Ride Reports

After a bit of an abscence riding, the Easter long weekend was to be my return to real, hard riding.

With a bit of a trip required to the riding spot (6 hours!), I thought it best to try and team up with another club Member to share the driving load/keep each other awake.

Travis answered my email, and arrived around 3pm on Thursday afternoon.

He has a great setup Patrol ute, with a myriad of compartments in the back making it excellent to stow camping gear, food etc. It even has a small bar fridge wired in, which served perfectly for the food that needed refrigeration.

We loaded up the gear and the Berg and climbed into the ute for the long journey ahead.

Matt arrived bright and early to give me a lift down to Russell's "Storm boy" ride on the 3rd of April. It was to be the first "real" outing for the new Husaberg FE570, and I was really looking forward to unleashing the beast.

After an hours drive, we arrived at Russell's parents place, which has a great waterfront view, very nice indeed.

We were last or very close to last to arrive, so we unloaded the bikes and started to get ready, introducing Matt around to the other riders as well.

After the success of having the Garage Motorcycles and Aprilia bring out demo bikes in 2008, I thought we definitely needed to get some more demo bikes this year.

I spoke to Bills Motorcycles from Adelaide about bringing out some demo bikes and Andrew said he could help us out and bring along some for the Amtra blokes to try.

SWAN REACH RIDE 4/6/06

20 riders fronted with a sea of yellow predominant on a fine cool day, just what the doctor ordered. It wasn’t long before the rugged downhill started to warm us up, quickly followed by the beginning of LOTS of single track to get the blood pumping even harder. Ian’s 300k pre-ride the previous Sunday gave lots of track with very little boring road to us to enjoy & we skirted around any contentious farm houses so no dramas. First crash I came across was Andrew & XR4 lying down across a high speed rut as a result of the old uh-oh the front wheel is climbing out, what do I do? Too late, I’m down! A slight headache for the rest of the day didn’t keep him down, although he did stall twice soon after on a tricky hill climb – oh for a button. Ian’s yellow markers in the odd strategic tree kept us on the crooked & narrow, just as we like it, til we eventually emerged at the ferry. Over the river & not far away was the shop we couldn’t find last year, just around the corner from the other one. They were well prepared & well organised & dispensed fuel & lunch quickly along with much appreciated FREE cold waters to top up drinkers – we will be back.

LAMEROO CAMP 20-21/5/06

After a cold night around the campfire the 5 riders were joined by 3 more in the morning for a cool day’s ride. Straight in to the whoops soon had us warmed up. Lots of mostly roadside tracks with plenty of sticks attesting to the little use they get & some old railway routes saw us lunch at the border after 100k’s with various gourmet delights coming out. After lunch we headed down the sandy & whoopy border track with Jim going through the sand riding learning curve at a rate of knots on the new blue 450 with noisy pipe. We came across the legendry Klaus Mueller leading a tour group of 10 & amazingly after a brief chat he took off instead of waiting for both groups to get there to avoid any head ons. We were not impressed by this from someone who should know better. Luckily there were no direct hits, but plenty of near misses. Eventually we hit Pinnaroo for fuel with Mat getting in on lay over.

EASTER CAMP 14/4/06-17/4/06 - PYRENEES

Arrived a bit before midnight to find a few still up & the rest in bed. No fire going but it was a mild night so there had been no need to look for wood in the dark. Welly was there after the big trip down from the Hill. Started Saturday with 9 riders & quickly commenced throwing ourselves up & down huge hills. Quite a few get offs with Welly excelling. Lunched atop Mt Cole as the weather closed in. Those silly enough to bring jackets even though the day started fine & warm put them on as the rain started & the rest of us got wet. Due to the inclement weather & Welly suffering from a longstanding flu with his asthma taking a turn for the worse in these conditions we high tailed it for camp to get there before the big rain started after a big 46k’s! Did a wet wood patrol & cranked up the fire in the very welcome shelter shed & settled in for the arvo & evening keeping warm & dry with plenty of bench racing & a little liquid refreshment.

COOMANDOOK 2/4/06

24 starters was a good turn up for the first ride of the season, all champing at the bit. Mark G had the new 300cc 2 stroke Gasser out but Mark R left his Gasser home as he thought the terrain suited the XR650 better. A good mix of blue, yellow & orange bikes with a sprinkling of others with Ben coming all the way from Moonta leaving Katie to drive the tractor!

Off we went on time up the track. It wasn’t long before rusty riders started to hit things & fall down, with Mike P going over the bars in front of me ending up sprawled on the sandy rut with the bike pointing the wrong way. All bikes must have been well prepped over the off season as we had no mechanical dramas or flats for the day. At a regroup Matt did a speccy jump over the road with no-one else game (even Tom whooping it up on the 525 having recovered from his bout of glandular fever). At one stage leader Becky was tapped out in 5th on the 426 & Tom pulled alongside & proceeded to do a mono next to him for a long way – Peter was duly impressed – oh yeah, Tom posted a new max speed during the day of 152 – it must be properly run in & loosened up now.

Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash 2005 is the most extreme off-road desert race in Australia winding through mountain ranges, desert plains and dunes, vast river beds and scrub.

It is a two day race covering over 500 kilometres starting on the edge of the desert and finishing at the sea.

With divisions for Motorcycles Western Australia accredited bikes and Confederation of Australian Motor Sport accredited four wheel drives and buggies, 150 participants are expected to contend in this years Dash.

The Dash begins on Thursday the 20th October with a street parade in Carnarvon involving all competitors and a welcome dinner to follow. On Friday at 1pm is the prologue at Coonantha on Bidgemia station, 35 kilometres from the Gascoyne Junction.

Drove up straight from work & saw Mark & Dora at the Shell at Wakefield as well as old member Adrian Watson & wife Val. Had a quick catch up with them & headed on to camp.

Arrived to the usual well lit oasis on the farm with the welcoming fire attended by our hosts Ben & Katie with a few friends & fellow campers already in residence. Set up camp on the lawn, plugged the extension lead for the electric blanket in & headed to the fire to catch up with all & sundry as others arrived during the evening.

8 riders headed off on time at 10am, after a late night, lead by the new 510 Husky. A short run down the dirt road to the single track by the bitumen. Very tight, dodging rocks & branches keeping us warm on the fine & cool winter’s day. An excellent ride on the usual great tracks & beach stints with nothing exceptional to report apart from the fact that Russell was back with us after 100 days away on secret war business.

I am about to be the proud owner of a 1998 Honda CR 125 w/70hrs. on it approximately. I am trading the guy a 1978 Ford Bronco. I know I might sound crazy but I really want this bike. SOMEBODY PLEASE WRITE AND LET ME KNOW IF I AM DOING THE RIGHT THING. 2 emails badbrad010@ec.rr.com or bradbrad_010@yahoo.com.