Neerim South 14-03-09 Ride Report

Neerim South Ride Report 14/03/09

Seventeen riders fronted up for what would be an interesting days riding. It all started with a fine and sunny morning at the newly built trail bike parking area on Latrobe River Road just east of the Neerim South Township which is about an hour and half east of Melbourne. Several of these parking areas have now been built by the DSE in popular riding areas to keep the bikes away from disgruntled local residents and farmers. The drive into Neerim South revealed that the area had been affected by the recent bush fires, with the occasional section of burnt bush along the main road into Neerim South around Robinhood. Luckily the area that we were riding was totally untouched by the fires.

It was Brad MacDiarmid’s first ever go at leading an AMTRA ride and I must say he did a very good job. It was dusty in the morning and the day started with some nice easy flowing tracks to get people warmed up. Before we knew it we had 40ks under our belts and after dodging a stunned cow and a scared wallaby it was time for the optional challenge loop. Ten of us headed off on a 4km loop that followed the fence line. It was a horribly rutted track with a great rutted downhill mid way through that would make any level 2 rider think twice. As it turned out no one had too much trouble. After we regrouped we carved our way through another 10 km of great tracks that brought us to the next challenge hill, this one wasn’t optional! I walked half way up to catch the action on the camera (See the link below for all the photos and video). It was only about 100m long but it was steep and it had two deep ruts the whole way up. For the people in the know, the best line is straight up the middle between the two ruts. While we were waiting for everyone to get to the top, one of the locals turned up at the bottom of the hill on his horse. He could see that some of the riders were having some difficulties getting up so he decided to show them how it was done. His 1Hp vehicle managed to overtake at least one 35Hp bike on the way up! Finally all 17 managed to get their bikes to the top.

Soon after conquering the challenge hill the skies turned from blue to dark grey and it started raining. We stopped for lunch and those of us who didn’t have jackets hid under the trees. After lunch we continued on only to find that the tracks had changed from supper grippy to supper slippery. At least there was no dust now. Some of us were even lucky enough to find out what wet white clay looks like up close. Note to self, white clay is just as slippery as red clay. We regrouped and laughed at peoples muddy backs and bums and promptly let our tyres down to lower pressures for the wet slippery conditions, which would turn out to be the down fall of at least one rider, who later got a puncture.

We continued on in the rain and headed back over several tracks we had ridden in the morning in the dry dusty conditions. Brad lead us up a track that normally would be very easy but given the recent rain it proved too much for two people after a couple attempts, as they had to get their bikes ridden up by the tail man. Not long after about 5 people decided that they had had enough and went back to the cars. Just after they left one of the remaining riders noticed that his back tyre was flat or maybe just too much air was let out earlier, either way he called it a day and we were down to eleven hard core trail riders.

It stopped raining soon after and we enjoyed another 30km of really good tracks as we made our way down to the Latrobe River and back. In total we completed 100km and got back to the cars by 4.15pm. We managed to get the bikes back on the trailer just before it started raining heavily. Once the gear was packed and we changed into dry cloths we all gathered under a newly constructed shelter and enjoyed a few bevy’s while talking poo about bikes.

Thanks for the great ride Brad and to the two tail men for helping out.

See the AMTRA web site under Gallery, Ride Pictures for all the pictures and videos taken on the day.

By Scott Dorman

Ride list

Brad McDiarmid WR250 Ride leader
Mark Jasusch CRF450
Leo Giainini CRF250
Anthony Thomas WR450
Marc LeBrun CRF450 Ride leader River run
Scott Dorman KTM300
Mark Clark SM400
Dennis Dorman WR450 Tail man
Trevor Walker Gas Gas 250
Steve Ingham WR450
Steve Morris Gas Gas 300
Simon Kermode WR450 Tail man
Andrew Petrie WR250
Dexter Kiernan WR450
Sascha Gerlieb DRZ400
Rob Broatch YZ250
Karl Oinonen TE450

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