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.
Play lunched at Tinty after 60 k’s then headed for the park. Good tracks to get there then into the deep sand & ash as there had been a huge fire there & most of the bush was razed last year. A few spills in this terrain due to inexperience in this sort of sand & those horrible Bridgestone Gritty Edge tyres that just offer no grip off the tar. Put a decent tyre on the front of your DRZs now boys. Richard hit a submerged mallee root in the centre of the track straitghtlining a corner & went down hard. His ankle was too sore to continue so he went back with his 2 mates. I was then riding quite hard playing catch up & ran off the same corner that EVERYONE else ran off, but I still only went 2nd farthest in to the bush, finding out later that the biggest overshoot was Tom at a huuuuge speed. Maybe that’s where he clocked his 152! Andrew’s XR4 went upside down a few times but he battled on bravely & we got back to Tinty after a 100 k loop with Tom needing fuel from my tank & another 525 getting in on 2nd lay over.
A quick afternoon tea & we hit the track back whence we came, only this time we were the other side of the railway line. A great hoot along here in the afternoon shadows with the sun in our eyes a bit now that we are back to daylight losings. Back to the cars about 5pm, a little bench racing while packing up, then off. Some of us stopped at the Tailem Bend pub for a drink & some a meal to top off a great day. Thanks to Becky for running the ride.
Mark Jarvis
Tailman