AMTRA.com.au

Reports coming, I think we are all to stuffed to put one together at the moment ;D  We only did 87 K/M going by my trip meter, but boy were they hard, I really feel my age to-day ;D

Hey Frankie lets do a Pub report.
Moments to remember, Seano's face when Rowen Pointed out that he was not giving him a compliment when he said Nice Jumps boys, as he was compressing the suspension and letting it go before he was on the jump. Then Seano's face when Pommy Mat refered to Seano's Bike as the Ikea Bike. And then Dennis pointing out that as he saw me on the deck a few times through out the day that perhaps I should get my batterys replaced in my balance bracelet.   
Add your memories here boys. Regards Will

Hey Willbur, I thought you had your "balance bracelet" on the horizontal setting !

Best I check it, you might be correct, Steven.

Looks like all the "hard men" are too tired to write up a report............

There were only about 2 non amtra riders at the carpark on Sat morning because no-one else was silly enough to head out on such a miserable day.
Eventually we headed off, ride leader Willbur showing off his new riding gear, or was it the latest fashion in colourful pyjamas ? Within about 500 metres I was just about boiling alive ... It was actually very warm & humid, so off with multiple layers of gear.
Most of the tracks around Neerim are looking really stuffed at the moment so picking a line / rut is a bit of a lottery either 3inches deep or 3 feet deep !
Then the carnage started...........Firstly, Berg 450 ( sorry cant remember all the names) pussied out with  buggered wheel bearings,............ trouble was he went back to the cars but didn't have the keys to a vehicle so had to wait all day for us to return !!!!!!! then Sean tried every trick in the book to join him........deliberately hit a tree to try & hole his radiator. it worked, but the Harder Men wouldn't let him woose out & made him fix it & continue riding.
First big obstacle was the staircase....... was it slippery or what !!!! only one incredibly skillful & determined Hard Man made it up.........
I think everyone ate mud at some stage, it was getting even wetter, & vision was becoming an issue with goggles & glasses fogging up..... havent had that problem for a while eh ?
Lunch was had at the end of a treacherous ,greasy downhill track beside the river. Going down was a case of slip. slide & pray, although Frankie went one better & slipped, slid & flew over the bars.........Going up proved fairly time consuming....... there was traction, but it proved elusive. Word at the top among those waiting, was that Frank was going to kill Will.
We then did a downhill approach to "the boghole track". I thought I had a nice line picked out....... but a nasty little root grabbed the front wheel & sent me over the front.....
Took a while to get through the bogholes, & by then I think most of the Hard Men were feeling a little limp..... & a decision to head back on the road was quite welcome.
However, not to let a good ride end without drama, I think it was Matt who had a rather spectacular & painful looking off on a slippery bit of clay on the road..... & no it wasn't because of incredible speed.....     
Back to the Hood for Food & Bullpoo

The best part about the Buddha King having to fix a leaking hose, was he had to fill his radiator with his cordial, but he reckons as the bike has never run so cool, so he might just leave it in there . Dave Smith is going to do the official report, but please everyone add as you see fit. Will

Hi Guys,
Well I certainly Hardened TFU, I did half the ride with a buggered knee. Got crutches and splinters n torn ligaments. Cheers Will for sending me up the staircase. Ronnie :D :D

Glad you had a top day Ron, I can't wait to see the footage of you going up, you were going so quick, momentium should have got you there alone, shame about the sudden loss of traction  ;D ;D ;D ;D Will

I hope the video was working when I Sat in the pool of mud, It will look great! ;D

Thanks to all the guys who helped me when I was stuck.
knee braces are on my christmas list!

Thats right, when I was talking to Frankie on Sunday, he told me how funy that looked, I missed it as I was contemplating which way I was going to get to the other side of the downed tree, to get up that steep slippery climb. I had lots of sore joints and musles yesterday but my face cheeks were also hurting from laughing so much on Saturday, in fact just thinking about the day has brought a great big smile to my face, memories aaa what a wonderful thing. Will  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Hi all, hope the knee is OK Ron, I only tore my calf muscle so should be OK in a week or so,
10 Points to Will for the KTM rodeo clown out fit !
Well done Franky I was stuck about 1/2 way up the hill and all I could hear was " if F@#* Will plans to take me on that other F@#* track im F@#* going to pull the F@#* pin,
you know the ride is getting hard when Franky's potty mouth lets fly, and we still ended up doing Frankies track only in reverse and it wasn't much easier !
Thank's for a great ride !
Do IKEA sell yellow and blue T shirts for $20.00 ?
Cheers,
Gary.

 

Pussie that rides the berg FE550E - I would have rather of been on the ride instead of sitting on my arse killing mozzies for nearly 5 hours :D :D :D I still had a good time for the short 20K's that I was able to do and the bullpoo back at the Robin Hood was great ;) ;)

Thanks for the invite Will and I assure you I will earn my shirt the hard way next time ;) ;) So when do I have to do my AMTRA level 1 ride??? :D :D :D

Two days later, I put in a good days work to-day, the way I was feeling on Sunday I thought I should take Monday off as well, but I HTFU & went to work ;D
We left the car park & into a very wet track full of water holes I knew then that we were going to be in for a very hard day, so I thought, it ended up not so bad & was enjoying the wet conditions, until that bloody down hill to the river where we had lunch, I was taking my time & making it hard for myself, so I decided to let it go a bit, it was all good until I let it go a little bit to much, so gently on the brakes, the back end came around on the slippery of camber bit & high sided myself & hit my leg on the handlebars on the way over.
Lunch at the bottom by the river was a great spot, but that long rutty slippery hill was on my mined, with a half worn out S12 got me in a lot of trouble, if it wasn't for the Creasey brothers helping me for the first bit, & then got some help from Rowan & David Smith, thanks heaps fellas, if it wasn't for you blokes I would still be there ;D yeah I did swear a bit while I was having trouble, I was angry with myself, I get so frustrated when I think back when I was half my age I would have got up, I think the longer you keep riding you'll end up being a level 1 rider again ;D I was told a Dunlop Geomax 51 is the go, so thats what will go on next.
Anyway from there we did some more nice tracks, & got my wind back, when we got to my hill, going down wasn't so bad, it was the deep ruts at the bottom filled with water & foot pegs digging into the sides was the hard bit, the only way through was for 2 blokes one on each side of the handlebars pushing & one bloke lifting the back up, Will & Gary was there to help me there again, thanks fellas.
at the end of the day I was happy to see the cars ;D
When we got to the pub, Will presented us our HTFU T shirts I was the first on the list, as well as the T Shirt I got a 6 pack of Millers Draft for being the oldest rider  8) What was the other 6 pack for Will, I couldn't hear ;D

It was a great day out, with a great bunch of blokes, see you all on the next HTFU ride no3

Thanks Will for putting it & Gary for doing the sweep all day.

Nice one guys knowing the area and the conditions I reckon HTFU2 was a MOST appropriate name for the ride. Again well done to all and Will for leading the ride.

Your other six beers were because your slogan was chosen for the T shirts by the other attendees. Will

Oh yeah now I remember ;D thanks a lot Will.
How you feeling now mate, I'm now back to normal again :D

Hi Franky, I may hang s--t on you but the reality is you have 20+ years on me and can still hold your own on the trails,   
We stoped at the top of one hill where there was one young guy at the top with his mate stuck at the bottom, he was impressed with the BMW and struck up a conversation with you, when you rode off he asked me " how old was that guy"
, when I answred 64 his eyes almost popped out of his head !.
Love ya Franky !

Well said Gary

I must say, everyone did very well to get thru the HTFU-2  in very challenging conditions and even though Bill only just firmed up a bit everyone earnt there shirts, with only a couple of riders needing to be told to Harden up through out the day.For most of us, the character building would have started when they got into there cars around 6.30am to 7.30am, and would not have finished there character building, until they got out of there cars at home, with drizzle and rain on the way, which continued through out the day, then onto the pub for some real poo stirring, then a real rain storm on the way home.  There was a real mix of riding experience but everyone stepped up to the plate, and as usual everyone helped out when required. Well done guys on another character building ride. Will