Blogs

6/11/04-14/11/04 - 27 PARTICIPANTS

PETER B » WR426 · JULIAN » WR400 · MERV » DRZ400 · MARK G » 525EXC
TOM » EXC250 4 STR · JOHN » WR450 · IAN K » 525EXC · MARK J » DRZ400
GORDON » HUSABERG 550 · TONY » XR600 · JEFF V » DRZ400 · PETER S » WR450
NEIL » XR400 · ROBBO » DRZ400 · MIKE » XR400 · BOB » 525EXC · DAVE » 620SC
MATT » WR450 · PAUL » 620SC · IAN S » WR450 · KEN » 520EXC · TIM » 380EXC

Long time I don't go for a trail ride, just for fun! Last time was at spodefest, then I raced a two day enduro and that was it. The enduro is fun, but you can't stop and watch the birds...

Well, I had plans to go last week, but last minute problems prevented me to go. Okay... One week later... I had a class to teach, computer programming class, to a dude (yeah, just one student), the course would take the entire week. The guy was at an advanced level, but he said he wanted to go saturday. I was upset, because I had teached him more than the course curriculum has... Sunday wasn't a good trail to ride - later on this subject some lines below - Saturday lights came on the morning with a very strong rain, that stopped by 8am, but the clouds were still there, covering everything. I was at the classroom and thinking about riding, the traction would be perfect, everything would be perfect, except that I had to be there. Was when the student asked if the sun would come (he's from another part of the country) and I said him to enjoy the beach, the sun would come greatly, would be a terrific day to go to the beach! (I am such a liar, what a shame!) Hehehe, good news, it worked. I called my friend Eduardo and he said "well, my rear tire is flat, I am going to fix it and I drop by your house in one hour". Great, One is the time it takes to drive from the school to home and put the gear on - bike was ready, I just needed a lubricant on the chain and gasohol on the tank.

Talk about going from one extreme to the other! Waist deep in a swamp last week & covered in sweat & flies this week.

7 intrepid riders for-went Bathurst on the telly & braved the 30+ degree heat to once again do battle with the elements for fun. Only 2 KTMs, 2 reds, 2 Yams & a DRZ headed out of town about 10.30am & after a measly 1 k on the black stuff we hit the dirt track by the railway line heading northish for Loxton.

Already it was hot, but not too bad zipping along at a good clip, until Mike

11 riders this camp for a combination of the previous few rides. It was either VERY dusty or VERY wet underfoot, depending on whether we were up hill or down dale.

Dave was very sneaky this year. Instead of trying to suck us in again to trying to get UP the hill from hell, he took us down it (well, all except this wise person & a couple of clever followers), then once they had struggled down in the dank gloom they had to get up the other side. Not too bad for most although Tom with inexperience & a bald tyre had a hard time of it, but finally made it unassisted.

Sticking to his game plan, he then did a few circles to confuse those of us who had been there in previous years & tackled the next hill from hell from the opposite direction as usual as well. All this while Chris was suffering from having to kick the 525 as the battery had flattened due to lack of riding! I advised him to give up trying the button until it had been running for an hour to give it a chance to recover, which it did (more on this later).

The time has come to write my first ever ride report, and that is from the national enduro championship in Norway held a few weeks ago.

I had to arrive at the start a day before, because everyone had to go through the technical inspection and put the bike in a "parc-farme" over the night. The bike could be taken out no earlier than 15 minutes before my start-time, so the bike was prepared for the 220 KM's race. The rest of the night I had to ask other more experienced rider about the different "rules" in this enduro. The track was 110 KM's long, and we should two laps. Each lap had three special stages (SS) where they take your time from start to finish. The rest is actually transportation stages (TS) only to get to the next SS. They held a drivers meeting the morning after explaining what we could expect during the track. As it was my first ever time to ride this type of event, I was really excited. I got my start time, and all the time control (TC) "times".

This weekend I was at Caruaru, 130km west of my home town. It was the Caruaru motofest, a motorcycle meeting, and two enduros, one saturday and another sunday. I got together with my friend Adson on his Chevrolet Montana pickup, with my XR250 Tornado and his XR200R. We got there early evening on friday and subscribed for the race. After the pre-race briefing, we went to the see the bikes on the motorcycle meeting. The Yamaha R1, the most beautiful street bike is becoming popular! Also I saw a couple of Kawasakis KZP1000, retired from the brazilian police. Mike, you're right, awesome bikes... A bike with a vw beetle engine (the huge and ugly Amazonas) was there on display too... Lots of beer later, we went to sleep.

16 riders fronted on a fine spring day, warm with dust forecast just to be different from 2 weeks earlier when very wet underfoot was the order of the day.

It wasn

Some got to Ben & Katie