AMTRA.com.au

Kenda Rally 2008

(http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc132/abbeyard/Kenda2.jpg)

With the HCR over and done with for another year many of the members were starting to remember why they joined a bike club - TO RIDE!!!

With what was the Nolan Rally now being called the Kenda Rally the ADMCC (www.admcc.com.au) seemed to be doing their best to confuse people  ;D ;D and the lack of advertising this year saw less AMTRA people come along. The ride was still full though!

For the first time Peter R was not able to ride a Kenda or Nolan event. This is a legacy of a fall at the HCR (on that hill..) that seems to has left lingering pain. A month after the event he's a lot better but still in enough pain to make him not ride. The kind of bloke he is saw him come out to the event and help the guys (who did come to ride) have a good day.

My mate Rick was over from WA and wanted to do the event and Alex made that possible. A really big thankyou goes out to to Alex.

We gathered in the deignated area so we could listen to Roger from ADMCC give the usual riders briefing advising us of 4wd's in the area and that the event is not a race.

Then we had Roger from the DSE tell us that all bar 3 bikes passed the noise test and the the three bikes & riders were sent home.

The nolan dash (for helmets) was a beauty. The winner was a large chap who dived on the helmet rugby style. Us older more mature types considered the merits of diving for a $300 helmet that would end up costing $500 in physio/chiro. It was good to watch!

The first half of the first loop was hecktic to say the least. With more than 50 riders in taking off in front of us there were a lot of people getting stuck on hills and goijng really slow to avoid.

We managed to do that by taking things steadily in the first half of the ride. There seemed to be a bit of a pattern forming where I would ride up behind a rider, sit there for a 30 seconds, he would look over his shoulder and see me, give it heaps (trying to get away and spraying me in the process) only  to run wide or fall off on the next corner or hill.

There were also a lot of people who were smart (nice) enough to let the quicker blokes through. With 50 blokes in front of us at the start of the ride and a lot of passing done in the first half of the first loop I noticed that there were very few to pass in the second half of the loop.

Alex and Rick kept a more sensible pace on the gravel road sections while some used them as an opportunity to test the drifting abilities of their bikes. I can report that 550 Berg is a weapon on the loose stuff, stable flickable and balanced. When I got back to the control there was only  couple of riders back. They were due to leave at 11.20 I was due to leave at 11.21 Rick and Alex were back a couple of minutes later.

Peter R made us a cup of coffee and we went back to the start area. Pete gave me some great words of wisdom and inspirational advice just before we set off. Go like .... and wait for nobody and you can finish first.

As Loop 2 kicked off Miles and his mate Glen had obviously taken the same advice and were punting along at a comfortable pace. When we got to Dry Creek track (which was actually red greasy hard pack) the seemed to speed up when my brain was saying slow down.

I listened, they didn't I stayed upright and Glen overshot one of the hairpins by a long way. Miles was there to help, I on the otherhand put some distance between myself and these Kamakaze Bavarians.

At each of the next intersections I kept looking for more rides and not finding any except a couple of sweeps which I passed. As the course wound it's way onto the very familiar Jims and Mallets tracks I started to guess at where the course would go. Next I pictured Gap Track and 15 Mile Rd. Sure enough we got onto Gap track and I found another rider to pass.

This guy appeared to be a trail rider as he was going what appeared really slow (perhaps a normal pace for most people on this track). If you get to know Gap track it is one of those which can see you doing the 6 or so km in around 7.5 minutes.

As we all know familiarity breeds contemp and I did manage to run wide on one corner going around two trees and a log and dropping back into the track from a 1.5m ledge.

Just after that I managed to avoid the usual run off point for most, a sharp left just over a rise. I spoke to a lot of people later who missed that one again..

As I crossed 15 mile Rd to the first control I asked how many more were ahead. "None mate - you're it and you managed to beat the sweep riders here as well!!" replied the official. With no other bikes seeming to be in the same postcode I headed off down 15 mile road.

15 Mile road is a an open single lane gravel road that is full of fast lefts and rights. It appeared to have been plowed recently as it was very loose and muddy and boggy in some parts.


Low Rd and Still Creek Tk proved to be interesting and fun before we got a few km of motard practice on the Warby Rd. The left onto Hughes tk saw a nice challenging greasy hill which I thought might trick a few people later on. Fortunately there were a few marshalls there to help. They'd just arrived and were setting up their deck chairs and eskies when I arrived and blasted to the top.

Phil Randall told me later in the week that he waited for a few blokes to go then watched as these energetic young hotshots were skittled like 9 pins all over the place while he (the little old man - his words) just rode past laughing.

Soon after that was the second control and they thought I was lost on the first loop! Until the checked my card.

There was a fair bit more road before we go onto the old switchback tram way. It's narrow and has a sizable drop off to be wary of - the trick of course is to ignore the drop off.

From previous years I knew that just after the switchback was a wicked downhill before the cruise home. As I got to the bottom I saw Roger the MC from ADMCC helping one of his guys setup to Marshall at that point.

I had a bit of fun riding back to the cars managing to avoid the guys who were just heading out to start the second loop. With my Air horns honking all the way back in Peter Ross managed to work out I had come back and was waiting for me at the checkin.

I got my gear off and got changed then set about loading the bike just as Rick turned up, he was the second finisher. Alex, Rick and I gave our raffle tickets to Marty, Pete, Paul and Phil and left the boys to win a chain, tyres, oil packs, hats and helmets !!!

The event was brilliant, the only disappointing moment of the day was while in the start linup I saw a bloke unbolting the bung from his muffler which was obviously placed there just to pass the noise test. 

Just goes to show no matter how many times it is written, said and spoken about some people don't get less sound = more ground message.

See you all there next year.

Regards,

Paul Smith

Some of those who came were..
Alex, Mark, Phil, Peter, Peter, Gerard, Paul, Paul, Rick, Simon