AMTRA.com.au

Ride Report Fumina 6th of December 2008 by Brad McDiarmid.

There were 6 starters for the day in fine conditions as we headed off around 9am.
The first hill was a short narrow track which turned out to be closed due to logging.
We made our way around to a great variety of tracks that were, open, flowing, narrow and 4WD types, all of which were fantastic.
The first river crossing was a bit tricky and drowned Simons WR. The bike was stripped and restarted, having not seen this done before it was extremely educational.
However the crankcase was full of water and Simon called it a day.

Five continued on some more narrow stuff. It was in the narrow stuff where Al went for a trip over the bars courtesy of one very deep bog hole. Next we reached a tricky rutted hill where the KTM halted and refused to start. Our persistence paid off and the beast barked back into life, we regrouped at the top and had an early lunch around 11.30am.
It was just after lunch where a hidden spear branch behind some foliage punctured the LHS radiator on the KTM, the damage was mortal and the KTM was going home.
Being far form the cars and unsure if the KTM would make it I returned with Keith to make sure he got back safely, we did after 65K’s. As it turned out the easy tracks Al told us to take showed how well the now air cooled KTM can be operated at low RPM!

Three fast capable riders continued on some more narrow stuff and ended up doing around 120K’s. Here they found some more, good narrow tracks and had a crack at a steep nasty challenge hill.
Angus ran out of fuel three times and did roll the Gas Gas back to the cars on the third run out.
On the first run out Al went back to help Angus who let Al know he had a flat back tire which has a nail in it. When putting the chain back on it was discovered that Al’s front sprocket had three teeth left on it. Of course while all this was happening the heavens opened and drowned the guys.
Lynton had the best of the day and riding, as he enjoyed the full day without any issues.

Thanks to Al and the guys for their company and efforts, it was a great day out!
Look forward to doing this ride again as the experience gained was invaluable.

See the AMTRA web site under Gallery, Ride Pictures for the 10 pictures I took on the day.

Ride list:
Al Mason      WR250F   Ride Leader
Simon Kermode   WR450F
Keith Bujea      KTM 525
Lynton McPhail   DRZ200   Afternoon alternating Tail man
Angus Boyd      Gas Gas 250   Afternoon alternating Tail man
Brad McDiarmid   WR250F    Morning Tail man

Well done boys - Despite all the dramas some of you still managed to get a few kays up.
Did I tell you withdrawal symptoms are kicking in?

After about six oil changes the oil colour looks pretty normal.  Trying to get that last final little bit of water out is proving difficult.  Hopefully a good run next weekend and then another oil change and everything will be good. (That's if I managea to get the fork seals done this week as well).

Thanks to eveyone for helping me to de water the bike.  First time I've done it and as Al said you are better spending an extra ten minutes pumping the water out to save hours of stuffing about.  We only had to pull it apart once.