40:20 AM Another great ride, thanks Will for putting it on,thanks to tail end charlie Al for constantly picking me up off the dirt.Thanks to my buddy Ronnie whom i held up all day.Now that things are drying up the offs are starting to hurt, the mud wasn't so bad after all.
Title: Re: Welcome Back Frankie Level1 / Level 2 Ride Neerim Sth 25/9/10 Post by: Redron on September 26, 2010, 09,36:15 AM Thanks for a great ride will, my wife has just read this and beleive me MY BRAKES ARE WORKING NOW!!!! ::)
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