I knew it was going to be a challenge, I knew it!
But the weather god looked down happily on us & 13 riders headed off on a quiet country jaunt!
Phil Randall WR 250
Seano Douglas TE449
Brendan Collins CRF450
Rudi Webel KTM 300
Con Feyen KTM300
Nigel Cropper KTM525
Darrell Clark WR450
Lynton McPhar WR250
Andrew Petrie KTM 300
Stuart Mackey WR250
Scott Young TE250
David Stanhope WR250
First I have to thank Lefty for the tail man duties as without him the day would have been a shambles with some of the ride breaking up into 2 groups to tackle different routes. Best part is the tail man went up the bastard hill that stopped the ride leader! Ha ha ha Well done mate
We started out fairly hard I guess with a good testing 400 meter hill & looped back to the cars to see if everyone was traveling OK
WE had a couple of riders depart due to a mechanical issue & a healing major injury.
The weather had been dryer than I thought & the tracks were pretty tough in patches due to dust & loose rocks, those tracks from a week ago with water on them & sticky conditions were now very loose & torn up from 4WD's.
We traveled at a strong pace till mid morning break with a stop at a great view point & the wind providing a fantastic cooling breeze. Brendan was getting in the groove now & working the 450 as it deserved to be treated.
Some tighter tracks saw everyone picking their pace up & the pressure started to show as some people stopped mid line & others were threading their way around them. A few bikes were starting to show a little steam.
A couple of smaller streams provided a nice cooling splash.
Lunch saw us group at the foot of a little bit of an up hill, & we had a contingency plan ready for anyone wanting to give it a miss.
After a quiet lunch, of caviar, crayfish & oysters washed down by freezing cold ale served by some of the best looking bar maids you have seen we all cruised up the hill to the top effortlessly. No overheating bikes, no loop offs, no downed bikes, no swearing, no sweating....nothing just a great easy ride.
About now you know that " all pigs are fueled up & ready to fly" because only half of us got up the hill. The second group lead by me diverted to a B line hill which was easier ( on paper) Factually it was even harder than the first hill. So our group had to come back down & travel quiet a distance to meet up with the rest of the crew.
Anyway we provided a few guys a well deserved rest.
The remainder of the ride went smoothly, although I did miss a track junction & ended up taking our group a little off the planed trip. After some more tighter tracks Nigel on the 525 broke his gear lever & had to shorted his ride up as he only had one preselected gear. The rest of us continued into a great track that has 1 or 2 tree's across the track, which sharpened the afternoon riders resolve a little. LOL
Heading back to the cars we had some riders who choose the short route due to low fuel but the rest of us continued & returned to the cars about 3.30.
We only managed around 70 k's for the ride. A little shorter than planned. But given the route I think everyone had ridden the ride to their own enjoyment.
Cheers Pete
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